Information sources and Angel-as-CEO

[indri]

I'm doing fun stuff at work again but it's fun stuff that requires a fair degree of concentration. And after last night's insomnia, I can barely keep my eyes open, let alone program stuff. So I'm brewing myself a strong cup of tea and will dawdle while I wait for the caffeine to hit.

The latest season of AtS reminds me of something I read recently in the Australian Quarterly Essay about the role of the CEO in a modern business. If I remember right, it said that all CEOs could do was read, interpret and act on, heavily-filtered information from different branches of the business. It was their job to gauge the accuracy of the information, determine the overall mood and ethos of the company and try to steer the business culture appropriately.

It seems to me that Angel has been set up so that each of his chief employees/colleagues provides him with a different kind of information but that he has a reason to suspect that all of the information might be tainted.

1) Wesley provides occult knowledge but Angel knows (even if Wesley doesn't) that Wesley has betrayed him before.
2) Fred provides scientific knowledge but her friendship with Knox may be influencing her.
3) Gunn provides legal knowledge but his brain has been tampered with by W&H and he's on good terms with the White Room.
4) Eve provides information from the Senior Partners but her motivations (and theirs) are deeply unclear.
5) Lorne provides demonic knowledge (and empathetic, when the plot requires it) but keeps company with some very dodgy characters. Also, he has been tricked before.

Angel used to have a lot of faith in his information sources. Once upon a time, he took messages purportedly from the Powers That Be at face value, he believed in the Shanshu and trusted in prophecy. He used to have a place in the universe as the fabled Souled Vampire; he could feel certain that everything he did was important in the grand scheme of things. The attention paid to him by everyone from W&H to the PTB bolstered that view of himself and provided a strange sort of continuity with Angelus's aspirations to be the worst vampire ever.

But since then, at least one PTB has turned out to be desperately misguided, prophecies have failed or turned out to be fabrications, Spike's "Little Vampire That Could" routine has meant that Angel is no longer unique, and even friendly ol' Skip suddenly claimed to be a master manipulator. It's hardly surprising that our BatVamp feels adrift.

[On a more personal note, this means that I now officially like Angel. I no longer want to throw shoes at him whenever he walks on-screen.]

Ooh, someone just rang. Apparently I've won a Xmas hamper.

Comments

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

[On a more personal note, this means that I now officially like Angel. I no longer want to throw shoes at him whenever he walks on-screen.]

Hee. He's my sad little woobie. yep.

[ros-fod.livejournal.com]

*Very* interesting.

Essentially, gaining W&H was billed as a coup of sorts, the little guys getting to play with the big boys on the BB terms - with the Resources, Means, and Funds that such a coup would allow. But, as you point out, back when AI was living off of cases generated through word of mouth and the yellow pages, Angel had a direct link to the Powers through Cordy. Now she's gone, and been replaced by not only less reliable sources of information, but several layers of bureaucracy as well, through which the information is filtered, and by the time it gets to Angel, it could very well be tainted or just plain wrong.

In a lot of ways the AI team is no longer that at all - a team. "Divide and conquer," Angel accuses Lilah, and that's exactly what W&H is doing. By ostensibly giving each member more control over their own specialty, the firm has managed to limit their ability to work together.

[knotted-rose.livejournal.com]

Got here from a link of Gloss's LJ.

Have been thinking along the same lines of this myself--but also wondering. Angel had Merl before (season 2?) I don't know who developed Merl as an information source - if Angel did it himself or if the source was originally developed by Wesley - but I'm wondering if Angel could find his own information sources. If he's willing to try, or would want to. Or if his ability to trust has been so diminished that he won't even make the effort. . . .

Angel is great - on his OWN show

[klytaimnestra.livejournal.com]

I think Angel is a great character, many layered, complex, as honourable as he can be and he really tries hard, and deeply to be sympathized with/ pitied - on his own show. That's not the character he played on BtVS (or in Buffy's fantasies). She never met that guy.

re: tainted info: fascinating thoughts. re: Wesley, Angel is working through that particular problem, feeling his way towards the recognition that Wesley in fact did not betray him; tried to save him, and screwed up badly. Different question. Meanwhile of course Wesley doesn't know what the problem is, or that there is one.

Eve is the one Angel talks to most - in fact, he is literally in bed with Eve, or has been - even though he knows that she is deeply compromised, lying like a rug, and it is clear to the rest of us if not to Angel that she is doing her very best to separate him from the other members of AI. Quite successfully. But he trusts her with things he tells no one else. Why? Because unlike anyone else, she remembers Connor.

Fred is the one with the greatest clarity of moral vision of anyone in AI. She was before, too. But her desire for an innocent - or innocent-appearing - mate overrules her judgment, or may. He is not innocent, in fact is deeply corrupted by his corporate environment. His 'innocent' pleasure in science is what draws her, but it can lead her astray, you're right. Angel won't have seen that yet; I think he's always been inclined to dismiss Fred on general principles though.

Charles, you're right, Senior Partner brain infiltration, thanks to Eve. What was he thinking? Man he looks great in a suit though, hubba hubba.

Spike Angel thinks of as suspect because of their long history.

Lorne I think has already gone evil. He doesn't care who comes to his party as long as they're all stars - doesn't matter for which team. And he's willing to let W&H mess with his brain too. And has he been tricked? Or is he playing for the wrong team? The one thing we all learned from the party is the thing Lorne already knew - where everyone's weak points are. (Except Spike's). I am very dubious about Lorne. More dubious than Angel is.