Character's finest moments |
Warning: this page contains
info about episodes up through season 4 BtVS/season 4 AtS. If
you're in danger of being spoiled, proceed with caution. |
| Angel | Cordelia | Doyle | Wesley | Kate | Gunn | Lorne | Fred | Connor |
Angel's a Champion.
And Wesley's the Brains of the operation, and Gunn is the Muscle,
Cordy's the Heart, and I'm...? --Fred
"Fredless"
Angel |
Warning: this page contains
info about episodes up through season 6 BtVS/season 3 AtS. If
you're in danger of being spoiled, proceed with caution. |
"This
isn't gonna be easy. The more you live in this world, the more
you see how apart from it you really are."
--Whistler, on Angel's calling to join the forces of good. |
Romania, 1898:
After the gypsies cursed Angelus, his human
soul was restored to his body. But why did this new dual
creature call himself "Angel"? Why didn't he use
his human name, Liam?
...he is trying to redeem
himself for all
he did as a demon,
and maybe he feels that by doing good things as "Angel,"
he can restore reverence to the name (BuffyBuff, Feb 23 11:45
2000).
1898-1996
A recently-souled Angel saves a missionary
family from a Chinese rioter and from his
predatory vamp-family during the Boxer Rebellion (1900), then
later saves the missionaries' infant when Darla demands he feed
on it. In 1952, he almost saves
some hotel residents from a demon, until they turn on him.
Manhattan, 1996: The down-and-out vampire-with-a-conscience who
gave up on human beings years before is pulled
out of the sewer and asked to work on the side of good.
Angel moves to Sunnydale to await his work helping the slayer
(implied in The Wish).
1997: Angel starts his work as the cool, mysterious
purveyor of cryptic
warnings for the slayer. He warns
Buffy about the Harvest, fork-guy, the order of Aurelius, the
Anointed One, Spike, the Order of Taraka, and the
apocalypse in The Zeppo. When Angel brings Giles the Codex
with slayer prophecy in it (IG), he tells
Giles that the Master has "something big" planned. He
also brought Giles a warning about Hus
based on Doyle's vague vision.
His romance with Buffy created a "softer, gentler" vampire,
but (except for the de-souled period)
he came through when he was needed:
Buffy save-age: from the Three, his sire Darla,
joins Xander in saving Buffy from the Master,
Spike and the mini-demons, the Tarakan assassin, the Judge. 1998-99:
from Pete in B&tB, the
telepathic demon whose heart will save Buffy, the
Mayor (in the hospital in Graduation), a vengeance spirit.
Other heroic moments: Saves the gang from suffocation,
saves Xander from one of Spike's minion vampires (School Hard),
saves a young boy left in the park from Drusilla and teams up
with Willow and Xander to find out Ford's evil plans, drives Eyghon out of Jenny by taking it into
himself, tries to goad Spike into killing him to prevent the
ritual to restore Drusilla's health. Saves Willow from Mrs.
Post, tries to save Joyce from Spike in Lover's Walk, bizarro-world
Angel tried to save victims of the Master
and later helps Buffy try to defeat the Master, faces the Jhe-demons
and the Hellmouth Beast, helps fight Balthazar and his vamp minions,
saves Xander from Faith then tries to counsel her, tells the gang
that Faith is the Mayor's emotional weak link (Graduation), fights
vamps during the Ascension.
Los
Angeles, 1999-present: Angel leaves
Sunnydale and finds a new home where he can fight evil and make
amends. Does Angel have a destiny
to do good decided by the powers that be?
He just might:
"There is a design
Angel, hidden in the chaos as it might be. But it's there. And
you have your place in it." --
Wesley, Blind Date
Highlights of Angel's
battle for good:
- slays Russell
Winters
- nails vampMarcus
- takes on the Kailiff Demon who threatens
Doyle's life.
