History Characters / BuffyTheVampireSlayerScoobyGang

** Shows compassion and empathy for Warren's sex-bot April, but views the Buffybot, who was designed by Warren for Spike, as nothing but an "[[ItIsDehumanizing it]]."

*** Also, as Buffy points out, Xander was singing a different song when it was Angel/Angelus who was the danger, and there was the potential chance that Buffy's lover could have been saved/redeemed. If you want to call Buffy a hypocrite in this instance, she's certainly not the only one.

* DespairEventHorizon: She crosses it in the final episodes of Season 5 when, despite her best efforts, Dawn is captured by Glory. The sheer guilt over failing to protect Dawn after everything she's been through renders Buffy catatonic for almost the entirety of the next episode, forcing Willow to embark on a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind to snap her out of it.

* BrokenPedestal: He was initially [[UndyingLoyalty completely loyal]] to the Initiative, but as he uncovered more and more of its corruption, particularly after Professor Walsh attempted to kill Buffy in a DeathTrap, he began to desire to leave. When the Initiative captured Oz, a werewolf, and conducted inhumane experiments on him even after he reverted to human form, that was the straw that broke the camel's back; he promptly turned his back on them in favor of the Scoobies and helped Buffy and co. break Oz out.

* FantasticRacism: At first he blasts the Scoobies and Willy the Snitch for harboring Spike and serving demons at his bar respectively, and later made negative comments on Willow's relationship with Oz, a werewolf. He grows out of it.
** In the comics, he is made the military contact of the new Magic Council, and gets blasted for referring to himself as a representative of "normal" people, with none councilman outright calling him a bigot for implying nonhumans aren't "normal."

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: When it comes to demons, Buffy, as per her job description, will inevitably slay or attempt to slay them if they do something evil no matter the circumstances.

* NeverMyFault: It is rare that this trope applies to her as most of the time she's [[TheChosenOne carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and feeling responsible for everyone and everything.]] However, it's played straight at least once in "Blood Ties," where Buffy's immediate reaction upon finding out that Spike helped Dawn break into the Magic Box is to storm off to his crypt and start to beat the crap out of him, blaming him for Dawn finding out about being the Key in the worst possible way. However, Spike quickly turns the tables on her, pointing out that not only did ''[[LockedOutOfTheLoop he]]'' [[LockedOutOfTheLoop not know that Dawn was the Key before then]], but ''[[PoorCommunicationKills Buffy]]'' [[PoorCommunicationKills was the one who kept it from her in the first place]]. When Dawn later runs away, Buffy admits that [[JerkassHasAPoint he was right]] and the whole mess is her fault.

* DoesntLikeGuns: Partly because GunsAreWorthless against most supernatural beings, and partly because of Tara's death. They might also remind her of the Initiative, something neither her nor the fans want to think about again.

* DrillSergeantNasty: Really nasty. After Chloe kills herself Buffy basically calls her a weak idiot and lashes out at everyone, in a misguided attempt to encourage the other Potentials to not follow the same path. It's simultaneously a genuine effort, stupid, desperate and crual, and it doesn't really work.

* NeverMyFault: It is rare that this trope applies to her as most of the time she's [[TheChosenOne carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and feeling responsible for everyone and everything.]] However, there was that time In "Blood Ties," where Buffy's immediate reaction upon finding out that Spike helped Dawn break into the Magic Box is to storm off to his crypt and start to beat the crap out of him, blaming him for Dawn finding out about being the Key in the worst possible way. However, Spike quickly turns the tables on her, pointing out that not only did ''[[LockedOutOfTheLoop he]]'' [[LockedOutOfTheLoop not know that Dawn was the Key before then]], but ''[[PoorCommunicationKills Buffy]]'' [[PoorCommunicationKills was the one who kept it from her in the first place]]. When Dawn later runs away, Buffy admits that [[JerkassHasAPoint he was right]] and the whole mess is her fault.

%%* OnlyAFleshWound: Buffy. Sword. Gut. GrandFinale.

* ResurrectionSickness: Upon her resurrection in season 6, Buffy is initially disoriented and out of it for a while, and is depressed and self-destructive until the sixth season finale.

* WhatTheHellHero: EVERYONE freaks out on her (Xander, Willow, and Joyce in particular) when she comes back from running away at the end of Season 2, to the point where she wants to run away again. Willow and a group of zombies crashing her house keeps her from doing so, [[FireForgedFriends much to everyone's relief]]. They have the same reaction in Season 3 on discovering that Angel (last seen as Angelus) has returned and Buffy has been keeping it secret. Also, in season 7, Buffy is kicked out of her house. And then again the Anya incident.

