Question No more Jesse!

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cemeterybabe

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Does anyone else find this weird?
It's kind of weird that Jesse's name was never brought up again in any of the later seasons. Weren't Willow and Xander friends with him since they were little? It's not really his fault that he got sired either.
 
I get the impression that Jesse was like the "phaser fodder" on Star Trek, guys who beam down to a planet and get zapped fighting the locals. They are long-term crew members who are also never mentioned again.

We don't get a clear picture of whether Jesse has been friends with Willow and Xander for just high school or for longer than that. Jesse seems to be a throwback to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie where high school friends get sired and come back to entice their remaining human friends over to their side. Since we as viewers have no emotional investment in Jesse, who only shows up in the first two episodes, further mention would not really add to the story.
 
It is weird since they introduced him as one of Xander's good friends. I think they referred to him once or twice later in the show (but not by name, if memory serves me correctly) and once in the comics. I think it would have been more realistic to see both Xander and Willow a little more broken up about his death.
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
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Well maybe they had trouble differentiating at that point in time between who he was as a person and who he was as a vampire? Like if one of your friends did some horrible monstrous thing, maybe you wouldn't mourn them as much.
 
NY State of Mind
NY State of Mind
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I was always upset that Jesse was never mentioned again. After all, he was featured prominently in the first two episodes, and it seemed a little rediculous that the entire group was like "Jesse who?"
 
After his death I think they where in shock after it wore off they where knee deep in hellmouth fun to worry
 
Everyone talks about this but...I never noticed until people on BB brought it up. It's pretty unrealistic and it reminds me of how Prue on Charmed was hilariously never seen again in photos or flashbacks (because Shannen Doherty wouldn't let them show her face). It's lame and doesn't make sense, but at the same time I don't really care because I, personally, didn't get to know his character. He was in two episodes, sort of, and I truly forgot about him after the show progressed. I can understand why he didn't make another physical appearance, but it is a little odd that his character was never referenced or mentioned again.

Poor Jesse, he's as forgotten as Dawn in BEG's Buffy recaps.
 
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EffieT1
The pure thing was so funny especially when they had a flashback episode where she wasn't seen except in animal form
Poor Jesse is just a casualty of the much more campy ways of season 1.

Each episode ended more on a happy note no matter what disaster that had happened during the episode.
So it didn't really fit to mourn him which certainly would've been more realistic.

This obvious changed quite a lot already in season 2.
Which I think is both good and bad actually...

/SK
 
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EffieT1
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I think everyone has valid points made about the Jesse situation. I really think it has a lot to do with them being shocked and not knowing really how to act to it. However I still stand by the fact they should of acknowledged him in the later seasons. I always felt sorry for Jesse in a way because it seemed like he always was a nice guy who finished last.
 
A character we rarely got to know

Too bad we never got to know him, we knew he tried to get lucky with girls and that was his undoing.
I wonder if Xander still remembers him as a friend he lost tragically?
 
Am I wrong to think they did mention him at least once later on? I can't remember exactly though. I do find it a little strange if they didn't even though I don't think Willow & Xander were as close to him as they became with Buffy.
 
The only mention of Jesse after 'The Harvest' that I can remember is S9, when Xander and Dowling are hunting...whatever his partner was called.
 
Yeah, that did seem weird to me too. Also how little it seemed to faze Xander and Willow. Giles gave them the "you're not looking at your friend, you're looking at the thing that killed him" speech. I'd have expected more reaction out of, well, all of them. Longtime friend of Xander, so probably friends with Willow too. Even Cordelia was in the picture, though she found him annoying. And then Xander kinda sorta staked him. Oops!
 
Xander referred to Jesse as his 'blood' at one point. This would suggest they had known each other for a certain amount of time. I think one thing some people might forget to factor in is that Willow and Xander have a different relationship with Jesse than the audience do. We didn't have time to connect with Jesse, therefore we wouldn't be able to empathise with the characters mourning onscreen. It is possible that they did their mourning in-between episodes, and we just didn't get to see it.
 
I'm almost a hundred percent sure that Jesse is referenced in one of the later seasons, I think it was as a part of one of Xanders reasons why He hate vampires/ angel speeches as they'd cost him blah blah, the details escape me but he was definitely mentioned by name. But even if this was just one reference and yeah I find it weird that they don't seem sadder in S1 but I guess that had to do with one other commenter called the campy feel and also seeing as how the audience hasn't had a chance to connect with Jesse we might not have wanted to watch episodes of mourning for him.
 
I still say they should have put Jesse in 'Conversations with Dead People' There were a lot of references to the early seasons in season 7 and it would have been cool to see Xanders reaction to the First as Jesse.
 
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EffieT1
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