*beams* I'm glad the write-up fulfilled its purpose! I just checked, and alas the vid links don't work anymore, it seems, but I did find a good character vid of Connor on YouTube, so you have a few visuals: Numb.
If you want, with the background you now know, you can also check some shorter bits of fanfic I wrote about Connor (longer than drabbles, not often not quite story length):
Unfortunately, the longer story featuring him I like best is also about his mother, Darla, and I suspect understanding it does depend on being familiar with her arc through the series (it's in her pov). (Short version: Darla starts out in Buffy - she's in fact the first character we ever see, in the teaser of the pilot, her backstory with Angel (that she created him) is first revealed in mid BTVS s1 where she's also dusted, but then the BTVS s2 finale brought her back in a flashback to Angel's past, which showed Julie Benz was capable of much more than the these early s1 eps had indicated. Which meant that when the spin-off series Angel happened, Darla got resurrected by the show's primary villains, the law firm Wolfram & Hart, in an attempt to get at Angel. However, they couldn't or wouldn't bring her back as a vampire, but as the human she'd been when she died and got sired as a vampire the first time around - which meant she was lethally ill again. Cue very complicated and intense scenes with Angel - who wants to be human while she wants to be a vampire again -, culminating in her accepting mortality which is of course just when Wolfram & Hart snaps their trap and bring Drusilla, the mad vampire whose existence Angel and Darla in the bad old days were both completely at fault for, who turns Darla again. There are more ups and downs (and a lot of dead lawyers) until Connor comes into existence and Darla sacrifices her (un)life for him. Since this is a suburban fantasy show featuring vampires, demons and at one point time travel, I still figured out a way for them to interact: The Haunting, Hunted Kind.
ETA: more visual illustration: Devil's Dance Floor is a Darla-Angel-Connor vid capturing their collective tale pretty well./ETA
Would B5 be appropriate for a very young teenager? By which I mean, would she be totally lost?
How young is very young - 12? 13? If so, I think she can cope. However, the first season of B5 is pretty uneven. It's by no means skippable as a season - people who advise newbies to start with s2 push one of my fannish red buttons and make me go nuclear. There is so much important character and story develpment started there. But there are episodes you can skip. If you like, I can write you a list of "must watch"/ "if you have the time"/ "skippable".
no subject
If you want, with the background you now know, you can also check some shorter bits of fanfic I wrote about Connor (longer than drabbles, not often not quite story length):
Cuttings
Unforgivable
Summertime Blues
Word made Flesh
Unfortunately, the longer story featuring him I like best is also about his mother, Darla, and I suspect understanding it does depend on being familiar with her arc through the series (it's in her pov). (Short version: Darla starts out in Buffy - she's in fact the first character we ever see, in the teaser of the pilot, her backstory with Angel (that she created him) is first revealed in mid BTVS s1 where she's also dusted, but then the BTVS s2 finale brought her back in a flashback to Angel's past, which showed Julie Benz was capable of much more than the these early s1 eps had indicated. Which meant that when the spin-off series Angel happened, Darla got resurrected by the show's primary villains, the law firm Wolfram & Hart, in an attempt to get at Angel. However, they couldn't or wouldn't bring her back as a vampire, but as the human she'd been when she died and got sired as a vampire the first time around - which meant she was lethally ill again. Cue very complicated and intense scenes with Angel - who wants to be human while she wants to be a vampire again -, culminating in her accepting mortality which is of course just when Wolfram & Hart snaps their trap and bring Drusilla, the mad vampire whose existence Angel and Darla in the bad old days were both completely at fault for, who turns Darla again. There are more ups and downs (and a lot of dead lawyers) until Connor comes into existence and Darla sacrifices her (un)life for him. Since this is a suburban fantasy show featuring vampires, demons and at one point time travel, I still figured out a way for them to interact: The Haunting, Hunted Kind.
ETA: more visual illustration: Devil's Dance Floor is a Darla-Angel-Connor vid capturing their collective tale pretty well./ETA
Would B5 be appropriate for a very young teenager? By which I mean, would she be totally lost?
How young is very young - 12? 13? If so, I think she can cope. However, the first season of B5 is pretty uneven. It's by no means skippable as a season - people who advise newbies to start with s2 push one of my fannish red buttons and make me go nuclear. There is so much important character and story develpment started there. But there are episodes you can skip. If you like, I can write you a list of "must watch"/ "if you have the time"/ "skippable".