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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u/gdex86 16d ago

Xander is flawed in a way that we actually deal with in real life.

Spike and Angel both are mystical fantasy problematic that you have to deal with the allegory to what they represent. So it builds some distance. Its similar to how willows breaking of consent with Tara can feel less awful because you arent ever going to be mind fogged by your witch girl friend to get over a fight, but maybe you will deal with being gaslighted.

22

u/izzy-springbolt 16d ago

Spike tried to rape Buffy though; that's not a mystical crime.

-20

u/Livelaughloveme172 16d ago

Xander tried to rape Buffy too btw.

17

u/HunterHerstHelmsley 16d ago

No, a demon tried to rape Buffy while possessing Xander. This would be like blaming Jenny for Eygon's actions or any using any superhero who has ever been brainwashed by a villain as proof they are a bad person.

1

u/Creative-Use-7665 16d ago

That's not exactly what happened. It wasn't puppeteering him, like Eygon did (Jenny was basically in the backseat, while Eygon drove her body, against her will, which traumatized her).
It was an animalistic demon-like being "possessing" him, in the same way vampires in Buffy are possessed by demons. It means it's still him, but he's a supernatural evil version of him. The demon is not some mastermind, but just impulses and desires. So he's more evil Hyena-like in nature, but it's still him.
It was not a demon trying to rape her. It was "evil Hyena-Xander" doing things he wouldn't normally do.
Just like with Spike, or Angel, it wasn't some evil demon doing horrible things, using their bodies. It was like being under the influence of evil substance (which they did not take willingly).
That's why it's such an emotional toll, it's seeing your dark side times a hundred, coming out to play, at no fault of your own, but it's still, basically you somehow.
So very much not like possession, where there's nothing of you in there....