Why wasn't Anya crippled with guilt when she got her soul back?

[Balthazer]

Anya went from a vengeance demon to a human twice in the show. The first time she turned human she was pining to go back to being a demon and bragging about all the deaths she caused to anyone who would listen. It was very different to Angel and Spike who were tortured in comparison.

Why was she so unbothered? I know when she became a demon again in s7 she wasn't finding all the murdering "as satisfying", but that's still very different to being tortured.

Was she just a very bad person (right back when she was Aud) to begin with? So that when her soul was returned it was just a bit "mehhh" to her?

 

[Ethan Reigns]

This sort of reminded me of the scene in the movie "As Good As It Gets" where Jack Nicholson's character says, "People always ask me how I write such great women's parts. And I tell them, I write it like a man then take away reason and accountability." Anya is an example of lack of accountability and you don't get upset about things you aren't accountable for. She was proud of her 1100-year reign of terror and starting the Russian Revolution and looked back on it as 'good times'. She is far more evil than a vampire because she made the choice - twice - to be a vengeance demon, prettying up the term as 'justice demon'.

 

[TheXandyman]

I never thought of Anya as being without a soul even when she had her vengeance powers. Can't recall if she ever mentioned having no soul in her vengeance demon years.

 

[NoShip]

I thought she had a soul the entire time. Anya-Anyanka-Aud was probably the same person. She is portrayed that way at least. So..... she thought what she did was righteous and her actions really did not bother her much. Personally, I think she was a sociopath. Funny and engaging, but, fundamentally incapable of feeling empathy - so no guilt.

Plus, the writing of her character was really shallow. We knew nothing of Anya, outside her personality, until episode 5 of season 7 when Anya had been appearing regularly since season 2!!!

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Personally, I think she was a sociopath. Funny and engaging, but, fundamentally incapable of feeling empathy...

She could definitely feel empathy. Remember her reaction after hearing the Sluggoth demon ate that puppy?

 

[thetopher]

Because Anya always thought what she was doing- serving vengeance- was absolutely right. If you feel righteous about something, no need to feel guilty.

There are others factors, lack of empathy for humankind ('humans are stupid'), stuck in her S3 highschool Anya persona, barely remembering what it was like to be human after the best part of a thousand years.

But she never really felt bad about anything she'd done except when she returned to being a vengeance demon at the end of S6, and only then it was about 'recent stuff' between that and 7, nothing about the centuries before.
She sure had some 'cute' anecdotes though...

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Well, the quick answer is, Demons are alive, and do have souls, albeit probably very alien to what we would understand them to be in both physics and metaphysics. Whereas, Vampires are undead, and not alive in any metaphysical sense.

The better answer is, Anya is better understood as a witch who sold her soul for power and immortality in exchange for service. Generally, any demon with a soul contract is going to demand horrific annual service, in order to keep you in his service. So Anya has a soul, but one stained with the corruption of a thousand years of unrepentant mortal sins, and failure to continue with that path would result in the loss of both power and immortality.

 

[Nothing13]

Realistic answer?

Writers were dumb, and they didn't even care about the audience and the "moral problems" like they preached. Anya was a shallow character based on bad writing, and her jokes were represented as a funny thing.
The problem wasn't only Anya, otherwise the "moral" Xander and Scoobies would have said something, and act/behave differently about her behavior and jokes. It was a problem of the show and writers in reality (not only characters).
Xander and the Scoobies didn't care about her jokes, her behavior and her soul: Why? Because of bad writing.

Logically and realistically, Anya is even more problematic than Angelus and Spike, 2 demons (the souls of Liam and William shouldn't even be considered responsible for the action of their corrective demons.) from a "moral point of view".


Also, the reason Spike (and Angel) were represented in toxic/abusive relationships is that they were hot. Joss and other writers were frustrated that girls loved them.
Angel and Spike were never supposed to be main characters, Joss and writers decided to make them main characters only because of audience (and money). Spike and Angel should have been characters like Parker in order to teach morality to girls (in high school and college) because of Joss own problems with girls:
-Angel/Angelus and Parker with Buffy: "I'm a good guy until I get in her pants"
-Spike with Harmony/Buffy=Toxic abusive boyfriend

In reality, Joss' logic: It is ok for him to want to f..k hot girls, but it isn't ok for girls to want to f...k hot boys (because they have to sleep with him).
However, he covered his real desire and problems under a facade of "feminism" 🤣 (this was also the origin of the Joss' scandal: his behavior and his successive pathetic justifications).

It was all fake/inconsistent morality from the show and Joss/writers.

 

[famicommander]

She never lost her soul and she started doing evil things before she became a vengeance demon.

She turned Olaf into a baby-eating monster when she was a normal human. She was never good.

 

[Plasma]

Because she doesn’t feel guilty. She has like no resentment towards anything she did and even boasts about it.

When someone becomes a vengeance demon, it’s because their anger and fury is so great towards being wronged that D’hofren offers them a spot under his wing. If your whole existence is predicated on “well so and so deserved what happened as justice and vengeance”, you would have nothing to feel bad about.

 

[Nothing13]

This sort of reminded me of the scene in the movie "As Good As It Gets" where Jack Nicholson's character says, "People always ask me how I write such great women's parts. And I tell them, I write it like a man then take away reason and accountability." Anya is an example of lack of accountability and you don't get upset about things you aren't accountable for. She was proud of her 1100-year reign of terror and starting the Russian Revolution and looked back on it as 'good times'. She is far more evil than a vampire because she made the choice - twice - to be a vengeance demon, prettying up the term as 'justice demon'.

However, the problem is, also, that the show had no consistency about the Anya's problem.

