- ↳ Note: This article is about the Xander from 2019 comic series. For other uses, see Xander.
The subject of this article is of alternative canonicity. While created as part of licensed material, it is not part of the original Buffyverse, but its own developed story. |
Alexander LaVelle "Xander" Harris was a half-vampire,[1] former Sunnydale High School student, and a founder of the Scooby Gang[4] in the universe without shrimp.[5]
Biography[]
Human life[]
Xander grew up in Sunnydale and spent his summers in Los Angeles. He had Willow Rosenberg as his best friend since childhood.[6][1] He would regularly blog about his internal conflicts under the username @theXeppo,[6] especially about his feelings of isolation.[4]
One night, after eating at Tunaverse with Willow, they were attacked by a vampire, but fellow classmate Buffy Summers dusted him. Curious about the incident, Xander sought Buffy out at school to know more about her. After Willow invited her to hang out, the three talked about the reality of the supernatural and her identity as the Slayer.[6] The three friends quickly became allies in the fight against vampires and formed the Scooby Gang, dubbed by Xander in their message group.[7] They patrolled together as well as trained with Rupert Giles, Buffy's Watcher and school librarian.[8]
With the still growing friendship, Xander developed a crush on Buffy, who didn't see him the same way. The vampires Drusilla and Spike, who had robbed Buffy's cellphone, messaged Xander and made him believe the Slayer wanted to see him alone. He was devastated when he finally realized the truth, he broke down and started sobbing. The Mistress took advantage of his vulnerability and offered to sire him — and he tearfully accepted such a fate.[8]
In truth, Drusilla had planned to bite him and leave Xander to die, only Spike decided to give him his blood to complete the siring, who believed in his potential as a vampire after "being around those uppity goodie girls;" Drusilla, though, pointed out that Spike just saw himself in him: "pitiful, weak, in love with the wrong girl." Xander was left on Giles's doorstep with a note pinned to his shirt: "Tasteless".[9]
Half-vampire[]
Giles took his body to a bed while Jennifer Calendar performed a ritual that contained the then vampiric Xander within a protective circle. He was still between death and demon, so the Scoobies began their search for the Anima Colligationem, a relic capable of tethering a soul to the stone itself. As Buffy and Willow mourned him, Xander woke up joking in his usual manner, until his demon then suddenly surfaced, and Xander talked crudely and threatened his friends while in his new vamp face.[9] The two girls began a journey after the soul tie stone, created by the Siphon from the sacrifice of half of Willow's soul. With his connection with Drusilla, Xander was able to see that the hellmouth would swallow them all, and the Mistress had the key to enslave every soul. He woke up crying and told Giles they were all going to die.[2]
After his ensoulement, Xander returned to school as normal, despite packing pig blood in a thermos for lunch. He described his new state as "half vamp-half human,"[1] and identified as such by his friends.[10] With Buffy away to deal with the open hellmouth, Xander patrolled alone, staking vampires that smelled his human scent and considered him a traitor who would eventually give in to his demon.[11]
Meanwhile, the Hellmother's power grew over the male population of Sunnydale; both male humans and vampires were becoming angry and impulsive,[12] but the darkness only partially affected Xander when in his human face due to his unique condition. On a patrol with Willow, he was initially attacked by the new Slayer Kendra Young, until she learned about Xander's situation as an ensouled vampire. Suddenly, Robin and a number of men and vampires formed a hive mind army in the cemetery ready to attack those in their way.[13]
Anyanka appeared[13] and guided Xander, Willow, and Kendra away from the army to the Tunaverse, where Xander fought the oncoming men, but only Willow's magic powers would be able to stop them. He noticed his best friend was being consumed by her own power, which Anya explained that was due the soul tie leaving her, like Xander, struggling between two worlds. Only Xander could reverse it, so he waited for Anya's signal to do so. Xander sacrificed his soul back to Willow and said goodbye. The army of men fell, the remaining Scoobies left to rescue Buffy and defeat the Hellmother, and Xander was not among them.[14]
Return[]
His friends grieved his absence,[15][16] while Xander, as a soulless vampire, became the leader of a group of demons and vampires hidden under Sunnydale. He soon acted sending an Edera demon to divide the Slayers, and was pleased that the attack also resulted on the hospitalization of one of the Scoobies, Rose Martinez.[17]
Xander then revealed himself to the Scoobies, who believed him to be dead. One night, he sent Buffy a message asking "Missed me?" and appeared at Jenny's door, hurt and claiming to having been attacked, so she ushered him inside. He then sent a message to Giles asking him to come over to Jenny's house, where he had started a fire. He fought off both Buffy and Kendra, and was able to escape.[18]
Personality and traits[]
