Xander's Final Lines in Chosen

TheAnnointedOne

TheAnnointedOne

Five by Five
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Sep 1, 2011
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578
I've just watched Chosen today and im always taken aback by Xander's final lines. Anya - the love of his life - has just been killed but within a few minutes of him hearing from Andrew about her final moments he is cracking jokes:

"All those shops, gone. The Gap, Starbucks, Toy R Us…who will remember all those landmarks unless we tell the world of them?"

I actually get quite irritated every time I hear those lines - how can he joke now?? Don't get me wrong, I love this last scene on the road with them all huddled together and the final moment with Buffy's smile as she looks on - its a classic - and Xander's last line reflects his character throughout the series but I don't know something just bugs me about it.

How do you all feel?
 
Well they hadn't originally intended to kill off Anya, and I think it was a bad decision to do that anyway. But yeah I guess the writers didn't really think that through, they probably just wanted to capture a classic jokester Xander moment for the end.
 
Hmm..I never really picked up on that before. I guess everybody deals with death differently. It makes sense to me that Xander would deal with it by trying to be funny.
 
That has always bugged me. She had just died and there is barely any acknowledgement.
 
Well, I really feel as if they had all kind of accepted that some of them were going to die. They were somewhat prepared for it. I mean, was he supposed to fall down on the ground, sobbing? Would the camera have panned out from his tear soaked face as it raised up, and then zoomed in on Buffy's smile? Haha I mean, I never really thought about it, that, that was his last line ever...but I like that line. I found it kind of funny and Xander is funny (I found him hilarious when I was younger, oh man) so it kind of reflected his personality. He provided much needed comic relief at times (okay "much needed" is a bit of a stretch). I know a few people here can't stand him, but I love Xander, and I can accept that those were his last words on the greatest show in the history of television 😉.
 
That's his sense of humor. Sometimes it's a dark sense of humor and that's why I understand some of you don't like him. I love him because of these jokes. I mean, he could have make a sad face like everybody did or as he did, making some (silly) jokes and trys to make the others smile. I like ths people more than the ones with the sad mood in their face.
 
It was a badly written scene. For me, Xander's final line was "That's my girl. Always doing the stupid thing." I love this line.
 
Ripper666 said:
That's his sense of humor. Sometimes it's a dark sense of humor and that's why I understand some of you don't like him. I love him because of these jokes. I mean, he could have make a sad face like everybody did or as he did, making some (silly) jokes and trys to make the others smile. I like ths people more than the ones with the sad mood in their face.
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Yeah I agree. Humour was his way of dealing with the weirdness and horror that was being a slayer's best friend. I think cracking a joke was his way of focusing on the present and putting his grief aside for a later point. I don't think it meant that he didn't care about Anya, just that it wasn't the right time. They needed to focus on closure.

Like Ron in Harry Potter at the end of the final battle. His brother and his friends died and yet there was no massive outpouring of grief as it wasn't the time.
 
The reaction to Anya's death was so unrealistic... no one seemed to care, she was only briefly mentioned and tbh the first time I watched it, I wasn't a hundred percent sure she died.
 
Xin Rong said:
The reaction to Anya's death was so unrealistic... no one seemed to care, she was only briefly mentioned and tbh the first time I watched it, I wasn't a hundred percent sure she died.
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Totally agree. I was just clicking this thread to bring up how unrealistic it was for Xander to react that way. Not only her, but all of them to not even remotely care. I really don't like the ending to Buffy, and that is kind of rare for me because I generally enjoy finales, despite being sad a show is ending.
 
I agree too that his reaction was just not realistic, im all up for the Xander funnies but maybe a little tear or two would have been nice? it just seemed like a rushed ending.
I am glad it was a happy'ish ending, you couldnt have ended Buffy with full on sadness, but they could have done it a little better.
 
I was never a fan of Xander's humour but it reflects his character so I guess Joss wanted to get one final quip in there. But yeah, a tad unrealistic despite his goofishness.

I'm still annoyed Dawn got the final line of the series anyway. But that's just me being OCD.
 
Definitely agree it was strange. Although I liked Xander's conversation with Andrew, I remember thinking (upon first viewing) that I was surprised at his lack of emotion. I mean, c'mon. I feel like the entire ending after the destruction of Sunnydale was really rushed, so it wasn't really satisfying in term

---------- Post added at 05:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:09 PM ----------

s of characters coming to grip with loss. Gah, posted too early. 😛
 
That's who he is though. Everyone deals with death in their own way. My father has been in the hospital since Dec. 17th and while everyone else has been sad i've been joking around. Not everyone cries when they lose someone or fear they might lose someone.

I think it would have been out of character for him to not joke around after hearing someone he loved died as weird as it may sound. He was clearly still upset so it's not like he acted as if he didn't care 🙂

If someone like Dawn made a joke like that after Buffy died it'd be out of character, but Xander uses his humor as a way to hide his emotions and it's his way to deal with them.

Same as Chandler Bing from FRIENDS. Xander and him a lot a like.
 
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