Angel was always a spinoff, to me, and it seemed right that the parent show should re-enfold it at the end.
Hmm. Even Joss said, around the time of S4 Buffy/S1 Angel, when Faith woke up from the coma and went to LA, that that was the point at which he considered
Angel
to be its own show, standing on its own, though some of the characters had a shared history with
Buffy.
very Deus ex Machina
If it had just been Faith and a posse of newbie slayers (ie no Buffy or Willow), would you still feel that way? Because I DID feel that Faith was as much a part of ANGEL as she was a part of BUFFY. Not that I want that ending, but given the situation errupting, I would think the Slayers were going to be dealing with the mess in LA at some point.
And how much do I love it that we can still be having this kind of discussion? I miss my shows, dammit.
If it had just been Faith and a posse of newbie slayers (ie no Buffy or Willow), would you still feel that way?
Yes, because they hadn't even been mentioned since the Crazy!Slayer episode. The writers would have had to lay a LOT of non-anvilly groundwork throughout the 2nd half of the season for me to buy anyone swooping in to join the battle.
Angel was always a spinoff, to me, and it seemed right that the parent show should re-enfold it at the end. It's the Buffyverse, not the Angelverse
full body shudder
I know that this viewpoint is probably more common than my own, but I can't help it -- it gives me hives. Angel was my favorite show for 4 years while Buffy was becoming unwatchable. Angel was the grown-up show. It never needed to be defined by its relationship to Buffy, any more than Angel-the-character needed to be.
See, they had the whole "fuck you, you're with the bad boys now" stuff, so I figure once they're back on the path to righteousness they get backup.
I know that this viewpoint is probably more common than my own, but I can't help it -- it gives me hives. Angel was my favorite show for 4 years while Buffy was becoming unwatchable. Angel was the grown-up show. It never needed to be defined by its relationship to Buffy, any more than Angel-the-character needed to be.
I'm right there with you.
(And, honestly, even if I didn't feel so strongly about Angel standing on its own, I loathed Buffy S7. So the fewer reminders of it, period, the better.)
Angel was the grown-up show
That's the reason I gave Hubby when he asked me why I liked AtS better than BtVS.