This recent post by
shadowkat about shipping Spuffy and gender reversals in the relationship
shadowkat67.livejournal.com/793238.html linked on Buffyforums by
moscow_watcher got me to write a short reply about my views, which are a bit different from hers. I can't do that on her LJ because she flipped out on me with absolutely no reason and attacked me on her LJ about a
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1. Angel is not wealthy. Well, he's presented as rich if he's got the objets d'arte and doesn't have to work to support himself. In fact, not working is very much an indicator of wealth unless there are signs of poverty present. At the end of S2 we see the alley-rat-eating version, but the implication for me is that he was too depressed (or whatever) to keep it together at that point. He clearly didn't have to live like that, and has resources he can call on when he gets motivated. (He didn't bring the art with him in steerage on the boat to America, so either he's accumulated it since he immigrated, or he has the resources to keep things in storage for a century. Again, an indicator of wealth.)
2. How Angel managed to make Buffy not notice how pathetic he really was in Sunnydale is really amazing. This is actually pretty common with older man/young girl relationships. The man IS seen as pathetic by his peers, and that's one of the reasons he preys on/is ( ... )
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In fact, not working is very much an indicator of wealth unless there are signs of poverty present. Spike didn't work either, and nobody thinks he was rich. But we knew that he had ( ... )
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I like this assumption. Works for me.
With Spike we really see the financial problems of a neutrered vampire and his poverty, but Angel kinda avoid the problem.
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Angel: "Financial advice."
Nabbit blinks: "Okay. Good."
Angel: "We're making this hotel our new base of operations. Right now we're leasing it for six months with an option to buy."
Nabbit: "And how much are you willing to put down?"
Cordy: "'Nothing' - would be good."
Nabbit shrugs: "Oh. That's easy. You could look into seller financing, take over the owner's payments and skip the bank completely, or you could make a play for a preservation grant. Offer to restore the original décor and get the city and the feds to give you a tax break and a loan at a sweetheart rate. Or you could apply for an FHA and get a PMI in lieu of a down payment."
Cordy: "Is anybody else getting warm? Do that 'tax breaks,' FHA and PMI part again."
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During Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been, Angel rids the hotel of Thesulac, the paranoia demon that infested the hotel and caused all the inhabitants to either kill themselves or each other. After that he walks up the stairs and into a suite where Judy, the girl who betrayed him when he tried to help her back in the '50s, has been staying since the '50s, feeding Thesulac. With her was the bag of money she stole (a la Psycho) when she originally ran to the hotel to hide. She died while Angel sat next to her and assured her she was safe ( ... )
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Though, you're saying that Spike plays the Jane role to Buffy's Rochester as far as friendless, poor, and without family goes - and isn't the original point that their relationship is gender-flipped strengthened by that analogy?
Although I disagree that Angel is presented as being without power, I do see the point that he is presented as needing Buffy in order to have meaning in his life in BtVS S1-3. This would give her power, if she was aware of it, which I doubt she is.
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That would also make Buffy/Angel as gender-flipped (since Angel is even more friendless - at least Spike had Clem and occasionally Harmony - and without family and an outcast), so it really doesn't work as an argument in favor of one relationship being gender-flipped and the other not.
I see Buffy/Spike as gender-flipped in some ways, in others not. Same thing with Buffy/Angel, sometimes in different ways.
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Then they undercut it all by showing him as a homeless guy eating rats. It's all deliberate, but making sense of Angel's finances is kind of like figuring out the financial status of the Scoobies based on how often we see them in different outfits.
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Spike, by contrast lives in a crypt that he dresses up by stealing from dumpsters. I'd add that's almost certainly a choice Spike makes. Vampires can be rich very easily if they want to be. Kill a few diplomats and make a few investments. Compound interest alone means any poor vampire is poor by choice. Angel obviously made the choice to NOT be poor.
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From the heroine's point of view, a huge part of the Edward/Bella, Rochester/Jane, Captain von Trapp/Maria type of romance is how the ugly duckling is recognised as a swan. It's a pre-feminist vernon of the old superman story. The specky geek is secretly a powerful superhero; the clumsy plain girl is (unbeknown even to herself) the object of the most desireable's desire. Angel may have commonalities with Edward or Rochester but Buffy simply doesn't work as the Bella or the Jane. Not only does she have her own superhero thing going on (she doesn't need his) but in terms of human social status she's the cheerleading Elsa Schräder not the geeky Maria.
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