Top 10: Buffy/Angel Characters

       One thing Joss Whedon is exceptionally good at is character development and writing.  So to celebrate that I wanted to dive into his characters, so I broke it down to his longest running series, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and its spin-off Angel.  Before we begin I want to start with a Spoiler Warning, since these characters developed over years and some are tied to major plot points I don't want to ruin the series for anyone.

10) Xander Harris

       Xander barely made it onto this list, and he did so for one reason, he lived longer than my number 11, and they both had the same role.  Xander was the only normal human with the Scoobies by season 7.  Which meant as the show developed he watched as everyone he knew became more and he was helpless to change it.  Xander was the heart of the team, the one who kept them where they needed to be and despite his limitations he was willing to lay down his life over and over again to save his friends.  By the end of season 7 he lost an eye fighting against someone who clearly outmatched him, yet he still returned for the final battle against evil to save the world.  He was also the only one who was skeptical of Angel and Spike joining the group.

9) Illyria

       Illyria is the only pure blood demon to fight on the side of good.  However this is because of a mutual understanding rather than her being a good guy.  Illyria is stuck in the body of Fred, a girl everyone liked, thus adding tension between Illyria and everyone else.  The twist is Illyria doesn't want to be, she was summoned by one of her followers and is now unable to return home.  She also has almost Godlike powers, but again these are restrained due to the body she is stuck in.  Then there is how she understands the world around her, in short she doesn't.  She has only been in the mortal realm for a few months by the end of the show and has to discover everything that everyone else already knows.  This all adds up to make a character the viewer feels sorry for.

8) Faith

       If someone were to ask you to describe a female vampire slayer, Faith is probably what you come up with.  Faith's watcher was killed by a vampire early in her career, leaving her all alone.  She is ruthless, violent, and lives each day as though it were her last.  In season four she suffers a minor psychotic break and goes evil, but again this is what you would expect from a girl who was bred to hunt monsters and doesn't have the support group Buffy has.  She later saw the errors of her way and Angel rehabilitated her, she now is a part of the Slayer organization.

7) Fred

       There's no getting around it, Fred is awesome.  When she is introduced she is a wild girl living in a cave in a parallel universe.  When she returns to civilization she is still insane and living in the hotel owned by Angel.  Eventually she regains her mind and becomes the head science person.  This is when she is murdered, but not just regular murdered, her soul is destroyed to make room for the demon Illyria.  The only thing I didn't like about her is the period of time she dated Gunn, not because I disliked him, but I just felt they were a bad pairing, she eventually realizes this and ends up with Wesley before she dies.

6) Wesley

       Speaking of Wesley, when this guy was first introduced he was Watchers' Council's replacement for Giles.  However he allows Giles to remain because he sees the benefit of his experience, making it impossible to hate him.  Then when Angel started he got far more development as a comic relief character who acted as the researcher for Team Angel.  But then around season four he falls apart.  After doing what he believed was the right thing with Angel's Son Conner, he was kicked out of the group and he became a far darker person.  Even when he returned to Angel Investigation he wasn't the same man, but he did resemble himself again.  Wesley is the only person in this series to ever kill a demon with a gun, seriously nobody else pulled it off.  Wesley died in the last episode of Angel during the final assault on the Council of Black Thorn and was avenged by Illyria, as the only one who treated her like a person she felt a connection, and as Wesley died in her arms she took the form of Fred.

5) Lorne

       Lorne is a unique character, he's a demon from another dimension who left because he discovered music.  Lorne has the power to read people's fortunes after hearing them sing to him, and for a while he owned a karaoke bar that as a running gag kept getting destroyed because of Angel.  He acts as a sort of guide to the team and the conscience in the last season.  In the after the fall series he was one of the Demon Lords of LA and turned his domain into a sanctuary.  Lorne is the only member of Angel Investigation who never compromised his values for a goal.

