Joss' Plans For Anya and Xander

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Spirit_Of_Fred

The Psycho
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okay, so in season 5, joss thinks the show's going to be over, right? he does the big show finale with "the gift", including xander proposing to anya, and her accepting, pending their survival.

so, going on the belief that some may have, and others may not, one could surmise that the proposal happened in that episode mainly since it was a finale, which joss assumed would end the show. my question then is, if you believe this (or if you dont, and just want to hypothesize as if you do), what would joss have decided to do with xander and anya in season 6 had he been assured there would be one? are you certain it would have stayed the same? would they have remained together happily through season 6? would they have still had issues (since it was such a dark season), but they would be different issues? or something else entirely? personally, im not sure, so im interested to hear what you guys think 🙂.
 
Wasn't Anya supposed to die in one of the original drafts of 'The Gift'? I remember reading something, sometime later, that said that one of the scripts for 'The Gift' was leaked and they had to do a major rewrite, changing a lot of things, and I think one of them was Anya's death/survival.

Anya dying, leaving Xander a widower before he was even married would have been a pretty dark time for him. The sadist in me would have loved to have seen that.
 
Yeah, Joss might have known that BTVS was going to have a sixth season, but that doesn't mean that Anya was originally slated to die. She wasn't even supposed to become a recurring character, much less a series regular. It was just that Joss like Emma and wanted to bring Anya back that her character kept getting reprivals.
 
well i had always thought that if the show had ended at season 5, then Anya was dead there. She pushed Xander out the way, saved his life and died for him (somehow making up for all the evil she had done as a demon) She was injured anywhos and could have died of internal bleeding later, but the show went on (THANK FRAK!) and so did Anya.... HOORAY!!!!!!!!
 
L
Lindsey McDonald
Thank Frak?
Airam
Airam
Frak is the F word of the future from Battlestar Galactica, and I ONLY know that from Veronica Mars :)
If I remember right, Joss planned on killing off Xander in season 5 finale, because he said Xander was "done" (character growth-wise) He gave Nicholas Brendon the decision on whether he wanted to stay in the cast knowing Xander was going to remain as is. Nicholas Brendon said he stayed on for the paycheck.
 
Nicholas Brandon even said in an interview, that Joss had confronted him with the choice of killing off Xander, because Xander wasn't going to get anymore storylines, character development, etc. He gave Nick the choice to leave or stay, and he said he stayed because he wanted the paycheck. I'll try to find the interview.
 
mrjinxed said:
Nicholas Brandon even said in an interview, that Joss had confronted him with the choice of killing off Xander, because Xander wasn't going to get anymore storylines, character development, etc. He gave Nick the choice to leave or stay, and he said he stayed because he wanted the paycheck. I'll try to find the interview.
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Please do, sounds interesting! Anyways, Xander did get to save the world even, at the end of S6 ("using his mouth"). So it's well he survived...

It's true his character didn't evolve as much as most of the others, but I think they made good use of Xander throughout the series. His character works well even without much growth, IMHO.
 
I'm trying! LOL! I had found it on a different board, but it doesn't have a search function so i'm having to go a lot of threads.

Besides, that wasn't the first time Jss tried killing off Xander. They also wanted to kill him towards the end of Season 7, but felt it was too late into the season, so they just took away an eye.

Anyways, i'll post the interview as soon a I find it.
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p.s.

When I read that interview, I thought it was weird they would kill Buffy AND Xander (from the interview, it was pretty obvious Xander wasn't going to come back) - then I wondered, why Willow would bring back Buffy and not Xander as well...?
 
Because urn would have worked only for one and Xander would have died to normal death.

But what i suspect is that the decision of Xander to continue might have saved Anya life. If Xander had left i fear Anya would have died and that would have caused Xander to leave Sunnydale.
 
I always wondered why Joss didn't have Xander "grow up" a little more & have Giles train him as a watcher. But they seemed to go in that direction with Dawn.

Freaky.
 
I think it would've been too presumptuous to say that Xander had grown as much as he could. Think about that goofy friend of yours from high school. Everyone has one. Then look at him now. Whether positive or negative, there's always somewhere for that person to grow. I just think Joss perhaps got bored of the character and wanted to focus on the women. To me, it would've been a major mistake.
 
I really doubt that Joss thought Xander was "done" in terms of character development. I mean, if that was the case, why would Xander figure so prominently in season 8? He basically has Giles' old job now.

That said, season 6 DID sort of have Xander regressing in order to then move forward again.
 
Well, in "Restless", Anya makes her vengence comment, saying that the following year (that's to say S5) was gonna be really good for vengence. That's because Joss originally intended to make the whole wedding story in S5 but finally changed his mind when he saw how full S5 already was. So he decided to postpone it : it'd be for S6.
That's why I think it was all planed out anyway.
 
Five said:
Well, in "Restless", Anya makes her vengence comment, saying that the following year (that's to say S5) was gonna be really good for vengence. That's because Joss originally intended to make the whole wedding story in S5 but finally changed his mind when he saw how full S5 already was. So he decided to postpone it : it'd be for S6.
That's why I think it was all planed out anyway.
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ive never heard that. was it in an interview or something, or is that speculation? it seems there are too many theories on this to keep anything straight! 😛
 
this may make me sound bad but buffy started to be a show that showed strong women. and for the first 5 years years did that. but they seem to show weak men. take away angle and you have oz they never showed him as strong giles who wanted buffy to love him (father way) that he never stood up to her like he should have, and xander who was bave, but acted like a kid to much.


but in season 6 and 7 they made the women weaker.
willow got addicted to magic, dawn was a thief and buffy spike. i get there are a lot of spike fans but they made her in to a girl that had to have a man.

but what make me mad is they keep the guys weak

i belive in girl power, i idea that i dont need a man to take care of me. but there is nothing wrong with wanted them to. to let people that love you help you.

i wish they would have made the men giles oz xander raily stand up a little more,
 
I haven't heard this about XANDER dying. I would really like conformation as there is too much gossip in fandom anyhow. I don't meant to offend anyone. I just like cold hard facts!!
 
Your Creamy Coolness said:
I haven't heard this about XANDER dying. I would really like conformation as there is too much gossip in fandom anyhow. I don't meant to offend anyone. I just like cold hard facts!!
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Ditto. I just read through this entire thread, and wow, I didn't know have of what was mentioned.
 
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