* TheChainsOfCommanding: If it sucks to be the Slayer than it also sucks to be the Head Slayer.

* EvilMeScaresMe: The way Willow feels about the "Doppelgangland" Willow, and her own DarkSide in Season 7.

* BerserkButton: Don't harm or endanger his friends. Case in point: in the season 2 premiere, after Willow and Giles are captured by the Order of Aurelius after Buffy refuses to work with them and leaves, Xander bitterly tells her that [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot she could have prevented the kidnapping if she had just stayed]], and explicitly threatens to kill Buffy if the vamps hurt Willow.

** In season 5, when Dawn found out she was the Key and Spike was with her, Buffy's immediate response was to go straight to his crypt and begin pummeling him for helping her, but Spike quickly turns the tables on her, pointing out that Dawn would have snuck into the Magic Box anyway and he felt she would be safer with a former BigBad looking over her shoulder, finishing by telling Buffy point-blank that [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot if she had simply told Dawn the truth in the first place, none of this would be happening]]; Buffy later admits he's right.

*** Also, as Buffy points out, Xander was singing a different song when it was Angel/Angelus who was the danger, and there waas the potential chance that Buffy's lover could have been saved/redeemed. If you want to call Buffy a hypocrite in this instance, she's certainly not the only one.

** With Spike in Season 6, swinging between attraction and outright rejection.
*** Though given that Spike was at this point [[{{Gaslighting}} using Buffy's obvious PTSD and depression]] [[AllTakeAndNoGive to try]] [[RomanticizedAbuse and slide into her pants...]]

* NeverMyFault: In "Blood Ties," Buffy's immediate reaction upon finding out that Spike helped Dawn break into the Magic Box is to storm off to his crypt and start to beat the crap out of him, blaming him for Dawn finding out about being the Key in the worst possible way. However, Spike quickly turns the tables on her, pointing out that not only did ''[[LockedOutOfTheLoop he]]'' [[LockedOutOfTheLoop not know that Dawn was the Key before then]], but ''[[PoorCommunicationKills Buffy]]'' [[PoorCommunicationKills was the one who kept it from her in the first place]]. When Dawn later runs away, Buffy admits that [[JerkassHasAPoint he was right]] and the whole mess is her fault.
** A one off example, most of the time she's [[TheChosenOne carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and feeling responsible for everyone and everything.]]

** He's generally good at predicting Willow's behaviour; in "Something Blue" when Buffy and Giles think she's doing okay after her breakup with Oz, Spike scornfully points out that "she's hanging on by a thread!"

* ClingyJealousGirlfriend: A mild case: she gets hurt and upset if Willow so much as looks at another girl, such as when April is noticed to be attractive or examining the Buffybot and Tara feels threatened that there is some attraction there.

* BadBoss: In Season 2 Spike sacrifices a vampire mook on two separate occasions ("School Hard" and "Halloween") just to get an idea of how the Slayer fights.

** In season 4, the gang has to deal with a Native American ghost who's trying to take revenge for happened to his people, and Willow was reluctant to act because she felt really guilty about what the colonists did. Spike pipes up with his own point: the Europeans won, killed the natives and took their land; that's the whole point of conquering new territories. "The history of the world is not people making friends; you had better weapons, and you massacred them; end of story." He then goes on to say that they're not going to be able to fight anyone if they keep that politically correct attitude up, and when Willow suggests that they could talk to the ghost, he has this to say: "You exterminated his race. What could you possibly say that would make him feel better? It's kill or be killed here; take your bloody pick."

* BastardBoyfriend: In season 6, uses Buffy's obvious PTSD and depression in order to manipulate her inot striking up a sexual relationship with him. Then later attempts to rape her after she calls it off.

-->'''Spike''':

** The former could perhaps be explained by the fact that most of his unlife had passed since he last saw Angel for any length of time, and when Angel left after being ensouled, he was just starting to make his own reputation as a terrifying master ampire. His initial joy at Angelus' return quickly palls when he realises that this relegates him to second fiddle.

* {{Retcon}}: Angel being his sire and that he respected him. Flashbacks show Drusilla sired him and that he and Angel were always at each other's throats. WordOfGod expains this by saying that vamps refer to anyone in their bloodline before them as their sire, so Spike would refer to Darla and The Master as his sires too.