It's not that I think Angel doesn't love Buffy for other reasons, but at that particular point in the relationship, I'm not sure those other reasons were strong enough to make a difference post-desouling. (Because while I agree that Buffy and Darla shared a number of traits in common, and that this was a part of the reason Angel fell for Buffy, unsouled Angel acts very differently towards Buffy than he acted towards Darla.)
I don't agree with the people who say that B/A was an immature relationship--in fact, the "Buffy's too childish to know her own mind" tack that ME took at the end of S3 irritates me no end. I sympathise with the necessity of booting Angel off to his own show, but Joss's oft-repeated statement that he didn't know what to do with Buffy and Angel in S3 just makes me roll my eyes--I can think of two or three possible plotlines off the top of my head, the most glaringly obvious being "Find a way to break the curse, ya dumbasses!"
But as a result of the story they did go with, I think B/A didn't get much of a chance to develop as a relationship. They were constantly being interrupted by traumatic events of one sort or another--of the two and a half years they were together, around eighteen months was taken up by Buffy being in LA, Angel being in Hell, Angel being Angelus, Buffy being indecisive, Angel being avoidy, etc. If they ever did get together and stayed together and changed together, I'd expect the next time someone removed Angel's soul for a research progect, things might be slightly different.
no subject
I don't agree with the people who say that B/A was an immature relationship--in fact, the "Buffy's too childish to know her own mind" tack that ME took at the end of S3 irritates me no end. I sympathise with the necessity of booting Angel off to his own show, but Joss's oft-repeated statement that he didn't know what to do with Buffy and Angel in S3 just makes me roll my eyes--I can think of two or three possible plotlines off the top of my head, the most glaringly obvious being "Find a way to break the curse, ya dumbasses!"
But as a result of the story they did go with, I think B/A didn't get much of a chance to develop as a relationship. They were constantly being interrupted by traumatic events of one sort or another--of the two and a half years they were together, around eighteen months was taken up by Buffy being in LA, Angel being in Hell, Angel being Angelus, Buffy being indecisive, Angel being avoidy, etc. If they ever did get together and stayed together and changed together, I'd expect the next time someone removed Angel's soul for a research progect, things might be slightly different.