Here are my thoughts on, by my reckoning, the main characters of the series, or the characters I, and you’d probably, care about to any sizeable degree by the end of the series. Overall they’re pretty long, so pick your favorite characters/those you’re most interested in reading about and scroll down until you see them
-Angel (David Boreanaz) (110 episodes, 166 total Buffyverse episodes): Angel is such an
interesting character and the relative level of character development for him
versus some of his co-stars is interesting. What makes it interesting is that,
by the end, he isn’t the most complex character, Wesley is. But in the end that
works out so much better, and it even makes tons of sense. Angel’s self-imposed
semi-isolationism makes for interesting storylines, but not a ton of
variability on what kind of development he can receive. The writers do a
terrific job of developing him every season and finding ways to characterize
his own search for identity, be that in terms of where he fits in as a vampire
in a human world, how his vampiricism impacts his own humanity, how his human
instincts and desire impact who he is as a vampire, how his desire for
redemption leads him down paths he shouldn’t really go down, etc. As a result,
the viewer receives this exceptionally full-bodied portrait of Angel. The
flashbacks help to flesh out his pre-vampire background as a drunken, whoring, worthless,
father-failing, father-hating scumbag, his violent days as Angelus with his
single-minded desire to harm, and his unfortunate 100 years plagued by soul,
spending his entire existence hiding from the sun and chasing rats, that is,
until he meets Whistler (we see that in Amends (3.11) in Buffy). As a result,
we feel like we know him better than we maybe do. Nevertheless, despite my
qualms about his depth, I never felt like he was a shallow character, and I think
credit for that goes to both the writers and David Boreanaz. In watching Boreanaz’s
gradual development of Angel and his own acting skills over 8 seasons and two
separate series, his ability to realize a character are really good. Initially
on Buffy, Angel is a distant character, an enigma of sorts, and Boreanaz quite
frankly struggles early on to act even decently until the Buffy season 1
episode Angel, in which he seems to finally figure out what he’s doing. He
proceeds to rock season 2, especially as Angelus, and to destroy season 3. He
takes this tremendous momentum and translates it into 5 seasons of spectacularly
acted television. I don’t think I could like this series without liking its
lead character, so I think that pretty much reveals my opinion on the
character. What I find so damn great about the character is how, when I first
started watching Buffy, I was drawn to how enigmatic the character was, but as
he was made more and more complex, Boreanaz never failed to make him
compelling.
-Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) (86 total episodes, 1
as guest star, 140 total Buffyverse episodes): Despite being second on this list, Cordy’s profile was the last
one that I wrote. I did that mostly because it’d be pretty easy to get started
on her, but also because I wanted to end on a high note. On Buffy, Cordy is
merely a comic presence. She has brief moments of dramatic showcase (Bewitched,
Bothered and Bewildered, mostly), but even those are often tinged with comic
undertones. When she starts season 1 of Angel, she’s still self-centered,
pretty bratty, entitled, and everything else she was on Buffy. Throughout that
first season, she changes a bit, but it’s always via something that happens.
