I definitely got the feeling that the writers didn't respect Cordelia much and the whole episode comes off as punishing her for prioritising her friends and social status over the relationship with Xander. That whole relationship did feel a bit like a typical fantasy in fact with the nerdy sidekick having the prom queen type fall in love with him, choose him over her friends and publicly post pictures of him in her locker, and then he's the one who ends up cheating on her and breaking her heart. Even post break-up it came across to me that Cordelia was heartbroken because she was really hurt at Xander cheating on her, whereas Xander made very little effort to win her over after trying to give her flowers in the hospital, immediately in the next episode he is encouraging his friends to join him in rooting against Cordelia and his main annoyance seems to be when she throws mean comments at him. The end of the Zeppo really annoys me for that reason because the writers just seem to believe the audience will automatically take Xander's side and root him on in rising above Cordelia's insults. I think that none of the writers, except for David Greenwalt perhaps, ever really bothered to see things from Cordelia's POV back then or really connected to her character. It was like they forgot that Cordelia did nothing wrong to justify Xander cheating on her and she had every right to hate him after that
And absolutely, at the time Xander and Cordelia's relationship was just something I accepted without thinking about it much, but when I recently rewatched Buffy it bothered me so much the way he spoke too and insulted Cordelia. 9 times out of 10 it was instigated by Xander as well, which wasn't something I picked up on at the time. Rather o/t but I noticed the same thing with Jesse in the pilot and how his interaction with Cordelia plays so differently to me now. At the time I just took it on face value that she was being snobby to not give him the time of day at the dance, and Joss also notes in the commentary that one scene was somewhat based on his own experiences of being rudely dismissed when he asked a girl to dance in high school. But watching it back now I was struck by just how obvious Cordelia made it in the school scenes that she had no interest in Jesse whatsoever (which again is her right, whatever we might think of the reasoning behind it). And then at the dance he interrupts her talking to her friends, she notes to them that here comes her stalker, and he asks her to dance. And somehow Cordelia is the one being framed as the villain, just because she doesn't want to dance with someone that she's already made it clear she is never going to be interested in! Watching that now, after my own experiences with guys that refuse to take a hint, I have so much more respect for Cordelia and her no bullshit ways lol. It should be the guy who can't take a hint that comes off as the bad guy, but of course all anyone mostly remembers from that scene is how mean Cordelia was to dismiss him like that
I was sooo the opposite of Cordelia in school, but she had a point too in Invisible Girl about people just friending her for her popularity or her looks. Marcie could have easily noticed the nicer girls in her class like Wllow or Amy and approached them, instead she was desperate to be part of Cordelia's crowd and constantly hanging on the edges and trying to jump into their conversations, and really is it that horrible for Cordelia not to have any time for that when she knew that she was only being targeted because she was in the popular zone, not because Marcie genuinely liked her as a person? Cordelia was definitely mean and took it too far when she targeted Willow with uncalled-for insults in the pilot, so I'm not defending every mean comment she made, but also it seemed like she would have still been stuck with the snobby bitch label anyway, unless she was willing to humour all of the hangers-on like Marcie and even Jesse, so idk maybe at a certain time she had decided to just embrace it if people were going to hate her either way
Lol sorry, this comment ended up being a little longer than I planned on :P
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And absolutely, at the time Xander and Cordelia's relationship was just something I accepted without thinking about it much, but when I recently rewatched Buffy it bothered me so much the way he spoke too and insulted Cordelia. 9 times out of 10 it was instigated by Xander as well, which wasn't something I picked up on at the time. Rather o/t but I noticed the same thing with Jesse in the pilot and how his interaction with Cordelia plays so differently to me now. At the time I just took it on face value that she was being snobby to not give him the time of day at the dance, and Joss also notes in the commentary that one scene was somewhat based on his own experiences of being rudely dismissed when he asked a girl to dance in high school. But watching it back now I was struck by just how obvious Cordelia made it in the school scenes that she had no interest in Jesse whatsoever (which again is her right, whatever we might think of the reasoning behind it). And then at the dance he interrupts her talking to her friends, she notes to them that here comes her stalker, and he asks her to dance. And somehow Cordelia is the one being framed as the villain, just because she doesn't want to dance with someone that she's already made it clear she is never going to be interested in! Watching that now, after my own experiences with guys that refuse to take a hint, I have so much more respect for Cordelia and her no bullshit ways lol. It should be the guy who can't take a hint that comes off as the bad guy, but of course all anyone mostly remembers from that scene is how mean Cordelia was to dismiss him like that
I was sooo the opposite of Cordelia in school, but she had a point too in Invisible Girl about people just friending her for her popularity or her looks. Marcie could have easily noticed the nicer girls in her class like Wllow or Amy and approached them, instead she was desperate to be part of Cordelia's crowd and constantly hanging on the edges and trying to jump into their conversations, and really is it that horrible for Cordelia not to have any time for that when she knew that she was only being targeted because she was in the popular zone, not because Marcie genuinely liked her as a person? Cordelia was definitely mean and took it too far when she targeted Willow with uncalled-for insults in the pilot, so I'm not defending every mean comment she made, but also it seemed like she would have still been stuck with the snobby bitch label anyway, unless she was willing to humour all of the hangers-on like Marcie and even Jesse, so idk maybe at a certain time she had decided to just embrace it if people were going to hate her either way
Lol sorry, this comment ended up being a little longer than I planned on :P