MovieChat Forums > Angel (1999) Discussion > Cordelia, the main character?

Cordelia, the main character?

posted 8 years ago by josephson
4 replies | jump to latest

It's interesting to note that after all these years of Buffy and Angel,
in the end, the one character that remained constant throughout the franchise
was Cordelia, the least likely of all.

Who would have thought that of all the great characters in the franchise of Buffy/Angel, that the superficial, shallow, vanity girl, Cordelia would ironically end up being the hardiest character?

One could argue still that it was Angel but Cordy's 59 episodes vs Angel's 58 in the entire Buffy series means that she edges Angel out. Yes, Angel appears more (111) in his own series Angel, to Cordy's 92, but obviously buffy appears more times in her own series Buffy TVS than Cordy too. And despite overall, Angel appears in the most episodes of all the characters between the two series, Cordy is still the one that has the most appearances as a non-leading character of the show.

Even now in 2016, I'm watching the Buffy and Angel series all over again and I can't believe that I'm seeing the same Cordelia in Buffy and again in Angel. I'm really proud of her....nobody expected her to last a week, and yet at the end, she was one standing tallest.

Who would have thought?

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[–] Samson_Lee 8 years ago

A reason why I so wished she stayed on after Your Welcome to Not Fade Away. She deserved to be in the last Buffyverse episode. Showcasing an entire series of journey. Yet that goes to Angel now.

[–] austin-pearce 8 years ago

I feel that making Cordy evil in season 4 was a little too much.

[–] LilyBella 8 years ago

Maybe I'm just not understanding your post, but Cordelia wasn't exactly standing tall at the end of Angel. She'd been manipulated throughout the series thanks to the visions and thought herself so special that she honestly believed that she could become some kind of higher being after 2-3 years of helping the helpless. She had so little self-worth that instead of questioning Skip or giving up the visions that were killing her, she allowed herself to become half-demon and jump started the process of her possession and eventual death. She went from a shallow cheerleader who needed the validation of her schoolmates, to a messenger of TPTB who needed the visions to feel like a vital part of the team, when she was on team Angel back when Doyle was the one getting the splitting headaches.

It's not really surprising Cordy stuck around so long either. She was in the season 1 promo shots for Buffy; it was obvious that she was a recurring character who would be around for a while. And David Greenwalt, who had more to do with Angel the Series than Joss Whedon, loved Cordelia/Charisma and they basically turned her into Buffy 2.0, only without the ability to fight (at first).

To be honest, I'm more shocked at Harmony's role in the series. She appeared in the unaired pilot, then Welcome to the Hellmouth, and made it all the way to Not Fade Away. Harmony was someone who was truly disposable and I was surprised she made it through season 1 of BtVS, let alone the whole series and then moved on to Angel. I was positive she'd be killed for good in Graduation Day, Pt.2, but she showed up in season 4 as a vampire and made it all the way to becoming a regular character on Angel's final season. She was also a vampire who tried to be good without a chip or a soul. She continues to live on in the comics, too, as a beloved Kardashian-like celebrity vampire reality TV star or something similar. Now that is something to be amazed at! IMO, Harmony might just be one of the strongest and smartest character in the universe, and you'd never even know. I *beep* <3 that chick!

I loved him more than I will ever love anything in this life...
Ours is a forever love...

[–] Joxerlives 8 years ago

The sign of a great series is that the characters are different people to those they start out as.