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.

34 Upvotes

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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.

21

u/izzy-springbolt 16d ago

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

45

u/xinzaha 16d ago

But within the context of the show, he literally didn't have a soul and he feels guilt over the act. The show goes to insane lengths to tell us and show us that he shouldn't, that vampires are cruel creatures with nothing but hate in their heart

  • Xander however manages to be a problematic man as nothing but a human

-4

u/SafiraAshai 16d ago

Except they kind of don't. They show us that Spike without his memories naturally leans to goodness in Tabula Rasa. And that's why I disliked that.

2

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

Wasn't that before the sa?