There have been plenty of iconic star-crossed loves to grace the medium of television, but one that still seems to resonate with fans is the romance of Buffy and Angel on the series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Spanning the show's first three seasons, Buffy and Angel were the thread that helped the series stay alive, actively using their bond to push the story further. This relationship creatively subverted expectations of the typical “teen romance” and had the show’s hero in love with the very enemy that she’s sworn to eliminate.
Buffy and Angel’s relationship continued to evolve and redefine the show in new ways, but it’s certainly one of the most significant aspects during the show’s early, formative years. The broader strokes of Buffy and Angel’s relationship are largely known, but there are also plenty of lesser known details about their love. Accordingly, Here Are 20 Wild Revelations About Buffy And Angel’s Relationship.
20 They Don’t Work As Just Friends
Buffy and Angel’s romance is an epic one for the ages and it’s kind of beautiful when it’s at its peak and everything’s clicking. Some couples can find some kind of balance post-relationship that works for them, but Buffy and Angel are not one of those couples. The few times that they try to work the whole friend dynamic in their limited post-relationship appearances are clunky, they don’t work, and it’s clear that they both want something more. Even afterwards in the comics their relationship is hot and cold and doesn’t operate on a purely friendship level after everything that they’ve been through.
19 They Have Nothing In Common
Sometimes relationships are brought together by a large amount of liked interests, but Buffy and Angel don’t fall into that camp. They may both want to keep the world safe from the forces of evil, but beyond that they’re kind of different planets. Their connection is much more primal and emotional, since they come from entirely different centuries and one of them is a vampire. This makes their love sweet in a way, but also really flawed and one-dimensional.
18 Gellar And Boreanaz Didn't Take Their Romance Scenes Seriously
There’s a lot of passion on the screen when it comes to Buffy and Angel’s romantic encounters, but these scenes take on a humorous second life when you take into consideration how both Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz treated these moments. Gellar and Boreanaz would eat gross foods before scenes where they’d have to kiss a lot and play similar pranks on each other during intimate moments to deflate some of the tension.
17 Later Crossovers Were Held Back By Network
It was a difficult moment for some fans when, after Buffy’s third season, Angel left both his love and her series once he got his own spin-off show, Angel. During the beginning of this separation period, there were some fun crossovers shared between the two programs. However, Buffy’s final two seasons were on UPN, rather than the WB. This difference of networks made continued crossovers increasingly difficult and they could only be done when they were absolutely “necessary.”
16 Angel Lets Her Go, But Not Really
In one of the final episodes of Angel, “The Girl in Question,” Angel and Spike try to find Buffy who's apparently hooked up with an ancient vampire named The Immortal. When the team locates Buffy, rather than confront her about this, Angel chooses to let her go. This shows significant growth on his part. However, the later events of the Buffy comics ret-con this and explain that this was actually one of Buffy's future Buffybots and that Buffy was never in a rebound relationship this quickly.
15 Their Famous Meeting After Buffy's Resurrection Remains A Mystery
One of the most pivotal moments in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is when Buffy passes away at the conclusion of the fifth season. Through some crafty magic, Buffy is brought back to life and shortly after her return she apparently meets up with angel to have a talk. This event happens on both shows, albeit off-camera. It’s heavily joked about in the Angel episode, "Fredless," and Jane Espenson wrote a Buffy comic called "Reunion" that guesses at what happens, but doesn't get anywhere on the matter.
14 Boreanaz Thinks Darla Is Angel's Soulmate, Not Buffy
It’s always interesting when actors weigh in on the decisions of their character and what they think about the romantic relationships that they’ve ended up in. Buffy and Angel undeniably have a strong chemistry during Buffy’s early years, but Boreanaz thinks that Darla is actually Angel’s soulmate, rather than Buffy. Darla and Angel’s story carries on in Angel and to be fair, it certainly becomes rather epic. They even have an impossible child together.
13 Gellar Thinks Angel Is Buffy's Soulmate
Boreanaz may ship Angel and Darla, but when it comes to Sarah Michelle Gellar, she’s much more faithful to Buffy’s first major love, Angel. She thinks that he’s Buffy’s soulmate. This is a fairly big reveal considering her character spends a lot more time with Spike, but Spike also does some fairly terrible things to Buffy and she may just prefer those “simpler” times. Even still, Gellar’s decision here even led to some fans threatening her online!
12 Angel Wasn't Originally Planned To Be A Vampire
This may seem kind of ridiculous now since Angel is perhaps the most definitive vampireto come out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but during the series’ early days of production, Angel’s mysterious history was still very much up in the air. Joss Whedon knew that he wanted Angel to have some sort of supernatural complication and be Buffy’s love interest, but he hadn’t yet narrowed in on the vampire angle. At one point he even considered making the character an actual Angel, which would have been… regrettable.
