My biases: I'm in the "he was right to lie and I'm glad he did it" camp. He had seen her not be ready for a fight with Angelus before, several times before, and here, she seemed ready, and I see him thinking that saying something wrong and hurting her determination.
I am also in the "Buffy has had enough" camp. She's determined. She's had enough. I am not sure that Xander saying everything would've changed her mind.
I would also suggest that casting Xander as being part of the Majority is not quite on. He is a geek, a social outcast. "The Zeppo" for one, goes into this. I don't know how much this undercuts anyone's argument, but it seems worth mentioning.
I have never seen Othello, only going as far as skimming the Wikipedia entries for the play and Iago. But I'm seeing Iago as a major player, as the main driving force here. People move, actions occur because Iago convinces them to. People listen to Iago. People don't listen to Xander, and the more he thinks someone needs to hear it, the louder and nastier he puts it. You can say that Xander is jealous of Angel and I would have no grounds to disagree. You can say that Xander is only jealous, with no other and more justifiable emotion and I would begin to quibble. But take the events leading up to "Becoming, pt 2". The closest things to a point where he manipulates, he talks anyone into an action that changes the story arc are in "Passion", where he says "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill", and in "Killed By Death", where he keeps Angelus out of the hospital. Angelus, Buffy, Giles and to a lesser extent Spike are the major players. "or How Xander is Iago" doesn't work because he wasn't making actions happen that weren't going to happen anyway.
Yes, by all rights, he should've killed all subsequent friendship with Buffy and Willow as soon as they figured it all out. But they were all alive for that moment. The world had not been sucked into Acathla's hell. At the very least, Xander did nothing to hinder Buffy in saving humanity. Some would argue that by telling the lie, he helped her to stay focused and save humanity. But that's something way different from being Iago.
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Date: 2008-07-27 02:23 am (UTC)I am also in the "Buffy has had enough" camp. She's determined. She's had enough. I am not sure that Xander saying everything would've changed her mind.
I would also suggest that casting Xander as being part of the Majority is not quite on. He is a geek, a social outcast. "The Zeppo" for one, goes into this. I don't know how much this undercuts anyone's argument, but it seems worth mentioning.
I have never seen Othello, only going as far as skimming the Wikipedia entries for the play and Iago. But I'm seeing Iago as a major player, as the main driving force here. People move, actions occur because Iago convinces them to. People listen to Iago. People don't listen to Xander, and the more he thinks someone needs to hear it, the louder and nastier he puts it. You can say that Xander is jealous of Angel and I would have no grounds to disagree. You can say that Xander is only jealous, with no other and more justifiable emotion and I would begin to quibble. But take the events leading up to "Becoming, pt 2". The closest things to a point where he manipulates, he talks anyone into an action that changes the story arc are in "Passion", where he says "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill", and in "Killed By Death", where he keeps Angelus out of the hospital. Angelus, Buffy, Giles and to a lesser extent Spike are the major players. "or How Xander is Iago" doesn't work because he wasn't making actions happen that weren't going to happen anyway.
Yes, by all rights, he should've killed all subsequent friendship with Buffy and Willow as soon as they figured it all out. But they were all alive for that moment. The world had not been sucked into Acathla's hell. At the very least, Xander did nothing to hinder Buffy in saving humanity. Some would argue that by telling the lie, he helped her to stay focused and save humanity. But that's something way different from being Iago.