The scooby gang's treatment of Faith.

[itssmiletime]

I haven't sat down and rewatched season 3 in a long, long time, but I've noticed alot of people on this site have called out Giles and Buffy in particular of their treatment of Faith prior to Bad Girls. So my question is: Did Buffy and Giles, as well as kinda the other scooby gang (Oz, Cordelia, Xander and Willow) treat Faith right? Why or why not?

As a side note, there's this line in Enemies that really pissed me off.

Cordelia: Slow down, Xander. This isn't Wesley's fault.
Xander: Actually, it is. Faith was your responsibility

I'm not trying to pin Faith's turn to evil on anyone, but really, I can't stop thinking the scoobies and Buffy are partially at fault for Faith's resentment towards them.

 

[Lyri]

I've said it before, I understand Buffy's reaction towards Faith. She had the same reaction to Kendra in the beginning, and she only thawed towards Kendra when she realized A) That she could use all the help she could get when she went up against Spike and B) That Kendra wasn't actually there to take her place. Kendra had her own life and Watcher and would be returning there as soon as she fulfilled whatever mission sent her to Sunnydale in the first place.

Buffy doesn't like being the Slayer, but she's still very protective of her place in the world and she doesn't like anyone threatening that.

Faith felt like a threat and, in the beginning, she acted like a threat, coming in and making herself the center of attention and making Buffy feel bad for not feeling the same way about Slaying as Faith does. And so Buffy was right to be jealous.

As Buffy best buds, Xander and Willow, and to a lesser extent, Cordelia and Oz, felt the need to have Buffy's back. They saw things the way Buffy did and sided with her when there really shouldn't have been sides in the first place.

However, after a while, Buffy's attitude towards Faith changed. They became friends, hanging out together, talking about their personal lives and bonding through Slaying.

THIS is when Faith's attitude changed. She was okay when Buffy kept her at a distance, she was calm, in control of her life and she knew what she wanted and what her place in the world was. When Buffy starts to treat her more like a friend and less as just a co-worker, Faith's grows reckless and loses that confidence she had, loses her footing and her grip on her place in Sunnydale. And she sides with the Mayor.

So, no, I don't really find fault with Buffy and the Scoobies for how they treated Faith. They were teenagers, little more than children. It's completely understandable to me.

 

[Robb Stark]

Being honest, I have never understood the resentment towards the Scoobies over Faith some fans have. I don't get it.

After the thing with the assistant mayor happens (and I wasn't in the "now Faith's a murderer" camp either. I thought that was an accident. Sad, but ultimately an accident), the Scoobies did everything they possibly could to help Faith, and she spat on them. Buffy tells her "you killed a man" because Faith is showing zero responsibility for what she's done. There's nothing wrong with that. It isn't incendiary. Giles, Xander and Angel go far out of their way (especially Xander and Angel) to help her and she has none of it (although how her discussion with Angel would have turned out is of course, open to debate). I mean, does Xander do anything in the world wrong when he goes to her motel room? He's there with the best possible intentions, and she tries to rape him and choke him out. He did nothing to her. Nothing.

Then Faith loses her mind for a bit, and that's on her. She starts killing innocent people, tries to bring about a quasi-apocalypse and tries to torture Buffy to death when she thinks Angelus is back for goodness' sake. The way she acts in S4 prior to her breakdown with Angel is just unbelievable.

I don't see how the Scoobies started or excerbated any of that. They may have eventually run out of patience or sympathy for Faith, but that's more than understandable, given the circumstances.

 

[brinkster130]

I always got the impression that the Scoobies (initially) just sorta followed Faith's lead when it came to their relationships with her. When she was friendly or dismissive they, for the most part, responded the same. Given the downward spiral Faith had in Sunnydale it was completely understandable why the Scobbies wrote her off as crazy. I always thought Xander and Willow were very forgiving and welcoming if Faith when she returned later in the series.

