And Now, A Rant.

[sarolynne]

And what will this rant be about? Well, nothing particularly timely or relevant, so if you were hoping for that, I am sorry to disappoint. But I've been telling mildmay that I'd rant about this for a while now, and it really is pretty annoying, so timely or not, why not go with it?

The subject of this diatribe?

Comments

[ellenel13]

I hated Xander too. It was when he told Dawn about Buffy's attempted rape. That scene made em almost as uncomfortable as the attempted rape too.

It was when I realized that Xander's cared more about his ego than Buffy.

[sarolynne]

That exactly. The attempted rape scene? Not good. But seeing Xander act like it's his place to disclose it to other people would just disgusting.

[apology]

You know what I didn't like? When he summoned that musical demon & then people DIED because of it, but all he does is raise his hand & go BUT I THOUGHT IT WOULD MAKE US ALL HAPPY.

Except, his actions made people DIE.

Why did no one care about that?

[sarolynne]

No kidding, right? When they thought it was Dawn, it was like a big deal. How could she do that! But it's him, so whatevs.

He fucks up. People get hurt--or, you know, killed--as a result. But no one calls him on it.

[apology]

That's because he's a SUPER ASSHOLE. I mean, I seriously couldn't believe that they just let that slide & talked about WHERE DO WE GO FROM HEREEEEEE & didn't even go XANDER WTF WERE YOU ON; YOU GOT PEOPLE KILLED. THEY DIED. THEY REALLY DIED. & he doesn't even look like he feels guilty about it. It was just an OOPS moment.

[sarolynne]

Oops, my bad. I just thought it would work out!

You're right. That moment slipped my mind, and I should have included it. Because, seriously, what was that?

[mildmay]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

Xander remains my least favorite character ever, and THIS IS WHY. ALL OF THIS.

<333333

[sarolynne]

AND ALSO WHAT apology SAID!

[nayami]

You know I never thought about Xander this way, but you brought up some good points about the flaws in the writing by a writer who prides himself on understanding feminism. It's a really interesting take-down. That said, I guess there's some karmic appreciation in Xander losing an eye, although I guess you could still argue that was just more making everything about him. Also, yes, the "Once More With Feeling" fuckup always did get to me.

About the rape disclosure, this ties into my huge Spuffy preference and I'm biased and on the outskirts with almost everyone on this so I'll just wander off.

[nayami]

And actually, the way his fuckup with Willow giving back Angel his soul never being addressed ever again was a huge shortcoming in the writing, I always thought. I mean, they could have really done something with that, but instead Joss just chose to pretend it never happened.

[sarolynne]

Yeah, that.

That was really not something that should just have disappeared, and yet it seemed to, as do a lot of the things Xander does that are massively problematic.

Joss's writing has a lot of problems I find in men/male writers who think they're down it feminism. It's not that they're not, exactly. They're normally well meaning and they have some of the theory, but they don't have like the instinct for it that someone who has, say, had male friends get all up in their love life like it's their business somehow will have

[nayami]

Yeah, killing Anya stupidly never helped with that whole "deal with the consequences of your actions" thing either. God, I will always hate Joss for that. WTF?

[windandwater]

It all makes sense when you realize that Xander is Joss Whedon. That's why Xander also seems to get all the girls (at least temporarily), even though he's the 'Normal Guy'.

[sarolynne]

That is a thought that's occurred to me, yeah. Which really just makes it worse, because it means these attitudes probably reflect the author's, and aren't just an accident or a little bad writing.

Well. Not the sort of bad writing where it's an accident, and the author doesn't actually endorse those attitudes, at least.

[windandwater]

It's rather unfortunate, yes. And it's not just a thought, IIRC, Joss said in some interview or something that Xander was basically his avatar/stand-in in the series. I don't approve of everything Xander does (my god what he did in Becoming Part II made me hate him so much), but he does stand in as... as, well, the guy who says it like it is, even if it's uncomfortable.

Also, TV Tropes has an awesome page for Buffy, if you feel like wasting several hours.

[sarolynne]

...I don't think I've hit the Buffy page on TV Tropes. Which is pretty amazing, considering the amount of time I've sunk into that wiki.

And that's the sort of thing you miss by being several years late.