As a Bangel Shipper which of these "other" ships bothered you the most?

[NileQT87]

What Angel felt for both Buffy and redemptive Darla is pure agape. Angel's actions in leaving Buffy and sacrificing his own happiness for her is the very definition of agape. Angel showed agape for Darla in The Trial. Lustful eros was previously the only kind of attraction/love Liam/Angelus had ever felt, with the exception of the storge Liam had for his sister, Kathy.

Darla is much like Angel in that respect, in that she replaced her former idea of love (eros) with an understanding of what agape was.

Which brings me to the fact that while Buffy and Darla are on the receiving end of Angel's agape, the only love I see from Angel towards Cordy is philia with a minor element of eros.

 

[Taaroko]

That's what I love so much about Darla's story, and it's why it shattered Angel to watch Drusilla turn her. And Angel's capacity for agape is a big part of why he's such an incredible character. "This one would sacrifice every drop of human happiness and love he has ever known for another. He is not a lower being."

 

[BuffyBot22]

@dcai0830, @BuffyBot22, Right. Their relationship was complex, love is a multifaceted thing and then the question of vampire love but Darla's undying love/devotion is similar to Spike, his devotion to Drusilia and then Buffy, which gives credence to what Drusilia claimed. Darla definitely hates Angel and despite that, still loves him.

Angel is a Spike mirror in "Darla" "You disgust me" is "You're beneath me", cut to the present day and he still can't let Darla go even though he knows he should, he is a "Fool For Love" and the devotional love Darla has as a "returned vampire/then human/then vampire again" makes her a kindred spirit to Spike in a way.

Angel hates what he is and Darla is what made him that way. Correct, he could never love Darla when he was a demon, at least not what is called pure unselfish love but he is not solely a demon anymore and as we saw he cares deeply for her and couldn't let her go, even when it was the right and sane thing to do, he had a passionate irrational need to save her and it tore him up inside, I'd call that love.

I'd say two people who wanted the same thing, to love each other and couldn't have it is tragic. It's indisputable Buffy and Angel have each others love and have each other as old lovers and old friends who are still around. I am reminded of "People enter your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime" Bangel could be seen as all three. Every romantic relationship one ever has will come to an end, until the day one doesn't, no vampire is required but because Buffy and Angel's day came, does not make their relationship a failure. Whether or not Buffy marries or falls in love again or never does, doesn't change the fact that for the both of them, it will remain, one of their most successful love relationships in its own, everlasting way.

As Harmony told Wesley "The girl you loved, loved you back" I feel as if, does Darla ever get that? I don't think Angel and Darla's hearts ever truly mended and now can't, not ranking the ships but to me it is more tragic. In a alternative version of events, if Angel could in the present day, love and be loved by Darla in the healthy moral sense, maybe he could reconcile himself and hate himself a little bit less

This still didn't answer my question...
To me Buffy and Angel never had closure... When do you think they got it?

Nice analysis on Dangel even if I disagree with a lot of it. Because I would never compare Dangel to Spuffy. Dangel is way more complex and interesting. Spuffy is 1-D and toxic.

 

[Taaroko]

This still didn't answer my question...
To me Buffy and Angel never had closure... When do you think they got it?

Nice analysis on Dangel even if I disagree with a lot of it. Because I would never compare Dangel to Spuffy. Dangel is way more complex and interesting. Spuffy is 1-D and toxic.

Agreed. Spike, by definition as a soulless vampire, was incapable of real love while soulless, even though he's completely convinced that love is what he feels for Drusilla and then Buffy. His idea of love is about passion and possession to the exclusion of all else. He doesn't need Drusilla to be happy, he just needs her to be his (even if it means torture or a love spell). He doesn't need Buffy to be happy—in fact, the more unhappy she is, the more likely she is to continue to sleep with him.

