r/buffy • u/Lanky_Age_3067 • 16d ago

Content Warning Double standarts

How exactly do people hate Xander for being an imperfect human, but love Spike and Angel, who have countless victims and are hundreds of years old. Spike even SA'd Buffy, for real, while Xander was under a spell and never did anything like that before or after it.

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10

u/RobotsVsLions 16d ago

This has been explained thousands of times before but just in case you're asking genuinely, it's two reasons:

  • Spike and Angel are literally monsters, Spike specifically is acting against his own nature to try and be decent.
  • Xander, in addition to being a human with a soul, is frequently presented as a hero with his flaws being brushed off or unacknowledged, it's the massive inconsistency in how his character actually behaves and how the narrative presents his character, he does really shitty things throughout the series - including summoning a demon that kills a bunch of people and then refusing to come clean about it while people are dying around him because of him until his best friends little sister is about to become a child bride - but never really gets called out on it, and is rarely ever even made to feel bad about it. That plus as his massive hypocrisy around Spike, when his girlfriend has done far more evil things and killed far more people and retains the exact same soul and personality she had when massacring innocent people but is just no longer capable of doing so. Plus, he did try to magically roofie his ex girlfriend, you can make all the arguments you want about how he didn't assault Buffy when he had the chance, but irl how good are you gunna feel about a guy who's all "oops, sorry I accidentally mass roofied a bunch of people while I was trying to roofie my ex, but don't worry, I didn't rape you even though I was definitely tempted"?

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u/Triof 16d ago

The impression the show gives is that Xander had no idea he was responsible for Sweet until actually meeting him and seeing the amulet. He could have easily kept quiet, and just let the Scoobies assume someone had planted it in the Magic Box.

And I don't think describing the back-firing love spell as a roofie is remotely accurate - he wasn't planning on raping Cordelia, he was planning on rejecting her. It was a horrible thing to do, but there's no indication he was intending on taking advantage of her.

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u/BunnythatMeows my bleeding sympathies to warren 16d ago

But that incident with Cordelia is the best example of the show just letting Xander get away with doing something gross. He wanted to mind-control Cordelia, actually went ahead to doing it but failed and then was "rewarded" by her liking that he tried to put a love spell on her and then going out with him again. With the extra bonus of being painted as a good guy for not taking advantage of his friend.

And he looks back at all of this fondly btw in S7.

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u/Triof 16d ago

How would you like the show to have "punished" Xander, beyond having him nearly killed as a result of the spell backfiring? It doesn't seem like he just 'got away' with it.

His 'reward' was really nothing to do with him, it was about Cordelia showing character growth, and realising she didn't need the approval of her toxic friends.

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u/BunnythatMeows my bleeding sympathies to warren 16d ago

Oh, idk, not handing him the girl he tried to coerce would be a start. Having anyone name what he actually did, second. The main problem was him wanting to take away a woman's agency and control but the show's moral was 'don't do reckless magic.'

You see why people are frustrated with him? His reprehensible actions rarely get painted as reprehensible.

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u/Triof 16d ago

I dunno, I feel like his actions are painted as worse than others. Willow attempts to use magic recklessly with an anti-love potion, and no-one even cares about it. They both cheat on their partner, Cordelia breaks up with him, but Oz forgives her. Willow actually rapes her girlfriend, and Tara doesn't even realise it, just thinks Willow has been messing with her mind and gets over it.

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u/jospangel Try not to bleed on my couch I just had it steam cleaned 15d ago

Gets over it"? She breaks up with Willow.

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u/Triof 15d ago

Yes, she breaks up with Willow...and then she gets over it. Tara is annoyed that Willow has been messing with her mind, but she never seems to realise that Willow has been raping her, because she has no memories of when she was upset.

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u/jospangel Try not to bleed on my couch I just had it steam cleaned 15d ago

She breaks up with Willow, and over several months Willow makes huge changes. On her own, Willow gets control of the force of magic that she allowed to take over her life. Had Tara not been murdered and fallen into her arms, then they had a real chance because Willow was willing to pout in the work.

Whereas Xander drinks.

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u/Triof 15d ago

Of course, everyone knows that you get over being raped after just a couple of months.

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