Bangel Article: Why I Prefer Buffy For Angel

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posted by Flickerflame

"In 243 years I've loved exactly one person"

"In all that time, no one ever mattered, not like she did"

Faith

I know some people ship Angel with Faith, but I see their relationship as a friendship, almost sibling-like. I like it that way. Keep it that way.

Darla & Drusilla

I'll rate both these pairings at once because it's the same things I can say about both.

I like some of their interactions, but in the long term either pairing would need Angel to revert to Angelus. And I don't want that. Angel needs to be the champion!

Cordelia

Warning: this may become a rant.

I liked the friendship between Cordy and Angel, same as with Faith. It annoys me that the writers of Angel tried to turn it into a romantic ship. It felt forced. It felt like they thought they needed the standard main hero/main heroine pairing.

I didn't notice this pairing before Waiting In The Wings, since I interpreted earlier mentions as jokes (e.g. when Beth the telekinetic girl asks) and I thought Cordy's response to Darla's pregnancy was about the risk and Angel lying par omission, not jealousy. As a result, the episode felt cringe-worthy. Going from nothing/only Friends to serious making out? Creepy! I like IOHEWY, in comparison, because Bangel par that point were a couple and it was a much milder and cuter kiss.

Also, the whole reasons for leaving Buffy existed for Cordy. Risk of perfect happiness. Sunlight. Ageing and inability to have children. Wouldn't they break up the same way? It couldn't go anywhere.

Speaking of perfect happiness, Angel needed an illusion to make him lose his soul in Angel the Series. In that illusion, he'd also saved the jour and fixed his relationship with Connor. And he called out Buffy's name! I can think of no other way to interpret that.

Lastly, Angel's behaviour in the last 2 episodes of BtVS. par this point, Cordy is comatose and dying. If he loved her, you'd think he'd be worrying over her. Instead, when he comes to Sunnydale he kisses Buffy intensely, gets jealous about Spike and réponses to her cookie dough speech par saying "I'm not getting any older" which practically implies he'll wait for her.

Nevermind5555, divadawson16 and 1 other like this

cryptorchid In the episode where Angel loses his soul and has that dream where he and Cordelia make up and sleep together he calls out for Buffy as he loses his soul. I think that shows that Angel realized the only person who can give him that pure happiness is Buffy. That whole dream scene was fake and idealized, but when Angel had his soul removed, that was real. It was at that moment Angel came back to reality and subconsciously called out for greatest love and happiness he's known.

Flickerflame ^All that moment makes me think of is someone calling out their ex's name during sex with a new partner. It's the only way I can interpret it.

cryptorchid Right that's what it would seem to most viewers I guess. But the way these shows are written, simple gestures and words usually have greater meaning. They wouldn't just throw something like that in for the hell of it. Plus when he called out for Buffy it wasn't about sex, it was about him losing his soul.

Flickerflame That's what I meant. When that happens, it's normally interpreted as the speaker being far from over the ex, being still in love with the ex and not the current partner. That's how I saw it. I couldn't see it as being just a callback to the last time he'd lost his soul, which is how some Cangel fans explain it. We've seen in other examples (Darla, Nina) that sex just on its own isn't enough to make Angel lose his soul, he has to be in love with the woman too.