Who do you think is the best friend Angel has had?

[Kean]

I'm going to go ahead and choose none of these.

Whether or not he deserves it is up for debate, but Angel has actually been really blessed with some incredible friends. The kind of friends that many people never have the opportunity to have. Unfortunately, Angel is not a good friend, hence the reason why his friendships don't work out.

All those listed in this list have been good friends to him, and he's basically screwed over each of them in that special Angel-way of his.

Take Lorne, for instance. Lorne was a good friend to Angel. He supported him and his mission, while maintaining his own boundaries. He loved Angel and everything he stood for. What did Angel do?

Spoiler

He forced Lorne to go against his very nature and kill Lindsey

, and do Angel's dirty work that he didn't have the balls to do on his own.

Despite this, he's managed to screw up almost every friendship he's ever had, hasn't he?

Discuss.

I suppose that depends on how you measure "screwed up." Has he mad mistakes? Yeah, a lot of them. But what friendship doesn't have that? His friends surely aren't innocent of "screwing up." The real measure of friendship is the ability to forgive those screw ups, big and small, and by my count, Angel still has people in his life that are willing to drop everything and help him out, no matter what. Faith and Gunn did exactly that, last season. Willow found a way to forgive him. Wesley, Cordelia and Doyle all died counting Angel as their dear friend.

As for Lorne, yes Angel asked him to do something awful, but he didn't force him to do anything. Angel was very clear about giving everyone an out of his plan. Lorne was asked to kill Lindsey and he made the choice to do it. That probably does make Angel a crap friend to Lorne, but the fact that Lorne did it gives an indicator of the measure of Angel's friendship and Lorne's belief in Angel's mission, which is truly the uniting factor of all of the AI gang.

 

[thetopher]

I'm going to go ahead and choose none of these.

Whether or not he deserves it is up for debate, but Angel has actually been really blessed with some incredible friends. The kind of friends that many people never have the opportunity to have. Unfortunately, Angel is not a good friend, hence the reason why his friendships don't work out.

All those listed in this list have been good friends to him, and he's basically screwed over each of them in that special Angel-way of his.

Take Lorne, for instance. Lorne was a good friend to Angel. He supported him and his mission, while maintaining his own boundaries. He loved Angel and everything he stood for. What did Angel do?

Spoiler

He forced Lorne to go against his very nature and kill Lindsey

, and do Angel's dirty work that he didn't have the balls to do on his own.

Despite this, he's managed to screw up almost every friendship he's ever had, hasn't he?

Discuss.

I was wondering when this would turn into Angel-bashing. 🙁

How exactly did Angel screw up his friendship with Doyle? Or Wesley? Or Cordelia for that matter.
Doyle sacrificed himself, to make amends for a past wrong (as he saw it) and redeem himself.
Wesley betrayed Angel and took his son. (yes, I know he had his reasons, but still).
Cordelia was either a victim of an evil higher power, or just had bad luck. I can't remember Angel having a direct hand in how she turned out.

Lorne has free will, he knew the stakes and volunteered, he could've walked away from the mission, Angel didn't force him.
Being Angel's friend is tough. (but then so is being Buffy's friend...) I don't see him having a hand in screwing up the ones you listed. (Except, it can be argued, with Lorne)

At the moment Angel is the best friend Faith has ever had. I don't see him screwing it up any time soon. 🙂