Once he gets his soul, he develops this rather slavish devotion towards Buffy (oddly reminiscent, in some ways, of how he viewed his mother) that's a bit closer to real love, but still pretty selfish and myopic. He has no sense of boundaries and he wears his feelings on his sleeve even when it makes her uncomfortable, almost daring her to reciprocate.

The closest I believe Spike has gotten to feeling agape was with Fred. He gave up what could've been his only opportunity to become corporeal again when he barely knew her, and in "A Hole in the World," he would've done anything to save her—except sacrifice all the people between her and the Deeper Well.

 

[Mrs Gordo]

I realize we're Bangels here, and I am, too, but I don't agree that we have to reduce what Angel with a soul felt for Darla with a soul during her redemptive sacrifices.

And I'm certainly not trying to do that. I guess I just flatly saw something different. I could tell that Angel cared for soulless humanDarla but I always thought much of his need to have her redeemed and his being so passionate about it was that if she could be redeemed then so could he. I guess we have to distinguish between soulless Darla and soulful Darla too because he killed soulless Darla without much hesitation to save Buffy. And then the way Angel treats Darla in Offspring is pretty atrocious. All he cares about is Cordelia he couldn't care less about Darla.

I have a hard time buying that Angel loved Darla but I'll have to go back and rewatch Season 2 to see if I missed something here. I'm conveniently finishing up a Season 1 rewatch so I'll get to that arc soon enough see if I change my mind.

I don't think I will though 😉

 

[NileQT87]

Human Darla wasn't soulless. On the contrary, that made all the difference, even though she was struggling for a long time to cope after 400 years of having no soul and not having much to go on in order to adjust to what she was suddenly feeling (she couldn't even remember her human name and had never been loved or cared about).

She learned what love really was in The Trial when Angel showed her how it felt to be loved and cared about for the first time in her entire existence. He was desperate enough to save her that he even considered siring her at the end with a silly idea that somehow she could keep her soul, but Darla wished instead to die as a human being after feeling what she could never have gotten from Angelus, but finally was able to receive from Angel.

And pregnant Darla somehow shared Connor's soul, which meant that she was able to feel love for another being other than herself for the first time. Angel very much wanted to raise Connor with her together, though Darla said that she'd be soulless as soon as the baby was born and she was terrified that she wouldn't be able to love it because she wanted to.

These were the two times Angel seemed to love Darla very much. Darla wouldn't have known how to love another selflessly in Lullaby had Angel not taught her what this sort of love (agape) really was in The Trial.

Darla was desperate for Angelus and Angel to love her, even as a soulless vampire, despite not understanding it before. That's why she was so blinded with jealousy for Buffy that she never thought Angel would be the danger to her. She genuinely believed Angelus had loved her, even though he was incapable. She even wanted to take soulful Angel back twice because she was desperate for this hoped-for love again, but he couldn't do what she asked of him either time (the baby and killing Buffy). The things Darla wanted most in the world, both as a human and as a vampire, were to be loved, followed by her desire to live, no matter what the cost. She always ran away, even leaving Angelus on numerous occasions to deal with Holtz and again from Angel by jumping off the rooftop, when she was in danger. Only for hope of being loved or trying to prove it did she put herself in danger or have a willingness to die. Feeling loved and cared about, but then also later understanding how to love another in return for the first time is the reason she was willing to die, despite being so desperate to survive for so long.

 

[EarthLogic]

devotional love Darla has as a "returned vampire/then human/then vampire again" makes her a kindred spirit to Spike in a way.

I don't agree with the reading of either Angel or Darla as mirrors to Spike in 'Fool for Love', simply because the dynamics between the two vampire couples are very different. Like Taaroko has said, Spike's love is about obsession and possession rather than a selfless devotion. And I wouldn't call Darla's relationship with Angel(us) 'devotional' in any way. When they're evil they have more closely resembles and obsessive and twisted ludus love (with some lust and mania in there too): playful yet uncommitted. Darla creates Angelus to be her eternal companion so she's his teacher/mother and well as his lover. There's obviously a sexual attraction and the two find an excitement in each other but their relationship is always about indulging in twisted games and it's always about power. Darla has no qualms about leaving him in a burning building for Holtz to save herself. When Angelus finds her again, he punishes her over and over. And she enjoys it.This essay I just came across sums it up very well: an 'intoxicating coalescence of lust, power and insane violence'.

