Should Buffy have ended up with Angel or Spike? Joss Whedon finally weighed in on this age-old ‘shipper war
It’s the most important question of our time – Angel or Spike?
The long-running Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which aired for seven seasons across two networks from 1997-2003, was important for so many reasons and is widely regarded by critics as one of the best shows of all time. It was one of the first action-based supernatural shows with a strong female heroine.
It was a brilliant take on growing up, through a series of clever monster metaphors. It was ground-breaking in terms of LGBT representation. That’s not even to mention the fact that Buffy was (and, honestly, still totally should be) every little girl’s hero for a long, long time.
I mean, the badassery and the fashion sense – what’s not to love?
Among the many reasons to love the show, it also gave us one of the best love triangles of our time – before TV love triangles got sorta played out, TBH.
For the first few seasons of the show, Buffy was ~all about~ her #1 true love, the mysterious and tortured vampire with a soul Angel. He had a tendency to be broody, but that just increased his allure for Buffy (and hordes of hormonal teen viewers).
They had moments like this, that killed you a little on the inside:
But after Angel left for his own spin-off series post-Season 3, Buffy moved on – to his archnemesis and fellow vampire Spike, a legitimately bad dude who fell hard for Buffy and became a better man because of it.
Also, he looked like this:
There’s no questions that the biggest debate in the Buffy fandom is whether Buffy was better with Spike or Angel.
Now, the show’s creator and all-around super-cool human being Joss Whedon is weighing in on the long-standing question of Buffy’s unresolved romantic life.
In a recent interview with Complex about his Marvel movies, returning to Twitter with his Save the Day campaign, and more, Whedon weighed in with his thoughts on the ‘ship war:
"I’m a Buffy/Spike shipper. I always felt like he was a more evolved person, but that’s like saying Juliet’s going to be so happy with Benvolio and everyone will love it. Buffy/Angel is for the ages; Buffy/Spike is maybe for me."
So, there you have it folks. The show’s creator fell for the gradual love story of the damaged vamp and the slayer who slowly but surely fell in love with him too. At the same time, Whedon is careful to acknowledge the fact that Buffy and Angel do have that whole “soul mate” thing going on, with the comparison to Romeo and Juliet. Of course, given Angel’s *special situation* (~sexually~), the two are, by definition, star-crossed lovers.
On the flip side, Whedon also introduced a third option, that’s surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly?) popular among Buffy fans.
No, not Riley. We don’t talk about him.
"Actually, I’m a Spike/Angel shipper," Whedon joked. "Completely re-write the equation."
I mean…none of these are bad options. Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to go binge-watch Buffy for the fortieth time to re-examine my Spuffy/Bangel/Spangel opinions.