"That was real."

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penny_lane_42 made a post which prompted a discussion about Spuffy (shocker, I know!) and, less obviously, a comparison to Cordy/Angel. I started to comment, but it turned into a book, so here it is in a new post. I've actually talked about Cordy/Angel before, and while I think I like them more as a romantic pairing than I did then, my feelings about the execution fail in their relationship arc remain the same.

That said, I definitely see parallels between S/B and C/A, in a way that makes me like C/A a lot more precisely because of my Spuffy love. It can be hard to see the similarities because the two couples started at opposite ends of the spectrum and worked their way to the middle - Cordy and Angel started as friends who grew to love each other, whereas Buffy and Spike started as lovers who built a friendship out of the rubble of their destructive affair. But both were a slow build, and at the climax of their relationships (for B/S it's late S7, for C/A it's "You're Welcome"), both couples managed to develop a relationship that encompassed friendship, desire, trust, and love.

I think it helps to start by looking at the characters individually - a lot of people like to compare Angel and Spike because of the whole "vampire with a soul" thing, but superficial comparisons aside, they're not all that alike. In contrast, Angel and Buffy are actually very similar, and Cordy and Spike play corresponding roles in their lives.

Angel and Buffy are both the alphas in the relationship. (This is, in fact, one of the reasons I don't think they could ever work long term as a couple. They're too similar.) They are the heroes, the leaders of their respective teams, the ones who make the big decisions that affect people's lives. There's a lot of responsibility in that, and it can get heavy. Both of them struggle with the pain, the stress, and the isolation that comes with being the Chosen One. They need someone they can trust, someone who understands them in a way that no one else does, someone who will support them and keep them from detaching themselves too much, but also call them out when they're wrong.

Enter Cordelia and Spike. They are the foundation upon which our heroes build. Angel can't function without Cordy - he needs her to keep him sane, to keep him connected to the living, to keep him on the right path. She is his connection to the Powers and his guiding light. Likewise, Buffy depends on Spike - he is her best fighter when she needs back-up, her escape when the world is too much, her strength when she feels like giving up. He is the one she can count on when no one else is there.

Cordy and Spike help Angel and Buffy be heroes. They lift them up, and they love them in a way that doesn't ask for anything in return. Cordy and Spike make them better people. And I think the reverse is true as well - certainly for Spike, whose desire to become the kind of man Buffy would love drove him to do good, to get a soul, and save the world, but also for Cordelia, who became a much more compassionate and mature person with Angel. Cordy and Spike become heroes in their own right, but they never want or need to shine brighter than their respective partners. The mission is what matters, and Cordy and Spike have both dedicated themselves wholeheartedly to someone else's.

S/B is certainly not a pretty ship, so I can see why C/A fans might be dubious at the comparison. It's messy and complicated and occasionally dysfunctional, but it's very real. That's what separates it from the idealized romance of Buffy and Angel. It's not about destiny or star-crossed love; it's just two people trying to muddle through the best they can, and sometimes they get it right and sometimes they get it wrong. And that's a quality I see in C/A - they too are real, they never idealized each other, they never allowed each other anything but the unvarnished truth. (As I said in my previous essay, I think the writers went off the rails trying to make them more epic than they needed to be, so I think it works better in theory than in execution, but that foundation was definitely there, and it could've been so much better than what happened.) They've seen the best and the worst of each other, they understand each other with perfect clarity, and they know... you're the one.

Comments

[eleusis-walks.livejournal.com]

idk. i don't like to overstate her presence because while she def is a haunty presence i don't like the way people sometimes read C/A as being all about buffy and buffy issues. like, that's a small factor in a much larger whole. i think it would be very interesting to explore, though, and what you've said about it so far has had me nodding my head.

[anythingbutgrey.livejournal.com]

i just see it as part of the reason why they're both such emotional idiots about their relationship. like, angel thinks he's supposed to love a certain way because of how he loves buffy and cordelia has gotten so used to this fact of buffy and that buffy always manages to supercede her in so many ways. i think all of these issues are gone by s4 (well, with the exception of angel's return to sunnydale in end of days/chosen, but then i imagine it has to on some level be about cordelia because otherwise that shit makes NO sense), but i do think they're there in s1-3. i obviously don't think c/a is about buffy or buffy issues, but i do think buffy is a distraction from the real OTP time at hand. and i think angel has a massive buffy complex that makes him think that if he loves anyone else it's betraying her - and i have started thinking that conversation with cordelia in heartthrob about how he feels like he's betraying buffy is less about still living and more about still loving.

i thought of this today. am still working on if this is cogent or not. i like it nonetheless.

