- “Seven years, [...] Working with the Slayer. Seeing my friends get more and more powerful. [...] All of them. And I'm the guy who fixes the windows.”
- ―Xander[src]
Alexander Lavelle "Xander" Harris is a close friend of Slayer Buffy Summers and a founding member of the Scooby Gang. A student at the Hellmouth-based Sunnydale High, Xander helped aid Buffy in her Slayer duties. In keeping with his habit of attracting/being attracted to demonic females, Xander fell in love with an ex-vengeance demon named Anya, but their relationship fell apart when Xander left Anya at the altar on their wedding day, and finally ended when Anya died in 2003. One of the few members of the Scooby Gang with no mystical powers or supernatural knowledge, Xander was often considered the weakest link of the group; therefore, his greatest strength and contribution was his aid to his friends of his emotional insight and support. When the team became a worldwide organization, Xander took on a role similar to that of Watcher by commanding several Slayer squads.
Xander was portrayed by Nicholas Brendon, and the actor's identical twin brother Kelly Donovan occasionally appeared as his double. The character first appeared in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and remained a cast regular for all seven seasons. Xander's story is continued in the canonical comic book Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight and he has also been featured in expanded universe material such as comic books and novels.
Biography
Early life
- “You're a whipping boy. Raised by mongrels and set on a sacrifical stone.”
- ―Principal Snyder describes Xander's upbringing in a dream.[src]
Alexander Lavelle Harris was born to Anthony and Jessica Harris and grew up in the small California town of Sunnydale. Xander's father was a self-pitying drunk while his mother was a fragile mess; both parents were negligent and even abusive towards their son, leaving him with various insecurities.[1][2] Xander's lifelong best friend was Willow Rosenberg, who secretly harbored a hopeless crush on him. The pair briefly "dated" when they were five, but broke up over a stolen Barbie.[3] In kindergarten, Xander suffered an unknown humiliation involving Aquaman underpants.[4] Xander and Willow developed a mutual hatred of their snobby classmate Cordelia Chase, which led them to form the "We Hate Cordelia Club", of which Xander was the treasurer.[5] At his sixth birthday party, Xander's parents hired a clown which chased him; this traumatic incident gave him a lifelong phobia of clowns and caused him to suffer from nightmares.[6] When Xander did not get a toy firetruck for his seventh birthday, the house next door burned down and he believed that Willow had set the fire to let him see real firetrucks.[7] When he was thirteen, he attended Willow's bat mitzvah, where his drunken parents caused a scene.[1]
Sunnydale High
Xander's life would change dramatically after befriending the Slayer, Buffy Summers.
In his sophomore year of high school, Xander met Buffy Summers on her first day at Sunnydale High and overheard her bizarre conversation with school librarian Rupert Giles regarding demons and vampires.[3] Xander and Willow discovered that Sunnydale was situated on a Hellmouth and that Buffy was actually the Slayer, granted supernatural powers and destined to fight the forces of evil. When his other best friend, Jesse McNally, was kidnapped and turned into a vampire, Xander fought him and accidentally staked him when someone pushed Jesse into the stake Xander was holding. After stopping the Harvest together, Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles formed the "Scooby Gang", a small group of people who helped Buffy fight the forces of darkness.[8] Xander's exploits with the Scoobies included nearly being raped and decapitated by the She-Mantis,[9] being possessed by the spirit of a hyena,[10] and having his nightmares about the clown from his sixth birthday party come to life.[6] Developing romantic feelings for Buffy, Xander was jealous of her brief relationship with loner Owen Thurman and her attraction to handsome stranger Angel.[11] His hostility towards Angel grew stronger when he learned that Angel was a vampire, albeit one with a soul.[12] Xander finally admitted his feelings to Buffy, and was bitterly disappointed when she rejected him. However, he later saved her life by performing CPR when she was drowned by the Master, something Angel was unable to do due to his lack of breath.[13]
