What If: Xander was shot?

[famicommander]

Re: Xander; They were out of ideas for him since Season 4, unless he was intended to be a cautionary tale about why you go to college after highschool.

Season 5 was actually pretty good for him. He gets promoted at work, he gets his own apartment, he moves in with his girlfriend, he gets engaged. I don't think that's a bad place at all for someone to be at his age.

 

[NotASlayer]

True, by the end of season five, Xander was personally and professionally successful, was clearly making decent money so hardly works that well as a cautionary tale, especially as that part only got better, was confident in himself and was successfully working in a leadership role, another part that constantly improved.

Which makes season six's pitiful mess of a Xander complete with a non-existent before S6 fear of becoming his father and less self-confidence than he had in S1 look like he's a pod person replacement of the real one.

 

[hoponlilmama]

Which makes season six's pitiful mess of a Xander complete with a non-existent before S6 fear of becoming his father and less self-confidence than he had in S1 look like he's a pod person replacement of the real one.

All the audience needed was a scene or two spread out over a couple of episodes to show us Xander's doubts and fears, if that's what they were going for.

A number of issues on the series could've been fixed doing so.

Post automatically merged: Oct 15, 2024

@NotASlayer - You are correct - there was a plan. That plan bombed with test audiences so Whedon-Noxon tried other things while sticking to the overall idea of "Life Is The Big Bad" which failed so horribly that they went with Dark Willow.

Yay?

Which is then amusing because as someone here pointed out, in s7 all of these serious financial woes disappear in s7. What happened? 🤣

 

[NotASlayer]

All the audience needed was a scene or two spread out over a couple of episodes to show us Xander's doubts and fears, if that's what they were going for.

The thing was, we already had an episode showing Xander's doubts and fears - "The Replacement" - and that was not one of them. Scruffy Xander, in that episode, was willing to hand over his life to Suave Xander, as Suave Xander, when Scruffy Xander thought he was a demon, was doing a much better job of it. The only reason Scruffy Xander did not give up completely was Anya. If Xander had truly worried about becoming his father, and believed Anya was better off without him, Scruffy Xander would have had that fear, given up and, given his tone at the time, probably killed himself. Instead, he went after Suave Xander with a gun. And we know Xander had been thinking about a future with Anya, in this episode and as far back as "Where the Wild Things Are" so the entire idea of marriage was in Xander's mind, so it wasn't something he hadn't considered.

There was no way that fear would not have been possessed by Scruffy Xander, so it literally did not exist prior to season six. But season six went truly overboard with ignoring the previous five seasons.

 

[hoponlilmama]

The thing was, we already had an episode showing Xander's doubts and fears - "The Replacement" - and that was not one of them. Scruffy Xander, in that episode, was willing to hand over his life to Suave Xander, as Suave Xander, when Scruffy Xander thought he was a demon, was doing a much better job of it. The only reason Scruffy Xander did not give up completely was Anya. If Xander had truly worried about becoming his father, and believed Anya was better off without him, Scruffy Xander would have had that fear, given up and, given his tone at the time, probably killed himself. Instead, he went after Suave Xander with a gun. And we know Xander had been thinking about a future with Anya, in this episode and as far back as "Where the Wild Things Are" so the entire idea of marriage was in Xander's mind, so it wasn't something he hadn't considered.

There was no way that fear would not have been possessed by Scruffy Xander, so it literally did not exist prior to season six. But season six went truly overboard with ignoring the previous five seasons.

True we got that episode, but I meant it would've been better showing something like that in s6, considering they were building up to the wedding.

As we've mentioned, s6 is the season for drama, so everyone had to be miserable. Would've been nice to have allowed X&A to marry.

 

[TheAnnoyingOne]

Chances are he'd have died and the world would have been screwed. Buffy's Slayer powers allowed her to survive long enough for Willow to save her, it's very unlikely Xander would have had the same luck. And Willow would have been even more pissed.

 

[burrunjor]

If Warren had killed Willow's girlfriend, her best male friend and her first crush and her sister Buffy with a couple of rounds, imagine what Willow would have done to him? Would have made his actual flaying look like ripping off a plaster.

 

[garfan]

True we got that episode, but I meant it would've been better showing something like that in s6, considering they were building up to the wedding.

As we've mentioned, s6 is the season for drama, so everyone had to be miserable. Would've been nice to have allowed X&A to marry.

They were trying for that with his hesitancy to reveal the engagement.

They would probably figure no reason to show him afraid to become like his father prior to that season because prior to that season he wasn't getting ready to become a husband and potentially a father so it wasn't on his mind

 

[hoponlilmama]

They were trying for that with his hesitancy to reveal the engagement.

They would probably figure no reason to show him afraid to become like his father prior to that season because prior to that season he wasn't getting ready to become a husband and potentially a father so it wasn't on his mind

What we mostly see is Xander overwhelmed (and both of them expressing their doubts and fears in OMWF). He got engaged, but didn't put much thought into what comes after - which is the rest of his life - house, marriage, children etc. I believe Anya even talks about it in the episode All The Way.

For them in Hell's Bells to show he's afraid of turning out like his father pivots from what the audience is being fed.

It's interesting when I watched s6 back - I think we tend to forget Xander and co are only about 21. Maybe that's just me?

NotASlayer Perhaps someone needed "drama does not mean misery" explaining to them...

Right? Couples can have 'drama' without breaking up or being utterly miserable.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Joss cannot fathom that there could be continuing drama between an established husband and wife, so Xander did not get married. I thought this was a fitting punishment for Anya since she had caused so much misery for men for more than a millennium. Maybe Joss should have watched a few episodes of "MacMillan and Wife" or some other show where married couples have interesting drama together. Even something like "Leave It To Beaver" would at least show some idea of what married life is like without constant will they / won't they type of drama that film schools love and viewers hate.

As for Xander getting shot (and I presume killed like Tara), this would be a great thing to put in an advertising campaign. "Find out which of Buffy's close friends dies tonight." But it would be a short-lived boost in ratings which would then fall off due to the loss of a core scoobie. If he was not killed, there would have been the same scene where Willow took over the operating room and did the same thing as she did for Buffy. It was better the way it was written. The only other person we see getting shot was Oz at the school career day and it was written as non-life threatening, so whatever happened to Xander would have to be serious or it would just be a repeat of the Oz scene.