11 Angel Loses His Soul Because Of Buffy
Angel is a major anomaly in the vampire world because he’s actually a vampire that still has a soul. This sets off a whole chain of events throughout both Buffy and Angel, but a devastating moment occurs in Buffy’s second season when Angel loses that soul. The conditions around Angel’s soul is that it will leave him after he experiences “true happiness.” In this sense, Angel experiences more than just a romantic connection with Buffy, but it’s true satisfaction all around.
10 Buffy Was Originally Angel's Guiding Light In "You're Welcome"
After Angel's own spinoff had developed its own voice, it takes some major swings in its final season and mixes up the show’s surroundings and premise in a big way. The culmination of this occurs in the show’s 100th episode, “You’re Welcome,” where Angel gets an important pep talk to get set back on track. This talk was originally supposed to come from Buffy before the much better idea had Cordelia used instead in order to redeem her character.
9 By The Time Of "Angel's" Finale, He Was Beyond Her
The series finale of Angel is an incredible episode of television and it pushes a strong message to never give up fighting. While obviously Buffy was an important part of Angel’s life and his series, there was never any serious consideration to include the character in the show’s finale. This would detract away from the main cast and the show was past that aspect of the character. However, Angel was a big part of Buffy’s finale and the show arguably did benefit from his presence.
8 The Final Breaking Point Between Them Comes Down To Giles
Angel and Buffy have their share of rough patches, but the breaking point is really when Buffy’s mentor and parental surrogate, Giles, is put in danger. In Buffy’s season eight comics, Angel gets possessed by a demonic entity known as Twilight and then quickly offs Giles. This act is just too much for Buffy and even after Giles comes back in another body, Buffy's still traumatized and struggles to see Angel.
7 Angel Was Supposed To Go For Good In "Becoming Part 2"
One of the most emotional moments from Buffy is when Buffy has to sacrifice Angel in the show’s second season finale, “Becoming, Part 2,” but it happens moments after he regains his soul. It’s a grueling decision and Angel’s end was originally supposed to be permanent! The character was brought back after the network thought he was popular enough to warrant a spin-off which Angel’s story in Buffy’s third season heavily builds towards.
6 Whedon Himself Isn't A Major Buffy/Angel Shipper
Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz have both made their opinions on Buffy and Angel’s love life known, but when it comes to the creator of these characters, Joss Whedon has some interesting opinions. When it comes down to it, Whedon prefers Buffy with Spike instead of with Angel, but a lot of this has to do with how he views Spike as the character that’s more fun to write.
5 Buffy's Perfect Relationship Involves Angel... And Spike
The canonical Buffy comics that continue past the show’s seventh television season really go to some outlandish places since they’re not beheld to the medium of television. Season eight’s comics take a trip into Buffy's consciousness and show a projection of her true fantasy, which happens to involve her with both Angel and Spike. This feels like a way to just not upset any of the fans, but it also reflects that neither of these characters are perfect and both have necessary traits.
4 Angel Claims It Was Love At First Sight With Buffy
Angel may have spent centuries together with Darla, but all it takes is a few seconds with Buffy Summers to erase all of that and show him the light. Apparently, the moment that Buffy comes to Sunnydale and Angel first lays eyes on her he knows that he’s in love with her. This has a tinge of creepiness to it considering she’s still a complete stranger at this point, but something genuine grows between them.
3 There's A Colossal Age Difference Between Them
Relationships with vampires are always tricky, largely because of the way in which vampires don’t visibly age after they get turned. This means that most vampires are hundreds of years old, even though they may not look it, and this is no exception when it comes to Angel. In fact, Angel is actually 224 years older than Buffy, which is a lot, but even going by the age at which he was turned, he’s still 26 and gets together with Buffy when she's 16.
2 Their Love Spawned An Evil Alternate Universe
The Buffy comics aren’t afraid to go all in when it comes to the crazy department and some of the more ridiculous moments connect to the reunion between Buffy and Angel. Angel finds himself in a particularly dark place when he gets taken over by the dark entity, Twilight, who then tries to persuade Buffy to come over to his side and ascend to a higher level. Buffy attains crazy superpowers and somehow their time together spawns an alternate universe.
1 They're Psychically Linked On Some Dreamshare Level
Sometimes vampires have a connection to the people that they sire, but what goes on in the Buffy episode “Amends” is something totally different. In “Amends,” both Buffy and Angel appear in each other’s dreams. It’s quite romantic, but it’s never fully explained. This could be a result of The First Evil playing games with them, since it's later revealed it's a presence here, or it could just be the overwhelming connection between these two.
These are all of the biggest bombshells about Buffy and Angel’s relationship that we came up with, but have we missed anything major? Sound off in the comments below!