Why did the Scoobies allow Anya to be around after Dopplegangland?

[Robb Stark]

I spotted a line about this in another thread and it made me think. Anya is clearly evil in this episode, there's not even much, if any, ambiguity at all. So why is it just skated over and she almost immediately starts getting involved with Xander? I mean, why would Xander even give her the time of day? Why would Buffy, Giles and especially Willow even put up with her?

I suppose it's a similar case with Andrew later on in the series, but I never really got the impression that Andrew was evil, more that he was kind of an impressionable putz.

 

[Icarium]

Because she was retconned into a funny clueless foreigner stereotype, in this case someone who didn't know how human society worked. Never mind that in The Wish we see Anya as a rather cunning manipulator. Of course, this requires all the Scoobies to behave out of character, accepting Anya's "funny" stories of murder as minor nuisance at worst and not having much of a problem with Xander dating her. Anya's own behaviour doesn't make much sense either - if you have hated a group of people for so long, you don't fall in love with one memember of such a group so easily and without ever stopping to consider that maybe that hatred was a little misguided after all.

The short answer - because the plot said so. Joss and co wanted to keep Emma Caulfield in the show.

 

[WileyDairyGnome]

I figured because Anya was obviously harmless herself. She had no more powers, therefore, she probably couldn't hire anyone else to do any "evilness" without getting herself hurt. She was no longer a demon, just a regular human. She couldn't have done anything.

 

[Robb Stark]

I figured because Anya was obviously harmless herself. She had no more powers, therefore, she probably couldn't hire anyone else to do any "evilness" without getting herself hurt. She was no longer a demon, just a regular human. She couldn't have done anything.

Yeah, I guess, by why would they even tolerate her being around after everything she'd done, regardless of if she could keep wrecking havoc or not?

 

[tec]

Because Buffys more about redemption then dusting a vamp or killing a demon

 

[BuffyElevated]

I really think that once she lost her powers, she was harmless to them. And then, of course, when Xander began dating her they tolerated her because of her ties to Xander, just like they tolerated Angel being around after he came back in Season 3.

 

[YummySushiPJs]

There are a few, mainly subtle, moments in Season 3 and 4 which showed that the others weren't very keen on Anya but you're right, it is pretty much glossed over. The only episode where we saw any real worry about Anya's evil ways was the hatred between Anya and Willow in Season 5's Triangle (which apart from the previous subtle moments, pretty much came out of nowhere).

 

[tec]

No Triangle was the pot boiling over Anya fessed up to her fears about Willow and Xanders relasonship
But as Willow so pointed out...Willow: Hello gay now.

Willow fessed up to her fears about Anya possably hurting her best friend...witch turns out Xander did the most hurting in the end

Triangle is a much needed ep between the two so they could resolve what each others been thinking for awhile.

 

[YummySushiPJs]

No Triangle was the pot boiling over Anya fessed up to her fears about Willow and Xanders relasonship
But as Willow so pointed out...Willow: Hello gay now.

Willow fessed up to her fears about Anya possably hurting her best friend...witch turns out Xander did the most hurting in the end

Triangle is a much needed ep between the two so they could resolve what each others been thinking for awhile.

Yes I completely agree. Don't get me wrong, I love Triangle. I know what it was about. But it just seems that the animosity between Willow and Anya mostly came out of nowhere. Apart from eye-rolling and subtle digs, they were always amicable in group scenes. Then in the ep before Triangle there is suddenly all this bitching which boils over in Triangle.

(For the record, I was mostly on Anya's side. Though Willow did have some very valid concerns!)

 

[tkts]

In general, the gang seems to accept random people hanging out with them with relative nonchalance. And as for why Anya would choose to attach herself to them... well, first isn't it because she realizes to her annoyance that she actually cares about the prom and Xander is convenient? Plus, if you're a thousand-year-old ex-demon stuck in high school, you're likely to be somewhat drawn to the people who at least know who you are so you don't have to pretend as much.

 

[Wesley Pryce]

same reason theyd keep an attempted rapist chained in their basement or a witch that nearly ended the world as a close friend,none of it makes sense so just have fun ok? lol 😛

 

[Xin Rong]

Other than what happened in doppleganged, did the scoobies know the kinds of things Anya had done, as we know they don't remember the events of wish?

 

[The Scourge]

Same reason they kept Spike around. Joss and/or the fans wanted them to.

