I was watching Season Three of "Buffy" recently and was surprised when a certain line struck a chord with me. In "Amends" when Angel is trying to wait for the sunrise to kill himself from guilt and shame and thinking of what he's done, he asks Buffy if he is "a thing worth saving? Am I a righteous man? Huh? The world wants me gone!"  Angel tells her that it isn't the demon in him that needs killing, it's the man. He also claims to be weak.

Buffy responds later during the argument: "Strong is fighting! It's hard, and it's painful, and it's every day! It's what we have to do."

I don't follow Angel the Series with the same devotion that I lavish on BtVS but an episode and a line from Ats that I loved was from "Deep Down" that Angel says.  "Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. It's harsh, and cruel. But that's why there's us. Champions. It doesn't matter where we come from, what we've done or suffered, or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world is the way it should be to show it what it can be." I also noticed that he brought up his girlfriend sending him to hell for a hundred years earlier on in that little speech.

I really don't know if writers made this similar or if it was just a good idea they wanted to follow up on, or if the line stuck with them and they did something similar later in Ats. It did get me thinking about what other parallels between the two shows might be found. I do think they're similar, at least in:  "It's harsh, and cruel." - "It's hard, and it's painful, and it's every day."

I would appreciate someone telling me if I'm looking too hard and that I'm crazy.

Since he made the Buffy sending him to hell reference, one could chalk it up to he actually learned something from the young slayer who was trying to save him that day :)  That, and I'm sure they shared a few writers (right?  I've never really checked.  Beyond Joss, I mean).

I'm pretty sure Doug Petrie was a part of Angel too, and I know David Fury was a big part of it. Still, that stuff might not have been just copyright and past experience leaking through but a deliberate job.