She had it rough. Different circumstances, that could have been me

No way, some people just don't have that in them.


post Buffy s3

What do we mean when we talk about evil? In modern parlance we understand that evil goes beyond the scope of 'bad', to describe someone as evil is to place them somehow beyond humanity. There is something inhuman about the things they have done, their acts, for reason of their savagery or their premeditation or their randomness or the emotions they invoke, are incomprehensible to the normal rational person.

First we must be sure exactly what Faith has done. Let's follow her thirteen steps to damnation.

Consequences
1. Approaching Mayor Wilkins looking for employment.

Some might claim that her fall began earlier, with the death of Deputy Mayor Finch (a killing which would be legally excused see Was Faith guilty of murder?) , but that incident at most displays Faith as nothing more than reckless, she had no evil intent, rather the opposite. When she offered her services to the Mayor, however, she was making the choice to ally herself with the dark forces in Sunnydale.

Dopplegangland
2. Informing the Mayor that Willow was trying to break into the Mayor's computer system. She did not know that he would take such extreme measures and order a hit on her, he might have just improved his security or moved his files. However, despite her sad face, she did not voice any protest.

Enemies
3. Informing the Mayor of the demon selling the books of Ascension and then carrying out her orders to kill it and steal the books.

4. Attempting to seduce Angel in order that he would lose his soul.

5. Playing her part in 'stripping' Angel of his soul.

6. Appearing perfectly willing to torture Buffy to death.

Choices
7. Shooting the courier

8. Grabbing Willow after the theft of the Box of Gavrok.

9. Threatening Willow when she found her reading the books of Ascension.

(Killing of the Bug of Gavrok)

Graduation
10. Killing Professor Lester Worth

11. Shooting Angel

12. Fighting Buffy

13. At the last throwing herself off the roof to deny Buffy the slayer blood she needed.

(Buffy's dream, though there is no way to know for sure whether or not it was really Faith. It would seem from Buffy's reaction to her afterwards that she believed it was.)

 

Faith and the Mayor
authority, initiative and temptation

We have little idea of the terms of the agreement hammered out between the two behind the closed doors of the Mayor's office, but later episodes demonstrate that neither the tasks nor the rewards were well-defined.

The Mayor had an incalculable effect on the fall of Faith, not only did he set the pace of the acts that she would be told to accomplish he also presented that such acts were approved by his authority. Finally he provided an incentive, a temptation, rewarding her in the form of money and, far more significantly, with attention. Through his regulation and authority he gradually immersed Faith in increasingly dark acts. Faith's conversion was not instant, it was not some parody of a Damascene experience, it was one that was accomplished as Macbeth's, one step at a time. This is evident from the list above, all Faith does at first is pass over information of the threats her employer faces, Willow is trying to hack into government files, a demon is offering information to the enemy. Her first act that goes beyond that, killing the demon, is something that Buffy herself considers when he approaches them. This particular demon seems harmless enough, but so did the Gingerbread one, and it is a Slayer's duty to rid the world of demons. There is no provision for judgement over their individual characteristics. Buffy's comment "Oh let him go, I don't think he falls into the 'deadly threat to humanity' category." is at odds with the typically absolute nature in which she carries out her slayer duties. The most notable exception that Buffy has made has been for Angel, and she was already in love with him before she found out his special circumstances. And despite all he has done there is an argument that the threat he represents is too great and that he should be staked for the protection of society.

The Mayor's comment in Dopplegangland when he decides to eliminate Willow is indicative of the gradual nature of Faith's turn: "Don't worry I wouldn't ask you to do it, not this early in the relationship." He may be referring to how much trust he can place in Faith at this stage, or more likely he does not believe that Faith is mentally ready. She has not yet sunk so low to be willing to kill a former acquaintance.

At this point Faith has not done anything that we could possibly consider beyond humanity and she has been rewarded handsomely, attention lavished upon her, a beautiful apartment, far more than she ever received for all the risks she had run under the Watchers. There can be no question that what she did was wrong, what we are concerned her is whether she is evil. I think we can be sure that her acts so far are not beyond human understanding, are not repulsive to us, in other words that she can not be considered evil at this point.

The Mayor continues the process of gradually increasing the severity of the acts he requests, authorising them. In Enemies the Mayor knows, perhaps even initiated, the plan to seduce Angel and when that failed he contacted the person who he believed could strip Angel's soul. It is also here that Faith first displays her willingness to kill a mortal, namely Buffy, once again under orders to make it as slow as possible. Buffy is, after all, a player. She has killed countless times in the past, she is not an innocent even though she fights on the side of good.

In Choices Faith moves further, she begins to take the initiative by killing the courier after he refused to get in the car. The courier's status, whether mortal or demon, has never been noted. He didn't crumble to dust as a vampire would, but that has appeared to be something peculiar to vampires, other demons in The Wish, Gingerbread, Enemies, Earshot etc. have not crumbled. The courier did appear human, but then so does Anya, and his intricate tatoos might indicate inhumanity. Either way this was, once again, a blackhat. His death should not be dismissed but there is a world of moral difference between killing him and the murder of the professor in Graduation. Faith's initiative was applauded by the Mayor, the one she looks to for authorisation, at that time and then again when she captures Willow after Buffy and the gang attack the Mayor's office.

