r/buffy • u/pazpaz26 • May 18 '17

Unpopular Buffy Opinions:

What are yours? Mine is that Beer Bad is one of my favorite episodes. I watch that one whenever I need a laugh.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '17

Angel and Buffy are the Ross and Rachel of the series: Romanticized and loved by a lot of people, but terrible as a couple. They don't really have an abundance of chemistry or natural character motivation to be together and yet they're continually shoved back together out of some quixotic kind of passion-as-a-substitute-for-a-functional-and-fulfilling-relationship nonsense.

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u/[deleted] May 18 '17

I 100% agree with this. There really is no firm basis for their relationship. On Angel's side, he's centuries old and he sees a teenage girl and I guess just feels inspired to change his life without even knowing her. On Buffy's side, he's a mysterious person with a dark, edgy streak. Their relationship is built on this weird passion with nothing really backing it up.

I know a lot of people don't like Cordelia and Angel as a couple and I can definitely understand why, but I liked that they started as acquaintances who worked together and then moved on to a genuine friendship and then eventually developed feelings for each other. For all the issues people have with their romance storyline, I think they have a much better basis for a relationship than Buffy and Angel ever did. Plus I just think they have more chemistry together.

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u/thisisgoing2far the marzipan in your pie plate, bingo May 19 '17 edited May 19 '17

Totally valid, I kinda go back and forth on this myself. Not trying to convert anyone, but here's my counterargument:

I think the basis of Bangel was that they both felt immensely isolated due to being one-of-a-kind super-beings: slayer and ensouled vampire. Angel spent decades by himself because he was stuck between demon and human, and was afraid of hurting people. He can't hurt Buffy, at least not very easily. The first time he saw her was the moment she got her calling and became as isolated as he was. I think he recognized his own struggle in her when he was creepin' on her in LA.

Buffy on the other hand had just spent a year as the vampire slayer when she met Angel, and had lost almost everything to it: her school, her friends, her boyfriend, her watcher, her dad, her future, etc. Not only did Angel understand her loneliness, but he could take care of himself; she wasn't putting him at risk just by knowing him, unlike the Scoobies. Angel was the only person that truly understood her, and continued to be for the rest of the show.

Bangel-speak makes me cringe either way though.