 

[Blaze]

I think I could write a book on the subject lol but I'll try to limit myself. Basicly, no I don't think the gang treated her badly. I think more could have been done to help her out, but she had issues and it takes more than a few kids to solve that. Faith was self-destructive, lost and plainly out of control. Buffy, Xander and Willow could not change that for her, they weren't trained to deal with Faith's mental state.

Faith reminds me a lot of myself in a lot of ways, and at that point, I don't think any of the Scoobies could have prevented her from going down the path she went. Underneath it all, I truly do think that she was reaching out for help, but she wasn't ready to accept it, so it really was pretty pointless. That's why she turned to the Mayor, he could offer him something that no one else could: structure. At that point, although Buffy was her friend, it was not exactly what she needed, she needed someone to help her control her emotions, someone to teach her right and wrong. Buffy, Xander and Willow couldn't do that. So in the end I somewhat do agree with Xander that Wesley should have done more. She needed a parental figure. There's a reason kids her age don't usually live on their own, they are simply not ready. As much as they can say that they are, the structure of the brain proves that they aren't. At the time, the only adult in charge of her was Wesley, so by association he should have been the one to put his step down and act as the "father" figure. But again look at Wesley in s3, he was definitely not ready to deal with that. One of the reason that she ended up confiding in Angel is exactly because he wasn't her friend, but at the same time he was able to help her, he could teach her to control the beast in her.

I'd also like to add that I also think that Faith panicked when her and Buffy became close simply because she didn't know what love was. Faith doesn't understand closeness, as shown with Xander and the whole choking scene. With Buffy, it was probably the closest she's come to loving someone, and I don't think she understood how to deal with that. Killing someone did freak her out, and I think part of it was because she knew people would now look down on her. She was starting to have a family and I think she was scared of losing that, which prompted her to become self-destructive, since it's easier to accept that you decided to lose people than to lose them for reasons out of your control. Faith hated not being in control, and when she felt that she was losing her grip on her life, she panicked. And again, that started when Buffy started showing her love, which Faith had never experienced.

Another aspect is her Watcher that was killed before she came to Sunnydale. I talked earlier about how Faith needed structure in her life. Well losing her first watcher broke that structure. We didn't get to see her before when he was still around, but I'm sure him dying did send her closer to insanity. All in all, I think Faith was just incredibly unlucky, and everything that shouldn't have happened happened. Had she never killed that man or had her first watcher never died, I think there was a good chance that she would have made it through and stayed "good".

 

[Mischlings]

The short answer I have for this is that no one is really to blame, they handled her as best they could figure, and that everything was kind of inevitable from the moment Faith accidentally killed the mayor. The long answer? Well, I might get into that later - there are a lot of different things that I could say, and I really don't have the time to get into all of it right now, plus others have said most of what I could say anyway.

 

[EffyStonem]

It's hard to explain my feelings on the Faith situation; I think the bottom line is, even though Buffy and the Scoobies did become sort-of friends with Faith, they never seemed to completely let her in. It wasn't anything specific for me, more a general feeling. Every time I watch their interactions with Faith (in particular Buffy's interactions with her) they always seem to be holding back parts of themselves; they allow her to be on the fringes on their circle, but she's never allowed to fully join them and I think she feels and is aware of this from the beginning, which is why her turn to the dark side is so easy for her.

 

[mudslides]

Oops, just posted this in the episode thread then found this thread :

Ok so I'm doing a rewatch and I've found that I am reacting really differently to the whole Faith thing than I have before.

First of all, the way the gang treat Wesley really irritates me. I don't find it funny, just rude. He is fresh out of watcher school or whatever, doesn't have the rebellious background Giles has and has been sent to be a watcher. Yes, he gives annoying orders and gets things wrong - he's new at the job. I think the way the whole gang are snidey and rude is unpleasant, and no wonder Wesley feels like acting fast on Faith after being shut out yet again by Giles and Buffy.

