[continued from previous message]   
      
   them flirting with her or giving her a hard time.  Buffy is not   
   known to be reliable.  (The fact it is usually not her fault is   
   immaterial here.)  Trouble follows Buffy.  Xander likes his job   
   and wants to keep it.  Xander was in a bad spot here.   
      
   >  4 Constantly Focuses On Being 'Emasculated'   
   >   
   >  When Buffy was first in Sunnydale, she stopped a jock who was   
   >  bullying Xander. Presumably, she though that he would be   
   >  pleased that a friend helped to stand up for him, but he was   
   >  furious, and told her off for 'emasculating' him. Just like   
   >  his constant sulks about his lack of powers or 'friend-zone'   
   >  status, Xander is often referencing his supposed   
   >  'emasculation' with little jokes and digs at himself. No one   
   >  else makes these jokes, and presumably, no one else cares.   
      
   Did you go to highschool?  Bully's didn't go away when someone   
   else intervened.  If they don't respect you, someone else   
   intervening makes things worse, not better.  (For anyone reading   
   this now, police didn't get involved in bullying back in the   
   day.)   
      
   >  3 Snarky Comments That Take All The Attention   
   >   
   >  Speaking of his digs and jokes, while sometimes these can   
   >  help to lighten the mood, a lot of the time it just seems to   
   >  be a way to drag the attention back to himself at a point in   
   >  time when it just isn't appropriate. And while some of his   
   >  jokes may be funny, most are putting someone down - it might   
   >  be himself (and often is) but as often as not, his jokes are   
   >  'teasing' someone else. He's clearly insecure and desperate   
   >  for attention, and it just gets old.   
      
   If it wasn't for his mouth he'd have gotten no attention.  This   
   was the early days of girl power on tv, he couldn't be heroic on   
   a regular basis.   
      
   Giles did much the same thing but more articulately.  Most of   
   his comments were asides usually griping about Americans,   
   teenagers, etc.   
      
   >  2 Constantly Put Down Spike   
   >   
   >  Admittedly, Spike is a polarizing character in the   
   >  series. Some fans adore Spike and see him as having the   
   >  ultimate redemption arc, while others think that he was   
   >  utterly unforgivable... but either way, Xander's treatment of   
   >  him was pretty appalling. While everyone else in the gang   
   >  accepted Buffy's feelings and treated Spike, at the very   
   >  least, as an ally, Xander spent most of his time snarking at   
   >  him and putting him down. Given that Xander himself nearly   
   >  married a woman who was an ex-demon that nearly destroyed the   
   >  world, you would think that he would be a little less   
   >  hypocritical about another demon reforming.   
   >   
   >  1 Won't Just Step UP   
   >   
   >  Possibly the most annoying thing about Xander is that he is   
   >  the way he is purely because he gets in his own way. For most   
   >  of the show, he is insecure, refuses to grow up, and   
   >  generally acts like a child... and this only changes when a   
   >  spell splits him in two, and he is able to see his   
   >  potential. If Xander just spent a little time on himself, he   
   >  would have been able to see his potential long before that -   
   >  and even after, he didn't use it as a reason to start really   
   >  working on himself, he just accepted what he saw and   
   >  continued to be otherwise annoying. Come on, Xander. Do   
   >  better.   
      
   I think how much of an ass he was was directly related to who   
   was writing the episodes.  IIRC, JW was less involved in the   
   later seasons.   
      
   Unfortunately, the show was not about Xander.  It was strictly   
   about the women.  There was no room for him to grow.  Bashing   
   men has been PC for a while now, so some of the writer's made   
   sure the greater character flaws belonged to the men.   
      
   Michael C.   
   --   
   mjchappell@verizon.net http://mcsuper5.freeshell.org/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)