Well, as you probably guessed, part of what inspired Five in One was that I wanted to make Spike's victims people for an audience inclined not to care (and hence also inclined to complain that the Scoobies and/or Buffy didn't accept them fast enough) because with the exception of Nikki Wood (who died in an exciting fight scene), we never saw them on screen. Re: Buffy as occasional stand in for the victims and the problems that brings, I agree but also would agree with Kikimay that it's tied to the Buffy-as-main-protagonist structure when it happens.
However: does it really happen so often? And also: what if the show(s) contradict themselves or rather, remedy their narrative? For example, I'd say Damage on AtS textually and explicitly makes Dana a stand-in for Spike's victims (and while it's at it also contradicts his all-Slayers-have-a-death-wish theory at least when it comes to Nikki Wood because when Dana is channelling Nikki, she says she wants to get home to her son) while also making her a parallel to both Spike and Angel themselves. The question there whether Angel, Spike and Dana are redeemable after having crossed the lines from innocents to perpetrators (in varying degrees, obviously Dana's score is infinitely less than that of either vampire) isn't definitely answered by the narrative, other than with the general hope of trying to make the best of your blood-on-your-hands-and-superpowers-at-your-disposal status from this point onwards, and it's interesting that Spike verbalizes the skeptic position there.
As for Faith: I'd argue that while Buffy has the no-sayer position in Sanctuary, the stand-in for Faith's victims position in the narrative is actually taken by Wesley, whom the audience has seen tortured by Faith on screen. (Sidenote: of course, at the time of first broadcast there was still much Wesley resentment until that episode, both from Doyle only holdouts and from people whop blamed Faith's original fall on him, but Five By Five/Sanctuary is generally seen as the watershed when people started to embrace Wesley with their hearts en masse; his position as most popular AtS character didn't come until late s3 onwards, though.) In the most explicit torture scene on either show until that point. Wesley is the one who has the emotional arc in this episode from hating Faith for what she did to him to getting the chance at revenge to while not forgiving Faith still preventing her capture/death and allowing her the chance to face her own responsibilities.
Which, given this is an AtS episode where Wesley is a regular character and Buffy is a guest star is an understandable narrative choice. And when Faith returns to BTVS, her scenes with Buffy aren't about Buffy forgiving her (or her forgiving Buffy) but both of them coming to terms with each other in a story where neither is the "good" or the "bad" Slayer. (IMO as always.)
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Well, as you probably guessed, part of what inspired Five in One was that I wanted to make Spike's victims people for an audience inclined not to care (and hence also inclined to complain that the Scoobies and/or Buffy didn't accept them fast enough) because with the exception of Nikki Wood (who died in an exciting fight scene), we never saw them on screen. Re: Buffy as occasional stand in for the victims and the problems that brings, I agree but also would agree with Kikimay that it's tied to the Buffy-as-main-protagonist structure when it happens.
However: does it really happen so often? And also: what if the show(s) contradict themselves or rather, remedy their narrative? For example, I'd say Damage on AtS textually and explicitly makes Dana a stand-in for Spike's victims (and while it's at it also contradicts his all-Slayers-have-a-death-wish theory at least when it comes to Nikki Wood because when Dana is channelling Nikki, she says she wants to get home to her son) while also making her a parallel to both Spike and Angel themselves. The question there whether Angel, Spike and Dana are redeemable after having crossed the lines from innocents to perpetrators (in varying degrees, obviously Dana's score is infinitely less than that of either vampire) isn't definitely answered by the narrative, other than with the general hope of trying to make the best of your blood-on-your-hands-and-superpowers-at-your-disposal status from this point onwards, and it's interesting that Spike verbalizes the skeptic position there.
As for Faith: I'd argue that while Buffy has the no-sayer position in Sanctuary, the stand-in for Faith's victims position in the narrative is actually taken by Wesley, whom the audience has seen tortured by Faith on screen. (Sidenote: of course, at the time of first broadcast there was still much Wesley resentment until that episode, both from Doyle only holdouts and from people whop blamed Faith's original fall on him, but Five By Five/Sanctuary is generally seen as the watershed when people started to embrace Wesley with their hearts en masse; his position as most popular AtS character didn't come until late s3 onwards, though.) In the most explicit torture scene on either show until that point. Wesley is the one who has the emotional arc in this episode from hating Faith for what she did to him to getting the chance at revenge to while not forgiving Faith still preventing her capture/death and allowing her the chance to face her own responsibilities.
Which, given this is an AtS episode where Wesley is a regular character and Buffy is a guest star is an understandable narrative choice. And when Faith returns to BTVS, her scenes with Buffy aren't about Buffy forgiving her (or her forgiving Buffy) but both of them coming to terms with each other in a story where neither is the "good" or the "bad" Slayer. (IMO as always.)