Faith More Mature Than Buffy?

[Fusions2]

I think both Buffy and Faith are mature in their own way. Buffy is more mature when it comes to responsibility she had to grow up extremely quickly. Even more so after Joyce died and she had to take care of Dawn. Ok it might have taken a while but she got there in the end and then had to protect all these potential slayers that kept showing up.

Faith matured more when it came to accepting herself and the learning to live and deal with the consequences of her actions. By season 7 we see Faith in a more adult role. She had accepted what she had done and had accepted who she was and where her life was headed and the choices she made she couldn't run away from.

Its far too hard and complicated in my eyes to say who is more mature because they both are in their own ways yet they aren't all at the same time. I think in all honesty their pretty balanced out.

 

[Randy Giles]

I didn't read the whole thread so I'm hoping I'm not repeating anything...

I don't know if I consider Faith to be more mature than Buffy. It depends on how you look at it. She obviously had a much rougher life than Buffy but it jaded her, she saw the world as a darker place than Buffy did and was obviously in much more pain. But Buffy couldn't be called that mature in relation to Faith. She was very jealous and had she dealt with Faith more maturely, I don't think Faith would have been swayed by the Mayor, or at least as quickly. In fact when I watch the third season I get very pissed at Buffy the way she deals with the Faith situation (although I can also understand).

I do think by the time Faith breaks out of prison in season four of Angel she shows a lot more maturity than Buffy. She's mature, but also fun and not as anal. Because, let's face it, Buffy was an uptight controlling bitch a LOT.

 

[CourtneyDax]

I dunno if Spike and Faith are necessarily more mature than Angel and Buffy, but we definately see more growth from the former two than we do the latter. I'd say that Spike and Faith can handle some of the difficult situations a heck of a lot better than Angel and Buffy, but I don't think that truly means that they are the definitive mature couple here.

 

[Buffyverse Fan]

Like everyone said, Faith was certainly more worldly. But in terms of maturity, the only time Faith has displayed more maturity than Buffy was during the Faith/Giles/Genevieve Incident.

Regarding Angel & Spike, Evil Spike was certainly more mature than Angelus, Spike's actions during the S2 & S6 finales show that.

Ensouled Spike and Angel, I'd say Spike is more aware of emotions, his own and those around him. Other than that, I think Angel is more mature, certainly as of issue #27.

 

[tvnerdgirl]

I agree with what others have said that when Faith first appeared on the show, she was more worldy than Buffy, but not more mature. I think at that point Buffy was more mature than Faith because she had the benefit of Gile's guidance to teach her the things that Faith was still learning the hard way. For example, when Faith accidentally killed the mayor's aid, she went off the deep end.

Buffy, on the other hand, had had a similar experience a year previous when she thought she had accidentally killed her mother's human boyfriend, Ted. Even though Ted turned out to be a robot, Buffy had the experience of feeling like she had accidentally misused her slayer strength and killed someone because of it. It was Giles and her friends that helped her sort through her feelings and help her to understand it was an accident.

Faith misued her slayer strength and accidentally killed a man but she didn't have the same support structure, partly because she was too immature and partly because she was too mistrusting to ask others for help.

So in that case, I think that Faith was not quite as mature as Buffy and it was mainly because Buffy had the benefit of experience.

However, later on in the series, after Faith returns in season seven, I believe that Faith was far more mature than Buffy was. I think that when it came to the incidents in season 7, Buffy still had a lot of learning to do about being an adult. I think Faith came back a much stronger, more self aware person and I think Buffy was still too used to the weight of the world being on her shoulders to allow for the fact that others might be able to help. In this instance I think the roles reversed themselves...Buffy was now the one who felt she was too proud and too strong to allow herself a support structure.

As for Angel and Spike...I really don't think either one of them is more mature than the other.

 

[faeriegrrl27]

The fact that they both chose to go on a road of redemption and dealt with that adds to their maturity, I think. Buffy had to deal with being the Slayer, but she didn't quite have the crisis Faith did. Buffy had to go from being normal to being extraordinarily good. Faith had to go from being extraordinarily bad to extraordinarily good. I think the longer journey makes Faith's situation more mature, if not the character herself.

The same applies to Spike and Angel. Angel did have to deal with getting a soul, but only with the aftermath. Spike had to deal with actually fighting for his and wanting his. I always thought that at some point Spike must have been disgusted with himself. He was a soulless vampire looking for a soul and at the time he was soulless, it seems as though that's something he would find disgusting. That being said, he had a longer way to go.