Xander and His Free Pass

[sosa lola]

I always wonder when someone says that Xander never faces the consequences of his actions and I only remember two actions he's never punished for: The spell he cast in OMWF and beating Spike up in Entorpy.

With The Lie, I think fate does punish Xander by putting Anya in Angel's place, and Buffy in Xander's place. Buffy thinks Anya should die, and Xander gets to understand how Buffy felt like back in S2. Notice how Xander's feelings towards Spike start to mellow a great deal after Selfless. He takes Spike in, even though he objects to it, but I think he does it because Buffy tries to keep Anya safe from the demons that attack her. He does it for Buffy, and he starts believing in Buffy and trusting her decisions regarding Spike all season because he owes Buffy that. So, this is one.

The relationship front: Xander screwed up both his relationships and he was never given a second chance. Willow was given a second chance even though she was as guilty as Xander. Cordelia doesn't forgive him or even listen to him, and spends the rest of their senior year insulting and belittling him. She only forgives him when he buys her her prom dress. Anya tries to curse him, gets his friends to wish him ill, tries to get Spike to wish him dead or whatever, and does what Cordelia did, insulting him and throwing what he did in his face every chance she gets. Eventually, she forgives him and they become friends.

The annoying-jealous way he acted about Buffy/Angel: Willow and Anya's bickering, the way they trashed one another in front of Xander. The way Willow thinks that Xander can do better. As Xander tells Spike, it does hurt that his best friend and girlfriend can't get along. This is fate again punishing Xander for the way he acted with Buffy regarding Angel.

Xander's spell in BB&B: Giles was extremely angry at Xander and Willow wouldn't talk to Xander and he needs to grovel. So, he does pay for that, too.

Xander sleeping during Oz watch: Giles yells at Xander for doing that and funnily enough doesn't yell at Buffy when she sleeps during Oz watch. I guess 'cause Oz didn't escape on Buffy's watch.

Other than those, I don't really remember what Xander did and wasn't paid for. I may have forgotten something. You can remind me. 🙂

 

[Kana]

I don't believe there is a cosmic debt for our mistakes in real life and in the Verse it's at least murky. Sometimes there things we pay for sometimes there aren't. Xander's suffered a little and sometimes there have been no real consequences for his actions. I've never thought that Xander had anymore of a free pass than anyone else.

 

[GrrArghx]

The OMWF thing... I really don't understand. Xander didn't outright kill anyone. The demon did. I mean, that's like saying Buffy's responsible for every person a vampire kills because she hasn't killed said vamp yet.

 

[sosa lola]

The OMWF thing... I really don't understand. Xander didn't outright kill anyone. The demon did. I mean, that's like saying Buffy's responsible for every person a vampire kills because she hasn't killed said vamp yet.

But it was Xander who summoned Sweet. If he didn't, no one would have died. So it is his fault in the end.

 

[dan k]

I think its strange how Xander doesn't feel bad about summoning Sweet which resulted in people dying. You would think he'd feel bad about causing people to die yet he later jokes about it.

 

[Bungle Jerry]

I hate the resolution for OMWF. It's something the writers seem to do every once in a while with Xander, where they forget how important a character he is and go with 'he's the bumbling moron who makes bad decisions'. The writers gave him that "I'm sick of this crap" message-to-themselves in "Buffy vs. Dracula", but then just revert to lazy old ways. Him summoning Sweet is as out of character as him eating chips and shouting after Riley in the graveyard - but at least that scene is funny if nothing else.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

I think it's because Xander is a goofy character. Some of his mistakes are minor, like causing some accidents that are easy stopable, and we think it's funny, like in OMWF when he asked does he have to be Sweet's queen now, so with that he gets by easy.

That lie he told, no one ever knew about that, and when it swimmed to the surface, it wasn't discussed, but like you said it reflected on his personal life. I don't think it was his punishment, but it was handy to mention because in that way we could connect that two feelings and compare them, and also that speech was a tasty Bangel cookie.
I don't see how Cordelia not forgiving him had to do anything with his "free pass" because he screwed up, that was more about Cordelia and not about Xander.. Cordelia changed everything, she lost a lot of things because of Xander, and without him she's back to zero. Oz never had to give up anything for Willow, and also, they were more liked by fans. Not only Anya forgave him, she kinda made her revange, she slept with a person Xander hated the most.

