Yeah, so he was jealous of Angel and never liked him. It didn't mean he was wrong about Angel when he went bad. I mean, what distinction was there to be made? Angel turned evil and started cutting a bloody swath across Sunnydale. Pretty much everyone was in the "Angel needs to die" camp at that point. Was Xander especially vocal about it? Yes. Was it for petty and or slightly immature reasons? Yes. But he wasn't wrong.
Also, like, I don't understand when you say that he refused to acknowledge the distinction after he matured. Xander only ever had contact with Angel during the first three seasons of the show, and he was only distrustful of Angel at the beginning of season three, because the last time he saw him he was a homicidal maniac trying to destroy the world. An attitude which was shared by everyone who wasn't Buffy, if you'll recall Giles' reaction to him. By the end of season three, Xander went back to simply not liking the guy, and in season four when Angel guest starred in the Thanksgiving episode Xander showed himself to be fairly ambivalent towards him.
Also, you keep bringing up the distinction between Angel and Angelus. First off, in season two, no one knew Angel that well or how his deal worked, so it makes sense that they'd be kind of judgmental. And as for the distinction itself... both series went well out of their way to show that Angelus wasn't another person or something that happened to Angel. While he wasn't in control of himself when he lacked a soul, the darkness and depravity that is Angelus has shown time and time again to be something that comes from Angel, not anywhere else, and that he is completely responsible for. I quote Darla: "Who we were informs what we become."
They can say it all they want, but the fact is, we SAW several times over that Angel and Angelus were two completely different people. Drusilla in all her crazy could literally
see the difference. And yes, Angelus and all the other vampires were expressions of the darkness inside of ALL of us, so yes, there was a dark side to Angel. Just like anyone else, though. And we saw in "Doppelgangland" what Xander would have been like if
he'd had his soul taken and replaced with a demon - not much better.
I guess my point is, Angel faced more sacrifice and torment than Xander could even dream of, and he was still spending eternity fighting as a Champion of Good to pay for the sins that the demon who took his body committed. Yet Xander, even in the later seasons, never acknowledged this at all, and in random "funny" comments, seemed to confirm that he still just thought of Angel as the monster Buffy had a soft spot for, who he was always right about.
And you could say he was right about Angelus (not hard, since anyone and everyone could see
he was a monster), he was ALWAYS WRONG about Angel. Angel had a soul. One of the points of the series is that a soul is really the key to what makes a human being. And Angel the human being was a significant force for good, which Xander never seemed to want to acknowledge.
But it's not just the Angel situation that made me dislike Xander - that was just a prime example of how quick he is to jump on his high horse and get self-righteous, specifically toward Buffy. Remember when she ran away? Again, she went through things he couldn't even imagine, so of course she was in a funk - but instead of being an understanding friend and trying to find out what the root of it all was, he got all superior and condescending on her. And before you say, "that's what she needed," I say, sure, she needed some tough love, but he didn't need to be a petulant a** about it. At least he could TRY to show concern for what was wrong with her. His troubles were minuscule compared to hers. It's the same reason I always disliked Ron in Harry Potter for all of his whiny moments of resentment toward Harry, as if Harry had asked for any of this. Willow also confronted Buffy about her wrongheaded actions, yet she always handled these things with the delicacy and concern that they
should be handled with. Let's not forget, Buffy was ALSO just a teenage girl, who found herself thrown into far more extreme circumstances than any teen should have to deal with.
But I need to make one thing clear - I consider none of my Xander-annoyance a weakness of the show. This was a deliberate and consistent character trait/flaw of Xander, and the show did more than enough to justify why he would be that way. It's just that this show had such well-developed characters that it's easy to imagine them as real people, and as a
person, I don't like Xander. I find him annoying. But as a character, I find him well-rounded and consistently-written and acted, which is why I can understand how many people can also love him. There's just a certain type of personality that rubs me the wrong way in real life, and Xander (along with Ron from HP and Ross from "Friends") is that type of person.
Lol, sorry for the novel.
