Willow ,'Showtime'
Is it better the second time around? Or the third? Or tenth? This is the place to come when you have a burning desire to talk about an old episode that was just re-run.
There's a lot of complaint in the comments about Xander slut-shaming Cordelia. And trying to control Buffy's love life.
Well, yeah, he does that. But it's not like high school guys having GIANT blind spots that lead them to be be occasionally douchey to their female friends is all that unusual. It's pretty unreasonable to expect a 15 year-old from 1998 to act and think like a Pandagon blogger.
But to bag on Xander - doesn't that miss the point a bit? Willow and Xander were both socially awkward with their own hangups before Buffy came along. Willow was completely hung up on Xander for years. And as stated, Cordelia was a fucking asshole before her character shift that went into Angel.
I thought the point of it is that they all kind of act like assholes during the course of the series and...this is high school.
Although Xander looks like a man, we cannot expect realistic 30 year old behavior from a character who is supposed to be a sophomore/junior.
LeN, I completely agree.
I agree with LeN too.
Eh, I think Xander does suffer from Nice Guy Syndrome. I don't hate him, but I want to punch him in the face a lot.
But can you call it that for someone who is 15 or 16? I don't think NGS applies to males who aren't men.
You may know nicer Nice Guys than I do. I get being disappointed and covetous. Nice Guys think they're owed affection, and that's an important line I don't think X crosses.
Nice Guys think they're owed affection, and that's an important line I don't think X crosses.
Xander doesn't believe he deserves anything good. But he still wants good things.
I think feeling owed, wanting, and deserving are different things. Only the first one is bad in this scenario. The second is perfectly reasonable, and the third is fine in moderation. He might be deserving of Buffy, but if she doesn't want him, that's irrelevant.
I also think that Xander's hate-on for Angel (and thus the BIG LIE) was as much (if not more) about hating on vampires in general (and what happened to Jesse) and specifically about what Angelus had put them through as it was about anything to do with Angel & Buffy.
Stop me before I parenthisize again.