I have so much more to say on this but will have to hold off till the morning 'cause sleep is of the essence. I shall return, with thoughts. 🙂

 

[Mrs Gordo]

. I could tell that Angel cared for soulless humanDarla

This is a typo. Should read: I could tell that Angel cared for soulFUL human Darla***
 
As @EarthLogic says: What makes him even more compelling on AtS is that you realise he's willing to do that for *anyone*. The Trail is all about Darla but it's not that much of a stretch to see him extend that sacrifice for any human soul.

I agree with this. He would have done this for Fred. Most of his friends. That is just the kind of person Angel is it doesn't indicate, to me anyway, that he was in love with her.

 

[NileQT87]

Mm, no. Their connection was far deeper than that. Saving Darla was also a way of proving to himself that even someone with a past as bad as both of theirs could be saved.

But he also connected with human and shared-soul Darla on a far deeper level when it came to having someone who was dealing with the same things he had to go through. Most of his friends and loved ones could never relate to this, no matter hard they might try (only somewhat Faith and Spike had this in common with him). Darla was one of the few people who he could truly relate to when she was dealing with what a soul meant and having centuries of horrible memories. Angel also saw Darla as the mother of the only son he'd ever have and they both bonded over their love of that impossible child. While he most certainly would kill Darla before she hurt any of his friends (he also believed her to be soulless Darla), her revelation that she was feeling a soul changed things entirely and his entire manner towards her changed, just as it did when Darla started to let herself feel her humanity.

His relationships with Angel Investigations are not the same. Just no. Yes, he'd have risked himself for a lot of people, but this above-and-beyond level of desperation to save someone and showing of agape really only ever occurred with Buffy, Darla and Connor. He certainly tried to save Fred, but he wasn't on a suicide mission to do it or giving up all of his future chances at happiness for another. There was ultimately resignation that he couldn't risk the world for her. He certainly wanted Cordy found and then taken care of, but there also seemed to be some resignation in there that he had already lost her and there was nothing left to save. He went far more postal in his grief over Connor and did some quite ambiguous things to ensure his safety, while doing little more than warn against being corrupted by temptation when his friends joined him in signing over their own souls with him. His sacrifices for Buffy, Darla (willingness for it, anyway) and Connor aren't the same as for the others.

Angel had an obsession with keeping Buffy, Darla and Connor safe and/or saving them from themselves in a way that he didn't for any of the others, including friends of his that died. For example, he wasn't too bothered by the fact that Cordy was giving up her chance at a human future by wanting to be with him, unlike how he was with Buffy. With Connor, once again, his feelings of not being able to give enough to him as a vampire father (and wanting Connor to have a mother was also something that bothered him) was always on his mind.
 
However, Angel was also resigned to the death of Buffy in a way that he couldn't handle losing Connor and being told it was impossible to get him back or seemingly save him. Angel is resigned to the fact that he will outlive everyone he loves or even is in love with romantically. It's actually just Connor that he can't cope with losing.

 

[Mrs Gordo]

@nileqt87 I understand where you are coming from. So let me ask you this in your mind does Angel love Soulful Darla in the same and equal measure as he loves Buffy?

 

[NileQT87]

It's just a really different kind of love and relationship.

