Expert: Lady Callista - 3/19/2010

Question
Hi,

Just wondering how old Angel was when he was turned. I know there was an episode on Buffy that showed when it happened, but I don't remember if it said how old he was.

Thanks,
Elizabeth

Answer
Hi Elizabeth.

Ah, this question.  This is a question that unfortunately has both a short answer, and a long and complicated one.  Joss Whedon made a few continuity errors on the show, or rather the numerous people who wrote different episodes did.  I will give you both answers, the short one first so you can stop there if you want.  (Also the long answer does not apply as much to his age when he died, more to when he was made a vampire, but it's still interesting.)

Short answer: In Angel (the series), in the episode titled "The Prodigal," Angel's tombstone reads 1727-1753, leaving us with the fact that Angel was 26 (or possibly 25 if he had not had his birthday yet that year, it only shows the years, not exact dates) when he died.

Long answer:
In BtVS, the episode "Becoming Pt1" shows that Angelus was sired in Galway, Ireland, by Darla in 1753.  This fits with the death date shown on his tomb in the Angel episode "The Prodigal," leading us to believe he was 25 or 26 when he died.

Then then there are the conflicts from other episodes.

In BtVS "Some Assembly Required," Angel says that he is 241.  Assuming he is counting years from when he died and became a vampire,(subtract 241 from 1997, the year that episode aired) that would mean he died and was sired in 1756.  Assuming his birth year is still the one given on the tomb in "The Prodigal," that would mean he was either 28 or 29 when he died.

Then we have the really fun episode, BtVS "Halloween," where Buffy and Willow read in a Watcher's Dairy that in 1775 Angel was 18, and still human.  Considering he looks at least a few years over 18, he can't have been vamped for a few more years after that, which gives us a real year problem.  Not only would he not be 241 by "S.A.R.,"(unless he's counting from his womb birth) but he would have been born, as in a baby from the womb, in 1757, four years after both "Becoming Part 1" and "The Prodigal" say he was killed.

I think there is another conflict from one of the Angel the series episodes, but I don't remember what it is at the moment.


Most fans just accept the fact that the show made a continuity error with both "Some Assembly Required," and with "Halloween," as they are both from Buffy's second season, and Angel's backstory had not been established fully by that point.  

But some fans try to create continuity, and just take the easy way out with "S.A.R.," joking that if you lived for a couple hundred years you might be a few years off if you tried to count them as well.

And some explain away the conflict from "Halloween" as the Watchers Diary simply being wrong, as we also have another example of this happening.  (Giles reads in another Watchers Diary in the BtVS season 2 episode "School Hard," saying that Spike is "..barely 200."   Yet the later BtVS season 5 episode, "Fool for Love," shows Spike being sired in 1880, meaning he is barely 120.)


Thanks so much for the question, and I hope this answer satisfies you.  If you would like to talk more on this, or on other Buffy/Angel stuff, do not hesitate to ask me.

~Forever, does forever work for you?
~Forever, that's the whole point...
~Lady Callista~