Cordelia near the end

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Hale Caesar

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How do you feel about Cordelia in her last couple seasons on the show? Specifically season 4 & 5?

I was really pissed off. Cordelia has always been a character who excelled and stood out despite her small role on Buffy, then when she went to Angel she became, in my opinion, a more interesting character than most of the Scoobies. She was great in the first 3 seasons, and then in season 4 and 5 she got ripped apart.

I like that "Your Welcome" gave her character closure...but this is Cordelia! She deserved a more epic death than being put in some lame-ass coma by Jasmine. If she was going to die I wanted her death to be as grand as Buffy's was in "The Gift", because she earned it. "Your Welcome" was sad to watch, since I felt she should have never died the way she did and Cordelia deserved more than one episode to tell her final story

I know there was a lot of behind the scenes drama (which I hope someone can explain), but I felt one of the greatest characters in the Buffyverse never got a proper send off.
 
M
Ms.Trick
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I remember at the time S4 aired reading something about the show not bring Cordy back, even for her big death scene, and I know Charisma didn't want to come back if it was only going to be for Cordy's death. But then she read the script for 'You're Welcome' and couldn't say no.

The story about the behind the scenes stuff goes like this. (Or at least, this is what I've heard)

Charisma was pregnant at the start of filming S4. Now, we ALL know that Joss has EVERYTHING planned out well in advance, and S4 was obviously well past planning when they were filming. The story goes that there wasn't supposed to be a Jasmine arc. Cordy was going to be the sole Big Bad of S4, and the finale would have been a huge fight between her and Angel.

Charisma being pregnant, obviously she couldn't do the stunts that would be needed for an evil character like that.

But instead of telling them right off the bat that she was pregnant, Charisma kept it to herself until WAY past the time the writers could do anything about it. Now, I understand that moms-to-be don't like to tempt fate by telling people too soon, so I don't know how long Charisma waited before she fessed up, but it was clearly too long.

The writers had to hastily change the plot for S4, giving Charisma time off for maternity leave, and that's where Jasmine came in, and that's the reason why the back half of S4 feels so off.

I really don't know who's to blame here, but Joss and Co. obviously found fault with Charisma and decided to let her go. I think it was fan reaction that persuaded them to bring her back for that one episode.

I adore 'You're Welcome', but in saying that, there was a HUGE gap left in the show by the absence of Cordelia. The final battle at the end SHOULD have had Cordy there. She was such a huge part of Angel's life, some might argue a bigger part than Buffy, and for her not to be by his side as he faced what could have been his final fight ever, let's just say it hurt. A lot.
 
H
Hale Caesar
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^^ That's very interesting. This panel is Charisma giving her side of the story, which is she basically got lied to. They told her she wasn't coming back to die...and that's exactly what they did, but then she ended up liking the script lol.

I think there was defiantly some bad blood about the pregnancy, which is why (I assume) they didn't bring her back for season 5. And is probably a huge reason why they brought Spike in instead.

I can't be mad at Joss either. Season 4 was f*cking epic. The Apocalypse, the Beast, Faith and Angelus all in 22 episodes? Plus Cordy as the Big Bad? This season sounded AMAZING, and it was clear Joss was not holding back. I can understand that Joss is upset that his season had to end on such a bad (and random) note.

But, Cordelia had been so important, I still think they should have found a way to put her in season 5. Of course, i'm just sitting behind my computer saying it, and there must have been many more factors that prevented it from happening.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L9HXYPjAZo[/ame]
 
I didn't like what they did to Cordy in season 4, but I think that her death was well done and made up for a little bit of what they did to her.
 
I loved Cordelia from the minute she landed on AtS, so cute and funny and fun. And I continued loving her (even more) throughout the series. Until one day..... season 4 came on. And there was darkness. I feared. All of a sudden, while wandering around the blackness, I screamed: "why did you do it to my Cordy??" Long story short, after falling in love with Cordelia, they ruined her. completely. Thank god she guessed appeared in season 5, to fix what was wrecked. So the show ended with me loving her. It would have been so bad if she hadn't returned to fix what was ruined in her character.
 
