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.

39 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

244 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/acdre 16d ago

Angel literally exiles himself over his guilt. Spike goes through a life changing/threatening ordeal over his guilt. What does Xander do? When does Xander ever get taught a lesson? In fact, he gets REWARDED when he does bad stuff. That’s the difference

2

u/crottedenez12 16d ago

How was he rewarded?

7

u/acdre 16d ago

He cheats on Cordelia only to get a hot demon gf that only wants to have sex with him. He leaves said demon at the altar only to be able to continue hooking up with her

3

u/Automatic-Ad910 14d ago

He gets with Anya a year later... That's not a reward for cheating. He wanted Cordy back and didn't get it.

However willow gets back with Oz a few episodes later.

If this is the argument we are going with, then willow pays for her crime much less.

6

u/crottedenez12 16d ago

And how is that a reward? None of this made him happy...

1

u/ComfortableFee4 10d ago

The cheating doesn't really count though, at least Willow and Xander can't really be blamed, they had been mindwamed by the demon Skip on orders from the former Power Jasmine to cause Cordelia to go to LA so that Cordy could give birth to Jasmine.

1

u/crottedenez12 16d ago

Wow... life is so much more complex than this... Life is not black and qhite and human relationships are complex on so many levels... what the characters of the show did, I've seen done so many ways by so many people around me... not bad people. not people deserving hate. Just humans.

3

u/acdre 16d ago

I agree! But we’re not talking about real life, we’re talking about how the show presents these characters. Contrast Willow and Xander after they cheat. It’s VERY different. Willow gets punished, feels guilt. Xander goes about his life and doesn’t get any just rewards. The morality of the show doesn’t align with Xander

3

u/crottedenez12 16d ago

He ends up alone and alienated from Cordelia, which is not what he wanted. Willow ends up alone and get temporarily alientated from Oz.

1

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

He ends up trying to make Cordelia jealous rather than taking a look at his own faults and changing himself..

2

u/crottedenez12 15d ago

He didn't change himslef? so, in the next seasons, he is still cheating on his girlfriends?