Why was Faith trying to be the Good Slayer all of sudden?

[Joshua]

In the end of "Who Are You", Faith all of sudden wants to protect the innocent, and kill the vampires in the church.

Like I never understood that at all but then when she makes an appearance in LA she's back to her murdering spree

 

[Taake]

Because Faith's "bad slayer" persona was mainly a loud scream from the hurt little girl hiding inside of her. She didn't want to be bad, she made exceedingly bad choices but deep down she was never a bad person. Not if you compare her to other Buffyverse bad guys such as - the Mayor, Angelus, the Master etc... creatures/people who were truly soulless and gleefully evil.

Faith made bad choices, bad decisions and bad deeds. But she did it as an external expression of her own hurt (which is still not good mind you) but she was never truly evil.

I think she wanted to be a good slayer, or the good slayer if you will, so for her to act as the good slayer when in Buffy's body is not so surprising at al to me. It just shows that somewhere inside of all of that confusion she not only harboured a deep desire to be a protector of good, but she was also probably jealous of her sister-slayer and slipping into Buffy's 'good' persona must have been a bit of a relief for her. Because one of Faith's problems was that she identified herself as bad, which is how she got stuck in that place after her first accidental murder.
But people thought of Buffy as good, so when in her sister-Slayer's body Faith was given a chance to rise to the occasion to behave like a "good slayer" would have she did... because deep down Faith was that person as well, it's just that she didn't believe that she was.

🙂

 

[Robb Stark]

Well, see, I had this awesome answer all ready and prepared and then Taake had to go an steal my thunder...

No, but seriously, I think the answer is that Faith isn't an evil person. She's screwed up in almost too many ways to count, has seen far too much and has done things that pretty much broke her, but she's not truly bad.

The way I look at Faith is that not everyone is Buffy. Not everyone is a clear cut hero who is always going to make the right decision and persevere through the hardest things in life. Faith is a perfect example of what can happen when great power is bestowed upon someone who isn't ready for it. She couldn't handle, couldn't even come close to handling it, and went off the deep end when things boiled over. I think a lot of people would have broke like that. Even Buffy, who is pretty much the greatest hero I can think of, struggled pretty mightily at times with being the Slayer. Faith isn't even a tenth of the person Buffy is, so when life hit her, it hit her hard.

It took Angel to truly bring her back (I should rephrase. I think that Angel stands on par with Buffy as a hero). I think a large part of Faith really wanted to be Buffy, and when she got that chance, in a shell at least, we saw glimmers of the person she could, and later would in S7, be.

Faith isn't "bad". She's just not the hero she needed to be. However, she did get there. Angel brought her back, and we saw her become the hero she could be in S4 of Angel and S7 of Buffy.

 

[white avenger]

It took Angel to truly bring her back .

At the risk of starting another debate, I think that Angel just happened to be in the right alley at the right time when Faith finally came to the full realization of what she had truly become, and the determination that she deserved to be punished. Granted, after that point, he gave her shelter and support, but that was only after the fact. Faith had to make the decision and the commitment. No one else could do it for her.

Angel being able to sympathize with her feelings because he, too, had gone through that same phase is great after the dust settles, so to speak, but it isn't the same thing as really showing Faith what she had done and what she had to do to try and make some sort of atonement. If she hadn't been at that point already, one or both of them might never have left that alley alive.

 

[Robb Stark]

At the risk of starting another debate, I think that Angel just happened to be in the right alley at the right time when Faith finally came to the full realization of what she had truly become, and the determination that she deserved to be punished. Granted, after that point, he gave her shelter and support, but that was only after the fact. Faith had to make the decision and the commitment. No one else could do it for her.

Angel being able to sympathize with her feelings because he, too, had gone through that same phase is great after the dust settles, so to speak, but it isn't the same thing as really showing Faith what she had done and what she had to do to try and make some sort of atonement. If she hadn't been at that point already, one or both of them might never have left that alley alive.

I don't know, I think Angel played a huge part in it.

Faith chased Angel down so readily with the job from Wolfram & Hart, in my opinion at least, because he was, to her, the summation of every reason she perceived her life to be crap. I think Angel was very close to bringing Faith back in S3 before Wes barged in, and they had a few other really powerful moments after that. She couldn't seduce him to the dark side with her, and I think more than anything that made her feel inadequate, something she was already feeling at not being able to stand next to Buffy.

I think by the time they fight in the alley she was at the breaking point, and Angel represented everything that had gone wrong for her. But unlike Buffy, he understood, and he forgave her. He was, quite literally, the only person in the world who never quit on her. And we see how much that means to her in S4 when she breaks out of prison. Everyone on Angel Investigations is seriously considering having to kill Angelus, but Faith flat out refuses. I think that's in large part because most people, led by Buffy, were fully willing to kill her back in S3 of BTVS, everyone but Angel. She begged him to kill her, but he wouldn't. He believed in her.

Absolutely, she was the one who had to made the decision to seek redemption and come to terms with what she'd become, but I think Angel was the one who got her to that point.

 

[white avenger]

I think by the time they fight in the alley she was at the breaking point, and Angel represented everything that had gone wrong for her. But unlike Buffy, he understood, and he forgave her. .

Certainly, by the ti,e that Faith and Angel fight in the ally, she's at the breaking point, and a lot of how she got there had to do with what happened there in LA, but (and I'm truly sorry that I have to use this example, because it's going to look like I'm trying to drag this into a Spike vs Angel debate, but it fits perfectly) Angel didn't forgive her in that alley, he did exactly what Buffy would do later in Season 7 with Spike, he BELIEVED IN HER and told her that he believed that she could become a better person. But he had no more right to forgive Faith, unless you're referring specifically to her trying to kill him, than Buffy could have forgiver Spike, or even Angel, for all of the things that they were responsible for.

Angel believed in Faith, he supported her and gave her shelter when she most needed it, and he was ready to defend her, even from his own friends, because he knew that she sincerely wanted to be, and could be, a better person, just like Buffy did with Spike.

And once more, I am NOT trying to make this into an Angel vs Spike debate, or rather an Angel/Faith vs Buffy/Spike, but the parallels are definitely there.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

That fight in the alley between Angel and Faith, Angel saw that Faith was about to break. He goaded her, he could've killed her but he chose not to.
Strange isn't it, that the type of being that she was created to kill should help her accept her punishment.
However he was not responsible for her return to the good side, it was Wesley who offered her the olive branch. Those words, 'you are needed' can have great power.

 

[white avenger]

Those words, 'you are needed' can have great power.

Like from the old "Star Trek" episode, "All Our Yesterdays." Some phrases, like "Let me help," (or "You are needed") can be more powerful than "I love you." I hadn't thought about that in years.: