Redemption Arc Syndrome, a fan problem

[infinitewhale]

Character does bad things --> Character is defeated by good guys --> Character reforms and comes/returns to the light --> We like Character now --> You know, Character had a point when they were evil --> And they weren't really that evil anyway, life isn't black and white --> It was totally good guy's fault all along --> Good guy was really the

Comments

[itsnotmymind]

The script describes her as 18-ish, which is ambiguous. Faith does refer to herself as "big sister", but in Faith, Hope, & Trick Buffy calls Faith "my bestest new little sister". I don't think that's supposed to say anything about their literal ages, except that they are close in age and competitive about who is the senior slayer.

I've actually heard Faith being younger than Buffy as an explanation for why she didn't have to do the trial - by the time she turned 18, she'd already gone dark side.

Ultimately, I would say canon is inconclusive.

True that he did not provide for Buffy financially (and I am Not Happy with Giles for his choices in S6), but Buffy did have a mother until late season five who provided for her both financially and emotionally. And Giles does provide for her emotionally until season six, while there's no indication that he took any interest in Faith (I think she would have responded well if he had - as it is she even defends him to Gwen Post).

Giles may well have realized that Faith was a hot mess and he couldn't deal with that at this point in his life (still grieving Jenny)...but that doesn't change the fact that he had a responsibility towards her that he did nothing about.

[infinitewhale]

I think 18-ish is less than ambiguous, but no, it's not concrete. Outside parties typically don't round ages up, so her being 18+ just makes the most sense to me. Obviously though it's just a note in a script that means: An actress that looks around this age. I tend to think Faith is seen as the younger because she was at/around the same age as her character whereas everyone else was at least 3 years older.

I can't argue too much about Giles not providing support for her other than a thin rationalization that he was never her official watcher. He was a placeholder. I suppose the financial support angle really comes from whether or not the Council provides it. If Watchers simply aren't given the money to do it, I guess it's forgivable. Council logic is nothing they really delved into. Their characterization changed as it went on from being disinterested in S1-S2 to outright hostile in S3+.