In his junior year, Xander shared a brief relationship with a foreign exchange student who turned out to be an Incan Mummy[14] On Halloween, a spell caused the trick-or-treaters of Sunnydale to take on the personalities and/or traits of their costumes, transforming Xander into a soldier. When the spell was lifted, he retained his memories and knowledge of the military.[15] While hiding from a demonic assassin in Buffy's basement, the tension between Xander and Cordelia resulted in a kiss, and the pair began a secret relationship.[16] When Willow discovered their affair, she was devastated and offended that Xander would rather be with Cordelia than her.[5] Eventually, Cordelia's friends found out about the relationship as well, and Cordelia became alienated from the popular crowd, leading her to break up with Xander on Valentine's Day. Wanting revenge, Xander coerced Amy Madison to cast a love spell on Cordelia so he could hurt her. The spell backfired, and Xander became irresistible to every female in Sunnydale except Cordelia, who, realizing that Xander genuinely cared for her, reunited with him in defiance of her former friends.[17] Xander's infiltration of the Sunnydale High Swim Team nearly led to him being transformed into a Gill Monster.[18] When Angel lost his soul and reverted to the evil Angelus, Xander felt that his long-standing mistrust of the vampire had been validated, especially when he murdered Giles' girlfriend, Jenny Calendar.[19] Xander encouraged Buffy to kill Angelus, deliberately neglecting to tell her that Willow was planning to re-ensoul him.[20]
- “It must be really hard when all your friends have, like, superpowers—Slayer, werewolf, witches, vampires—and you're, like, this little nothing. You must feel like... Jimmy Olsen.”
- ―Cordelia questions Xander's usefulness to the Scooby Gang.[src]
Xander began to have a romantic interest in Willow in their senior year of high school, and they shared a kiss that contributed to Cordelia suffering a near-fatal injury,[21] and Cordelia's anger led to the arrival of the vengeance demon Anyanka in Sunnydale.[22] Xander was the first of the Scoobies to discover Angel's return from Hell, and that Buffy has been secretly rehabilitating him and still had feelings for him. Furious and disgusted that Buffy still loved Angel after Angelus' siege against Sunnydale only a year before, Xander immediately informed the other Scoobies of Angel's return and even went so far as to manipulate Faith Lehane into attempting to slay him. However, when Angel saved Willow from being killed by a corrupt ex-Watcher who was allegedly assigned to Faith, Xander begrudgingly accepted him back into the fold [23]. Following their break-up, Cordelia stepped up her usual ridicule of Xander, labeling him "The Zeppo" and mocking him for being useless compared to his friends, who were Slayers, witches, werewolves, and vampires. In an attempt to prove her wrong, Xander embarked on an adventure with a group of zombies, led by tough guy Jack O'Toole, and lost his virginity to Faith in the process. However, when O'Toole and his friends tried to blow up Sunnydale High, Xander single-handedly put an end to their plan.[24] Later, he was asked to the Prom by Anya, formerly the vengeance demon Anyanka. During this time, he discovered that Cordelia's family lost their wealth, home, and cars because of her father's tax evasion, and made peace with Cordelia by helping her pay for her prom dress. At his high school graduation, Xander led Sunnydale High's students against Mayor Wilkins and his vampires.[25]
Growing up
Following high school, Xander struggles through a series of odd jobs as he tries to find a role for himself.
In Season Four, Xander's inferiority complex and feelings of isolation increased when he chose not to enroll in college like his friends had. After graduating from high school, he set upon a cross-country trip inspired by Jack Kerouac's On the Road that ended when his car broke down. Returning to Sunnydale, he moved into his parents' basement, for which he had to pay rent, and took a series of odd jobs as a food vendor, a bartender, a phone-sex operator, and a deliveryman. Xander's problems multiplied when he was forced to accept Spike as a roommate for a short time while the Scoobies were hiding from the Initiative. After very little persuasion, he had sex with Anya and they began dating. Initially, his interest in Anya was purely sexual, but as the season progressed, he developed genuine feelings for her, eventually falling in love. In the Season Four finale "Primeval," Xander gave Buffy his "heart" in the spell that defeated Adam.
- “You know what? I'm sick of this crap. I'm sick of being the guy who eats insects and gets the funny syphilis. As of this moment, it's over. I'm finished being everybody's butt-monkey!”
