Re: Willow and Faith

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

> [Willow] wanted to be THE center of Buffy's 
> world, and saw Faith (BEFORE she went bad) >as invading her territory.

Lies!  Slander asserted as "fact" through repetition.

Willow is in fact quite welcoming to Faith all through the first part of
S3.

In "Faith, Hope, and Trick"

1) she hangs on Faith's every word, just as much as Xander, and 

2) she rats out Oz's lycanthropy to Faith (Oz was being oblique in
feeling Faith out on the subject) apparently valuing including the new
girl more than Oz's secret.  Later,

3) she takes Faith's, not Buffy's, side in the question of Giles's
"youth and beauty", refusing to "raise [her] hand if 'Ew!'", then

4) shames Buffy into asking Faith to dinner, after which

5) she ignores Buffy's request to help her study to instead escort Faith
around the school, where

6) she does most of the talking, not Xander, charming Faith into wishing
she had friends like them.  When Scott arrives

7) she contemplates setting Faith up with him, and when Buffy objects, 

8) Willow agrees with Faith's analysis of Buffy, even

9) quoting her, approvingly.  ("You really do need to find the fun,
B&[gets death stare from Buffy]&uffy."  And, apparently,

10) she and Xander filled Faith in about Buffy's life, including some
aspects (Buffy's difficulty dealing with her Angel issues) that Buffy
would prefer are kept quiet.  At the end of the episode, Willow

11) voices no objection when Buffy and Giles decide that Faith can stay
in Sunnydale, no "we already have a Slayer!", nothing like that.

In "Beauty and the Beasts",

12) Willow trusts Faith enough to let her keep watch over Oz-wolf, and
later

13) has no objection to Faith being present at the Scooby meeting.  She
doesn't even

14) roll her eyes at Faith's crude "they were screwin'?" [wrt Debbie and
the late Jeff Orkin]it's Oz who seems nonplussed by Faith's sexual
tone.  When the crisis strikes,

15) Willow goes with Faith to recapture Oz-wolf, rather than trying to
get Buffy to help in Faith's place.  In fact,

16) she saves Faith's life by pulling Oz-wolf off of her, risking her
own life in the process.  (Faith repays her by downing Will's murderous
boyfriend with the tranq gun.)

In "Homecoming",

17) Willow doesn't blink when Xander mentions B/F "getting sweaty in the
library".  No jealous need to get Buffy away from her, nothing like
that.  She also

18) discusses the Homecoming plans with Buffy and is quite content for
Faith to come with them (Buffy mentions that Faith will be in their
limo), even though

18a) Faith wasn't part of the original group, Scott was
18b) Faith doesn't go to their school
18c) Faith probably can't chip in for the limo.

No problem for Will, she enjoys hanging with Faith.  In fact, it seems
likely that

19) Willow was the organizing force behind arranging for Buffy and Cordy
to get the limo to themselves, since she'd been the one anxious about
having exacerbated B/C's conflict [out of fluke-guilt].  Willow probably
went to Faith for help on Buffy and Cordy's issue, and since the
resultant plan kept them from using either the limo or Cordelia's car,
she probably invited Faith to come to the dance with her and Oz in his
van.  Indeed, at the dance,

20) Faith is quite comfortable around Willow (and Xander) and seeks them
out to talk to.  W/X are a little bummed by fluke-y thoughts, but Willow
doesn't treat any worse than she treats Giles.  Later in the evening,

21) Willow and Faith are hanging out together (with Oz and Xander),
wondering where B/C are.

In "Revelations",

22) While the opening scene cuts off after Buffy's revelation that she's
"seeing" Faith, in Doug Petrie's first draft of the script, it goes on
for a while, and Will is most definitely *not* freaked or "controlling".
Instead the three "couples" (W/O, X/C, and B/F) chat about their plans
for the evening.

(Willow and Oz are going to play Twister ["Left foot, yellow" is Oz's
secret move] and Xander and Cordy are watching the director's cut of
"The Breakfast Club" on this newfangled invention called the DVD player.
[Cordy's clearly flaunting her moneyback in '98, those things weren't
cheap.])

Later, after the Scoobs have argued

23)  Willow is pleased to be out hunting Lagos with Buffy but rather
than seeking to exclude Faith, she SUGGESTS THAT FAITH SHOULD BE THERE
WITH THEM.  ("&shouldn't Faith be here?")  Once Lagos is dead,

24) and Buffy and Willow discover that Faith has gone to kill Angel,
Willow does not blame Faith at all.  Her fury is directed entirely at
Xander for inciting Faith, no "well, what do you expect from a psycho
like that" or anything vaguely similar.  Likewise,

25) at the end of the ep, Willow doesn't criticize Faith's part in the
near-disaster (and Faith could certainly come in for some blame), and
doesn't object to Buffy's heading off to go make up with Faith.

In "The Wish",

26) when Buffy and Xander discuss Faith's absence, Willow doesn't say
they should let Faith be (even though this appears to be Buffy's
attitude) or that she's happier off by herself.  No, Willow says that
"we should try to do more socializing with her."

In "Helpless",

27) although both Buffy and Giles complain about Faith's absence and
dereliction of her duties, Willow does *not* take advantage of the
opportunity to Faith-bash, not even with Buffy being incapacited and
Faith's absence posing a very real danger.

In "The Zeppo",

28) Faith and Willow work side-by-side to kill the Jhe Sister in the
teaser, with no objections from Willow, or snarking about Faith's
non-show the ep before.  