Fortunately that still means she gets some development unlike others in other
seasons (looking at you season 5 Lorne). Some lines in Buffy revealed some
layering to Cordy (doing well on standardized tests, etc.) and those layers
only increase on Angel. She has two big breakthroughs in season 1. Her first is
in Rm w/a Vu where she moves from being so materialistic in determining her own
self-worth to basing her self-worth on whether or not she actually earned
something. The second breakthrough comes in her relationship with Doyle, in
which she, despite not returning much of Doyle interest, still feels betrayed
by him on one occasion and mourns deeply after he dies. Also, in season 1,
since I forgot to mention it, the visions also add something to her character,
something which is not really fully realized until later seasons. Season 2 offers
a few changes, and mostly they involve her becoming more realistic, more aware
of who she is, what she can do, what she can ask of the world. She’s Angel Investigations’
link to the world and therefore serves as Angel’s emotional link to the world,
as well. When he leaves, we see a slightly different Cordy: one even more firm
in her newfound dedication to helping the hopeless. Her time on Pylea is also transformative
as she finally gets to live like the princess (well I guess queen in this case)
she’s always wanted to live like. And she gives it up to return to earth and
serve. Season 3 really begins these changes brought on due to the visions. The
visions cause her to become more and more like Angel. She’s damaged and broken
and has to shoulder this huge burden, but she’s wiser and stronger and better
for it. That Vision Thing shows Cordy not only accepting the visions, but
embracing them as an essential part of who she is. They also drive her closer
and closer to death. Her decision in Birthday shows such a sense of duty and
immense self-worth that previously was unheard of for Cordy. She refuses every
what she’s always wanted in return for helping. She has a few more points of
transformation in the season, but nothing really until season 4. In season 4,
her character development is annoying. Everything she does could be assumed to
not have been of her own volition. An annoying prospect, so I’m going to skip
the entire season as a whole so it doesn’t piss me off. Her return to the
series in You’re Welcome is amazing and is my favorite moment of hers in the
entire series. It perfectly embodies everything she has become and everything
that she will be missed for. Angel Investigations truly loses its emotional side.
I love Cordelia Chase. I always have, even when she was just the pretty bitch
on Buffy (it doesn't hurt that she's hot, just look at that picture, and still is at over 40). But I love her for such different reasons now, and I love her more
than ever. I teared up while writing this, no lie, no shame. Cordy, though put
on autopilot for some periods, is truly my favorite character of Angel.
-Allen Francis Doyle (Glenn Quinn) (10 episodes): Doyle is
one of the my favorite things about the entire series. He is, quite simply, my favorite
part about the first season. His presence is, at first, odd, mainly because it’s
the first 10 minutes of the first episode of the first season of the show, but it
doesn’t take much time for you to really like the guy. He, like Angel, is
struggling to find himself as a sort of half-breed. I assume he came to know of
Angel via his visions, but that’s really beside the point. Immediately, he
becomes a sort of double to Angel. They’re both originally Irish and their both
half-demon. As such, both struggle with the same issues, albeit in a very
different sort of way. It’s an interesting dynamic you get with the half-demon
with a soul for punishment and the half-demon with a soul by birth. Angel,
obviously being the former, is more cautious, no, I don’t know, more… I’ll put
it this way. Initially, he just wants to sulk. And once he’s done that for a
hundred years or so until he meets Whistler. After he leaves Sunnydale and
travels to L.A., he wants to help everybody (after a little coaxing), but he doesn’t
know how to do it. Angel is searching for how to repay society. Doyle is very
different; he’s searching not for how to repay society, but for where his place
in society is. The PTB sends him visions and so he finds Angel. His
relationship with Cordy is often hilarious, but his final scene with her is one
of the most poignant of the entire series. As I said at the very beginning of
this, Doyle is my favorite part of season 1, and I wish he had stayed on
longer. Glenn Quinn was an underrated actor and he will be and has been missed.
-Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Denisof) (101 total episodes, 1
as guest star, 110 total Buffyverse episodes): The transformation of the series can, of course, be traced by
the personal inner developments Angel undergoes, but nearly as often, the
series’ transformation can be traced through Wesley’s tremendous character
changes and transformations. He ends up being the single most complex character
on the entire series, even more so than Angel. He is, far and away, the hardest
character to watch sometimes, but that’s a good thing in this case. It’s hard
to watch because you can’t stand what he’s doing, but at the same time you
completely understand why he’s doing it. You see yourself in his every moral quandary
and in his most difficult personal situations. I wholeheartedly enjoyed his
first season-and-a-half of the series, but season 3 is where the going got
tough. Over his first season-and-a-half, he undergoes some pretty easy
character developments that soften his character, something that Denisof had
already done a bit. His prophecy translations and realizations gradually darken
his character to the point where he makes probably the worst decision of his
life. His decision to take Connor away from Angel was infuriating, and yet I couldn’t
help but find myself completely identifying with his actions (other than the
fact that I’ve never, and would never, kidnap a child). He is convinced he
knows something life-saving and important, so he takes drastic measures to try
to save both Connor and Angel. He takes Connor not only because he fears for
Connor, but because he fears for Angel. He cares so much for Angel that nobody
realizes it, not even Wesley. There are also some other contributing factors
that I’ll discuss in just a bit in Gunn’s profile. The aftermath of his
decision and time alone (away from Angel, Cordy, Gunn, and Fred, not completely
alone) is a dark period, but it provides interesting exposition into who he’s
become. His relationship with Lilah is, at first, entirely sensual. Eventually,
though, it develops into something more, something neither one of them ever
admits, but something that their actions and periodic statements clearly imply.