 

[Icarium]

With The Lie, I think fate does punish Xander by putting Anya in Angel's place, and Buffy in Xander's place.

Fate? Come on...Plus, you know, it's not much a punishment if nothing all that bad happened to Anya in the end. Not that I think that "The Lie" merits any punishment whatsoever, mind you.

Xander's spell in BB&B: Giles was extremely angry at Xander and Willow wouldn't talk to Xander and he needs to grovel. So, he does pay for that, too.

But somehow Cordelia finds the whole thing very romantic and in fact it inspires her to call Harmony a sheep (crowning moment of awesome if I ever saw one, btw) and go back together with Xander. Not much of a punishment, IMO. You forgot to mention Oz punching Xander, though.

I think its strange how Xander doesn't feel bad about summoning Sweet which resulted in people dying. You would think he'd feel bad about causing people to die yet he later jokes about it.

Strange wouldn't be the word, I would use to describe it. More like wildly out of character or even retarded. I hate it when characters get twisted beyond recognition for a sake of a twist or a joke.

 

[sosa lola]

I think its strange how Xander doesn't feel bad about summoning Sweet which resulted in people dying. You would think he'd feel bad about causing people to die yet he later jokes about it.

The Xander summoning Sweet issue. A large part of fandom saw it as out of character and they're about three groups.

Group 1 thinks that it's unlikely for Xander to cast a spell irresponsibly after what had happened in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, because he had told Willow in Lover's Walk that he had learned from that lesson and he would never get involved with casting unsupervised magic.

Group 2 thinks that it is likely for Xander to make the same mistake, because after all, lots of humans do make the same mistake twice even after they had learned from the first one, it's real life. But, what's un-Xander-like is that he hadn't confessed to doing the spell after he had learned about people combusting into flames because of it.

Group 3 thinks that Joss didn't care much for characterization and continuity and he had only chose Xander to do the spell so we could have the "Do I have to be your queen?" joke.

Personally, I think group 3 nailed it, lol. But, because we accept BtVS with all its flaws, I think the reason Giles didn't yell at Xander and Xander not showing remorse at this time is because they were too shocked with the revelation that Buffy had been in heaven. I think Xander's guilt of pulling Buffy out of heaven overpowered the guilt of causing people to die from his spell at that moment. Now, I don't have a logical explanation to why Xander hadn't confessed earlier about doing the spell to Giles when things went out of hand (like he had done in BB&B). Story-wise, they can't have that because it'll ruin the "mystery", but character-wise… no explanation comes to my mind.

 

[dan k]

Group 3 thinks that Joss didn't care much for characterization and continuity and he had only chose Xander to do the spell so we could have the "Do I have to be your queen?" joke.

Personally, I think group 3 nailed it, lol. But, because we accept BtVS with all its flaws, I think the reason Giles didn't yell at Xander and Xander not showing remorse at this time is because they were too shocked with the revelation that Buffy had been in heaven. I think Xander's guilt of pulling Buffy out of heaven overpowered the guilt of causing people to die from his spell at that moment. Now, I don't have a logical explanation to why Xander hadn't confessed earlier about doing the spell to Giles when things went out of hand (like he had done in BB&B). Story-wise, they can't have that because it'll ruin the "mystery", but character-wise"¦ no explanation comes to my mind.

I still think its out of character for Xander not to show remorse for his actions killing people. Your point about him being shocked about Buffy's revelation works in the short term, but surely afterwards he would think about what he'd caused and feel like Willow did when she took a life. For some reason it just seems to be forgotten about, by everyone.

 

[caitaintdead]

Group 4 - He was covering for someone.

Not me, but I've heard this theory before, usually covering for Dawn.

 

[dan k]

I suppose that would work but i don't see Xander as that good an actor to be able to fool everyone like he did.

 

[sosa lola]

I suppose that would work but i don't see Xander as that good an actor to be able to fool everyone like he did.

I think Xander is a good actor. When he lied to Buffy and Willow about spending Christmas outside to gaze at the stars they believed him easily, until Cordelia revealed the truth.


But the problem with that theory is that Dawn took the necklace after the spell started, so it's obvious she wasn't the one who summoned Sweet.