Did Anya really change?

Chosen Enemy

Losing my soul
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I'm not talking about character developement.
Let's start from the beginning. Anya, or Aud, was a woman betrayed by her man. She cursed him and turned it into a troll. D'hoffryn was so impressed by her evil abillities that he gave her a job, doing just that. I'm not sure about the whole Vengeance Demon thing, because Halfrek called it Justice Demon and she helped people and kids like she helped Dawn in "Older and Far Away". But Anya did bad things by request of the ones who summoned her. And let's not forget about the French Revolution, Anya and Halfrek massacred people.

In season 3, Anya pretended to be a high school student, in order to, well do her job, which was evil stuff. Maybe doing evil wasn't her intend, but she didn't care what happens, she simply enojyed when it did, because as it seems people usually requested for bad things for others to happen).
Then when her power was gone she was a regular human being again. But not a very good one. She fell for Xander and made an effort to live according to what he says - the rules of the human world. But she didn't really care about the others or the world. She only cared about herself and Xander. But at least she was willing to give up things for love. Including evil (a little like Spike here).

When Xander left her at the altar, she was so hurting that it was enough to push her back into evil. She was vengeance demon again. Then tried to hurt Xander with that. Although she still loved him and cared for him, and I think still wanted to be with him.
By the end of the season, she seemed very human. Because she actually cared and helped them and even risked her life (what she wouldn't do in season 3 when she ran away before all the chaos starts). She even started grieving over Giles when she thought he was gonna die.

But in season 7, still a demon, she was responsible for a massacre again. Just like she did in her past. Only this time, she actually felt remorse about it: "What have I done?"
Buffy believed Anya was evil, and should be killed (which is a subject for another discussion because it's a lot more complicated than that). By the end of that episode, Anya felt really bad for everything she's done, and wanted to be killed.
And even though she was mean at times this season, and brutally honest, she did fight to her death for the world, and died as a hero with a sword in her hands.

All her ups and downs were about evil. I don't think she could decide if she was or wanted to be evil or good, to live in the demons world or in the humans world. If she wasn't forced into the humans world, she would have probably still been evil, uncaring, selfish. Thanks to that and Xander she tried to change, even if there were so many things she didn't like about the human world and didn't understand.

After all that, I'm asking you, do you think Anya has truly changed? Even when she was good and/or human, she kept complaining and disliking the human world, its rules and its people. She's learned to keep some stuff to herself (otherwise she wouldn't have waited till Empty Places to reveal what she's been thinking about Buffy all along).
When I ask you if she's changed from her first human life up to point where she died, I'm not asking only about her evil side, also about her thoughts and opinions and her as a person.
 
I just don't like how Xander didn't care about Anya's past as Anyanka but he's the first one to sharpen a stake to kill Angel
 
white avenger
white avenger
To kill Angel or Spike. Xander was if nothing else, an equal opportunity hypocrite.
I think that, for the most part, Anya adapted to her current situation, whatever it was, more than she actually changed. Her so-called "change,' initially, was nothing more than the loss of her amulet and the power that it gave her. Without it, changing her actions was a matter of simple survival. Even her siding with the Scoobies and fighting with them was, I think, more a matter of staying with Xander than any real desire to either fight for the right or to atone for any past activities. I got the definite feeling that, if he had just once suggested that they move to someone less prone to apocalypses, she would have had her bags packed in record time.

It might be argued that she finally received her epiphone midway through the final season, but even then, her only regret was for a single group of college students, but whether or not it would have actually been a lasting change, if she had survived that final battle is anyone's guess.
 
Well, she is no longer a demon so she did reallychange; but how much she guilt she feels over her crimes and how much personal growth as a human she went through is debatable.

I think Anya eventually wanted to fit in with humans and live a normal life but I don know that she ever knew how to do that. She never seemed to care about all the hurt and pain she caused people; she almost seemed content with her past as a murderer. Sometimes I wonder if she ever got over her own heartache enough to really be happy and truly change.
 
I do think she changed. I think she lost her faith in humanity (focused on men - but I think it went deeper than that) and then found it again.
 
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