Interesting, though personally I don't think that ME had it planned out like that from the start. I think they're just very good at, when thrown a curveball, going back and picking up on one of the multiplicity of little things they throw into episodes and drawing it out to connect with whatever's going on in the present. Cordy kissed Angel in You're Welcome as a bone to the C/A shippers, nothing more--but wait, we've been canceled and we need a slam-bang finish RIGHT NOW so, it's ah, A MAGIC kiss! With visions! Yeah, that's the ticket!
shipperx once wrote an essay on how Joss plots--essentially, he has a bunch of bright shiny climactic images he wants to hit, and he doesn't much care how he gets to them. As with Angel, the ends justify the means, and if characters are mangled and plots warped, who cares, as long as we get that final glorious image of Buffy running Angel through or Spike burning up in the Hellmouth or Angel saying he wants to kill the dragon?
Sometimes this approach works wonderfully, other times less so. Illyria is one of Joss's Cool Ideas. Ooh, wouldn't it be neat if...? Well, yeah, but then what do you do with her? And I like Illyria, but if, as seems to be the case, the only idea they had for her in a hypothetical S6 was Wesley angsting over her occasional similarity to Fred, well, how lame is that?
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Date: 2004-09-22 01:01 am (UTC)Sometimes this approach works wonderfully, other times less so. Illyria is one of Joss's Cool Ideas. Ooh, wouldn't it be neat if...? Well, yeah, but then what do you do with her? And I like Illyria, but if, as seems to be the case, the only idea they had for her in a hypothetical S6 was Wesley angsting over her occasional similarity to Fred, well, how lame is that?