Character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
Angel is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt for the American television programs "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its spin-off series "Angel". The character is portrayed by actor David Boreanaz. As introduced in "Buffy" in 1997, Angel is a love interest for heroine Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a young woman whose destiny as "the Slayer" is to fight the forces of evil, such as vampires and demons. However, their relationship is complicated by the fact that Angel is himself a vampire cursed with remorse and a human soul, which motivates him to assist Buffy in her duties as Slayer. The character's popularity led to the production of the spin-off "Angel", which follows the character's struggle towards redemption after moving to Los Angeles. In addition to the two television series, the character appears in the comic book continuations of both series, as well as much other expanded universe literature.
In the character's backstory, he was born Liam in 18th-century Ireland and, after being sired, assumed the name Angelus, achieving infamy as the most sadistic vampire in European history. After angering a Romani clan, he was cursed with his human soul, leading to great personal torment and the decision to resist the evil impulses that come with being a vampire. He later assumes the shortened name Angel, and over the course of "Buffy" and "Angel", he matures into an altruistic champion of mankind, and learns he is a central figure of several prophecies concerning an approaching apocalypse. In later editions of the comic series, Angel adopted the identity of the masked Twilight and gathered a cabal of humans and demons who had become wary of the rise of multiple Slayers.
"Angel" ended its five-year run in 2004. However, the canonical comic books "" (2007–2009), "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight" (2007–2011) and "Angel &amp; Faith" (2011–2013) depict the character's continued story, in which he is caught up in events of cosmic proportion and must deal with the fallout from enormous mistakes he has made.
Season 2 of "Buffy" and season 4 of "Angel" feature storylines in which, deprived of his soul, he resumes his Angelus persona and torments and kills some of his allies. He has attracted significant interest due to his dichotomous personality in the presence or absence of his soul, and the ways in which his relationship with Buffy conforms to and subverts the tropes of romantic drama and horror fiction.
Appearances.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer".
Angel's first appearance is in "Welcome to the Hellmouth", the first episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in 1997. In it, he meets the protagonist Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a young girl destined to fight evil in the small town of Sunnydale, California. For the first half of the season, Angel is an enigmatic love interest for Buffy, showing up only to offer her cryptic messages about upcoming threats. It is not until the episode "Angel" that the character is revealed to be a benevolent vampire from Galway, Ireland, who emigrated to the United States to escape his past as the sadistic Angelus after his soul was restored by a vengeful Romani clan. Although uneasy about trusting a vampire, Buffy and the Scooby Gang eventually come to view Angel as an ally. In the second season (1997–1998), Buffy and Angel's romantic relationship develops and the pair make love in the episode "Surprise". For experiencing a moment of pure happiness, however, the Romani curse on Angel is revoked, unleashing his soulless alter-ego, who reunites with his old friends, vampires Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau), and begins terrorizing Buffy and her friends. Upon discovering Romani descendant Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte), who is working to translate the text of a spell to restore Angel's soul, Angelus murders her by breaking her neck, and places her body in the bed of her boyfriend, Giles (Anthony Head), for him to discover. Angelus then attempts to destroy the world by awakening the demon Acathla. In the season finale, neophyte witch Willow (Alyson Hannigan) manages to restore Angel's soul at the last moment, but Buffy is forced to kill him to save the world from Acathla, and Angel is sent to hell. In season 3 (1998–1999), episode three, "Faith, Hope &amp; Trick", Angel is inexplicably returned from hell by an unknown party and is soon found by Buffy. The Scooby Gang are outraged when they discover that Buffy has been secretly caring for him since his resurrection, but grudgingly accept him after he saves Willow's life in episode seven, "Revelations". In the episode "Amends", the primordial First Evil attempts to manipulate Angel to murder Buffy, but Angel chooses suicide instead by waiting for the sun to rise on Christmas morning. California's heatwave is suddenly interrupted by a freak snowstorm hiding the sun, sparing Angel's life, which he takes as a sign from God that he was brought back for a reason. Buffy and Angel initially attempt to be friends but eventually resume their romance. However, Angel becomes more and more aware of their limitations as a couple and breaks up with her in the hopes that she will be happier without him, leaving Sunnydale altogether after attending Buffy's prom and helping her in the battle against Mayor Wilkins (Harry Groener).
"Angel".
After his departure from "Buffy", Angel appeared in his own spin-off series, titled "Angel". Moving to Los Angeles, he starts a supernatural detective agency called Angel Investigations. He dedicates himself to "helping the helpless," and becomes a Champion of The Powers That Be, who send him psychic visions through his employees Doyle (Glenn Quinn), and later Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter). In doing so, he frequently clashes with the powerful law firm Wolfram &amp; Hart, who represent the evil of the world. During this season (1999–2000), Buffy and Angel appear in each other's shows (the "Buffy" episode "Pangs" and the "Angel" episode "I Will Remember You"), but are forced to accept that nothing has changed and they still can not or should not be together. Later in the television season, Buffy crosses over into the episode "Sanctuary" where she attempts to kill rogue Slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku) to whom Angel shows compassion, and Angel appears in "Buffy"'s "The Yoko Factor" where he squares off with Buffy's new boyfriend Riley (Marc Blucas). They finally decide to stay away from each other's business and stick to phone calls at this point. In the season 1 finale, Angel is given some hope at redemption when the Shanshu prophecy reveals that a vampire with a soul may eventually become human after fulfilling his role in the upcoming apocalypse.
