If Angel had been patient...

[MarieVampSlayer]

Hi all!

Ok so first if you haven't watched all the Buffy season please leave if you don't want any spoilers!

So I just rewatched the episode I will remember you and I just had a thought. Knowing that Buffy gives the slayer power to all the potentials in chosen and that she had the possibility to quit slaying should Angel had stayed human? At this point, they could have decided to live a normal life and have a family and everything they wanted.

Yes, I know the PTB told him that Buffy was going to die but she died anyway in S5. And also, if Angel had quit his dark avenger job, he could still help humans in a more common way to feel useful to the world.

I just think that it's interesting to imagine that if they had known the future, they could have been happy as a normal couple only 3 years later!

What do you think? Could Bangel ever be happy as regular humans?

MarieVampSlayer

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Until "Helpless", Buffy thought her life would be better if she was just a normal girl. Her inability to do what she normally does changed her and we never hear her complain about slayer strength again. In "I Will Remember You", Angel was not happy with his loss of strength. In spite of any protests they could have made, they liked themselves the way they were with slayer / vampire strength and they would resent any change in that status.

 

[EarthLogic]

I think that they would both struggle with the loss of their powers. Even if Angel became human and was able to lead a happy domestic life with Buffy he would find it difficult to adjust to being 'normal'. Despite their occasional complaints about the limitations of the lives they lead, it's clear that they both have a strong sense of vocation and duty to the Good Fight. They're aware of the evil that's out there and that knowledge will never go away so I think both Buffy and Angel would have a tough time reconciling what they know about the darker side of the world with their inability as normal non-superpowered humans to do anything about it. As Buffy said in 'Helpless': 'I've seen too much now'. It would feel like they'd turned their backs on the people they truly have the power to help.

I think Angel put it most succinctly when he said that the people have help during the daytime, it's the ones that suffer in the darkness from things that others can't see or don't know about who need his help the most.

 

[white avenger]

Unless Buffy and Angel are different from all of the other heroes in fiction, super or otherwise, they would find it very difficult, if not downright impossible to walk away from the hero gig. There would always be wrongs that needed righting, injustices that needed to be addressed, damsels to be defended and kittens to help down out of trees. Big Bads wouldn't just present themselves, they would stand in the middle of the road, stick their thumbs in their ears, waggle their fingers, and sing, "Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyaaaah, nyah!" on a daily basis.

A normal person can perform a single, or even infrequent, act of heroism, then go back to their normal life with no real consequences. Buffy, Angel, Spike, and Faith are all heroes. Heroism IS their normal life, and their powers don't make that life normal, they just make it more convenient.

So, no, Buffy and Angel could never enjoy what we consider a "normal" life.