Did Anya have a soul?

[OutForAWalk]

There is something that always has bothered me about Anya, post "Hells Bells." She very quickly goes back to being a demon and wishes great and horrible harm upon Xander, which thankfully she is unable to bring to fruition.

However, nothing is ever said about her soul. Did she get her soul back when she turned into a human? We are told that demons don't have souls, so it is safe to say that she didn't have a soul when she was a Vengeance Demon. It is presumed that she had a soul as a human, but why would she make the choice to go back to being a demon? If it was that easy, why didn't she do it before?

I'm curious to hear your thoughts! 🙂

 

[Robb Stark]

Yeah, Anya had a soul the entire time. She just chose to do bad things because she's selfish, and is one of the few characters to show virtually zero growth. She didn't go nuts before regaining her powers because she couldn't have done much even if she wanted to. Plus, she was in love with Xander, and wanted to keep him.

Anya can be funny, but her character makes zero sense when you think about it. She makes it very clear multiple times that the only reason she's not exerting vengeance is because she no longer can, that it was fun and she wishes she could do it again. She tries to have Willow killed, frequently insults the entire group while contributing next to nothing and treats both Buffy and Giles atrociously in S6.

 

[itssmiletime]

I just read ''Vampires, Souls and Double Standards'',, and I got the impression from this thread and watching Seasons 4-7 that what it means to have and feel a soul, it's terribly vague, confusing, etc and that I'm not the only one confused.

I do think Anya had a soul- as D'Hoffryn said that to reverse her massacre in Selfless, it would require ''the life and soul of a vengeance demon''. But hey, he is kind of evil, so perhaps he was lying (and he had reason to: perhaps, he was so powerful and could reverse it without problem, however, he chose to ''go for the pain"). Being a human gets you a soul, automatically, but yeah, Anya knew what she was doing was wrong. I guess during her 1000 year spree, she was so removed from humanity to not see the morals of the situation. I'm not excusing what she did, but that's just how I've interpreted it.

 

[Tome]

Yeah, Anya had a soul the entire time. She just chose to do bad things because she's selfish, and is one of the few characters to show virtually zero growth. She didn't go nuts before regaining her powers because she couldn't have done much even if she wanted to. Plus, she was in love with Xander, and wanted to keep him.

Anya can be funny, but her character makes zero sense when you think about it. She makes it very clear multiple times that the only reason she's not exerting vengeance is because she no longer can, that it was fun and she wishes she could do it again. She tries to have Willow killed, frequently insults the entire group while contributing next to nothing and treats both Buffy and Giles atrociously in S6.

Amen, man. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Oh and she's also very childish at times.

 

[Tuppence]

I think she does have a soul, and she does have a growth, it because she was so at the opposite end of the spectrum when we first meet her that even major growth would seem fairly minor in our eyes because she had so freaking far to go. I mean in season 3 Anya doesn't help with the ascension but runs instead; by season 7 she is standing ready to fight and fights to the death despite admitting she is completely terrified. In The Wish she would happily see everyone killed through Cordelia's warped desire, but then in Selfless she is horrified by what she has done and looks in a state of shock and is willing to sacrifice her own life to reverse it (as she initially thinks D'Hoffryn means she must die to reverse it). And I think that is definitely growth.

And as it shows in Selfless, venegeance demons seem to be vengeful humans who get willing made into demons, I would theorise that they do have souls.

 

[Black Eye Guy]

I think Anya had a soul, I think D'Hoffryn plays on people when their weak and upset about something and it's easy to turn them into a vengeance demon.

Once they are the demon I'd say they rationalise it more to themselves, they had bad things done to them so their just helping get vengeance to others like them.

Also how bad is the stuff she did? I can't really remember any really horrible stuff she does, she grants other peoples wishes (again taking responsibility off herself) and curses them, but she doesn't seem like she'd actually be attacking and killing someone herself.

She'd just become jaded to vengeance and the meaning got confused with justice to her.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Anya certainly had a soul when she turned Olaf into a troll before meeting d'Hoffryn. She was recruited because she was a perfect fit for the job of vengeance demon. There was nothing to indicate that he forced her into joining his group. I have seen people who obviously have souls do horrendous things. I think she retained her soul all through her millenium of terror. I think her lust for vengeance was diminished by being around Xander who is a basically decent person. This is not to say that she wouldn't have started again if she had married Xander.