Xander was described by his best friend Willow as a "fun-loving idiot," in reference to his cynical, sarcastic and sardonic humor. Just like in the original version with Willow, he is labeled as an outsider aka geek and he was supportive of his friends and family.[1] However, Xander had kept his psychological turmoil a secret from everyone, but he did regularly blog about his neuroses under a fake username.[6] Xander had also believed that girls would always find life easy, since he believed that they could just smile and manipulate anyone. These beliefs were further cemented by the fact that his best friends, whom were mostly women, soon began repeatedly canceling outings with him due to miscellaneous activities in their own lives.[4]
Xander's psychological turmoil, coupled with his abandonment issues as well as deep feelings of dissociation and self-loathing had eventually grown rapidly. He had been failing in his academic courses, lacking the competence to properly fight a single vampire and, especially because he began walking home alone more often. He would unsuccessfully try to cope and overcome with these personal issues, and would end up criticizing himself very harshly and damaging his psychological state and self-esteem further. This had extend to the point where he had begun damning himself to be eternally unlovable, lacking all forms of courage or charisma, and chronically incompetent at everything he does and will ever try to do. These self-criticisms eventually damaged his self-esteem further, with him fully coming to view his life as meaningless and lacking any worth.[4]
As a half-vampire, Xander declared that he wasn't sure if he would be happy or if he ever was, but he knew he was lucky for his friends and being alive, which was enough for him to get through every day.[1] He had also developed more courage and was willing to give Willow the missing piece of her soul back, just to make her capable and spiritually stable enough to save the world, even if had meant his damnation. After the soul tie was removed from him, Xander had became more cunning, diabolical, strategic, manipulative, ambitious and charismatic as well as more prone to extremely violent tendencies. Even Spike himself had admitted that being around other people who are better than him had damaged Xander's psyche and self-esteem. Therefore, Xander had much greater potential for diabolical, vengeful and methodical schemes as a vampire.[8]
Powers and abilities[]
After his incomplete siring and then infusing a soul tie into him, Xander became a half-vampire half-human hybrid. Due to his condition, he possessed the superhuman physical abilities common among vampires, as well as the need to consume blood.[1]
- Enhanced strength: He could easily overpower normal vampires alone through his new powers and became a much more capable vampire hunter.[11] Xander had also developed enough strength to engage a Slayer in combat and in some cases, overpower them. He did this with Kendra and even attempted this with Buffy.[18]
- Daywalking: A trait unique to Xander's condition was that he could withstand sunlight. He was capable of standing under direct sunlight and continued going to school in the morning without being affected by the daylight.[1]
- Charismatic leadership: A trait he had developed as a proper Vampire was an enough charisma to garner a large audience of marginalized and disenfranchised demonic entities into pledging their loyalties to him and his ambitions. One Edera demon in particular was radicalized to the point, where he, on the commands of Xander) had openly attacked the Scooby Gang and end up critically wounding Rose.[17]
- Psychological warfare: Due to being a former member of the Scooby Gang, Xander had intimate knowledge about the personalities, interests, issues and especially love interests of the Scooby Gang members. Xander is able to use this knowledge to attack the Scooby gang at critical key weaknesses in their social structure. An example of this is how he had Rose critically injured, in an attempt to try to drive a wedge between Buffy and Kendra's teamwork and trust in one another.[17]
Gallery[]
Appearances[]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2019) | ||||||||
01 Appears |
02 Appears |
03 Appears |
04 Appears |
"Frenemies" Mention |
05 Appears |
06 Appears |
07 Appears |
08 Appears |
09 Appears |
10 Appears |
11 Appears |
12 Appears |
Willow #1 Flashback |
Willow #2 Vision |
Willow #3 Vision |
Willow #4 Absent |
Willow #5 Vision |
13 Absent |
14 Vision |
15 Appears |
16 Appears |
17 Absent |
18 Appears |
19 Appears |
20 Mention |
21 Absent |
22 Appears |
Faith Absent |
23 Appears |
"Conversations with (Vexing) Dead People" Absent |
24 Appears |
25 Mention |
26 Mention |
27 Absent |
28 Mention |
29 Mention |
"Aughie and Camazotz in: Birthday Brew" Absent |
30 Absent |
31 Absent |
32 Absent |
33 Vision |
34 Vision |
Epilogue Absent |
"Yearbook" Absent |
Angel + Spike | |||||||||||
Prologue Appears |
01 Absent |
02 Absent |
03 Absent |
04 Absent |
05 Absent |
06 Absent |
07 Absent | ||||
08 Absent |
09 Absent |
10 Absent |
11 Absent |
12 Absent |
13 Absent |
14 Absent |
15 Absent |
16 Absent |
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel | ||||
Hellmouth #1 Appears |
Hellmouth #2 Vision |
Hellmouth #3 Vision |
Hellmouth #4 Absent |
Hellmouth #5 Mention |