Alexander "Xander" LaVelle Harris is a fictional character in the cult television program Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Nicholas Brendon.
Biography
Alexander LaVelle Harris was born to Anthony and Jessica Harris. According to Xander, his dad tried to sell him to some Armenians once. Tony was a self-pitying drunk who first appeared in a nightmare sequence in Season 4's "Restless"; he tore out his son's heart. Jessica is a fragile mess without a stove; her culinary repertoire includes a "famous phone call to the Chinese place." Xander's uncle Rory is an alcoholic taxidermist.
His best friend Willow Rosenberg broke up with Xander over a stolen Barbie when they were 5. At his 6th birthday party, which Willow attended, his parents hired a clown who chased him and gave him a lifelong phobia of clowns. He faced it in Season 1's "Nightmares". When he did not get a toy firetruck for his 7th birthday, the house next door caught fire. He saw real firetrucks then and thinks he had Willow to thank.
Every Christmas, Xander sleeps outside to avoid his family's drunken arguments. Neither parent is happy with their marriage, but they have stayed together for decades. When he was 13, Xander attended Willow's bat mitzvah, where his parents drank to excess. Throughout the series, Xander's family was said to be unreliable, even abusive and the main source of his insecurities. They finally appeared at Xander and Anya's aborted wedding in Season 6's "Hell's Bells".
In 1997, Xander met Buffy Summers on her first day at Sunnydale High. He overheard her bizarre conversation with Rupert Giles in the library and lost his male best friend Jesse to vampires in "The Harvest". Xander took the stand that "vampires are bad" and was forced to stake Jesse the following night. He became a wisecracking sidekick of the Scooby Gang, often annoying those around him, including Angel ("Enemies") and the more uptight Giles. Despite his insecurities, Xander proves to be loyal, courageous, and endowed with a high degree of emotional intelligence. In Season 1's finale ("Prophecy Girl"), he revived a drowned Buffy, allowing her to defeat The Master. In the 2nd Season, Xander's military knowledge enabled Buffy to defeat the Judge, a supposedly invulnerable demon, in "Innocence". In the Season 3 finale ("Graduation Day, Part Two"), he led Sunnydale High's students against Mayor and his vampires. In Season 4's "Primeval", Xander gave Buffy his "heart" in the spell that defeated Adam. In Season 6's conclusion ("Grave"), Xander's love for his childhood friend Willow turned her around and saved the world.
Xander developed a crush on Buffy quickly, but it was not reciprocated. He gradually began a turbulent and ambiguous relationship with Cordelia Chase after they were thrown together in several life-or-death situations, though he had been the treasurer of the We Hate Cordelia club. Being seen with Xander cost Cordelia her position among Sunnydale High's fashionable clique, and she dumped him on Valentine's Day. Xander retaliated by coercing Amy Madison to cast a love spell, which misfired: for a few hours, until the spell was broken, Xander found himself irresistible to every girl, woman and female vampire in sight – except Cordelia, who, realizing how much Xander cared for her reunited with him in defiance of her former friends ("Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"). Season 3 saw him revive an interest in best friend Willow and a kiss that led to Cordelia's near-fatal injury ("Lovers Walk") and Anyanka's arrival ("The Wish"). He was used by Faith one night ("The Zeppo") and lost his virginity to her. Later he was asked to the Prom by the newly-human Anya.
After graduating from high school, Xander chose not to enroll in college. He set upon a cross-country trip that ended when his car broke down. He spent most of that summer working as a dishwasher in a male strip club to pay for a new car. One night, when a dancer was sick, Xander reluctantly took to the stage. He returned to Sunnydale and moved into his parents' basement, for which he had to pay rent. In the fourth season, he took a series of odd jobs as a food vendor, a bartender, a phone-sex operator and a delivery man. Xander eventually pursued a career in carpentry and construction work. He moved into his own apartment with Anya, where he stayed until the end.
He fell in love with Anya in season four after much persuasion, and proposed to her before the end of Season 5. His doubts about their future together caused him to leave her at the altar a year later. They still loved each other, however, when his left eye was gouged out by Caleb, a preacher for The First Evil in Season 7. His love did not survive the finale because Anya was killed by a Bringer's sword, and her body remained in the new Sunnydale High's remains as the empty town was swallowed by the earth. Andrew, with whom she had fought alongside, comforted Xander by telling him that she "died saving his(Andrew's) life." The last time we heard about Xander (in 2004) he was in Africa, rounding up potential Slayers for Buffy. More recently, he was featured in the post-Sunnydale story "Antique" in the Tales of the Vampires comic line, apparently having spent some time under the thrall of Dracula again, as his manservant. He is summarily rescued by Buffy and two new Scythe-Awakened Slayers. As the stories in this collection are considered canon, it is suspected that this is the most recent sighting to date.
Powers & Abilities
Xander represents the importance of everyday humans in the fight against evil; he possesses no special powers or abilities, just his experiences from battling by Buffy’s side. As Buffy explained to the Watchers' Council, Xander had clocked more field time than any of the Watchers combined. From these experiences and devout loyalty to his friends he has proven that even an “average” person can make a difference and save the world. He saved the world from Evil Willow using only his words, and his powers of persuasion and empathy were often his most useful assets.
