First off what do I mean by damsel? The dictionary defines it as a young woman or girl, a maiden. But in the horror genre and action films –the damsel is the person who is in trouble, the person fleeing from the villains or trapped in the tower waiting to be saved. In most classic fairy tales the damsel is Rapunzel trapped in the tower, Cinderella stuck doing horrible chores for the evil stepmother, Sleeping Beauty sleeping her life away, or Snow White stuck in a coma = all without exception waiting for the handsome wealthy prince to save them. Hans Christian Anderson is one of the few who created fairy tales where the girl saves the guy and the prince is the damsel – The Little Mermaid, where she literally sacrifices herself for him and The Snow Queen where she goes on a lengthy quest to rescue him from the ice that has frozen his heart.
Up until fairly recently – damsels in the movies were women. Joss Whedon – when he created Buffy the Vampire Slayer was NOT interested in creating another action/horror series for adolescent boys. Being a bit of a feminist, at least according to his interviews, he wanted to address two things that he felt had not been adequately addressed in the horror genre: the horrors of high school &/or growing up and the role of the female heroine. He wanted to flip that role on its head.
“Where did the idea [for Btvs] come from? There’s actually an incredibly specific answer to that question. It came from watching a horror movie and seeing the typical ditzy blonde walk into a dark alley and getting killed. I just thought that I would love to see a scene where the ditzy blonde walks into a dark alley, a monster attacks her and she kicks its ass.” -- Joss Whedon on The Buffy Movie (SFX, p. 37, The Vampire Special)
But flipping the concept on its head required a bit more than just the girl, formerly the damsel, killing monsters – it required the sidekick/damsel being the guy. Think about it – how many tv shows, movies, comics and books have you read where the guy is the hero and he has this sweet girl sidekick who is constantly getting in trouble, wants to help out, loves him dearly – but he never notices because he has it bad for the femme fatale, defined as the alluring, mysterious woman of dark sexuality, who in many ways is more his equal? Batman certainly went there with Batgirl and Catwoman, Superman, and Hercules the Series – who falls for the wicked Xenia, who because of her relationship with him, sees the error of her ways and starts fighting for good and eventually gets her own show…hmmm, reminds me of Angel the Series. (Hercules the series was similar to Btvs while Xenia was similar to Angel – One series focuses on the hero’s journey, while the other focuses on the anti-hero (a former love interest/nemesis’ of the hero), journey for redemption. Whedon just flipped the two – the hero is now the heroine and the femme fatale is now a guy). Xenia even had her own female damsel in Gabrielle. The list goes on. But now the girl is the hero and the boy is the wimpy sidekick who loves her from afar and watches as she falls for the male version of the femme fatale – the vampire.
The role of the sidekick has often been one of comic relief – when things get tough – the sidekick makes us laugh with a well-placed joke or smart alec remark. He falls on his face. He eats bugs and becomes Drac’s minion.(Buffy vs. Dracula). He makes light of the situation and often has the best lines. The sidekick often is known for questioning the hero’s judgment, making the insensitive remark, yet coming through when the hero needs him or her in the end. (Becoming Part I & II) Some examples of famous hero/sidekick pairings in popular culture –
1. The Lone Ranger and Tonto
2. Batman and Robin, also Batgirl
3. Rio Bravo and El Dorado – had created the classic Western sidekick of the rookie who either gave a wiseass remark or a song: Ricky Nelson and James Cann
4. Hercules – Ionaus
5. Xenia – Gabrielle and later Joxer (traditional undeveloped sidekick)
Where would we be without the trusted sidekick – who fills two needs – one backup and two comic relief. The best way to do in the hero – was often to kill or compromise the sidekick. Also – very important – the sidekick and hero must never have a romantic relationship – screws up the whole dynamic, besides the hero traditionally falls for the femme or male fatale with the sidekick either having a hopeless crush on them – if the sidekick is not of the same gender or getting past the crush and forming the longer lasting friendship.
