I feel it OUGHT to be a better comparison than it is. *ponders* I guess the difference is that Tara died to push Willow over the edge, whereas Fred died so Amy Acker could do some different acting? And they couldn't save her...
The main differences as far as I can tell are: (a) as you point out, Tara was the accidental victim of shots aimed at Buffy, rather than the intended target, although they were both victims of misogyny which ought to rescue the comparison a bit; (b) Tara dies immediately and unexpectedly instead of getting a long drawn-out death, so there is more focus on her death after it happens rather than before it; (c) Willow feels as though she must do something about what happened, even if it's too late to bring back Tara, even if it means destroying the world, which really drives the story, whereas in Angel they sort of accept the inevitability of the 'hole in the world' and grieve but don't necessarily try to change anything after she dies. (I may be misremembering what the AtS characters do, it's been a while.)
Depends on which bit you look at, but Buffy was subversive by its very nature, whereas Angel fell into every noir, 'Dark Hero' narrative you can think of. :)
I love the Buffy episode Anne where she runs away to LA and it seems like it's going to be noir and dark and depressing but she can't help being heroic, and she inspires Chantarelle/Lily/Anne with her heroism, and then years later Anne shows up in Angel the Series as, like, the most heroic and least noir character in the entire run. It's beautiful.
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The main differences as far as I can tell are: (a) as you point out, Tara was the accidental victim of shots aimed at Buffy, rather than the intended target, although they were both victims of misogyny which ought to rescue the comparison a bit; (b) Tara dies immediately and unexpectedly instead of getting a long drawn-out death, so there is more focus on her death after it happens rather than before it; (c) Willow feels as though she must do something about what happened, even if it's too late to bring back Tara, even if it means destroying the world, which really drives the story, whereas in Angel they sort of accept the inevitability of the 'hole in the world' and grieve but don't necessarily try to change anything after she dies. (I may be misremembering what the AtS characters do, it's been a while.)
Depends on which bit you look at, but Buffy was subversive by its very nature, whereas Angel fell into every noir, 'Dark Hero' narrative you can think of. :)
I love the Buffy episode Anne where she runs away to LA and it seems like it's going to be noir and dark and depressing but she can't help being heroic, and she inspires Chantarelle/Lily/Anne with her heroism, and then years later Anne shows up in Angel the Series as, like, the most heroic and least noir character in the entire run. It's beautiful.