The nifty kill of the Gavrok bug could be seen as a good act, it perhaps saved Wesley from the fate of the curious security guard. However this opinion is critically undermined by the danger Faith herself faced from the creatures. She was saving herself as much as anyone else, and it cannot be regarded as a benevolent act.

Faith's most damnable act is the murder of the innocent professor, even though it was authorised and initiated by the Mayor. This is her lowest moral point. But it was one that was reached by degrees.

It might be thought whether the fall is gradual or not makes no difference, that there are some absolutes that no rational human being could cross. Only a person who is evil could do certain things. That might be true, but consider this: there was an experiment into human behaviour, testing the influence of authority. They had volunteers taken from perfectly normal society, they were confronted with a series of buttons, a shock generator. The volunteers were told that it was wired to a patient in an adjoining room. It wasn't. There was only an actor, whose voice could be heard through the intercom. The volunteers were, at intervals, instructed to press the next button along. They were told to gradually increase it. The "victim" began begging them to stop. They were told to increase it again. This time the victim started screaming. After a while the screams were choked off to be replaced by silence. The volunteers were told to increase the voltage once more. Nearly 80% of those tested carried on administrating shocks after the "victim" begged them to stop. Nearly 60% continued even after they believed that they'd killed him. They were ordinary people and they were prepared to torture people to death just because they were told to by someone in authority.

 

Faith herself

Almost all of Faith's actions are comprehensible by a rational person (with the notable exceptions of the killing of an innocent and the readiness to torture, recognised as a crime against humanity), they are wrong but they do not so repel to make us doubt her humanity. What is far more disturbing, what makes us far more willing to consider her evil is the mood she displayed while carrying these acts out. How can we not consider evil anyone who has such obvious glee at the thought of torturing another person to death? Conversely if she undertook killing another only after the most serious consideration we would be less ready to pin the 'evil' label upon her. It is within her reactions, her emotions and the reasons for them that she can be more fairly evaluated. Are the feelings she displays those of an evil person?

Consequences

Her actions after the death of Finch are of classic denial, she claims instantly that it wasn't her fault, that she didn't know. She dumps the body in the river, not in any real attempt to conceal it from the police (they find it extremely quickly), but rather to deny that it happened to herself. Then she precipitates Buffy by going to Giles and fingering the other Slayer and finally, after she has been imprisoned twice and betrayed by her Watcher, she attempts to flee, attempting to obliterate all of Sunnydale from her memory. A few have claimed that all it was all a lie, that it had been Faith's agenda from the beginning to isolate the Mayor by eliminating his advisors, Finch and Trick, before assuming their position, that Faith had been lying from the start. I believe that Faith's emotions were sincere simply because she had no reason to lie. There was no measure to be gained by these sloppy, irrational acts. A fabricating Faith could have conceived of far more effective ways to gain what she has been accused of coveting.

It is particularly telling that Faith initially chose to run rather than turn to the Mayor for help. Her first reaction was not to betray those people she had become close to, rather it is to escape from it all. So, there she was, all ready to depart, Buffy catches up with her, they talk, Faith goads her into a fight, vampires attack, Buffy gets brained by a crate, Trick leans in to bite her only to be dusted by Faith. They look at each other, then... Buffy's talking to Giles about how everything will be alright and Faith is working for the Mayor. So what happened in that ... ? Whatever it was it must have been something capable of making Buffy believe that everything was hunky-dory and have so affected Faith that she disregards her previous impulse to flee, not to return to the fold but rather to betray them. As it has been portrayed, if nothing had happened, it shows Faith in the worst light possible, almost giving credence to the theory that this is what she planned all along.

I go into Buffy and Faith's relationship further down, but suffice to say for now that I believe the only way such incredible (and I use the word in its most literal meaning) events could have occurred is if Buffy somehow rejected Faith in some deeply personal, yet ostentatiously unimportant manner. Which would explain why Buffy remained assured of Faith's loyalty, while in fact Faith came away from it feeling so hurt that revenge became more important than escape. What it actually was, I'll leave to you to decide for yourselves.

Dopplegangland
The thirty Playstations of silver... Faith and Willow's relationship, even before her fall, had not been one of sweetness and light. Willow, in spite of her attempts to deny it to herself, blamed Faith both for sleeping with Xander and for the distance that had developed in her friendship with Buffy. I would not be surprised if Willow was guiltily pleased after Faith's betrayal, for now she could hate her as she wanted to, and she no longer would have to berate herself for what she saw as her own intolerance. Faith, in turn, did not pay Willow much attention at all, her outlook on life meant she only took note of three sorts of people: equals, enemies and boy-toys. Willow (and indeed Cordelia) did not fit into those categories, and in all fairness, Faith might have seen her friendship with Buffy as an impediment to her own.

