30 Days of Bangel - pt2

Day 18: Do you enjoy Buffy/Angel fanfic?

I only started reading Bangel fanfiction and I definitely haven't read enough to consider myself a fanfic reader, but I do enjoy it a lot and want to read more. Hopefully, I'll have more time soon to catch up a bit...
 
Day 18: Do you enjoy Buffy/Angel fanfic

I don't read fic very often, mostly because I never really find time to read it but also because I'm pretty picky. In general I do enjoy it because there are fics I've gotten into and that I like.
 
Day 19 : Does Angel or Buffy could live in a world where one of them is dead ?

Of course! They both have done so already - Buffy during three months or so, early season 3, and Angel a bit longer than that, early season 3 of his show. They are normal people who try to persevere despite adversity, in hopes of a better future. Everyone loses loved ones throughout their lives (I haven't yet, fortunately). Angel has lived a long life - he knows loss, and Buffy does too. They have purposes in the world that, to them, are far more important than their individual happiness, or pain. Plus, death doesn't solve anything. We all die eventually so there is no need to speed things up. Buffy and Angel know how to handle grief and pain as long as they have friends, the hope of a better future and a reason to fight. Which is how it happens with everyone, really.
 
Day 19 Does Angel or Buffy live in a world where one of them is dead?
Certainly. Angel and Buffy both know to honor the other in that scenario is to keep fighting evil and make the world a better place. Neither did that when they lost each other the first time. The only exception is that Angel was going to do that instead of killing Buffy like the First wanted him to. People lose loved ones and don't commit suicide.
 
[Nov 21] Day 16 : What makes you love Bangel over Spuffy or Briley ?

Popping in randomly late but I wanted to bring up something that I think hasn't been brought up yet. A small part of loving Bangel for me ties into how integral it is to the Buffyverse and its amazing storytelling. Neither Briley (though I did like it for its duration) nor Spuffy had as large of an impact on the characters, lore, and plotlines as Bangel did. Their love was all encompassing and easily the most compelling to watch play out as a result. Because of Bangel, Willow grew as a witch and pulled off a super powerful feat--restoring Angel's soul. We gained necessary insight into Xander's flaws and the strain they induced on his and Buffy's relationship. Giles became her father figure and his and Buffy's bond was strengthened in a heart wrenching but beautiful way as they both lost their lovers and depended on one another.

All three are powerful themes throughout the show: Willow's powers, Xander's disposition towards harsh judgement, and Giles role as a father figure. Not to mention the morality involved with souls and vampires and humanity in general that Buffy and Angel's love story helped construct and gives us so much to discuss about.
 
Jam
Jam
I love this!
Grace
Grace
And AtS wouldn't exist at all without it! :)
Day 19: Does Angel or Buffy live in a world where one of them dead?

They already have and they managed, so yes! Maybe it's odd, but one of the reasons I love them together is that they can exist outside of each other.
 
Day 20: Imagine the scene between Buffy and Angel during season 6 of Buffy and 3 of Angel when they meet and we don't know more!

Well, I wrote a version of it here. I don't think it's particularly realistic or what actually happened, but it's what prompted me to start writing fic. 🙂
 
Antho
Antho
Thanks I will read it :)
Day 20: Imagine the scene between Buffy and Angel during season 6 of Buffy and 3 of Angel when they meet and we don't know more!

Oh man... I imagine it would not be like Forever. Buffy would be distant and unemotional, Angel would be awkward. I can imagine some 'Nice to see you's, maybe a hug, Buffy lying about what had happened, Angel pretending he believed her, then Angel resigning himself to Buffy's silence and leaving? Dunno.
 
Day 21 : According to you what is the most important thing that one has learned to the other ?

This one is fairly obvious! Buffy showed Angel the best of humanity - kindness, courage, strength. Angel had spent decades hated himself and others, so the first step for him would be to find hope, to believe that things and people could change. After that, Buffy taught Angel to fight and to not give up. I think Amends was just that defining moment in their relationship when everything Buffy had shown or proved Angel was put into focus, and Angel finally got the whole picture.

Angel taught Buffy to be vulnerable, a girl. Angel had lost his innocence so early on that he always wanted Buffy to keep it. He never really talked about her being a slayer or her responsibilities. I think he taught her what showing someone "your heart" was like, and how important it was to share both your worries and your happiness.
 
I'm still here! I just moved to a new apartment, and my wifi situation is really stupid right now (my MacBook has forgotten how to connect to wifi, which means that if I want internet, I have to physically hook it up to a router, which isn't possible at the new place, ironically, *because* my new landlords are providing internet), so I couldn't add any new comments until I visited my parents. If all goes well, this situation will be rectified Tuesday when my new USB wifi adapter arrives in the mail. And now to make up for lost time...