With Darla, there are a lot of feelings wrapped up in her about proving that his own redemption could actually be possible if he could actually save her, followed by the fact that after feeling loved and cared for by him for the first time she'd ever felt it, she gave him the only son he'd ever have because he taught her how to love someone more than yourself. Angel saved Darla twice with what he taught and showed her, even if it never was for long. And he was very much focused on wanting Darla to actually be Connor's mother, despite her knowing that she couldn't love anything if she survived giving birth. She not only gave her life for Connor, but also for Angel to have the son he always wanted after his gift to her of fulfilling her desire to be worthy of love as an unloved human going back 400 years. She also was finally something to him that no other woman could ever replace. This son, by the way, is someone Angel loves far more than he even loved Buffy. No contest.

Buffy represents something different for Angel. She restored his faith in humanity, was the first human to show him kindness and love after learning who and what he was. She was the first being who gave him hope that he was worth being in the world and that he could become a person to be counted. But she was someone he also knew he couldn't be with forever and would have to leave her if he wanted her to have everything that he wanted for himself, but could never have. Why do you think he always brings up children with her? That's not her fondest desire, but his. Buffy was also the template that Angel modeled himself on as a hero and she was the one who taught him that he could be a hero. But he also outgrew her and felt the need to prove himself. His desire for redemption and forgiveness was always about more than Buffy or ending up with Buffy.

Darla, on the other hand, represented a chance to prove his own salvation (being forgiven by the Powers that Be and given another chance) was possible if he could only save her, someone who was so much like him in a way that none of the others were, which is why losing her first to syphilis and then to Drusilla was so shattering.

If he could save a 400-year-old, syphilitic prostitute vampire who made him a monster and was just as awful and depraved as him, even he could be worthy of redemption, forgiveness and another chance to prove worthy. Connor was, at the time, also something he felt to be a divine reward, regardless of the poisoned chalice it was. Likewise, the magic snow in Amends was the first time since Whistler showed him Buffy that something out there cared about him or his existence. Angel was always searching for a purpose and cosmic forgiveness. Buffy and Darla both were parts of various miracles he was given.
 
Darla was seeking much the same in her constant yearning to be loved and cared about (even her mere existence in the world), so she had that much in common with Angel. Liam and the unnamed prostitute also were coming from similar experiences of never having experienced real love. Buffy showed Angel love for the first time. Angel showed Darla love for the first time.
 
*I should correct that the magic snow was a sign of being wanted for something other than a malignant purpose (the First Evil claiming to have brought Angel back to kill Buffy). However, there were exactly three times that the miracles surrounding Angel can be attributed undoubtedly to someone other than Jasmine trying to bring herself into the world. One of these happened to include Darla's one chance to be a mother and try to save Connor from himself, even if she ultimately failed (just as Angel did until W&H made the offer). The other miracles, of course, happened after Jasmine's death (Cordy's final visit and vision).

The Mayor reiterated Angel's desire to become something more than a life-ruiner for his loved ones and his quest for cosmic forgiveness in Choices, suggesting that there was indeed something else out there for him. The Powers that Be arc was well underway with Buffy as a stepping stone to turn him into a champion of humanity by restoring his faith in it and teaching him how. Graduation Day wasn't just about Buffy's graduation from school and the council; Angel also graduated from Buffy. Angel will always love Buffy, but he knew from the start that he'd lose her.
 
The 15-minute editing rule epically kicked my ass on that post. ::sigh:: Sorry.

 

[EarthLogic]

Mm, no. Their connection was far deeper than that. Saving Darla was also a way of proving to himself that even someone with a past as bad as both of theirs could be saved.

But he also connected with human and shared-soul Darla on a far deeper level when it came to having someone who was dealing with the same things he had to go through. Most of his friends and loved ones could never relate to this, no matter hard they might try (only somewhat Faith and Spike had this in common with him). Darla was one of the few people who he could truly relate to when she was dealing with what a soul meant and having centuries of horrible memories. Angel also saw Darla as the mother of the only son he'd ever have and they both bonded over their love of that impossible child. While he most certainly would kill Darla before she hurt any of his friends (he also believed her to be soulless Darla), her revelation that she was feeling a soul changed things entirely and his entire manner towards her changed, just as it did when Darla started to let herself feel her humanity.