- sacrifices his
own happiness to have a chance
to save Buffy's life during the coming Apocalypse,
- Note on Angel's
amends
- helps the persecuted Lister demons escape
the Scourge, and discovers how their deadly Beacon works. ...he was willing to sacrifice
himself to unhook the beacon before Doyle knocked him off the
landing (Nikki, 21 Oct 2000 21:26).
- Angel as family
man
- takes on the demon
drug-lord
- only someone who's walked in her shoes
can get through to Faith--at least that's Angel's hope when he
gives her Sanctuary.
- saves the seer
children from assassin Vanessa
- takes on the responsibility of protecting
a woman whose protector he killed
- empowers the telekinetic
Bethany
- believes his newly human sire can
be redeemed.
- hooks Faux T'ish
Magev's lower lip with a fishing rod and hauls him in when
the swami-killer tries to protect himself with sunshine. Ouch.
- manages to overcome the power of an
evil shroud and protect Kate rather than killing her.
- suffers three
painful trials in an attempt to save MortalDarla's life.
- NoirAngel helps
a teen runaway shelter and keeps
the world from ending when he's not too busy getting
lawyers killed and setting girls on
fire.
- stops the zombieCops
by breaking the police captain's spell
- goes on a Kamikaze mission to destroy
the senior partners. Well, his intentions were good. Sort
of.
- saves his friends from the
Skilosh demons
- empowers his inner vampire self.by dusting
Doug the motivational vamp master
- slays the Drokken
demon
- saves
Fred from his new best friends, the Deathwok clan
- fights off the
insect demon at the bus station
- helps to defeat
the Nahdrahs who want Fred's head.
- Destroys Count
Kurskov and his timeless ballet
trap
- drains the energy out of the Tree Demon with his cold physiology
- pushes Fred to safety and fights
Sahjhan when he attacks Angel, Fred, and Gunn in his demon
lair.
- forgives Wesley for kidnapping Connor and goes
easy on Connor for trapping him at the bottom of the ocean.
That is, if you consider being kicked out of the house "going
easy".
- saves electro-Gwen's
client from Gwen by punching the client out and restraining Gwen.
- rescues Fred and
Gunn from death at the hands of
a greedy casino-owner
- helps free Fred when a
tentacled creature tries to pull her into another dimension
- fights against
the Beast to prevent the creature's
ritual to blot out the sun.
- The ultimate sacrifice? Angel
lets himself become Angelus in order to fight the Beast.
- encourages Faith to find redemption in living, rather than in death.
- uncovers the
identity of the Beast's boss, then
helps ensnare her when her identity
is revealed.
- takes on the responsibility of killing
the Beast's Master--or her child--even though it may mean
killing Cordelia.
- enters
a dangerous demon dimension where the key to defeating Jasmine
can be found. Fights a demon there, brings its head back to the
Hyperion, and removes Jasmine's power.
- saves a group
of hostages from death at the hands
of the nihilistically suicidal Connor.
- takes the Wolfram and Hart amulet to Sunnydale,
arriving just in time to punch out Caleb
as he is about to ax-murder a nearly unconscious Buffy. Angel
lets Buffy finish the fight, then tells her he will fight at
her side with the amulet. Buffy asks him to be her back-up in
case she is unable to stop the First Evil.
- doesn't make
a good impression on his new bosses
the first week of work, what with the killing employees and clients
and all.
- helps a woman
who has been turned into a werewolf get her life back.
- kills the demon
Tezcatcatl while assisting Los
Hermanos Numeros. Andele'!
- Philosophies of doing good: Angel
vs. Spike
- Angel gets a
show-down with Lindsey when the former Wolfram and Hart lawyer
tries to manipulate and kill him.
- Tiny puppet-Angel goes
after the bad guys with big gusto.
- is determined to save Fred from death,
then goes after Illyria when Fred
is beyond saving
- Mama-bear vibe, part II: when Connor
comes to Wolfram and Hart, Angel fights to protect him from
danger
- saves Spike from being staked by Illyria
- sets in motion
a plan to strike a blow against
Wolfram and Hart.
