The Vamp!Riley thread got me thinking about this:
You know how Buffy always knows when vamps are vamps, EXCEPT when it's Angel? Why is that?
You know how Buffy always knows when vamps are vamps, EXCEPT when it's Angel? Why is that?
Buffy Recognizing Vampires
- Thread starter Buffy Summers
- Start date
Still a Scoobie
Nocturnal Lurker
I always sort of thought it was the soul thing. And then when he hasn't got a soul she already knows he's a vampire, so that's why she doesn't immediately realise what's different about him.
BuffyElevated
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thetopher
Member of the Church Of Faith
'Cause she went all googley-eyed when she first met him and it threw her. 🙂
'Tall, dark, gorgeous in an annoying sort of way.' she says to Giles after her first meeting with Angel.
'Tall, dark, gorgeous in an annoying sort of way.' she says to Giles after her first meeting with Angel.
BuffyElevated
Scooby
Good theory... That may be why her Slayer senses didn't tingle when she met Angel for the first time.
white avenger
white avenger
In the original movie, the Slayer got something like stomach cramps when she was near a vampire ("Are you telling me that my secret weapon is PMS?") and when she first came to Sunnydale, Buffy was able to spot a vampire because his clothes were out of fashion. I don't recall there being any actual mention of her having an actual vamp recognition power, but I just always thought that it was more trained observation than anything else. Plus, the crawling out of fresh graves was pretty much a dead giveaway.
As for why she never could recognize Angel as being a vampire, I think that it's mainly simply because he didn't act like any other vampire that she had ever met. He fooled her.
That, or maybe she was just so surprised by that velvet sport coat that she totally missed thefact.
As for why she never could recognize Angel as being a vampire, I think that it's mainly simply because he didn't act like any other vampire that she had ever met. He fooled her.
That, or maybe she was just so surprised by that velvet sport coat that she totally missed thefact.
brinkster130
Riley's BFF
BuffyElevated
Scooby
Very true; Angel was always very different from any of the other vampires Buffy had ever met. And LMFAO @ the velvet coat comment. 😉
bespangeled
Scooby
That's what I was gonna say. She met Angel early on - and he had both some degree of dress sense and good hygiene - and he gave her a cross.
I think by the time she got tinglies, or cramps, or whatever, she already knew he was a vampire with a soul. Hello, salty goodness!
Remember when Tara could sense that Buffy wasn't Buffy, and knew that Faith had taken over her body 'cos her chi was off, or something?
Maybe that's how it works with Buffy, despite being a demon, Angel has a human body, and the demon takes over it, disrupting the chi. Maybe when Angel got his soul back, it corrected his chi, making him immune to Buffy's extra sense
Maybe that's how it works with Buffy, despite being a demon, Angel has a human body, and the demon takes over it, disrupting the chi. Maybe when Angel got his soul back, it corrected his chi, making him immune to Buffy's extra sense
white avenger
white avenger
But if she could somehow sense the difference in Angel's chi because he had a soul, why wouldn't she have noticed that it was gone after she slept with him in Season 2, and why wouldn't she have sensed it immediately when Spike first returned in Season 7?
Then, of course, to answer my own question, maybe at those times, she saw Angel or Spike without actually "looking" at them, simply seeing what she always had in both men.
BuffyElevated
Scooby
Good point about Season 2... And I think maybe it's more about what you said last, about her seeing them without actually "looking" at them. If the was the soul that made them different, she should have been able to sense that about Spike in Season 7.