Who do you think was the worst friend in Season 6?

[gillianmorsee]

I hear some people say that Buffy was a bad friend to everyone in Season 6, and some people say that Willow was being a terrible friend in Season 6, or Xander, etc. etc. I sympathized with Buffy more than the rest of the gang at the time but I think she probably wasn't being the best of friends to them, either. I know Buffy was trying her very hardest, though, so I can't blame her for that. So what do you guys think? Who was the worst friend in Season 6? Or do you think that they were all being decent friends to one another?

 

[GoSpuffy]

Willow. She shouldn't have brought Buffy back without knowing for sure where she was. She was motivated by love, but her actions were selfish.

 

[gillianmorsee]

Willow. She shouldn't have brought Buffy back without knowing for sure where she was. She was motivated by love, but her actions were selfish.

Agreed. Willow deluded herself into believing that Buffy was in a hell dimension so that she could justify bringing her back for internal selfish reasons.

 

[Lyri]

Willow, without question. But, then again, I think Willow is a bad friend in general from S4 onwards.

 

[sosa lola]

Aw, I wouldn't call Willow a bad friend in general - her offering to hate Sam for Buffy's sake comes to mnd.

 

[Lyri]

I think she's just incredibly selfish, but I can admit that selfish people can have selfless moments from time to time.

 

[Blaze]

In s6 specifically, I don't think Willow nor Buffy were bad friends in the classical sense of the term. Willow was suffering from addiction, Buffy from depression. It does not excuse all of their behaviors, but it explains them.

I think the worst friend in s6 was Giles. He left everyone to deal with their own problem because his mentality was that they had to grow up on their own, but he didn't account for the fact that the gang was dealing with real mental problems. He knew how dangerous Willow was becoming. He knew that Buffy was in a really bad place. And he still thought leaving was the best option. Giles was an awful friend, and an awful father figure, in s6.

 

[thetopher]

Giles left, so he's probably the worst.

I don't really rate Xander either. I know he had a wedding to plan but still.

Willow- apart from the ill-advised resurrection (which Anya, Tara and Xander agreed to but never get any of the blame for...) was actually pretty good.
'Gone', 'Doublemeat Palace', 'As You Were', 'Normal Again' - lots of moments where Willow was helping Buffy as well as dealing with her own crappy life; recovering addict, single, etc.

 

[Dolores]

Hm they do all seem to be at their worst here. Gotta go with Willow personally - can't forgive the way she spoke to Giles.

 

[Iwearthecheese]

Giles for running off, obvs. 😉

Willow- apart from the ill-advised resurrection (which Anya, Tara and Xander agreed to but never get any of the blame for...) was actually pretty good.

Yeah, this is really interesting- since it is Willow and ONLY Willow who gets the blame for this- all the time. Evcen though they all thought Buffy was suffering torment in a hell dimension and yet Willow is named as the selfish/foolish one.
Not Xander- who is also Buffy's best friend, not Tara, who's been a witch much longer and presumably knows lots about magical rituals and taboos and such, and not Anya- who knows the most about alternate dimensions and other realms ('Superstar' and 'Triangle' showed that)
They all did it. Together.

Sure, Willow was all kinds of selfish after the fact- wanting to be thanked being a prime example- but none of them are blameless in their S6 actions. Except Dawn.
Giles and Spike had their own opportunities to do selfish things to Buffy.

 

[vellavu]

Jonathan. He betrayed Warren and Andrew.😀

 

[Skanky Vamp]

I think Tara could be added to the mix. Her silently condoning Buffy's actions with Spike allowed them to continue and escalate. If Tara had not made jokes about them as a couple, or told Buffy some harsh truths, then maybe we could have had happy!buffy sooner. A real friend would have been like "Girl, you are sleeping with somebody you hate everything about, you need to get over yourself and cut that shi.. stuff out"

 

[bespangeled]

I don't see Giles as a friend, so I can't say he's a bad friend. I vote Willow - her addiction issues come from self medicating her guilt and insecurities, and from immersing herself in dark magics.

Yeah, this is really interesting- since it is Willow and ONLY Willow who gets the blame for this- all the time.

I see the others as followers - and I see Willow as having more of an agenda here. I can't understand why a spell that can locate Buffy's soul and bring her back to life can't be used to just see where she is.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

Nobody is at their best in S6. Xander says that they need to help Buffy, but we never actually see him do anything to help her. Willow does the wrong things by trying to use magic, and then has to deal with her addiction. We get a few moments but they are far and few in between. Tara is sort of separated from the Scoobies, and I thought it was kind of sweet that she tried to be understanding of Buffy sleeping with Spike, but when Buffy starts breaking down and crying that's when she should have been like "well maybe you need to stop seeing Spike". Anya, well nobody really listens to her. But really Giles is the one that leaves everyone to deal with their problems. He should have been the one to bring everyone together and set them straight and guide them.

