Wesley. The greatest transformation

[Irish Spike]

I watch S3 Buffy. Whiny, rather pointless. I watch Angel S2-5. Ruff, tough, pretty cool.

[nerd4hire]

Wesley's evolution is pretty impressive all right. Is it "the greatest" though. I'm pretty fond of Cordelia's from high school bitca to whatever she was in You're Welcome.

[Lyri]

there are a lot of truely amazing transformations on these shows, but i wouldn't rate one above the other.
yes, there was Wesley. there was also Cordelia, as N4H mentioned, Spike, Faith, Fred and Anya. one could even throw Andrew and Connor into the mix.
charatcer development was very important to Joss and Co. i think. they didn't want to be left with cardboard cut outs that remanined the same season after season. he wanted them to have layers, and be human, even if most of them weren't.
i think that's why Joss did such random things with these characters. like Irish Spike said, who would have believed BTVS season 3 Wesley would've been capable of what he did in S4 of Angel?
or that S1 Willow would try to destroy the world in 6 years?
or that demonic Anyanka would have given her life trying to protect the world?

[Randy Giles]

Wesley's evolution is pretty impressive all right. Is it "the greatest" though. I'm pretty fond of Cordelia's from high school bitca to whatever she was in You're Welcome.

I agree about both. I hated Wesley in Buffy and he was nothing but annoying, but in Angel he grew to be one the best characters. Dark Wesley is a definite improvement.

And while I loved Cordy's transformation as well, I felt that later on in Angel, like the last few episodes of season three, she lost a small part of her charm, that being her bluntness. Before that, she still maintained that while being a better human being.

[KarrinMurphy]

Wesley was damaged by hus father. As he matured while not being under his father's thumb and working with the team you could see him gaining in strength and resourcefulness. Always intelligent, always sensitive, his ability to love grew by leaps and bounds.

[apocalypse]

Wesley did undergo one of the more dramatic character changes on the show, yes. I don't really agree with the assertion that Wesley was the same "loser none of the kids wanted to sit with at lunch" He was incredibly intelligent and was willing to make the tough decisions others couldn't, in order to do what was right, knowing he would have to pay the consequences. He was also always there for anyone when needed, and sat by Fred throughout her painful death, and gave his life in an attempt to better the world. That's not someone I would refer to as a loser.