Buffy and Angel were both formative for millennials like me, who came of age on their quippy, ass-kicking version of girl power. For a long time, Whedon himself was lauded as a feminist ally and icon. But after two decades, Angel' s feminist legacy doesn't hold up to a rewatch. Though the spin-off featured several nuanced, compelling female characters, too many of them met the same predictable end, sacrificed for male characters' emotional arcs.
Darla Julie Benz was Angel's partner in the century-long killing spree that came before his reformation; she was also his vampiric sire, the woman who literally turned him into a monster. Their relationship is the axis of the show's second season.
Darla, brought back to life as human and then reborn as a vampire, attempts to pull Angel back into evil. He tries to save her, then to destroy her; somewhere in there they have sex. Darla becomes pregnant, which is supposed to be impossible for vampires. Just as improbably, she finds herself feeling love for her future child, which she credits to the influence of its human soul growing inside her. Finally, afraid she won't be able to love the baby once it's born, Darla stakes herself in labor, dissolving to ashes and leaving her infant son, Connor played as an adult by Vincent Kartheiser , lying on the pavement.
Julie Benz said in that she found the exit of her character profound, a final selfless deed by someone whose character had primarily been defined by self-preservation.
Unfortunately, Darla was only the first of three Angel characters to die in childbirth. With each of the next two, her death looked less like a tragic sacrifice and more like the beginning of a disheartening pattern. The last of the three was Fred Burkle Amy Acker , whose body was hijacked and used as an incubator to bring the ancient god Illyria back to life. Fred doesn't literally give birth to Illyria, but the parallel is obvious.
A foreign life form is placed inside her body by a man with whom she was briefly romantically involved. And when Illyria comes forth into the world, Fred is obliterated. It's a crushing, painful, ugly death. It's not the resolution of a character arc or even particularly relevant to the season's main plotline. Mostly, it gives the primary male characters an extra helping of grief, rage, and guilt to carry into the season's final battle. And yet, as unjust and infuriating as Fred's death was, it wasn't as upsetting as the death I skipped over, the second and by far the most offensive of the show's three maternal mortalities.
I'm still trying to find the words for what happened to Cordelia Chase. She was a teen drama archetype: the hot, rich, mean girl with a slew of sycophantic followers. But instead of stagnating at 17 like so many pop culture high school queen bees before and after, Cordelia blossomed into someone dynamic and fascinating.
She was self-centered, with a mean streak that never entirely went away, but she was also brave, generous, and surprisingly tender. Active 3 years, 7 months ago.
Viewed 38k times. Through the TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel , Cordelia Chase undergoes a massive character growth arc - beginning as a typical snobby, rich prom queen and ultimately becoming a "higher being". Season 4 of Angel brings about the extremely controversial pregnancy and relationship with Angel's son Connor.
This pregnancy coincided with Charisma Carpenter's real-life pregnancy. After giving birth to Jasmine, Cordelia falls into a coma and only makes one more appearance in the show during the show's final season. I have not specifically read whether or not the birth of her own child led her to effectively leaving the show, but it would make sense.
Additionally, the writers have said that originally, the one appearance by Cordelia in Season 5 was meant for Buffy, but had to be re-written due to Sarah's unavailability.
Improve this question. Plus Charisma Carpenter had become tired of playing Cordelia so they went a different way. They talk about these things on the commentaries for episodes of Angel, you should check some of them out!
It's probably worth adding that Charisma Carpenter has always maintained she was fired from Angel, and as sanguine as she was in interviews at the time, was upset about leaving. Here she is talking about being fired although she says that her and Joss have since made up : youtube. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Mike Jozic spoke about the pressures of getting the studio to commit to a 5th season which would strongly suggest that long-term planning for each character wasn't a major issue: JOZIC: I think it was between Season 3 and 4 of Angel when it was still up in the air as to whether or not the show would be coming back, and I seem to remember someone saying that Buffy was in a kind of comfort zone because they had been syndicated since day one, so they had a lot more leeway to ease into things, whereas Angel never knew if it was coming back the next season so it was always balls-to-the-wall, I guess, to try and go as far as you can and push it as hard as you can to hopefully get that renewal.
Charisma Carpenter doesn't say much on the subject other than that she feels that her leaving was handled pretty gracefully : TVGO: So they'll want you back as Cordy Carpenter : I don't think so, no.
Interviewer : No! Improve this answer. Valorum Valorum k gold badges silver badges bronze badges. The only issue with this is that those interviews were done at the airing of episode out of Less than two weeks after those interviews, the show was cancelled. Joss has said that at the time, they were only then getting ready to plan out season 6.
And since the th episode was originally supposed to feature Buffy, it sort of begs the question as to just what Joss intended to do with Cordy. I've not read anywhere that they had any other plans than to simply leave her in a coma. I've not read anywhere that they had any other plans than to simply leave her in a coma" This is accurate and I'd heard that Joss had actually promised Charisma that he wouldn't kill Cordelia off because she was upset by the idea of being brought back just to establish her death.
Brythan 3, 2 2 gold badges 17 17 silver badges 31 31 bronze badges. Shadow of Existence Shadow of Existence 31 3 3 bronze badges. Could you provide a source for the David Fury quote? Also: Welcome to SFF. Very interesting. Do you have any sources you can cite for this alternate version of events? The DF quote came from here: buffy.
