so with fresh eyes we got to prophecy girl on our watch, and for some reason it's only now occurring to me how weird that last episode is when it comes to xander vs angel
obviously for the majority of it, xander is just the best friend. he's turned down, and it hurts, and he's bitter, but he's never shown as anything other than buffy's friend. and then she goes off the face the master alone. and then he's refusing to let her go alone, off to find her, having to convince angel (her ACTUAL love interest) into even helping him. and when they DO find her, xander is shown as the distraught lover. shots hold on him and his reaction to her death. not only that, but he's the one to take action and actually try and bring her back, to save her even though he's gotten the death call. he's pleading with her to come on as he tries to resuscitate her. and his desperation, his pleads and his efforts, they work. she wakes up with a gasp and coughs back to life. in the sort of way you usually see a strong love save the person they care about like that in media
when it comes to angel in this episode, he's so... when buffy finds out about the prophecy, he just keeps trying to relate it back to himself (and I understand WHY he's doing that, or at least I think I do, but it does feel off when she's clearly breaking down over this. she needs his support, not his sympathies). when he finds out she's actually gone to face the master, he snarks at xander, mocks him for loving her and trying to do something about it. it's only when xander asks him back aren't you? like it's a ridiculous question does angel decide to go help the girl he's supposedly in love with. and he is clearly horrified when he finds buffy lying face down in the water, and he's not okay that she's dead, but he's also focused on surprisingly little despite the fact he's constantly teased as buffy's big crush. and it's xander who has the big moment and saves the hero he's in love with, not angel
I truly could just be reading too much into it, but I feel like this was all played very oddly if they wanted us to be rooting for angel as her love interest when we're just repeatedly shown why xander WOULD be better in this episode...
