I feel this is the closest interpretation of the text as I also see it and have argued for.
Angel says he must "push" Buffy to ascension. Buffy must feel demoralized and stripped of power to ascend. The only way to truly get Buffy on the ropes is to kill her followers.
It's an inescapable means to an end. And Angel knows people have to die for his goal to be reached. Also, when he says to Buffy in #33 that this was already happening, I don't believe it would've happened in quite the same way unless he wanted it to.
Angel is Superman in this scenario. Angel could pretty much stop anything from happening. He could orchestrate a situation where the President's family is endangered and then rescued by Slayers, thereby more firmly pushing them into the heroic camp. There's so many things he could do and doesn't.
Considering this is BtVS, inevitability is a no go.
Master: But prophecies are tricky creatures. They don't tell you everything. You're the one that sets me free! If you hadn't come, I couldn't go.
Master: You were destined to die! It was written! Buffy: What can I say? I flunked the written.
I find it all the more likely that Angel is committing the sin of self-fulfilling prophecy here. He's simply not thinking creatively enough to defy prophecy. Besides the fact that Angel going along with Whistler and the talking animals leads to a powered up Buffy, spacefrakking, natural disasters that probably killed thousands of people and finally a dimensional pocket opening and demons overrunning the world.
It seems clear Angel's plan leads to the world ending without Buffy and Angel leaving Twilight to stop it. So I don't even understand why anyone's arguing that Angel was working on the side of good. His plan leads to the apocalypse--is he supposed to get credit for paving his own special road to hell with good intentions?
Angel is the Big Bad this season in the sense that he willingly (so it appears) became the figure head of an organization that brought forth the apocalypse--sure, he thought he was saving the world by pushing Buffy into an ubermensche all by carefully orchestrating deaths to push her into despair and make her powerless (she must be powerless to know true power), but it turns out he wasn't working for a greater good. Nope, still just ending the world.
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Angel says he must "push" Buffy to ascension. Buffy must feel demoralized and stripped of power to ascend. The only way to truly get Buffy on the ropes is to kill her followers.
It's an inescapable means to an end. And Angel knows people have to die for his goal to be reached. Also, when he says to Buffy in #33 that this was already happening, I don't believe it would've happened in quite the same way unless he wanted it to.
Angel is Superman in this scenario. Angel could pretty much stop anything from happening. He could orchestrate a situation where the President's family is endangered and then rescued by Slayers, thereby more firmly pushing them into the heroic camp. There's so many things he could do and doesn't.
Considering this is BtVS, inevitability is a no go.
I find it all the more likely that Angel is committing the sin of self-fulfilling prophecy here. He's simply not thinking creatively enough to defy prophecy. Besides the fact that Angel going along with Whistler and the talking animals leads to a powered up Buffy, spacefrakking, natural disasters that probably killed thousands of people and finally a dimensional pocket opening and demons overrunning the world.
It seems clear Angel's plan leads to the world ending without Buffy and Angel leaving Twilight to stop it. So I don't even understand why anyone's arguing that Angel was working on the side of good. His plan leads to the apocalypse--is he supposed to get credit for paving his own special road to hell with good intentions?
Angel is the Big Bad this season in the sense that he willingly (so it appears) became the figure head of an organization that brought forth the apocalypse--sure, he thought he was saving the world by pushing Buffy into an ubermensche all by carefully orchestrating deaths to push her into despair and make her powerless (she must be powerless to know true power), but it turns out he wasn't working for a greater good. Nope, still just ending the world.