II. Xander Harris: comic sidekick and damsel combined:
From the beginning of the series – Buffy was always saving Xander. She was his hero. As Anya puts it in her duet with Xander in OMWF: “When things get tough – he hides behind his Buffy, Look he’s getting Huffy because he knows that I know.” Xander is the male equivalent of Batgirl or the male equivalent of the girl sidekick, the damsel. Because in Buffy? The damsels are the guys not the girls. But that’s not his only role – he also acts as the comic relief, often commenting on the enormity of the situation. The comic relief role/side-kick traditionally works as a stand-in for the audience. If you notice from the beginning of the series – Xander of all the characters comments on the action – often wondering aloud if this is just fiction, just a television series, not real.
It’s Xander in OMWF who sings: “Move it along, nothing more to see,” while looking at the audience beyond the fourth wall. And Xander who states in Bargaining Part II – that monsters aren’t a common occurrence unless you’re us. And in Welcome to The Hellmouth – it is once again Xander who questions if Buffy is the slayer and vampires are real – only to discover with shock, gasp they are. It is also Xander in Harvest who wonders why no one else remembers that first vampire attack at the Bronze outside the four of them.
Xander is also, amazingly enough, one of the most fully developed sidekicks – I’ve seen on TV or elsewhere. He actually has a job, a love life, and a family outside of the hero. And each of these items has a great amount influence over his life. On top of this – the writers have taken the additional step of paralleling the femme or rather male fatale to the sidekick. Angel was similar to Xander – in the fact that he too had the disapproving father and the middle-class existence. Usually sidekicks are given a cardboard background, such as Andrew and Jonathan in Btvs – we never really meet Andrew’s family (unless you count Tucker) or Jonathan’s for that matter, never know they exist, never see the love interest (outside of Warren), if they aren’t with the hero? They have no life. They don’t even have much of an identity. Just enough of one to be comical and make the hero look good. Not so Xander – Btvs has whole episodes focused on this sidekick. I haven’t been consistently watching Smallville – but I’m pretty sure that it has not focused one episode on the teen girl sidekick of Superman, Chloe (I think her name is), and it took Xenia at least two seasons to focus an episode on Gabrielle. And at least until Season 4 to show us much information Joxer who took Gabby’s place as the traditional sidekick. (I may be wrong on that…it’s been a while since I’ve watched Xenia. But I’m pretty sure it took awhile for Hercules to focus one on Ionaus.)
Here’s a partial list of Xander-centric episodes, all tend to be geared towards the theme of what it’s like being the comic relief, sidekick and damsel and all focus on paralleling this experience to the hero’s, while at the same time developing Xander’s character beyond these roles.
Teacher’s Pet (Season 1)
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered & Go Fish (Season 2)
The Zeppo (Season 3)
The Replacement (Season 5)
Hell’s Bells (Season 6)
In each of these episodes –the sidekick’s story takes center stage, pushing the hero’s to the background. Each episode focused mostly on an emotional issue or problem of the sidekick.
1. Teacher’s Pet – Xander is the damsel in this episode. The episode is a twist on the traditional gothic romance – where the hero must save the virginal ingénue before she is sacrificed to the monster, which has seduced her in the form of an attractive man. The ingénue only fell into its clutches out of the desire to make the hero jealous. Xander acts like the ingénue in this episode, making all the same mistakes. In order to make the hero, Buffy, jealous, he flirts with the gorgeous teacher, goes to her house, and ends up in her murderous clutches.
2. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered and Go Fish – deals with the comic sidekick’s desire to be taken seriously by the opposite sex, so he/she does something dangerous and gets more than he/she bargained for. The first deals with the classic love spell – the girl casts it and all the guys go crazy after her, a la Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Btvs – Xander casts it and reaps the results. Go Fish – the desire to appear worthwhile in Cordy’s eyes causes Xander to join the swim team, where he comically almost ends up becoming a fish. The intrepid female reporter, think Lois Lane, goes undercover and has to be saved by the hero. Except in the Btvs’ version Xander inadvertently ends up rescuing the hero. Occasionally the sidekick gets the chance to do this. Robin saves Batman. Tonto saves the Lone Ranger. Gabrielle saves Xenia. But, as seen in this episode, with comic results.