Neither of them liked the other, neither of them would have shed tears over the other's disappearance from their lives. This makes it all the more surprising that Faith actually reacts when the Mayor threatens her life. This can be attributed to her worrying that this would undermine her undercover position within the Buffy clique, but I find that unconvincing, Willow's murder could no doubt be arranged without pinning her as a suspect. Her moment of pause (her look of dismay?) was not because she valued Willow's life in particular but because she was taken aback at the lengths to which she believed she was being asked to go, this was something that she had not bargained for. It is clear that she does have some respect for life, if only at the very least that, at this stage, she does not want to be the one to take it.

What if the Mayor had asked her to kill Willow? Would she have accepted it? Possibly, to please this rapidly emerging father figure. Would she have actually gone through with it? Again possibly, but I believe that she would not have displayed the obvious pleasure that she later did in Enemies, which originates far more from the individuals involved than in the act itself, and it may have acted as a bucket of cold water, a sudden realisation of the end of the road she was travelling. Perhaps enough to turn her back. The fact that the Mayor so successfully corrupted her by degrees is a testimony to his own sharp reading of her character, she may have been a natural born slayer, but she is not a natural born murderer.

Enemies
This episode sees the first time Faith is sent out on a hit for the Mayor; to kill the demon selling the Books of Ascension. As noted above this was not a particularly condemning act, in fact Buffy herself considers it when they first meet him.

(Her explanation "I don't think he falls into the deadly threat to humanity category" is out of sorts for a person who has followed the notion that there is no excuse for demons guilty of the crime of existence. The only exceptions to this have been Angel, who she had feelings for before she discovered his nature; and Spike, who was offering his aid in an extreme situation. This should be her reasoning in this instance. It is the aid that he can provide that should be (according to her previous attitude) the only thing which restrains her from killing him, whether this is what her attitude should be is a whole other topic see Slayers and the Right to Slay.)

While killing this demon, this entity that under the Slayer ideals has no right to life, is relatively straightforward Faith still reacts badly when she sees its blood on her hands. While her distress can be explained to how close she herself came to death, her fixation on the blood itself would seem to refute this. Perhaps it is that this is the first time she cannot deny what she has done, that no one else can take the blame; whatever the reason, it is apparent here, while she's alone and her pretence of bravado can fall, that she is still not comfortable with the realities of killing.

The next time we see her, she appears shaken and unsure at the door of Angel's domicile. We discover later that she had intended to seduce him in order that he should lose his soul in her. We don't know whether or not she has returned to the Mayor after her encounter with the demon, whether this entire meeting was orchestrated though it can be drawn by implication from their following conversation that the idea had been broached at some time in the past. This might have been a cold, calculated charade (it would be pretty obvious to the Mayor that Faith's standard approach to 'seduction' would not succeed with Angel), equally she might have been exploiting sincere feelings in order to be more convincing. Similarly with the Mayor, her attitude that it had all been faked could be correct or that in turn might have more to do with a 'tough-girl' pretence covering her own wounded pride. Add to this the possibility that Angel was acting as much as Faith might have been (as we never discovered exactly when the plan to expose Faith went into effect), and it becomes sadly obvious that any conclusions that can be drawn on the strength of this scene, would be fatally undermined.

The next significant moment comes at the point where Angel is 'stripped' of his soul. Her pleasure at this event is patent. Once again it can be attributed to simple sadism but to do so would ignore the significance of this event to Faith. This is far more than the creation of another employee for the Mayor; Angel is, in many respects, the perfect man in Faith's eyes. He fills both the 'equal' and the 'boy-toy' categories in her evaluation, the only person we've ever seen her meet to do so, and he's Buffy's which makes him all the more significant for reasons that are explored below. But as Angel he can never be hers, Angelus is another matter. For Faith this is not the infliction of pain, rather the creation of her companion. Who wouldn't be rubbing their hands at that?

The end of Enemies sees the most memorable, and most damning, indication of her descent where Faith demonstrates that she has every intention of torturing Buffy to death. This is no act, no pretend tough-talk, cast aside the fact that she was explicitly ordered to make Buffy's death as slow as possible in order to avoid the appearance of another Slayer. Torture goes beyond those concerns, and when one can torture with a smile on their face and a song in their heart, it delves into to realms of the truly monstrous.

Why, though, why? Why does a girl who looked sickened at the sight of demon blood on their hands, why is she so eager to drench herself in it? The answer to that question goes to the heart of their relationship. Moving past the subtext it is clear that whatever companionship was sought, whatever interest Buffy had in this other girl that was more like her, and yet less like her than any other; it was returned ten-fold by Faith.

