Well he did try to kill them - so you know...less forgiving.
Same with Faith, Willow was never oooh ahhh to jump at the chance to save Faith - she always expressed dislike for her.
Not right away. She only started to dislike Faith after learning that she used Xander for her own sexual purposes.
No one really gave Faith a real fighting chance after the whole killing thing. There was way more support for Angel, and to be honest I'm not sure why. The only one who never appreciated Angel was Xander.
Angel was given more support because he worked side-by-side with the Scooby gang. He was always there to provide a helping hand and put himself on the line. He was a team player mostly. Faith was not. She had her own agenda, even when she wasn't evil - to do her own thing. She surrounded herself with people, but never let them in. She brought all that on herself.
What we are trying to say is that Faith was scared - the line "I DON'T CARE" riddled with fear, otherwise she wouldn't have pinned the whole thing on Buffy.
You can't let fear rule your life. Angel didn't. He didn't allow himself to live in the fear of how to redeem himself even though he'd done so much damage. Yeah, he might have 'brooded' but to me, that's reflection. That's the only way you can learn from your mistakes, reflecting on them.
Angel couldn't feel that when he was on his killing spree and when he got his soul back he was justified in feeling guilty, sure. But 100 years of doing nothing but sitting on your keister is not the best way of helping yourself or the world. And since when did Atonement include Brooding anyways? Please...Faith made a solid choice to come back to the town that basically kicked her out to do some greater good. I think you have to agree there's some nobility on a level that i think we should all agree to.
Angel returned to Sunnydale plenty times. And your statement about sitting on your 'kiester' not helping yourself or the world. Last I checked, Faith was rotting in jail before breaking out. Sitting in jail doing nothing is 'sitting on your kiester', isn't it? She wasn't helping anyone in jail. If she wouldn't have broken out, she would still be there,
rotting.
The fact of the matter is thinking about it now when fighting the greater good there were people backing their play. Angel alone - not a good combo because he's all about making things worse when he's alone (season 2 prior to Epiphany). Faith on her own, well, she's on her own in prison making good choices, staying out of harms way the best way she can...but really we can't say how she would take by herself because we've never seen her alone. I mean really - she was with the scoobies, then she was with the mayor. The only time we've seen her alone is in prison.
Angel chose to be alone because he couldn't handle other people. He needed silent time. Everyone, no matter good or evil, needs some time to themselves. With Faith, she really couldn't be alone. As seen by her streak of loser boyfriends she discussed on the show and jumping from group to group, she can't handle being alone. She can't fully deal with herself and what she has gone through on her own. That shows weakness.
I still think that Faith holds more merit for atonement because she is actively seeking it out. Prison was an active way to seek it out - and I'd love to know what's on her radar now that she closed the hellmouth...maybe that will be the real ticker - did she go back to prison? who knows right?
What has shown you that Angel isn't actively seeking it out? Are we watching the same show?
🙂
As for Angel - he fought side by side with Spike & an Ancient God to stop the Apocalypse, surely a mighty feat. But when the chips are down and he's alone, there's not much he's doing right in the ways of atonement - brooding is not atoning. And Faith is constantly working to find her place in the righteousness of the world - back my play Lyri? Angels Baby101?
I just have a problem with your opinion of Angel. He has spent
decades dealing with his problem and keeping himself on the straight and narrow. Faith has spent a couple of months (i'm only counting her return to sunnydale - her rotting in jail does not count for me, that is considered defeat in my opinion, because she didn't go to jail to atone, she went because she really had no choice).
I think that to further this conversation, some of us need to remind of ourselves that Angel is not just sitting on his butt. Rewatch the entire series of Angel and get a better viewpoint of what he has done in the way of good.
(my point is, in case you're missing it, is that Angel
is actively seeking out redemption. )
