itssmiletime
Potential
I came across something interesting on tumblr,
Source: http://blogobuffy.tumblr.com/post/8344809904/shinzyhpfan-asked-buffy-selfless-shes-fought
She's fought down Angelus at the height of evil, sparred with Willow when grief overtook her friend. She's battled vampires wearing her classmates' faces and thrown off a hyena-possessed Xander. As far as monsters contained within the bodies of her friends go, she's seen them all before. This shouldn't be different.
But it is, because it's Anya, who's been her friend for so long and yet not, whom she'd cared about and had compassion for and kind of empathized with, as another more-than-human trapped in an ordinary life and rejected by the ones who'd loved her. It's Anya, whom she's failed, whom she'd sat with on her porch stairs with her last year and didn't understand the other girl's pain until she'd seen her standing outside the Magic Box hours later, her eyes defiant and angry and shattered. It's not like acquaintances who no longer are; it's not like the friends who've known how much she loves them. Anya's somewhere in between, caught at the fringes of a group that's cast her aside.
And now she's a killer.
Anya is spitting insults at her like a threatened cat, dodging and swinging and swerving and no real threat to Buffy, and Buffy still can't speak. Not when there are no words left- neither of comfort nor offense- not when Anya's screwed up this badly and Buffy needs to do her duty. This can only end one way.
And yet, when the sword is buried in Anya's chest (has it killed her? Can it?), this feels more like murder than duty ever has before.
This thread isn't about the ethics of Anya slaughtering 12 jerks or what side you are on in Empty Places, it is about the friendship of Anya and Buffy (as well as the scoobies). It's about the time when Anya pretty much helped Buffy in The Gift significantly, to Get It Done when she said ''I'm not your friend''.
Some observations and thoughts:
-After Hell's Bell's, who is comforting her? D'Hoffryn. Not Buffy, Willow, Tara or even Dawn.
-I think the only ever real human friend Anya had was Giles, and he was in England when the marriage between her and Xander was broken off.
-I think the reason why she became, slowly over season 7, more friendly towards Andrew, because they never really fitted in with the Scooby gang or potentials. When Andrew was doing his documentary, Anya was pretty much one of the very few people who gave him the time of the day and treated him well. Both were frequently the mockery of alot of people, and feelings of loneliness.
-When Anya dies in Chosen, there is none of the feelings of shock, loss in the scoobies, only Andrew and Xander seem to be torn up over it.
-In the Restless dream sequences, Anya plays a secondary, minor character: in Willow's, she is a laughing classmate, in Giles, she performs awkward jokes, and in Xander's, she has a role, but he is checking out Willow and Tara.
So my question is: Would you consider Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Spike, Tara, etc to be friends with Anya?
Source: http://blogobuffy.tumblr.com/post/8344809904/shinzyhpfan-asked-buffy-selfless-shes-fought
She's fought down Angelus at the height of evil, sparred with Willow when grief overtook her friend. She's battled vampires wearing her classmates' faces and thrown off a hyena-possessed Xander. As far as monsters contained within the bodies of her friends go, she's seen them all before. This shouldn't be different.
But it is, because it's Anya, who's been her friend for so long and yet not, whom she'd cared about and had compassion for and kind of empathized with, as another more-than-human trapped in an ordinary life and rejected by the ones who'd loved her. It's Anya, whom she's failed, whom she'd sat with on her porch stairs with her last year and didn't understand the other girl's pain until she'd seen her standing outside the Magic Box hours later, her eyes defiant and angry and shattered. It's not like acquaintances who no longer are; it's not like the friends who've known how much she loves them. Anya's somewhere in between, caught at the fringes of a group that's cast her aside.
And now she's a killer.
Anya is spitting insults at her like a threatened cat, dodging and swinging and swerving and no real threat to Buffy, and Buffy still can't speak. Not when there are no words left- neither of comfort nor offense- not when Anya's screwed up this badly and Buffy needs to do her duty. This can only end one way.
And yet, when the sword is buried in Anya's chest (has it killed her? Can it?), this feels more like murder than duty ever has before.
This thread isn't about the ethics of Anya slaughtering 12 jerks or what side you are on in Empty Places, it is about the friendship of Anya and Buffy (as well as the scoobies). It's about the time when Anya pretty much helped Buffy in The Gift significantly, to Get It Done when she said ''I'm not your friend''.
Some observations and thoughts:
-After Hell's Bell's, who is comforting her? D'Hoffryn. Not Buffy, Willow, Tara or even Dawn.
-I think the only ever real human friend Anya had was Giles, and he was in England when the marriage between her and Xander was broken off.
-I think the reason why she became, slowly over season 7, more friendly towards Andrew, because they never really fitted in with the Scooby gang or potentials. When Andrew was doing his documentary, Anya was pretty much one of the very few people who gave him the time of the day and treated him well. Both were frequently the mockery of alot of people, and feelings of loneliness.
-When Anya dies in Chosen, there is none of the feelings of shock, loss in the scoobies, only Andrew and Xander seem to be torn up over it.
-In the Restless dream sequences, Anya plays a secondary, minor character: in Willow's, she is a laughing classmate, in Giles, she performs awkward jokes, and in Xander's, she has a role, but he is checking out Willow and Tara.
So my question is: Would you consider Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Spike, Tara, etc to be friends with Anya?