Call it in love, call it obsession; whatever, by this point she has it with Buffy, with who she is and what she has. Buffy is the only true equal she will ever find. Has there ever been someone for you who is so important to you that you would do anything to be a part of their life, to have a part of their heart? That is what she wanted in Bad Girls, for the two of them to be closer than anyone else, best friends (if friendship is truly a word that is adequate to the task), platonic lovers with an unspoken bond between them. When that failed, when Faith's own pride prevented her from acknowledging her mistake over Finch, when it appeared to her that everyone had judged her against Buffy and had found her wanting, when she had convinced herself that Buffy could never want anyone like her, the obsession changed.

If she could not have a piece of her heart then she would be the venom within it. If she could grace her dreams, she would haunt her nightmares. Quite simply, she would be the most important thing in Buffy's life, whether as her love or as her killer.

So where does that, somewhat oratorical, piece of pop-psychology get us for the purposes of this question? Faith's elation was not in the act but in the person, in the fact that it was Buffy, in the place it will win her for as long as she lives. Undoubtedly this is not rational, it borders on insanity, but there the distinction lies. Angelus' evil is drawn from the pleasure he takes in the act, Faith is not evil because she would not take pleasure if it was anyone else. She is not a monster that takes pleasure in the infliction of pain, rather at this time she is an unbalanced obsessive who receives encouragement where she should be censured.

Buffy plays her hand, they fight, Faith flees after (what I have heard best described as) her Judas kiss. But it's more than that, it's an expression of her feelings for Buffy which she downplayed as much as possible before her fall, but now she gives them full vent. For her the innuendo (in Enemies and Graduation) serves another purpose, it becomes a weapon to shock and distract, which serves to remind Buffy of how close they had been and pours salt into the wound of the betrayal.

Choices

After the theatrics of Enemies, the relatively innocuous scene at the airport speaks far more about Faith's descent. Here she does not carry any of the tumultuous emotional baggage, she does not express joy or pause, she has every outward appearance of a casual killer. Was the courier human? It does not really matter for these purposes, the point is that he could have been either to her, and yet still she killed him.

Capturing Willow after Buffy led an attack on the Mayor, pales in comparison. Their conversation, however, is interesting.
Willow mocks her, she mocks her hollow success in working for the Mayor. Faith's violent reaction and threats just show how close those barbs hit to her own sense of insufficiency, that same feeling which made her turn her back on Buffy in Revelations and Consequences. Faith, despite all the flattery and assurance she's received from the Mayor, secretly despises what she has become. So much that she cannot deny it and can only react with violence, to silence her opponent as she cannot defeat her.

Her timely kill of the Bug of Gavrok, saving Wesley's life, is one of the few redeeming events that can be trumpeted in her sorry decline. But just as her moment of weakness with Angel in Enemies, this opinion is critically flawed. This moment cannot be ascribed with confidence to anything more than self-defence. Even if the Bugs did not threaten the Mayor they certainly did her.

Her contemplative look back at the Gang before she left the cafeteria is, perhaps, the last choice of the episode. After all, this is the first time that she has seen the Gang in action apart from their abortive charge in Enemies, the first time that it has really been brought home to her what she has given up in order to follow her path of self-interest. Of course, the last choice is no choice at all for Willow made it quite clear that Faith has no place with them, nor is it likely that she would accept if it was offered. Her moment of indecision is indicative of her human regret.

Graduation
The last confrontation with the Gang made it clear to Faith the true consequences of the events of Consequences and Enemies. She throws herself back into her work for the Mayor. We don't see what she's like after she kills Professor Worth, it could be that she felt the same pangs of conscience as she did after killing the Book-seller demon; her casual attitude with the Mayor indicates nothing of what she felt at the time. I think, though, at least she would not be as troubled as before. Killing is not new to her and she does appear to draw some comfort from wielding that power.

Once again her most objectively damnable act is casually thrown out at the beginning of the episode. Poisoning Angel to reduce both him and Buffy as a threat as the Mayor's ascension draws near is vicious but considering her past with the pair of them it's not on a par with what has gone before. It actually feels almost reassuringly direct and rationally judged. What sets Angel apart from Professor Worth is that both he and Buffy are players. The fight the battles and they now the risks and if they had an opportunity to destroy Faith and the Mayor, at this point they would take it. The same applies to the fight between Buffy and Faith later on.

For once Faith is not even the aggressor and remember, no matter whether you think Buffy went to take her in dead or alive (and there really is no evidence of the latter apart from the handcuffs which can be easily explained by their actual purpose to make sure that Faith, once she finds out the cure, from running out), no matter what her intent, she was going to drag her back to have her blood drained from her. Buffy herself is testimony to how little chance Faith would have had of surviving such an experience, especially as Angel would have felt no compunction to tear himself away.