 

[Monkey Pants]

I hate to admit it, but the worst friend is Willow. And not because of the spell that brought Buffy back, but because she brought a 15 year old (Dawn) to a crack house where horrible things could have happened to her, and almost got her killed. If something worse had happened to Dawn (death, being raped by one of those creepy guys in the waiting room while Willow was otherwise preoccupied, who knows?), that would without a doubt be the end between Willow and everyone in the scooby gang, if Willow even lived to see it. I don't see anyone else doing something so drastic that no repairs could be made. And of course, as Tara is Willow's friend as well as her girlfriend, her mind wipe was completely inexcusable. Willow was a good friend with trying to help and comfort Buffy and Xander though.

Following very closely would be Giles. Like, wth? He has expressed concern over Willow's magic use, he sees that Dawn is literally floundering in this house of adult-children, he sees that Buffy is completely broken and wishes to be dead, and he chooses to leave then?? Bad move Giles. Bad move. If he had stayed, he could have kicked everyone in the bottom, and forced everyone to stop focusing on their personal problems and see that Warren was a threat, and maybe Tara wouldn't be dead, and Dawn wouldn't be further traumatized, and Willow wouldn't be a murderer. You basically screwed everyone Giles! I think it was totally OOC, and just shows how everything is crumbling. (I actually love all of these developments and am glad they happened, but I'm still saying a lot of it is Giles's fault.)

Xander would be next. He judges Buffy harshly for sleeping with Spike, even when he sees what a state she's in. Come on dude! He was not being a good fiance either. Obviously.

I don't think Buffy was a bad friend. She wasn't being the best sister to Dawn, but that's another matter. She's going through her own stuff, and her friends can learn to live without her constant attention for once. She never put them in danger (well except for in Normal Again.) She didn't see what was going on with Willow, but they didn't really see what was going on with her. Communication between everyone was lacking. She was great with trying to help Willow get over her addiction, and helping Xander after his wedding fiasco.

Dawn was a good person as usual, (I don't get you Dawn haters!) minus a tiny bit of shoplifting.

Tara was a pretty good friend, although she could have been more realistic with Buffy about the whole Spike situation. I don't think she was a very great girlfriend though. She let Willow take all the blame for something she was involved in, and didn't try to help Willow with her addiction like Buffy did.

Anya may have actually been the best friend of all. She was a little preoccupied with her wedding, but she recognized that Buffy wasn't okay pretty much right away, she recognized that Willow was acting different, and she tried to speak up and do what she could without crowding either of them. She dealt maturely with Dawn stealing from her. She helped try to save Willow from herself in the last few episodes. She also tried to save Giles. I love her.

 

[sosa lola]

Yeah, this is really interesting- since it is Willow and ONLY Willow who gets the blame for this- all the time. Evcen though they all thought Buffy was suffering torment in a hell dimension and yet Willow is named as the selfish/foolish one.

I think Willow gets most of the heat because she's the one who came up with the idea of bringing Buffy back and insisted on it. Not to mention hid a lot of the dark elements of the spell from Tara, Xander and Anya to get them on board. Xander actually argues against it. Anya was only there because Xander was there.

Xander, Tara and Anya are at fault of course, but it was Willow's plan, Willow did most of the work, the woman who yelled don't "aim at the horsies" coldbloodedly killed a deer for the spell. And I believe even if the others backed out, she'd find a way to bring Buffy back herself.

Xander says that they need to help Buffy, but we never actually see him do anything to help her.

Fixing her house for free and we know how many times it gets trashed? Driving Dawn to and from school? Being there whenever there was a new evil in town? Helping with the research?

As for money, Xander needed as much as possible for his own wedding and the honeymoon. But I can see him doing Buffy's grocery shopping and paying for a takeout when they have dinner together.

I think what everybody suffers from in S6 is the lack of communication. Nobody talks to anybody. I'm pretty sure not one of Xander's friends and not even Anya know what Xander's visions were about in Hell's Bells 'cause nobody asked. And it's not just Xander, nobody knows about what anybody is going through. Everyone is focused on their own woes.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

Fixing her house for free and we know how many times it gets trashed? Driving Dawn to and from school? Being there whenever there was a new evil in town? Helping with the research?

