The groups' reaction to Anya's suggestion

YummySushiPJs

Scooby
Joined
Dec 16, 2011
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543
"Start charging".

Sorry but it wasn't a bad idea. Buffy gives up so much of her own life to save other people's, and because of this she can never hold down a proper job but she still has to pay bills and buy food etc. Anya wasn't suggesting that Buffy make a profit out of slaying, just that she gets enough money to get by and maybe start a college fund for Dawn. Not unreasonable. And let's not forget that Angel and co charge people, Buffy never seemed to have a problem with that. But when Anya suggests it, she totally treats her like dirt.

Even if you don't agree with the idea, Anya was only trying to help. It wasn't even one of her "I'm a demon, I don't understand your human ways" type of comments, it was a genuine suggestion. There was no need to be so rude. No wonder she got offended and stormed out.

Also a few episodes previous, when the gang discover Buffy in the street after clawing her way out of the grave, they all try to speak to her. When Anya says "Xander and I have some news that will perk you right up" Xander pulls her away and she looks so hurt and says "I was just trying to help". Admittedly this wasn't the right approach and Anya DID want to announce the engagement, but she WAS also just trying to help.

Anyway I don't know what my point is other than I feel a bit sorry for her during those parts!
 
Well, I don't think Buffy should charge people for her Slayer services. Yes, Angel does, but he wasn't called to do the job like Buffy was. And how shady would that be: "Hey, I know you've just about died tonight, but I saved your life. You owe me $100."

I do think think that The Watcher's Council should have paid her some sort of stipend to do her job. I mean, Giles got paid, so why not Buffy??

As far as Anya trying to help, I don't think they were overly rude to her... If she was a vengeance demon for hundreds of years, she should definitely know how people act and think by now. Surely she would have learned to be less socially awkward and not pose suggestions like the ones you mentioned here.
 
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Robb Stark
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Or she could have set something up kinda like what Angel had going on where people call her to help them and she charges. She dident have to charge random people in the street that she saved. (lol dident she say something like that to somebody after she saved them jokingly...sort of) But yea I dam sure would have thought of something like that after Anyas suggestion.
 
I think it's because Anya gets really selfish that season, and almost seems to regress as a character.

The charging thing, yeah, I can let that slide, for sure. But there is a difference. Most of the time, people sought Angel out and hired him for his services. He wasn't always going around saving random people and then demanding money from them.

As for Anya's attempt at spilling that her and Xander are engaged, that was just rude. Like [MENTION=8356]HisMrs[/MENTION] said, she's been around humans for over a thousand years. She should have known better. That wasn't done to help Buffy, it was because she just wanted the attention on her. Just like the way she treats Giles, by continually and relentlessly asking him why he's still in Sunnydale. Rude.
 
I think it's easy to assume Anya is just being selfish, but if you look and listen to her reaction when Xander pulls her away from Buffy, it's not so clear.
 
As others have said, it wouldn't have made sense for Buffy to charge on a "per service" basis because it'd essentially be: "I just saved you, cough it up." But she could have set something up that was similar to what Angel had in LA. People could seek out her services, and pay for them.

The other ridiculous thing is that she didn't demand that the council pay her a salary. She obviously had no problem realizing how much power she had over them back in season 5, and it's baffling that instead of leveraging a salary from that, (and think: it'd be useful to all slayers to come), she chose to work for minimum wage at Doublemeat. If you think about it, that's just plain irresponsible; working there took her AWAY from her calling--took her away from the people who actually needed her talents--whereas getting paid to be the slayer would have accomplished both ends.

I understand that she couldn't necessarily reach these conclusions herself. It's easy to see how someone else's personal or financial situation could be bettered, but not so much one's own.

Buffy actually needed someone like Anya to do this for her. Think about it: without Cordy, "Angel Investigations" probably wouldn't have existed and they wouldn't have had any sort of financial support system in place. Anya would have been the perfect person to set up a parallel environment for Buffy, (whether through starting a similar service or managing her salary with the council). But they brushed Anya off--unfortunately, the gang ignored her because of the unfavorable morality she'd exhibited in the past; it was truly not the best time to finally decide that Anya, former demon, should be kept at arm's length.
 
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EffyStonem
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NeonNightLight
NeonNightLight
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it wouldn't have made sense for Buffy to charge on a "per service" basis because it'd essentially be: "I just saved you, cough it up."

Lol im from NY so we see things like people dancing and doing all type of different things on the train and asking for money, so when I read that I just pictured Buffy slaying vampires on the train or something and the asking for money. 😀 too funny
 
Gum Gnome33
Gum Gnome33
I'm a ny-er too, totally see this!
who's the best superhero ever? spider-man. why? cus mostly, he's totally broke.

buffy was destined to always be struggling to make ends meet. such is the burden of the righteous.
 
100% Agree with the original post! Anya got treated like crap by Buffy most of the time. Especially season 7. Anya's character is a favorite of mine but she always got grief for her blunt honesty. Which is why I laugh everytime I see that scene with all of them in the Magic Box in Season 5:

Giles: Yes, Anya. Apart from your incredibly uninfectious enthusiasm have you anything else to contribute?

Anya: The Dagon Sphere.

Giles: Sorry?

Anya: When Buffy first met Glory she found that magical, glowy sphere that was meant to repel Glory. We've got it in the basement. It might drive her away or hurt her. Oh. And Olaf the troll god's enchanted hammer. You wanna fight a god, use the weapon of a god.


--Gang goes Silent Because Anya is clearly a lot smarter than they give her credit for-- [Haha]
 
As much as it made sense for Buffy to get paid, it would have taken away a lot from the show in my opinion, so I'm glad she wasn't. A superhero getting paid kind of defeats the purpose, to me you shouldn't exactly have to pay to have your life saved. A better idea would have been to have the council pay her, but again she wasn't very affiliated with them by s6.

I'm also a bit confused by how much Anya is socially awkward. When a vampire regains their soul, they don't become socially awkward? They still know how to function in society. Anya never even lost that, she still lived amongst humans for hundreds of years, it's a bit weird that she completely forgot how to be human again. My theory is that she was always a bit like that, some people are like her in real life. Maybe she was straightforward and sometimes inappropriate even before she became a vengeance demon. After all we didn't get to see a whole lot of her as human.
 
Maybe she was straightforward and sometimes inappropriate even before she became a vengeance demon. After all we didn't get to see a whole lot of her as human.


That is true. This reminded me of that episode where we see a flashback of Anya and Olaf before Anya was a vengeance demon. Olaf says that Anya is somewhat of an outcast in the local pub because she speak her mind openly. Which I guess was strange for women to do in their culture. So maybe Anya has always had that kind of personality to an extent.
 
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