- ―Xander decides to take control of his directionless life.[src]
Season Five saw Xander mature significantly, pursuing a more stable career in carpentry and construction work, and moving into his own apartment with Anya. When famous vampire Dracula came to Sunnydale in search of the Slayer, he hypnotized Xander into briefly becoming his willing manservant.[26] The pair apparently remained in touch through letters following Dracula's departure.[27] After being hit by the demon Toth's Ferula Gemini, Xander was split into two separate beings; one displaying his strengths and one displaying his weaknesses (cf. "The Replacement"). In "Triangle", he defended Willow and Anya equally from Anya's ex-boyfriend, Olaf the Troll, despite being forced to choose between them. Shortly before going into battle with the hell-goddess Glory, Xander asked Anya to marry him should they survive.
Xander is the only one of the Scoobies able to save the world from Dark Willow, restoring her humanity with his unconditional love.
By the sixth season, Xander was beginning to have doubts about his future with Anya. Hoping for a happy ending, he summoned the demon Sweet to turn Sunnydale into a living musical, which went horribly wrong when people started bursting into flames as well as song (cf. "Once More, with Feeling"). Xander's fears over marrying Anya were made worse by a visit from a demon pretending to be his future self, showing him a bitter future trapped in a marriage similar to that of his parents' (cf. "Hell's Bells"). Although the vision was later revealed to be false, Xander became more conscious of the doubts he was already having, and decided call off the wedding, leaving a heartbroken Anya at the altar. When Anya subsequently had sex with Spike at the Magic Box, Xander attacked and very nearly killed him in a jealous rage, but abandoned those plans out of anger and disgust when he and the other Scoobies discovered that Buffy and Spike had been sleeping together behind their backs for quite some time (cf. "Entropy"). When Spike subsequently attempted to rape Buffy, Xander was infuriated, and later realized that Buffy had not told them about her relationship with Spike because she knew that Xander would react as he had. Xander subsequently made amends with Buffy (cf. "Seeing Red"). When Willow's girlfriend, Tara Maclay, was fatally shot by Warren Mears, who was trying to kill Buffy, Xander blamed himself for both that and Willow's subsequent turn to the dark side, remarking that he had seen Warren's gun before he raised it and was merely frozen with fear while he shot both Buffy and Tara. Xander was so enraged at Tara's death that he supported Willow's intentions to kill Warren in revenge until she actually did so ("Villains"). When Willow attempted to destroy the world, it is Xander who stoped her, simply by refusing to leave her and loving her, which manages to return her to her senses and restore her humanity ("Grave").
In Season Seven, Xander struggled over his feelings with Anya, as well as suffering a devastating injury. When Buffy's sister Dawn mistakenly believed herself to be a Potential Slayer, Xander empathized with her disappointment at not being the one in the spotlight (cf. "Potential"). Despite admitting that they still loved each other, he and Anya finally broke up for good, but continued to have the odd fling in times of crisis. In the episode "Dirty Girls," Xander had his left eye gouged out by the evil preacher Caleb, and began wearing an eyepatch.[28] In the final battle against the First Evil, Anya was killed by a Bringer's sword, and her body remained in the new Sunnydale High's ruins as the empty town was swallowed by the earth. Andrew Wells, whom she had fought alongside, comforted Xander by saying that Anya had died saving his life. Xander replied by saying, "That's my girl. Always doing the stupid thing."
Watcher
Xander as commander to the Slayers.
