Why did Xander give Anya a free pass but didn't give Angel & Spike another chance

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Joshua

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As I'm rewatching "Buffy" and "Angel", this always bugged the hell out of me. Why did Xander give Anya 2 FREE PASSES once throughout the entire series and the second after "Selfless" even though she CHOSE to be a demon again, what happened to Angel in season 2 wasn't his fault it was Angeleus'.

Spike also tried saving Dawn in "The Gift" and was loyal (minus what he did in "Crush"), and Anya always went around priding herself about her demon past and they just joked on about it etc. Anya WILLINGLY CHOSE TO BE A DEMON the first & second time. Spike and Angel young and stupid thinking they could see the world outside of their crappy town/village etc. So my question stands why was Anya given free passes 24/7 based on her demon self? I mean for gods' sake when she first entered Sunnydale she had manipulated Sunnydale into an AU just by a wish and she wanted Buffy gone.
 
It's obviously a double standard, and as far as we can tell, it wasn't just Xander who did it. I can't recall anyone except Buffy ever doing anything to stop her when she was in her Vengeance Demon mode. (It would have been interesting to see Giles distract Xander while Willow tried to kill Anyanka.)
 
white avenger said:
It's obviously a double standard, and as far as we can tell, it wasn't just Xander who did it. I can't recall anyone except Buffy ever doing anything to stop her when she was in her Vengeance Demon mode. (It would have been interesting to see Giles distract Xander while Willow tried to kill Anyanka.)
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Yes. This is why Buffy was so mad and the "I killed Angel" thing came up. Anya chose to be a demon and was actively attacking humans, therefore needed to be taken out. Xander was all for that when it was Angel or Spike, but because he cared for Anya he thought it should be different.

He was, however, incorrect.
 
Xander? Don't you mean why Xander, Willow, Buffy, Giles and everyone else treated Anya as comic relief rather than serial killer? Let's face it, it was a ridiculous attitude all around. Sure, it was suicidally stupid and monstrously hypocritical of Xander to get involved romantically with Anya but it was almost as stupid of Willow and Buffy to not tell him "Dude, WTF?" except for a few half-hearted attempts based on Anya being annoying rather than Anya being deadly.
 
caritas08 said:
The same reason Buffy gave Angel and Spike a free pass but didn't give Anya another chance.
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There's a difference, though. Angel didn't willingly revert to Angelus in Season 2 and Spike, once he got his soul, or, in fact, for about about a year and a half prior to that, never willingly killed another person (while possessed by the First Evil doesn't count). Anya went back to D'Hoffran and being a vengeance demon of her own free will.
 
I wrote an essay about a similar topic. Very long. You can find it here.

As for why Xander gave Anya a free pass? He loved her, she was human, lived like a human, became friends with his friends... and here's the sad reason, Xander always ignored her past and tried not to think about it until it came and bit him and her in the ass in Hell's Bells.
 
Well it's one thing if you give two friends a new chance or your girlfriend who you really love! I mean maybe he saw a competitors in them. That's why he didn't like them very much, 2 strong, usefull vampires and a disappointed, sad demon. So he gave his old love two chances because he hoped to regain Anja. Again and again.
 
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