Day 19: Can Angel or Buffy live in a world where the other is dead?

Yes, because they each know that's what the other would want them to do, but they can't really manage to be happy in that situation. Buffy was pretty miserable after sending Angel to hell, and only being ripped out of heaven herself could bring her that low again. Angel reacted in a fairly similar way to news of Buffy's death, taking a long sabbatical from Angel Investigations to grieve, and remaining pretty sorrowful after getting back. Hopefully they'll never have to experience this again.

Day 20: How would the S6/S3 offscreen meeting go?

Like @Grace, I've written a fic about that. (This particular scene isn't covered until chapter 9, though.) I imagine it would be chock full of the usual Buffy/Angel longing, and Angel definitely already knows Buffy was in heaven or else he would've been fighting to save her as hard as he fights to save Connor from Quor'Toth. It would probably be like a role-reversal of "Amends," to an extent, because Angel is Buffy's greatest source of comfort, but he's off-limits, and maybe a part of her doesn't care.

Day 21: According to you, what is the most important thing that Buffy and Angel have learned from each other?

Angel learned from Buffy that you can get back up and keep fighting when you fall down. Buffy learned both that being the Slayer isn't something she can walk away from AND that her value as a person isn't defined by being the Slayer, but I'm not sure how well she remembered the second part in the later seasons, as all the other aspects of her life gradually became consumed by her calling.
 
Mylie
Mylie
Thanks for sharing that fic, I can't wait to read it! :)
Day 19 Does Angel or Buffy live in a world where one of them is dead?

As many fellow Bangelites have noted above,
Yes. They have both lost each other to death before, mourned and found a way to press forward. As Angel said in IWRY, Buffy and Angel understand that they don’t belong to themselves they belong to the world, fighting. That is both the heroism of those characters and the tragedy as well. But both of them understand that the best way to honor the other is to stand up and continue to live and fight in this world. That is what Buffy does in Anne, that is what Angel does in Hearthrob.

And THAT, incidentally, is the greatest distcitnction between our hero’s and Romeo and Juliet. Cough: Joss :Cough.

Day 20 How would the s6/S3 offscreen meeting go?

I vacillate on this one ALOT. Sometimes I think their meeting was sad, maybe some desperation on behalf of Buffy wanting to remedy her depression, Angel knowing Buffy was different in some way, sadder. Sometimes I think maybe they even had sex or almost did and it wasn’t perfect happiness. I’ve read this in fics and sorda thought it interesting.

But sometimes I think maybe it was like EoD/Chosen. Where all of their problems momentarily faded into the background and all that mattered was each other for a brief moment. And that Buffy felt some semblance of relief from her sadness. Maybe it wouldn’t have lasted, but for a moment, them being together was enough. But then I think that is even sadder a thought. To be together again for that moment and to know the next one they can’t stay together. That their lives continue to demand they be apart. It would certainly make me crave fried chicken and/or ice cream.
 
Day 21: According to you, what is the most important thing that Buffy and Angel have learned from each other?

The most "important" is a tough one! But I think that Angel sometimes unknowingly taught Buffy to trust her instincts. In "Angel" she could have killed him, she knew he was a vampire but her instincts told her that he was different and she instead chose to trust him. He followed her lead during their time together, whether it was for her plans to kill the master, he trusted her implicitly when she told him to close his eyes, before she killed him, and when he returned he once again followed her lead with her plan for graduation. Angel had a blind trust in Buffy's intuition and I think this gave her confidence to be a leader. Along the way he taught her some smaller things like the fact that she was special was more about HER not just that she was a slayer (Helpless), he echoed the lessons he had learned to her in why they fight the fight, even if there is no end in sight (Gingerbread), and I think he probably taught her some good moves (see various sparing sessions/tai chi). And I also think that Angel taught Buffy that she can rely on others. He told her "you can't do this alone" when they first met and she allows him to help and the Scoobies to help and that makes her a formidable Slayer.

Buffy's most important lesson to Angel is a bit more obvious and on the nose. It's to keep fighting - even if it's hard or if you want to give up. Even if there is no end in sight. Even if there is no reward, you fight because its the right thing to do.

I think Angel's lesson from Buffy is summarized for the first time in Gingerbread (of all episodes) and repeated on his show in various forms in his show.

Angel: Buffy, you know, I'm still figuring things out. There's a lot I don't understand. But I do know it's important to keep fighting. I learned that from you.
Buffy: But we never...
Angel: We never win.
Buffy: Not completely.
Angel: We never will. That's not why we fight. We do it 'cause there's things worth fighting for.
 
