How is Faith overrated?

[Misty]

I know this isn't the Faith appreciation thread, but I love her more and more when I watch Orpheus and Buffy season 7. She's more grown up later on and her story was interesting. But believe me, rewatch the later seasons if you don't like her, because you will start to like her.

 

[Washburne]

Summerlilly agrees: .....is a part of Faith's story that everyone should see.

He. Good one. 🙂 And totally true. You don't know the whole Faith if you haven't watched Angel.

 

[Nikkolas]

Sadly that is true. Faith has always been one of my favorite characters but I didn't even watch Angel until like two years ago.

It's rather annoying that I missed out on such character development.

 

[brinkster130]

I think Faith is under-rated. I think they really could have expanded on the character, filled in the grey areas, gave it alittle beef (much like the did in the final season) and the character would have surprised the Buffy character. But I also think that is precisely why it never was done.

The problem Im having with this is that Faith was given chance after chance with everyone. She could have let people in, she could have tried to become friends, she could have worked with the scoobies, she could have apologized to those she hurt but she never did. I always thought that her character decided not to try, it seemed like she was comfortable being as "pathetic" or as "bitchy" as everyone thought she was. Then again...that is all because of the writing....

 

[TheVoid68]

She wanted to let people in, but she was so emotionally maladjusted that she just didn't know how, and she was scared of letting people get close and getting hurt again.

 

[Nikkolas]

People rarely know what they truly want. It's not like you wake up one day and say "ya know what? I'm lonely."

Faith had apparently lived much of her life on her own and so to her conscious mind, it was what she was used to and accepted. If she ever had thoughts of wanting friends and a happy family they were old and suppressed.

Of course, deep down, she did want friends and acceptance. But all she really had was Buffy and Buffy wasn't a strong enough influence on her. Buffy could be pulled this way and that while Faith needed someone who was rigid and firm with her.

It's like I was reading on another site. In a horrible way, it's good all those things happened to Faith in the series. She needed to hit rock bottom before she could really pull her life together and mature. Some people just have to learn lessons the hard way.

Also it should be pointed out that it's not all Faith's fault. Wesley was a pretty terrible Watcher.

 

[zobothehobo]

People rarely know what they truly want. It's not like you wake up one day and say "ya know what? I'm lonely."

I went though a period of shutting people out in my life and I legit woke up one day and said "you know what, I'm lonely. I want to share my thoughts and feelings about life with someone. I want someone to talk to."

 

[caitaintdead]

I went though a period of shutting people out in my life and I legit woke up one day and said "you know what, I'm lonely. I want to share my thoughts and feelings about life with someone. I want someone to talk to."

What? You mean to say you didn't wake up lonely one day and go on a murder spree? I thought that was what happened to lonely people? 😉

 

[ashsummers]

I think its difficult to judge Faith like you would a regular person to be honest. A slayer is not like you or me, i think is supposed to be the point. They take life on a daily basis so obviously the lines are a bit blurred, value for life has to be diminished to justify regular slayage.

What made Buffy different was her friends. They were her link to humanity. Without them she would have been a lot more like Faith as we saw in "The Wish"... But Buffy could never fully understand Faith because of that, nor could she understand what it did to Faith after she accidently killed the mayors assisstant Alan.

That was the turning point for Faith, where she decided to block off any sense of humanity she felt. I think thats why Buffy could never get through to Faith whereas Angel could. Angel knew what it was like to be alone and isolated but more importantly what it felt to take human life and deal with the consequences of that...

 

[Litheran]

I knew a girl who was somewhat like Faith back in high school. She came from a broken home with a history of neglect and abuse. She was a looker as well so most guys didn't hang around her for conversation. She had the same problem as Faith which is; she didn't love herself.

Doesn't think she deserves to be happy or have friends. So she constantly test that friendship by acting like a bitca. Everyone she's known has either hurt her or abandoned her when the chips were down. So she has to see how far she can push people before they give up on her. I'm no stranger to that kind of personality; so when my friend pulled that crap I told her to stow it.

That's why Angel is finally able to get through to her; because even after trying to kill him in Sunny D and torturing Wesley; he still wouldn't give up on her.

As far as the whole sex appeal thing goes; I didn't see Faith that way until she showed up in season four; F was way too skinny back on Buffy.