FuzzyBoots k 15 15 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. In the ensuing chaos, Angel was rendered human and Charles Gunn was turned into a vampire. Wesley, who had died in the battle against the Circle and was a ghost, attempted to contact Cordelia in the hopes of getting the assistance of The Powers That Be, but they were unable to help as they had no influence in the Senior Partners' hell dimension. However, Cordelia managed to muster a slight breeze to let Wesley know she was listening.
Later, when Angel was fatally injured by Gunn, Cordelia was able to appear to him to help ease his transition into death. She was heartbroken by what had become of her friends, but was nevertheless amused to learn that Angel had accidentally named his dragon after her.
Angel and Cordelia watched from another plane as Wesley revealed that Angel's role in the Shanshu Prophecy would be one where he would massacre many people. Cordelia urged Angel to go back to his son before fading away, assuring him before she left that he could never be what he saw in the vision. Cordelia evolved dramatically throughout her years working in the Scooby Gang and Angel Investigations.
She changed from an egocentric snob to a person whose life was increasingly dedicated to helping others. She was vain, often self-absorbed, and appeared to care more about clothes than people. As a teenager, Cordelia suffered rejection and mockery from her original high school friends as she outgrew their shallowness. Buffy and her friends often found Cordelia's shallowness annoying and off-putting, so it took some time for them to warm up to her.
After moving to Los Angeles, Cordelia inherited visions that allowed her to feel the pain of others, which changed her future from being a famous actress to "helping the helpless. Cordelia was also known for her lack of tact and typical bluntness, often stating her honest opinions in a snarky fashion.
She was bold, brash, and self-confident, traits that remained unchanged during her time in Angel Investigations. She would also frequently deploy a sarcastic, blunt, sometimes biting wit in various situations.
When Buffy had the ability to read minds, Cordelia would often project a thought and then say it immediately. I say it. When Buffy became distant and arrogant after her first death, Cordelia was the only person who pointed her bad behavior and told her to get over it. After Connor's birth, it was Cordelia who made Angel aware of the fact that his condition as a vampire would made it impractical for him to protect Connor all the time due to the sun.
Cordelia died with a grounded confidence and compassion for those in need, which replaced the arrogance and vanity of her adolescent self. She had a passionate love of clothes, which remained unchanged up through her final day on earth; [ citation needed ] in fact, she quickly forgave Angel for his prior actions after discovering that he had bought her an entire set of designer clothes as an apology, [19] similar to how she made peace with Xander when he paid for her prom dress.
During her time in Angel Investigations, Cordelia was shown to be somewhat quick to trust others. She insisted that Harmony, who had become a vampire, was still good despite her annoying habits and ignored Angel's warnings that Harmony, being soulless, would betray her, a belief that indeed came to fruition. During high school, Cordelia dressed very femininely, not so different from Buffy's style of clothing but rather more chic and high class opposed to some of the more natural clothes Buffy wore.
Her wardrobe usually consisted of expensive dresses, short skirts, high heels, pumps and various designer hand bags. A good example was the outfit she wore when returning to school after her injury, a burgundy skirt with a matching top, leather jacket and high heels along with a black Prada bag, symbolizing her confidence in trying to regain her popularity.
After moving to Los Angeles, Cordelia put less significance on clothing, preferring simpler outfits with jeans along with frosted eyeshadow, probably due to her money situations. A few years later, Cordelia began wearing more mature clothing including grey suits. During her possession, she had a higher preference for comfy sweaters and long dark colored coats. Cordelia changed her hairstyle periodically.
In high school, Cordelia kept long, medium brown hair and had a notable fringe in the eleventh grade. In Los Angeles, Cordelia continued with the same hair length, though it appeared darker. She then cut her hair further down into a graduated bob cut with blonde highlights after being fired. As a spirit, Cordelia's hair returned to its early stages as long, straight and brown. Cordelia was a human being during her time in high school. She soon went on to work with Angel Investigations, which led to her developing powers and abilities in the service of The Powers that Be to help Angel.
She displayed the following:. To combat the pain and trauma the visions give her which would eventually kill a human , Cordelia became part-demon, giving her resistance to their harmful effects and other powers. As result, her visions became less ambiguous and more surreal. Because of this action of accepting demonhood, Cordelia was deemed a higher being and ascended to a higher realm. There she was able to wage the war on evil in a new way as a higher being in paradise with The Powers That Be.
In this state, she was shown to still possess her combat skills, given how she took out several zombies. Cordelia was the mother of a brood of Haxil Beast spawn. When pregnant with them, she gained a telepathic connection with the children and their father, who used it to control her.
Cordelia was forced to be the host of an unborn Skilosh demon , which granted her a working third eye in the back of her skull until it was removed. When she returned to this world, however, there was a hitchhiker that came along. This came in the form of Jasmine, a former higher being that would possess Cordelia.
At first, only slight irrational differences were seen in "Cordelia," such as sleeping with Connor. Eventually, this would result in a new body formed for Jasmine after an incubating period. Jasmine could also cast spells while possessing Cordelia and was able to go up against the powerful witch Willow Rosenberg in a magical duel, at least for a short time before Connor distracted her, allowing Willow to restore Angel's soul, something Jasmine had been trying to prevent. Cordelia described herself as "the Slayer" when it came to dating.
Among her friends, Cordelia was close to her classmates Harmony [6] [19] and Aura , [17] her phantom roommate Dennis, [2] and fellow members of Angel Investigations: Angel, [17] Doyle, [17] Gunn, [49] Lorne, [32] and Fred.
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