#btvs rant

Istg if they mess up their relationship in the reboot show….ooooooohhhh boy. I’m not watching. Period.

For God’s sake!!

It’s the middle of the apocalypse, Turok-Han and Caleb are all hunting them down, and these bastards (who, sure, have room to question some of her decisions) throw her out of her own house to wander this town all by herself where she could be murdered at any moment! And Jenny and Kristin are just so celebratory throughout the whole event and even defend Anya’s words to Buffy about “not earning her gifts” and “being luckier than the rest of us” as if we haven’t had 7 FUCKING SEASONS as proof that this is nowhere near the case! As if it’s more than just Buffy taking up the role of leader by herself and being prone to isolating herself but also the Scoobies continuously putting her within that position and placing pressure on her at every moment to save the day and lead them all to victory when tbh, aside from Spike and(to an extent Willow), none of them have been doing a whole hell of a lot to help her and actually aid her in this fight!! So no wonder she feels like she has to double down on being the sole leader, protector, and general of this huge group of people all pressuring her to be their savior! Giles is the one throughout season 7 consistently telling her to step up and be the general and make the hard decisions and detach herself from her emotions then has the nerve to get all pissy and upset when she follows his fucking instructions and starts acting as the general! 

I’m just so annoyed at Kristin and Jenny for even admitting at the start of the episode that Buffy is just so damn broken from all that she has experienced this season and yet still calls her a bitch for what?!? Not telling Clem to take care of himself when he’s leaving?? And it only goes downhill from the beginning! 

It feels like they missed the entire point of the series: the series is focused on Buffy Summers! It’s primarily shown from her perspective! You can’t call her self-absorbed and a narcissist when the show is quite literally grounded in her perspective and places the audience in her shoes!

Back to “Empty Places” and Anya’s speech: Buffy was not born with these powers! She had them forced upon her when she was only 15 goddamn years old! She wasn’t like Anya who chose to become a vengeance demon(TWICE),for the past seven years she has been doing the best she can with a burden that has placed the weight of the world on her shoulders since she was a child, stolen so many loved ones from her, and has placed an early death sentence upon her! 

BUFFY SUMMERS IS NOT LUCKY!!

Does she make mistakes? Yes!

Does she tend not to handle her problems in the healthiest of ways? Of course! 

Does she care about every single person around her and only wants to protect and take care of them with all of her heart and soul?? HELL FUCKING YES

She may not always have all the answers but for seven years she has tried her best over and over again to save the world and take care of her loved ones and lead them to victory and provide a better life for them! She has forgiven these people for so many of the horrible and quite frankly at times unforgivable things they’ve done to her 

AND THEY KICK HER OUT OF HER OWN HOUSE!

So for Kristin and Jenny, to cheer for Anya’s speech, to say stuff like Buffy deserved that bc she “doesn’t know how to be a follower” (when she was forced by these same people into the role!) and that she “would be all or nothing” in terms of choosing to hand over leadership or leave the house....I just couldn’t disagree more! 

Anyways, even two decades later, Buffy Summers deserves so much better from her loved ones, her fandom, from podcasters, from her narrative, and deserves so much more nuance in the analysis of her character rather than just deeming her a “privileged bitch”

the scoobies betraying buffy in s7 is, sadly, not out of character or even that surprising. they have betrayed her plenty of times before, when spike is not in the picture, for example in dead man’s party. they were pretty terrible friends a lot of the time, super self-righteous, selfish, and judgemental towards buffy when buffy never judged them back. they constantly misunderstand and misjudge her and make everything about themselves. i know these characters are supposed to be flawed and such, but buffy is such a good friend and doesn’t get the treatment she deserves.

willow was living in buffy’s house, eating her food, not doing a single damn thing to help pay her way when she easily could’ve got a high paying freelance gig with her computer genius and witch powers! she just brought buffy back, said “oh btw you’re in debt good luck”, and continued to live in her house. and then expected buffy to be grateful for her bringing her back! giles knew how much she was struggling financially and emotionally, while knowing she was suicidal, and still left THE EPISODE after she tells everyone she was ripped out of heaven. not to mention him poisoning her to make her lose her powers for the ‘council test’ in that one episode. and don’t even get me started on how selfish xander is when it comes to buffy. dawn, being a teenager who has identity issues and the trauma from losing her mother, can be excused - but still, she has always been extremely selfish, especially when it comes to buffy.

She only lived a few blocks away and Cordy had already driven to the library for homework so it wasn't like she got out of bed and put her slippers on to rescue her from danger.

The comments make it sound as if Buffy lived in Canada and Cordelia strapped her on her back and walked thousands of miles barefoot over hot pavement or freezing snow.

Almost everyone I know will leave their house in the middle of the night to pick up fast food or go to the store because they had a craving.