4) Anya

       Anya was once jokingly described as the perfect woman, well to be honest I have to agree.  Anya is a former vengeance demon who lost her powers at the hands of the Scoobies.  She then started a relationship with with Xander that resulted in a near marriage.  Anya is blunt, which is the best part about her, she speaks her mind at all times and no topic is off limit.  She also has a crippling fear of bunnies that is introduced in a Halloween episode where she dresses as one as the scariest thing she can think of.  After Xander leaves her at the alter she is given her powers back and acts as a vengeance demon until she realizes she doesn't like it anymore.  She dies in the last episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer saving Andrew from the Bringers.

3) Cordelia

       Cordelia is the embodiment of the series.  The original idea for the show is that the least likely person fights evil, Buffy started out doing it whereas Cordy had to ease into it more.  When she was introduced she was the stereotypical popular girl, air-headed and self involved with a following of other girls.  But once she learns there is a such thing as monsters she joins the Scoobies uninvited and even loses all her old friends in the process.  Fast forward to Angel season 1 and she is the founder of Angel Investigation and secretary until she decides to take up a sword herself.  She then inherits the visions that Doyle had, and due to her human physiology is forced to choose between the life she always wanted, or becoming part demon to continue saving the people of LA.  Then after that even she ascends and becomes a higher being where she remains the rest of the series.  That is except for one episode in the last season where she returns for the sole purpose of showing Angel he was headed down the wrong path and she corrected him.  Her body then dies and she hasn't been seen since.

2) Angel

       Angel wouldn't make the list if it wasn't for his spin-off show, and when he turned evil.  Whenever he was with Buffy he was boring, as was everyone else when they were with her.  However once he got out on his own he was funny, a badass, and all around awesome.  He makes offhand remarks about knowing celebrities in his past that are hilarious.  However Angel does have his complexities.  He was the most feared vampire of all time, terrorizing Europe for almost 200 years, but he was cursed by a Gypsy who put his soul back.  But if he ever has a moment of true happiness he will lose his soul again and become the monster he once was.  There is another prophecy introduced in Angel that stated a vampire with a soul would become human again once his destiny was fulfilled, and it's automatically assumed to be him.  He loses out to my number one choice simply because of how one dimensional he was the whole first season of Buffy.

1) Spike

       Spike in a word is amazing.  He starts as a villain who's first act is to kill the previous big bad's legacy.  He and his girlfriend Dru go about simply causing mayhem for the sake of it.  After he is defeated he returns periodically to cause problems with some hair brained scheme.  He was captured by a government agency during one of these plans and implanted with a chip that makes him unable to harm humans, so he joins the Scoobies.  He starts a secret relationship with Buffy where she treats him horribly until he finally leaves for a while, returning with his soul returned.  This makes him the only vampire to chose to have his soul returned.  As he puts it "He knows he's love's bitch, but he's man enough to admit it."  At the end of Buffy he sacrifices himself to save the world by closing the Hellmouth for good.  But he then is resurrected in the final season of Angel acting as the antagonistic rival of Angel within the group.  Spike was the comic relief character who could kick most anyone's ass, even Angel on an occasion.  And that is why he earns the number one spot on my list.

       You may have noticed Buffy didn't make the list, its because I think she is a boring character that was done better with other characters in the series.  So do you agree or disagree with my list?  Feel free to post a comment below.

Television Reviows: Angel

       Angel was a spin-off to Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  It aired from 1999 to 2004 in parallel with Buffy, which means they happen at the same time and even have crossover episodes.  The overall plot is that Angel decides he can no long stay in Sunnydale with Buffy, so he moves to Los Angeles to fight evil his own way.  Growing up I was more of this show than Buffy and I remember liking it more, when I finally got around to watching it in its entirety I realized why, this show has more complex and likable characters, which I'll go into more when I do a Top 10 list.  The show also seems to have more grey areas than Buffy, particularly with the villains and how they are dealt with, which I love in a show because it allows the viewers to connect better.