Which leaves us with the dream. The argument about whether or not dreamFaith was actually Faith or a manifestation of Buffy's unconscious can kicked around interminably with no conclusion until she recovers. What can be said is that Buffy herself (who has had communicative dreams in the past in Amends) believes that it was her. There are slightly fewer interpretations of what that dream meant than there are fans who watched it, but that's still quite a few. dreamFaith claims new awareness, Buffy understands the key to destroying the Mayor and is offered some of Faith's 'stuff'. One interpretation that has been argued is that this is analogous to her power, her strength. The reason that Buffy recovered so quickly, and that Faith has taken so long is because Buffy drew from her for her fight at Graduation. It is this dream which is the most puzzling part of Faith's fall, if it truly was her (which I believe it was). It brings into doubt the antagonistic relationship between the Slayers for the last half of the season. Certainly the fact that the only other person that Buffy has ever shared that experience with has been her 'destined love for all eternity' has added fuel to the fires of the Faithful. Their amiable conversation, Faith's apparent reversal of loyalties in this place which brooks no deception or façade are hard to reconcile, difficult to interpret and extremely tempting to disregard for their dubious validity. Even with its most generous interpretation it would not forgive or redeem Faith for what she has done, but it would place beyond doubt that she was actually evil. For no-one who is evil could have done such a thing, and I do not think if Faith was evil Buffy would ever grant her even that lightest kiss of forgiveness. If it wasn't her, it means nothing; if it was, it could mean everything.

 

Conclusion

I must admit that in writing this piece my own opinion of Faith has altered. To catalogue her crimes one after the other is enough for me to reconsider my previous generous attitude. However, not to the degree that I am convinced that Faith is evil. Some of her most horrific acts revolve around her own peculiar and most definitely dysfunctional relationships about that person. Others owe more to the corrupt figure of authority that filled her life, and his, quite deliberate, gradual immersion of her into the darkness.

Perhaps I should finish by making my opinion perfectly clear:

I do believe that:
Faith is vicious, jealous, arrogant, obsessive, proud, disturbed, lacking in empathy, gullible, weak and well deserves to be punished for that which she did,

I do not believe that:
Faith is evil.

 

Go to Masquerade's Is Faith evil?


Opinions

Inca Gold 4/2/00
My opinion: Faith is not "evil" in the sense, but I believe that she never has, and never will be, an ally of Buffy. Ever since the beginning, she has made it clear that she is in this for herself, and herself only. I also believe that the only reason Faith continued being a slayer was because she thought the good guys would win. Obviously, her opinion changed, and she started working for the Mayor. Faith is also extremely lonely and maybe thought that the mayor would offer better companionship then Buffy or her friends ever could.

Gabby Spike 4/2/00
I don't believe that Faith is evil in the sense that she is beyond redemption. I do, however, believe she has so many issues that there the chance of redemption is *small*. But... if Angel can atone, I suppose Faith could too.

Chamamib 4/2/00
I believe that Faith's attitude towards killing the demon for the books of Ascension was somewhat similar to Lady Macbeth's in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'. Lady Macbeth and Faith saw killing as an answer, the removal of an unneccesary objection to their plans. (Faith's to help the Mayor and Lady Macbeth's to become Queen of Scotland) They even reacted in a similar way. Lady Macbeth went mad and Faith went in to denial. The scene in 'Bad Girls' where Faith was washing her hands was very reminiscent of Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene --- 'Out damned spot, out'.

Little Willow 4/2/00
...There was always a shining light in Faith - Even in her coma, it still shone throughout the dream she shared with Buffy. I'm sure it will still be there upon her return...

Diandra 5/2/00
I still think you're too generous with Faith...although I applaud the litany of critical ... adjectives describing her at the end of the piece.

Part of the reason I disagree with your assessment is that I think you're overlooking a couple of important incidents at the beginning of Faith's slide to the dark side which indicate that she didn't need the mayor's help all that much to turn to get in touch with her inner psycho. First, Faith doesn't just clam up and deny all knowledge of Allan Finch's death when it comes to arguably the most important person in Buffy's life. Nope, instead she takes the opportunity to "turn Buffy in" to Giles. (Silly her, doesn't she know that nobody likes a narc?)

To give her credit, Faith does lie like a trooper to Det. Stein, but then we all know that the Sunnydale Police are "deeply stupid." They're not a threat the Watcher's Council is, and Faith's not so clueless about human relations that she doesn't know it how wounding it would be to Buffy if Giles were disappointed in her. The purpose of Faith's lie? To bale herself out, because she knows Buffy is made of sterner stuff and won't rat on her, until her conscience somehow forces, but gee, the twist of the knife in Buffy's back seemed to come as a pleasant little bonus. Luckily, Giles knows his Slayers.

Okay, Faith is insecure and jealous, and about 95% id, so we'll excuse that as a bit of self-protection.

But let's pretend for a second, that Faith was a man, and a defenseless little girlie-girl, say Willow, (although Willow isn't truly defenseless bless Joss's heart, none of the women on the show are defenseless,) goes over to Faithguy's place with good intentions to try to help Faithguy. Instead, Faithguy assaults the well-intentioned but naive girl, either intending to strangle and/or rape this girl. All the while during his attack of the WIBN girl, Faithguy does his best to wound her emotionally as well as physically and sexually, until fortunately, Angel whacks Faithguy with a baseball bat.

