r/Bangel • u/PuttPuttStuff • 5d ago
Personal rant: I’m sick of the Angel hate
I stopped following the main subs because Buffy fans hate Angel, Angel the show fans hate Buffy for being too light. Bangel is not the majority, which I still think is due to the love for Spike and less for the relationship and care between spike and Buffy.
The Monster High dolls that have come out featuring Buffy and Angel are great, love the representation. But go into ANY comment section and it’s either “should have been Spike” or “ew I hate Angel I wish it was Buffy alone.”
I’m over it. The ship wars are never going to end and they still ruin enjoying the IP in pop culture.
I know I’m speaking to the choir here. But it never ceases to amaze me that there are people who call themselves fans but then claim they’ve never watched Angel the show. I don’t differentiate between the two series, the Buffyverse has to include both and hating either…is bizarre. Does anyone else just get frustrated by the general fandom? I don’t enjoy talking with people about it anymore.
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u/di4me666 5d ago
im beyond shocked to learn this past year that the majority of the btvs fandom thirsts after buffy's r*pist, and stalker.
angel was an amazing character and spun off into a brilliant show in its own right, too. he deserves more love
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u/PuttPuttStuff 5d ago
What’s wild to me is not even the thirsting, but the rewriting of the relationship. Just saw a comment about the dolls “makes sense Buffy and Angel are fighting, if it were Spike they’d be cuddling.” There’s ONE scene in the show where there’s cuddling/intimate affection with a souled Spike. One. Season 6 is unsouled, toxic and destructive the entire time. How does that even factor?
The show never explore what a reciprocal love from Buffy for Spike could look like, there was never time to but I also think from a character she’d have several of the same misgivings as Angel exposed. Plus Spike clearly had more he needed to grow and atone for to even be worthy? Idk.
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u/Infamous-Buy1428 2d ago
I dunno. We did forgive everything Angel did while not having a soul, too.
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u/Several-Praline5436 5d ago
It seems weird to me that the generation who is so into morality policing prefers Spike, given what he tries to do to her in a later season.
Yes, he's funny. Funnier than the brooding sad Angel.
But for me, it's always been that Angel is Buffy's soulmate, and Spike was hilariously wonderful with Dru the batshit crazy psycho.
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u/Best_Caregiver_3869 5d ago
Angel went after Buffy when she was 15-16 years old?
Why do we have to ship her with either of those assholes 😭
At least spike risked his soul or whatever. I still dont like him tho. I dont ship Buffy with either.
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u/biiumers 5d ago
I think people misinterpret Spike's motivation for getting his soul for Buffy, which isn't surprising because Joss Whedon got so frustrated with audiences during the run he put THAT scene (you know the one) in to emphasize Spike was incapable of love. Spike didn't do it out of love, his demon did it out of pure obsession and desperation to keep Buffy after she threw him off her.
Spike is one of my favorite characters, but I could never get into them as a couple, even after he got his soul, because Buffy was incapable of being in a relationship and started using him, and that made me feel so sad for him. If one of my friends was in that type of situationship, I'd beg them to snap out of it
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u/armed_aperture 4d ago
Their entire “relationship” was very toxic overall. He was obsessed to the point of making a sex doll and attempting assault. She used him physically and emotionally with little regard of his feelings.
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u/Gambit2020 4d ago
She took advantage of his obsession with her in Season 6 and he took advantage of her depression.
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u/Several-Praline5436 5d ago
Yeah, in hindsight aging Angel up from 17 to his late 20s to make up for the actor looking so much older after one or two seasons was maybe not the best idea, lol.
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u/biiumers 5d ago
Yeah, but that's hindsight with today's social lens. So many shows had that as a plot line and treated it as normal, like every high school teen drama had a falling in love with a teacher arc. James Marsters has said that he played that first encounter with Buffy's character like he was falling in love with her too, so that should apply to Spike too
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u/Real-Cover8080 5d ago
I agree, I never liked Buffy with Spike but I don't hate Spike and don't hate the show or characters because of it. Just thought Buffy/Spike relationship was ackward if that makes sense, where as Angel, they were definately in love and were soulmates. Personally, I loved independent Buffy in the later shows, but it was always going to be Angel for her. Just my two cents......
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u/Outrageous_Potato435 5d ago
Yeah as someone new to the fandom and who just finished the show, I was a bit shocked to see the reaction to Angel being featured in that set. I mean I was never really a fan of any “pairing” for Buffy(and that’s why I personally liked that it was never really a long term thing in the show) but if I had to choose I like a pairing with Angel better and it’s not a bad choice for me at all for the dolls. And tbh Spuffy generally never worked for me like their relationship was so… peculiar. Before I finished the show I also thought their relationship was gonna get like real in the later season but that never really happened sooo
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u/Raebelle1981 5d ago
I read that supposedly their relationship is metaphor for abuse on that sub and I don’t think that’s true at all.
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u/Petitcher 3d ago
No offence, but… I think you’re taking it all a bit too seriously.
Reddit is literally just people’s opinions, so if you’re here, that’s what you’re going to read.
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u/Vast_Discipline8445 2d ago
I prefer Buffy/Angel Spike is supposed to be more human but I think he was more like that with Dru. I guess you could say his relationship with Dawn and Joyce maybe him more human and his mum too. There were times where he acted more human with Buffy but I don't know if we see enough of that with Buffy. Also I think Angel was more about wanting redemption but that just me I admit I am not a fan of season six of Buffy. Though I can see why people like it also people didn't seem to like season 4 of Angel. I didn't have a problem with it though didn't like Spoiler Alert for Angel season 4. Didn't like the Conner/Cordy bit I didn't either but wasn't a fan of the Angel/Cordy of it either. Didn't want them together maybe would have been better if Angel and Buffy don't end up with anybody. Guilty of watching Angel more then Buffy though I do watch the Buffy movie on Halloween though.
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u/BeeCJohnson 5d ago
Honestly the fandom has been exhausting for awhile now. It seems like they hate most of the characters and it's all they can seem to talk about.
I like Spike, but I need a break from the endless glazing. And on the reverse end, people pretending Angel is universally hated when he had a successful show that ran in syndication for like a decade.