He has learned to care for something again, something he prohibited himself
from doing after his alienation from Angel and the team. Once he returns to the
team, his pining for Fred composes much of his characterization until, of
course, they finally have their chance. His love for her is so pure and true it’s
amazing. The scene on the roof in Lineage is so immensely important in his
transformation I cannot even begin to explain, but to do what he does to save
Fred’s life is amazing and shows just how firm in his resolve he has become. The
final scene of Fred’s life is one of the most poignant of the series, and much
of the credit goes to Denisof. Granted, I disliked some of Denisof’s facial
expressions during Fred’s illness, but that doesn’t change how well he handles
Wesley’s loss. His final scene of the series is so immensely powerful that I’m
beginning to tear up while writing this. Wesley isn’t an easy character to
watch by any means, but he is by far the most complicated. He has changed a
monumental amount since he first appeared in Buffy season 3, and I like what we
end up with better than what we started with. I can’t say I love Wesley’s
character because it’s such a hard character to love. I can say, however, that
I love everything that the writers and Denisof did with the character. They didn’t
just make a character more complex; they completely changed a character. Wesley’s
transformation is more complete than any other I have ever seen on television
or any other medium, and it is done so powerfully, convincing, and truthfully
that I can’t help but at least like him.
-Charles Gunn (J. August Richards) (91 total episodes, 3 as
guest star): I was kind of worried about Gunn’s character early on into the
series. I knew he would clash brilliantly with Wesley, though eventually they
end up switching places character-trait-wise in a lot of ways, but I was sort
of worried his character wouldn’t end up becoming all that complex and would
fall by the wayside, much in the same way Lorne ended up doing. Fortunately,
however, after a rather lackluster and development-void second season (his
first on the show) and a disappointing amount of development in season 3, he
receives monster development in seasons 4 and 5. Season 3 promises more
development of him pretty much right off the bat in That Old Gang of Mine. The episode
helps him come to grips with whether or not he will consciously decide to
become friends with and work for a vampire, the things he worked so hard to
kill when leading the titular group. The episode really does wonders at subtly
emphasizing Gunn’s methodical mind. His soldier-like mentality leads him to be
forceful in his pursuit of Fred as opposed to Wesley’s more conservative
approach. Their relationship, at times kind of weird (looking at you pancake
kiss), shows a new, softer side to Gunn we hadn’t really seen before. Season 4
really makes Gunn an incredibly complex character. Over the course of the
season, he and Wesley really complete the portions of their respective
transformations that bring them into that switching places deal I talked about
earlier. Gunn takes on a bigger leadership role early on in the season, which
causes him to be more plan-oriented than action-oriented, the same way that
Wesley used to be, and vice versa. On top of that, his personal developments
that come to a head in Supersymmetry are devastating. Despite how he holds
himself, he’s obviously feeling inferior to Fred because she’s a budding
science nerd and he doesn’t understand one ioda of what she’s talking about. On
top of that, he doesn’t understand her on a fundamentally personal level. When
he steps in and completely Fred’s decision-making capabilities, we finally see
that Gunn really just doesn’t understand how strong of a woman Fred really is.
