Angel (vampire)
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Born in Ireland in the 18th century under the name Liam, he was turned into a vampire by Darla. He became Angelus, a vampire noted for his sadistic cruelty. In the late nineteenth century, Angelus murdered a gypsy girl, and was cursed by her people by having his soul restored to him unless he had a moment of perfect happiness. Now referring to himself as Angel, the chastened vampire spent the next hundred years feeling guilty for the sins he had committed as Angelus. The earlier parts of Angel's career have been seen in frequent flashbacks in the two series.
During his time as an evil vampire (his pre-soul days), Angel sired many vampires, one of the best known being Drusilla. Others have included Penn, Teresa (when he lost his soul again), the daughter of the vampire hunter Holtz, and more. It was thought at first that Angelus had sired Spike, but it is later revealed that Drusilla made Spike into a vampire, although Angelus was still Spike's sire and "Yoda" in his mind.
Angel has several times had his soul removed, he is referred to as Angelus when in this state. This has sometimes been accidental and occasionally deliberate, when attempting to extract information from demons and also while under the influence of illicit substances. He has also masqueraded as Angelus while still having his soul to fool the anti-slayer Faith into divluging information. This preciptated a loss of trust between Angel and Buffy, who felt he had played the role as Angelus too well. Giles (Buffy's watcher) had not trusted Angel since the first removal of his soul (see below) as Angelus killed his love interest, Jenny Calander, a Romany computer teacher sent by the gypsy tribe who originally cursed Angel to monitor the state of his punishment.
On Buffy, Angel was Buffy's principal love interest for the first three seasons. Much drama revolved around Buffy's realization that he was a vampire in the middle of the first season, and his loss of his soul following a moment of perfect happiness while making love to Buffy in the second season. Following the third season, Angel left to start his own detective agency, and television series, in Los Angeles, Angel.
The spin-off revolved around Angel's efforts to achieve redemption, with his principal adversary being a demonic law firm known as Wolfram and Hart. He is assisted by various other characters, including Doyle, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, and Fred. As the series ended after its fifth season in May, 2004, Angel was preparing to wade into a suicidal battle against the forces of Wolfram and Hart. Cordelia had helped him realize that, even though evil will continue to exist forever, it will eternally fail to win the war if good makes itself enough of a pain in the ass.