While possessed by a hyena spirit (in "The Pack", Season 1), Xander exhibited enhanced strength and heightened senses as well as a taste for fresh raw meat and a lack of social inhibitions.
Xander was briefly transformed into a soldier on Halloween night (Season 2), and thereby acquired military training and weapons knowledge which faded (although did not disappear) a few years later.
Xander was once hit by a bolt from the Ferula-Gemina which split his personality into two different beings ("The Replacement", Season 5).
He is something of an expert on pop culture. On one occasion ("Seeing Red", Season 6), Xander shows that he can read Klingon. In Season 7 he often demonstrates pop culture knowledge rivaling that of Andrew Wells.
Xander becomes a skilled builder by the end of the series, gaining practical job experience from repairing damage caused by various combats involving the Scooby Gang.
He is a foreman of a construction crew. He was first promoted to this position in "The Replacement", Season 5.
Romantic Relationships
- Buffy Summers: Seeing her on her first day at Sunnydale High caused Xander to crash into a railing, literally falling head over heels. She sees him only as a friend though, and over time, they have become surrogate siblings. (The only excepton to this was in the episode "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", see below.)
- Miss Natalie French: The real teacher was born in 1907 and taught for a few decades. Her name was stolen by a demonic she-mantis whose pheromones attracted many of Sunnydale's males. She drugged Xander's drink at her house and intended to mate with him before beheading him. Buffy managed to stop her and save Xander in time.
- Ampata: The Incan mummy girl wanted to live a life she never had the chance to, but her love with Xander was short-lived when she attempted to kiss him (and thus draining him of life to continue her own).
- Every Woman in Sunnydale: When Amy performed the magic spell to make Cordelia fall madly in love with Xander just so he could break up with her and hurt her, it backfired and made every woman in Sunnydale except Cordelia fall in love with the "irresistible" Xander Harris.
- Cordelia Chase: Cordelia and Xander had known each other since they were little kids, and have always had a Love/Hate relationship (Love coming later). Their relationship in High School was rocky due to the stress Cordelia's clique put on her for going out with a 'loser' (which caused her to break up with him for a short while), Cordelia's straightforward and abrupt way with people, and Xander's unresolved attraction to his best friend Willow (and possibly Buffy and Faith to some degree). When Cordelia discovering Xander and Willow kissing in the basement of an abandoned factory the vampire Spike had locked them in, she ended their relationship for good. Near the end of the 3rd Season, feelings had settled to the point where they were on speaking terms again, and upon finding out her family lost their wealth, Xander bought her prom dress for her. She left Sunnydale after graduation and moved to L.A. to become an actress (See Angel).
- Willow Rosenberg: Xander shared a moment of tenderness with Willow during the boring summer of 1997, which was ended by Buffy's return. Later, in the show's 3rd Season, Xander and Willow began a secret romance while he was dating Cordelia and she was dating Oz. This ended when Cordelia and Oz rescued Xander and Willow, who had been held hostage by Spike, and discovered them kissing.
- Faith Lehane: Some weeks after his relationship with Cordelia dissolved, Xander found himself helping vampire slayer Faith fight a demon one night (Season 3, episode 13, "The Zeppo"). After the battle an adrenaline-fueled Faith took Xander back to her apartment and had sex with him. This was Xander's first sexual encounter. Weeks later, after Faith had gone rogue and killed a man, Xander confronted her about her actions. She began simulating rough sex and then started to strangle him before being interrupted.
- Anya Jenkins.
- Nancy: After being fustrated with his own relationship problems with Anya and others in the past, Xander luckily runs into Nancy and, along with the gang, protects her from a giant worm-like demon that was specifically attacking her. Xander walks her home, and both new at dating, they awkwardly ask each other out. However, after finding out the demon is Nancy's ex-boyfriend who was turned into the worm-like creature by Xander's own ex-fiancee, Anya, the two never date.
- Lissa: Approximately a year after his breakup with Anya, Xander takes another dip in the dating pool, and impulsively asks out Lissa, a beautiful woman he meets at a hardware store. Their date goes well until Lissa ties Xander to a torture wheel, reveals herself to be a demon, and cheerfully prepares to use Xander as a human sacrifice. Xander, before being rescued, ponders what causes him to keep getting involved with female demons.
Around the second season of the show, the program's creator Joss Whedon decided that either Xander or Willow would eventually become openly homosexual as the entire idea of Buffy was to show stereotypically weak and oppressed social groups as strong, powerful superheroes. Personality changes were made to make them relatively sexually ambiguous, regardless of the gender of the characters with whom they were romantically linked. In Season 2's "Phases", Xander confronted jock Larry to find out whether the high school football player was a werewolf. Larry confessed that he was homosexual and, much to Xander's dismay, believed that Xander was, too. Willow eventually came out. In "Beneath You" a character, confronted with the convoluted sex lives of the main characters, asked if any of the characters had not had sex with each other. Xander and Spike exchanged awkward glances. In another episode, Xander asks Willow to make him gay after noting all the women he dates are demons of some sort until Buffy points out that he would just end up attracting demonic men.