Following Sunnydale's destruction, Xander took a "leave of absence" from the Scooby Gang to mourn Anya's death.[27] He may have spent some time in Africa,[29] and eventually reunited with Dracula. Xander resumed his old position as the vampire's loyal manservant, living with him in his Transylvanian castle for several months, during which the pair offered each other company and Xander taught Dracula how to ride a motorcycle.[30][27] Buffy eventually tracked her friend down and showed up at Dracula's castle with two other Slayers in a bid to rescue him, but the brainwashed Xander remained loyal to his "master" and tried to fight them off. Eventually, Dracula admitted that Xander belonged with his friends, and, after an emotional farewell, released him from his trance.[30] Xander returned to the Scooby Gang, which had expanded into a worldwide organization, and took on a Watcher-like role leading various Slayer squads from the central command base in Scotland. Keeping in touch with his Slayers through computer screens and earpieces, he jokingly compared himself to eye-patch wearing comic book character Nick Fury.[31]
Xander began a flirtatious relationship with a Slayer named Renee, who he finally asked out on a date. When the Scoobies came under attack from vampires with powers similar to Dracula, Xander reluctantly recruited his former master as an ally to help bring them down.[32] In Tokyo, the Slayers confronted the vampires, and Renee was brutally killed by the leader, Toru.[33] Dracula protected a grief-stricken Xander during the battle and fought Toru, but handed the killing blow over to Xander, who decapitated him. Afterwards, Xander scattered Renee's ashes and angrily told Dracula that he was no longer the vampire's "manservant".[34]
In the Retreat story arc, as Buffy begins to realize she has developed a romantic attraction to Xander, she discovers his newfound romantic relationship with Dawn; Xander had previously been her confidante throughout Season Eight. Buffy tries to explain her feelings to Xander in Joss Whedon's "Turbulence", though he dismisses this feelings as her need for stability; Xander admits to Buffy, that he truly loves Dawn.
Personality
- “I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide till it goes away.”
- ―Xander[src]
Xander's most notable character trait is his sarcastic, flippant attitude and sardonic views on life. He often jokes in serious situations or when someone makes what was intended to be a dramatic statement. He frequently quips about school, his family, and his romantic life; in the case of the former two, this could simply be a cover of his dislike for both. He is scared of failing his friends as well as not making something of himself, as was shown in "Restless" when he continually returned to his basement. Additionally, even after he got over his crush on Buffy, Xander continued to show obvious jealousy of Buffy's boyfriends, the only exception being Riley Finn.
Although Xander is often laid back, he can overreact in certain situations and lose his temper. He is very protective of his friends. When Willow was kidnapped ("When She Was Bad"), a furious Xander told Buffy he would kill her if Willow got hurt; after Spike attempted to rape Buffy, Xander remained openly hostile and distrustful of him even after learning that he had regained his soul, certain for some time that Spike would attempt to do so again at the first opportunity. He often serves as the straightman of the gang but will speak his mind on issues involving his friends and is always willing to stand by and fight for his friends when necessary.
Early on in the series, Xander immediately takes the view of "vampires are bad", which could very likely be attributed to the death of his longtime friend Jesse McNally. This view also carried over to "good vampires" like Angel and Spike.
Powers and abilities
- “They'll never know how tough it is, Dawnie. To be the one who isn't chosen; to live so near the spotlight and never step in it. But I know. I see more than anybody realizes, 'cause nobody's watching me.”
- ―Xander Harris[src]
Xander demonstrates that even an "average" person can make a difference and save the world. He is the only main character in the series who has never developed any permanent superpowers of his own, but he gains much experience from battling by Buffy's side. As Buffy explains to the Watchers' Council, Xander has "clocked more field time" than all other Watchers combined ("Checkpoint"). His gifts of persuasion and empathy are often his most useful assets. For example, Xander saves the world from Dark Willow, using only his words ("Grave"). He also recognizes that Buffy and Riley are "imploding" and forces Buffy to accept responsibility for the failed relationship ("Into the Woods").
While possessed by a demonic "hyena" spirit ("The Pack") Xander exhibits enhanced strength almost equal to a Slayer, and heightened senses, as well as predatory instincts, a taste for fresh, raw meat, and a lack of social inhibitions. He lost all of these capabilities when the spirit was exorcised; while he retained his memories of this experience, he keeps it secret from everyone except Giles.
Xander is briefly transformed into a soldier on Halloween, and thereby acquires knowledge of military training, tactics, and weapons handling techniques, as well as military codes and training, enabling him to steal and use a rocket launcher to destroy the Judge ("Innocence"), and later to organize and lead a group defense against Mayor Wilkins after his Ascension to Olvikan is completed ("Graduation Day, Part Two"). These skills slowly decay by his own admission ("The Initiative"), and he is later unable to decipher Riley's military hand-signs while on patrol ("Fool for Love"). While he also demonstrated knowledge of the First's hypnotic control over Spike ("Never Leave Me"), he claimed this was just from seeing military films and not from his "army days".