P
prophecygrrl
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So I also heard that she wanted to come back in season 5, but not to do so many episodes or something, because she had the baby. It seemed like Joss was like all or nothing, so she is only in the 1 ep.

Yes, I'm very disappointed in the whole thing. I'm sure there's some blame on Charisma's part for not informing Joss of the pregnancy, but I think he could've handled the whole thing better.

And how weird is it to watch that video and see Amber, Emma and Charisma next to each other- all 3 whose characters were killed off by Whedon?!
 
Cordelia is my favorite character on Btvs and Angel, but I was disappointed how her character was handled in season 4. I didn't the whole Jasmine arc or the Cordy/Connor scenes, and I thought her character was ruined. And as much as I loved You're Welcome, I really don't see why she needed to die and I wanted her to be back on the show because season 5 felt empty without her.
 
I like Cordy but honestly, in s5, I didn't miss her at all... not sure why, I just didn't feel that void that others talk about. I was kind of glad to see her gone after s4 actually so if anything it was a well-needed breather for me to learn to like the character again and to be able to appreciate something like "You're welcome"
 
I love Cordy and think she is one of the top female characters of both shows. I however do like how her story was and ended. We got a nice goodbye in season five. I missed her in season five but I liked the new vibe with Spike. Plus her being gone and coming back for that one episode made me cherish her even more.

Now Jasmine really irked me and everything but it was still a great season. I don't mind Cordy being the Coma as much because if you look at it she was kind of peaceful and we got your welcome. After seeing some of the other characters death it is good to see how Cordy went out in a way, in her own way.

Overall Cordy will always be my favorite girl and she was so well written did I miss her in season five? Yes but I think it was okay that she was gone.
 
I love Cordy and for me she died in S3 the character in S4 was not the Cordy we had all grown to love and that really bugged me. Angel wasnt the same without her and I dont care how good an episode Your Welcome was she deserved such a better send off than that, you could tell they were just trying to get rid of the character! Can you tell this is a touchy subject for me lol
 
Cordy's one of my favorite characters and I absolutely hated her arc in Season 4. The way I heard it from Charisma's side, she found out she was pregnant when it was too late to change the overall plot. There's rumors over who's to blame and who's mad at whom, but Charisma hiding her pregnancy doesn't really make much sense to me given what she knew about the demands of her job. Obviously I don't know everything that went down, but the whole deal just seemed to be handled badly. Charisma's spoken at cons before about this and how she found out she wasn't coming back for Season 5 from a press release, of all things. Ugh.

I'm a little curious about how the season may have gone if Charisma hadn't been pregnant, but I'm not totally impressed with the story. Cordelia coming back with some idealist-apocalyptic agenda just doesn't sound like it fits with her character, and I don't know how much it would've added to the overall message of the show. I never thought I'd say this, but I think I prefer Jasmine. Sans the gross Cordy/Connor thing.
 
Lyri said:
But instead of telling them right off the bat that she was pregnant, Charisma kept it to herself until WAY past the time the writers could do anything about it. Now, I understand that moms-to-be don't like to tempt fate by telling people too soon, so I don't know how long Charisma waited before she fessed up, but it was clearly too long.
Click to expand...

I've heard it told that Charisma actually lost a baby during the previous season (remember how she just suddenly went off with Groo for a couple eps and missed Connor's abduction?). If that is the case then I have nothing but understanding about why she kept it a secret for so long. Like you said, mothers don't like to tempt fate. Especially in Charisma's situation.
 
nightshade
nightshade
I remember hearing something like that as well
With Joss being the big poster boy for feminism, I'm quite disappointed if it is true that if reacted so badly to one of his employees being pregnant. Talkin' the talk ain't enough.
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I liked how Cordy started out in season 4 with having no memory and suddenly being able to kick butt in a fight. But it all went downhill after she slept with Connor. It cheapened her character and it was like they had taken a step back with her. I think her storyline could have been rewritten a lot better than how it was eventually played out.
 
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