I like to think being chased by a veritable horde of women (including Drusilla!) all intent on killing him could be considered a karmic comeuppance.
True, but the consequences were all careful how you choose to use magic, and Giles was really angry about the spell getting out of control and Xander fooling around with powerful forces, yet very little was said about the actual plan to directly hurt Cordelia. It seemed like he got away with that scot-free, and it was really just Willow upset at her feelings being stirred up again. Cordelia never really got to have a voice with anyone confronting Xander on why he would want to harm her like that.
And I agree that it wasn't all male ego on Xander's part, he must have liked Cordelia somewhat as well, I just always got the feeling that she was the one who cared more and really fell for him. The fact that he forgot about her so quickly when Buffy expressed an interest, and also in the teaser when Buffy was saying he could do better than Cordelia and he was saying the other woman he was interested in was unavailable, it all kind of added up to me to Xander certainly being attracted to Cordelia, but I'm not sure how much deeper it went for him and that his heart ever really got broken. Maybe I'm being a bit unfair, but we never really got the shot of him alone in his room and depressed like we did when Buffy turned him down in Prophecy Girl (or Cordelia for that matter looking tearful in the opening teaser of The Wish), so I never got the same sense that his heart had been broken. He was portrayed as being hurt when the other kids started making fun of him and Cordelia didn't say anything, so it just came across to me that a lot of it was more about his pride and feeling that Cordelia rejecting him gave the other kids license to start making fun of him again. Not that I'm advocating this at all lol, but I think if it was simply about being heartbroken that the more obvious way to portray Xander would be to want a love spell to win Cordelia back, not simply harbouring a plan to hurt and humilate her the way he felt that she had humilated him
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rosecarmine
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Date: 2013-06-23 11:26 am (UTC)True, but the consequences were all careful how you choose to use magic, and Giles was really angry about the spell getting out of control and Xander fooling around with powerful forces, yet very little was said about the actual plan to directly hurt Cordelia. It seemed like he got away with that scot-free, and it was really just Willow upset at her feelings being stirred up again. Cordelia never really got to have a voice with anyone confronting Xander on why he would want to harm her like that.
And I agree that it wasn't all male ego on Xander's part, he must have liked Cordelia somewhat as well, I just always got the feeling that she was the one who cared more and really fell for him. The fact that he forgot about her so quickly when Buffy expressed an interest, and also in the teaser when Buffy was saying he could do better than Cordelia and he was saying the other woman he was interested in was unavailable, it all kind of added up to me to Xander certainly being attracted to Cordelia, but I'm not sure how much deeper it went for him and that his heart ever really got broken. Maybe I'm being a bit unfair, but we never really got the shot of him alone in his room and depressed like we did when Buffy turned him down in Prophecy Girl (or Cordelia for that matter looking tearful in the opening teaser of The Wish), so I never got the same sense that his heart had been broken. He was portrayed as being hurt when the other kids started making fun of him and Cordelia didn't say anything, so it just came across to me that a lot of it was more about his pride and feeling that Cordelia rejecting him gave the other kids license to start making fun of him again. Not that I'm advocating this at all lol, but I think if it was simply about being heartbroken that the more obvious way to portray Xander would be to want a love spell to win Cordelia back, not simply harbouring a plan to hurt and humilate her the way he felt that she had humilated him