Xander was once hit by a bolt from the Ferula Gemina which split his personality into two different beings ("The Replacement"). One Xander possessed Xander's more aggressive traits, such as his courage and confidence, easily getting a promotion and a large apartment, in addition to some of Xander's impetuous qualities and impatience. The other Xander possessed his more passive traits, including his sense of humor and fun, in addition to being highly insecure and paranoid, believing his double to be a demon who was hypnotizing his friends and trying to steal his life.[35] However, both Xanders are both fiercely protective of Anya. Shortly before Willow fuses them back together, they show the same quirks, causing Giles to proclaim him "a bad influence on himself."
Xander is something of an expert on pop culture; he can be seen reading an X-Men comic in the episode "Tough Love" and references both the Human Torch and Nick Fury. In the episode "Seeing Red", Xander displays the ability to read Klingon. In Season Seven, he often demonstrates pop culture knowledge rivaling that of Andrew Wells.
Xander becomes a skilled carpenter by the end of the series, gaining practical job experience from repairing damage caused by various conflicts involving the Scooby Gang (most notably the windows at Buffy's house; Xander complains he is doomed to replace their windows for all eternity) and as a foreman of a construction crew. He was promoted to this position in the Season Five episode "The Replacement." Spike mockingly referred to Xander as "a glorified bricklayer" in "The Gift."
In Season Seven, both Xander and evil priest Caleb note that Xander is "the one that sees everything", including his friends' flaws and strengths, more clearly than anyone else simply because no one is looking at him. Dawn suggests this may be his super power. This human (non-supernatural) strength - his insight, empathy, and understanding - is what prompts Caleb to take Xander's eye, also knowing it would incite Buffy's wrath. Xander also shows he is a skilled archer: he impales Caleb's hand with an arrow from a distance.
In the non-televised Season Eight, Xander uses his military knowledge to lead a paramilitary group of Slayers, witches and seers based in a Scottish castle, viewed from outside as an international "terrorist" organization. The organization which he and Buffy head employs high-tech and magical weaponry. Xander oversees and orchestrates the efforts of Willow, Dawn, Buffy, and his Slayers through cameras and earpieces. In "Retreat", he again displays a broad knowledge of warfare and military operations, by instructing the Slayers in the use of various modern weapons and basic strategy.
Relationships
Romantic
A recurring joke about Xander was that he was a "demon magnet," as many of the women he had dated or been attracted to had turned out to be demonic or in some other way supernatural.
- Willow Rosenberg — After a brief romantic involvement in elementary school, Xander and Willow were best friends for years. Xander shared a moment of tenderness with Willow during the boring summer of 1997, which was ended by Buffy's return. In the show's third 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 kidnapped by Spike, and discovered them kissing. However, at some level, Xander retains deep feelings for Willow - these feelings are what he reaches out to in order to turn Dark Willow from her path of destroying the world, simply by refusing to leave as she commands him and bringing up all the incidents in their life they had shared and the friendship between them.
- Buffy Summers — Seeing her on her first day at Sunnydale High caused Xander to crash into a railing, literally falling head over heels. Buffy, however, saw Xander only as a friend, and over time, they became surrogate siblings (the only exception to this was in the episode "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", see below). In issue two of Buffy Season 8, Buffy dreamt of them being in a relationship, a dream in which Buffy attempted a more than platonic kiss (which resulted in Xander's still talking head popping off his shoulders), and it is implied that they have slept in the same bed.
- 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, impersonating an exchange student named Ampata, wanted to live the normal life she had given up in order to save her people. She fell for Xander, as he was the first male she'd ever met who didn't treat her as a princess, but as a person. However, her relationship with Xander was short-lived; she attempted to kiss him (and thus drain him of his life in order to continue her own), when he offered himself to her to stop her from draining and killing Buffy and Willow. In the end, however, she collapsed as the life forces left her, and did not drain any of them.
- Every woman in Sunnydale — When Amy Madison performed a 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 (vampire Drusilla included) in Sunnydale except Cordelia fall in love with the "irresistible" Xander Harris; as a result, Xander was nearly killed by a veritable army of demented women who were resolved to kill Xander if they couldn't have him for themselves.
