Spuffy and Bangel: Two sides of a coin?

[jeanvic]

Hello again all.

Now, I have just been watching my DVD boxsets and I got to thinking. The two biggest ship rivals are Spuffy and Bangel. But what if they are actually the same.

Think about it. Bangel is the epitome of good rlationships. It is true love, selflessness. It is all the things about relationships that make us all warm and fuzzy.

Spuffy however is the opposite. It isn't all sunshine and roses. It's strugle and pain and everything about relationships that make us cringe. But even through all the pain you see something special.

Now, with that in mind, is it possible that Spuffy and Bangel are really two sides of a coin that represents the trials of love and relationhips? Could it be that both were there for Buffy to learn from for the future. When she finally does settle down she'll have the warm fuzzy of B/A in the bag and thew struggle and pain of B/S. Could it be that Bangel and Spuffy are not rivals, but opposites of one ideal that is love?

What do you think?

[Beck]

Spuffy isn't all about suffering and pain. Nor is Bangel all about selflessness and true love. Just as Spuffy has its good points, the friendship developed in season 7 for example, the trust, compassion and understanding they developed... hang on a minute, those are the things that are the epitome for a good relationship imo, not obsessive love like Bangel had. Bangel wasn't all sunshine and roses either, Buffy herself admits she doesn't trust Angel. She never did. She loved him dearly, but trust was missing. So was friendship imo, I don't believe they ever achieved that until after Angel left Sunnydale. I disagree with the Truie Love tag, and nothing will convince me that it was. It just didn't have anything other than the love there, and love isn't enough. You need the friendship, trust, understanding etc. I certainly never found Bangel to give me warm and fuzzy feelings

Both were there for Buffy to learn from the future, and both were important loves in her life. But the relationship Buffy and Spike had in season 7, that is the opposite from what they had in season 6. That in itself goes through the bad and then the good aspects of a relationship.

[Casi]

I have to agree with Beck in that Bangel wasn't what I would call the epitome of a good relationship. If that were true why did it make Buffy miserable so much of the time? I mean, Willow even comments on that being missing from Buffy's relationship with Riley. The trust really is the key issue, and that is something that Buffy and Spike had even when he was evil and they hated each other. Buffy trusted him with her sister and her mother. She trusted him to guard her back. She trusted him as a figher and a colleague. And, of course, that had a lot to do with the the very real friendship they developed in season seven.

Now, I do like Bangel. I really do. But to me, the epitome of a good relationship, as far as Buffy's love live goes, would be her connection with Spike in season seven. That was a relationship based on trust, companionship, and not placed on the presence or lack of sex, which, you have to admit, did have a role in Bangel. In season seven, you could tell that they weren't constantly focused on how much damage they could or would do to each other, which is something very different from both her season six relationship, and her relationship with Angel.

I agree with Beck. A perfect relationship has to have more than love.

[Allan]

To me, this relationship is like two sides of the one coin. On one hand, you had Bangel, which was "true love", but on the other side, "Spuffy" had the trust - even though Spike had previously betrayed Buffy's trust.

[Kana]

I think trust has been a checkered on both sides. While she wondered if she could trust Angel she felt more safe in his apartment than in her own home. She also said that her natural instinct is to run to Angel when trouble was a foot. However she also said she trusted Riley and that's what made it different from her relationship with Angel.

I think there were trust issues on both sides but I do think Spike and Buffy knew each other more so perhaps as a product of that she may have trusted him more overall. I think Buffy didn't trust herself have to time with Spike and that's also a problem.

[Lizzie]

I think that yes, on a stereotypical level they could be considered two sides of a coin. But the relationships are much deeper than that, Buffy and Angel weren't happy together all the time, and Buffy and Spike weren't always unhappy together.

[Beck]

Erm... Buffy and Angel were hardly ever happy together which is why this thread makes very little sense to me, sorry