- signs away his
claim on the Shanshu destiny in
order to retain the confidence of the Circle of the Black Thorn
- poisons Archduke Sebassis and liaison
Marcus Hamilton as part of the mission
to destroy the Circle of the Black Thorn
- takes on a dragon in the
battle against the Senior Partner's vengeance forces.
Cordy save-age: from a severed hand in SAR, from Russell Winters,
helps the Bitch get back in RWAV, from Barney, the Hacksaw Beast,
drug-stuffed wild Kwainis, and Vocah's vision-spell, from the land of Pylea, from the wounding
visions (TVT), from Darla in
Offspring, from Count Kurskov's lackeys, from a Wolfram and Hart
black ops team.
The morally ambiguous
Angel
The evil of Angelus
Cordelia |
|
I think that's Cordy's true nature ...sharp tongued and tactless
on the outside, but good at heart and does the right thing in
the clutch (devil, Jan 12 20:25 1999).
|
Sunnydale
"We kept getting put
in these life or death situations, and that's always all sexy
and stuff."
- In WSWB, Cordelia won't admit to spending
an entire night with Buffy and her friends, but she does promise
to keep Buffy's identity a secret. ...it's Cordelia who has the guts to tell Buffy
she needs to drop the Joan Collins Tude (Leather Jacket, Oct
6 14:55 1999).
Unlike many women, young
women in particular, Cordy feels at home in the world. She's
not afraid that people aren't going to like her if she expresses
an opinion, she is confident of her own assessment of matters,
and she is sure she's smart and beautiful. She's not afraid to
ask for what she wants, and she is sure she's entitled to it
(Diajanwal, 11/17 8:22 pm).
- joins the undead play-group to help save
Giles and kicks Ethan so he doesn't escape
- helps Xander battle the
evil bug man (Leather Jacket)
- saves Xander from the
girl-mob in BBB, ...deciding
to do what she felt was right for her and continue going out
with Xander, in defiance of the Cordettes (golden girl, Dec 28
20:54 1998)
- being vampire-bait in Anne and trying
to save Xander from the gymnast vamp
- warns Buffy before she puts her foot in Jungle Bob's trap.
Courage - facing down
the Gorch brother in the Library while Buffy was stunned (NuPhalanx,
10 Jan 1999 09:51)
- wakes up Giles in Gingerbread. Cordelia
is the one who puts out the fire, without which Buffy never could
have defeated Hansel and Grettle (Leather Jacket)
- standing in the graduation
mayhem with only a stake for protection, Cordelia comes face
to face with a vamp and dusts him like a pro.
Karl's Cordelia
and Plato: Allegory of the Cave:
an analysis of Cordelia's journey from May Queen to Scooby Gang
member
Los Angeles
Cordelia on her new job: "First I say yuck, and then I hit 'search'"
As the [1st] season ...progressed,
Cordelia has become just a little less self centered (NuPhalanx,
1/5/00 6:59 pm).
- holds Spike at bay with a cross-bow, helps
save Angel from Spike, and shoos the children away from vampMarcus.
- reveals Maude's
secret in RWAV
- helps the persecuted Lister demons escape
the Scourge by making arrangements for their get-away ship
- She ...realized what was
in front of her, in the form of Doyle - and even managed to get
past his demon
side. That alone
shows a lot of growth with her character (NuPhalanx ).
- If you fight evil long enough, the PTB's
might notice. They've given Cordelia Doyle's visions.
Her first significant act after getting the gift, however, was
non-psychic Barney-slayage
- gives Angel a post-Penn
pep-talk
- shatters the Hacksaw Beast
- helps the Oden Tal refugees escape
- no longer has a problem with Angel requesting
dismemberment
- nabs a wrist-cuff
to save Angel
- bluffs Angelus with a sports bottle of
not-so-holy water
- is actually nice on the phone with computer-whiz Willow
- tries to get Angel in the world by buying
the artistic vamp art supplies
...during her time with
angel. she must've come to a great realization of things, especially
when she had that vision
attack thing. imagine
feeling people's fear, pain, and suffering all at once for like
HOURS (pocky, 12-Oct-00 11:56)
- interesting how Cordelia
is now referring to her "inevitable stardom" as a "day
job". Does that mean helping Angel is her "real"
career?
