@DeadlyDuo Selfishness isn't generally something contemptible or has a sole negative quality to me. There are good or sympathetic reasons to be selfish. Sometimes it's even completely justified. I perceive selfishness simply as acting in your own interests and against the interests of others.
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I feel the term "selfish" has a particular stigma in Buffy fandom but maybe it's just a culture thing.
Buffy did do this for all intents and purposes. It took her a bit of time to overcome her feelings for Angel but when it came to crunchtime, she did the deed.
Taking her time to overcome feelings while Angelus murders people *was* selfish. I'm not looking down on Buffy and feel very sympathetic to her but it was selfish nonetheless. She acted in her own interests (overcoming her feelings) to the disadvantages of others (Angelus' victims). And you're right, later she did the deed, after people already had died.
On one hand, Buffy running away left Sunnydale unprotected. On the other, if she hadn't run away she wouldn't have been able to save those homeless kids. Perhaps Buffy was meant to run away, kind of in a "she ends up where she's needed" kind of way. After all, of all the towns and cities in America, Buffy just happens to end up in Sunnydale.
Buffy didn't leave Sunnydale to rescue kids in L.A. That wasn't her intent. The whole summer until "Anne" was slay-free until she stumbled into Anne.
Buffy was selfish to Joyce (for understandable reasons) who has a constitutional right to know where her minor daughter is or if she's still alive.
To her friends she was emotionally selfish because they love her and it hurt that she run away without a sign.
However, Buffy had big, legit reasons to run away. Like her friends and Joyce had legit reasons to be hurt and angry.
Was this selfish? Angel wasn't doing any harm plus it gave him the privacy to heal and recover from his ordeal.
Buffy didn't know the circumstances of Angel's return and he was feral, as in potential dangerous. It's very much the Scoobies' (especially Giles and Willow) right to know that he is back in town. Furthermore, she did the smoochies with Angel and there was big Bangel Temptation. Much of the temptation was grounded in the secretiveness. She played with fire.
It's a little bit of both on this one, she was selfless in that she risked her life to save Angel but was selfish in that she was going to potentially risk everyone else's life to save him. It's the needs of many vs the needs of one situation.
That's why I said selfish on behalf of another individual. The life of Buffy's friends, the students, their parents, the citizens, BUFFY'S life... all >>>>>>>>>> Angel's 250 (roughly) years long unlife that is already going to end anyway.
Logically, joining the initiative made sense as they had access to technology and demon fighting gear that Buffy could only dream of. Plus she was slightly blinded by her feelings for Riley. However, teaming up to pool your sources and try to make a more effective team isn't in itself selfish.
She didn't listen (at first) to Willow's warnings and approached her new "job" pretty credulously and uncritical because it was such a new shiny, exciting and impressive thing with lots of gimmicks and a bunch of new, not so boring friends. The selfishness lies in rejecting her friends and gullibly joining the military because of prestige. To be suspicious of secret government institutions with unclear motives is always a good idea. However, it's very much to Buffy's credit that she valued Willow's opinion, took the warning to heart and started asking questions.
Swings and roundabouts. The less people that know about the secret, the less likely it is to get out. Glory knowing Dawn is the key would be bad for everyone, however, not saying anything meant people were walking round with targets on their backs without knowing.
I disagree. It's disrespecting and selfish to expect Xander, Willow, Tara and Anya putting their lives on the line without them knowing all the facts by doing so. They were already in danger of Glory just because they were on Team Buffy anyway. Glory came after Spike and Tara which had nothing to do with Dawn. Buffy didn't want to tell them because she didn't trust them to deal with the secret discreetly. This assumption was unfounded. However, if one person acted weird and conspicuous around Dawn then it was Buffy (with her OTT protectiveness and fussiness). The fun thing is that Giles proved to be the least trustworthy with the secret, by hiding his notes about Dawn unsecured in the drawer under the register at the Magic Box. However, Buffy apologized and admitted that it was wrong, so it's not a big deal.
Have to disagree on this one. Buffy had just been brought back from the dead and was scared, confused and not thinking straight.
Oh, I didn't mean in Bargaining where she was confused and not lucid. However, she was clear-headed in OMWF. It's a personal opinion, but I think suicide is one of the worst acts of selfishness that exist as long as life is worth living (which is, IMO, absolutely the case with depression or Buffy's life). There could be made an argument that Buffy wasn't in control because she was under Tweed's power. In that case, this argument had to be applied on Willow having sex with Tara, Xander and Anya telling each other their secret fears, Spike attacking the funeral at the cemetery etc. as well. They all couldn't be held accountable for what they did and sang about during the music. However, I'm unsure if this argument is valid.
Buffy was out of her mind so wasn't exactly thinking straight.
Buffy had hallucinations but wasn't insane. She was fully capable of making the decision of murdering her friends to "go back" to the mental hospital because she hated her life. Like she was fully capable in refusing to kill them later as well (because it actually sucked). You can't have the one without the other.
Arguably Buffy benefitted more from the vision than she would from the powers.
Yeah, but she didn't knew that she would get the visions when she refused the powers. Buffy's attitude in S07 was an "everything or nothing" policy. She treated Willow as useless and pressured Willow to do big magic. Magic, that was corrosive and dangerous to Willow's well-being (and others), what didn't bother Buffy at all because "it's the mission what counts". At bottom, Buffy didn't hold herself to the same standards that she held Willow, which is selfish.
However, this is going a bit off-topic since I'm not arguing that Buffy is generally selfish.
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However, the scale still points much more to selfless though so, no... I wouldn't call Buffy a selfish person.
