Families

[Chosen Enemy]

Many of us wonder, when watching Buffy, why we don't get to see a lot from the families of the characters. Buffy's family we've seen. Xander's... only once and we've heard it's bad. And Willow's, also once and just her mother. Spike's, also only his mother. Angel's (Liam's) family he killed.

Sometimes we do get a little information about the families, even without seeing them. But there are things left out. Like, where's Willow's dad? What happened to Spike's dad? Doesn't Giles have any family far away in England? Does Oz even have parents? Doesn't Buffy have more family memebers that she could turn to (we know she has an aunt)?
Do they have siblings we don't know about? Cousins that visit sometimes?

So many questions. Do you have the answers? What do you think was going on in their families, the parts we know nothing about?

P.S. Good thing they have each other as a family, because they don't seem to really be in such close relationship with their real ones.

 

[ticonderouga]

I think that one of the best parts of the Scoobie dynamic was that they were a surrogate family, and that with the exception of Joyce, we don't see the families of the other Scoobies because they think of that group as their family. Xander's family seems to be a thoroughly dysfunctional mess, the few times he talks about them the context is negative. Willow's parents always seem to be elsewhere, and I got the impression that as long as she stays out of trouble and gets good grades her parents pretty much don't care what she does. I remember in Gingerbread, the only time we see Willow's mother, Willow was very surprised that Joyce would take an active interest in Buffy's life. As for Giles, assuming he has any family left, he probably visits with them whenever he returns to England.