- stakes a vamp attacking Wesley in the
parking garage and runs to an unappreciative
Gunn's aid with a battle-ax and no backup
- tries to foil a kidnap attempt with java
power--hot coffee in the eyes almost helps a quick-thinking Cordy
save Bethany from a couple W&H
goons.
- joins the boys in battling the thrall
demon's groupies.
- goes to warn Angel about the Shroud
of Rahmon's danger
- helps rescue a
woman from a demon without Angel on the team
- helps Anne at the Shelter then fights
the zombie cops that threaten the
kids there.
- hasn't had any friends outside of Angel
Investigations (or dates, one assumes) since Angel started ignoring
her visions. Cordelia can't ignore them, and she won't.
- Cordelia's happier now than she was is
high school. Her work at Angel Investigations is more fulfilling
than being May Queen ever was.
- You go! Cordy aims a crossbow at VampHarmony's
throat. When Harmony laughs, she pulls out another--aimed at
her heart.
- Cordy, you reign! Cordelia stirs
up trouble in Pylea when she's made a prop-princess
"I was the ditsiest
bitch in Sunnydale, coulda had any man I wanted; now I'm all
superhero-y and the best action I can get is an invisible ghost
who's good with a loofah."
Goodbye, 'Queen C'.
The hermetically insensitive
Cordelia
Cordelia and Jasmine
|
Wesley
Despite his klutzy moments,
he's starting to prove his worth in his role of "research
guy" for Angel and he CAN fight when pushed to it (Wolf577,
Feb 8 19:27 2000).
|
Wesley's finest moments:
- Being the only one to
recognize that freeing Willow would be meaningless if they had
to give up the Box of Gavrock to do it (Leather Jacket, Jun 21
13:17 2000).
- offers to ask the Watcher's council about
toxins that can kill vampires, to see if there is an antidote
to Angel's poisoning (Graduation)
- Offering to help Buffy
during the Ascension, even knowing how they all felt about him.
That took courage (Trbl4Giles, Jun 21 9:08 2000).
- Learning how to kiss Cordelia
between Graduation and Parting Gifts (Leather Jacket, Jun 21
13:17 2000)
- he was competent enough
to keep that [empath] demon he was hunting ...on the run (Dizzy
B, Jun 21 14:02 2000).
- Wesley and Cordelia both fight off the
druggie demons pretty well before Angel shows up
- Expecting for the way
he treated Cordy with genuine care and respect (Suzanne, Jun
21 9:03 2000).
- faces the Hacksaw Beast in Expecting,
keeping it distracted until Angel arrives, then shoots
out the canister that causes it to freeze
- helps the Oden Tal refugees escape, and
fights off the Vigories with a few well-aimed punches
- ...continuing to try to
perform the exorcism even when he knew it could be fatal (valMichael,
Jun 21 10:14 2000).
- That cool-as-hell move
with the mini-crossbow in The Ring where he shot the bad guy in the hand and then scooped up the gun to
cover said bad guy's flunkies (Kameko, Jun 21 11:26 2000).
- The Ring when Wesley took
matters into his own hands and found out what was happening and
fashioned the key that freed Angel from his bonds (Suzanne, Jun
21 9:03 2000).
- Wesley tripping up Angelus and sending him down the elevator
shaft (Lady of the Lake, Jun 21 8:40 2000)
- The end of Eternity after
Angel has been so horrid when Wesley suggests that they move
on and then gently says "you walk a fine line Angel..."
(Suzanne, Jun 21 9:03 2000)
- 5x5 Keeping his cool while
being tortured
Faith: I think I want to hear you scream.
Wesley: You never will (Lucille, Jun 21 9:45 2000).
