'Slayers: A Buffyverse Story' Finally Gives Justice to Cordelia Chase (original) (raw)
Published Oct 27, 2023, 1:45 PM EDT
Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with a substantial amount of experience under his belt. Collier, or "CJ" to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. Using his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he's been able to tackle a wide variety of articles.
Summary
- Cordelia Chase's character growth and evolution made her a fan-favorite, and her death in the Buffyverse was an unfortunate consequence of toxic on-set behavior towards Charisma Carpenter.
- The new Audible project, Slayers: A Buffyverse Story, allows Carpenter to take the reins of her character, Cordelia, and gives her a chance to right some wrongs and offer closure.
- Amber Benson, co-writer of Slayers, also gets the opportunity to shape a different version of her character, Tara, and explore the potential that was cut short in the original Buffy series.
The '90s saw an explosion of genre TV — and many of the shows of that era became pop culture phenomenons. X-Men: The Animated Series and Spider-Man: The Animated Series brought Marvel's heroes to life long before the onslaught of superhero films. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager injected new life into the Trek universe. Xena: Warrior Princess wound up becoming a vastly superior show to its flagship series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. But the biggest breakout of the '90s has to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Its titular character Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) faced all manner of supernatural threats while also dealing with real-world problems. Sometimes those problems even overlapped, as the mix of witty and clever writing led to a number of monsters representing all of mankind's real-life woes.
Now, a new Audible project aims to dive back into the world of Buffy: Slayers: A Buffyverse Story. The bulk of the story focuses on former vampire villain turned begrudging hero Spike (James Marsters) taking newfound Slayer Indira Nunnally (Laya DeLeon Hayes) under his wing. In the process, they encounter a pair of familiar faces: Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) and Tara Maclay (Amber Benson). The catch is that both of them are from an alternate universe where Buffy never existed, leading Cordelia to pick up the mantle of her world's Slayer. This plot development is far overdue, given how Cordelia had her story cut short in the main Buffyverse.
Cordelia Goes From Mean Girl to Hero in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charisma Carpenter in Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 3 Episode 5
Image via WB
Cordelia Chase doesn't originally start out as a hero. In fact, she seems to be your stereotypical "mean girl." Throughout the first season of Buffy, she subjects Buffy and her friends Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendan) to an endless array of verbal putdowns. It isn't until the episode "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" that Buffy and Cordelia start to grow closer. When Cordelia is targeted by invisible student Marcie (Clea DuVall), Buffy ends up having to save her life — and by the Season 1 finale "Prophecy Girl," Cordelia helps Buffy and her friends battle the Master (Mark Metcalf). Throughout Seasons 2 and 3, Cordelia starts to loosen up, even starting an on-and-off relationship with Xander — which costs her popularity and later leads to her reverting back to type when she catches Willow kissing Xander. But her parents are soon arrested for tax fraud, which prompts Cordelia to move to Los Angeles to support herself by becoming an actress. By extension, Carpenter left the cast of Buffy after its third season to join the spin-off series Angel.
There, she reunites with Angel (David Boreanz), a vampire given a soul who had his own tumultuous relationship with Buffy and the Scooby Gang. Angel and Cordelia form Angel Investigations, taking on all manner of supernatural cases; Cordelia herself soon becomes empowered with the ability to see the future after her lover Doyle (Glenn Quinn) dies. Throughout their adventures, Angel and Cordelia develop feelings for each other — but then a string of events conspires to keep them apart. First, Cordelia is made a half-demon so that she can continue to utilize her visions, which have slowly been killing her. Later on, she enters into a relationship with Angel's son Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) and falls into a coma after giving birth to an otherwordly demon. Finally, in the show's 100th episode "You're Welcome," Angel reunites with Cordelia, who reminds him of his purpose after striking a deal with the demonic law entity Wolfram & Hart. The episode ends with Angel learning that Cordelia has passed away in her sleep.
It's a bizarre ending for a character who went through so much development and was so integral to the narrative. Cordelia's growth and evolution slowly made her a fan-favorite character, as well as the perfect fit for Angel being a darker and more mature show compared to Buffy. That's saying nothing of Carpenter's performance; even as she became more brave and self-assured, Cordelia still retained her wicked sense of humor. The reason for Cordelia's death can be directly traced back to Buffy/Angel creator Joss Whedon — who fostered a toxic work environment and was openly hostile to Carpenter.
Toxic on-Set Behavior Led to the Death of Cordelia Chase
Charisma Carpenter in Angel
Image via The WB
Whedon's fall from grace began when his ex-wife Kai Cole wrote a guest blog on The Wrap, denouncing him as a "hypocrite preaching feminist ideals" while revealing that he'd had multiple affairs on the set of Buffy. "I believed, everyone believed, that he was one of the good guys, committed to fighting for women’s rights, committed to our marriage, and to the women he worked with. But I now see how he used his relationship with me as a shield, both during and after our marriage, so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist," she wrote. Later still, Ray Fisher would take Whedon to task for his behavior when reshooting Justice League, accusing him of being abusive toward Fisher and other cast members including Gal Gadot.
This led Carpenter to write her own lengthy statement in which she detailed how Whedon's behavior left her with a chronic physical condition as well as trauma. Most of it stemmed from when Carpenter became pregnant; she says that Whedon "manipulatively weaponized [her] womanhood and faith against [her]" and killed off Cordelia on Angel despite assurances to the contrary. "Heroic, vulnerable, just angry, possessed, funny – I get to be all those different things rolled into one. Getting this role, in hindsight... God, I made a good decision, or they did," she told the BBC back when Angel was on the air. Thankfully, Slayers: A Buffyverse Story gives not just Carpenter but also Benson a chance to do right by their respective characters.
'Slayers' Lets Charisma Carpenter and Amber Benson Take the Reins of Their Characters' New Stories
Image via Audible
Multiverses are all the rage these days, not just because you can get actors to reprise beloved roles but because they offer the chance to see different versions of those characters. This is definitely the case for Slayers; Cordelia being the only Slayer has left her world-weary and jaded, a far cry from the peppy, motormouthed Indira. This isn't the first alternate reality Cordelia was involved with; the Buffy episode "The Wish" saw her encountering the vengeance demon Anya (Emma Caulfield Ford) and wishing that Buffy never came to Sunnydale, while Angel's "Birthday" had Cordy wishing away her founding of Angel Investigations to become a successful actress. The difference here is that Cordelia has been hardened by her battle against Drusilla (Juliet Landau), losing friends and family in the process. Carpenter brings a quiet gravity to her performance, which makes her the most compelling thing about Slayers — and will more than likely remind fans of why they grew to love Cordelia in the first place.
Likewise, Benson has a chance to shape a different version of Tara, who has become the Queen of Black Magic and is in a relationship with that world's Drusilla. Benson also co-wrote Slayers, letting her put the spotlight on characters that showed so much promise on Buffy yet were cut down. "I think we were presented with a really cool multiverse world to play in, which allowed us to bring in people and characters that maybe didn’t get their due and maybe give them a better way forward, a better ending, a better sense of closure," she said at this year's New York Comic Con. It's no surprise she'd choose to do this; Tara's death on Buffy caused shockwaves and was yet another example of a character being cut down when they had so much to offer. With Slayers, Carpenter and Benson have a chance to right some wrongs while also carving out new paths for their characters.
All episodes of Slayers: A Buffyverse Story are available to listen to on Audible.