There Are No People Like Us

baby cangel in 2x2 bc looook at them. cuties

Bonus Cordy freak-out

hmm ok well this is not a new opinion nor one i've never discussed before but it is one i haven't discussed too recently which is that i really strongly object to the idea that ats s3 represents some kind of defanging or assassination or *rolls eyes* "buffy-ification" of cordelia's character. (sanctification yes because she quite literally becomes a saint in the historical 'badass martyr for a cause' sense of the word, that's her character arc. buffyfication no.)

my most generous reading of this criticism is that the people who make it are distracted by cordelia's hair in the back half of ats s3 which is admittedly terrible and does not suit her. my ungenerous reading is that the people who say this are uninterested in cordelia as a character and are angry that the show dared to portray angel as loving her romantically and so they halfheartedly grasp for reasons to hate the storyline instead of just saying it's not to their shipping tastes. but there is quite a clear throughline between ats s1 cordelia -> ats s2 cordelia -> ats s3 cordelia including even her continued questionable hair choices. she does not become Just Like Buffy (nor, i should note, does angel only become interested in her when she dyes her hair blonde; witw is maybe the most cangel episode of the season and her hair is at her darkest in that ep). buffy is strongly ideologically against killing humans; cordelia has literally no problem with angel killing holtz and in fact tells him to do so. buffy's arc when ats s3 was airing was about overcoming her suicidal depression and desire to curl back up in her coffin and leave the pain of the world behind, and learning to meet the world with joy; cordelia's arc is about the fact that she already loves life and worldly pleasures and shoes and clothes and money and her friends and she still gives it all up to become a higher being because she believes it's the right thing to do. they want opposite things and learn different lessons. their narrative roles are not the same. cordelia is blunt and honest and frank with angel and holds him to account where buffy often let him get away with things; on the other hand, i cannot imagine buffy being as forgiving of connor, nor as insistent that angel tell him the truth all the time. i'm not saying this to do a buffy vs. cordelia thing i'm just saying they are not the same simply because they are both heroic women.

ANGEL THE SERIES // 1.22 "To Shanshu in LA"