His relationships with Angel Investigations are not the same. Just no. Yes, he'd have risked himself for a lot of people, but this above-and-beyond level of desperation to save someone and showing of agape really only ever occurred with Buffy, Darla and Connor. He certainly tried to save Fred, but he wasn't on a suicide mission to do it or giving up all of his future chances at happiness for another. There was ultimately resignation that he couldn't risk the world for her. He certainly wanted Cordy found and then taken care of, but there also seemed to be some resignation in there that he had already lost her and there was nothing left to save. He went far more postal in his grief over Connor and did some quite ambiguous things to ensure his safety, while doing little more than warn against being corrupted by temptation when his friends joined him in signing over their own souls with him. His sacrifices for Buffy, Darla (willingness for it, anyway) and Connor aren't the same as for the others.

Angel had an obsession with keeping Buffy, Darla and Connor safe and/or saving them from themselves in a way that he didn't for any of the others, including friends of his that died. For example, he wasn't too bothered by the fact that Cordy was giving up her chance at a human future by wanting to be with him, unlike how he was with Buffy. With Connor, once again, his feelings of not being able to give enough to him as a vampire father (and wanting Connor to have a mother was also something that bothered him) was always on his mind.
 
However, Angel was also resigned to the death of Buffy in a way that he couldn't handle losing Connor and being told it was impossible to get him back or seemingly save him. Angel is resigned to the fact that he will outlive everyone he loves or even is in love with romantically. It's actually just Connor that he can't cope with losing.

Ok so I was in a rush when I commented on @Taaroko 's post - I should have said Angel would sacrifice himself for any human life, not 'that' sacrifice in The Trial, because as you say it was above-and-beyond the missions he undertakes on a daily basis. However I do believe, and this is the point I was trying to make, that there is a degree of agape in his everyday altruistic behaviour. Naturally it's not as obsessive as when it's about Buffy, Darla or Connor, because it's with those three that he has the deepest and most formative relationships. I agree with all you say about the manner of his sacrifice being connected to the depth of his relationships and I didn't mean that he would extend that to just anyone. But there's an undercurrent to his thought and thus his sacrificial heroism wherein he knows (believes/understands) that because of his damned state and the crimes he has committed, his life is ultimately less important than the lives of those around him. (And this is the flipside of the manifestation of his agape with Darla and Connor - his overwhelming need to give up everything for them results in him disregarding the feelings of others he cares about). It basically goes world humanity>lives of loved ones>own life.

Bottom line: On his good days, his non-dark gone-postal days, if faced with the choice of letting an innocent person die or dying himself, given the right motivation and circumstances, he would make the ultimate sacrifice. Obviously the show never really puts him in a position to do that for a character he has little to no connection to, so what I'm suggesting is purely hypothetical but I do think it's not that much of a leap given the right circumstances - I'm talking outright life-or-death situations here.

Anyway I do actually agree with you that Angel did love Darla - in a way. It's just not that same combination of feelings that he felt for Buffy because the two women meant different things to him. And absolutely I don't believe that we should in any way reduce the complexity of his relationship with Darla. I think the turn this thread has taken highlights the flaw in the original questions because Angel/Darla isn't really a romantic or couple-y relationship as the others are. Angel's compassion for Darla is obviously there from when she comes back as human but I think it only really reaches its ultimate form in the moment of her death. During the Trial I think Angel too focused on what her life and possible redemption represents for them both to actually love her, but she does finally understand the value of his compassion and willingness to sacrifice. The events of Darla's pregnancy happen so quickly that Angel barely has time to contemplate his feelings for her, but what you do see is a shift of his focus completely onto her potential to love. Like you say he shows her how to love for the first time. The rooftop scene is wonderful because neither of them understand what's going on fully but Angel displays an absolute faith in her ability to be a mother. Its not so much about being the mother of his child as it is mother of a child pure and simple: as a vampire mother, she brought him death and damnation but with a soul he is has faith in her ability to give life. Then of course she goes an proves in in the alley; her act of sacrifice is her redemption because she accomplishes what neither of them though she could do and gives life. And crucially it isn't through love for Angel, but through the ultimate bond of love that can ever exist between two people which is the unconditional parent-child love. So I can believe that Angel did love her in that final moment.

