Did Buffy give Xander more confidence (Re: The Pack)?

Certainly. Xander's an incredibly brave son of a bitch but more importantly, there's nothing threatening about those guys. Bunch of mean, rich kids - what are they gonna do? I'm sure that Xander has dealt with that talk-much-but-never-been-in-a-fight type before.
 
Why? Xander does some incredibly brave stuff in season 1. Please elaborate.
 
While I agree that there's nothing particularly threatening about those guys, I'm not so sure Xander would've stepped in simply because it didn't really concern him. Why risk a fight for someone who wasn't really a friend of his?
I think he would have been passive, as in seen it - disagreed with it - but not really had the incentive to meddle. I think Xander was always brave, but I think Buffy gave him, and Willow, that 'stand up for the little guy' quality. Or rather that she brought it out of them.
 
It seems unlikely that he would have stood up to them. It was uncharacteristic of what we were shown of Xander. Buffy was the catalyst for change in him.
 
Xander is "I laugh in the face of danger then I hide until it goes away" guy, not very confident. Not exactly the king of bully beat downs. Even in later seasons, he's afraid of Larry and Jack.
 
I don't think Xander would have stepped in because I agree with Taake that when someone Xander doesn't know is in trouble, he wouldn't really get involved. However, if Lance was a friend of his, Xander would have stood up for him against the bullies.

Did you guys forget that Xander, just learning that vampires were real, followed Buffy to the sewers to save Jesse? He was really upset when Buffy wouldn't let him help. Willow was too scared she wanted to sit down even though she was already sitting down, Xander, on the other hand, only thought about saving Jesse. And that happened in the very first episode, so there was no time for Buffy to influence him, which means that Xander has always been a brave character.
 
I'm sure there was some part of Xander that confronted those bullies just to look good in front of Buffy, so yeah, Buffy gave Xander a lot more courage in this case. Or, more accurately, she made Xander access the courage that he already had inside himself.
 
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