Faith isn't as completely wrecked as Dana, but she's closer to Dana than anyone else we encountered on the show. Umm... Connor? I think he's got much rougher deal, also with later betrayals and usage and all. Now I'm thinking that we've seen a lot of border-line psychotic people on the show who never got any help and were expected to function as usual. Except Dana who was obviously a raging psycho. But Buffy didn't get any help in S6 and nobody, even Giles, thought about it, even when he learned about her being in depression. Faith didn't get any help (except maybe in prison?), Connor didn't. Spike and Angel both would've benefitted from it even though they had their demons raging underneath which would be outside of the field of human psychology.
Still all those guys, unlike Dana, would be considered legally responsible for what they did. They still were in possession of their wits and free will, knew what they were doing. Dana had to be locked up. If Faith was as unstable and damaged like Dana, and as dangerous for everyone, she should have been locked up too, not allowed to run around freely like a normal person. Ditto for Connor. Otherwise there'll be having pie and eating it too... It was a group effort to rehabiliate Faith, and lots of people took lots of risks to do it, rather than confine her like Dana. So yes, she doesn't get absolution on the grounds of being borderline psychotic and having unhappy childhood. On the other hand, she has to live her life as a free, functioning, normal person - but without any excuses for her actions. You can't have both, but the latter option is so much better.
Also if we go this route of excusing her for being psychotic and damaged, we can't really blame people around her for her extreme and out-of-left-field reactions to the slights which were mostly in her imagination, reactions which could be explained via her damaged psyche rather than via people being mean to her. Like "having to live in Buffy's shadow" - is not something which should normally provoke murderous tendencies. It's a perceived slight and not a real one. If you cast a shadow, you can't really be responsible that some people, who happen to be there, have violent reaction to it because of their childhood issues.
The roots of Faith troubles were subjective, as you said, she carried her tragedy inside of her. Her reactions weren't provoked as much by objective circumstances in SD but by her internal issues, by her inadequate reaction to those circumstances. And I agree, she really needed help then.
To illustrate: suppose there's this borderline-psychotic husband, say, a war-veteran with issues, who goes into violent fit every time his wife puts his spoon on the left of his plate and not on the right. And he beats up his wife for it. Should we blame his wife for regularly forgetting where to put a spoon and provoking him, or should we blame the husband and drag him by the hand to get help? Or, if you are a Monty Python fan: there's a sketch where a furniture salesman puts a paper bag on his head anytime anyone says "mattress". And his colleagues would keep blaming poor customers for constantly saying "mattress" and provoking him. Instead of getting help for the guy... I see Faith SD issues in a similar light. It was inside of her.
no subject
Umm... Connor? I think he's got much rougher deal, also with later betrayals and usage and all. Now I'm thinking that we've seen a lot of border-line psychotic people on the show who never got any help and were expected to function as usual. Except Dana who was obviously a raging psycho.
But Buffy didn't get any help in S6 and nobody, even Giles, thought about it, even when he learned about her being in depression. Faith didn't get any help (except maybe in prison?), Connor didn't. Spike and Angel both would've benefitted from it even though they had their demons raging underneath which would be outside of the field of human psychology.
Still all those guys, unlike Dana, would be considered legally responsible for what they did. They still were in possession of their wits and free will, knew what they were doing. Dana had to be locked up. If Faith was as unstable and damaged like Dana, and as dangerous for everyone, she should have been locked up too, not allowed to run around freely like a normal person. Ditto for Connor. Otherwise there'll be having pie and eating it too... It was a group effort to rehabiliate Faith, and lots of people took lots of risks to do it, rather than confine her like Dana. So yes, she doesn't get absolution on the grounds of being borderline psychotic and having unhappy childhood. On the other hand, she has to live her life as a free, functioning, normal person - but without any excuses for her actions. You can't have both, but the latter option is so much better.
Also if we go this route of excusing her for being psychotic and damaged, we can't really blame people around her for her extreme and out-of-left-field reactions to the slights which were mostly in her imagination, reactions which could be explained via her damaged psyche rather than via people being mean to her. Like "having to live in Buffy's shadow" - is not something which should normally provoke murderous tendencies. It's a perceived slight and not a real one. If you cast a shadow, you can't really be responsible that some people, who happen to be there, have violent reaction to it because of their childhood issues.
The roots of Faith troubles were subjective, as you said, she carried her tragedy inside of her. Her reactions weren't provoked as much by objective circumstances in SD but by her internal issues, by her inadequate reaction to those circumstances. And I agree, she really needed help then.
To illustrate: suppose there's this borderline-psychotic husband, say, a war-veteran with issues, who goes into violent fit every time his wife puts his spoon on the left of his plate and not on the right. And he beats up his wife for it. Should we blame his wife for regularly forgetting where to put a spoon and provoking him, or should we blame the husband and drag him by the hand to get help?
Or, if you are a Monty Python fan: there's a sketch where a furniture salesman puts a paper bag on his head anytime anyone says "mattress". And his colleagues would keep blaming poor customers for constantly saying "mattress" and provoking him. Instead of getting help for the guy... I see Faith SD issues in a similar light. It was inside of her.