what was the purpose for Charisma leaving?

orpheusxi

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Towards the end of season 3 she left off with groo for a couple of episodes i thought that it was vary stupid of a thing to write into the show because the time she was gone could hvae been used to develop her half demon powers and explained what they meant. I heard that something happened to Charisma is that true?
 
They weren't too happy with her "Playboy" layout, and then real life pregnancy and subsequent weight gain didn't seem to fill their hearts with joy, either. I think the official story was that Charisma and the producers "through mutual agreement" to go their separate ways. The next season's guest appearance might have been just to see if the fans wanted her back the way "Something Blue" was a test to see if the fans would accept a Buffy/Spike romance. At least, that's the story as I heard it.
 
They weren't too happy with her "Playboy" layout, and then real life pregnancy and subsequent weight gain didn't seem to fill their hearts with joy, either. I think the official story was that Charisma and the producers "through mutual agreement" to go their separate ways. The next season's guest appearance might have been just to see if the fans wanted her back the way "Something Blue" was a test to see if the fans would accept a Buffy/Spike romance. At least, that's the story as I heard it.

I was talking about her absence in season 3 not in season 4
 
I heard that Charisma was written out for those few episodes, to make the Connor storyline work better. If Cordelia was around when Wesley was having the doubts about the prophecy, he would have probably gone to her for help and then she would tell Angel. It could also be that with Cordelia around, she would have a vision of whatever is going on. That's just me guessing, I don't know the real reason.
 
I think Cordelia's visions go with her so if she was going to have a vision about it while being there, I think she would have the same vision while being away. But the Connor thing makes sense. It would never have worked out the same way cause Wes would have def gone to Cordelia. I think anyways.
 
but even at that i dont think visions just happen near angel. Its highly unlikely that if she did have a vision she wouldnt call or come back just for Groo.
 
i was also wondering why she is gone halfway through season 3 for a few episodes. it seems weird that she wouldn't have had a vision of all that was going on and called or come back. i never liked her with groo very much and i think it's not very believable that angel would send them on a holiday and we wouldn't hear anything at all from them. shouldn't she have been communicating visions of the regular variety anyway? they don't just stop because she went on holiday. was charisma carpenter busy or something?
 
I was very irritated by her leaving in season 3. I guess it made sense dramatically to isolate Wesley...but I also thought it was extremely poorly written when she returned...as much as Cordelia's first priority is Angel...I do not believe for a SECOND that Cordelia would not have at least gone and seen Wesley in the hospital or given him a chance to give his side. Cordelia was always very fair that way. And that scene of Fred telling Wesley not to come back to the hotel woulda been SO much more powerful if it had been Cordelia...who the hell was Fred to tell Wesley not to come back to the hotel?
 
I might be wrong but wasnt Charisma getting married around then? That might have been a reason for her to leave for awhile.
 
Yeah, I thought that's when she got married. The IMDb says she got married October 2002, does that line up at all? I don't know.
 
Towards the end of season 3 she left off with groo for a couple of episodes i thought that it was vary stupid of a thing to write into the show because the time she was gone could hvae been used to develop her half demon powers and explained what they meant. I heard that something happened to Charisma is that true?

I'm 90% sure she had a death in her family.

They weren't too happy with her "Playboy" layout, and then real life pregnancy and subsequent weight gain didn't seem to fill their hearts with joy, either. I think the official story was that Charisma and the producers "through mutual agreement" to go their separate ways. The next season's guest appearance might have been just to see if the fans wanted her back the way "Something Blue" was a test to see if the fans would accept a Buffy/Spike romance. At least, that's the story as I heard it.

Well I'm pretty sure Joss' people said that Charisma was looking for a traditional maternity leave (/family time) like normal jobs give, but it wasn't possible for them to give it to her on Angel for obvious reasons. I think she was going for like a 14-episode commitment (out of 22) with her normal salary, which Joss & co. weren't willing to do.

Joss' official answer at the time was something along the lines of "I think the Cordelia character has reached her full potential."

As far as "You're Welcome," being written as a test to bring her back, I'm pretty sure it wasn't. Joss originally wanted Sarah Gellar to be the one who puts Angel back on his path, but she wasn't available. Contrary to popular belief, Sarah was never meant to guest in TGIQ, they never intended for Spike & Angel to see Buffy then. There were actually a lot of guest spots in S5 that didn't work out:

"The Girl In Question" - Joss wanted Michelle Tractenberg to be the one in the apartment, but they couldn't get her, so Andrew was used instead. Joss was pretty unhappy because apparently some of the stuff he wrote for Dawn was just given over to Andrew.

"A Hole In the World" - Giles was meant to meet Angel & Spike in the deeper well, but they couldn't afford Tony Head so they created Drogan.

"You're Welcome" - like I said was written for Buffy, but they couldn't get Sarah, so it was switched to Cordy.
 
Giles in the Deeper Well? How strange. I can't see how that would work out at all.

It's hard to picture... but I wonder... does that mean Joss intended there to be some kind of connection between Giles and the Old Ones? That would certainly have some interesting ramifications, particularly regarding one of my Season 8 theories.
 
It's hard to picture... but I wonder... does that mean Joss intended there to be some kind of connection between Giles and the Old Ones? That would certainly have some interesting ramifications, particularly regarding one of my Season 8 theories.

Yeah...I can't see how it would go down any other way besides the really lame "Giles-is-smart-so-he-knew-something-was-going-down-and-this-is-so-not-a-cheap-crossover-just-for-the-hell-of-it".
 
AndrewCrossett
AndrewCrossett
Yeah, Leverage banner karma
Well Joss pretty much said that Angel & Spike loved Fred so much that they really wouldn't trust many people telling them that Fred pretty much must die and you can't save her. He figured Giles was the only character that could fit that bill of someone they'd trust, and someone who would know, because think about it, there are really only 4 demonology experts in their little circle of champions: Giles, Wes, Angel & Spike. So Giles would have been the only choice. Giles is the only one who could believably have more knowledge about Illyria than Wes, Spike & Angel.

He said he created Drogan because outside of Giles, a champion who can't lie is the only other person they'd trust enough to allow Fred to die.
 
I would have loved Giles helping them instead of saying "Willow's not avaliable, I can't help you" stuff. After all, Giles must have a lot of power in the new council, so it wouldn't be weird if he found out about the well with the help of the council's collected knowledge.
 
I would have loved Giles helping them instead of saying "Willow's not avaliable, I can't help you" stuff. After all, Giles must have a lot of power in the new council, so it wouldn't be weird if he found out about the well with the help of the council's collected knowledge.

No doubt, up until the events of "No Future For You," Giles was the brain behind the New Watcher's Council, being the only real Watcher amongst them.
 
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