#flirting with your wife

sldkfj hey this is dumb i was the anon talking about willow from earlier and i was gonna respond in an ask but it turns out i have a lot! of feelings about this topic! and i didn’t want to send you a bunch of asks bc when that happens to me i get anxiety. so!

that’s a really fair point about xander! as the only one of the og scoobies to not have (or gain) Powers later on, i do think moments where he gets to be the hero are important. i really wish he had been utilized more as a strategist? anyway. honestly a big portion of my issues with xander being the one to give buffy cpr is that it in the context of the episode it feels like he’s being. idk. rewarded? he handles buffy’s rejection of him… poorly, both with her, and later with willow.i don’t really mind this - he’s a 16 year old, and i don’t think that reaction was necessarily out of character for him - but when he gets to step in at the end and save buffy (especially when it’s put against buffy’s love interest, who can’t), it feels like he’s being rewarded, yknow? and that lack of consequences for the way he treats buffy (esp. re: angel) is something we see more of in s2 (which, especially after innocence, feels so incredibly mean-spirited), so i kinda balk at it on instinct.

my main argument for willow giving her cpr is that we’ve seen willow really gain self-confidence since ‘welcome to the hellmouth’. “you think i want to go to the dance with you and watch you wish you were at the dance with her? […] you should know better.” she’s standing up for herself! and while she’ll get a chance to do something Big for the plot like this in becoming 2, her restoring angel’s soul feels kind of undercut by the fact that buffy still has to kill him. so imo willow giving buffy cpr in prophecy girl would have been a really nice way to highlight the way she’s gaining the confidence to act on her own.

giles also would have been good, but honestly kinda love the idea of jenny giving her cpr? so much of giles’s development in the early seasons is him realizing that what the council says is best for the slayer is not necessarily what is best for buffy (and then having to grapple with the fall out of caring about her as a daughter and a slayer). so i think if giles and jenny had gone after her, giles would have found her and been devastated and very guilty, but like… this was what happened. the prophecy had said the slayer would die, and he couldn’t find a way around it, so it came to pass, and that’s it.

but jenny’s character has always been about challenging and expanding traditional understandings of magic, and integrating modern knowledge into old beliefs. in that same vein, i don’t think jenny would really see buffy as The Slayer yet - in canon giles had only told her like, a few hours prior? - so where giles sees the outcome of a prophecy he failed to stop, she sees a teenager that could maybe still be saved, and acts accordingly.

i also think this would add an interesting wrinkle to giles and jenny’s relationship in s2. like, 'you saved someone i care about a lot and i’m profoundly grateful’ but also 'you had to step in and do my job for me, and i feel weird and inadequate because of it’

sldkfj sorry this was so long apparently i have a lot of Hot Takes about prophecy girl and s1 in general.

(submitted by @boghierophant, who tumblr refuses to let me tag)

going to respond to these EXCELLENT thoughts under the cut!

oh you are ABSOLUTELY correct that within canon it would honestly have been better as Anyone But Xander like nvlkshs i hope i did convey that point in my original ask. and i do kinda like the thought of like .... from xander’s pov, willow becoming this Indisputably Important person to buffy in the same way he wanted to be? like especially within the context of the fucking awful way he treated willow all through the first season, because watching her pine over him and him dismiss and belittle her was so damn painful. so thank you for that thought because it honestly would’ve changed the entire thematic impact of xander’s behavior -- it’s a representation of the fact that if you treat girls as objects of desire, you’re never going to actually Get The Girl. i like that as a message.

and !!!!!! jenny!!!! i think that could also be a good idea because she’s someone who’s just TOTALLY distant from the scoobies, so there could be that feeling from giles of “she doesn’t know what she’s doing, and she only defied prophecy because she’s an outsider who doesn’t understand the role of a watcher the way i do.” so season two giles and jenny might take on a super different bend of mingled combativeness and budding attraction -- like kind of a slow burn that’s got more of the angry energy of i robot, you jane than the gentle sweetness of early-s2 dorky calendiles. lots of reboot comics energy where jenny sees buffy as a teenager and giles thinks that this is a dangerous way to look at the situation (because in a lot of ways he’s desensitized himself to the horror of the situation).

to some degree my frustration with the narrative comes from xander just .... theoretically continually being allowed to Be Terrible to the women in his life and face literally no consequences. he cheats on cordelia, he guilts buffy, he strings willow along until he finds better options, and i cannot even TALK about anya without absolutely flipping my lid. but i love him so much in the reboot comics -- they took some of the more fascinating aspects of his character (his insecurity, his self-hatred, his feeling that he’s the “useless one”) and played THOSE up instead of leaning into toxic masculinity. a narrative where xander’s allowed to, like, actually not be a dick is something that always has a soft spot in my heart, so like ... i like that it’s xander (in theory) but i hate that it’s xander (in practice, bc that potential never gets utilized within tv canon) and you make some fucking good points about it not being xander that i very much enjoy.