Why wasn't a friendship built between Connor and Fred?

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Joshua

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Am I the only one who was shocked they didn't write in a friendship with Adult Connor and Fred?

Considering they have a lot in common. Both growing up in a Hell demon dimension both got out alive.

But yet they never built a friendship over that.
 
As far as I'm concerned, they did.

It was clear to me in the opening episode of S4 that Connor and Fred had bounded during the summer, when it was just the two of them and Gunn.

This was why she was so upset when she found out what Connor did to Angel, why she got so violent towards him.

Just because it wasn't on-screen, doesn't mean that relationship didn't exist.
 
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Yes, I do think that he was a difficult person to have a friendship with, even during that summer, when he was more or less "faking it". But any friendship any of them built with him was destroyed when they found out that it was he who sent Angel to the bottom of the ocean, and then pretended otherwise. I generally feel a lot of sympathy/pity toward Connor because of how he was raised, but I completely understand their feelings toward him after this.
 
VisionGirl said:
Yes, I do think that he was a difficult person to have a friendship with, even during that summer, when he was more or less "faking it". But any friendship any of them built with him was destroyed when they found out that it was he who sent Angel to the bottom of the ocean, and then pretended otherwise. I generally feel a lot of sympathy/pity toward Connor because of how he was raised, but I completely understand their feelings toward him after this.
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See, while I can completely understand that they would be upset with Connor after finding out what he did to Angel, I just don't think Connor was faking anything when he was alone with Fred and Gunn.

The first half of that episode - my memory is blanking, 'Deep Down'? - they were like their own little family. Connor was behaving like a typical teenager, he was getting along with Fred and Gunn and he was just being himself. Even when Gunn scolded him for the thing with the axe, he took it and he accepted his punishment and he glowed under the praise.

Connor didn't think he did anything wrong when he did what he did to Angel. It's why he's so shocked when Fred - heh - shocks him. He can't understand why no one's sticking up for him. He doesn't think he HAS to lie or fake it, because he can't honestly see why everyone wouldn't be on his side if they found out. Yes, he kept it a secret, but - in my opinion - only because he didn't want them to go looking for Angel. He never expected them to turn their backs on him.

I honestly think that there was a genuine friendship between Connor and Fred (and Connor and Gunn) but I can completely see why that friendship fell apart and they just didn't have the time to fix it.
 
I can't give another reputation to [MENTION=6332]Lyri[/MENTION], but I agree with you. Fred sympathizes with Connor from the start, she is upset when Angel come back in Hyperion Hotel without Connor.

Angel: He survived Quor-Thot this long. He can take care of himself.
Fred: Okay. So he survived and unspeakable hell dimension. Who hasn't? You... you can't just leave him alone in the streets of Los Angeles!
Angel: He's got to come back on his own. And he will. Just as soon as he realizes what he needs. "Benediction"

Also with Gunn there is friendship. In an episode of the fourth season they go together to pick up the skull of a demon that is needful to make a spell, and Gunn saves Connor's life.
 
Joshua said:
Am I the only one who was shocked they didn't write in a friendship with Adult Connor and Fred?

Considering they have a lot in common. Both growing up in a Hell demon dimension both got out alive.
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Actually, while Connor grew up in a hell dimension, faced with the certainty that everything except the man he recognized as his father was an enemy desiring his death, Fred grew up in Texas, with two loving parents and a safe, nurturing environment and almost certainly at least a few friends. Connor's personality was formed by the environment in which he grew up, and reenforced by the conditions there. Fred had her personality pretty much established before having to face a world full of potential enemies. Her experiences were traumatic, but not character forming.

Connor neither wanted nor felt that he needed friends. The concept of friendship was, almost certainly, completely alien to him. He had Holtz, his "father," who he loved, and no one else. Back in the real world, he neither felt the need nor the desire to form friendships. His fixation with Cordy was purely sexual, enforced by the desire to take away from Angel the person who he loved the most, the way that he believed that Angel had done to him.

I'm sure that Fred, Gunn, and Wes all made the attempt to be friends with Connor, but he just wasn't interested.
 
I agree with [MENTION=6332]Lyri[/MENTION], Fred and Conner most likely were friends - as much as Conner could be a friend to anyone, anyway. But I think that Fred also felt like a mother to Conner. After Angel disappeared Fred was there for Conner, and surely sympathized with him and was very supportive...hence why she was so angry and betrayed when she found out that he was responsible for what happened.
 
Joan the Vampire Slayer said:
I agree with [MENTION=6332]Lyri[/MENTION], Fred and Conner most likely were friends - as much as Conner could be a friend to anyone, anyway. But I think that Fred also felt like a mother to Conner. After Angel disappeared Fred was there for Conner, and surely sympathized with him and was very supportive...hence why she was so angry and betrayed when she found out that he was responsible for what happened.
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I kind of agree with you, although, I would say she took on the role of an older female family member, not really a mother role. She would have forgiven him anything, in theory least, if she had taken on the maternal role. Fred has more of a big sister, or nice Aunt vibe - like Nina with her niece in season 5.
 
I think they were friends, as has been mentioned several times above, but that it became impossible to repair that friendship after Fred found out what Connor had done to Angel and perhaps more specifically that he had lied about it to them all summer long and feigned 'helping' them look for Angel. I.e he saw her mental distress and emotional anguish over the situation and didn't care to relieve it though he was perfectly able to. I think that's a betrayal anyone would have trouble getting over.
 
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