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Date Posted: 16:55:29 10/31/05 Mon
Author: Masq
Subject: The Connor interpretation
In reply to: Rich 's message, "Just a thought about Connor" on 14:12:27 10/31/05 Mon

The Shanshu prophecy is translated from some demon language, and therefore like all translations, is subject to problematic problems of concept and interpretation. I don't think there is a *definitive* answer from ME, therefore, about what it means. I *do* know it seems highly improbable to me that Angel could simply "sign away" his destiny in NFA as he appears to do. If it is indeed his destiny, that's not just something you walk away from.

So I like to look for interpretations of the Shansu prophecy that indicate it actually *did* come to pass, and the "Connor interpretation" is one of them:

From my review of NFA and To Shanshu in L.A.:

"In TSiLA Wesley translates the Shanshu prophecy as, roughly, "the vampire with a soul once he completes all his battles, will become mortal."

The part of TSiLA I find really interesting is the exchange between Cordelia and Wesley about why Angel doesn't care if he some day will die as the prophecy seemed to predict on first glance.

Wesley: "Angel's cut off. Death doesn't bother him because there is nothing in life he wants! It's our desires that make us human."
Cordy: "Angel is kind of human. He's got a soul."
Wesley: "He's got a soul, but he's not a part of the world. He--he can never be part of the world."
Cordy: "Because he doesn't want stuff? That's ridiculous. (Wesley takes her doughnut away from her) Hey! I want that!"
Wesley: "What connects us to life?"
Cordy: "Right now? I'm going with doughnuts."
Wesley: "What connects us to life is the simple truth that we are part of it. We live, we grow, we change. But Angel..."
Cordy: "Can't do any of those things. Well, what are you saying, that Angel has nothing to look forward to? That he's going to go on forever, in the world, but always cut off from it?"
Wesley: "Yes."

I don't know if, at this point in the series, Joss and ME had any thoughts about allowing Angel to join the cycle of life (that as a vampire he is cut off from) by making him a father.

But a year later they did just this, and he became a father. Perhaps the idea behind fatherhood was simply to give Angel something more personal and concrete to tie him to the world beyond just "a noble love of humanity" or a some-day Shanshu. Or perhaps they made him a father just to torment the hell out of him.

But it is one possible interpretation of the Shanshu prophecy that Connor is in fact Angel's Shanshu. If you see "mortality" as simply meaning, "being tied into the cycle of life", then fathering a child who survives and goes on to father his own children is one way of answering the literary promise of the Shanshu prophecy. And probably why they have this father-son exchange near the end of NFA:

Angel: Go home...now.
Connor: They'll destroy you.
Angel: As long as you're OK, they can't."

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