how dare xander be such a hypocrite? in season one's episode the pack he tried to rape buffy how dare he keep bringing it up about spike doing it when he did the same thing (maybe worse because of the whole buffy spike desturctive relationship/season 6) and wdidn't face up to it spike did!! in my eyes that makes spike better then him. how could he be such a S.O.B when he did the same thing only worse compared with spike.
what are your opions on this? sorry if i'm ranting.
I agree with you. Bear with my. My opinion is LONG. I apologize in advance.
As a viewer, I feel very manipulated by the attempted rape scene in Seeing Red. The camera angles, the stark black/white contrast, Spike's stated intention and Buffy's pleas and newfound weakness all lead me to believe that the scene wants to play like a traditional attempted rape scene from the normal, non-Buffy universe that we all inhabit. I feel like we are supposed to see Spike's actions as horrible and unforgivable and also as confirmation of what Buffy has been saying all along: he really is still evil and he really doesn't love her. I have a huge problem with that scenario, and it bears the name of the man who walked into the bathroom to discover Buffy's bruised thigh: Xander Harris. I can't forget that Xander did essentially the same thing, never suffered any consequences for his actions, never even apologized, was forgiven without question, and never even for a moment lost his Scooby/White Hat status.
The Pack:
In this season 1 episode, which is essentially about cliques, Xander and a few other kids are possessed by the spirit of a hyena pack. It should be noted that the other kids who are possessed are the stereotypical cool rebels who view Xander as a geek. After the possession incident, the cool kids accept Xander into their clique. They walk around the school like they own the place, steal lunch money and lunch food, employ liberal use of intimidating body language, make fun of geeky kids and, well, laugh like a hyena pack. At first, the only unusual thing about this pack is that Xander is suddenly a part of it. That, and they sniff people a lot. Later, the pack's new animal instincts lead them to eat a few unconventional items: the school mascot (a live pig) and the principal. I think there is a person-on-the-street attack, as well, but that does not result in death. The Scoobies figure out what has happened and seek to find a magical antidote before anyone else gets hurt. In the end, the spell is broken and the bad sorcerer who casted the spell is shoved into the cage with his own hyena pack.
Xander is spared from involvement in the most heinous crime - cannibalism in the form of principal eating - because he is engaged elsewhere. He is attempting to rape long-time and unrequited crush, Buffy Summers. In the scene, Xander uses VERY intimidating body language to establish dominance. Without even touching her, he pins her up against the vending machines. He sniffs her repeatedly, informing her that he likes it when she's scared because the more afraid she is, the better she smells. He then bites her neck. At that, she shoves him to the ground and pins him. He grins, offers a snarky remark about knowing she wanted it, and then he turns the tables and pins her, at which point he attempts rape. We do not get to see how Buffy gets away. The next time we see Xander, he is unconscious. Buffy has, apparently, knocked him out and dragged him to the dog house (the cage used to contain their werewolf friend) for safe keeping. When it is all over, Xander pretends to have forgotten everything he did, referring to his actions as "embarrassing."
Seeing Red:
This episode is almost 6 complete seasons in, so a lot of back story churns under the surface. Buffy and Spike have been carrying on a torrid, violent, and secret affair. Buffy was using Spike and has broken up with him because, in her words, "I'm using you and it's killing me" and "I can't love you." She also tells him to move on. He has attempted to move on, having brought a trashy date to a wedding (Buffy told him "it hurts" and Spike ended up leaving) and having had a one night stand with Anya. For reasons that I cannot understand, everyone is very angry about the one-night stand. After Dawn confronts Spike - telling him that he should not have hurt Buffy like that (by sleeping with Anya) if he loved her - Spike goes to Buffy's house to apologize.
The attempted rape scene takes place when he finds her in the bathroom. They discuss the relationship. She admits that she has feelings for him, but maintains that she can't love him. He becomes desperate, saying something along the lines of (and I paraphrase): "when I was inside you, you felt it. You understood." The expression on his face is one of sadness and desperation. It is worth noting, too, that he remains in human face. Then, he tries to kiss Buffy. She is weakened or fatigued by an injury of some sort, and fights him off in rather pathetic fashion for a super strong slayer. The struggle takes them to the bathroom floor, where he rips open her robe. She says things like, "No!" and "Please don't do this!" Finally, she kicks him across the room. She wraps her robe around her and says, "Ask me again why I could never love you!" Realization and guilt pass across Spike's face and he hurries away. When we see Buffy again, Xander comes into the bathroom and figures out what happened. When we see Spike again, a tortured Spike wonders aloud to a friend why he did (and then why he didn't do it), and then he leaves town to make himself "the kind of man who would never...." We should also not forget that odd camera angles and copious amounts of black and white symbolism are used (the scene is in a stark white bathroom, Buffy wears a dingy white robe, and Spike wears black).
