Faith is when they started to explicitly play with Slayers having dark sides and what that meant for Buffy.
They actually dealt with this a little as early as S1 in Nightmares, and S2's "Ted" (Buffy thinks she's killed a man), an episode which the show calls back to time and again: Consequences, DT, Selfless, etc. But you're right, this is when the theme starts to become front and center. I rewatched a bit of Enemies where Faith says "If you kill me, you become me" - and then watched Dead things again today. Buffy's experience with Faith, and the way Faith "got inside her" figuratively in S3 and literally in S4 (TYG/WAY) is all over the place.
Looking at just the first three seasons, if someone told me both Faith and Spike were coming back, I might think Spike would go to Angel and Faith to Buffy, because of the builtup history and tension between them (Spike's most interesting relationship to anyone in early Buffy is with Angel, at least to me.)
Exactly, I would have thought the same as well.
Spike's most interesting relationship with anyone else besides Buffy is with Angel, which is why I ship them slightly. Not in the sense of seeking out Spangel fanfic (unless something really good falls in to my lap - or B/A/S), but in the sense of acknowledging that it's an interesting dynamic.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-09-13 06:58 pm (UTC)They actually dealt with this a little as early as S1 in Nightmares, and S2's "Ted" (Buffy thinks she's killed a man), an episode which the show calls back to time and again: Consequences, DT, Selfless, etc. But you're right, this is when the theme starts to become front and center. I rewatched a bit of Enemies where Faith says "If you kill me, you become me" - and then watched Dead things again today. Buffy's experience with Faith, and the way Faith "got inside her" figuratively in S3 and literally in S4 (TYG/WAY) is all over the place.
Looking at just the first three seasons, if someone told me both Faith and Spike were coming back, I might think Spike would go to Angel and Faith to Buffy, because of the builtup history and tension between them (Spike's most interesting relationship to anyone in early Buffy is with Angel, at least to me.)
Exactly, I would have thought the same as well.
Spike's most interesting relationship with anyone else besides Buffy is with Angel, which is why I ship them slightly. Not in the sense of seeking out Spangel fanfic (unless something really good falls in to my lap - or B/A/S), but in the sense of acknowledging that it's an interesting dynamic.