Xander sees?

[Girl with Sword]

What was with that crap about Xander seeing in season 7? I love him and he's as loyal as a dog but the man is blind. He once walked in on Buffy and Spike doing it and didn't see. Sure, she was invisible, but she was obviously there. He has quite a heart but he sticks to his first impression and sees nothing after that. So why did they keep going on like he sees everything.

 

[caitaintdead]

Ooooh i like you, and without turning this into one of my world famous Xander rants I will just say that being able to see things clearly definitely isn't true and was just there to make things worse when his eye gets poked out (which didn't need all the seeing stuff - it was horrendous and horrible anyway). Just like all the other things that the writing team tried to hard with to try and wrap things up. (Like Killow for example, and Angel coming back with the cookie conversation). Frustrating.

 

[sosa lola]

I think it's something he gained in S7. You'd notice how mature he had grown to be, there were many times in the season where he notices that Buffy is tired or asleep and tells her so. He gets less talkative and more observing, so I think it's a quality he gains in S7.

It's like with Willow being a witch, which started in Becoming 2. And Spike becoming a good guy which started later in the series.

 

[BuffyElevated]

Ooooh, you Xander bashers are going to make me hate you! LOL

He proved more than once in the series that he could be intelligent and insightful, and those were his skills within the Scooby Gang. For instance with Willow in S6, when he saved the world by using his ability to SEE that she could still be reached, so he got through to her by making her remember that her life wasn't always full of pain and loss; she had people who loved her.
He also used his ability to SEE when he saw that Dawn felt dissapointed and left out when she wasn't the potential instead of Amanda. He used his ability to SEE in S4 when he saw that Buffy was feeling overwhelmed and depressed that college life was a lot harder than she thought it was going to be...

Xander is a very valuable member of the Scoobies and I'm sick of people acting like he's not. Without Xander, the show would have been a LOT more different, and probably a lot more boring.

 

[PurplePoof]

I don't know about his ability to see...but I definitely noticed in the later seasons it became far more difficult to see around him...

😀

 

[caitaintdead]

I think it's something he gained in S7. You'd notice how mature he had grown to be, there were many times in the season where he notices that Buffy is tired or asleep and tells her so. He gets less talkative and more observing, so I think it's a quality he gains in S7.

It's like with Willow being a witch, which started in Becoming 2. And Spike becoming a good guy which started later in the series.

See this is what bugs me, they started to mature Xanders character in seven 7, but it just feels so forced. Like Killow. Xander did start evolving, but it was to little to late, and then it was all ruined for me by the way the scoobies threw Buffy out of her home.

Xander is definitely a more mature together person for the most part of seven 7, but I would have liked this to happen earlier, and more smoothly.

It just didn't work for me.

 

[white avenger]

The whole "Xander sees" thing was a Season 7 element, so it might have been just Joss' attempt to give Xander a better, more important ending role than he had had in the previous 6 seasons. Like Gunn on "Angel," Xander was pretty much just muscle and errand boy up until the final season, when both characters got something of a character boost. With Gunn, it was a brain boost from W&H, and with Xander it was a responsibility boost in the form of running his own construction crew by day and pretty much being the only male team member before Spike and Giles returned, and even after that, he was pretty much the "den daddy" to all of the Potentials.

 

[sosa lola]

See this is what bugs me, they started to mature Xanders character in seven 7, but it just feels so forced. Like Killow. Xander did start evolving, but it was to little to late, and then it was all ruined for me by the way the scoobies threw Buffy out of her home.

Xander is definitely a more mature together person for the most part of seven 7, but I would have liked this to happen earlier, and more smoothly.

It just didn't work for me.

I think it's gradual. Xander's character changes a lot during the show, not just in S7: S5 Xander for example isn't like S1 Xander. His change is so subtle and "“I know you'll hate me for saying this- so true to real life.

Anyway, I'll only talk about his change in S7: Xander had lived his life covering his pain and fear with a joke, until Anya yells the truth to him in Entropy. Then Xander starts joking less and being more serious, the change started since later S6, and S7 only developed it more. He grows more parental toward Dawn (even though we've seen the signs for it in S6) and he gets more understanding toward Buffy's feelings toward Spike after Selfless when he gets to experience what Buffy had with Angel/Angel. He gets quiet and jokes less because of Anya's comment in Entropy, she was the first one to open his eyes to his wrong approach to deal with crisis.

Why is it too late for Xander to grow up, when both Buffy and Willow grew up in S7? Buffy had been a self-involved, abusive person in S6 toward Spike and Willow had been a controlling, power-thirsty witch in S6, and we've only seen the change in their characters in S7. Why is it not too late for them but it is for Xander?

I don't think there's something as "too late", if the character changes and grows up in the end, that's what matters. Doesn't matter when they do.

 

[PurplePoof]

I do think the most important contribution Xander made to season 7 was getting his eye ripped out, though...which is pretty sad, when you think about it...

