SoS: Developing Xander

[nightshade]

How would you change the way Xander's character develops over the series?

 

[Cohen]

I mean, any development would be appreciated. He spends the first 3 seasons pining after Buffy, Cordelia and Willow. Then, he basically gets stuck with Anya and develops feelings for her. And then his final arc is dealing with the fallout of leaving her at the alter. He's the go-to humor guy, but he doesn't really ever change. He's older in season 7, but he's the same quippy young adult.

I wish we could have seen more into his home-life. And how that has affected him. He becomes this leader at his work, but we really never see that, either. Most of the episodes centered around him are comedic episodes, with some commentary, but it doesn't really push him. The replacement is probably the closest at character development and showing his insecurities and kind of accepting he's not a loser(?), but then that basically disappears for 3 more seasons.

 

[thrasherpix]

I wouldn't need much. I'd like to see him train, on his own and with Giles, and even Buffy (getting less defensive about that). I'd have liked to have seen more exposure to his family where Xander gets ripped into by his parents (as he surely does), and have it dawn on him that his ripping into Buffy and others is imitating that behavior, so strives to overcome it. (Arguably, it happened off screen.)


I won't say the tragic arcs and endings I can think for him...which is not based on hostility toward him. I love Jenny, but I was satisfied with what we got, and it drove the horror and stakes (no pun intended) home. He's self-sacrificing a lot, even risking his life to save people he doesn't like (like when he raced through fire with Cordelia, but then basically told her to get lost when she came to thank him later), so I'd like his tragic end to have an aroma of nobility to it, comparable to Buffy at the end of season 5, at least leaning in that direction (at the very least, Doyle level).


While I don't really want it in the show, if I were inclined to still write fanfics, I think I would do one of him as a powerful warlock (which I can tap canon for), with even more power than Willow. And rather than hubris, his really can follow the addiction story line given that he comes from a family of addicts (*) and drives home that no matter how much power you get (money, physical, magic, whatever), it doesn't miraculously make you happy or drive away the demons (his parents) in his head. (Maybe his overcoming his childhood could even cure him of being a demon magnet...).

In this case, I can't decide whether Willow is still much of a witch, or if she instead focuses on technology. Otherwise, anything more than a short story begs for a conflict between them (much in the style of Buffy and Faith). It keeps them from being redundant if she's tech-gal. (And kinda fits with the Mulder and Scully formula, a nice reverse where the man is the mystic and the woman is the skeptical--but not foolish and dogmatic--scientist.)

(* I was raised for years with alcoholic parents and been around addicts to stronger drugs in my life, but other than some experimentation, I did not follow the path of addiction...at least not chemical anyway. That is, I'm not operating on the assumption that a child of addict will grow to become an addict, just that I think that scenario would've worked better with Xander than with Willow.)

 

[Bop]

I think the development for Xander was really hollow, they just seemed to think development for him meant putting him in a suit and giving him a good job, they could have taken him off the show after season 3 and had him return in season 7 with those things because that's not actually a story. I would have wanted the writers to take him more seriously as a character.

 

[Stake fodder]

I would have liked to see Xander develop some fighting skills. Not magical, since that would duplicate Willow and Buffy, but just working on hand-to-hand combat skills, martial arts maybe, and using weaponry - maybe even his own tool kit of hammers and wrenches, etc.? It seems logical that he would have taken his own fighting development seriously, but we never see that.

 

[NotASlayer]

Stop resetting his character development every time he gets any and admit that you don't survive what he did without getting some skills. In season five, he would have been the strongest human and works with tools, and you need decent physical skills to use those without losing bits. Both of which can translate well into combat proficiency.

It really seemed like the writers hated having Xander gain any development as a character.