- Cordelia Chase — Cordelia and Xander met as children and were antagonistic from the beginning, making their romantic relationship in high school all the more bewildering. They faced several obstacles, including peer pressure from Cordelia's clique (she was ostracized from her social circle), Cordelia's self-involved and insensitive manner, and Xander's unresolved attraction to Willow, Buffy, and Faith. When Cordelia discovered Xander and Willow kissing in the basement of an abandoned factory (where they were being held prisoner), she ended their relationship for good. By the end of Season Three, they had settled into a hesitant friendship (for example, Xander bought her a prom dress after he discovered that her family had lost its wealth). After graduation, their lives took different paths; he remained in Sunnydale and fought evil with Buffy, and she moved to Los Angeles to become an actress (see Angel) and later to "help the helpless" with Angel.
- Faith Lehane — Some weeks after his relationship with Cordelia dissolved, Xander found himself helping Faith fight a demon one night in the episode "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. Faith started to rape Xander and then to strangle him before being hit in the head with a baseball bat by Angel. Faith mentions that she never wanted a relationship like Xander thought that she did, and was merely with him for the sex. During Season 7 of Buffy, when some Potential Slayers complained about Anya mentioning her sex-life with Xander, Faith said that whenever she hears Anya talking about sex, she reminds Anya that she was Xander's first, which makes Anya shut up.
- Anya Jenkins — Xander's most long-term relationship, despite such problems as Anya's total disregard for normal social conventions such as not talking about sex in public. Despite this, however, the two fell deeply in love, coming very close to getting married, and retained strong feelings for each other. The two officially remained broken up, but once Xander lost his eye, Anya began to care for him more. The two became swept up in the moment when overhearing Willow and Kennedy, and Principal Wood and Faith, respectively, having sex. Before going into the final battle, Anya and Xander wished each other luck. Anya fought alongside Andrew, but she was killed by a Bringer. As the school was crumbling, Xander frantically called out Anya's name, but didn't notice her body lying on the floor. When Xander asked Andrew what happened to Anya, he was told that she died protecting Andrew, to which Xander replies 'That's my girl, always doing the stupid thing.'.
- Nancy — After being frustrated 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 walked her home, and, both new at dating, they awkwardly asked each other out. However, after finding out the demon was Nancy's ex-boyfriend who was turned into the worm-like creature by Xander's own ex-fiancée, Anya, the two never date.
- Lissa — Approximately a year after his breakup with Anya, Xander took another dip in the dating pool, and impulsively asked out Lissa, a beautiful woman he met at a hardware store. Their date went well until Lissa tied Xander to a torture wheel, revealed herself to be a demon, and cheerfully prepared to use Xander as a human sacrifice. Xander, before being rescued, pondered what caused him to keep getting involved with female demons.
- Renee — Renee was a young Slayer who had a crush on Xander. Directly before the attack by Amy's army of the undead, she and another Slayer were talking about Renee's feelings for him, which she denied. Later, she and Xander joked with each other and he comforted her about feeling like she was doing a poor job as a Slayer. The pair traveled together to Dracula's castle and then to Japan to help Buffy get The Scythe back. Before they departed for The Scythe rescue mission, they shared a kiss and she asked Xander on a date. During the mission, however, Renee was killed by Toru, leader of the Tokyo vampires. After the mission, Xander spread her ashes on a Japanese garden.
- Dawn Summers - During her childhood, Dawn had a crush on Xander, which he was aware of but did not return. Dawn would later become infatuated with Spike and R.J. Brooks, eliciting mild jealousy from Xander. For the most part, Xander and Dawn's relationship is more like that of an older brother and younger sister. However, following the retreat of the Slayer Organization to Tibet, Buffy finds Xander and Dawn sharing a kiss.
