What happened to Cordelia?

Athena

Athena

The original one-eyed chicklet
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Black Thorn
I think I'm correct when I say that the residents of Sunnydale never mentioned Cordelia again after she left to go to LA between Seasons 3 and 4?

We know she left to go to AtS, but why was Cordelia never mentioned again in BtVS? Did Charisma Carpenter leave with some serious beef with someone on BtVS? It just never made sense to me that Cordelia was never even referenced, even when many of the characters in Buffy knew she was with Angel in LA.

There wasn't even a passing mention at the start of S4 of Cordelia doing well in LA. The character just seems to disappear from everyone's lives in Sunnydale. You'd think someone would care enough to mention it. We know from AtS that Cordelia calls Willow a couple of times.

Does anyone know why they consciously did this?
 
She was mentioned in S4 of BtvS when Angel comes back in Pangs, when Willow asks him about Cordelia working for him, and Willow and Cordelia share a phone call in AtS S2 over Harmony. But very very little, considering. I think it's to do with them wanting to keep the shows separate, and after S2 of Angel they were on different channels when Buffy was resurrected. I guess it was a conscious choice from the networks, as the crossovers stopped after that too. I missed them. 🙁
 
I think she wasn't mentioned because she wasn't terribly relevant when she wasn't there anymore. Out of sight, out of mind...

I mean, seasons 1-3 she's either mean girl who bullies Willow and Buffy, dates Xander, or is a more or less begrudging Scooby. She's never really friends with anyone, except maybe Xander. But since they had broken up and she left town it's not surprising that he didn't spend a lot of time thinking about her. He moved on.

She was never friends with Buffy so I can't imagine Buffy cared all that much, or had much reason to bring Cordy up. She never did much worth to mention later.
Giles... he didn't have much of a relationship to her.
Then there's Willow, those phone calls are mentioned, but otherwise... I don't see why Willow would bring up Cordy either, except maybe to compare her to Anya. (And those phone calls are kind of odd in themselves, seem more plot convenient than in character, which is further supported by Fred calling Willow for help later. Fred who'd met Willow all of one time after returning from Pylea when she wasn't exactly a 100% sane. Thin excuse to swap some information between the shows.)

Basically, Cordy was peripheral to the Scooby Gang even when she was there, so once she was gone, there wasn't much reason to keep talking about her.
 
Actually Buffy does mention Cordelia, perhaps twice, the one I remember is from Family when she's describing Glory to Giles:

BUFFY: (ponders) She was kinda like Cordelia, actually. (Giles nods thoughtfully) I'm pretty sure she dyes her hair.
 
It just seems odd, when she was a main character for three seasons. She was Xander's girlfriend for a while. I know her and Buffy had their issues but she had bigger issues with Willow stealing her boyfriend.

It just made little sense that she hardly mentioned. Old friends from my group who've moved away, we still occasionally mention or they visit us sometimes. I appreciate they wanted to keep the shows separate, but I didn't know if there was a falling out between the actress and someone else from the Buffy show, that didn't affect her moving over to Angel....?
 
Well she was occasionally mentioned... very occasionally, but still.

Thinking of other characters that left, that was the case with other former regulars. Oz for example- I can remember Xander maybe mentioning him twice.
They usually only got more than that if they dated Buffy... Angel and Riley being prime examples.

I haven't heard anything about Charisma falling out with any of the Buffy cast. From what has been said in interviews, I gather that they asked her to do the spin-off; before which I think she fully intended to stay on for Buffy season 4. In fact I think when they asked her, they assured her that she could return if it wasn't a success.
 
She was barely mentioned after she left BtVS because the Scooby gang was too busy with their own stuff to even think about her.
 
Angel was barely mentioned, actually - though he does have a few cameos. Considering he was a huge story line for 3 seasons, I think that's proportionate. Same with Harmony. I think they were too busy with the crisis de jour mostly, and didn't have time to look back much.
 
The pattern continues in the comics.
In Season 8 Spike, Angel et all are barely mentioned in Buffy's new life. She mentions Cordelia once in the flashback episode, same with Angel.
 
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