Would you doubt that Faithguy migrated to the dark side? I would tend to take a dim view of any similar attack a male character made on a female character that sexual element puts it into more evil territory. It's not a case, of "Oops, lost my soul. Ignore my demon please, the real me would never think of doing that." Nor is it a case of an attack being motivated by an undead biological need to eat, as Spike's attack on Willow was.

There's an added dimension of cruelty in this hands-on type of violence that's frightening, and puts her pretty near beyond the pale, even before she hires herself out to the mayor. Xander's a "friend," plus he's a human being, and harming him (even if she didn't intend to kill him, and I don't know that she did)is still different than killing that schmucky demon with the Books of Ascension. Any creature with human parts is far more likely to identify with a human than a creature with a non-human face, and it takes a degree of what, cruelty? Anger? Contempt? to shut off the empathy with a fellow human long enough to harm him seriously. And even if she didn't kill him, Faith clearly wasn't seeing Xander as a human being, but merely as an object for her to express her rage, the frightening habit of serial rapists and murderers.

And yeah, I know she's had it rough with men, and every other support character in her life, but once again, Faithguy wouldn't get that kind of slack, and rightfully so.

The other thing which I think shows a quick leap into evil, indicating that she didn't need coaxing, is the way that she separated the courier from the Box of Gavrok. Again, the violence is up close and personal. She has a chance to look into her human victim's eyes. And she takes the opportunity, gleefully it seems, to hack his arm off. Once again, slicing a human's arm off isn't like slicing up some mucousy demon her victim bleeds the same blood she does. And she didn't have to, remember the mayor was willing to pay the guy. But Faith, girl of initiative, is entirely happy to dismember the guy, an extra bit of savagery which tells me she's not being led down any primrose path.

I think the mayor sensed Faith's native savagery. If he wanted her to be efficient in killing people, (and also for her to be safer while carrying out his orders)he would've gotten her a gun. The knife was a toy. He knew she'd enjoy it. (Aside from the fact that the show's writers probably don't like the idea of putting guns in teenager's hands, even if it's a bad teenager. There's that "Don't try this at home kids" factor.)

Yes, I would imagine nearly all of us have the potential for evil. Perfectly ordinary people do evil things all the time because we're able to turn our consciences off for whatever reason.

The study you cited is often used to explain the Nuremburg defense, that people will do worse things than they ordinarily would if there's some pressure to conform to the experiment-controller's (or commanding officer's) expectations. Like it or not, it's a human tendency to be a worse human if we can somehow make our evil somebody else's responsibility. Or a divided responsibility, for that matter. People also do really evil things to others if they've learned to dehumanize them. ("The only good Indian is a dead Indian.") Or it's okay if the victim has done something to "deserve it," like giving a mob an excuse for a lynching party.

Ordinary people are also capable of great good if the circumstances are right too. Would Oskar Schindler have been an extraordinary person if he were alive today and living someplace comfy where genocide was not part of the daily routine? He doesn't seem to have been the soup-kitchen kind of guy nope, just as conditions are part of some people's evil, conditions are also part of ordinary people's heroism.

My point is that there's no such thing as a wholly evil or wholly good person, and that each of us has the seeds for great good and great evil in us.

Lexcom 17/2/00
Je pense que Face est en fait tout le temps seule, elle aime soit-disant ça mais cela la détruit de plus en plus car il n'y a personne pour lui rendre compte de la réalité, que la vie n'est pas un jeu où seul les plus fort gagnent. En fait, elle a énormément besoins d'aide plutôt que n'importe quoi d'autre, et à voir le caractère des autres personnes autour d'elle, ça ne peut qu'empirer. Personne ne prend le temps de lui parler clairement, seul, face à face. Je pense que c'est la seule chose qui peut la faire changer.

Translation by Aleea
I think that Faith is all alone all the time, she tells herself that she likes that but, this is destroying her more and more because there is no-one around to make her face up to reality, that life isn't a game where only the strongest survive. In Fact she is greatly in need of help rather than anything else, and observing the personalities of the people around her, that can only (Poss suggestions: get worse, escalate) No-one takes the time to speak clearly/frankly to her, alone, face to face. I think that this is the only thing, which can make her change.

Crystal Montoya 19/2/00
Faith is not evil. Everyone is quick to jump to the conclusion that Faith has had it rough with men. I disagree. She mentions to Buffy that this was supposed to be her town. Buffy gets the Mom, the little Scooby Gang, and what does she get? Rejection. I believe Faith was rejected by both parents. I believe that in the beginning that she really tried to get her life in order and be an ally. Buffy and her friends really didn't accept Faith completely. . .again rejection. I think Faith saw slaying as her salvation and Buffy stood in the way. I think the murder of Finch just pushed her over the edge.