1) Why was Xander boastful, narrating the act of Anya (for example with Andrew in S7)? Did Xander, also, want vengeance against men? (Obviously no)
Why did the "moral "Xander (always ready to judge "the morality of others") date and choose Anya, a murderer, as girlfriend?
Why did Buffy, Willow, Giles and Tara never question the "morality" of Anya's soul and behavior?

Answer: Complete shit writing of the show.

2) Her behavior had no deep like her character. She felt like never lived a life as a woman of Viking age (she was like a teenager of 2000s) and 1200 years as a vengeance demon. She had no resentment, it was represented as a joke; she continuously joked about it in a superficial way.
Her vengeance against men was represented as a joke.

"Stupid" example: this is probably a more appropriate representation of a vengeful, resentful, furious woman with years of experience (that gained supernatural powers).

Spoiler

Anya was represented as a joke in the show.

 

[Tome]

Well, first of all, Anya never lost her soul. In the Buffyverse, that is only a thing that happens with vampires. A person gets turned and their soul leaves their body, then a demon comes in and takes control of everything while keeping some of the personality of the human it now embodies.

Next, as others have said in here, Anya is not particularly crippled with guilt because most of what she did she believed was justified. She was extremely vengeful toward men because of... I guess Olaf cheating on her and treating her badly? Honestly, there should have been a lot more than that for the magnitude of her resentment to be believable.

I'm not sure exactly if the moment d'Hoffryn turned her into a demon her anger was multiplied or something like that. It's possible? One thing for sure, though, is that she had centuries of experience witnessing the worst in men when it comes to how they treat women. So it would make sense that she'd be a little biased toward our whole sex. 😂

But, yea, the quick rundown is... Anya always had a soul, she felt justified in her actions, and thus did not feel much guilt at all. It's only when she became human again and got to hang around the Scoobies and saw the goodness that some men and women could display that she began to change her mind a bit. This explains why she had a lot more trouble being a vengeful demon again in season 7. She had seen the other side of humanity. She just couldn't feel as justified as before.

Realistic answer?

Writers were dumb, and they didn't even care about the audience and the "moral problems" like they preached. Anya was a shallow character based on bad writing, and her jokes were represented as a funny thing.
The problem wasn't only Anya, otherwise the "moral" Xander and Scoobies would have said something, and act/behave differently about her behavior and jokes. It was a problem of the show and writers in reality (not only characters).
Xander and the Scoobies didn't care about her jokes, her behavior and her soul: Why? Because of bad writing.

Logically and realistically, Anya is even more problematic than Angelus and Spike, 2 demons (the souls of Liam and William shouldn't even be considered responsible for the action of their corrective demons.) from a "moral point of view".


Also, the reason Spike (and Angel) were represented in toxic/abusive relationships is that they were hot. Joss and other writers were frustrated that girls loved them.
Angel and Spike were never supposed to be main characters, Joss and writers decided to make them main characters only because of audience (and money). Spike and Angel should have been characters like Parker in order to teach morality to girls (in high school and college) because of Joss own problems with girls:
-Angel/Angelus and Parker with Buffy: "I'm a good guy until I get in her pants"
-Spike with Harmony/Buffy=Toxic abusive boyfriend

In reality, Joss' logic: It is ok for him to want to f..k hot girls, but it isn't ok for girls to want to f...k hot boys (because they have to sleep with him).
However, he covered his real desire and problems under a facade of "feminism" 🤣 (this was also the origin of the Joss' scandal: his behavior and his successive pathetic justifications).

It was all fake/inconsistent morality from the show and Joss/writers.

Although I don't fully disagree with everything you're saying here, this sounds a little too much like you're inserting your personal agenda against Joss to explain away the entire character of Anya... and Spike... and Angel. I think it's a little more complicated than that.

 

[Nothing13]

your personal agenda against Joss

I don't have any personal agenda against Joss, I don't even know him personally.
Simply, I don't like hypocrites and hypocrisy. Joss and his entire show was based on hypocrisy, not on "feminism" like it is described.

 

[fauxindigo]

As D’Hoffryn said in S7 before incinerating Halfrek - the life and soul of a vengeance demon needed to be sacrificed in order to undo Anyankas work, so it’s definitely crazy that Anyanka, though a corrupted version of Aud/Anya, still had a soul throughout her centuries of atrocities. And it makes Xander an even bigger hypocrite than almost thinkable with how much he goes after Angel & Spike when they didn’t even have souls during their evil years.
Also the difference between Anya turning human in s3 & s7 was seasons 4,5&6 where she became more human, vulnerable & compassionate (for Anya anyway) through her relationship with Xander and place in the scooby gang so it makes sense she would have a different perspective by then.

 

[Stake fodder]

Next, as others have said in here, Anya is not particularly crippled with guilt because most of what she did she believed was justified. She was extremely vengeful toward men because of... I guess Olaf cheating on her and treating her badly? Honestly, there should have been a lot more than that for the magnitude of her resentment to be believable.

Yes, Anya was in control of her demon the whole time, so there wasn't a moment of shock when she became human of, "What have I done?", unlike the vampires.

Also, I would argue that over a thousand years, she became hardened to what she was doing, leaving her the not-very-deep person we see, until she starts to care about people again as she works with the Scoobies.

 

[TheAnnoyingOne]

Vampires only lose their soul because they died and that's what happens after death in the Buffyverse, the soul leaves the body. Anya never died, so there's no reason to think she lost her soul at any point (well, except in the series finale, of course).

 

[NoShip]

@Stake fodder @TheAnnoyingOne - I think you are both correct. Why? Because Vengence Demons are never filled out as characters. There is no equivalent of s1e7 Angel to explain how human women are turned into immortal demons. So, given the total lack of information, I support both of your positions.