Spangel

"Angel and me have never been intimate. Except that one…"

- Spike

Spangel is the slash ship between Spike and Angel from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel fandoms.

Canon
Spike and Angel have a long history together - first meeting as William the Bloody and Angelus in the late 1800s when the vampire Drusilla, desiring a mate of her own, sires William. At first, Angelus looked forward to killing "with another man" and took William under his wing as William was eager to learn from him. Angelus exclaims, "You and me, we're gonna be the best of friends!" Along with Angelus' sire, Darla, they become instantly bonded in the form of familial vampire gang, the self-named, "Whirlwind." However, their relationship soon turns to that of jealous rivalry due to William's love and devotion to Drusilla and Angelus' continued sexual relationship with her. Thus, William's "Spike" persona was born. He uses this to not only impress Drusilla but also Angelus – usually in attempts to best him and diminish Angelus' condescension. Through years of killing and wreaking havoc around the world, Angel and Spike’s relationship only grows more antagonistic. They were family but inherently different as vampires — Spike, a thrill seeker and Angelus, an artist of evil. As time goes on, Spike eventually becomes a much more realized and dangerous version of himself, while Angelus, in contrast, is cursed with a soul and leaves Whirlwind to live alone and become Angel.

A hundred years later, Angel and Spike's rivalry reemerges when Spike arrives in Sunnydale to kill and eventually fall in love with the very person Angel also loves — the slayer. Despite their bad blood and a plethora of opportunities, Angel and Spike have never gone through with killing one another. Though Spike has come close, Angel in particular has let Spike go on numerous occasions, proving at the very least, some loyalty still lingers.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Spike's in Sunnydale to kill Buffy. Angel, attempting to thwart him, pretends to be his old friend without a soul, Angelus. It's the first time they’ve seen each other in years and Spike appears happy to see him and they embrace. Somehow, Spike sees through the act and punches Angel, exclaiming "you think you can fool me?! You were my sire, man! You were my Yoda!" Angel quips, "things change" and Spike retorts, “not us! Not demons.” Spike's betrayal is evident and Angel flees. Spike then attempts to kill Buffy, but fails and gives up for the moment.

Angel meets up with an apparent frail Drusilla for the first time in many years. She affectionately refers to him as "my Angel". Instead of fighting, Angel warns Drusilla to take Spike and get out of town. Instead, with the help of Willy the Snitch, Spike successfully plans and captures Angel to complete a ritual that will kill Angel and restore Drusilla back to health. During the capture, Willy asks what Spike will do with him and Spike says, "I’m thinking maybe dinner and a movie. Don’t want to rush into anything. I’ve been hurt, you know?" Spike almost completes the ritual until they are ambushed by Buffy and the Scoobies. Buffy saves Angel and leaves Spike and Drusilla for dead. However, the ritual successfully restores Drusilla to full strength and she carries a badly burned Spike home.

Quotes
"Lately, I’ve been wondering what it’d be like to share the slaughter of innocents with another man."

- Angel meeting Spike

"Everytime you look at me, you see all the dirty little things I’ve done. All the lives I’ve taken because of you! Drusilla sired me but you made me a monster!"

- Spike

Fanon
Angel/Spike is a fairly popular ship within the Buffy and Angel fandoms and rivals Spander (Spike/Xander) for most popular slash ship. Beginning with the first appearance of Spike in School Hard, and Spike’s claim that Angel was his sire — fans began shipping them and creating fanfiction based around a perceived sire bond. It is noted to be one of the first instances of the sire/childe bond trope in fiction and then popularized in Spike/Angel fanfiction. However, in season 4 of Buffy, it is revealed that Drusilla was Spike's true sire, not Angel. However, since Angelus sired Drusilla, the family lineage remains.

Although fanfiction from the original run of both series was posted on many fansites, message boards and other social platforms like LiveJournal — Fanfiction.net has the largest overall Buffy presence, with over 51,000 works posted since 1998. As for AO3, since the Buffy and Angel fandoms are still quite strong 25 years on, new fics are posted onto AO3 frequently. As of December 2022, there are over 1,300+ Angel/Spike works on the platform, larger than that on FF.net.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION
 * Spangel/Spangelus on The Spander Files
 * The Spangel Experience on Fanfiction.net
 * The Adventures of Captain Peroxide and Deadboy on FangedFour
 * The Adventures of Captain Peroxide and Deadboy on FangedFour


 * TUMBLR


 * WIKIS

Media

 * Buffy Retrospective: Angel and Spike – The Best of Enemies (FANDOM • March 2017)