Hell's Bells

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Tucker's Cousin

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I've been meaning to post on this for a couple of weeks and never gotten to it. But I've noticed that many people seem to like this ep and I just don't. Not that I think it's a bad ep, but I think that Xander leaving Anya at the alter was unnecessarily used to make sure every single character in season 6 was completely suffering. I think the episode would have said more if Xander had have been able to overcome his doubts here and marry Anya.

Firstly, with every character going through so much emotional pain there is no contrast. Buffy says at the end of the ep that Xander and Anya were supposed to be her light at the end of the tunnel and I think it should have stayed that way. Xander getting things together and finding happiness highlights Buffy's and Willow's pain but at the same time gives the viewer something to feel good about as well as hope that things can be turned around for B/W.

I feel it'd be particularly good if Xander could make a go of things 'cause in the earlier seasons he was always the one struggling whereas Buff and Will sort of had things come easy to them. Other than the brief thing with Cordy, Xander was always on his own, wasn't good enough with his studies to get into college, didn't have "powers", was always the butt-monkey etc. Things were always more difficult for him so seeing him get married would have underlined how far he'd come, how much he'd matured, while showing that Buffy and Will had fallen.

I don't see that him leaving Anya on their wedding day led anywhere besides the brilliant ep Selfless. Yeah, she wouldn't have slept with Spike, but there are other ways of getting Xander to find out about Spuffy. It only stated that besides seeming to have matured since the beginning of season 5 he really hadn't and was still a scared little boy pretending to be a man, making jokes to cover insecurities etc. I just don't think that's useful at this stage of the series.

It's not that I just don't like the darkness of season 6 either. I love the season as whole, I just think it would have been better if Xander had proven he'd matured and could get over his doubts caused by his parents bad marriage and make it work with Anya. Maybe, I'm just a romantic though...
 
Eh, don't even get me started on S6.

It made the show into a soap. Every romance plot seemed to so predictable. And I think Xander and Anya should have gotten married. Damn lying demon.

As for sad Buffy, hated that the most.
 
Tucker's Cousin said:
I just think it would have been better if Xander had proven he'd matured and could get over his doubts caused by his parents bad marriage and make it work with Anya.
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He had matured, he realised he loved Anya but didn't want to marry her. While the vision was not accurate it is a reflection of what they're future may have been like.
 
I'm with you, in one way. All the pain in s6 was the fact that put me off from the season as a whole, even though it got better towards the end. Perhaps it would have been better if Xander had married Anya, but I'm not sure it would fit in with the rest of s6. Everyone was in pain, that seemed to be the overall theme of the season, and a happy marriages would have been a bit...strange.

I actually think that Xander did make a mature choice - he realised he wasn't ready, that if he went down the isle and got married to Anya at that point he would turn into his father sooner or later. But, like always in series like this, people have a tendency not to be able to say what they really feel or defend their own actions - thus creating an enviornment in which Anya went back to being a demon.
 
I love the darkness of season 6, I love how depressing it is. But, I woould've wanted Xander and Anya to get married. Not just cause you always wish for the good things, but also cause they are a great couple and I don't think they would've needed to break up, their relationship wouldn't have gotten boring or anything. Maybe it wouldn't fit in with the rest of the season, a happy marriage and the two of them being all.. happy. But maybe we would've needed that to.. feel .. something to compare with.. I don't know. Can't chose I side on this but I do get your point.
 
I was thinking about it last night and Anya was originally planned to be killed off at the end of The Gift, but Emma kept moving, so the wedding wasn't really planned from the start. They got him to propose but I don't think they had any intentions on getting them married.
 
AshSan said:
I was thinking about it last night and Anya was originally planned to be killed off at the end of The Gift, but Emma kept moving, so the wedding wasn't really planned from the start. They got him to propose but I don't think they had any intentions on getting them married.
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I didn't know that they had originally planned to have Anya killed but what was the whole point of getting her to become a vengence demon again? That side story sort of went nowhere and the point of selfless being that she clung to whatever came along rather than finding herself I just don't see. She chose Xander right from the start.

Xander should have been mature enough to see that his parents are not him and what is real is his love for Anya and married her with a promise not to turn out like his parents. That would have shown real growth in the character.
 
I was very mad when Xander left Anya at the altar...I understand Joss doesn't like happy relationships, but they had the most stable and real thing going on the show (IMO). They would have been happy together.

On the other hand I think if they did get married, it would have made for a much sadder ending to Chosen.
 
Tucker's Cousin said:
Xander should have been mature enough to see that his parents are not him and what is real is his love for Anya and married her with a promise not to turn out like his parents. That would have shown real growth in the character.
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Xander knew that he wasn't mature enough to be able to say that he would never turn into his father. He has a lot of work to do with himself before getting into a marriage, and being able to call of the wedding took a lot of guts.
 
I hated this ep. Xander and Anya were the one couple who were supposed to make it. Grr!!!!!!!!! Now I'm mad again. Check my sig for my opinion.
 
I thought this ep was one that fit well into the season as a whole. I think Xander made a mature decision, and it sure wasn't a hasty one...all along he avoided telling anyone about the engagement, which just screams second thoughts. In the real world we see people all the time who go thru with the ceremony just because the dresses have been bought and the caterer paid for. Usually they end up in divorce a few years (or less!) later. He made the right choice, and it just added to the gritty pain everyone got to feel in S6.
 
I agree. It was so obvious that he was having second thoughts from the start. He just didn't want to admit that to Anya because he thought it would hurt her. I know it wasn't a good idea to leave it until the last minute but I think he did the right thing. He made a mature decision that many people wouldn't have been able to make at the time. He didn't want to lose Anya, but he knew that he wasn't ready to get married to her just yet. I admire Xander for that. As for it becoming a soap, things that happen in soaps are what happen in real adult life. I think Joss just wanted to bring a little reality into the show.
 
Yeah. Has anyone watched "Desperate Housewives" yet? It's so wacky it's funny, but the wackiest thing is we've had some of that kind of stuff happen on OUR street...

so soaps are true to life in a twisted way...
 
I actually think he made the mature decision. As much as I wanted them to get married, I still think so.
Whether right or wrong, he thought he would only end up hurting Anya more if he married her, then if he didn't. We don't know if he was right or not, but he didn't wonna take the chance. He made the decision he meant was right, instead of taking the "easy" decision and marry her.
 
I just watched this episode, and it is so very sad. But I don't think it was wrong to not go through with the wedding, as some have said before I think that the mature decision for Xander right there and then was to stop the wedding. He had been having second thoughts for a long time, and yea that's probably not so unusual when you're getting married, but he had some serious doubts..

He didn't want to hurt her like he thought he would in the future, instead of pretending like he thought that they where going to live happily ever after he decided to be truthful, and I think that makes it right, even though it's really hard to call what he did right, he shouldn't have waited that long.
 
ugh. I love xander, but he was such a jackass in this epi. He broke my heart to see anya so sad and dejected. Their relationship was supposed to be the one that lasted. They were so cute together, and it sucks they didn't make it.
 
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