Carpenter pleaded to the producers to let her cut her hair in the second season of "Angel", but they were dissatisfied with the darker tone and cut which created a "dark edge of Cordelia" which wasn't as "warm and effervescent as she usually is", so for the third season they wanted her to "go shorter and blonder". "Angels third season demonstrates Cordelia's development into a full-fledged heroine. The episode "Birthday" saw her being offered the chance to live a life where she never met Angel, but her inner desire to help others sees her sacrifice this life and her humanity to become a half-demon who can better withstand the visions she carries. In "Billy", Cordelia begins to train alongside Angel to become a better fighter and learns quickly. Carpenter began to train extensively with the show's stunt co-ordinators both to learn how to fight and to handle weaponry. In the episode "Waiting in the Wings", both Angel and Lorne remark on what a fine woman Cordelia has finally become, with Cordelia noting she is more like a superhero than she ever expected to be growing up in Sunnydale. Also in this episode, she and Angel both realize they have fallen for one another, but their love goes unconsummated. Critically, Jennifer Crusie considers Cordelia's ascension to the heavens at the end of season three to be the "point that the Mutant Enemy Productions writers evidently lost their minds". She goes on to describe how Cordelia's compliance with Skip seems entirely out of character. Jes Battis also argues that a paradox is created when "the character who embraces her privilege (Cordelia) gets to become a higher being and exit "Angel", and as an overwhelmingly positive force" where later Fred (Amy Acker), "the character who is conflicted about her privilege" in season five "ends up being possessed by a millennia-old demon".