- Playing the WC goons along
until he could get back to Angel and warn him of their plans
"That's for calling
me a ponce!" (Kameko,
Jun 21 11:26 2000)
- Throwing the needle at
Weatherby(Lucille, Jun 21 9:45 2000)
- Blind Date Emotional support
for Angel There is
a design, Angel. Hidden in the chaos as it may be, but - it's
there - and you have your place in it (Lucille, Jun 21 9:45 2000).
The moral ambiguity of
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
Gunn |
|
"I still
hunt vampires, but if this job has taught me anything, it's that
there's things a lot worse out there than a set of teeth." |
People do what they must to survive in the Buffyverse, and those with the hearts
of warriors take on the fight for
those who cannot defend themselves with such aplomb. Gunn is such
a person. He was the leader of a family of street kids in their
war against the local vampires. He took care of his people, making
sure they fed and sheltered. Then he met a vampire with a soul
and signed on as one of his evil-fighting colleagues.
Gunn's slayage
Gunn
the detective:
He serves as the "clear
thinker" when everyone else is dealing with conflict. ...Gunn
tends to be the voice of reason - even at times if is a bit abrasive
- when the others are not thinking clearly (Sebastian, 9:54:01
4/19/01).
Gunn is a little more down to Earth than
his Angel Investigation colleagues, who've been fighting supernatural
evil just a little too long.
- when they can't figure out where to find
Darla, he sets them on the right track with ease.
- when his so-called "expert"
detective colleagues are fumbling around trying to figure out
where Drusilla stashed Darla's corpse, he puts their clues together
for them.
- figures out where
Cordelia went the night of the Skilosh attacks.
- ...When everyone was debating
whether Harmony should be allowed to tag along
- Gunn was clear headed enough to ask "we still *do* fight
vampires, right?" (Sebastian, 9:54:01 4/19/01).
- when Wesley puts together a dangerous
plan for storming the Pylean castle, Gunn
questions his tactics, but ultimately finds them sound.
- solves the apocalyptic
puzzle that Wolfram and Hart pulled
out of Lorne's head.
- infers from their
continual failures with the Beast
that the Beast has someone with inside knowledge of Angel Investigations
working for him.
- Gunn, secret agent: Gunn uses his knowledge
of Japanese culture to get Gwen Raiden
into a swanky party after her invitation fails to pass muster.
- has a good grasp of the
Champion's role in the big picture when the demon Skip claims
that the big picture is rigged.
More
Gunn good deeds
Counselor
Gunn
The hot-headed Charles Gunn
|
Fred |
|
Fred's finest moments
Fred's experiences in Pylea have made her
a little goofy, but she is also a
survivor who can rise to the occasion:
- saves Gunn and Wesley from the
AngelBeast by luring him back to her cave
- determines the complex nature of the
incantations used to travel to and from Pylea
- makes a noble attempt to save
Angel from death in TOGoM
- fights off the insect demon at the
bus station and at the hotel,
but has a harder time with mom and dad
- defends herself against Wesley and Gunn when they fall under the
influence of demon blood.
- points out to the gang that they must
chose to fight despite a prophecy of
a coming evil. She doesn't believe in destiny,
just clobbering the bad guys.
- tends to Gunn's wounds and heart during
the fight with Count Kurskov's lackeys.
- saves Gunn from vampires and Angel from
being staked (L/ST)
- throws a frazier of hot coals in
Sahjan's face when he attacks Angel, Fred, and Gunn in his
demon lair.
- takes charge
of Angel Investigations over the
summer of '02
- helps Lorne escape from a greedy casino owner
- embraces Gunn with relief when the rain
of fire is over, despite being angry with him earlier over a
fight about Professor Seidel's death.
- fights off zombie lawyers and hot-wires
an elevator to help rescue Connor
from Wolfram and Hart.
- researches and
creates a portal to rid the world
of the Beast
- helps ensnare
the Beast's boss when her identity is revealed.
- takes it upon herself to
kill Jasmine and reverse the mind-altering mojo that has
effected Fred's friends.