Just because she’s small and cute doesn’t mean there isn’t a lioness of a woman
inside poised and ready to make immensely difficult decisions. This feeling of
inferiority begins to bleed over into his relations with the rest of the team. It
manifests not in a weepy baby, but in an increasingly volatile and hostile
member of the team. His exploration in Players furthers this feeling of
inferiority. The issue is not that he’s inferior, but rather that he possesses
no one set of skills that no other team member possesses. His development in
season 5 makes him probably the second-most complex character outside of
Wesley. This feeling of inferiority because he doesn’t really have any one
skill unique to the group is to agree to become a W&H lawyer, which really
furthers his character. When the brain upgrade begins to fade, you really see
his inferiority complex return, scared shitless that he’ll soon be rendered
useless again. For far too much of the series, Gunn is relegated to the
background, but when finally given the chance, his character development is
fantastic and he is another ultra-likeable, if monumentally flawed, member of
the team.
-Winifred Burkle (Amy Acker) (63 total episodes, sort of 62,
4 as guest star): I love Fred dearly. While Charisma Carpenter is that kind of
drop dead gorgeous kind of beautiful, Amy Acker is one of the cutest things I’ve
ever seen, and that cuteness can really sneak up on you. Early on she was just
cute, but gradually, especially in seasons 4 and 5, she becomes . In that way
she reminds me of Alison Brie on Community. Fred as a character is an
interesting journey. She doesn’t really change all that much over the course of
the series, but she does change. Little layers of complexity are added little
by little. Probably the biggest changes come through her relationships with Gunn
and Wesley. Her relationship with Gunn in described for Gunn’s character
review. The events of Supersymmetry likewise play a defining role in what we
view Fred to be. Her need for revenge is completely understandable, and her
ability to limit her rage and mitigate her own anger is tremendously admirable.
When Gunn intervenes, however, we truly see how wrong they are for each other.
This eventually leads her to the waiting arms of Wesley and we get to see how
meant for each other they are. Their relationship, while far too short, is
really touching. Outside of that relationship, however, her 5th
season characterization is decidedly lacking, something which I hope was
planned as a means to lessen the blow of her transformation into Illyria,
similar to George O’Malley’s phasing out in Grey’s Anatomy leading up to T.R.
Knight’s departure from the show. Unfortunately, given the writing style of
Angel’s writers, I doubt this is the case, but the choice they made to further
Acker’s job in the show was great. I love Fred, which I guess I’m saying for
just about every character, but that’s because it’s true.
-Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) (28 total episodes, 6 as guest
star): I really liked his arc. He’s obviously a screwed up kid, but he was
written right. His relationship with Cordy never made me think, “Man this is so
unrealistic and absurd.” Sure, it made me angry, but that was more because I
wanted to see Angel and Cordy have a shot. Vincent Kartheiser is a great actor,
so I was really looking forward to seeing him here, and he is, indeed, quite
good, but that doesn’t mean he was flawless. I found some of his moments
awkward, but I think that has much, if not more, to do with the strange
storyline of the 4th season than it does with Kartheiser’s portrayal.
Connor is a hated character and it doesn’t take much to see why, but he’s not
an evil character, he’s just really damn confused. Since he’s confused,
everybody’s confused about him, so… Well, I’m not going to finish explaining
that because I’m going to get confused and then we’re all going to get
confused, etc. Watch the series and you’ll understand what I’m saying. I can’t
say I liked Connor the character, but I liked what the character did for the
series. His actions were so very realistic a lot of the time and the issues he
caused did so much for the development of so many other characters.
-Lorne (Andy Hallett) (76 total episodes, 45 as guest star): What a
disappointing character. Okay, that sort of came out wrong, but not really. I
mean, he is so entertaining, but he never freaking goes anywhere. He appears in
45 episodes in a very supporting capacity, making always pretty funny,
occasionally hysterical, peanut gallery remarks, and helping out Angel
Investigations in a very unofficial capacity. But he’s so incorporated into the
plot that he “needs” to become a regular. No! Especially not when you
completely fail as a writing staff to effectively develop his decidedly
uncomplex character. The staff tried twice to make you care emotionally about
his character, The House Always Wins and Life of the Party, but failed
miserably and those are arguably the two worst episodes of the entire series.