Season 1

       Season one starts the show off right.  Angel arrives in LA and starts saving people the best he can.  One day a man shows up at his apartment named Doyle, a half-demon who was granted visions of the future by the powers that be, the higher power of good as opposed to the countless evils from the series.  Doyle sends Angel to a party where he runs into Cordelia, an old acquaintance from Sunnydale.  After saving her from a rich vampire Cordelia decides to work for Angel as a secretary, (she starts Angel Investigations first so the job exists) turning Angel's crusade into a business.  Angel soon learns that evil works different in LA than in Sunnydale, in that they all have lawyers, and are untouchable to the authorities, enter Wolfram & Hart, the evil law firm run by 3 powerful demons that are on a different plane of existence.  As the season progresses Doyle constantly is trying to make Cordelia fall for him, but to no avail, about halfway through the season Doyle sacrifices his life to save hundreds of lives, ironically this act is what makes Cordelia finally see how much she cared for him.  Doyle also passes his visions to her before dying.  We then are reunited with Wesley, a now disgraced Watcher and rogue demon hunter.  Wesley is broke and assists Angel as a consultant while trying to convince them he's fine.  After about 2 episodes Angel hires him full time.  The season also introduces a character named Gunn, who becomes a main character next season.  The final confrontation is with Wolfram & Hart who summon a powerful demon in order to bring one of the senior partners into this realm.  This ends how you would think, team Angel arrives to stop the big bad, does, however there is a twist, Wolfram & Hart brought back something else, but they are not able to find it, setting up for the next season. B.

Season 2

       Season two begins by promoting James Gunn, a former street kid who grew up fighting vampires his own way, to a main character.  It also reveals what Wolfram & Hart brought back, Angel's old vampire lover Darla.  she causes problems for the group all with the purpose to get Angel to change her back into a vampire.  The season also introduces Lorne, an empath demon who runs a demon sanctuary/karaoke bar.  He also has the power to read people after hearing them sing.  For the first half of the season Darla and Lindsey, a lawyer at Wolfram & Hart simply screwing with Angel.  After she becomes a vampire again to save her life Darla reunites with Drusilla, and they go on a rampage through LA.  Angel realizes he must be just as ruthless as them in order to stop them, which he does.  Darla then seduces Angel, but the next day his soul is still in tact, this is when Angel realizes he is over Darla, and it's time to let her go.  So for the last few episodes team Angel is pulled into a parallel universe where they must save Cordelia, or so they think.  Because of her visions Cordelia is made queen, and with the help of Lorne's family they are able to return to LA, with a new member, Winifred Burkle, or Fred for short.  The last scene is of Willow telling Angel that Buffy had died (See Buffy Season 5).  B+.

Season 3

       Season 3 is the first season of Angel to have a classic "Big Bad".  Sahjhan, a demon who has it out for Angel for an unexplained reason awakens a man named Holtz, whom Angel tortured and killed his family 200 years ago and has wanted revenge ever since.  And if that wasn't enough Darla returns with a surprise, she is pregnant with Angel's child.  Angel and Cordelia slowly begin to fall for each other, and team Angel must reintroduce Fred into society.  This is one of my favorite seasons, and if it wasn't for the rather boring villain it would have been my favorite.  Darla is sharing a soul with her unborn child making her realize all the bad she has done over the years, this ultimately results in her staking herself because her dead body is unable to give birth, so in order for her child to live, she had to die.  Angel names his son Conner and all seems good for the group, until Wesley discovers a prophecy involving Conner, more specifically that Angel will kill him.  Wesley keeps it to himself until he has a plan to save Conner.  Meanwhile Wolfram and Hart have spiked the blood Angel buys with traces of Conner's blood to make him more aggressive.  Sahjhan grows tired of waiting for Holtz to kill Angel and decides to go to Wolfram & Hart.  Wesley then kidnaps Conner to take him to Holtz where he'll be safe from Angel, only to be double-crossed and his neck cut by Holtz's number two.  Holtz then takes Conner through a portal into a hell dimension to protect him from Wolfram & Hart and Sahjhan.  team Angel then goes on a hunt for Wesley, they found him in a hospital recovering.  Here Angel tells him he will never forgive him for what he did, and Sahjhan altered the prophecy because it's Conner, not Angel that he has a problem with.  Conner returns from the Hell dimension having aged many years and wanting to kill Angel for being a monster.  Holtz also returns much older and finally realizes that Angel is not the same person he was when he was Angelus.  Holtz tells Conner to return to Angel before having his number two kill him.  She tricks Conner into thinking Angel did it so Conner will kill him.  But instead Conner devises a far worse punishment by trapping Angel at the bottom of the ocean.  Cordelia then ascends to become a higher being because of all the good she has done.  A-.

