Gay Willow or gay Xander?

[Chosen Enemy]

As you may or may not know, before Joss turned Willow gay, it was between her and Xander. One of them would turn out to be gay. In the end Joss decided it to be Willow.

Would you prefer the gay character to be Xander and not Willow? And how would that affect the rest of the show?

 

[Seeing Red]

I would say I am glad it was Willow. I feel that it was a good change for the character and Tara helped her mature more. I feel that Anya was a good match for Xander and helped him change in ways that he would not have been able to alone. Overall I am glad that Joss did it the way he did.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I am glad he went with Willow... In my opinion, there was never enough male presence in the Scooby Gang. Giles was there, sure, but we needed the testosterone to kinda balance things out, so I'm glad that Xander stayed straight. If Xander had gone gay it just would have felt like the show wasn't balanced right to me.

 

[Skytteflickan88]

I have heard that Joss hadn't decided who to make gay at first, but I could never find a good source for it. Do you have one?

 

[BuffyElevated]

Skytteflickan88 agrees: I think the testerone levels would have stayed the same. Gay men don't always seem "girly" if that's what you man. Or gotten higher, if they brought in a boyfriend for Xander.

Um, I know that not all gay men are feminine acting. However, there was already too much estrogen in that cast. Even Xander had moments where he acted less-than-manly. I'm just saying I think it would have been weird to have no masculine guys in Buffy's circle of friends and for the show.

 

[caritas08]

I think that there was a little more foreshadowing for Xander to be gay but I love Tillow so I'm glad it was Will. I also think it was important for the show to have a straight male character that loved, accepted and respected Buffy just as she was in a brotherly platonic way.

 

[dexeded]

I like Willow being gay, but I think Xander being gay would have brought other positive things to the show as well. Like, well, more males. And to assert the point that Wicca does not equal gay. And also to stop the barrage of fics with Xander as the jealous guy who's still not over Buffy.

 

[Mumrik]

I am glad he went with Willow... In my opinion, there was never enough male presence in the Scooby Gang. Giles was there, sure, but we needed the testosterone to kinda balance things out, so I'm glad that Xander stayed straight. If Xander had gone gay it just would have felt like the show wasn't balanced right to me.

If Xander had been gay and assuming the cast would have been constructed the same way it was, there'd be more testosterone because Willow's girlfriend wouldn't have been added but her boyfriend, plus Xander's boyfriend, which would make the cast three women (Buffy, Willow, Dawn) and five, later four (well, more probable would be three since Willow's BF would probably be killed off, too), men (Giles, Xander, Spike, Xander's BF, Willow's BF) as opposed to five, later four, women (Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Anya, Tara) and three, later two, men (Giles, Xander, Spike), so by S7, the main cast would have been even.

Being gay wouldn't have made Xander less masculine - especially since he wasn't all that masculine to begin with - and who's to say he wouldn't have gotten a really butch boyfriend?

 

[Deus Ex Machina]

When I first saw Buffy, it was in season 4 and at the time I thought Willow had always been gay so I wasn't phased by Willow/Tara and in fact was totally shipping them all the way. When my ex told me about Oz, I was like "Pfft, whatever, can't you see the love between Willow and Tara? It's more awesome than whatever had with some dude"

So, when I went back to watch the first seasons, imagine my surprise at a straight Willow with no real foreshadowing! Then imagine more surprise when I saw more foreshadowing to Xander being gay and in the closet than Willow being gay and in the closet. Xander being girl crazy but always having those conversations with Larry just made me think "Wow, Xander might be gay" and something about the opening episode for season 4 also made me think that. It was like Nick was playing Xander a bit differently.

I felt that as the seasons progressed, Xander was going to come out as well but he never did. I also then lost what connection I had to Willow/Tara because they never really explained how Willow had suddenly gone from a 0 or a 1 on the Kinsey scale to a 5 or a 6 and I experienced the awesomeness that was Oz. I was expecting some more conversations and inner turmoil for that. If Willow had only fallen in love with Tara then I maybe could've nixed the need for the conversations as to how it happened as I felt that was what it was set up for. With Xander, most definitely we would've gotten those conversations.

