"The Replacement" and its Benefits

Jekyll and Hyde most clearly demonstrates my point, so I’ll start there. It seems to me that part of the lesson characters learn from their doppelgangers is along the lines of “vice in moderation.” Aristotle was the (published) originator of the idea of everything in moderation, and naturally everything includes vice, or less-than-charming personality traits, etc. Xander’s doppelganger has all his more forceful and confident traits, and as Buffy observed, he seemed “a little forceful.” Willow’s vampire self, as Willow put it, “messed up everything she touched” (with a few exceptions, of course, Percy!). Hyde, obviously was a nasty fellow, running around kicking children and murdering popular public figures. The dwarf was busy causing a shipwreck before he ran into Guido. All four doppelgangers are the dark side (or in Xander’s case the serious, confident, forceful side of him) of their others. As Hyde shows us, too much of that side results in some serious problems for everyone, including Jekyll and the dead dude. But each doppelganger somehow benefited the other. Xander recognized the stronger parts of himself, allowing him to become a more fully rounded person; vampire Willow helped Willow to see herself objectively and to change without losing the good parts of herself (also, Percy!! Hahaha best thing ever); Guido gets the girl and the money and the overly-benevolent in-law; Jekyll gets some euphoric freedom. In moderation, Xander and Willow begin to enact their new-found personality traits with good results (at least until Willow turns into a crazed magic-addict). Jekyll, because he also became addicted and no longer followed the moderation rule, ended up dead. Guido, as we have argued previously, could be construed as the bad half, though “Transformation” is a little ambiguous. But in moderation, he got his life back. Had he allowed the dwarf to live his life entirely, Guido would have been stuck on a beach, ugly as hell, while some evil little troll was walking around in his body, marrying his girl. So lucky for him he decided to “kick the habit” by helping the dwarf to “kick the bucket.”