- discovers the key to breaking Jasmine's
shiny happy spell and then bravely uses
it to free Angel, and then the rest of her friends.
- fights against
Jasmine's soldiers to give Angel
time to retrieve the "weapon" that can defeat Jasmine.
- pushes her new
science team to find an antidote
to a deadly virus a client is threatening to unleash on millions
- helps in the hunt
for werewolf-Nina. Then later, with Spike's help, discovers
Dr. Royce's duplicity and hits
him over the head with a lamp.
- goes over her division budget to pull
together a re-corporealizing spell for Spike, because she
believes he is "worth saving".
- is starting to take
issue with the way her male colleagues coddle her.
- saves Eve from being strangled by a spell-enraged Gunn.
- Figures out where Dana
has Spike and helps Spike reattach his hands.
- fights off the
puppet-baddies preying on L.A. children with a gun and an
incantation
- is determined to
save her own waning life when she becomes possessed by the
demon Illyria, but dies as a result of the ancient demon's resurrection.
- The Fred in Illyria
"Angel's a Champion.
And Wesley's the Brains of the operation, and Gunn is the Muscle,
Cordy's the Heart, and I'm...?" Tiny Winifred Burkle was all the above. Whatever
the situation needed, champion, brains, muscle, heart or anything
else, that's what she was and she did it with quiet grace and
dignity that we could all learn from. On Pylea she is as much the rescuer as she is
the rescued. She is hero and damsel rolled into one wonderful
package. One minute she is crying because she feels alone and
scared and the next she is kissing Angel to hide them both. In
her last moments, she was scared. A hero isn't someone that doesn't
get scared. It is someone who even though she is scared, she
still thinks of others. A hero is someone that wants a beautiful
lie told to her parents. Fred came back from Pylea afraid of
the truth, so afraid that she ran away. She constructed a beautiful
fairy tale about heros on horses and castles. Fred no longer
runs from the truth. Instead she protects others from it. Or
at least she did. Winifred Burkle will remain in the hearts of
those of us who love her and is greatly missed (lunasea, May
22nd, 2004 - 02:37)
The Moral Ambiguity of
Fred
Connor
Connor believes he's his father's son. And
while he fears deep down inside that that father is Angelus, Connor
has a soul just like Angel, and just like Angel, an urge to do
what's right. Now if Angel can just teach the kid to think things
through before he acts.
The heroic deeds of the
not-too-bright, but always gung-ho Connor:
- saves a junkie from a ruthless drug dealer
- doesn't kill Angel when the vampire he
was raised to hate turns out to be very
different than he expected
- bonds with his
father in team-slaying. Beats a
ball game or a museum.
- However dysfunctional his past with Hotlz,
"Steven" loved the man
who raised him.
- becomes a boy
slayer in Los Angeles during the summer of '02
- saves Cordelia from a predatory monster, then fights at her side
against a black-ops team from Wolfram and Hart
- gives Cordelia
a place to stay while she readjusts
to her forgotten life.
- rescues Cordelia from an adolescent vampLiam after a spell goes
wonky and takes most of his father's memory
- encourages a
lost Cordelia about her purpose
on Earth.
- tries to kill the Beast more than
once (AN, HC,
LDJ), and gets tossed around for
his trouble.
- takes on the increased
vampire tourism brought on by a not-so-sunny L.A.
- is eager to test his mettle against a soul-eater.
- Loyally, if misguidedly, protects
Cordelia and her unborn child from Angelus, Willow, and being
found out.
- Kills Jasmine, although perhaps not entirely for the right reasons.
- Some guy you don't know tells you that
you're destined to kill a dangerous demon even though you don't
know your way around a weapon, and you just buy it? Connor takes on the demon Sahjhan (and nearly
gets his ass kicked) in order to protect
his new family.
- saves the vampire
father he once tried to kill from
a stake in the heart, then asks to join his battle.
The feral conflicted
Connor
All
Things Evil in the Buffyverse
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