 

[BuffyElevated]

I really don't understand why some of you are so hard on Xander. He was, by far, not the most ignorant or annoying character on the show yet you people continue to bash him as if he were the be-all/end-all of retarded Buffy characters. He was a sarcastic, sometimes goofy joker for most of the show, yes, but he also stood by his friends in good times and bad, and faught the good fight even though he was not nearly the strongest or best fighter in the bunch. He chose to be a good guy, time and time again. If that's so horrible, I guess I'm evil right along with him, 'cause I saw a LOT of myself in his character over the seasons.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

What was with that crap about Xander seeing in season 7? I love him and he's as loyal as a dog but the man is blind. He once walked in on Buffy and Spike doing it and didn't see. Sure, she was invisible, but she was obviously there. He has quite a heart but he sticks to his first impression and sees nothing after that. So why did they keep going on like he sees everything.

I think it alludes to him being an "insider" - like, the one whom sees whats going on with the Slayer and all, her plans, etc. And he was a threat, to the First, so...
That's what I got out of it, anyway.

 

[fly on the wall]

I think it was more...he can't do anything but see. He has no special powers, so all he can do is observe and learn from his friend's powers. It was a process, this seeing trait. It accumulated. Saying that Xander observed might have been a little more accurate than "saw."

It did seem a little forced. And I'm not the biggest marcher in the Xander-love parade, but I did like this touch they added to S7. Xander's speech in Potential is one of my favorites of the series.

 

[Kana]

I loved his 'Potential' speech. To me it gives focus to Xander's seemingly insiginificant acts that really do make a difference. He's been on the front line for years without any superstrength or magical powers but rarely getting recognition for it. It seems that fans are guilty of the same thing and tend to overlook his talents.

Someone said that Xander reminds them of Gunn. I'd agree with this because both have many assets that are overlooked and sometimes they overlook them, themselves, whch leads them to make dubious choices (brain upgrades and leaving girls at the alter etc).

Xander is the champion of mediocrity.

 

[palabravampiress]

I think Xander's ability to "see" accumulated gradually over the course of the series. In season one, his thinking was very narrow. His lines were often dominated by black-or-white thinking. "I don't like vampires. I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good," he said in WTTH after vamps got his friend Jessie. By Prophecy Girl, his thoughts were still pretty much the same. "I don't like you. At the end of the day, I pretty much think you're a vampire," he told Angel. Good was good and bad was bad and Xander was not able to see very much beyond that. Even so, there was a small germ of potential there. Faced with Buffy's dead body, Angel was quick to give up hope. Xander saw more possibilities, one of which ended up saving Buffy's life. This starts a trend. When all hope seems lost, Xander is often the one to see a new and better way to bring the situation to a favorable resolution.

While I agree that this trait is amplified in season 7, I don't agree that it's just a season 7 thing. Xander was flawed and he made a lot of mistakes over the years, yes, but his emotional connections to the other characters did often allow him to see the solution to problems. At the end of the day, he had a lot of valuable insight into others' emotions. He was able to see little things, like the fact that Cordy needed a new dress in season 3, as well as bigger things, like how to reach Willow in season 6. By season 7, Xander had matured to the point that he was able to apply that gradually acquired skill in order to finally work with a vampire, to guide and assist the potential slayers, to be a much-needed male role model for Dawn, etc. So while I certainly agree that this was certainly more noticeable in season 7, I can't say that it was strictly a season 7 trait. I think it was a Xander trait that, like Buffy's leadership skills and Willow's self-confidence, was amplified in the last season as we went hurtling toward a finale.

 

[Queen Mum]

I thought Xander was in a way the audience. Well at least he was the person the audience could best identify itself with throughout the entire story. I liked him and I believe he was one of the most important characters. Think how often he helped rescuing the day and as far as I can remember saved the world twice from destruction. In Season 1 he revived Buffy and in Season 6, well he brought Willow back. Next to that, he was an important friend to Willow and Buffy and obviously to Anya and basically anybody who got to know him. His character made a gradual development during the story, I just remember him giving Buffy a Riley-speech which was very significant and yeah, it shows how he has grown to be an adult.

 

[PurplePoof]

I really don't understand why some of you are so hard on Xander. He was, by far, not the most ignorant or annoying character on the show yet you people continue to bash him as if he were the be-all/end-all of retarded Buffy characters. He was a sarcastic, sometimes goofy joker for most of the show, yes, but he also stood by his friends in good times and bad, and faught the good fight even though he was not nearly the strongest or best fighter in the bunch. He chose to be a good guy, time and time again. If that's so horrible, I guess I'm evil right along with him, 'cause I saw a LOT of myself in his character over the seasons.

I think a lot of people are hard on Xander because he's so easy to be hard on...I guess it's the same reason why he was such a popular target for Cordelia. You're right, he wasn't the most ignorant or annoying character on the show, but he did consistently irritate me more than any of the other regulars. He was just so...judgmental. And I laugh when some people say they hated Buffy because she was so "morally superior" all the time...she didn't have anything on Xander in that department.