(In fact, given that Faith did the actual slaying and Buffy promptly
completely ignores her to check on Willow, and doesn't even speak to
her, it may be *Faith* who feels hostile.  Maybe this is why she stepped
up her efforts to "claim" Buffy in the next ep.)  Later on,

29) Willow works with Faith once again, to close the Hellmouth.  No
problems seen here.

In "Bad Girls",

30) Yeah, darn tootin' Will is upset that Buffy is suddenly dumping her
to spend all her time with Faith, considering that just the episode
before, Willow had fought alongside Buffy twice (her first "combat
magic" castings), including **closing the Hellmouth** and thus
**AVERTING THE APOCALYPSE**.  I'd be spun, too, to get sent to the
sidelines after such a performance.  (To say nothing of Buffy's "I need
my Willow" declaration.)

Willow doesn't seek to sideline Faith, she simply wants to join them.
Y'know, the way she'd done in the just-averted apocalypse, and earlier
in the year (at Buffy's request) and over the previous summer (when she
was doing Buffy's Sacred Calling for her).  She even creates the
"protection pouch" that may be the real reason why Buffy didn't kill
Finch.  (Faith didn't have one, after all.)  But Buffy shoots her down
and makes ridiculous excuses, and yet

31) Willow doesn't blame Faith for this in the slightest.   Her upset is
almost entirely directed at Buffy (for dumping her) and at herself (for
being stupid enough to believe that Buffy would always be her friend).
> From Willow's p.o.v., it hardly matters whether the other slayer is
Faith or Kendra or Nikki Wood or whomever.  All she knows is that Buffy
has decided she doesn't need her any more.

In "Consequences"

32)  Willow tells Buffy that "I understand that you and Faith have been
doing the bonding thing", rather than rail against Faith.  Her precise
gripe is that

33) she thinks Buffy feels she [Willow] isn't good enough because she
can't kill things with her bare hands.  Will pointedly does not go "why
are you spending all this time with Faith?  She's stupid and skanky and
she doesn't really know you and she dyes her hair!"  It's **not** that
she doesn't feel Faith is worthy of Buffy's friendship (as opposed to
her earlier "what's his number? Oh, yeah, 1-800-I'm-dating-a-skanky-ho!"
contempt for X/C), she just is upset that she's suddenly "un"worthy.
Later in that chat,

34) when Buffy is telling Willow her shock at Faith's nonreaction to
Finch's death, Willow once again passes up a free shot at Faith's
character.  Instead she simply tells Buffy to talk to Giles.  The next
day,

35) when Xander suggests it should be him talking to Faith, Giles finds
this odd because "out of all of us, you've arguably had the least
contact with her".  Oh, so even though *we've* seen more X/Faith scenes
than W/Faith scenes, it's Giles's opinion that Faith has had
considerably more time with Willow than with Xander?  Wow, Willow sure
was excluding Faith and being hostile so she could have Buffy for
herself.  Except not.

Willow says the first negative thing she's **ever** said about Faith
later in the ep.  And given that Willow has by now learned that 

a) Faith tried to frame Buffy for a murder Faith herself committed
b) Faith tried to rape Xander
c) Faith tried to kill Xander

&well, I don't really think that Willow's out of line in suggesting
that maybe the Watchers **should** take Faith to England for
psychological evaluation and a slap on the wrist, in accordance with
centuries of effective practice in crises just like these.  (Even Giles
says it's no big deal for the Slayer in cases like thisit's only
Buffy and Faith who have their self-destructive freakouts and lead to
all the badness.)

All in all,  Willow was an excellent friend to Faith.  She welcomed her
into the group, stood up to Buffy on her behalf, spent more time with
her than even Horndog!Xander did, and on multiple occasions tried to
coax Buffy into being nicer to Faith.   That Willow was hurt when Buffy
suddenly stopped wanting to spend time with her does NOT, IMO, equal
being possessive of Buffy and hostile to Faith because of it. 

And the idea that this somehow justifies the "Willow's a mind-raping
psychotic!" bullshit of early Season Sux leaves me agog.  Pontificating
that "I don't like characters who are 100% black or white" is a cheat,
IMO.  **Nobody** ever said that Willow was perfect, that she didn't have
the occasional self-serving or petty emotion.  (It's not like she's St.
Tara the Pure and Martyred [bow at her feet, you horrible bitch Willow
who dares have an independent thought!], after all  <eg>)

But to take her history, twist and distort it to "validate" ME's
crapping on her in order to fluff some unrepentant immature
murderer/rapist asshole&well, that blows, from where I sit.

Willow (emotion, weak moments, **humanity** and all) is a good person,
far better than some twisted amoral leather-clad jerk much of the fandom
wants to whitewash because they're "cool" and "sexy".  Always has been,
always will be.  

What Willow is NOT is some deranged control freak who needs Mommy!Tara
to hold her hand or she'll go nuts and literally destroy the world, and
the attempt to portray her as such was a giant sandwich of shit, served
up with a full helping of crap sauce.  The suck that was why Season Sux
sucked so very much, in short.

Rant over,

Dan

(For benefit of newcomers, the man who coined the phrase "Season Sux".  

[On the Television Without Pity boards, as "bwdan", circa June 20th,
2002.]

Yes, if I get an obituary, that's gonna be the lead item. <g>)

"You know, you had a lot more in your life that some people.  I mean,
you had friends like Buffy&"

Willow to Faith, "Choices"  

(Note the use of the word "friends", plural.  I guess Will thought she
was Faith's friend, too.  Little did she know&)  



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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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