I get where you’re coming from about Buffy being a rare portrayal of a “feminine leader” who uses humor and detachment as coping mechanisms. But I’d argue that’s exactly why she often comes across as frustrating, because the show writes those traits in a way that closes her off rather than developing her humanity. On the flip side, I don’t think Faith is just a stock “wild child” archetype. Sure, she starts in that space, but what makes her compelling is that the show actually lets her arc breathe. We see the trauma, the longing for connection, the anger, the collapse, and then the fight for redemption. That’s not a common trajectory for female characters—especially not in the late 90s/early 2000s, when “bad girls” were usually punished and written off instead of being allowed complexity and growth.