Everyone got to be comic relief at one point or the other: they played Buffy's post-Riley moping for comic relief in "Triangle", for example, and Spike's chip-bleeding in "The Killer in Me".
This being said: Xander had a bad year of it in season 4, but they played him as quiet strength from "The Replacement" till season 6 which was when relationship with Anya started to become jittery. And he certainly wasn't comic relief in 7.
I see season 7 Willow as definitely changed through her experience. The old Willow never would have been able to empathize with Anya the way she did, or just accept Faith.
Andrew and his Faith intro: no, Old Andrew would have presented Faith as having taken pointers from him.
And speaking of Faith: I recall there were a lot of complaints BEFORE the episodes were broadcast on how Faith's presentation on BTVS would be negating her growth on AtS, and this turned out to be ridiculously false. Not only was it the new, more mature Faith who turned up in Sunnydale but she and Buffy could finally come to peace with another. And let's not forget Faith's (redemptionist) character development didn't start on AtS - it started on BtVS, with "Who Are You?"
But...
This being said: Xander had a bad year of it in season 4, but they played him as quiet strength from "The Replacement" till season 6 which was when relationship with Anya started to become jittery. And he certainly wasn't comic relief in 7.
I see season 7 Willow as definitely changed through her experience. The old Willow never would have been able to empathize with Anya the way she did, or just accept Faith.
Andrew and his Faith intro: no, Old Andrew would have presented Faith as having taken pointers from him.
And speaking of Faith: I recall there were a lot of complaints BEFORE the episodes were broadcast on how Faith's presentation on BTVS would be negating her growth on AtS, and this turned out to be ridiculously false. Not only was it the new, more mature Faith who turned up in Sunnydale but she and Buffy could finally come to peace with another. And let's not forget Faith's (redemptionist) character development didn't start on AtS - it started on BtVS, with "Who Are You?"