Poor Old Xander............

[ItMustBeBunnies]

Before I joined this happy little family I looked around at a couple of different boards, and was really shocked at all the Xander haters out there! I had no idea he was such a disliked character! I always assumed that he was very popular. I myself have been guilty of a little Xander bashing and have posed some different perspectives on him, but I do not think he is a total blithering a-hole! which seems to be a general opinion. When I was a kid he was my favourite character, and he still holds a special place for me even if he does some things I really dont like (eg. his attitude toward Angel and Spike), but I love his goofyness and when he does get serious Nick does a wonderful job, Hells Bells is one of my fav eps in season 6.
One thing that drives me absolutly insane is the fact that alot of people seem to attack Nick Brendon about his weight! what the hell?, yer he is a little bit chubby but it suits the character, I find this particularly low. Same with people attacking Amber Benson about her weight, man if anything she is the only chick on the show who looks normal!.
I haven't really seen many people's opinions on Xander here, so I was just wondering what the general opinion on him is?

[littlewilly]

I like Xander. i dont think he's that funny like alot of people think. But he's a good character. In the last few seasons i felt his character got neglected and he just kinda went stale and hung around doing nothing, which is a shame coz in the first few seasons he was one of the best, i liked the way he fitted into the scoobies more than Willow.

[Dlou444]

I like Xander.
There were the few episodes when the boy REALLY needed a haircut. And a couple of times I wondered how all the girls in Sunnydale were wearing tank tops and miniskirts and yet he was going to school in a wool sweater, but other than that, I found him amusing.
Especially when he got to fix the windows and stuff. Very handy to have around.

Plus, I like how he never needed credit for all the saving he did of the world or random people and always played his part down. A nice, humble guy.
Humble is nice. Obnoxious is sometimes annoying, but humble is NICE!

Edit:

littlewilly agrees: whats Obnoxious is sometimes annoying meant to mean?

It means nothing. I have NO idea what you're speaking of!
http://boards.buffalobills.com/images/smilies/BEG.gif

[littlewilly]

Xander is not obnoxious at all. Dont insult Xander you. He was as humble as pie.

[caitaintdead]

I don't like Xander. Definitely not a fan at all. Nothing to do with his weight though, just didn't like his character one bit.

I would never bash someones weight! (Although I guess sometimes I don't like it when the girls get to skinny)

Also, I never realised there were many Xander haters, I thought his character was one of the most loved ones...

[The Kinslayer]

Xander isn´t my favourite but that doesn´t mean that I hate him or anything. I can hate some of the things he does but it always comes down to the same thing, he´s human not perfect. Sometimes jealousy, fear and insecurity comes in the way but he´s heart is in the right place. And as he said to Dawn, having his "place" within the group isn´t easy. I think he dealt with it pretty good to say the least. I think I have him somewhere in the middle then it comes to favourite characters. And I agree with Lou then it comes to the hair. :)

[Joyce Summers]

I don't have any problem with Xander. I mean he's not my favorite character but I always enjoy watching him and he can always make me smile in really dark scenes with his humor, but then totally move me when his scenes are serious. I definitely don't hate him though!

I do have to admit though that sometimes when I'm watching an episode I think 'Xander what the hell are you doing?' and I want to slap some sense into him (Mostly in Hell's Bells....:)) but how can anyone not like the character that told Dawn "You're not amazing, you're extraordinary". And his 'You're my hero, Buffy' speech in The Bronze in Season 4? Xander has so many great moments...that he often underlines with comedy Joss-style, but you know it's there. He's a many sided coin and so always enjoyable to watch in my opinion.

[Urgent Power]

I don't think anyone really hates Xander. There is no reason to hate him. I think many people are mad at him for reasons such as: he hates Spike (many Spike lovers out there, you know), he didn't tell Buffy what Willow wanted him to tell her in "Becoming pt. 2", etc.

[Tranquillity]

I'm also in the "he's not my favourite but I don't hate him" category. Xander had some classic moments, funny lines but he was a little under-used in the later seasons. I've not encountered Xander-hate, some Xander-frustration maybe, but not hate. On the other hand, I have come accross some very passionate Xander lovers who list him as their favourite and counter any criticism aimed in his direction with fervour and zeal!

[Blondie Bear]

I didn't like him in the first few seasons. He was often a real jerk, and somehow managed to get away with stuff that NOBODY ELSE would get away with, and never apologized for his behavior. S4 was a real growing time for him, and by S5, he was a grown-up. I have no problem with him--other than his treatment of Spike, which was hypocritical and rude--in the last few seasons.

