#DARLA who was squandered in buffy but was incredible in angel

[sotvtaughtmehowtofeel]

10 Characters, 10 Fandoms

Thank you for the tag @not-so-mundane-after-all 💜

Ezra - Prospect (this man is my everything)

Joel Miller - The Last of Us (I love a character with LAYERS)

Villanelle - Killing Eve (please I'm so obsessed with her)

Katherine Pierce - The Vampire Diaries (she contains multitudes)

Cara - Legend of the Seeker/The Sword of Truth novels (I'm mildly concerned by the pattern here)

Willow Rosenberg - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (she's a hero with a villain's flaw help)

Cordelia Chase - Angel (her journey is incredible and she deserved so much better)

Egwene al'Vere - The Wheel of Time novels (she's such a BAMF come ON and try to tell me she isn't ta'veren)

Lila Bard - The Darker Shade of Magic novels (I dare you to read these books and NOT be obsessed with her)

The Doctor - Doctor Who (another character who contains so much and ultimately is so kind and loving)

No pressure tags: @gunstar-red @starchild0985 @blooming-gwens @steeb-stn @tloubraininfection @tlouobsessed

[ifeveristoday]

Angel + Spike is dead, long live Angel + Spike

A postmortem on Boom’s Angel + Spike. The final issue of the series dropped today and I wasn’t going to write anything about it, because I had gotten increasingly disappointed with the direction the series took. With some exceptions, I don’t actually enjoy hate watching/reading/experiencing something because life is too short (especially NOW) to waste time on things you don’t like. My snark is better used elsewhere, you know?

But with this final issue and the topic of bad endings in 2020 fresh in fandom, I felt something had to be written.

A spoiler filled recap and thoughts underneath the cut as always.

tl;dr: the Supernatural of comic book endings but at least no one goes to superhell.

Angel + Spike and a series finale was listed on Boom’s website as early as three months ago, but only confirmed to be really, really finished by the second writer recently. 

And that’s a shame, because it started with a lot of potential that got squandered over its sixteen issue run. The new creative team only had three issues to wrap up what came before them and the direction they chose to go..really didn’t mesh with what was established. If they had more time, maybe they would have been able to solidify their vision and make those different characterization choices stick.

Unfortunately, they didn’t.

The problem that consistently plagued the series overall was that it felt like the writers (both the original and the new one) only took the most superficial of interpretations of the original show and completely forgot about what made it special. Even as a non-fan of Angel the series, I can appreciate the show for what it did really well.

The comic reboot completely lost the plot midway and neglected the characters, particularly Angel and his interpersonal relationships with Fred and Gunn. Then the decision to make Kate the reincarnation of Angelus’ lover/evil right hand and violating Fred and Gunn with possession (spoiler alert: Gunn survives his possession and then is sidelined for the rest of the series, Fred becomes possessed by a representation of the Devil *and* an ancient earth goddess and basically the human Fred is dead WHAT A SHOCKING TWIST said no one who’s experienced the original canon ever), Spike the voice of reason and Angel cut off from his team and only focused on Kate, while feral werewolf packs and Wolfram and Hart belatedly schemed in the background.

There was just Too Much.

And yet not enough of what should have been the most important part - the characters. By the time the second creative team took over Angel, I was caring less and less about Angel and what his crew were up to, because they were so separate (Angel’s characterization really suffered after the Hellmouth event. The estrangement and sudden disregard Angel had for his team didn’t really go anywhere meaningful other than to set up Spike as a bemused greek chorus.)

Not only did Angel’s character/motivations suffer, so did the other characters, namely: in all universes, women who are in Angel’s orbit/world SUFFER.

No agency for anyone!

Fred gets possessed by Baphomet and takes over Wolfram and Hart as defacto CEO and does a bunch of ooo girlboss/evil things. Then she has a competing spirit take over her body, an earth goddess/entity who overpowers Baphomet and expels him out. But ordinary Fred with her math and never to be discussed experience in a mental institution/trauma is gone. She’s more powerful now. Angel only remembers to rescue her after Gunn brings her up in an earlier issue and after intimidating the evil Brachen version of Jeff Bezos, Angel finds out it’s Wolfram and Hart behind her disappearance.

Kate conveniently gets memories of her time as Angelus’ lover/second in command and is conflicted about starting a relationship with Angel, who conveniently has forgotten he has a curse and is reallllly eager to kiss and reminisce about all the outdoor sex they had in a past life. Lillith and Lilah, the two deliberately drawn as femme fatale/cool characters have zip to do with the story as it wraps up - Lillith says some of her usual mysterious Angel you have a deeper purpose blah blah new concept of the dream sea or body of water with importance and then promptly disappears from the narrative. Lilah showed up in some swanky suits and gets murdered by Angel in this issue, after doing very little except to follow Fred/Baphomet around.

And we get a surprise Harmony cameo, which is not only unexpected but completely unearned, because she calls Spike Blondie Bear, which begs the question, when the fuck did Spike get close to Harmony? Harmony is in the Buffy comic (or showed up once in the early issues and then blip) and so, presumably still a teenager. What is she doing receptionist work for Wolfram and Hart for? Is time in the Angel comic operating faster than it is in the Buffy comic? Are we in the future? Is this hell?

The cavalry arrives but Fred’s inner goddess has saved her, at the cost of her original characterization and as they flee from the Wolfram and Hart’s security demons, they get taken to a multiverse dimension which looks mighty familiar -- a hotel, which is looked after by a familiar pair of vampires - Angel and Spike. Spike has long hair that’s tucked up in a bun and full tattoo sleeves on his arms, while Angel just looks scruffier.

Have these last three issues just been a weird convoluted path to get to canonical Angel/Spike? Is this the worst slash fic ever?

But that’s where it ends, the Angel team with Kate still hung up on being Angel’s reincarnated lover, Goddess! Fred, Spike being the cool Uncle you ask about sex (we get Lemon as Spike’s safe word, which....I will allow as an incredibly dumb meta joke), Gunn and Oz just being there and not in recognizable character, and Angel. 

Some other details:

There’s a Brachen version of Jeff Bezos in this verse and a joke about all the money in the world and he lives in a glass fishbowl, all the while Angel, a vampire has a glass house in the hills of Los Angeles. With a secret armory in the basement. That Spike knows about. Make your obligatory joke about the bottom here.

BUT. Did you even read the early issues, bro?

Angel has a glass house. Evil millionaire has a glass house. Don’t throw stones.

Gunn is basically written out and only pops up to fight by their side and his whole reason for getting involved with is explained as being a lawyer for Wolfram and Hart and will never get punished.

Werewolves appear to be universally shunned by other demons and wow I’m glad we didn’t have long with the series before it turned into this whole tortured allegory of oppressed peoples because it’s always great to line up mythical creatures with the plight of real marginalized people suffering, I’m talking about you Rob Thomas and your zombies yes I am.

Women get killed and fridged and basically exist to further men’s storylines and I wish this wasn’t a hold over from canon. Thank fuck Darla didn’t get involved in this universe, or anyone from Buffy.

So with that multiverse ending - does that mean Jordie can sweep them into a crossover with her multiverses in future issues? Perhaps. These are important characters, particularly Spike and Angel, so I doubt that we’ve seen the last of them.

But at least now they’ll be written by other people.