Most boring ships on both BTVS/Angel

[Nev1estev1e]

Buffy/Spike If it really even is a relationship. Buffy's depressed, so she uses Spike, Spike's staved for attention, and "loves" Buffy, and Xander gets humiliated too. The most awful relationship that I have ever heard of.
Buffy/Riley Really Buffy? First Angel, and now the king of chumps, Riley. need I say more?
Willow/ Kennedy Personally, I couldn't get over Tara, but no, Willow needs someone otherwise she turns into season 1 Willow, that is, pathetic. Kennedy is a bad character for the Buffyverse. Really bad. I mean, she is so harsh and argumentative. Willow cannot be attracted to both Tara and Kennedy.

 

[Marisa]

Since I have watched the shows so many times and eventually all the ships that are boring come bearable to me this is an interesting question.

I would say
Gunn/Fred
Buffy/Riley (kind of since I knew it wasn't going anywhere)
Willow/Kennedy
Willow/Tara (at times but I like them)
Angel/Nina

 

[Himiko]

Wesley/ Fred is one that never sat right with me. I actually quite enjoyed Fred/ Gunn- I thought they were a sweet couple, though I thought the way that their relationship ended was believable. But I felt like Fred/ Wesley as a possibility should have ended in S4- it kind of seemed like it was going to, and then Season 5 happens, and suddenly Wesley is back making puppy dog eyes at Fred. It just dragged on, and on, and on, and the only times there seemed to be a genuine attraction between them (that is to say, Fred reciprocating Wesley's feelings) were when her relationship with Gunn was in freefall and they were facing an apocalypse, and then again in S5 when at some indeterminate point before or during "Smile Time", Fred suddenly realises that Wesley is absolutely THE ONE for her. Kind of felt like they wanted to pair her up for maximum teariness when she died, but I never really felt invested or interested in their relationship.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

The most obvious thing in the Whedonverse is that all relationships are DOOMED.

It gets to the point that if you see a relationship starting, you are already trying to determine how it is going to implode - will it be another lover, a death of one of the characters, failing to go through with it, dismissing it, being deceived, failure to get the critical mass to keep it going, opting out because of the damage it would cause? Happily-ever-after does not seem to be an option. Having a relationship go supernova then collapsing into a neutron star or black hole is standard Whedonverse fare.

Every ship sinks in the Whedonverse.

What would be a surprise is for a relationship to start, continue and go well. But the lack of drama would not serve the story as well as a spectacular termination.

 

[AnthonyCordova]

I've narrowed it down to three:

Oz and Willow do absolutely nothing for me.
Willow and Kennedy (it feels utterly contrived, sorry. NO chemistry whatsoever.).
Gunn and Fred (at points not believable, particularly with how it started. And theirs was really prosaic to me.).

 

[thetopher]

If we're talking boring relationships which I see no point to...

Willow/Kennedy: No chemistry, one of them was obnoxious, the other character I'd stopped recognising for about a year. 🙁

Spike/Buffy- In S7, it's so overrought. 'Kill me Buffy', 'He has a soul now!' 'I believe in you!' 'No, I believe in you!' repeat as needed until he dies. Boring.

Faith/Wood- The very definition of lazy writing. 'The show is ending so who haven't we hooked up yet? Oh, these two...

Man, I've just realised that these are all S7...

Anya/Xander- Sorry, but this relationship was boring, predictable and was to the detriment of Xander's character from S5 onwards.

Fred/Gunn- after the intial surprise value of it I was bored by the end of Angel S3. And even after that it took ages for Fred to get together with Wesley...🙁

Cordy/Grue- Snore.

Buffy/Riley- It was nice, Buffy needed a non-vampire relationship with a relativly normal bloke, but boy was it boring. And a lot of it was Riley line deliveries. 🙁

 

[Fuffy Baith]

I'm going to skip over relationships that only had like 3 episodes or less, because I didn't expect them to be good anyways.

Anya/Xander- I like the characters separately, but not together. I never really believed that they were in love. And Xander's character became all about Anya, which was annoying.

Buffy/Spike S7-Not a Spuffy fan but in season 7 especially, I'm really over it. Until the scene in Touched which was awesome, but then Angel comes back and ruins it.

Willow/Kennedy-Not only do I not like Kennedy, but her and Willow are boring and I just don't care. They try to make us care with The Killer In Me and Touched where they have sex. But Kennedy is boring and I don't see that Willow is all into her.

 

[Doppelgang]

I found Willow/Kennedy as much annoying at first and then followed by boredom, it was cringe-worthy to watch for me as it was just not real at all, but just felt contrived.

In agreement with many others on here also I have to say season 7 Spike and Buffy. They didn't have the same spark. It was like it became a duty for them to be together, rather than something they felt inside. It had some good moments, but I suppose after the rape incident at end of season 6, it was always going to be difficult to recapture something pure in their relationship as this was a really horrible experience for Buffy. And for Spike also I imagine in retrospect with the shame he would have felt.