 

[DeadlyDuo]

Agreed. Spike, by definition as a soulless vampire, was incapable of real love while soulless, even though he's completely convinced that love is what he feels for Drusilla and then Buffy.

I think vampires can feel love. As Drusilla herself said in Crush, "we can love quite well.....if not wisely". However, I think they're limited in the types of love they feel. I forget all the names for the different types of love

Eros= Romantic
Storge= Family?
Agape= The world?
I think there's one other but I can't remember.

We know Spike still cared for his mother after he was sired and we know he felt a great love for Drusilla (the show should've kept them together IMO), I think what soulless vampires don't feel is Agape, they don't care for anyone outside their loved ones. They'd push grannies down stairs because the grannies aren't THEIR Grannies whereas if someone hurt Spike's mother, he would rain hell down upon them whereas Drusilla wouldn't give a toss because it's not her mother. Vampires can feel love, but it's more about them and their loved ones rather than the world as a whole.

I think that's what Buffy means when she says that soulless vampires can't feel love, they can't feel love outside their own little circle, but is also why Drusilla corrects her because vampires CAN feel love, they just can't feel all the types of love that a souled being can..

His idea of love is about passion and possession

I think when it comes to romantic love, there is a hint of possession there anyway even for humans eg people refer to their romantic partner as MY wife/MY Husband/MY Boyfriend/MY Girlfriend etc. Wedding rings are essentially a sign that someone is unavailable for romantic pursuit because they are already taken by someone else. Monogamy is built on the very idea that you belong to someone and they belong to you. Cheating is viewed with scorn and disdain because it is a violation of the whole "you're mine and I'm yours" paradigm. Obviously there are different degrees of possession in romantic relationships and an unhealthy amount of possessiveness turns the relationship into an abusive one but I wouldn't say that Spike showed a possessiveness over Drusilla that was untoward.

 

[Taaroko]

I think vampires can feel love. As Drusilla herself said in Crush, "we can love quite well.....if not wisely".

Whereas pregnant Darla said "I won't be able to love it! I won't even be able to remember that I loved it, and I want to remember!" I would not take the word of a soulless vampire about whether soulless vampires can love, because they are incomplete beings and rather biased in their own favor. Darla is the best authority we have on the emotional capabilities of soulless vampires, because she's been on both sides of it multiple times. Angel also said something to Darla at one point, like "I never loved you. I wasn't capable of it and neither were you." (Not sure that's an exact quote, but it's definitely close.) Spike, on the other hand, is a romantic with a highly subjective view of reality AND a lot of continuity between his pre- and post-soul persona making things blurry, so he might still believe what he thought about love without one.

We know Spike still cared for his mother after he was sired

Turning her into a monster is not evidence of love, it's horrifying. Human William hopefully would've recognized that he was damning her and that what came back wouldn't really be his mother. I think that particular act was the soulless manifestation of the unhealthy level of attachment he felt for his mother in life, not his love for her.

and we know he felt a great love for Drusilla

We only know he felt "affection and jealousy." The Judge would've called it love if that's what it was. (And I say this as a lifelong Spike/Drusilla shipper.)

I think what soulless vampires don't feel is Agape, they don't care for anyone outside their loved ones. They'd push grannies down stairs because the grannies aren't THEIR Grannies whereas if someone hurt Spike's mother, he would rain hell down upon them whereas Drusilla wouldn't give a toss because it's not her mother. Vampires can feel love, but it's more about them and their loved ones rather than the world as a whole.