Day 21: Acording to you, what is the most important thing Buffy and Angel learned from each other?
Buffy learned that Angel had a soul and was a good guy who could help her fight those vampires who were not like him. Plus his knowledge of the demon world and how to defeat them. Angel learned from Buffy that there are good people in the world who are willing to fight the evil in it. She restored his faith in humanity.
 
Day 18: Do you enjoy Buffy/Angel fanfic?
I probably read every fanfic out there as a teen! Not an exaggeration. Once I was done with the shows I was in desperate need of a Buffy/Angel fic. I do still enjoy it although it's a shame some of the old archives are no longer around. Scribes is sorely missed. I found the handpicked fic collections there much higher quality, and it was much better than having to wade through pages of bad writing and greener teenfic at FF.net.

Which reminds me at some point I must catch up with the IWRY marathon...

Day 19: Can Angel or Buffy live in a world where the other is dead?
Yup. They've both done so already. I think everyone else has already summed up the answer to this one.

Day 20 How would the s6/S3 offscreen meeting go?
Difficult to tell. I can't work out whether it would be restrained and understated, with Buffy just feeling a brief respite from her pain, like Salieri's 'Quietus' fanfic, or whether Buffy would feel more relaxed and talk honestly, as she tends to do in Angel's presence. I think it's a given that the meeting would be tinged with longing.
I've read other fics which plausibly characterise the meeting as more desperate and intense. Some suggest her desperation to 'feel' something starts here with Angel, and the two of them having sex. I think that would kind of disrupt the shape of her arc in S6, as her first voicing of this is three episodes later in OMWF. It would also imply that S6 Spuffy was somehow rooted in her feelings for Angel, which again I've seen explored in some fics fairly convincingly, but it would change the meaning of the canon relationship significantly. Not sure it quite works tbh, and it certainly wouldn't go down well with a lot of fans either...

Would she tell Angel about Heaven? The scene with Spike in 'Afterlife' makes it seems like it was it was the only time she'd told anyone, but since Angel exists outside her Sunnydale sphere it's not implausible she'd tell him too, but then put on a brave face and insist she can deal with it when he offers help. Then again I can equally see her wanting to spare Angel's pain at knowing how traumatised she is. I find it hard, though, to believe that Angel would have been able to deal with her death if he'd thought she was in hell. I feel like he just automatically presumed she was in heaven because of the good person she was.

I personally like to think it leaned towards something intimate, but honestly there's a million ways I can see it going...

Day 21: According to you, what is the most important thing that Buffy and Angel have learned from each other?
I think Angel taught Buffy that her strength comes from who she is and not just from her abilities as a slayer, and that she is strong even in moments where she may not feel like it.

As for what she taught him, their conversation in 'Gingerbread' is pretty much the mission statement of his show.
 
EarthLogic said:
It would also imply that S6 Spuffy was somehow rooted in her feelings for Angel, which again I've seen explored in some fics fairly convincingly, but it would change the meaning of the canon relationship significantly.
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Honestly, this to me is my total head canon. She comes back depressed from her Angel meeting, she is sad when Xander and Anya appear to get to be getting their happy ending and the script tells us she is supposed to be thinking of Angel then, and after she has sex with Spike for the first time she references Angel, "A vampire got me hot, one -he is gone you are convenient" (I'm too lazy to look up script but you all get the gist). To me a LOT of early Spuffy was about Angel, not being able to have him around, not be able to be intimate with him. Not saying it didn't veer off into its own thing especially in the comics but I think when it started it was certainly some about Angel.
 
Catching up 🙂

[Nov 24] Day 19 : Does Angel or Buffy could live in a world where one of them is dead ? Yes, we've seen both do so, and quite frankly, that is a good thing. No one person should be your entire world so completely that you would fall apart without/are unable to live without them. Grieve for them, of course, but to be unable to live without someone is not healthy.

[Nov 25] Day 20 : Imagine the scene between Buffy and Angel during season 6 of Buffy and 3 of Angel when they meet and we don't know more ! I think everyone else has covered this well. I would imagine their meeting would be similar to Angel's appearance in Forever, with Buffy drawing comfort from Angel, opening up to him and the two just being together for as long as they could.

[Nov 26] Day 21 : According to you what is the most important thing that one has learned to the other ? Buffy taught Angel not to hate himself, that he has a place in the world and that he is deserving of human relationships. She was also the first person to inspire him to fight the good fight, no matter what. Angel taught Buffy that being the Slayer does not mean she has to isolate herself, that she is not alone and that she can lean on others. They both taught each other love and acceptance.

[Nov 27] Day 22 : According to you, was Angelus in love with Buffy ? Ew, no. Angelus doesn't love and he hated Buffy for making him remember love.
 
Day 22 : According to you, was Angelus in love with Buffy ?

