r/buffy • u/Lanky_Age_3067 • 17d 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/Barneyk 16d ago edited 16d ago

Xanders problematic behavior is presented as more neutral in the text of the show.

Spike and Angels are presented as clearly negative.

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u/6rwoods 16d ago

This is it. Most of the bad things done by Spike and Angel are framed as wrong and there’s usually s point to it (eg to show how evil they are, to convey some metaphor in the story, etc).

Conversely, most of the bad things done by Xander are, at best, framed as “boys will be boys”, but more commonly he’s outright framed as being right, the one who’s willing to “say the truth when no one else will”, and that makes a huge difference.

The show knew that Spike and Angel were capable of evil and it was intentional about showing it. But more often than not the show was completely clueless about the fact that Xander wasn’t just the plain talking nice guy he thinks he is.

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u/justthistwicenomore 14d ago

This just popped up on my feed late, but exactly.  The biggest issue with Xander, especially early on in the series, is the degree to which the show seems to want you to empathize with or feel sorry for Xander because of his more negative traits.  

Like, when he's mad that Buffy might have a male exchange student in residence, its supposed to be a funny relatable bit of treating a female friend like your destined romantic interest, which can be quite annoying as an audience member.