In season 2 (2000–2001), Angel discovers that Wolfram &amp; Hart has brought his sire and former lover Darla (Julie Benz) back from the dead in human form. Although Darla is intent on bringing back Angelus, Angel hopes to save her soul and help her seek redemption while she still has a chance. However, just as it looks like he might succeed, Wolfram &amp; Hart bring in Drusilla to turn Darla back into a vampire. Angry at the lawfirm and embracing his darker side, Angel fires his employees, Cordelia, Wesley (Alexis Denisof) and Gunn (J. August Richards) (secretly to protect them from this dark territory, as he later revealed to Lorne (Andy Hallett)), and embarks on a vendetta against Wolfram &amp; Hart, even allowing Darla and Dru to massacre a group of lawyers. Eventually losing faith in his mission, Angel has sex with Darla in the hopes of losing his soul. Instead, he experiences an epiphany and realizes that the good fight is still worth fighting. A disgusted Darla flees L.A. and Angel reconciles with his friends, who eventually forgive him. Angel also appears in "Buffy" season 5's "Forever", comforting Buffy after her mother's death.
Season 3 (2001–2002) sees Angel struggle with fatherhood when Darla returns pregnant with his child, despite the fact that vampires supposedly are unable to conceive. When Darla kills herself to give birth, Angel is left to raise the baby Connor (played by triplets Connor, Jake and Trenton Tupen) and protect him from those who wish to get their hands on a child of two vampires. False prophecies, time travel, and betrayal lead to Angel losing his infant son to an old enemy, Holtz (Keith Szarabajka), who abducts Connor into a hell dimension where time passes differently. Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) returns days later, fully grown and under the belief that Angel is a soulless monster. Holtz kills himself and Angel is framed for his death by Holtz's lover, prompting Connor to take revenge by sinking his father to the bottom of the ocean. Over the course of this season, Angel's friendship with his colleague Cordelia evolves into romance, but circumstances prevent him from ever confessing his feelings.
In "Angel"'s fourth season (2002–2003), Angel is rescued from the ocean by his former friend Wesley. As Los Angeles crumbles under signs of the apocalypse, Angel is forced to cope with the romantic relationship between his son and Cordelia. In order to find out more about the Beast (Vladimir Kulich) terrorizing L.A., Angel Investigations remove Angel's soul and bring back Angelus after a vision from Cordelia suggests that Angelus has history with the Beast that Angel does not remember. Angelus, however, manages to escape, kills the Beast for fun and wreaks havoc until an old friend, Willow, manages to return his soul for the second time. It is eventually revealed that Cordelia has been possessed by the Beast's master, Jasmine (Gina Torres), a higher power who manipulated many events in Angel's life in order to be born in this world. Once born, she puts humanity under her thrall in the hopes of achieving world peace. When Angel restores free will and ruins Jasmine's plan, Wolfram &amp; Hart offer him control of their L.A. branch as a reward for putting a stop to world peace. Angel accepts when they agree to rewrite Connor's memories of growing up in hell, allowing him to live a normal life with a new family. Afterwards, Angel appears in the penultimate and final episodes of "Buffy", presenting Buffy with an amulet, which is given to Spike, to help her battle the First Evil.
In the fifth and final season of "Angel" (2003–2004), the character has made a deal with the Devil to become CEO of Wolfram &amp; Hart's Los Angeles office. All of his friends have also become W&amp;H employees, hoping to reform the organization from within under Angel's supervision. Angel's life this season is complicated by the increasingly blurred line between good and evil, the deaths of loved ones Cordelia and Fred (Amy Acker), and the possibility that the Shanshu prophecy may in fact be referring to Spike (who is now also a vampire with a soul and has joined the team) and not Angel. Allowing his friends to believe he is being corrupted, Angel secretly plots to bring down the Senior Partners of Wolfram &amp; Hart by assassinating the Circle of the Black Thorn, the Partners' primary agents on Earth, even signing away his prophesied humanity in the process to convince them of his complex deception. Realizing that he may never be able to fully stop the forces of evil, Angel and his friends enter into a suicidal battle against the armies of the Senior Partners, and the series ends with the question of their survival unanswered.
Between 2001 and 2004, Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb developed a 4-minute pilot episode for "Buffy the Animated Series", which was set during the show's first season. Had the series been picked up by a network, it would have featured Angel (voiced by David Boreanaz) in more adventures set during "Buffy"'s first season. Following a 2008 leak of the pilot to YouTube, Loeb expressed some hope that the series may be resurrected in some form.
Comic books.
In 2007, Angel began appearing in two canonical continuations of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" from Joss Whedon. The first of these was "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight", published by Dark Horse Comics, which continued the story of the "Buffy" television series. Later that year, Whedon and IDW Publishing released the series "", which continued on from the series finale of "Angel". The two series were published by different publishers due to Dark Horse initially giving up the rights to licensed "Angel" comic books