Interesting observations! I particularly liked your thoughts about Willow and Buffy. Yes, Vamp!Willow is just rather aimless but Dark!Willow is full of her own power, resentful and competitive. It's a different vibe. And I liked what you wrote about Buffy trying to hang on to her humanity as a tie to life, and the idea you mentioned upthread that this is what Buffy meant when she told Spike being with him was killing her. The Wish!verse Buffy really does seem pretty dead inside.
As for Xander, I always thought he had a very distinct dark side, as opposed to Willow's which we really didn't see until S6. To me the most chilling thing about him was always his reluctance to take responsibility for his own actions. This came out particularly strongly in his breakup with Cordelia, although it came as early as his reaction post-possession in "The Pack." His tendency to deny or blame others for his own failures was often done in a jokey fashion but it's really a pretty sociopathic tendency. (Among the descriptors of a sociopathic personality is: Glibness/superficial charm, Lack of remorse or guilt and Failure to accept responsibility for own actions.) Of course he also shows warmth and empathy, and many other positive traits which counter that. But as a vamp, those traits would disappear leaving behind a killer who would likely blame his victims for making him torture them.
I loved that comment about him preferring to watch Angel be tortured. It seems to me even there he wants to see the torture without bothering to be responsible for doing it.
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As for Xander, I always thought he had a very distinct dark side, as opposed to Willow's which we really didn't see until S6. To me the most chilling thing about him was always his reluctance to take responsibility for his own actions. This came out particularly strongly in his breakup with Cordelia, although it came as early as his reaction post-possession in "The Pack." His tendency to deny or blame others for his own failures was often done in a jokey fashion but it's really a pretty sociopathic tendency. (Among the descriptors of a sociopathic personality is:
Glibness/superficial charm, Lack of remorse or guilt and Failure to accept responsibility for own actions.) Of course he also shows warmth and empathy, and many other positive traits which counter that. But as a vamp, those traits would disappear leaving behind a killer who would likely blame his victims for making him torture them.
I loved that comment about him preferring to watch Angel be tortured. It seems to me even there he wants to see the torture without bothering to be responsible for doing it.