Season4

       Season 4 is much like Buffy, it is the weak point of the series.  The season starts with whats left of team Angel searching for Angel and Cordelia.  While Wesley, having being changed by the events of the previous season simply locates Holtz's followers and torturing them until they take him to Angel.  Wesley rescues Angel and Angel acknowledges he understands why he took Conner, and finally forgives him.  They return to Angel Investigations, and Angel is unable to forgive Conner, kicking him out of the team.  The group continues their search for Cordelia for a while, but then she returns with no memory of who she is.  Around this time a powerful demon called The Beast comes to LA and kills everyone at Wolfram and Hart.  The Beast seems to know Angel, or rather Angelus from a long time ago.  So Wesley decides to unleash Angelus in a controlled environment to learn what he knows.  This sets up a Hanibal Lector element to the series.  Meanwhile we find out Cordelia may not be Cordelia, but someone in her body.  She is in complete control of The Beast and seduces Conner.  Angelus eventually gets free and goes on a killing spree, he manages to kill the Beast before Team Angel, with the help of Willow and Faith manage to put his soul back.  The being possessing Cordelia is then released putting her in a mystical coma.  This is where the show falls apart.  The new villain is Jasmine, a fallen higher being that has the power of mind control over anyone who sees her, that is until her blood gets into their system.  This leaves team Angel to fight Jasmine and Conner, they win, but Conner then completely loses it and tries to kill himself and Cordelia.  Angel stops him just in time.  In the final episode wolfram and Hart offer the LA branch to Angel Investigations, every member is targeted by a specific branch, and they agree to the deal.  Angel's terms however is that Conner's memories are altered so he gets a normal life, and that everyone forgets about him.  If it wasn't for Jasmine, Conner, and how horribly Cordelia is handled this could have been the best season, but because of all the problems it ends up as the worst, B-.

Season 5

       After Buffy ends, this season starts.  Team Angel is now running Wolfram and Hart at various levels.  The team sees it as doing what they have been, but with a budget.  They have everything they need to hunt monsters, but there's a catch, many of the monsters they usually hunt are now clients.  So in order to hunt evil, they have to let others go free.  The season brings back Spike as the newest member of the team, and Harmony, one of Cordelia's old friends turned vampire is now Angel's secretary.  The team feels they are being corrupted, but they can't do anything about it, and all their former allies, namely Buffy and the slayers no longer trust them.  The team finds themselves once again being messed with by Lindsey, this time he has found a way to hide from the senior partners to do it.  Gunn was given the knowledge of the law by the senior partners in order to run the legal department.  They are also given a liaison named Eve, who is a child of the senior partners, and is revealed to be working with Lindsey.  When the partners finally find out they lock Lindsey in a Hell dimension as punishment.  But when Angel and his team decide to finally fight back, they realize they need Lindsey's help.  They free him and Eve is replaced by another child of the Senior Partners named Marcus Hamilton.  Towards the end of the show Fred becomes very ill because of an employee who worships a pure demon named Illyria.  The illness eventually kills her and Illyria takes over her now vacant body.  Illyria however is unhappy with the world and want's to return, but she is unable to.  Illyria learns that her powers are too great for Fred's body and Wesley finds a way to take most of them away saving her life.  The last few episodes Team Angel takes the fight to the Circle of Black Thorns, a council made up of all of Wolfram and Harts most evil clients.  They divide the targets and strike them all at once.  Lindsey is killed by Lorne after they succeed because he is evil.  Wesley is also killed and Illyria avenges him.  She also comforts him until he dies.  The series ends with Team Angel about to start the final battle with the partners, then it just ends.  This being my favorite season, it earns an A.

Overall

Season 1 B

Season 2 B+

Season 3 A-

Season 4 B-

Season 5 A

Average B+