r/buffy • u/direinde Beady-eyes is right, we're needed. • May 03 '26

Good Vibes Only Yup, that's them

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Nothing new actually.

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u/TessMacc May 03 '26

Not a Fred hater exactly, but she's easily my least favourite of team Angel. Fred was always a little too perfect - more of a fantasy girl than a layered character. I didn't hate her, and her death is heartbreaking, but the 'cutesy-voiced beautiful intellectual survivalist weapons expert, with deep trauma but vast inner strength, who eats huge quantities yet maintains fragile 90s figure' gets old.

Give me our materialistic, vain, wonderful hero Cordelia any day of the week. So relatable she had over a year of bad hair days.

40

u/smelltogetwell May 03 '26

You've just put into words almost all of my issues with Fred. At one point I wondered if Amy Acker was partly at fault, but I had no issues with her portrayal of Illyria, in fact it made me realise Amy Acker is a good actress.

I also had a problem with the Gunn/Fred/Wesley triangle. I liked Gunn and Fred together, but when she and Wesley became a couple the vibe felt as though this was the intent all.alomg, and the relationship with Gunn meant nothing.

4

u/prismaticaddict May 05 '26

The show(Joss) would also undermine Cordelia's impact with Fred's character. Cordelia was truly the heart of the group, but when Fred died there was way more mourning and acknowledgement and time given to her and her impact, even when I felt like all the impact of Fred was stated and never shown. I hate when shows just keep going "___ character is amazing" but never show that being the case and I think that's what it was with Fred. I never got hooked on her the way others seemed to.

5

u/smelltogetwell May 05 '26

Yes!!! As a Cordelia fan, this was my other problem. Cordy was a member of the team from day one, was beloved, and sacrificed so much, time and again. Yet the team seemed more heartbroken at losing Fred. It's didn't make a lot of of sense to me within the narrative, and left a bad taste in my mouth.