Yeah, there are definitely a lot of gaps in season 7 that could have better been filled in, and a lot of scenes I would've liked to see that there weren't time for, but I never saw this one as all that much of a leap.
In "Beneath You," I can understand him being angry, since he doesn't know about the soul, and as far as he can tell, nothing's changed since Spike left. I wouldn't really call it ranting, though - more like a stern reminder (as though Buffy could forget), and he backs down once Buffy assures him she can handle it.
I would say that his reaction in "Selfless" isn't really about Spike at all, it's about his feelings for Anya. He never actually says that Buffy's behavior toward Spike is wrong, he's just asking for the same consideration for his demon lover.
He bitches when Spike moves in, but he gets over it pretty quickly - by the middle of the episode, he's accepted Spike being there, which makes me think his reviling of the plan was mostly just a token protest. If he'd really had a serious problem with Spike, he wouldn't have allowed him to live there in the first place.
And from there, I think it's pretty logical that two people living together would bond a little bit. Both Giles and Xander are more tolerant of Spike in s4 once they've lived together, and get increasingly crankier toward him the longer they stay apart. (I'm sure the Buffy crush didn't help, either.)
I guess, bottom line, I see Xander as a pretty rational person, and once he knows about the soul and can see the obvious difference in Spike, I think he can change his opinion. It'd be nice if we got to see him reflecting on it, or talking to Spike about it, but I don't need that to understand what's changed.
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carisma_sensei
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Date: Aug. 12th, 2008 07:47 pm (UTC)In "Beneath You," I can understand him being angry, since he doesn't know about the soul, and as far as he can tell, nothing's changed since Spike left. I wouldn't really call it ranting, though - more like a stern reminder (as though Buffy could forget), and he backs down once Buffy assures him she can handle it.
I would say that his reaction in "Selfless" isn't really about Spike at all, it's about his feelings for Anya. He never actually says that Buffy's behavior toward Spike is wrong, he's just asking for the same consideration for his demon lover.
He bitches when Spike moves in, but he gets over it pretty quickly - by the middle of the episode, he's accepted Spike being there, which makes me think his reviling of the plan was mostly just a token protest. If he'd really had a serious problem with Spike, he wouldn't have allowed him to live there in the first place.
And from there, I think it's pretty logical that two people living together would bond a little bit. Both Giles and Xander are more tolerant of Spike in s4 once they've lived together, and get increasingly crankier toward him the longer they stay apart. (I'm sure the Buffy crush didn't help, either.)
I guess, bottom line, I see Xander as a pretty rational person, and once he knows about the soul and can see the obvious difference in Spike, I think he can change his opinion. It'd be nice if we got to see him reflecting on it, or talking to Spike about it, but I don't need that to understand what's changed.