CWDP - How Accurate were Holden Webster's Analyses of Buffy?

[NoShip]

I think most of Holden's analyses were purposely wrong. Designed to activate Buffy's innate shame and low self-esteem.

Throughout S1 thru S7 CWDP, when is Buffy shown to feel superior to her family and friends? In The Yoko Factor when she calls them out on not being helpful? In Revelations when she pushes back at Xander's accusations? Throughout S6 when she hides her boinking Spike? In Becoming when she flees Sunnydale after sending Angel to Hell? Or in Anne when she doesn't contact anyone for months?

Personally, I think Webbs' connection to an all encompasing evil gave him the knowledge and motivation to mostly mess with Buffy through his "Psych 101" tricks.

Thoughts?

 

[XanderesqueMan]

I think there's some merit to Holden's diagnosis, even if it's not completely true. If there wasn't, it likely wouldn't have affected her the way that it did.

I would argue that Buffy does think she's superior, in the same way that someone like Batman does. She knows she has skills and abilities that make her superior, which puts her in a position to take charge of situations and make decisions for others, which I think makes her worry in her less secure moments that this isolation does make her see herself as better than her friends, which she feels guilty about. And sometimes this can be misread on the outside as arrogance, and sometimes it can actually manifest itself as arrogance (for instance, her desire to go back at Caleb with no new plan after what happened to the Potentials, to Xander.)

 

[twoslayers]

Pretty much everyone is superior to others in some ways, and inferior in other ways. And I think most folk realize that.

Buffy is superior at fighting and she knows it and can sometimes be arrogant about her fighting abilities. And she knows she's pretty, though I think is less arrogant about that. But she knows her flaws. She's not as brainy as say Willow, she has trouble connecting to people. On the whole, considering everything she's been through, I'd say Buffy is fairly mentally balanced.