Analysis:
At first, it seemed to me that both were possessed when they tried to rape Buffy. When Xander gets his soul back, he is forgiven without a second thought just as Angel is forgiven for whatever his unsouled counterpart, Angelus, does. When Spike attempts to rape Buffy, it makes sense he should be forgiven just the same when he returns from getting his soul. I have a friend who argues that Xander is forgiven because his possession is both involuntary and temporary. Had Xander been his normal self, he would not have attempted to rape Buffy. Spike, by contrast, is always possessed by a demon and always lacks a human soul (or conscience). She argues that that means that he was in his normal state when he tried to rape Buffy. That's a good argument, but I don't think it's the whole story.
First of all, possession is not complete. A vampire, for example, is half human host and half possessing demon. The human soul is rejected and replaced by the demon soul, but the human memories and personality remain. The demon soul removes the conscience and implants the urge to feed off humans and ratchets up the aggressive behavior. The hyena possession basically did the same thing. Xander's human soul was replaced with the hyena soul, his conscience was removed and, in its place, animal urges and aggressive behaviors were implanted. He retained his memories and personality. Xander retained his desire to be part of the "in" crowd, his appetite, and his crush on Buffy. The animal soul didn't change his motivations; it just took away his inhibitions and conscience so that he could act on those repressed urges. The same thing happened to Spike. After he became a vampire, he changed. He was a nerdy, wimpy, very bad poet who was scorned by women. As a vampire, he got in with the "in" crowd, gave in to reckless bravado, and got himself a few hot girls. What didn't change was his desire for love and romance: in his own words, he's always been "love's bitch." As a vampire, he can act on that physically, whereas in life his only outlet was in bad poetry. For both men, the possession was a half and half deal by which baser urges are brought to the forefront and rendered acceptable, not a complete transformation.
Secondly, it is not as though Buffy did not know what Spike's vampire nature was all about. She had dated a vampire before, had spent the last 5 or 6 years fighting all sorts of nasties, and told Spike many times during their relationship that he was "not a man," that he was "a thing," that he "couldn't love her," that he was "evil," etc. Buffy always knew what he was. She also knew he could hurt her. In Buffy's mind, Spike was an evil thing, incapable of having true feelings for her. He was a sex object, not a person. If she does not hold him capable of any right thought, feeling, or action, then how can she hold him accountable for wrong thought, feeling, or action? If you spend months and months telling someone that the only thing he is good for is sex and violence, then how can you blame that person as though he knew better when he acts out in a sexually violent way? The thought here seems inconsistent. If Spike is morally capable of resisting his baser urges, then it follows that he is morally capable of following higher urges. Buffy and co. maintain that Spike is not morally capable of following or even feeling higher urges, and so they must believe he is not morally capable of resisting baser ones. Buffy and co. can't have it both ways. If he is evil and incapable of being good, then he must be forgiven for doing bad on the grounds that if he can't help it, it's really not his fault.
Third, look at the men's reactions during and following each scene. Xander is aggressive, predatory, and happy. He bites. He grins. He makes nasty comments. Afterward, when his soul is returned, he is embarrassed, but he does not feel guilty. He takes no responsibility for his actions and is content to let the whole thing pass. By contrast, Spike is distraught and desperate. His actions are frenzied. He is aggressive, but he is not predatory or happy. He does not hit or bite or scratch or make any attempt to fight. He makes no nasty comments; in fact, he begs. Afterward, when Buffy kicks him away, he recognizes what he has done. Guilt passes clearly over his features. He is ashamed and conflicted. Most importantly, he takes responsibility for his actions. He leaves to seek a soul so that he would never again be the kind of man to do such a thing. He is not content to let it pass. He wants to rectify the situation as much as he can - and this is all while still possessed. Neither Spike nor Xander were right in what they did, but one hides behind his possession and the other takes responsibility for his actions even while still possessed.
Both possessions brought out aggressive tendencies which the possessed were not supposed to have the ability to repress and for which they are therefore not considered responsible, and yet one of the possessed takes responsibility and takes action to find a way to repress those urges in spite of his possession. To me, this says that Spike is more worthy of forgiveness than is Xander, and yet Xander's attempted rape was allowed to pass without any negative consequences. That's what bothers me about the whole thing. I know I'm supposed to be horrified and to hate Spike, but I can't. I just can't condemn Spike for something that the entire moral system of the show says is not his fault and for something that a previous character was forgiven for without having to express any guilt or take any responsibility for his actions. The Spike scene does not fit in with the rest of the show. It feels like a PSA announcement about date rape that was just shoved into a Buffy episode and not like an event that is held to the normal rules of the Buffy world. And that aspect of it - the inequality that is being applied to Spike's actions when compared to Xander's or to other characters' transgressions - actually makes Spike more sympathetic, not less.
I'm sorry to take up so much space!
