In the midst of my S6 rewatch, I feel compelled to revisit an older topic. Bangel, of all things. If you might recall, when I was rewatching S2, I had some discussions as to whether Buffy/Angel was subversive or not. My initial thought was "No". But my rewatch and 2maggie2's arguments started to sway me a bit. Still, as I'm sure I've said before, I have to think a lot on some things before settling on a firm opinion. And I think I finally have settled.

See how slow I am? Geez, gabs!

Cause, you know...I can see B/A as subversive in S2. Sure, it sets up as fairly unremarkable. High school girl falls in love with mysterious, older beefcake. Forbidden love. Angst. Angst. However, through the first half of S2, there are ominous hints that there's more going on. Angel's stalking of Buffy. The subtext of Reptile Boy. How blindly and completely Buffy is invested in Angel. Lie to Me. All points to a twist.

And, of course, we get it in the big one-two punch of the season, Surprise/Innocence. That right there is the subversion, because Angel is revealed to be the shitty boyfriend that starts acting like a douchebag after getting sex from you. More, it's shown that Buffy had ample warning of this ahead of time, but she was so blinded by high school-style love, she ignored it (Hence all the guilt and such which is beautifully addressed in I Only Have Eyes For You).

We get a further subversion when, instead of victimizing Buffy and making her a wussy, weak heroine to be rescued by some new manhunk, Angelus spurs Buffy to greater strength. She recovers and completely kicks his ass and sends him to hell to save the world.

Yeah, I can get behind that all as subversive.

I can even get behind the first part of S3 as subversive. Angel's return is portrayed as something of a bad thing for Buffy. Beauty and the Beasts draws parallels between Pete, the abusive boyfriend, and Angel. There's a very strong undertone of Buffy getting back into a relationship that may not be entirely healthy.

I think the point I lose the whole subversive vibe is Amends and onward. Because then Angel stops being "Buffy's love interest" and begins being Angel, the future lead character of his own show. Once that happens, and he's no longer there to provide a subtextual commentary on a creepy high school romance, then the subversion kinda goes kablooey for me. It becomes a straight-up romance, which is fine, but it doesn't really hold my interest.

So...um...wow, it's likely that nobody on my flist will care about this. Ah well. I'm happy to have reached some sort of conclusion.