Sometimes, there are hints that he was as close to in love with Buffy as he could be. Angelus hated Buffy but in a "passionate" way. I think there was lust there and curiosity.
 
dcai0830 said:
Sometimes I think maybe they even had sex or almost did and it wasn’t perfect happiness. I’ve read this in fics and sorda thought it interesting.
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I haven't read any like that in awhile, so maybe I'm not thinking of something obvious, but I have trouble figuring out how they could have sex and have it not be perfect happiness and have Angel then *not* spending more time with her. It seemed like in Forever that Angel realized that Buffy's life was not normal at that time and wanted to be with her and help her, but he couldn't because they both knew it was pretty likely that she would throw herself at him at some point and he wouldn't be able to resist. So if they *could* have sex, then what stops him from trying to help more (since this is even before Connor comes along)?

The "almost did" part, I can see that. That actually would play out pretty well -- Buffy wants to "take comfort" in him, in the old Amends phrasing, but Angel can't give her what she wants. I could see that making them both feel as bad as they seemed in the aftermath of the meeting.

EarthLogic said:
I find it hard, though, to believe that Angel would have been able to deal with her death if he'd thought she was in hell. I feel like he just automatically presumed she was in heaven because of the good person she was.
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I think I've settled on the idea that Angel did not think Buffy was in hell during the summer, but if Willow told Cordelia/him that she pulled Buffy out of hell, he may have believed that (and it may have made him feel extra terrible about not being there for her), so I feel like either is possible in the meeting.

Day 21: According to you what is the most important thing that one has learned to the other?

A lot of great things have already been mentioned, but I would add the value of a soul. Angel learned the true value of his soul through watching Buffy and learning that humans had this amazing capacity for love and kindness. Buffy got an intensely vivid example of the difference a soul makes, and I think it shaped how she viewed her role as the slayer and affected her journey for the rest of the show.

Day 22: According to you, was Angelus in love with Buffy ?

No. He's obsessed with her, but it's not love. He wants to break her the way he broke Drusilla, and when he can't, he freaks out and wants to end the world. I think he's absolutely fascinated by Buffy and even respects her in a way, but it makes him hate her more. I love that he has that big boast about "To kill this girl, you have to love her," and then he finds himself so "tainted" by that love that it breaks *him*.
 
Grace said:
I haven't read any like that in awhile, so maybe I'm not thinking of something obvious, but I have trouble figuring out how they could have sex and have it not be perfect happiness and have Angel then *not* spending more time with her. It seemed like in Forever that Angel realized that Buffy's life was not normal at that time and wanted to be with her and help her, but he couldn't because they both knew it was pretty likely that she would throw herself at him at some point and he wouldn't be able to resist. So if they *could* have sex, then what stops him from trying to help more (since this is even before Connor comes along)?
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I see your point. I suppose when Angel left in s3 he says "I want you to have this normal life" and the question is does he give up on that normal life for her by s6 or does he remain against all odds insistent that she can have it still? Even so, if they gave in and had sex and avoided breaking the clause that is not to say that the next time won't be perfect happiness. In other words, just because Buffy is sad or depressed and because Angel's sadness at seeing Buffy in this way makes the perfect happiness not a possibility to doesn't mean that if they started spending more time together she wouldn't recover and they would have sex again under different circumstances triggering the clause. If they had slept together and avoided triggering the clause, I still think once they came to their senses they would look at it as dodging a bullet.

There is a fic where they sleep together in a public bathroom during the off screen meeting. Its not pretty. Nothing romantic about it. Does that one ring a bell? You are the fic guru!
 
dcai0830 said:
I see your point. I suppose when Angel left in s3 he says "I want you to have this normal life" and the question is does he give up on that normal life for her by s6 or does he remain against all odds insistent that she can have it still? Even so, if they gave in and had sex and avoided breaking the clause that is not to say that the next time won't be perfect happiness. In other words, just because Buffy is sad or depressed and because Angel's sadness at seeing Buffy in this way makes the perfect happiness not a possibility to doesn't mean that if they started spending more time together she wouldn't recover and they would have sex again under different circumstances triggering the clause. If they had slept together and avoided triggering the clause, I still think once they came to their senses they would look at it as dodging a bullet.
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Yeah, I guess I could see that. I feel like Angel would be so happy to see Buffy back from the dead that even if she was depressed it would still be dangerous for him. But I think I could buy it under the right circumstances.

dcai0830 said:
There is a fic where they sleep together in a public bathroom during the off screen meeting. Its not pretty. Nothing romantic about it. Does that one ring a bell? You are the fic guru!
Click to expand...

Yes, I know I've read that one. Those kinds of fics may have been what turned me off to the idea. 🙂 I'll see if I can remember which one it was.
 
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