So what makes it like that? Well, first of all the writing in those two
episodes is of unfortunate caliber, surprising for House as it was written by
David Fury, though I guess he was more hit and miss than some other well-know
Buffyverse writers. On top of that, Andy Hallett isn’t the greatest of actors.
Sure, his singing voice is incredible and he’s a better actor than Keanu Reeves,
but he’s no Laurence Olivier, either. Even worse, his makeup and
contact-colored eyes don’t really help you act, AT ALL. I think we could’ve
felt for that character if he has been portrayed in a more serious manner for
an extended period of time, but as it is, he isn’t, and that does the character
no justice. FYI, I like Lorne, I’m just not a fan of what they did with him. So
I guess that means I’m a fan of Lorne the guest star and not Lorne the starring
cast member.
-Spike (James Marsters) (24 total episodes, 2 as guest star, 120 total Buffyverse episodes):
Considering that Spike is far and away my favorite character in the Buffyverse,
I am tremendously happy and altogether unsurprised that the writers found a way
to bring him over from Buffy to Angel. That being said, my favorite episode in
terms of Spike is his guest appearance in In the Dark, the third episode of the
first season. I feel like, while he has this whole thing with being a ghost and
then corporeal, it’s never really taken anywhere. I think the major issue with
Spike’s character development during his single season on Buffy was that he wasn’t
really transitioned from being merely an annoyance to actually being an
important member of the team until the final episodes of the series. I can only
assume he would have received more development if the series had been allowed
to continue, but it wasn’t and so he isn’t.
-Illyria (Amy Acker) (8 episodes, sort of 7): I’m so glad
she was finally made into a member of the cast, but I wish she had received
more development. What I mean is, in the 7 full episodes in which she appears,
she doesn’t really change all that much. Okay fine, her breakdown in Time Bomb
is excellent and potentially provides her with some development in that
non-existent 6th season I’ve been referencing periodically, but
nothing beyond that every materializes. Amy Acker is an underrated actress, so
I was glad when, just as Fred was beginning to shrink in character development,
the writers thrust this massive change upon her, which she handles tremendously
well, but that change just never went anywhere. Illyria’s a fine character, but
I think I would have enjoyed her more with more time to watch her transform.
-Harmony Kendall (Mercedes McNab) (17 total episodes, 11 as
guest star, 32 total Buffyverse episodes): I’m so glad Harmony was finally made into a member of the main
cast, but I wish she had received more development. What I mean is, her
character is great by itself and Mercedes McNab does a really excellent job of
being background comedic relief, but not much else. I think the writers might
have found a way to further develop her character if given more seasons,
despite her fate at the end of the 5th season, but alas they were
not. What we’re left with is a charming and funny, if not terribly bright or
complex character.
-Kate Lockley (Elisabeth Röhm) (15 episodes, all as guest
star): The best part about Kate is how completely unnecessary her character is,
but how incredibly compelling she is and how well she is used to flesh out the
show’s main characters in the first two seasons. In many ways, these are the
best types of characters. When you can watch a show incorporating so much
previous knowledge of constantly transforming character traits and have this
character who comes in and out of roughly one-quarter of a season’s episodes,
shedding an immense amount of light on the main cast members, but not really
doing anything that’s completely necessary for further story, you know a
character is truly special. Case and point. After Angel and Kate’s falling out,
her disillusionment with Angel and how he’s handling the whole situation sheds
tons of light on who he is, but her disillusionment isn’t actually integral to
the overarching plot of what’s going on in the season. I had really hoped that she
would become a series regular, but that not happening does nothing to lessen my
affection for the character. I think a large portion of what makes her so
endearing what Elisabeth Röhm does with the character. She does a brilliant job
of making you care about Kate and literally everything she is going through
without ever seeming like she’s begging. When she needs to, she also has a
terrific chemistry with David Boreanaz. In some ways I’m glad Röhm went from
law and order on Angel to Law & Order because I feel like, had she become a
regular cast member, she would have needed an actual purpose for being in the
show. It’s an issue that I feel doomed Lorne, as I’ve stated above, and I think
Kate’s character would have suffered as a result. She’s an excellent plot
device, and you could always count on Elisabeth to give a strong, if not
tremendously powerful (see Sense & Sensitivity and Somnambulist),
performance. Frankly the only thing I wish is that she had received an episode
of closure. She never really completed her journey in many ways, and that kind
of bugged for a while after her departure.