 

[brinkster130]

Just re-read this thread and I wonder if people would have the same opinion about Faith if her character had been more explored and we learned more about her past. One thing I didn't like about the character Faith was that all we knew about her past is that it was hard. I wanted to know more about her, to understand her better...it seems like a lot of the dislike of her character comes from not knowing/understanding Faith.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

Just re-read this thread and I wonder if people would have the same opinion about Faith if her character had been more explored and we learned more about her past. One thing I didn't like about the character Faith was that all we knew about her past is that it was hard. I wanted to know more about her, to understand her better...it seems like a lot of the dislike of her character comes from not knowing/understanding Faith.

I agree. Few years ago, I though how it would be awesome if in BtVS there was this whole episode devoted to Faith's past, like we saw Angels..

 

[JoeyLostDharma]

I love Faith. She's a badass, and looks damn sexy being one.
She delivers some great lines, and always stirs things up for the scoobies.

I'm on Angel season 4 now. Just on the episode where she comes into it. Looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.

 

[JCoatsworth]

Well, I never wrote it, but I don't really like Faith.
I don't hate her or something, but she sure does annoy me sometimes.
I think It's just because of the way she is... (wow, that's a great reason🙄)

I'll try to explain...
When she first arrives in "Faith, Hope & Trick", everyone is so fascinated by her.
She's "so cool" and "so hot".
For me she's just "too cool"... OK, she is hot, but come on. In BtVS nearly every girl is really hot.
And when Buffy nearly dies (forgot the name of the episodes, it happens more than once), she doesn't give a damn about it.
My "sympathy" increases when she becomes evil. Because I think that's where she belongs.

 

[WakingNightmare]

I love Faith. I don't see how she is overrated at all. She's just so colorful and interesting. I love that her background has always been ambiguous and you've sort of got to pick up the pieces to really understand who she is. I love that she gets so close to finding solace and letting someone in, but she loses it all because of a stupid mistake (I don't enjoy her pain but it was an interesting story) and I hate that she is one of the few characters in the Buffyverse that atones for the things she did and pays her price but hardly anyone acknowledges it. Even after Faith achieves redemption she is still labeled as "the bad Slayer" and treated like she is lesser than Buffy. In my opinion, that's the hardest part because I believe that Faith is in love with Buffy.

 

[TheVoid68]

I agree about Faith being the only one to really make amends for what she did. Faith, IMO, has the best redemption storyline out of anyone in the Buffyverse. Everyone else got an easy get-out clause, some kind of excuse for a behaviour. Spike and Angel had their souls, Willow had the excuse of being high on black magicks that may have been partially controlling her, Anya was given the excuse of her being a vengance demon, but Faith had no excuse. She had to 100% own up to everything that she was 100% responsible for, accept that and make peace with it.

 

[Gotham]

Agreed with the above, I really do love Faith's journey. In my humble opinion she is one of the most grounded/reliable individuals in Season 7, and that speaks volumes when you go back and watch Season 3.

Plus, one of my favourite scenes in the entire 'verse involves Faith. 😉

 

[zobothehobo]

I just re-read this whole thread and I feel the need to say Faith was also overrated on Angel... if not more so. I don't think her character was all that fantastic on Angel. She was more tolerable, yes... but not a great character. There still wasn't much special about her. On Buffy, I really didn't like her. On Angel, I just didn't care about her. She didn't bring much of anything to the table and it still bothers me that so many people think she's fantastic. Now that I realize so many more people think she's fantastic on Angel.. I feel she's more overrated there. Now if she had not gone to jail in Sanctuary but rather stayed with Angel and worked on her redemption with him... I think she could have been a great character. And I think she would have made his character a lot better too. But that didn't happen. So she's still overrated on Angel too.

 

[Nightcrawler]

I don't get how she's not. I mean... I just don't feel like there's anything special or great about her character. I love the "five by five" thing and I say it all the time... but that's just a catch-phrase. I mean, she's this bad "tough" girl who's really an insecure scared little girl but we never find out why. I think I would like her much more if it was talked about more why she was an insecure scared little girl and I think I'd connect with her more if I knew the pain she'd seen before arriving in Sunnydale... or a least bits and pieces of it... but all I know is her "bad girl" persona and honestly, she's not that interesting. But somehow there are a lot of people in the fandom who treat her like she's the bomb. Like she's so kickass and cool... I just don't see it.

In the book 'Go Ask Malice' it explains some things🙂 FAITH <3

 

[goodbyetonight]

I don't find Faith to be overrated at all. I thought her character arc was one of the best in the whole series, and it was really interesting to watch the progression of the character. She actually made an attempt to atone for what she did, and didn't have the whole soul cop-out like Angel (as much as I love him) and Spike did.