[eleusis-walks.livejournal.com]

yeah i get what you are saying. personally i would link the "heartthrob" convo to the convo they have in "double or nothing" after connor is stolen. the one where she's like "you will mourn forever, but you'll keep on living" (i am paraphrasing here because cordy is blonde in that episode and therefore i try to forget it)

like basically cordy feels in s3 like angel will always love buffy, and that's why she doesn't consider angel a romantic prospect. and due to the events of btvs s2, it takes angel forever to rationalize ever being with someone besides buffy, who like carries the fallen idol of his love, or something. he finally gets with the program around "offspring" but cordelia doesn't get it until after groo shows up and by then it's like well shit what do i do now. and then "tomorrow", obvi.

also yes "end of days"/"chosen" is so totally about him despairing and being completely lost because he has lost cordy and connor. it's the only way that shit makes sense.

[anythingbutgrey.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA blond cordelia.

i think that the reading of the heartthrob scene is totally legitimate, and definitely a more mainstream way of not reading too much into everything elyssa, but there's just something about this scene that gets to me in a way that he really is okay, and how this episode as a whole just kicks c/a off the ground in a way that wasn't there before (this is also combined with the end of s2 and the beige separation and all of that).

like basically cordy feels in s3 like angel will always love buffy, and that's why she doesn't consider angel a romantic prospect. and due to the events of btvs s2, it takes angel forever to rationalize ever being with someone besides buffy, who like carries the fallen idol of his love, or something.

THIS for always. for always. yes. yes. yes.

yes.

do you think that cordelia gets it in witw? or do you think she gets it further into the groo arc but doesn't register it until tomorrow? tell me more.

i have feelings on end of days/chosen. i remembered yesterday that buffy told spike there was no tongue involved and then i was like WHY WOULDN'T THERE BE I THOUGHT YOU GUYS ARE FUCKING SOULMATES~~~~~?

and then i was like "oh, look, buffy gets to have the specter of cordelia hanging around even if she never sees it because god forbid anyone in sunnydale ever take a second to find out who cordelia chase became or anything --"

i have feelings. things we know.

... eowyn_315, i am sorry this post has gotten vaguely hijacked.

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Heh, I am mostly just amused that, despite having a primarily Spuffy flist, it's my Cordy/Angel posts that get the most comments. :)

[anythingbutgrey.livejournal.com]

HAHAHA well i traveled here because i am full of feelings. i think that c/a makes people emotional because of the could have beens or the should have beens or the "god i wish they had never gone there ever"s. this is my theory. :D

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Haha, I tend to think Spuffy makes people emotional for much the same reasons. :)

[anythingbutgrey.livejournal.com]

haha perhaps; i don't know too many spuffy people beyond the three or four on my flist, so i don't know how that fandom rolls~ as it were.

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We are oh so similar! lol

[eleusis-walks.livejournal.com]

i'm not even -on- your flist i'm just insane. elyssa and i do this everywhere we go.

[eleusis-walks.livejournal.com]

i think she's in denial in witw, and also her misinterpretation of angel's point about wanting to forget their sexy possessed time probably hurts her a great deal. and when groo shows up she just doesn't have to think about it so she doesn't. until groo is like 'um i am not stupid' and she's like 'omfg i am totally in love with angel. fuck.'

buffy told spike there was no tongue involved and then i was like WHY WOULDN'T THERE BE I THOUGHT YOU GUYS ARE FUCKING SOULMATES~~~~~?
omg i forgot this
yesss
canon evidence that angel's just not that into it

[anythingbutgrey.livejournal.com]

god when she misunderstood what he was saying about wanting to forget that i just - my heart.

yesss. i put it in my fic. :D

[eleusis-walks.livejournal.com]

it is probably the only time in the course of the show when i went 'augh no' aloud. cordyyyy

yessss. let's spend some quality fic time this weekend.

[anythingbutgrey.livejournal.com]

i totally support this plan. i am moving into school on saturday, but i am okay with sunday ficday. i can finish this and possibly get started on one of the c/a five things i have lurking in my brain.

[eleusis-walks.livejournal.com]

sunday it is!!

have a good move. you must be so excited. get this shit donezo.