Buffy and guys.
'Buffy loves Faith' is harder to prove than 'Faith loves Buffy'. We all know Buffy likes guys. Basically, she's amazingly straight. She doesn't even notice Willow's increasingly obvious lesbianism until she is hit over the head with it, and then she momentarily freaks out, although she comes to terms with it quickly. (Faith notices W/T in about three seconds). But when she's with Faith, it seems different, Maybe it's a slayer thing, or is it?

Faith and guys.
She uses them and discards them. They mean nothing to her, but she enjoys the sex. She has told us this on many occasions. I'm not disputing the fact that she likes guys, but I think she likes Buffy more. And of course, she says :"All men are beasts." and "You can't trust guys."

Faith and Buffy.
First, there's the dreams. Buffy and Kendra never had this connection.
We have Grad 2, where Faith foreshadows with 730. This Year's Girl, where Faith makes a refernece to "little sis" and they are making a double bed together. (Is it B's? I think it is.) Buffy remembers this dream in Restless, even though it took place in Faith's mind. "Me and Faith just made that bed." This is a big connection.

Faith flirts with Buffy constantly. It makes Buffy nervous. Why? She doesn't know how to deal with her feelings, perhaps?

F: Ain't it funny how slaying always makes you hungry and horny?" Buffy changes subject.
F: "You've got the tix, why don't we go together?"
Asking her to Homecoming. Faith only brings up the using and discarding guys thing when Buffy hesitates. The first scene in Bad Girls, Faith is saying "You mean never?' etc. She's talking about sex with friends, saying that's what friends are for. Hinting at Buffy?
Faith to Angel :"Don't worry, big guy. I'm just keeping her warm for you."
Faith to Buffy: "Bondage looks good on you, B."
And then Faith drawing the heart with the stake, and then leading Buffy though the window in Bad Girls, not to mention the dancing at the bronze.... sigh.... so my fave ep....

Perhaps Buffy is just oblivious. Or she knows and can only deal with it in a joking manner, like in Revelations:
Buffy: "I wouldn't say 'dating' exactly, but I am going out with someone. Tonight, in fact." Faith walks in and Buffy puts her arm around her. B: "Really, we're just good friends." Now, I realise that this is a joke, but it's subtexty all the same.

Faith kisses Buffy on the forehead in Enemies. She also calls her 'girlfriend' and wonderfully, in Graduation Day we have this exchange: B: "You yold me I was just like you. That I was holding back."
F: "You ready to cut loose?"
B: "Try me."
F: "OK then, give us a kiss."

These kisses etc are taunts, but they would have no meaning if it were not for some deeper feeling or desire. The Grad scene? Violence is often used as an outlet for affection on the show. Spikes "Dancing" question can be read as fighting or loving, Buffy looks like she is partly enjoying Angel sucking her blood in Grad 2, (F: "I bet part of you liked it when he went bad.") They fight because they can't express affection. When Buffy hits Faith, Faith says :"There's my girl." This line is rather similar to a line by Darla to Angel after a similar act, and a similar situation :"There's my boy."

Jealousy
Jealousy plays a big part in all of this.
There is Willow's jealousy. Now, this is another point, perhaps Willow had a thing for Buffy, and that's why she's jealous. But I think, it's the typical best friend gets jealous of the girlfriend thing. She feels pushed out. As Willow says: she has 'issues' with Faith.

There is the most obvious: Faith's jealousy of Angel. As soon as she learns he's back from Hell, she sets out to find him and kill him. Consequences: B: "I can't pretend that I don't know."
F: "Oh, I see. But you can pretend that Angel is still dead when you're trying to protect him."
She tries to kill him on various ocassions, and failing that, also tries to steal his soul. Because she wants him? I don't think so. I think it's because she wants to hurt Buffy. Everything she does is centered around her, and it's my theory that she would rather be Buffy's enemy than not be in her life at all.

And of course, there is Riley. From Faith's speech to Joyce in This Year's Girl: "Too busy climbing onto her new boytoy to give a single thought to the people that matter."

There is also something like jelousy on Buffy's part, when Xander tells her that he has slept with Faith. Buffy puts him down, quite harshly, and says it means nothing. B:"She doesn't take the guys she has a 'connection' with very seriously. They're kind of a big joke to her." Keep in mind that she's saying this to one of her best friends, and is talking about him losing his virginity. Bitter much?

