A/N Sphygmus, the Lie. Buffy probably did realize Xander lied and she probably realized that telling her about Willow's second attempt would have distracted her, but she probably also would have resented it, maybe much the way the audience does, as Xander taking a choice from her and instead of saying anything, she just let it fester. But that may not have been how it was supposed to originally be because season three was when Xander's arc began to change. The Lie pissed off the audience, they refused to accept Joss' explanation, no matter how many times he gave a statement that it had nothing to do with jealousy and the network was panicking at the thought that they'd lose the audience over it. And Joss crumbled said 'why are you taking it so seriously, he's the comic relief?' Only he wasn't and Joss later said he regretted not having Xander do more things like stand up to Angelus and such because that's when he was at his best. And that's the Xander I wanted to see more of myself.
And yes, when you down play yourself and your contribution, others pick up on that and start to do it as well. Plus, you're right, Buffy trusted Willow and Angel more than she did Xander. But why? Angel, she loved him and believed in him and them and he did so little to actually help her that it makes you wonder why, but then you remember - teenager in love and thinks she's got a fairy tale romance and that sums that up. And Willow? Encouraged the relationship and viewed it with rose-colored glasses, just like Buffy herself did and Xander was 'the voice of reason' pointing out the problems she wanted to pretend didn't exist.
Bottom line, Xander was intended to be more and became less because of behind the scenes problems and reactions. But at the same time Buffy's arc was also affected by the audience because they demanded she be paired with Angel and later Spike and she was never supposed to be and Xander was 'the voice of reason' and the audience resented it. They wanted to pretend there were no problems either. But that's the real life influences on the show, in universe itself, the Mayor, Jasmine and Skip, the Powers, Whistler and Twilight could all in a variety of ways been involved.
Season four of Angel ended with them finding out that Jasmine had been manipulating them for years, how many years? If Cordelia being its mother was its goal than was she responsible for the circumstances that left Cordelia vulnerable i.e. the Fluke and the IRS? Both of which were the result of the behind the scenes decision for a spin off and to move just Charisma Carpenter and not Nicholas Brenden because it was cheaper.
How do you think the Scoobies will react if they ever do find a reality where they're a tv show and see for themselves how they're portrayed?
Yikes, comes to mind, considering only Willow's arc was pretty much the only one untouched over the course of the show. In order to comply with the audience's demand that Buffy be paired with first Angel and then Spike, Giles' arc had to be adjusted too otherwise and as early as season one or we'd have seen that policy Wesley mentioned that the Council and its members did not get involved with vampires.
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After allowing a couple of days for the reality travelers to decompress after their most recent adventure Giles and the other former Watchers called a Scooby meeting to bring them up to date on a few finding.
"First off, my meeting with Ms. Weems at Nevermore Academy did result some positives." Giles began. "The second vampire race was unharmed by the Montesi Formula, likely because they're so different from both the vampires in Dr. Strange's reality and the ones that were destroyed here. Both of those races were created by on Old One or Elder Being as they're known in Dr. Strange's reality. The second race that exists in this reality evolved naturally and are born and remain human, they evolved a different dietary need than normal humans really that caused differences in biology, but are still human and able to interbreed."
"Well, that's a relief." Xander rubbed his face. "I'd hate to think that my costume choice had killed innocent people."
"As we would we all." Giles agreed. "And that brings me to the next issue, whether or not Faith's absence from our reality has resulted in another Slayer being Called. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to determine that."
"None of our contacts in the Council will return messages." Dr. Zabuto informed them, shaking his head. "We've been unable to get a hold of anyone."
"Willow and I have been trying to track whether there's been any violence against outcast races." Ms. Calendar went next. "They're not publically acknowledged to exist, but like the supernatural, the government is aware that they exist and individuals and a number of community's of normal humans are aware of them as well."
"Yeah, that town near the Academy," Faith remembered. "the people there know outcasts exists and some of them had a problem with them and others didn't."
"We've only just begun trying to find anything so we don't currently know if there's been any uptick in violence." Willow told the group. "We've piggyback several Agencies like the F. B. I. and when they know we'll know."
"Bottom line is, it might be a while before wevhave any real answers." Diana finished. "But we're keeping an eye out and hopefully if a problem does develop, we'll know quickly enough to be able to do something. We just have to be patient."
'i hate being patient."