FaithTVS 22/2/00
I think Faith isn't evil. She has issues which we don't know. We have no idea what has happened in her past to make her shut out people. I think that she needed someone to tell that she means something. I think Buffy just told her too late and Faith realized too late and she was already crossing over to the other side.

Wonder B. 22/2/00
Faith is weak and vulnerable. She is strong and tough. Those statements were kind of contradictory, but that's how it is. Sometimes, you can't change who you are. Faith isn't evil. That statement contradicts her actions. But if I were forced to choose between helping either Buffy or Faith, being a friend to one of them and fighting the other with a vengeance, I would stick with Faith all the way. She is a stubborn ass and she is in all of us.

Crystal Montoya 25/2/00
In my book bad exists but evil, that's a philosophical question. The question is is Faith psychotic? Or does she know what she's doing. I think she uses her background as a motivation. She's out for revenge on Buffy for taking the one person who promised her a sick and twisted form of "family" and "love." After [This Year's Girl], I believe Faith to be lost in her own twisted world. She is beyond help.

I think she's a bad person as a result of her life however, she chose to turn to the wicked side and gave in to her weaknesses. She's not evil, just a weak and sick mind.

FaithTVS 25/2/00
In order to put a limit to the acts that Faith has committed I think would rely on what she has endured in her past which yet again we don't know much about. We know that she saw her slayer killed by a vampire and that she has never really felt that she belonged anywhere (the new episode from this week tells us this) She did have a family I think because she talks about her father at one point and what he called her as a child when the mayor gives her the dress to wear for the graduation and we also know that she dropped out of school as well. All her acts may have an excuse. I was thinking that when she gets back at Buffy she attacks all the people Buffy cares about, did you ever wonder that Faith is trying to make Buffy feel just as lonely as she is? Maybe then if there is no place for them both then they will fit in with each other. Two slayers that have no one to turn to except eachother. I think that Faith just wants somewhere to fit in.

Charity 19/3/00
I've heard so many people say that Faith is not evil, just misunderstood. I disagree. Faith is totally understood, which is why people see her as an evil character. But no, Faith, compared to most of the villans we've seen on Buffy, is not Evil in the truest sense of the word.

Staked 24/3/00
... firstly - Faith must have had a very tough life. What was probably one of her first slays (as Kendra was killed at the beginning of the summer and Faith was brought in at the end of the summer the same year) resulted in the death of her watcher and she was unable to save her from Kakistos. We are already aware that her parents were hardly good parents and she has a habit - right from the beginning - of holding her emotions in. She looks to Giles (Faith, Hope & Trick), Joyce (Faith, Hope & Trick, Amends) and finally, in desperation, The Mayor for some guidance. I think that her upbringing and lack of parental guidance DOES help explain her irrational behaviour. She has never had anyone to teach her the difference between right and wrong. Everyone who she turned to for help was either already dedicated to Buffy (Joyce, Giles) and didn't have time for her, or they somehow disappeared and Faith probably blamed herself each time (Watcher, Parents). She had a far from normal childhood and quite why she was chosen to be the slayer is beyond me. She did not know how to act in normal society, getting past this by lying or being extremely aggressive. I really believe that Faith, Hope & Trick and Amends go more to justifying Faith's acts than any of her fall from grace episodes (Consequences - Graduation Day Part 2). She must have been so insecure and so alone. I think, to understand Faith, you must really have lived through some of what she had. I have by no means had a great upbringing and I also think that maybe Joss Whedon incorporated her character to speak to people like me and some others I know who find things frustrating and confusing. Buffy may have had small problems with her parents but she has ALWAYS had stable friends and a stable Mother. Faith was stuck in a new environment where people misdirected her (Revelations) or ignored her (no-one seemed particularly interested in being her friend - All men are beasts, Homecoming). She had always had to fend for herself and when she finally found someone who would except her for who she is, act as the parental figure she never had, even praise her for it, she thought she had the upper hand. She has a different set of moral standards and understanding of right and wrong than regular society and I think even when she arrived in Sunnydale, she was always number 2 to Buffy. Wouldn't this make you a tiny bit resentful too?

Faithuk 27/3/00
I don't think that Faith is evil. There is a lot that we don't know about her so it isn't right to judge on just what we know. I think that if people hadn't been so quick to judge and had taken into account what she'd been through then things may have turned out differently. However had she been more willing to accept she had a problem things could have been different too.

ASH 16/4/00
I think as you said yourself Faith is weak and easily lead rather than evil.Whereas Buffy overcomes adversity Faith surrenders to it.Then again Faith has never had the same kind of emotional support group Buffy herself has.Unlike Angel/Angelus and the gypsy curse that allows Angel to deny his own culpability in his appaling crimes Faith has no such get out clause.

Her obsession and unspoken love for Buffy seems to be a desire to become that person deep down she knows she can never be.When held in comparison to Buffy herself by those she called friends it is hardly surprisng then Faith, realising she can never match what she see`s as Buffy`s innate goodness, then proceeds to create a life that is the very antithesis of Buffy`s, a weak and childlike reaction again showing Faith`s lack of maturity.It`s as if she still craves the attentions of those who spurned her, albeit in a twisted way.