Trust and betrayal.
Faith doesn't trust people, yet she makes a big effort at first to get close to Buffy. It's only in Revelations that she backs away. In this ep, she has been let down 3 times. 1. Mrs Post, a woman Faith gave her complete trust to, showing how much she needs to have a role model/parental figure, and is betrayed. 2. She finds out about the Scooby meetings: Post: "Something with Buffy and her friends" F:"Right. I guess that doesn't include me." 3. Angel is back and Buffy hasn't told her.
Even after all this, she comes back in Amends. She keeps trying, only to be let down by Buffy again in Bad Girls. Faith kills Finch. An accident. Buffy leaves her to deal. This pushes her to the edge. When she finally finds someone who never les her down, it's the Mayor. This man is a father figure to Faith, yet in Grad 2, she betrays him, by telling Buffy how to kill him.

Faith is hurt, she's been in a coma and Buffy appears to have forgotten her.
F:" You think you matter, you think you're a part of something, and you get dumped." "Nobody cares, nobody remembers, especially not Buffy fabulous superhero."
"She was over us a long time ago."
And when she first meets Buffy in This Year's Girl: "Let's give it another go, see who land on top." About her dream: "This self rightous blonde chick stabs me. And you want to know why?" B:"You had it coming?"
F:"That's one interpretation, but in my dream, she does it for a guy."
And about Buffy looking for her: "I've been standing still for 8 months, B. How hard did you look?"

Faith hasn't had any reason to trust Buffy. Buffy has no reason to trust her. They should hate each other, yet they never seem able to end it completely. Buffy doesn't forgive people easily, but she tries so hard to believe there is good in Faith.
In Enemies, Buffy has seen Faith with Angel and talks to Willow: W: "No way! I know what you're thinking, and no way!" B: "You're right, Faith would never do that." Buffy wants to believe in Faith, she doesn't say: "Angel would never do that."

B: "She needs my help. I owe her that."

And after Faith gets out of her coma, Buffy is still willing to believe in Faith:

B: "She could be terrified. Maybe she doesn't even remember, or maybe she does and she's sorry and she's alone, hiding somewhere." Now, I love Buffy, I do, but she's not always the most forgiving person. This is quite remarkable for her.

I also noticed the most fantastic thing in this ep: when Faith leaves hospital, we hear Buffy talking to Riley, only we don't know it's Riley. We are watching Faith who has just woken up, and we hear Buffy saying "I never stopped thinking about you." This is where subtext imakes me jump up and down grinning. And really makes me wonder if Joss and co actually meant all this. (Apparantly Joss supports this ship you know.)

It takes Buffy a long time to give up on Faith. It's not the murder, or the fighting, it's when Faith sleeps with Riley. That's when she breaks. Why? because Riley betrayed her? Not really his fault, or because Faith slept with him, getting as close to Buffy in the only way she could.

Faith has a bond with Angel, I don't argue that, but I think this bond is brother/sister. They are very similar characters, and have had similar experiences. I also think they are both in love with Buffy, but I don't think Angel gets this. In Sanctary, we see Faith being honest for once. She's with Angel, she has no idea that Buffy is anywhere near, and yet that is who she is thinking of.
F: "Oh God, B. How am I ever gonna make things right with her?"
A: "This isn't about Buffy." (Faith ignores him. Apparantly it is.)
F: "All my life there was only one person who tried to be my friend, and I screwed her. And her boyfriend."

My favourite Faith/Buffy scene has to be the roof top in Sanctuary, where it all comes out and Faith's great last line:

"Just tell me how to make it better."

And she tries. Angel has helped her, but it's only when she realises what Buffy wants, that she turns herself in. It's the only way she'll have a chance to make it right.

I think if the timing had been better it could have happened. They are the only two slayers on the planet. They understand each other in a way no one else possibly could.

Plus, they're two hot girls. How perfect would it be?

So, I just realised that this is really long. Anyone read it? Please argue/agree/tell me I'm mad. I'm writing this for a website I'm thinking about doing really, so do tell me what you think.

Oh, and I know I think about this stuff too much.

