My perspective on the TV Era is one that was always filtered through my interest in the mythic connections, metaphor,social,political dynamics and the psychological elements in the stories. My interest in the surface romance is actually not what I found compelling about the series.
I can't discuss the "romance" of Buffy and Angel because I never viewed it as story of romance and love separate from the above mentioned parameters.
But I would love to hear your thoughts about the relationships -
I see the relationships in BtVS (and AtS) simply as part of the overall story. They aren't the main reason for watching, unlike some other vampire stories out there ::cough:: Twilight ::cough::, but they are enjoyable and entertaining to watch, at least for me.
The relationships in the Buffyverse also affect how the characters think, act, and make decisions, which then affects other story arcs. For example, Buffy's relationship with Angel triggered the story of the curse and Angel becoming Angelus. It also caused Buffy to feel so devastated when she had to kill him, and later move to LA. On the flip side, Buffy's relationship with Spike triggered the story of Spike wanting to be good. It also led to Buffy choosing Spike to wear the amulet for the final battle. I guess my point is that a lot of what Buffy does can relate back to her relationship with either Angel or Spike, which then has an impact on the main plotline. If there's romance along the way, then I'm all for it (more so with Spuffy than Bangel
😀). I'm a hopeless romantic at heart
🙂
What I have found however, with all the years that I have been involved with the Buffyverse, is that there are a wide range of interpretations and levels of interest in the series, from the high academia to viewers who enjoyed the series without all the analysis or particular interest in all the difficult questions and themes of the series.
Although I'm still relatively new to the Buffyverse, I agree that there are many ways to interpret and view the series. I studied film and TV in college, so trust me on that, lol. I just choose to talk more about the relationships at times because it's fun
😀
As an example - I can never just see Angel as a male who loved Buffy. It is a fundamental question for me of - why would an older male and the vampire of his age be interested in such a young girl? What is of extreme importance to me regarding the difference in age and life experience is vital, but to viewers who were big fans of their relationship, as I suspect for current fans, it is of very little importance. We start from fundamnetally different positions.
Based on the story we're given, Angel was interested in Buffy (a girl technically younger than him) because he knew how alone she would be and feel as the slayer. He didn't want that for an innocent girl. He was lost ever since getting his soul back, but was inspired by Buffy to reform. With the age difference, I remember Joss saying (from YouTube) that Buffy wasn't a little girl when she fell in love with Angel. She was a slayer for a while, so that made her more mature than other girls her age. She was at an age when she could fall in love with someone like Angel. That's also one of the reasons why I don't necessarily believe both Buffy and Angel had to mature and experience other things before getting back together.
For me, although it is creepy and technically illegal that an older vampire would want to help a 16 year-old girl, the age thing really wasn't a crucial aspect to their relationship. It was the fact that Buffy fell in love with a vampire and a vampire fell in love with a slayer.
Another element of the show is the depiction of Buffy in the school girl persona. Buffy is treated with two extremely different faces - we have the "young teen girl" that is shown as interested in "boy friends" and "dating" and "early teen sex" while the other face of Buffy is treated as a much older young woman. It was like seeing two different characters and the changes from one to the other, I found only emphasised more the extreme differences of age and life between the two.
Isn't that what a young teenage girl goes through though? She's interested in all these new things, like dating and having fun, but at the same time, she has responsibilities. She needs to start acting like a woman. For Buffy, her responsibilities included being the slayer, not just getting her homework done and chores around the house. I guess it's not that far of a stretch for me to see two different sides of Buffy in her school girl days.
What is the tragic Buffy manifestation of this "unconditional love" - her inability to kill her boy friend Angel even as he was killing innocent people every night. Kendra was killed because Buffy with her life experience simply was unprepared emotionally and intellectually to deal with the extremes of this relationship.
I agree that Buffy was unprepared to deal with Angelus, since no one saw it coming. However, it was difficult for Buffy to immediately switch off her feelings for Angel, especially after she just lost her virginity to him. She wanted to believe that there was still some part of Angel left inside Angelus that could fight and come back. Unfortunately, when Angelus took over, Angel was gone.
Although he was a vampire, Angel was the first person Buffy really romantically loved. And it was the same thing for Angel. There wasn't a girl he truly loved before being sired, and Angelus loved Darla more so than Angel. So, when I say Buffy and Angel's love was pure, it's because the foundation of their relationship was based on pure, innocent, and mutual first love.
The whole point of the Acathla Cycle was to prepare Buffy for her trial and "rite of passage." Getting back to perspectives, this entire arc for me is primarily view from the hero in myth - there could be no other resolution to this arc. If Buffy was ever going to "Become" the full embodiment of the Slayer/Heroine, it is absolutely necessary that understand and accept what her duty and life as The Slayer required.
Thing is Buffy wasn't the typical hero, or slayer for that matter. She didn't abandon her family once she became the slayer, like Kendra. She didn't fight vampires alone. She defied destiny, fate, and what she was expected to do time and again. With the Acathla Cycle, Buffy made the difficult decision to kill re-ensouled Angel in order to save the world. By making that decision, she understood her slayer duties, although it caused her heartache. People are often faced with situations where an immediate decision is needed. Although their decision is the right one and ultimately heroic, it doesn't always mean it was the easy choice.