I'm sure fixing the house takes some stress off, so that might help. Driving Dawn to school just takes away some of the responsibility, which Giles left so that Buffy would take responsibility cause she was pushing Dawn off on him too. Which really they were both in the wrong. Helping Buffy with research and evil is something he's been doing since season 1 so I don't think that counts. I just meant he (and no one else either) wasn't doing anything to really help Buffy out of her depression. They're all just like "oh Buffy will get over it, let me worry about my own problems".

I think what everybody suffers from in S6 is the lack of communication. Nobody talks to anybody. I'm pretty sure not one of Xander's friends and not even Anya know what Xander's visions were about in Hell's Bells 'cause nobody asked. And it's not just Xander, nobody knows about what anybody is going through. Everyone is focused on their own woes.

This is the real problem. Everything could have been solved if they all just talked about how they were really doing. So really they were all being bad friends to each other, cause they were too busy focusing on themselves, which we see didn't help any.

 

[sosa lola]

I just meant he (and no one else either) wasn't doing anything to really help Buffy out of her depression. They're all just like "oh Buffy will get over it, let me worry about my own problems".

I'd say Willow trying to help Buffy by making her forget - Tabula Rasa - is someone trying to help Buffy in her depression, even though that wasn't the right way to do it.

IMO, I'm not really sure the characters realize Buffy was depressed 'cause after that episode, Buffy seems to paste a happy smile on her face and hide her depression from her friends - who also had lives of their own, so seeing as Buffy was getting better was clearly a load off their shoulders and now they get to get back to their own problems.

The only person Buffy shows it to - other than Spike - is Tara, and because Buffy actually talked to Tara, Tara was able to be there for her.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

I'd say Willow trying to help Buffy by making her forget - Tabula Rasa - is someone trying to help Buffy in her depression, even though that wasn't the right way to do it.

IMO, I'm not really sure the characters realize Buffy was depressed 'cause after that episode, Buffy seems to paste a happy smile on her face and hide her depression from her friends - who also had lives of their own, so seeing as Buffy was getting better was clearly a load off their shoulders and now they get to get back to their own problems.

The only person Buffy shows it to - other than Spike - is Tara, and because Buffy actually talked to Tara, Tara was able to be there for her.

True, and for all we know they did try to help her off camera. A part of it could be that Buffy didn't want to burden them so she pretends to be not depressed. and then of course she just turns to Spike to try and deal with it. Maybe she thought that Willow's problem was of more concern. So it shifts from Buffy's depression to Willow's addiction. The real question for me is why Buffy and Willow didn't ask Xander how he really feels about getting married, and ask if he's ready. He says in Once More With Feeling that he summoned Sweet to see how him and Anya would work out. Which would suggest to everyone that he might have some doubts. Xander's issues are not really dealt with either.

 

[Iwearthecheese]

I think Willow gets most of the heat because she's the one who came up with the idea of bringing Buffy back and insisted on it.

Imv she gets all of the heat, not most. The spell wouldn't have been possible without the help of the others.

Not to mention hid a lot of the dark elements of the spell from Tara, Xander and Anya to get them on board.

One element I think- the deer killing. Dark blood magic but one ingredient doesn't change the intent of the spell

Xander actually argues against it. Anya was only there because Xander was there.

Xander and all voted and put Willow in charge. Xander made a banner and put sparkles on it. Xander was behind the plan.

I got the impression from that conversation that they'd had the argument many times before and Xander- and the lay person when it comes to magic- is afraid to cross the finish line because it means commitment to something permenant- that's sort of his weak point this whole season.

I see the others as followers - and I see Willow as having more of an agenda here.

Willow is honest about wanting Buffy back- and she thinks its the right thing to do, to rescue her friend. Tara thinks its wrong but wants to do it anyway- which is worse imv.

I can't understand why a spell that can locate Buffy's soul and bring her back to life can't be used to just see where she is.

And nobody thought of that, not just Willow. Anya knows more about dimensions so why didn't she think of it? She's a thousand years old.
And yet its always how horrible and selfish Willow is.

I think Willow's memory alteration is a far worse crime than bringing Buffy back, Because the intent there ws sentirely selfish, not simply have aspects of selfishness.

Also I forgot Spike- if he counts as Buffy's friend- since he did terrible things to her this season. I'd say he was the winner.

I hate to admit it, but the worst friend is Willow. And not because of the spell that brought Buffy back, but because she brought a 15 year old (Dawn) to a crack house where horrible things could have happened to her, and almost got her killed.

I think this is slightly negated by the fact that Willow saved Buffy's life single-handedly at least twice this season. 'Gone' and 'Doublemeat Palace' as she's fighting her own addiction.