Second, it annoys me that none of them really make a big effort to make Faith feel welcome and wanted until she has killed someone. Willow is jealous of her stealing "her people" - which I didn't get. In season 1, Xander wants Buffy yet Willow becomes best friends with her, no jealousy involved. Willow also has her fellow wiccans as friends so why is she jealous of buffy hanging out with faith and them having slaying in common? I realise she might be concerned about Buffy's direction but she doesn't voice this, just simmers with jealousy. Buffy only really made an effort with faith when Joyce pushed her to - even at Christmas, despite knowing Faith was alone. Would they have behaved in the same way towards Kendra, or invited her to stay with them? Giles is acting like a teenager, feeling superior next to Wesley, nevermind the fact that he has only just drugged Buffy and has made mistakes himself (Jenny getting all demonised by a conjuring from his past). Xander made it clear when Faith was introduced that he was attracted to her and saw her in a sexual way. Angel has never bothered with Faith until he compares her killing with his as Angelus and comes over all philosophical with her. Then bam - she kills someone and they are all on her case. She obviously is bothered by what happened, and doesn't need Saint Buffy preaching at her pushing her to act more and more defensive. All in all, its no wonder that she goes and works for the mayor.

Ok I had better stop before I form an essay. :X

 

[thetopher]

With Faith, it's not really about friendship, it's about trust. I really don't see anybody (most of all Giles) building a relationship of trust with her. In Faith's mind (wrongly, I think) she thinks 'well, why should I trust them back?'

I see zero evidence that Faith gets 'scared off' by Buffy's friendship, I find that concept kind of laughable, it's Faith who's trying to bond with Buffy (over boys/relationships in B&TB), and asking her to the dance (in 'Homecoming').
It's only in 'Revelations' when Faith can't distinguish between Post betraying her and Buffy not trusting her, that she kind of gives up (probably due to numerous bad experiences in the past- but at that point its just conjecture...but later confirmed in the comics).

I think if the Scoobies and Buffy (but mainly Giles...) had trusted Faith (and therefore Faith trusting them in return) they could've been friendlier and had a better relationship.

 

[Blaze]

I see zero evidence that Faith gets 'scared off' by Buffy's friendship, I find that concept kind of laughable, it's Faith who's trying to bond with Buffy (over boys/relationships in B&TB), and asking her to the dance (in 'Homecoming').

I disagree (as you probably were already able to tell by my initial answer 😛). At first, I do think Faith was more forward in the friendship. But I think the sides flipped completely when Faith killed that man. Buffy was the one trying to help Faith and Faith was the one pushing Buffy away. You said it well, it WAS about trust, and Faith didn't trust Buffy. But I think in this case trust comes with love. Buffy was the first one to show (maybe to ever show) that she cared. It's clear that Faith was not expecting Buffy to come to her apartment and ask her how she was doing. Faith didn't know how to react to that, she pushed Buffy away. It's like she couldn't understand that someone cared about her enough to try and help. At that point Buffy shows no sign of not trusting Faith, she's trying to help her (she did give up too soon, but B was just a teenager). I do agree that later on that trust is broken and everything goes downhill, but also think that Faith got scared because other cared, and here I guess you could say that caring is loving.

 

[thetopher]

Oh, in that case I entirely agree! 🙂

Faith did push people away after Finch's death (I don't think it was murder, it was an accident), but yeah, by that time Faith couldn't or wouldn't put her trust in Buffy. (Or Xander when he tried to help. 🙁)
Faith thought that Buffy wanted both of them to come clean to Giles or Wesley and that she would be the one in trouble, while Buffy would be okay (because she had friends, watcher, support, etc.).
That's why she didn't trust Buffy- she thought Buffy was freaking (she was) and only out for herself (which she wasn't- her concern for Faith at this point is genuine and heartfelt- which makes me wonder where it goes later on. 😕)

It was only when somebody outside that circle that she didn't really know (Angel) tried to reach her that her walls decided to come down again. Faith didn't know what Angel would gain by helping her so she started to (possibly) open up. Wesley put a stop to that. 🙁