The Introduction of Two Cordelia Replacements

hoponlilmama

hoponlilmama

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I'm not sure if I've popped this into the right section of the forum as it may turn more into a character study.

Season 4 saw the loss of Cordelia on BTVS. We essentially end up with two replacements for her. James brought back because he was popular and could step into Cordy's shoes, and Emma was supposed to be a short-lived character on the series during season 3, but JW (I believe?) ended up liking her and kept her on.

So now we have two characters who fill that void, making biting and funny comments.

Do you think the writers dropped the ball here, particularly with Anya? After deciding to keep her on the series, I think she should've had more character development. She was mostly painted as Xander's girlfriend, who made inappropriate/comical sexual comments.

Should one of them have been dumped from the series? Or did they both have their place and purpose on BTVS?
 
Spike was good in season four and did add to it. However, once he had betrayed everyone in "Primeval", he should at the very least been run out of town (as I know you agree!), especially as this started up a cycle of Spike doing bad things, usually to Buffy, and not paying any price for it.

Anya could definitely have had more character development. She had a wealth of knowledge about history, magic and demons, albeit this was demon knowledge crammed into a now-human head which would have caused a massive emotional disconnect and perhaps issues with remembering. Thanks to that knowledge, the Scoobies discovered just what the Mayor was, a passing remark led to Buffy discovering what Dawn was and merely glancing at a receipt resulted in Anya putting together the fact that Glory was making a giant smoke monster in a couple of seconds, which Giles, Tara and Willow took a couple of minutes to work out together. She also played a major role in defeating Glory, immediately when put on the spot suggesting Olaf's Hammer and the Orb of Dagon to use against Glory.

Perhaps the problem was that using Anya's knowledge to its full extent could make a walking plot breaker. And could fill to a degree the roles of Willow, Tara and Giles.
 
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I always viewed Spike as more of an Angel replacement i.e. someone supernatural who could fight besides Buffy. Sure Spike makes 'biting' comments that Angel never made, but they could have had Anya do that one too, hell sometimes she did do just that because she lacked the same amount of tact Cordelia did, whereas let's not forget Xander was also doing the funny/sarcastic comment thing too. And that 'Angel replacement' in the series was before Spike became Buffy's new 'lover' and got a soul. Spike should have probably been removed, if not dusted, when he betrayed the scoobies at the end of season four but what's done is done.

Anya was always going to pose a problem. We know what happened when she was underutilized but as NotASlayer pointed out if she is overutilized she is a plot breaker that might be despised for that reason. Giles was, honestly. almost a step removed from being obsolete as it was and that would have left Willow and Tara as just the witches.
 
The series lost seven characters between Graduation and Thanksgiving, Cordie was hardly the most important.
 
I didn't think Spike worked so well as the new Cordy in S4. The reasons started to seem awkward that he was hanging around. If he had stayed that way, I think it would have worked less well than Anya.

As for Anya, I liked when she was given more depth later on, but I don't think I would have wanted her character development to take focus away from the others. I think she continued to have a place in the show, though.
 
Stake fodder said:
I didn't think Spike worked so well as the new Cordy in S4. The reasons started to seem awkward that he was hanging around. If he had stayed that way, I think it would have worked less well than Anya.
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When you think about it, Spike is 126 years old. Does seem odd he'd hang out with people he still hates and wants to kill. Not like the Scoobies were going to help him get the chip removed. 🤣
Sure, there was incentive to lurk about because Giles was giving him money, but he's been shown to be able to collect cash with other methods.


NotASlayer said:
Spike was good in season four and did add to it. However, once he had betrayed everyone in "Primeval", he should at the very least been run out of town (as I know you agree!), especially as this started up a cycle of Spike doing bad things, usually to Buffy, and not paying any price for it.
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Definitely agree!
NotASlayer said:
Anya could definitely have had more character development. She had a wealth of knowledge about history, magic and demons, albeit this was demon knowledge crammed into a now-human head which would have caused a massive emotional disconnect and perhaps issues with remembering. Thanks to that knowledge, the Scoobies discovered just what the Mayor was, a passing remark led to Buffy discovering what Dawn was and merely glancing at a receipt resulted in Anya putting together the fact that Glory was making a giant smoke monster in a couple of seconds, which Giles, Tara and Willow took a couple of minutes to work out together. She also played a major role in defeating Glory, immediately when put on the spot suggesting Olaf's Hammer and the Orb of Dagon to use against Glory.

Perhaps the problem was that using Anya's knowledge to its full extent could make a walking plot breaker. And could fill to a degree the roles of Willow, Tara and Giles.
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Very true. Considering Willow was moving more into magic and Anya was hanging around, would've been interesting at least to see in one scene Anya helping Giles build his demon database. She's 1100 years old with a wealth of knowledge. Shows she's able to contribute, shows she wants to help fight evil, and even form a bit of a bond with someone other than Xander.
 
hoponlilmama said:
Very true. Considering Willow was moving more into magic and Anya was hanging around, would've been interesting at least to see in one scene Anya helping Giles build his demon database. She's 1100 years old with a wealth of knowledge. Shows she's able to contribute, shows she wants to help fight evil, and even form a bit of a bond with someone other than Xander.
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In Slayers, Giles did say that he and his Anya had effectively built up a bond, given they were spending a lot of time together. Rather a shame we did not see more of Anya and Giles running the Magic Box together!

Anya did mention that she knew more about demon dimensions than Giles, so she could have definitely helped in that area at least. We got bits and pieces of her helping and fighting evil, though as she wasn't a focal character, this was never concentrated on. Though her contributions turned out to be pretty significant.
 
NotASlayer said:
In Slayers, Giles did say that he and his Anya had effectively built up a bond, given they were spending a lot of time together. Rather a shame we did not see more of Anya and Giles running the Magic Box together!
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This what we needed a little more of during the show's run!

NotASlayer said:
Anya did mention that she knew more about demon dimensions than Giles, so she could have definitely helped in that area at least. We got bits and pieces of her helping and fighting evil, though as she wasn't a focal character, this was never concentrated on. Though her contributions turned out to be pretty significant.
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Absolutely, her knowledge did help through the years. I liked the exchange she and Willow had in s7 during the episode Get It Done when figuring out how to open a portal to get Buffy back. It was brief, but I liked it. It helped push Willow in the right direction.
 
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