Do you think Buffy sympathized with Faith?
- Thread starter Joshua
- Start date
I think in the beginning of their friendship Buffy was facinated how Faith lifes with her slayerpowers! How she could life! Then she realized that this life is wrong and that it doesn't makes her happy. She started disrespecting her when she killed a human.
---------- Post added at 07:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:21 PM ----------
So no, I think Buffy did not sympathized with Faith!
---------- Post added at 07:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:21 PM ----------
So no, I think Buffy did not sympathized with Faith!
BuffyElevated
Scooby
No I dot think Buffy ever sympathized with Faith. Maybe right in the beginning of the ordeal with the Mayor's assistant but I honestly think she was more worried about Faith doing the right thing than thinking about how Faith was feeling.
Joan the Vampire Slayer
Carpe Spuffy!
I'm going to have to say no.
Buffy always saw herself as very different than Faith. I think that was the whole issue - that Buffy couldn't sympathize with Faith becauseBuffy could never truly understand her.
This is a good question, though. I never thought about how both of them lost their Watchers.
Buffy always saw herself as very different than Faith. I think that was the whole issue - that Buffy couldn't sympathize with Faith becauseBuffy could never truly understand her.
This is a good question, though. I never thought about how both of them lost their Watchers.
BuffyElevated
[No message]
SlayerFest
Wiley Dairy Gnome
This is absolutely false. I have never been raped but I have the ability to sympathize with rape victims. It's called being empathetic. Buffy did sympathize with Faith, more-so towards the end I believe. When Faith wakes up, Buffy says, "What if she's scared and she's hiding, what if she feels bad?" Whilst Willow comments that it was the "funnest coma ever". Faith hurt Buffy the most because Buffy felt responsible for her. They hurt each other, so Buffy felt she had a connection with her. After all that Faith did, Buffy considers the possibility that maybe they should help her. Also, she kisses Faith after putting her in a coma. How is that not sympathy? I don't understand my cousin, who has had a hellish life, yet I do sympathize with her. I put myself in her shoes and I just imagine how awful I'd feel if I had her life and it makes me want to help her.
In my opinion, Buffy felt that way about Faith. It's just my opinion, but I truly believe that it's clear that Buffy felt some ounce of sympathy for Faith. Honestly, how could she not?
sisterofmercy
Ray of Sunshine..
I think while she could sympathise with Faith for a bit, she couldn't empathise with her as her home life was so drastically different to hers. After a certain point though, it became harder to find sympathy in Faith as it was replaced by feelings of anger, betrayal and probably a bit of fear.
white avenger
white avenger
Though neither girl would have ever admitted it, I believe that Buffy and Faith were both a bit envious of each other. Buffy saw in Faith someone who was wild, free, answering to basically no one, living her life to suit herself without having to answer to anyone. Someone impetuous, spontaneous, even a bit reckless. To Buffy, who had always had some authority figure dictating what she could or could not do (not that she always did what she was told as much as just having to put up with the telling beforehand, and the reprimands afterward) Faith's "Want, take, have" philosophy must have seemed like what SHOULD BE a Slayer's right, in view of the risks that she had to take daily in protection of an unknowing and uncaring world.
Faith, on the other hand almost certainly envied Buffy's caring family life and the security that it provided. We weren't told much about Faith's family life, but were given the impression that there wasn't much family life to tell about, and what little there was wasn't particularly pleasant. Though it was never actually mentioned, I got the impression that her Watcher was, to Faith, the closest thing to a caring parental figure that she had ever had. Faith must have secretly wanted the security and loving care that a real family life, such as Buffy took for granted. That's the simplest explanation to her fierce loyalty to the Mayor, the closest thing to an actual caring, loving, father that she had ever known.
But envy isn't sympathy.
I think that Buffy saw the very things in Faith that she envied the most as a potential threat to her friends and her own comfortable, secure life style. Also, I think that she saw in Faith the threat of having some of her own carefully hidden feelings and emotions revealed. Almost certainly, she didn't want anyone else to know just how hungry and horny slaying actually made her feel. For Buffy, low fat yogurt was obviously a substitute for sex.
Faith, on the other hand almost certainly envied Buffy's caring family life and the security that it provided. We weren't told much about Faith's family life, but were given the impression that there wasn't much family life to tell about, and what little there was wasn't particularly pleasant. Though it was never actually mentioned, I got the impression that her Watcher was, to Faith, the closest thing to a caring parental figure that she had ever had. Faith must have secretly wanted the security and loving care that a real family life, such as Buffy took for granted. That's the simplest explanation to her fierce loyalty to the Mayor, the closest thing to an actual caring, loving, father that she had ever known.
But envy isn't sympathy.
I think that Buffy saw the very things in Faith that she envied the most as a potential threat to her friends and her own comfortable, secure life style. Also, I think that she saw in Faith the threat of having some of her own carefully hidden feelings and emotions revealed. Almost certainly, she didn't want anyone else to know just how hungry and horny slaying actually made her feel. For Buffy, low fat yogurt was obviously a substitute for sex.
Cast No Shadow
You are my world.
Personally, no. I don't think Buffy ever sympathised with Faith. She liked Faith as long as she was being "good", and if she could help her, such as in S7.
You could tell that Buffy had no sympathy for Faith in
You could tell that Buffy had no sympathy for Faith in
the Angel episode "Sanctuary" and only helped her because it was the right thing to do, rather than that she actually sympathised with Faith's predicament.
Joan the Vampire Slayer
Carpe Spuffy!
Well, obviously we can sympathize with people who have been hurt/wronged even if we have not been hurt/wronged in the same way.
In regards to Buffy, this is just my personal opinion. I never felt that there was any indication that Buffy sympathized with Faith regarding her Watcher. In other ways? perhaps.
Also, there's a HUGE diff between sympathy and empathy. Sure, Buffy could have sympathized with Faith because her own Watcher had been killed, but I just never felt that imo
SlayerFest
Wiley Dairy Gnome
Oh, okay. I thought you were saying that she didn't sympathize with her at all...and I was thinking, "How the hell is that possible??" Maybe she didn't sympathize with her on the watcher issue...but I feel like in general, she had to. Yes, sympathy and empathy are different. I just feel like Buffy felt a little bit of both because she felt bad for putting her in a coma, and she seemed as if she tried to put herself in her shoes at least once. I mean, they were both slayers and no one else could possibly imagine what that was like.
---------- Post added at 08:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:19 PM ----------
That is one example of her not showing sympathy towards Faith. She clearly had felt it for her in the past, it was so obvious. She was pissed in Sanctuary because she had tried to be Faith's friend, she tried to help her. Instead of just attacking her in This Year's Girl, she tried to reason with her. After the Riley thing she was pissed, and then seeing her with Angel (when Buffy had no way of knowing that she was reformed) she flipped out. Put yourself in her shoes, you would have been beyond pissed. She kept trying to help Faith and she just kept throwing it all back in her face. Buffy may have been a tad...dramatic ("Apologize to me and I'll kill you.") but I get it. However, that incident does not prove that Buffy NEVER felt sympathy for Faith. It only proves that she was fed up and tired of helping someone who clearly didn't want it or appreciate it.