-Lindsey McDonald (Christian Kane) (21 episodes, all as
guest star): What a confusing guy. For the first season, Lindsey is very much
the go-to-for-evil guy. He was the up-and-comer at W&H, and Holland Manners
(one of the Whedonverse’s greatest villainous creations) knew it. Almost all of
his actions in the first two seasons, but especially in the second season, made
you want to despise him, and few of them made you feel some sort of pity and
understanding for the guy, at least until you realized just how much he actually
cared about doing what was right, which was never very much at all. Nevertheless,
I still liked his character, which may have to do with Christian Kane’s next
major TV character, Eliot Spencer on Leverage, which I watched for the first
few seasons and enjoyed. Nevertheless, he still makes you sort of feel for his
character. When he returns to season 5, he’s changed slightly and no longer
wants anything to do with good, not even for his own gain. His fate at the end
of the series almost made me feel bad. I guess what I like most about him is
how important he was to making W&H the firm we experience in the series.
-Lilah Morgan (Stephanie Romanov) (36 episodes, all as guest
star): Honestly, Lilah might be my favorite character in the Angel universe. If
Lindsey hadn’t left for two seasons and then returned in a form that was more
annoying than evil, he might have that distinction, but I think Lilah may take
the cake. For much of the series, for the viewer, she is the face of Wolfram and Hart, and, as such, dictates much of
what the viewer thinks about the firm as a whole. And what does we think about
the firm as a whole? Well, personally, I think is probably the single best
villain in the Buffyverse. What I mean by that is, during its period of
importance (which frankly is all of Angel), it is the best. Spike as a
character is better, but he wasn’t as fully developed until after Buffy season
2. A large portion of what makes her so good is how magnificently she is
portrayed episode-in and episode-out by Stephanie Romanov. She is cold and
calculating, but she is also passionate. She know what she wants, and she’s
willing to do anything, ANYTHING, to get it. The issue for everybody trying to
stop her drive and support of evil (and W&H’s) is that what she and the
firm want is always shifting and progressing, they just know exactly what their
goal at every point in time. Her relationship with Wesley is at first
startling, though I guess not really now that I think about what Wesley has
become when they begin. Nevertheless, I am satisfied by what it eventually turns
into. The fact that they clearly begin to actually love and care for each other
to a degree beyond pure physical, sexual attraction, as shown through the
mutual, if sometimes lapsing, trust they have for each other, is great to see.
-Darla (Julie Benz) (20 episodes, all as guest star, 25 total Buffyverse episodes): What a
fantastic character! The Darla in season 1 of Buffy is boring and pretty much
useless, much like the rest of the entire villainous realm of season 1. Her 20
appearances in Angel, however, make her one of the most complex character in
the entire Buffyverse. Julie Benz’s work with Juliet Landau in season 2 is
truly some terrific stuff and does wonders for fleshing out the Darla we
already sort of knew. The season 3 Darla is a different story entirely. Her
short arc is tremendous in both its effect on her and on the characters around
her. Her newfound is humanity is an amazing and wholly believable development.
By the end of her time on the series, I loved Darla’s character.
Well, that’s that. I’ll post the conclusion tomorrow.
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