Plus, they put Xander on this major back burner for the later seasons and that didn't need to happen. Any time we saw him he was either dishing advice, pulling a dick move or doing something stupid. His being gay and with a demon boyfriend might have been more interesting, especially if he learned with him how to fight and still become "the seer" but with muscle instead of "the seer" with the plucky one liners.

 

[Moscow Watcher]

I heard rumors that in season 4 Spike was reintroduced to be Xander's love interest, while Anya had been supposed to start romance with Giles. I can definitely see foreshadowing for both couples: Xander teasing Spike ("I'm moist and delicious") and Giles smashing Anya's pendant in The Wish, thus dooming her to human existence.

But the only thing known more or less for sure is that by the end of season 3 Joss was toying with both Xander and Willow turning gay. Here's an excerpt from a fan report from Sydney convention in November 2000 posted about 10 years ago at now-defunct Hannigan Online

After she signed the book, she looked at it for a second and started flicking through the glossy picture sections, muttering something about "let me tell you a story about something, I'm going to vent here." Wow, I thought, juicy goss. "No, I think the picture's actually in the Yearbook," she said. "Here you go, Alyson, find it in mine," I said, and handed her my copy. After a few more seconds of flipping through the pages, she announced, "Here it is. Let me tell you a story about this picture and Joss. We were doing some official shots and we had one of a couple of cheerleaders hanging off Nicky's arms and me in the background looking like poor and rejected Willow. As we were finishing up, Joss asked me and Nicky to swap and have the cheerleaders hang off me. I said, 'Come on, Joss, that's a silly idea,' but he was like, 'No, it's cool, don't worry, it's just for me.' So I take the picture, and what do you know, it shows up IN THE YEARBOOK! So, who knows, maybe Joss had his plans for Willow then and he wanted this picture to set it up."

Here's the pic:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v671/MoscowWatcher/Misc/Willow_gay.jpg

 

[zobothehobo]

All I can think is that Nick doesn't look like "poor Xander," he looks disgusted for some reason or another.

 

[Chosen Enemy]

All I can think is that Nick doesn't look like "poor Xander," he looks disgusted for some reason or another.

I thought the opposite thing. He looks like Poor Xander because girls STILL don't pay attention to him. He's like: "Damn, I will never get some".

 

[BuffyElevated]

Yeah for some reason Xander looks kinda grossed out or weirded out in that pic instead of rejected. LOL
I remember seeing that pic in the Yearbook when I got and going "Kinda weird shot..." and then Season 4 happened and I thought "Hmmm... Guess they were giving us a little hint at what was to come."

 

[Skytteflickan88]

I think the first hint was vampire willow. Huge hint.

 

[Icarium]

Let's just say, I wouldn't trust the people who gave us (probably) gay Andrew and made him the most pathetic character ever to pull off a well executed gay Xander storyline.

 

[Moscow Watcher]

Skytteflickan88:
I heard about the spike & Xander thing as well, but I don't have a source. Do you by any chance recall where you read that Joss toyed with the idea to turn Xander gay?

I vaguely remember reading about actors talking about it at conventions, but I don't have neither quotes no links.

We should ask Sosa Lola about it! She's the biggest expert on that topic!

 

[Skytteflickan88]

[MENTION=7613]sosa lola[/MENTION] , any ideas regarding the post above?

 

[Icarium]

Skytteflickan88 agrees: So you don't think they did the Willow transformation well?

No, I think gay male characters are far more likely to be turned into a parody by making them as campy and effeminate as possible. And the writers did show quite a liking for humiliating Xander in "funny" ways in S4, making him camp gay could have suited their purpose well.

 

[Deus Ex Machina]

I think the first hint was vampire willow. Huge hint.

Vampire Willow was bisexual not gay. It would've hinted towards a bisexual Willow but not a gay Willow. So Vampire Willow was pretty much a bust in that respect.

 

[Skytteflickan88]

Vampire Willow was bisexual not gay. It would've hinted towards a bisexual Willow but not a gay Willow. So Vampire Willow was pretty much a bust in that respect.

I disagree, since Willow was shown to be able to be attracted to both men and women, same as vampire willow. Maybe hetrosexuality was a phase for Willow, but it was part of her life for a while.

If Willow had been shown to be in denial and not have really ever wanted oz and Xander (something that can be argued, but not proven) I would say that yes, it didn't really hint on anything. But that's not the case.