sosa lola
Scooby
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2007
- Messages
- 4,759
- Age
- 34
I feel this accusation came from Xander's hatred of Spike and I see it plenty of times in fanfiction, but is it really part of canon?
Does Xander hate demons more than the other Scoobies?
There's no evidence of Xander hating demons any more than Buffy or Willow do. His dislike of both Angel and Spike have always been more personal IMO than the fact that they were vampires. Spike being a soulless vampire did hurt his case, but I don't see Xander having that special hate for Harmony or even Vampire Willow when she appeared. In fact, he wanted to know if his vampire version was as badass as Vampire Willow.
More evidence that Xander didn't hold such a black and white view about demons would be him being against the Initiative. Nothing in text shows that Xander agrees with them. Xander doesn't shy away from voicing his opinion, if he thought that capturing and experimenting on demons was okay, he would have said so.
Then there's Clem at Buffy's birthday party in Older and Far Away. If Xander had such hate for demons, wouldn't he have objected to having Clem at the party? We see him later watching cartoons with Clem and Dawn.
And let's not forget when the gang believed that Tara was a demon, Xander had defended her against her abusive brother and stood by her side. Shouldn't bigoted Xander have agreed to hand over the demon to her family?
Would someone who sees the world in black and white date an ex-demon and befriend a werewolf and a couple of witches?
As for vampires, remember when Buffy found out about the downtown vampire nest? Remember when she burnt the place down? Wouldn't someone with such a black and white view and extreme hatred for vampires cheer her on? Xander appeared concerned for her in that scene and not at all celebrating the vampires losing their "crib".
Also, when Buffy tortured that vampire for information in When She Was Bad, Xander looked very troubled by what she was doing.
Xander's dislike of Spike wasn't solely about who he is. It was because Spike tried to kill them more than once, heck first time they met Spike, he'd threatened to kill Buffy on a specific day. Spike had kidnapped him and Willow and injured him badly. Spike had betrayed them twice after the chip in The Yoko Factor and Out of My Mind. Spike had kidnapped and threatened to kill Buffy if she didn't return his feelings in Crush. Then Spike tried to rape Buffy.
Xander had a good reason to dislike Spike. There's a history of bad with Spike. Then comes S7, and after Selfless, we see a change in Xander's attitude towards Spike where he supports Buffy's decision to keep him in the house and later clears his name by coming up with the trigger theory.
In conclusion, I personally don't see Xander as the demon hating/black and white world seeing simple minded jerk as some people believe. He sees the world the same amount of black and white as Buffy and the rest of the gang do.
What evidence shows that he has a demon xenophobia in canon?
Does Xander hate demons more than the other Scoobies?
There's no evidence of Xander hating demons any more than Buffy or Willow do. His dislike of both Angel and Spike have always been more personal IMO than the fact that they were vampires. Spike being a soulless vampire did hurt his case, but I don't see Xander having that special hate for Harmony or even Vampire Willow when she appeared. In fact, he wanted to know if his vampire version was as badass as Vampire Willow.
More evidence that Xander didn't hold such a black and white view about demons would be him being against the Initiative. Nothing in text shows that Xander agrees with them. Xander doesn't shy away from voicing his opinion, if he thought that capturing and experimenting on demons was okay, he would have said so.
Then there's Clem at Buffy's birthday party in Older and Far Away. If Xander had such hate for demons, wouldn't he have objected to having Clem at the party? We see him later watching cartoons with Clem and Dawn.
And let's not forget when the gang believed that Tara was a demon, Xander had defended her against her abusive brother and stood by her side. Shouldn't bigoted Xander have agreed to hand over the demon to her family?
Would someone who sees the world in black and white date an ex-demon and befriend a werewolf and a couple of witches?
As for vampires, remember when Buffy found out about the downtown vampire nest? Remember when she burnt the place down? Wouldn't someone with such a black and white view and extreme hatred for vampires cheer her on? Xander appeared concerned for her in that scene and not at all celebrating the vampires losing their "crib".
Also, when Buffy tortured that vampire for information in When She Was Bad, Xander looked very troubled by what she was doing.
Xander's dislike of Spike wasn't solely about who he is. It was because Spike tried to kill them more than once, heck first time they met Spike, he'd threatened to kill Buffy on a specific day. Spike had kidnapped him and Willow and injured him badly. Spike had betrayed them twice after the chip in The Yoko Factor and Out of My Mind. Spike had kidnapped and threatened to kill Buffy if she didn't return his feelings in Crush. Then Spike tried to rape Buffy.
Xander had a good reason to dislike Spike. There's a history of bad with Spike. Then comes S7, and after Selfless, we see a change in Xander's attitude towards Spike where he supports Buffy's decision to keep him in the house and later clears his name by coming up with the trigger theory.
In conclusion, I personally don't see Xander as the demon hating/black and white world seeing simple minded jerk as some people believe. He sees the world the same amount of black and white as Buffy and the rest of the gang do.
What evidence shows that he has a demon xenophobia in canon?
I think he was in a lot of denial about Anya's past, truly.