ugh honestly dead man’s party is so bad I can’t stand to watch it. I don’t know how anyone is able to sympathize with joyce, xander, and willow more than with buffy (though thankfully I haven’t yet come across forms like what you describe and I hope I never will). I think I struggle to understand joyce the most. like, joycey, you were the one who impulsively kicked her out of your house with absolutely no way for you to contact her to tell her her didn’t mean it. you put this on yourself.
it honestly pisses me off how little responsibility she takes for the situation. sometimes I even wonder if she told giles and the scoobies that she kicked buffy out.
and then at the end of the episode they don’t even work out their issues. we’re supposed to believe they’re all friends again because they slayed some monsters together. this is absolutely shitty storytelling and character writing oh my god. their issues from this episode are never properly resolved and buffy is the one who’s supposed to take all the blame for all of this, despite how absolutely horrible everyone else was being to her.
anyways
I HATE HATE HATE THIS EPISODE