'Ship Prefs (Romantic, Platonic, Familial & Adversarial)

Buffy and Giles - One of the best mentor/student relationships I’ve seen in a show. I really do believe that Giles thought of Buffy like a daughter and Buffy...well...I might not go so far as to say she thought of him as her ‘father’ (despite her hopefully suggesting to him that he could’ve gone to the ice show her dad was supposed to take her to in Season 3’s ‘Helpless’), but more a father-type figure perhaps. The best part of that episode, I thought, was the scene where Buffy learned of Giles’s betraying her trust and sticking a needle in her. The throwing of the needle/box gets me every time – as does most of the scenes where one of them is yelling at the other (the scene in ‘Prophecy Girl’ or the one in ‘The Gift’, for example).

I think one of the most emotionally effective moments between them, however, was when she punched Giles in ‘Passion’, and although she was yelling at him, you could tell she was tearing up at the same time as she said the part about him trying to get himself killed. When Giles broke down in Buffy’s arms – that was a really great moment between the two which I don’t think I ever saw equaled in the show (though some scenes came close). I always felt Giles would die to protect Buffy, and vice versa.

Buffy and Faith - I know that they never were technically what you could class as ‘friends’ and became for 'adversarial'. I mean, I think there was only an episode or two where I’d have thought of them as acting that way with each other, whereas the rest of the time they were either at odds, usually Faith was distrusting of Buffy, or had turned into enemies. I think at the start of Season 3’s ‘Revelations’ they seemed the most ‘friend’-like. In ‘Bad Girls’, it was a bit different, as before the killing of the Mayor’s human deputy, Buffy and Faith seemed to be getting along very well...but in the way that a so-called ‘friend’ may influence another ‘friend’ in a negative way and take them down a bad path - so not so much ‘friends’ in a good way. I think Buffy did try to be a friend to Faith after her accidental killing of Allan Finch, but Faith had gotten a taste for killing by that point (I think the last chance she would’ve had to turn back from the path she was on was when Angel was starting to get through to her, but then Wesley kind of screwed that up).

Anyway, there was such a complex relationship between Buffy and Faith. At times I found them quite ‘sisterly’ (moreso than I ever did Buffy and Dawn – which, although it was presented as a sisterly relationship, felt far too forced upon the audience to me – like “Dawn is Buffy’s sister now and you’ll think of them as such and buy Buffy’s devotion to her whether you want to or not!”), then at other times I thought there was a bit ‘more’ going on between Buffy and Faith...well, at least on Faith’s side anyway. I really enjoyed the dream sequence between them in ‘Graduation Day, Part 2’, as I thought that was a perfect example of the sort of strange relationship they had, where you couldn’t quite tell whether they were friends or enemies.

Buffy and Willow - I always believed these two as friends, and despite the rocky patches they went through, I thought they were one of the most solid ‘friendships’ in the show.

Faith and the Mayor - Such a twisted relationship, but also quite full of genuine feelings, I thought. Really, they were a ‘dark’ version of Buffy and Giles’s mentor/student/father-like figure/daughter-like figure. I do believe the Mayor genuinely cared for Faith, and as per her dream in ‘This Year’s Girl’, I think she did care for him as well. Him losing it at the start of 'Graduation Day, Part 2' was so effective. The video from him to her in 'This Year's Girl' was also quite effective).

Xander and Oz - Xander was always sorely lacking in guy friends, and I think it was good for him to have Oz who he could talk with and not be jealous of like he was with Angel (although he did freely admit Oz was ‘cooler’ than he was).

Friendships that were barely touched upon, but were there and deserve a mention:

Willow and Miss Calendar - I know we didn’t see that much of it, but Willow’s reaction in ‘Passion’ spoke volumes.

Angel and Oz - They just totally ‘got’ each other and didn’t need to exchange many words to understand what the other was thinking, as they seemed on the same wavelength most of the time – like in Season 3’s ‘Dopplegangland’ or over on ATS in ‘In the Dark’.

Speaking of AtS friendships...

Angel and Faith - Again, quite a complex relationship, given what she’d tried to do to him previously and how she’d treated Buffy and her friends, but Angel wasn’t bogged down with hurt feelings or a sense of betrayal, he gave Faith the ‘tough love’ she needed and consequently managed to help bring her back from the brink - I say ‘helped’ because Faith did it too, Angel didn’t do it *for* her. I really loved their end scene from the Season 2 premiere, with her teasing him about singing ‘Mandy’, and they just had such a lovely ‘older brother/younger sister’ vibe going between them, I thought. Funny that Faith almost always seemed like the ‘younger sister’ in her relationships. I particularly loved how devoted Faith was to helping Angel after he’d helped her, making it perfectly clear to Wesley straight off the bat that she wasn’t going to put down Angelus, she was going to help Angel.

Angel and Doyle - I would’ve so very much loved to have seen more of them as friends, as it felt as though Angel only just got to really know Doyle and then he was gone.

Angel and Cordelia - Before the Season 3 romantic feelings began, they felt like genuine friends and I totally believed Angel at the end of Season 1 when he described Cordelia as ‘family’.

Angel and Wesley - I thought Angel was really decent in Wesley’s early episodes, to tolerate his buffoon-like behavior and not look down on him because of it. It was especially good of Angel to forgive Wes for that matter of screwing up his getting through to Faith and beating Angel up/ensnaring him in a net, etc – though Angel did bring it up in ‘Five by Five’. It’s just a shame that Wesley betrayed Angel’s trust in Season 3, and I don’t think it was ever fully recovered after that.

Wesley and Gunn - Season 2 showed them at their best, after a bit of a rocky patch at the start of the season. Really, Angel firing them was probably the thing that brought Wes and Gunn together as a team. Of course, that all went to hell once they both took an interest in Fred. However, I do believe Gunn genuinely mourned his friend in the series final, however brief it was. They were a great team at one point, so amusing together).

Angel and Spike - I don’t think I’d ever call them ‘friends’ as such, maybe acquaintances at best? But by the end of Season 5, I think they were at least that. And there was just so much history between them, it made for a very complex relationship – one that made Season 5 all the better.

I also liked:

Spike and Fred - Who would’ve thought we’d see such a pairing and that two characters who were SO different could actually *work* so well together.

Cordelia and Wesley - After their disastrous acting upon their feelings for each other in BtVS's 'Graduation Day, Part 2', it was so good to see them become friends over on AtS...though not right away. I do believe Cordy would've sacrificed Wesley for Angel in a heartbeat during his first few episodes in the show.

Faith and Wesley/Faith and Gunn/Faith and just about anyone in her 3 episode arc on AtS (showed what an awesome character she was, that she basically got along/worked with everyone...except Connor, of course, but then he was pretty hard to get along with. Although, even they seemed to reach an understanding/become tolerable of each other by the end of her arc).

And in the episode ‘Orpheus’, although there were only very brief moments between the characters, Willow/Fred, Willow/Gunn, Willow/Wesley were all great.