As for her redemtion I believe Faith is a good person who has done unforgiveable things. The transitory nature of her character, if indeed she has one makes any attempt at redemption difficult.

Yet of all the characters in Buffy Faith is the one I have invested in most emotionally.Maybe I`m blinded or have some misplaced desire to reach out and save the unsaveable but I do believe deep down inside of Faith there is a good person who can be reached.


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Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series are the property of the WB Network or perhaps Fox, maybe both. I'll leave them to work it out and contact me with the result. This web site, its operators and any content on this site relating to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" are not authorized by Fox. No copyright infringement intended. This site is for entertainment purposes only and does not profit in any way.

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The Above the Law banner is an altered form of a screen-cap taken from the The Slayer Show, the original screen-cap is © the WB. Opinion starts here--> Faith is not evil she is angry and aggressive and messed up if you watch "Angel" Faith turned herself in to the police and before that was determined to change.

No name entered 16/8/00
No, Faith is not evil, but merely psychopathic, and like all inherantly psychopathic individuals, she has very little control over her violent actions. When you concider that many, many people suffer appaulingly bad childhoods (far worse than mere parental abuse), and yet still manage to maintain high levels of self- control as they grow in to adulthood, it becomes obvious that there are deeper psychological disfunctions in play in Faith's case.

Faith suffers from a deep seated urge to cause pain and suffering in others, and to generally "screw over anyone who screws with her". These are classic symptoms of the psychopathic personality, as is her untrustworthy nature and inability to form an honest, lasting bond with anyone. In effect, she despises everybody (herself most of all, when she comes close to showing any human frailty or weakness).

I think that the best place for Faith would be a psychiatric hospital, under heavy sedation most of the time, so that professional doctors could attempt to treat the deep rooted problems that obviously need to be addressed in Faith's mind.


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Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series are the property of the WB Network or perhaps Fox, maybe both. I'll leave them to work it out and contact me with the result. This web site, its operators and any content on this site relating to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" are not authorized by Fox. No copyright infringement intended. This site is for entertainment purposes only and does not profit in any way.

The picture was taken from The Official Buffy website and WoW - The Women of Whedon and are (apart from the title picture) © the WB.

The Above the Law banner is an altered form of a screen-cap taken from the The Slayer Show, the original screen-cap is © the WB. lls her no, if you accept the fact that you've done wrong and you make amends for it and you honestly regret what you've done there is always hope. (A very christian thing. This is the journey true christinas make. The only person who can truly fight evil is one who has faced it.) So in believing she had to make amends, Faith turned herself in and will probably use her prison time to think about her terrible deeds and decide how she needs to deal with it. She will have time to deeply understand the journey Angel wanted her to take. Though she may faulter, she will ultimatly be a better person in the end. Now my turn to rant. Dumb ass doctors think you can just pump people full of drugs to make them forget their problems. All people need is human interaction, and caring. Instead you give them drugs and the cold shoulder just like the rest, which is why they are so screwed up in the first place. Your whole profession sickens me, you think you help so many people, but in the end it's all about your fat paycheck and your mercedes.

Da_Princess_J 28/9/00
My opinion about faith.

Nobody is born evil.

Faith, she has just had a rough life. She only turned "Bad" because she couldn't handle killing the guy. In the "Angel" series, we finally see her in the light. I sympathise with her.

She likes to see other people suffer to make herself feel "better". Faith has never had anyone care about her the way Buffy, & Joyce did. We see in the episode with Riley, she wasn't comfortable with it. She doesn't hate Buffy, she is jealous of her. Buffy has had all the good things that Faith never had in her life.

She is not a psycho, Faith is just one confused teenager. She holds too much inside of herself.

But all in all, Faith wants to be good. (Where she goes back to the church to save the people when she could've left town.)

I would love to see Faith back on the show.

Rmsgrey 4/10/00
I would not call Faith evil. What I would say is that she tends to be somewhat impulsive, and tends not to consider the consequences of her actions, and lacks a strong internal moral compass - rather than having a firm sense of right and wrong, she seems to judge by cool and uncool or fun and unfun. Remember, Faith is trained to Slay, so she has had to get past any inhibitions about killing things that look human, and much of what she does is linked strongly to Buffy. When Faith first appears, Buffy feels threatened by the new slayer, and complains that Faith seems to be stealing her life. From the very start, Faith appears to have been competing with Buffy and a lot of her actions can be read as trying to prove herself better than Buffy. It's only when, after she wakes from her coma, she is forced to look at herself from Buffy's perspective, that she realises just how far into darkness she's gone, and that she might not be able to find her way back.


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The picture was taken from The Official Buffy website and WoW - The Women of Whedon and are (apart from the title picture) © the WB.

The Above the Law banner is an altered form of a screen-cap taken from the The Slayer Show, the original screen-cap is © the WB.