My parents drive to the state line to buy lottery tickets whenever the number gets big. One of my sisters used to drive 3-4 hours each way for an out of state job. I spend over an hour a day walking my Pomeranian, actually carrying her since she is 11 and doesn't like walking anymore but loves being outdoors.

Buffy didn’t necessarily hide Angel being alive. She just didn’t tell them because it wasn’t important at the moment and it wouldn’t have made a difference other than them getting upset like they did. Not to mention she was more embarrassed about her relationship with Angel, them struggling with staying apart while he’s back and them trying to help each other.

I am by no means a Bangel shipper (as is obvious from my multiple other BTVS posts) but this episode just makes me so mad. I feel for Buffy in this scene, and me personally I would have chewed them out.

Coming at her about being with Angel. She literally told them that he got his soul back at the last moment before she killed him, and he’s had a soul since they met him—and despite knowing his crimes—they were fine with him. But as soon as he loses his soul and acts cruel towards THEM well NOW it’s an issue.

Them attacking her about “lying” but they won’t even let her speak and explain what happened. Acting as if she has some sort of “addiction” and isn’t idk…just a TEENAGER IN LOVE? If they had just actually let her speak and tell them what was going on instead of trying to tell HER what SHE is going through…And Giles teaming up with them. Like bro you’re an adult, you should understand Buffy isn’t “addicted” or has a “problem” with Angel, she’s just a girl in love. And you of all people know what Angel did before he had a soul and didn’t care to protect Buffy or her friends until he turned his back on yall. Honestly, if Angel didn’t kill Jenny, I don’t think he would have agreed with them. I think he would have defended Buffy. But because Angelus’s evil affected him, now Angel, with or without a soul is deemed “dangerous” and “reprehensible”

And this is not the only time Giles does something like this. I’ve seen people say that Giles wouldn’t let Buffy get kicked out of her house if he was there, BUT HE LITERALLY WAS! There was a single moment where he was in the room and he didn’t stand up for her. If anything, he was doing the same passive agreement where he tries to team with both sides but instead he ends up betraying Buffy. EEEUURRGHHHRNFJDNSJ

like. hear me out. it has been proven that a vampire without a soul (aka a normal vampire) isn’t necessarily pure evil, shown through spike. a vampire is made when the person gets bitten, their soul leaves their body, which then gets re-animated by a demonic energy, which rises it from the dead with vampire powers. it retains characteristics and personality traits of the person who died, but is mainly overcome with a perpetual thirst for blood, coupled with a lack of empathy. yes, it is true that the only reason spike didn’t kill anyone through s5/6 is bc of the chip. but it is also true that he DOES feel empathy, remorse, guilt, and even love.

spike may be more human than most vampires, but that has never actually been confirmed mythologically. he is still a vampire without a soul. yet, he can still experience love and loyalty enough to withstand the worst torture in order to protect dawn. he can still feel immense guilt when he failed. and while his motives are usually selfishly-based, he can still be selfless, shown in spike looking after dawn even after buffy is dead. this shows that he is not just protecting dawn to get closer to buffy, as that was obviously impossible. he did it because of his enduring love for buffy, because dawn is a part of buffy, because buffy died to protect dawn, because spike respects buffy and her wishes, because dawn is a part of buffy. spike does not have a soul throughout all of this. that begs the question: what does having a soul truly mean?

as dawn mentions, people with a soul can still do terrible things, and people without one can still do noble and good things. this obviously means that a soul does not equate to goodness. mortal murderers and rapists still exist, and they have souls. yet they are capable and find pleasure in the most evil of actions. we even see some demons, like clem, who are good ordinary people, despite the fact that they are a demon without a soul. from this i maintain that:

a soul cannot create goodness, it only amplifies what is already there.

so. when spike goes through the trials and earns his soul back for buffy, he comes out the same man reborn. he is spike the vampire, and he is william pratt, and he is none of them, and he is both of them. he is not completely different from before, but there is something irrevocably changed. he can now feel the full embodiment of human emotions without them being obstructed and twisted by a demonic inhabitance. the soul didn’t give him a personality transplant. it only amplified and de-obstructed the goodness that was already there; already in his heart — the goodness that showed itself in glimmers when he didn’t have a soul, but could not full actualize.

this is why i have a bit of a problem with angel (not as a character, but as the soulmate of the hero). angelus is completely estranged from angel. angelus does not conceive and in fact is revolted by human emotion, and any empathy, guilt, remorse, or love is completely erased from him. this means, if we are going to apply the facts, that there was not much there to begin with. there was not enough goodness to amplify with a soul; for as soon as it is taken away, any and all goodness is eviscerated. i am not saying souled-angel is a bad character, and he definitely did his penance and does good, but this post isn’t really about that. this isn’t about what souled angel did. this is about what angelus did, and why the man beneath the soul was not worthy of a soul and did not fight for one. angel was cursed with his soul. spike, without a soul, fought for his. this shows that soulless beings have the capacity to desire and achieve ultimate redemption (if they are worthy).