 

[Buffy Summers]

...she's selfish, and is one of the few characters to show virtually zero growth.

I have to disagree with you here. Her reaction after Joyce dies shows (to me) how far she'd come and that she had a soul. If she had no soul, or hadn't grown at all, she wouldn't have cared that Buffy's mother was dead. That reaction had nothing to do with keeping Xander.

 

[SMG14Fan]

I do think that Anya had a soul. Otherwise, I doubt she would have felt remorse or had D'Hoffryn reverse her spell in Selfless. People can have souls and still do evil things. Some people are just driven by anger and vengeance, and I think that's how Anya was.

 

[OutForAWalk]

I do think that Anya had a soul. Otherwise, I doubt she would have felt remorse or had D'Hoffryn reverse her spell in Selfless. People can have souls and still do evil things. Some people are just driven by anger and vengeance, and I think that's how Anya was.

I totally agree with you. However, I guess I am confused because I was under the impression that demons didn't have souls. When she was a Vengeance Demon, how was she able to retain her (human) soul?

 

[SlayerFest]

There is something that always has bothered me about Anya, post "Hells Bells." She very quickly goes back to being a demon and wishes great and horrible harm upon Xander, which thankfully she is unable to bring to fruition.

However, nothing is ever said about her soul. Did she get her soul back when she turned into a human? We are told that demons don't have souls, so it is safe to say that she didn't have a soul when she was a Vengeance Demon. It is presumed that she had a soul as a human, but why would she make the choice to go back to being a demon? If it was that easy, why didn't she do it before?

I'm curious to hear your thoughts! 🙂

Anya was left at the altar by someone she was in love with, a day that was supposed to be the happiest day of her "newly human" life turned out to be the worst. She was lost, sad, and pissed off so....yeah. She made a rash decision to become a demon again. I don't believe that she wanted something terrible to really happen to Xander, but she was hurt and angry. I believe that to put so much time and energy into tricking Dawn, Tara, Buffy and Willow into wishing something terrible to happen to him only proves how much she loved him. Maybe it's just me, but I can only be hurt by something someone does when I actually give a crap about them, which is why it makes me so angry when they do something mean or insensitive. Hate is not the opposite of love, apathy is.

Also, most serial killers by Buffyverse standards have souls. Having a soul doesn't mean that you always do the right thing, or that you never do anything "evil".

 

[Xin Rong]

Yeah, Anya had a soul the entire time. She just chose to do bad things because she's selfish, and is one of the few characters to show virtually zero growth. She didn't go nuts before regaining her powers because she couldn't have done much even if she wanted to. Plus, she was in love with Xander, and wanted to keep him.

Anya can be funny, but her character makes zero sense when you think about it. She makes it very clear multiple times that the only reason she's not exerting vengeance is because she no longer can, that it was fun and she wishes she could do it again. She tries to have Willow killed, frequently insults the entire group while contributing next to nothing and treats both Buffy and Giles atrociously in S6.

I wouldn't say her character makes zero sense; there are plenty of humans capable of killing without remorse, and anya had the benefit of believing what she was doing was just, in a way. She was righting the wrongs done to women, and as such didn't feel guilty, In her eyes, she punished people who deserved punishing. Also, eventually she does feel guilt over the deaths she causes, e.g. in 'She' (i think thats the episode title), and in her choice to fight in series 7, as illustrated in her 'I secretly love human's' speech to Andrew in the closing episodes.

 

[Robb Stark]

I wouldn't say her character makes zero sense; there are plenty of humans capable of killing without remorse, and anya had the benefit of believing what she was doing was just, in a way. She was righting the wrongs done to women, and as such didn't feel guilty, In her eyes, she punished people who deserved punishing. Also, eventually she does feel guilt over the deaths she causes, e.g. in 'She' (i think thats the episode title), and in her choice to fight in series 7, as illustrated in her 'I secretly love human's' speech to Andrew in the closing episodes.

Sure, there are plenty of people with souls who do horrible things. But that doesn't really count as a point in her favor. In fact, it makes her worse. It just makes her a serial killer. No one can have a world view of "a guy cheated on this girl so I'm going to rip out his insides" and think it's just. Not logically anyways. Plus, it still doesn't explain or justify why she tried to have Willow murdered.

But in retrospect I was a little harsh. She does feel remorse later on in S7, that's true. I guess it just wasn't nearly enough for me. Not even close, to make her a redeemable or likable character.