 

[Himiko]

Let's be honest here, the show is a little inconsistent in who it chooses to forgive. Angelus, soulless vampire, kills people, tortures people and tries to end the world. Angel, with a soul, who has never tried to end the world up to this point, returns and this is a big, BIG deal, Buffy keeps it a secret, Scoobies are understandably freaked out, even in Amends we see the way Giles feels about his return. Willow, complete with soul, kills people, tortures people and tries to end the world, and all feelings of slight unease from everyone other than herself are sorted within the same episode she comes back to Sunnydale. Spike isn't dusted on sight in S4, or at any point up to the regaining of his soul.

In-universe, however- Anya is human, and so isn't a candidate for slayage, therefore the Scoobies probably mostly ignore her. When she and Xander go to the prom together, it's because both are dateless, and would prefer to not be, neither of them intend to start a relationship. That happens between them afterwards, and Anya is sort of accepted into the gang by default as Xander's partner. None of the Scoobies other than Xander seem particularly warm towards her until much later- she and Willow, for example, don't seem to get along very well at all until S7, and even then, it's patchy. Plus, Buffy decides to kill Anya straight away in "Selfless"- literally, straight away, didn't try to revoke her demon powers like Willow, didn't try and talk to her like Xander, etc. Whether or not you agree with her actions, you have to admit that, were it Willow, or Xander (or Angel, since he was mentioned), she would have fought a hell of a lot harder to have things not end that way. The Scoobies are simply never that close to Anya, barring Xander, and they presumably put up with her because they see her as harmless.

 

[Blaze]

Let's be honest here, the show is a little inconsistent in who it chooses to forgive. Angelus, soulless vampire, kills people, tortures people and tries to end the world. Angel, with a soul, who has never tried to end the world up to this point, returns and this is a big, BIG deal, Buffy keeps it a secret, Scoobies are understandably freaked out, even in Amends we see the way Giles feels about his return. Willow, complete with soul, kills people, tortures people and tries to end the world, and all feelings of slight unease from everyone other than herself are sorted within the same episode she comes back to Sunnydale. Spike isn't dusted on sight in S4, or at any point up to the regaining of his soul.

I don't think it's inconsistent as much as just the Scoobies being hypocrites. They don't forgive Angel because he attacked them directly, killing and hurting people they loved, like Jenny for Giles. Willow killed Warren but he was someone that the gang despised, therefore they were able to forgive her because she didn't attack them directly, that just shows hypocrisy from them in my opinion (even though I get where they are coming from). Spike again isn't dusted because he never hurt the gang directy, he was somewhat helpful (even in s2) to them and deemed as inoffensive (for the record he absolutely should have been dusted in s4). Anya wasn't killed for the same reason, she never really directly hurt the group, was somewhat helpful and deemed as inoffensive. If Anya and/or Spike would have killed someone from the group, let's say Xander or Dawn, Buffy would have be-headed them faster than they could think. Bottom line, I think they weren't slain because Buffy clearly shows that she doesn't bother with demons that aren't a threat or that are helpful to her. It doesn't mean that they shouldn't have been slain (they probably should have), but it just means that Buffy didn't care enough to kill them. I actually think that the writing on this is fairly consistent. The Scoobies tend to be very closed minded to people who have wronged them, but seem to forgive people from their group a bit too easily, like Willow, or even Spike, depending on the extent of how much they love them.

In-universe, however- Anya is human, and so isn't a candidate for slayage, therefore the Scoobies probably mostly ignore her. When she and Xander go to the prom together, it's because both are dateless, and would prefer to not be, neither of them intend to start a relationship. That happens between them afterwards, and Anya is sort of accepted into the gang by default as Xander's partner. None of the Scoobies other than Xander seem particularly warm towards her until much later- she and Willow, for example, don't seem to get along very well at all until S7, and even then, it's patchy. Plus, Buffy decides to kill Anya straight away in "Selfless"- literally, straight away, didn't try to revoke her demon powers like Willow, didn't try and talk to her like Xander, etc. Whether or not you agree with her actions, you have to admit that, were it Willow, or Xander (or Angel, since he was mentioned), she would have fought a hell of a lot harder to have things not end that way. The Scoobies are simply never that close to Anya, barring Xander, and they presumably put up with her because they see her as harmless.

Completely agree.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

One of the original questions was, 'why would Xander give her the time of day'.
Buffy wasn't interested in him 'like that', then along comes this other girl who is Blonde who is about the same height, sometimes wears 'interesting' clothes. Well, interesting to a teenage boy. Oh yes and she likes him, also there was that thing she said about them having parts that interlock, so why con't we interlock?

 

[fitz1980]

I have to agree that the shows were inconstant on the value of human life. Faith accidentally killing the deputy mayor and not caring was depicted as hugely evil on her part, despite him having been a lacky for the big bad. On the flip side Anya & Spike casually telling stories about the thousands of innocent people they murdered were generally just laughed off by the gang.