3. The Zeppo and The Replacement – deals with the sidekick’s inability to deal with his current roles as the damsel and comic relief in the drama. Every sidekick has had this epiphany moment. Wait! What is my role in life? Am I just the hero’s butt monkey? The damsel – the hero has to save and protect? (See beginning of The Zeppo where Xander almost gets killed) The comic relief? (Buffy vs. Dracula and the Replacement). And why the heck am I putting up with this nonsense. “I will no longer be anyone’s buttmonkey!” Xander shouts at the end of Buffy vs. Dracula. Yet his insecurity regarding his inability to escape this role is revealed with comic effect in The Replacement, where he splits in two and believes that his real self is the butt-monkey, the comic sidekick, and suavexander is the monster.
4. Hell’s Bells – the sidekick’s romance is ruined by his relationship with the hero or the sidekick is afraid that he’ll never have that lasting romance due to his long-standing relationship with the hero. Xander and Anya’s marriage in the future is on the rocks because Xander had to fulfill his role as Buffy’s sidekick and severely damaged his back. The hero meanwhile counts on the sidekick to ride merrily into the sunset and in this case, interestingly enough, with an ex-demon because it provides the hero with the hope that someday she may realize the same dream with the current male fatale of the moment. The hero can’t stop saving the world long enough to have a life, but her sidekick can. Or so the hero believes. Hell’s Bells brilliantly showed from the sidekick’s perspective why this isn’t necessarily so. We went into the head of the sidekick and realized his fears. Not a comforting experience, partly because the sidekick is traditionally a stand-in for the audience who is also following the hero on her journey and depends on the hero to save the day. When we fantasize about being in shows like Superman, Batman or even Btvs – often we fantasize about being the sidekick not the hero. Hence the need for the sidekick role.
III. Xander compared to the other male damsels & sidekicks on Btvs.
1. Andrew or Tucker’s Brother, the negative sidekick or villain’s sidekick
Of the Troika, we know the least about Andrew and have seen him the least. He is the traditional concept of the sidekick. Tonto on the Lone Ranger, who had very few lines, followed his master faithfully without question, and didn’t even appear to have a last name. Other well-known cardboard sidekicks include: Dick Grayson – who for the longest time was just Batman’s ward. Lex Luthor’s sidekick in the Superman movies. Number 1 on Star Trek Next Generation. And now we have Andrew- Tucker’s Brother as Warren’s sidekick. He has no clear identity, no one can place him, he acts in some ways like a cipher – you can successfully compare him to almost all the characters on the show but he doesn’t stand well on his own. Ciphers are characters that we often forget once they leave the screen. They are non-entities.
Think about it – what do we really know about Andrew? When Spike asks Buffy if he hurt anyone she says : “Andrew…” and in response to his confusion – “Tucker’s brother,” as if that explains everything. It’s not all that different than Xander being referred to as Buffy’s boy. Or for that matter Dawn being referred to as Buffy’s sister.
Xander fears being a cipher, someone who is only recognized through Buffy – when Spike describes Xander as “her boy” or the “slayer’s boy”, Xander gets riled. Just as he gets riled for being Drac’s minion or the zeppo, the weak link as Andrew is. Andrew is Xander’s worst nightmare. Andrew is every boy’s worst nightmare. The non-entity who is only referred to or introduced with an infamous or famous relative’s name attached to his own, in this case his brother, which in a sense is not all that different than being just a sidekick.
Andrew like Xander is sick of being the sidekick, he wants to be the cool guy in the leather jacket or the male version of the fatale. After all the fatale gets to a)fight the hero and b) boink the hero, (see Catwoman through Xenia for examples). Xander to VampWillow in Dopplegangland: “So I was a kickass vampire in your dimension? Cool!” And with Lance – so it was the jacket that made Lance cool all along? Buffy to Xander, “And you weren’t tempted to take that jacket yourself…” Xander: “Well no, but only because it didn’t fit.” Xander to Buffy in The Pack – “You like dark guys, well guess who just got dark!” Xander fears being like Andrew - a cipher, no true personality of his own. Just the comic relief.
