The Farmstead

I found Darla as a foil to Buffy on BtVS interesting but also mildly annoying. At the very beginning of the first ep, Darla's used to make the statement that "this is not the show where tiny blondes are helpless", which is awesome. But later it becomes clear that, while they're both tiny blondes, Buffy uses honourable, hale male tools to achieve her goals (violence and strategy and cleverness), Darla uses female tools like lying, looking sexy/innocent and, egads, guns. And of course Darla's the villain and of course her death is used to prove that Angel is a Good Guy After All.

But, on Angel, there's no more clear hero/villain division, thank god, and, like you said, we're shown a glimpse of the real Darla. And of Angelus, who ~got~ her, treated her like the sadist she is rather than the damsel she looks like - and Angel just doesn't, just sees her as a prop, like all men do (not to sex, but to salvation, but I doubt it matters to her) and it is very sad. Especially since, because he does know her, she can't just treat him like she did Lindsey (and actually, her no-makeup-overlarge-sweatshirt manipulation of Lindsey really delighted me).

Ekh, this was all over the place. All I meant was: yep, Darla rocks, and I hope you'll be exploring her some more.