Anyway, in case you're not all bored yet I forgot to mention The AtS ep 5x5: Faith and Lilah. Faith to Lilah outside club: "I guess we could go somewhere and talk, but I'm not much of a talker, I'm more of a doer." Both have other agendas, but must have been flirting to get this far. Or more? Evidence of Faith's liberal sexuality. Also, more filrting: Lindsy: "For services rendered, we can get you off." Faith: "You don't know how many men have old me that." Lilah: "I'm sure you won't be dissapointed in *our* performance." So flirty! Wonder about Lilah too, actually.... is she gay? Or does she just think Faith is?

I was thinking about this S/B thing, and I noticed some stuff. Thought I'd write it down here. Ignore it if it's too OT...

Miranda's post-

(("But the last scene was so reminescent of the Faith/Buffy confrontation of "Who Are You?"))

Spike is reminding me of Faith more and more everytime I see him. I guess a lot of you will disagree about this, but here we go: The S/B relationship is almost an exact paralell to the F/B subtext and characters in S3. This is the relationship that *should* have happened then, but didn't because there was no way they'd make an 18 year old Buffy that sexual.

Faith and Spike- Obvious paralells- leather, both of them are on the outside of the Scooby gang and are only really there because of Buffy, both of them are "bad", but without being compeletely "evil".

Similar dialouge and reasoning:

Bad Girls:
BUFFY: Yeah? Who's wrong now? Faith, you can shut off all the emotions that you want. But eventually, they're gonna find a body.
FAITH: Okay, this is the last time we're gonna have this conversation, and we're not even having it now, you understand me? There *is* no body. I took it, weighted it, and dumped it. The body doesn't exist.
BUFFY: Getting rid of the evidence doesn't make the problem go away.
FAITH: It does for me.

Dead Things-
BUFFY: I'll show them.
SPIKE: (coolly) Show them what?
BUFFY: What did you do?
SPIKE: I took care of it.
BUFFY: What ... did you do?!
SPIKE: What I had to. I went back and I took care of it. It doesn't matter now. No one will ever find her.

Both of them have tried to make Buffy beleive that they are the only ones who will really understand her.

Spike- Dead Things- You see ... you try to be with them...but you always end up in the dark ... with me.

Faith- Bad Girls- "We're slayers girlfriend. The chosen two."

- Consequences- "Something made us different."

Both of them try to convince Buffy that they, together, exist on a different level than the rest of society. They're different, and only they should be together. They both try to alienate Buffy from her friends in this way, and for a short time at least, both of them suceed.

Also in Dead Things, we even have a throwback to lesbian subtext in the flash scenes with viloence and S/B sex- (from a transcript at Buffy World)

"Cut to Buffy in the forest straddling Katrina, holding Katrina's hands which are cuffed together. Buffy throws Katrina's hands down onto the ground above Katrina's head. Katrina lies underneath Buffy, looking up at her."
BUFFY: Do you trust me?

But here's the difference:

Up till the end of season 5, the entire basis of Buffy's character was her moral strength. Yes, she veered off the straight and narrow occassionally, but she always sorted it out. No matter how much she tried to deny it, it was always duty first.

She started to lose this in the Gift. Before she worked out that her death could replace her sister's, she was willing to let the world be destroyed, regardless of the fact that Dawn would also die. She had started to change, and this is aparant in S6.

She found something in Spike that was different to the rest of her friends. He's dead. Whether or not he's evil- he doesn't have moral restraints. Buffy came back to life angry. She didn't want to be back, she didn't know how to relate to her friends. Spike was a rebellion. Someone she *never* would have considered being with pre-S5.

So they have sex, and it's violent and kinky. We know Buffy was pretty un- kinky before from "Who Are You?" when Riley sleeps with Faith. Faith is all for the playing, Riley is seriously confused. It's not like her.

So Buffy has changed drastically. We are seeing a realtionship now that was mapped out in season 3 between Buffy and Faith. But they couldn't show it then. a) Buffy was too young and sexually inexperienced to show her engaging in this kind of relationship. b) She was still highly moral, and as Faith became a killer there was little way to turn back. c) Lead character of a teen show... ha.

The two characters are almost interchangable. I just can't believe that it's coincidence. I think this is one of the big problems I have with the S/B relationship.

Hopefully this explained the fascination that many straight/bi/gay/lesbian people have with seeing Buffy and Faith together. I'll add other pairing explanations as I come across them. Please feedback the author, Death_by_garagedoor@yahoo.co.uk