[Blackloliita]

I like him a lot actually, I mean he can look like a jerk sometimes, but it isn't like he is the only one who can, in my opinion. And personally he's the funniest of the series. And he has his heart on the good place.

[Relic]

He has my favorite quote..."I like the quiet."

I've liked him very much as a character in the early high school seasons, he's like Batman but without a belt or leotard. He's got no powers short of guts and love for his friends. Even the one major 'crime' I sometimes have heard about in season two when he doesn't tell Buffy Willows trying to restore Angels soul gets a pass from me. Sure he is jealous of Angel, always has been, but I think part of it is to protect buffy so she doesn't go into the fight half-arsed trying to buy time for Angel to be re-souled.

1.) Angelus is not going to be holding anything back, so Xander, I think, knows Buffy needs her A game.

2.) The longer Angelus lives, the greater the chances of Acathala waking up and ruining everyones day.

I even understand his dislike for Spike and Angel, to a point. Ever since Jesse, in my eyes at least, Xander takes the deaths vampires cause very personally, especially if he knows the vamp or worse, the victim. I remember a scene when he gets in Giles face about Jenny's death...as far as Angel was concerned and how Giles was dealing with it! ( that was a 'what the heck is Xander doing' moment..I thought Giles was going to deck him! It made sense though given Xanders history and temperment; at least I thought so)

I think Xan resents vampires as a whole also because what they have done to one of his best friends life. She is the vampire slayer, and it that has robbed her of any sense of normalcy, except her friends. All in all, I can kind of understand where he's coming from.

I agree after highschool (up to season 5, as far as I've watched) his character gets the short end of the stick development wise.

Willows a lesbian witch- as is Terra, Giles has a mysterous past, Anya use to be a deamon- plus is out of time- and has a funny new way of looking at the world. Riley is like a supernatural hunting Captain America, Buffy...well the show is named after her after all. Then there is Xander...the guy who still lived in his Mom and Dads basement and comes from a somewhat abusive family.

Whats always appealed to me about xander is his 'normalcy' and how he treats his friends.

I'm not an uber-Xander-can-do-no-wrong-fan though, I don't like how he cheated on Cordy with Willow, even if it was extrenuating circumstances and only a peck...mainly I don't like them decieving Oz and Cordy, they should have been up front about it...I'd even take an 'eventually' instead they get caught sneaking around. Well actually, lying about as prisoners; but still, smooching prisoners. I did not like that.

I also am not fond of how he takes Anya for granted in season 5.

other things...evidently he leaves her at the alter?!? (Don't tell; haven't seen it.) are much like his missing eye, a mystery to me!

[Fake Shemp]

Do i even need to write anything.... you all can read my mind. ;)



----------------
Listening to: Emma Caulfield - I'm The Mrs. (http://www.foxytunes.com/artist/emma+caulfield/track/im+the+mrs.)

[Bluebird]

I love Xander for all the reasons people hate him. :biggrin:

[JCC]

Season 1 Xander - Jovial, bright, funny guy. : king :
Season 2-3 Xander - Horrid to everyone.
Season 4,5,6 Xander - Less horrid to everyone, moreso horrid to Spike. Not nice to Spike at all. Buffy trumps him in the 'maltreatment of Spike' area, but barely. Still not a nice guy.
Season 7 Xander - Xander suddenly has an epiphany and decides to stop being an ass. Sweet!

[sosa lola]

I love Xander for all the reasons people hate him. :biggrin:

OMG! Same here! Sometimes I don't know what fans want him to be: Goofy, perfect Xander? Eww, boring. Now Goofy, flawed yet still a good guy Xander is way more intereating and real ;)

Xander is my favorite character in the show. He has good and bad qualities which makes him more human than the rest of the characters, and far more relatable.

[Grami]

People attack him about his weight? I think he had an amazing body at times he took his shirt off on the show. Couldn't say about it now as I haven't seen it since Buffy ended but still I think that's disgusting. I respect somebody a lot more who is true to themself in the way they look/behave than be some skinny, fake retard for the sake of it. Amber and Nick are brilliant people both in real life and their respective characters. I don't hate Xander but I do find him rather pointless sometimes. Especially his bashing of Angel and Spike attimes and the way he speaks to Buffy in episodes like 'Dead Man's Party'. I do think they just tend to let him get away with it. I mean if somebody spoke to me in that way I wouldn't just storm off as Buffy does...

I find him to have as many likeable qualities as he does flaws and I think that is why he is a great character because if he was moulded one way it would be very superficial and fake and one of my life tags is 'there's no such thing as perfect'.

