I can take it. Tell me the truth.

[botias]

Does Buffy take crap from guys? I don't want it to be true and yet...

One of my fic pet peeves is when Buffy is some guy's spaniel, Spike or otherwise. It's definitely in the top 5 things which have me scrabbling for the 'Back' button on my browser. But... is it true to her character?

1. If Angel's lukewarm attitudes toward making their love work put Buffy off of him at all, she doesn't show it. And we won't even go into Angelus since she wasn't dating him, for all that I feel certain plenty of girls would not have been so forgiving of their man's alter-ego



2. In S4 Buffy blames herself for Parker's brutal B.S. For awhile there she would have gone crawling back to him in a heartbeat if he had changed his mind.



3. Buffy catches Riley 'cheating' on her. Granted, she initially drops him with all due alacrity, but it doesn't take much to convince her that the sort of straight-shootin' guy that deals with relationship problems by stepping out is the best thing that will ever happen to her. She RUNS after him *woof*woof*

Maybe all the fic writers that get their S6 revenge by having a post-NFA Buffy traipsing loyally after a cruelly disinterested Spike or the writers that have her get deeply entrenched with various asshats have got it right.