Then why do vampires tend to kill their loved ones first? I think they can enjoy the company of people who benefit them in some way, but it's always going to be very selfish. Hence Spike's flippant attitude about torturing Dru or manipulating her with a love potion, not to mention that he wanted to stake her as a big show of his devotion to Buffy (but only if Buffy actually appreciated the significance of it).

I think when it comes to romantic love, there is a hint of possession there anyway even for humans eg people refer to their romantic partner as MY wife/MY Husband/MY Boyfriend/MY Girlfriend etc. Wedding rings are essentially a sign that someone is unavailable for romantic pursuit because they are already taken by someone else. Monogamy is built on the very idea that you belong to someone and they belong to you. Cheating is viewed with scorn and disdain because it is a violation of the whole "you're mine and I'm yours" paradigm. Obviously there are different degrees of possession in romantic relationships and an unhealthy amount of possessiveness turns the relationship into an abusive one but I wouldn't say that Spike showed a possessiveness over Drusilla that was untoward.

That's not the kind of possession I'm talking about. Being married is kind of co-ownership of each other, but less in the sense of "you are mine" and much more in the sense of "I am yours". It's more about what you can do for them than what they can give you. It's equal (or should be). Spike, therefore, has it backwards. He wants to possess Dru (and later Buffy) and doesn't care at all how she feels. He sees no problem with *making* her feel the way he thinks she should. It's horrifying. But he's soulless, so that's pretty much what you expect.

 

[TriBel]

They'd push grannies down stairs because the grannies aren't THEIR Grannies whereas if someone hurt Spike's mother, he would rain hell down upon them

To be fair to vampires, my youngest son would do very much the same thing - he has autism. 🙂

 

[Mrs Gordo]

Even Spike says he didn't love Buffy when he was soulless! It seems you gain some perspective after you have a soul....

Of course Buffy doesn't believe him LOL. But OH Well...

 

[Taaroko]

Wow, I really liked the first few panels of that, Spuffy notwithstanding, but the last one made me throw up in my mouth. There was NOT always good in Spike! That is the entire POINT of being soulless! Just because some beings with souls are selfish jerks does not mean that some soulless beings can be good! DOING objectively good things occasionally (and for selfish reasons) is not the same as BEING good! It’s just manipulation, opportunism, and pragmatism! *incoherent noises of frustration*

Man, I’m really glad I’m incapable of seeing the comics as canon.

(Just to be clear, this post is me being baffled at and angry with the comics, not anyone here.)

 

[EarthLogic]

I think now might be the time to redirect this thread to the original discussion... 😉

 

[Mrs Gordo]

I think the biggest surprise of this poll has been the support for Dangel despite the name from Bangel folks. I never bothered much for the pairing but I am surprised to see the support for it. I can't help but wonder if they had continued to develop the relationship into something more along the lines of Spuffy if people would still feel as strongly about the pairing.

I'm not surprised by the Cangel dislike but I wonder if any Bangel folks out there root for Cangel if so speak up! I would love to hear that perspective.

 

[EarthLogic]

Oh @TriBel in case the tone of my karma message didn't come across correctly, I'll add a jokey smiley 😛
 

I think the biggest surprise of this poll has been the support for Dangel despite the name from Bangel folks. I never bothered much for the pairing but I am surprised to see the support for it. I can't help but wonder if they had continued to develop the relationship into something more along the lines of Spuffy if people would still feel as strongly about the pairing.

I'm not surprised by the Cangel dislike but I wonder if any Bangel folks out there root for Cangel if so speak up! I would love to hear that perspective.

I think Darla's story ended perfectly. It works because it wasn't drawn out any more than it needed to be, and I wouldn't want it any other way. As I said above, I personally don't consider it a 'pairing' in the same way as the others, though perhaps there are those who might.