[AvatarofTruth]

I wrote a rebuttal recently to a friend's assertion that Xander Harris is poorly characterized in Buffy because he never changes. I thought it would be a relevant addition to ItMustBeBunnies' insightful analysis. Here it is:

You assert that Xander never changes. I disagree. Xander's changes are subtle, but they are significant for him, and for anyone else outside of the Buffyverse, those subtle changes would be huge.

Xander in Restless OR Buffy writers without their favorite plot crutch:

"Giles here is gonna teach me to be a Watcher. Says I got the stuff."
"Spike's like a son to me."
"That's good. I was into that for a while, but...I got other stuff goin' on."

"You gotta have something. Gotta be
with movin' forward."

"I'm way ahead of you, big brother."
"Brother?"

"Do you know where you're going?"

"You're a whipping boy. Raised by mongrels and set on a sacrificial stone."

It always seemed to me that Xander was used as a plot crutch by BTVS writers, at the expense of his character development. He was never meant to change significantly, because he was already ideally packaged: a Joss clone with nothing special going on, which made him easy to identify with, and a built in comic relief/jack of all trades. If you need someone to do or say something stupid or oblivious to keep the plot going, Xander (most of the time) is your go-to guy.

In "Restless" the writers were forced to actually develop his character, because each dream had to be a separate narrative. We learn that Xander has reluctantly accepted that he and Buffy will never be a couple, and further more understands that their relationship has become familial. In contrast, the depth of his relationship with Giles seems to have receded, and Xander is no longer seeking a father figure in Rupert.

We know from "Fear Itself" and "The Yoko Factor" that Xander feels he has been left alone, to rot in the basement.

"No! It was bad before that! Since you two went off to college and forgot about me. Just left me in the basement to — Tara's your girlfriend?"

Xander's reaction to Anya's question in the ice cream truck "Do you know where you're going?" is one of surprise. He is surprised not by the question, but that he has no answer to it.

We can see as he tries to follow Willow and Tara that, for Xander, the ice cream truck (and all his other jobs, we assume) is an extension of The Basement. A dead-end.

Snyder reaffirms what Xander already suspects of himself, that he is nothing but a whipping boy. Of course, this is Xander's dream, therefore Snyder is really Xander's subconscious berating him for continuing to be "the guy who eats insects and gets the funny syphilis." Which, of course, he voices consciously in a declaration to Buffy in "Buffy vs Dracula". He's officially "finished being everybody's butt monkey!"

But does wishing make it so?

"That's not the way out."

We think Xander is talking about the first slayer, or whatever evil he imagines is attacking him, but we are instead presented with what might be Xander's biggest fear: his family.

Buffy Season Eight holds a few gems, especially for Xander (I love the moment when Xander catches Buffy in bed with another girl, and immediately slaps his hand over his eye- just like a non-pervy brother).

Xander accepts that the girl of his dreams is never going to be his, and allows that affection to evolve into genuinely platonic love. He moves out of basement, gets a successful career despite his fears that he will always be a loser. He even saves the world from veiny Willow. That's significant development in my book, even if it isn't that significant when compared to the other BTVS characters.

[pernilleborup]

HAIL THE XANDMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bloody pet]

i think its pretty low to dis anyone. plus we're talking about cute, friendly,happy,carefree,jokeing around all the time xander.whats not to love. i know i get pissed when i hear about people dising spike/james.nick is a great guy and a hell of a actor. so what if hes chubbylike i say about me "thats just more to love" so to all you xander haters lay off people!!!!!!

[Fake Shemp]

He looks better in season 4 onwards imo. In season 2 and 3 was it? when he was all skinny he looked weird. He's so much better the older he's gotten. Xander haters can hate all they want, ive got enough Xander love to go around.

[pernilleborup]

I have grown fond of Xander.
He shows courage where everyone else would flee like little girls(OK most times he's one of the girls) and he understands when someting has to be done. (Wow... Xander is like made for VH :D )

Xander always was the kid with no super powers or huge amount of intelligens. Still he kept on fighting along side with the witch, the vampire, and the Slayer. Just a normal kid, fighting evil.
How can anyone hate him?

[Fake Shemp]

He really is a true Vh'er... like us.. wootage. I love all his spazzy stuff, you know when he falls through the hole he digs in Pangs? Awwwww... well just the way he flays his hands around when hes looking back up the hole. He's just the right amount of effeminate, sometimes, for me.

Like the glitter Boss of Us sign he made, i can totally see him at the table making the willow boss of us sign. its so cute. Awwww for xander love.

[sosa lola]

For those who really hate Xander, must go here ;)

crazydiamondsue: Xander-Shaped Love (http://crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com/118597.html)