Antagonistic
- Angel — Early in the series, Xander is jealous of Buffy's love for Angel while Angel is in turn jealous of him. In "Prophecy Girl", he says he sees Angel not as a person but only as another vampire. As time goes on, his attitude towards Angel softens somewhat and he leaps to the vampire's defense when Kendra suggests killing him, saying "Angel's our friend! Except I don't like him," (What's My Line, Part Two), in addition to actually expressing concern about him when he goes missing and seeming relieved when he reappears ("Innocence"). After Angel loses his soul and becomes Angelus, Xander supports killing him rather than restoring his soul. When Willow attempts to restore Angel's soul, Xander deliberately does not tell Buffy in hopes that she will kill him. He was ostensibly angry about the death of Jenny Calendar, though it is unclear how much he was motivated by her death and how much by jealousy. Later on, after Angel leaves for Los Angeles and Xander overcomes his crush on Buffy, their old rivalry seems largely forgotten though they never truly become friends. Xander later tells Riley Finn that he still hates the "guts part" of Angel.
- Spike— On two occasions, Spike became Xander's roommate, which he was very unhappy about. He greatly distrusts Spike, initially accusing him of taking his voice and later attacking Anya in Hush. He is especially suspicious of Spike after his attempted rape of Buffy, even after Spike regains his soul. He also resents Spike for having sex with Anya even though he was broken up with her at the time. However, in "Intervention", Xander feels some sympathy for him after he is badly injured by Glory and loses the Buffybot, and in "Him", the two work together effectively because of a shared concern for Dawn's well-being.
- Larry Blaisdell — Larry is originally a jock who bullies Xander. However, their relationship changes when due to a humorous misunderstanding in Phases, Larry admits to being gay, mistakenly believing Xander to be a fellow closeted homosexual. After this, Larry becomes friendlier towards Xander and, after coming out of the closet, offers Xander the moral support he supposedly needs.
Trivia
Xander is the only member of the Scooby Gang to stay with the group from beginning to end, with Buffy's self-imposed exile, Giles' return to England, and Willow's turn to darkness.
Xander's name was chosen due to its similarity to the fish species zander, as zanders look very similar to pikes, Pike being Buffy's sidekick in the non-canon film.
Gallery
Appearances
Canonical appearances
Xander has been in 148 canonical Buffyverse appearances.
- Xander was a series regular for all seven seasons, but was absent from "Conversations with Dead People". He appeared in 143 in total.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Xander appears in every story of the series, and in all issues except for "The Chain", "No Future For You" Parts 2-3 and "Safe".
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comic
Other stories featuring Xander which are considered canonical include "Antique" from the 2004 comic mini-series Tales of the Vampires.
Non-canonical appearances
Xander has also appeared in Buffy expanded universe material. He appears in most of the Buffy comics and novels, and is a playable character in the 2003 video game Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Hell's Bells"
- ↑ "Restless"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Welcome to the Hellmouth"
- ↑ "The Killer in Me"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Innocence"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Nightmares"
- ↑ "The Replacement"
- ↑ "The Harvest"
- ↑ "Teacher's Pet"
- ↑ "The Pack"
- ↑ "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date"
- ↑ "Angel"
- ↑ "Prophecy Girl"
- ↑ "Inca Mummy Girl"
- ↑ "Halloween"
- ↑ "What's My Line, Part Two"
- ↑ "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"
- ↑ "Go Fish"
- ↑ "Passion"
- ↑ "Becoming, Part Two"
- ↑ "Lovers Walk"
- ↑ "The Wish"
- ↑ "Revelations"
- ↑ "The Zeppo"
- ↑ "Graduation Day, Part Two"
- ↑ "Buffy vs. Dracula"
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 "Wolves at the Gate, Part Two"
- ↑ In the DVD commentary for the episode "Dirty Girls", writer Drew Goddard mentions there was talk of killing off Xander towards the end of Season 7 and having The First Evil assume Xander's appearance when conversing with Buffy for the remainder of the season. This was ultimately decided against since Xander was thought to be too important to the series, and that his death occurring so late in the season would leave little time to deal with it correctly, and that throughout the series' run, Xander was the one character who never wavered, and to punish that characteristic with death would send a message the staff wasn't trying to get across. Instead of killing Xander, he was blinded in one eye.
- ↑ "Damage"
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 "Antique"
- ↑ "The Long Way Home, Part One"
- ↑ "Wolves at the Gate, Part One"
- ↑ "Wolves at the Gate, Part Three"
- ↑ "Wolves at the Gate, Part Four"
- ↑ [1]
External Links
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