Can Buffy and Angel be friends?

I guess whether it's realistic or not depends on whether you think someone can be “in love” with more than one person at a time. If you think still loving Angel means Buffy can never have a relationship with anyone else. Personally, I really don’t think that’s true. But maybe it is a case of love vs in love.
 
Skanky Vamp
Skanky Vamp
I think it is a case of love vs in love
Spike once famously said, a long long time ago (in a buffyverse far far away), that Angel and Buffy weren't friends and they would never be friends.

Do you think that holds up today? Taking into account all of their history as well as where their characters are today, how things have changed/progressed, could Buffy and Angel learn to be friends? And if so, do you think we will ever see such a dynamic in the comics?

Can they be *just* friends?

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My Bangel heart hopes not! 🙄
 
Mrs Gordo
Mrs Gordo
I feel you.
To me it still seems wrong. But I never really believe the whole "high school sweethearts" he was the first person I loved and been with my whole life either. It just seems... limiting. People are like oh, that's so nice and I'm like, no it ain't. So... that probably taints my perception when I hear people say that Buffy is still in love with Angel, etc. Especially when to me, it seems like its been 15 years since the show (when I guess it's not been)

But then if Buffy was still in love with Angel, and Angel her, then it just also seems to cheapen what she had with Riley and he had with Cordy.

Buffy never told Riley that she loved him.
Riley even admits to Xander that he knows she doesn't love him.
I do think she cared about him, she just was not in love with him.

I still believe Cordy & Angel were under some kind of weird pull from Jasmine that made them think they had feelings for each other.
And while maybe just maybe Cordy was in love with Angel, I don't think Angel was ever in love with her. I think he cared deeply for her, but in more of a family way than a romantic way.

So I don't think Buffy and Angel still being in love with each other cheapens relationships with Riley & Cordy, because even the show tells us Buffy and Angel did not love Riley and Cordy the way they loved each other.
 
I keep trying to answer this by saying "no" and then giving my reasons why I think that, but my logic keeps going around in circles. I think it's because I've never had that experience of falling in love with someone and then after it fell apart, trying to stay friends. Any time it's happened to me, I was so heartbroken that I distanced myself so I could move on and never got back in touch for fear I would be tempted and relapse. But I guess that's basically why I don't think they could ever be friends.

There are people out there who break up and then later become friends. I guess they ignore the temptation for the sake of the friendship or because they both have significant others. Or they discover they've fallen out of love because they've both changed, so the temptation is no longer there.
 
There are people out there who break up and then later become friends. I guess they ignore the temptation for the sake of the friendship or because they both have significant others. Or they discover they've fallen out of love because they've both changed, so the temptation is no longer there.

Yeah and I guess as you’ll see as you make your way through your watch the “temptation” between B/A never appears to resolve. S5, (who knows about s6), S7, and s8.
 
I don't read the comics so I don't know what goes in there. From the tv shows, I think so yes. If time goes by and they both equally work on it and air the issues and work through them and agree to be friends and respect new boundaries, then yes, why not? It would tae time, don't misunderstand that but if they are both willing then yes. However it would have to be equal in effort and for the right reasons, for example; working along side each other for the greater good rather than working against each other.
 
IMO, it depends on what's happened in Angel S11 and whether Angel/Fred is a viable relationship. I don't know whether integrating Angel on his own would work - it could introduce tension. Angel plus Fred would work because it would be seen as a serious commitment by both Buffy and Spike - thus providing a check on petty jealousies. They might need a buffer - Faith/Dowling might work better than Sam/Riley (I like the idea of Faith/Dowling). Yup - I think a deep, platonic friendship (perhaps with some regrets, some nostalgia) is possible. There are indications that Buffy's moved on and my reading of S11 Angel suggests he might be able to. This doesn't belittle what Bangel was or is. It's simply that time changes perspective.

I would love it if Buffy chose to break up with Spike, but I also think it would be refreshing to see Spike break up with her.
I can't actually think of a scenario whereby that would happen. He walked away from her in S9 when she gave him an excuse to stay and he was the one who suggested the break in 10. I think they'd have to be forced apart. I can't see them writing the intimacy of the feeding and the ILY without it being meaningful.
 
IMO, it depends on what's happened in Angel S11 and whether Angel/Fred is a viable relationship.

But Angel's being in a relationship has never really changed how he felt for Buffy before right? I mean you can argue he had some pretty serious feelings for Cordy in s3 (some people - not me mind you - might even say he loved her), he was in a relationship with Nina in s5 and yet he was still in love with Buffy in AtS s5, and in s8 (and admits to Spike in s9 that he isn't over her) right? So it doesn't seem like Angel's being in a relationship is any indication that he can or would be able to move on as much as it is an indication that Angel is willing to try another relationship.
 
I can't see them writing the intimacy of the feeding

It's interesting I didn't anything all that intimate about the bite. My friend had actually messaged me and warned me it was coming and I was thinking - Ok let me just get it over with and when I saw the panel I was like... "oh... that wasn't bad at all." So Idk. I mean the ILY was a pretty big blow for me but I didn't mind the bite.
 
But Angel's being in a relationship has never really changed how he felt for Buffy before right?
But Angel's never recalled his father's / Kathy's last words before (has he? Genuine question). Nor has he realised his father actually loved him (has he?). I think S11 was far more significant than you do. Seriously - I enjoyed it.🙂 I'd have to read the middle again but - if read as a dream (I'm not saying it was a dream), taking condensation and displacement into account, I could make sense of it. I don't know Angel's story as well as Spike's (if the points I make above are wrong then it's back to the drawing board 'cos I've got nothing else🙁) but I'm interested to see what CB says about it.

The bite - I could wax lyrical about it but I think it showed how much she trusts him. Wasn't it followed by a large frame showing them holding hands? Hands have always been significant for Spuffy. They're an important signifier in the series. Since Primeval, they've been a synecdoche for Buffy - traditionally they typify the humanity of the body (her damaged hands in Grave). Forget the speech in Touched - look at the hands. Also - it's Spike grasping her hand that throws her into confusion in Potential. I'd post the shot but this doesn't seem the right place to do it. 🙄 You made a remark in the S7 review - "Don't tell - show". IMO, that's exactly what it does do. I'm digressing...
 
taking condensation and displacement into account, I could make sense of it.

If you look hard enough you can try and make sense of a lot of things. And if you look hard enough you start to see connections that I'm not even sure the writers meant for you to see. But I agree, I look forward to see what CB says - if she ever answers her Q/A's.

I agree the bite signified trust. But it has been very clear that Buffy trusts Spike in the comics. I never questioned it myself.
 
I think if Angel/Fred was a viable relationship, it might help reduce awkwardness and almost make it "okay" for Buffy and Angel to be friends. It would ratchet down the scrutiny of their friendship. Maybe.
 
If you look hard enough you can try and make sense of a lot of things.
Not true. I tried for a long long time and looked really hard but never saw no stars or birds or any of that crap when I was trying to read tea leaves. I never made sense of any of it.

I could see them being friends in the comics long before the TV show. There was too much spark between the actors for just friends to be believable in my opinion. If they pair Angel up romantically with someone in the comics then yeah, I can see it. 2D is easier to pull off than 3D.
 
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