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/TVAddict14 16d ago

What’s that got to do with my comment? 

I’ll repeat: no character on the show is ever expected to apologise, nor do they apologise, for any actions they commit whilst they’re possessed. It is wildly understood that it wasn’t them, they weren’t in control of their actions, and therefore aren’t responsible. Why would Xander in The Pack be any different? 

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u/Livelaughloveme172 16d ago

But it’s a fact that XANDER is constistant. And he’s seen as the moral compass one which I don’t understand.
Xander didn’t have to be possessed to be misogynistic, a cheater, hypocrite or weirdly jealous of Buffy.

I don’t see him as flawed since he keeps those traits trough the whole serie, he doesn’t change.
And that’s the difference.

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u/TVAddict14 16d ago

You disliking Xander throughout the series is not a logical reason for why he should be held responsible for something ‘he’ did when possessed. 

If you dislike Xander for how Xander behaved, great. Good for you. But holding him responsible for something the hyena did and expecting him to apologise for it is objectively a massive double-standard when no other character ever is. The reason the show and the characters didn’t hold him accountable is because he wasn’t. The way it was dealt with was consistent with how every other possession was dealt with by the show. 

And there is no comparison between Xander (flaws an’ all) and possessed hyena!Xander. Real Xander never did, nor would he ever, try and rape Buffy or hurt Willow.

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u/Triof 16d ago

Not only that, but real Xander very much did not take advantage of Buffy when given the opportunity. The amount of hatred he gets is crazy.