Buffy and Riley was just too much a case of the clichéd, girl and the jock relationship. I'm sure these kind of relationships are very common and very real, but they are also just very predictable and hence boring to my mind. There was a bit more of an edge to the Buffy/Riley relationship in season 5 however that did make it a bit more interesting for a short while.

If I could give an opposite example: it was only one episode and only because their memories were erased, but the Anya/Giles relationship during Tabula Rasa, they go through basically through most stages of a relationship in quick succession and it is very funny and entertaining 😀

 

[bespangeled]

Willow/Kennedy - there was no inkling ever that Willow liked brash controlling brats

Buffy/Angel - season 3 - 2nd half. I kinda found Buffy/Angel predictable but Sarah and David made it more than the writing offered them.

Buffy/Riley - he was a Nazi at first and then way too high maintenance and self centered

Xander/Anya - part of how they misused Anya who could have been a powerful character but she was turned into a joke

Angel/Nina - put in so they could show Angel is not a eunuch

Angel/Cordy - love their interaction early on and this could have been a good pairing but it wasn't. I freakin hated the word kyrumption

Fred/Gunn - zero chemistry, zero character growth

Fred/Wesley - Fred was a fantasy to him though I suspect they could have made a go of it

And - for the win - Cordelia/Connor no matter what the rationale is!

 

[ladydorotea]

Well, it appears that this thread has turned into yet another shipper 'cold war' one. Guilty as charged, but listing all the ships in the verse that you don't like as 'boring' without even trying for a bit of rationalization is kinda funny. So, yeah, I got it that to one side in this debate the only ships that are 'not boring' are the kinky/smutty ones. Point made.

 

[white avenger]

Angel/Nina: It wasn't that it was totally bad, but I just couldn't care about it. They introduce a new love interest for Angel in the last season of the show, only have her in about four or five episodes tops, then have Cordy come back midway through season. At the end of the season, Angel goes back to Sunnydale for Buffy. If they were trying to get fans to invest in Nina, they failed pretty badly.

I know that it's kinda late to comment on this, but, the way you're saying it, it seems to me like you're saying that Angel went back to Sunnydale after he met Nina. When he went back to Sunnydale, Nina hadn't even been introduced yet, and at the end of Angel's Season 5, Angel goes to Hell with all of the rest of LA. Technically, I guess, he DOES go looking for Buffy after returning from hell, but not quite in a "Honey, I'm home," sort of way, and he doesn't look for her in Sunnydale, because, by that time, Sunnydale is a crater, not a town.

 

[Robb Stark]

I know that it's kinda late to comment on this, but, the way you're saying it, it seems to me like you're saying that Angel went back to Sunnydale after he met Nina. When he went back to Sunnydale, Nina hadn't even been introduced yet, and at the end of Angel's Season 5, Angel goes to Hell with all of the rest of LA. Technically, I guess, he DOES go looking for Buffy after returning from hell, but not quite in a "Honey, I'm home," sort of way, and he doesn't look for her in Sunnydale, because, by that time, Sunnydale is a crater, not a town.

That post was made a while ago, but if I remember correctly I believe I was referring to Angel and Spike going off to find Buffy in "The Girl in Question". Even still, Angel's appearance in "Chosen" still plays into my point. I just found it very odd that their selected way of introducing a new love interest for the series lead was to have her only appear in very few episodes, have nothing whatsoever to do with the final plot, have a tremendously touching and sad resolution with Angel's most recent romantic interest in Cordy, then have it made explicitly clear that he's not over Buffy either. The season begins with lingering thoughts of Angel and Buffy in "Chosen", then Cordy is brought back for "You're welcome" where Nina isn't even mentioned, then Buffy is reinforced again in TGIQ. Tough to care about a completely new character as a romantic possibility with that kind of build.

I had the same problem with Buffy and Riley in S4 of BTVS. They start progressing a bit, then Buffy crosses over to AtS in IWRY and has one of the most romantic and tragic appearances in television history, where it's made very, very clear that Buffy and Angel are still in love so much it hurts. Then Buffy returns to Sunnydale the next week and is making goo-goo eyes at Riley. All that served to do was make the budding Buffy/Riley romance completely flat (although I do like them in "Hush"). Why should I care about Riley when the show makes it blatantly apparent that she's still deeply in love with Angel? Why should I care about Nina when the show makes it blatantly apparent that Angel is still in love with both Cordy and Buffy? You know what I mean?

 

[AnthonyCordova]

I agree [MENTION=11975]Robb Stark[/MENTION]. The way I chose to look at it was that the entire Nina thing was less about Nina or a serious new Nina/Angel relationship than it was simply to show Angel dealing with his general reluctance to date anymore (because of things like his curse). It was just an opportunity for Angel to reassess and readdress that issue, which had been up in the air for awhile. That hadn't been resolved with Cordy either. It was about to become an issue, but then Cordy disappeared, and then later came back evil etc. and the issue about dating again never became a possibility. Then she comes back in S5 and they kiss and she disappears, but the issue of whether Angel could form an intimate relationship again (or if he could feel comfortable doing so) was never a possibility.

