I was reading Gileswench's "A Mile In His Moccasins" for the
umpteenth time when it struck me that in all the bodyswitch fics I've
run across there's one I'm curious about that I haven't seen -
Giles and Angel. Preferably late season 3, or anytime before the
Angel bodyswitch episode (whose name escapes me, sorry).
Skipping past how it takes place - it's the characters that matter
here, after all - what would happen?
Is a vampire indeed a demon, or does the process of 'turning' simply
magnify the worst aspects of one's nature? After all, Angel wasn't
exactly a prize when he was a mortal wastrel; "Liam" struck me as the
sort of bastard that would rape the servant girl under the stairs if
he thought he could get away with it.
Would Angel, in Giles's body, still be subject to vampiric limits,
such as not entering a home without invitation? (I imagine sunlight
would not be an issue, but the 'invitation' thing might show up as
psychological compulsion after so many years.) Would he still be
subject to his Gypsy curse? I would think so, but others might not.
Then there's experiencing first hand the lingering aches and pains
from the injuries Angelus inflicted...
Could Giles, for his part, cope with being an undead thing? I
imagine this would be the worst thing that could happen to a
Watcher. Would he retain his own nature, or would he start to
degenerate? Especially when he starts to get hungry... The idea of
a 'demonic' Ripper makes me wince after I saw Giles beat the living
crap out of Ethan Rayne in "Halloween."
If Angelus is indeed a demon and a separate entity from Angel,
wouldn't it be great to see our Great Brit in a battle of wills with
it? If *Liam* can subdue Angelus, then Giles should be able to
mentally slap the demon around like the proverbial red-headed
stepchild. He could get his revenge on the bastard who *really*
tortured him, then - not so helpless when it comes to contests of
will, is he?
Then the inevitable interaction with Buffy and the Scoobies, in which
wackiness ensues - oh boy, Buffy's Watcher in the body of her ex...
Hmmm... for a change, how about it happened because somebody was
pissed at Angel for something completely unrelated?
This also occurred to me since I remember a similar FF episode
of "Angel the Series" in which some old guy switched bodies with
Angel just so he could know what it was like to drink blood and be
Hulk Smash! strong - Angel didn't seem to me to be that shocked to
simply be *alive.* Maybe it had happened before? ;)