He still felt things for Buffy obviously (he always will), but to me at least (at that point, without having read the comics yet) it felt like the Buffy ship had definitely sailed for good. I'm not sure I'm expressing my thoughts clearly enough to be understood, but the Nina thing was simply to get Angel to resolve his general aversion for intimacy. He obviously needs intimacy and wants it, but at that point he'd also convinced himself it wasn't possible (his work fighting evil, his curse, etc.) The Nina relationship might nigh never have worked out in a long term sense, but maybe that was never the point. The purpose of his new relationship with Nina might have only been to get Angel to be comfortable with the idea of getting back on the horse, so to speak...to address what had become a lingering unresolved issue. That might have been the only point of Nina. She might have just been a convenient tool/vehicle for the writers to come back to that issue, especially if they still didn't know that S5 would be the last season yet.

I've had a brief relationship once (a long time ago) that kind of served a similar purpose for me. It was never really going to last, but i needed it anyway and it was valuable and helped me get over certain things that had grown unabated and unresolved in my psyche.

 

[thetopher]

Good point.

I think the whole Nina thing was to show that Angel, like Buffy, could have a, relatively, normal, angst-free relationship with somebody else.

It didn't have to be dramatic or tragic or anything that intense- (like it was with Buffy, or Darla, or Cordelia.) it could be just two people who happen to attracted to each other making each other happy. 🙂

 

[white avenger]

That post was made a while ago, but if I remember correctly I believe I was referring to Angel and Spike going off to find Buffy in "The Girl in Question". Even still, Angel's appearance in "Chosen" still plays into my point. I just found it very odd that their selected way of introducing a new love interest for the series lead was to have her only appear in very few episodes, have nothing whatsoever to do with the final plot, have a tremendously touching and sad resolution with Angel's most recent romantic interest in Cordy, then have it made explicitly clear that he's not over Buffy either. The season begins with lingering thoughts of Angel and Buffy in "Chosen", then Cordy is brought back for "You're welcome" where Nina isn't even mentioned, then Buffy is reinforced again in TGIQ. Tough to care about a completely new character as a romantic possibility with that kind of build.

No problem, I just couldn't figure out your time line. And, I agree, Nina seemed to be introduced pretty much as an after thought way too far into the season to really develop into anything more than a set up for something that might, or might not, actually happen the next season (It's my understanding that Joss was thinking about bringing Oz back in Season 6, to teach her how to control her changes but, obviously, that never happened) Course, we'll never know now, but I may be one of the half dozen people in the entire fandom who actually liked Nina and thought that her character could have been an asset to Angel's gang.

 

[ladydorotea]

I think the whole Nina thing was to show that Angel, like Buffy, could have a, relatively, normal, angst-free relationship with somebody else.

It didn't have to be dramatic or tragic or anything that intense- (like it was with Buffy, or Darla, or Cordelia.) it could be just two people who happen to attracted to each other making each other happy. 🙂

Funny thing is, it might have been intended as 'to show that Angel could have', but at some point in time the story made a U-turn and demonstrated that no, Angel (like Buffy) could NOT have a normal, angst-free relationship with somebody else. Every 'normal relationship' of his either becomes angst-personified (Cordy vs Connor anyone ?) or fizzles like Nina. (Same pattern applies to Buffy. Briley turns into angst, everything else fizzles (comics - Satsu, Dowling).

For me Angel -Nina actually was not boring, it was puzzling at first, but I appreciated it for its Cangel rebound value.

 

[The Bronze]

Angel came to the very sensible realisation that he's in no position to have a realtionship with anybody when he left Buffy. He's a vampire so regular stuff like picnics, beach trips etc are out of the question. Long term stuff like children and aging at different rates are an issue. Most importantly he's cursed and could turn into Angelus given the right set of circumstances. That means he can't responsibly have sex with a partner and in all honesty it could be set of by something else once he's in a happy relationship.

It's harsh on him but until he can change his circumstances a relationship just isn't an option.

 

[white avenger]

Angel came to the very sensible realisation that he's in no position to have a realtionship with anybody when he left Buffy. He's a vampire so regular stuff like picnics, beach trips etc are out of the question. Long term stuff like children and aging at different rates are an issue. Most importantly he's cursed and could turn into Angelus given the right set of circumstances. That means he can't responsibly have sex with a partner and in all honesty it could be set of by something else once he's in a happy relationship.

It's harsh on him but until he can change his circumstances a relationship just isn't an option.

Angel doesn't have to change his circumstances, he just has to learn how to live within them. He can start by finding some girl who's a lot of fun to be around, who has no problem with a "friends with benefits" type relationship, and whose hobby is spelunking. All his cares are over.