2. Jonathan – the perpetual damsel in distress
Looking back over the high school years of Btvs – Jonathan was consistently used as the damsel. Almost killed in What’s My Line, Mummy Girl, Earshot, and numerous other episodes. If you blinked you missed it most of the time. And like most damsels – he barely got a chance to thank the hero before she trotted off with her pals. It is fitting that it is Jonathan who presents Buffy with the school defender trophy in The Prom – since after all it was Jonathan’s life Buffy probably saved the most. In the Gift – the boy running away from the vampire into the alley could be a stand-in for Jonathan, or a perfect double of Danny Strong who played him.
Even as a villain – Jonathan had to be saved. If it weren’t for Buffy in Seeing Red – Warren and Andrew would have eventually killed him. His life expectancy according to Warren was the same as a carton of milk. Prior to Jonathan’s decision to join the Trioka, Buffy had to save Jonathan from himself in Earshot where he attempts to commit suicide and in Superstar where his doppleganger attempts to destroy him. (a doppleganger that looks vaguely reminiscent of the demon Willow accidentally summons in Wrecked).
In Btvs – both Willow and Xander take turns playing the damsel. Willow eventually grows out of it – as we see Jonathan attempt to. While Xander falls repeatedly back into it, in Two to Go (where Jonathan saves him from Andrew) and Seeing Red, (Jonathan saves him from Warren). Oddly enough it’s Jonathan who saves Xander – a former damsel saving another damsel.
Btvs’ depiction of the damsel is interesting – because in most, not all cases, the damsel is given an opportunity to save himself. And the damsel’s worst enemy tends to be himself.
Xander fluctuates between being damsel and heroic sidekick, just as Willow does. Jonathan remains more or less a damsel until Season 6, where he gets the chance to move slightly out of that role – only to finally come to a sad end in Season 7. The damsel finally dies. May he/she rest in peace. The irony is once again – Jonathan has placed himself at risk – in traditional damsel fashion he fell for the villain’s line and let himself be sacrificed for the villain’s cause. Except irony of ironies – the villain killing the damsel isn’t the head villain but the cipher, the sidekick – who the villain in his spiritual form must operate through.
Like Andrew – Jonathan operates in Btvs as Xander’s and even more so, Willow’s, ultimate fear of being the powerless damsel always at the mercy of the villain, never able to save himself.
3. Lance/Angel/Spike – the cool dude in the jacket or male fatal
Lance is actually the focus of this section because he’s Xander’s stand-in. Lance who we only meet in HIM (Season 7 Btvs), has handed his jacket down to his brother, AJ, who up until now was probably just known as Lance’s brother. Very similar to Andrew, who is just known as Tucker’s brother. Xander tries on the jacket – we’re told – and it doesn’t fit. Xander tries on the cloak of demon possession in The Pack – but he doesn’t get the girl like Angel does, he doesn’t get to be the male fatale.
The femme fatale. She is traditionally the unknown quantity, the forbidden. In movies she has been played by dark sultry actresses and sings sultry songs. The misunderstood girl. Men crave her, women hate her. Catwoman was Batman’s femme fatale. Darla is Angel’s. Lilah is Wesely’s. Faith was Xander’s. Drusilla was Spike’s. Anya is the femme fatale for Xander – the sidekick’s version of the lost soul who wants to be redeemed.
What I find fascinating is that guys who lust after the femme fatal and want the male hero with her and want more of her – despise the male version of the fatal and whine endlessly about women who like him. (Think about it – how many guys love Anya but can’t stand Spike? Or loved Harmony and Drusilla but can’t stand Angel?) Women who love the male fatal despise the female version and whine endlessly about men who like her. (Hate Lilah but loved Angel?) Can we say? HYPOCRIT! This is of course a generalization, not everyone is like this.
What Btvs has done is made the male fatale a main character not the femme. They’ve flipped it. In the vampire television series, where the hero is a vampire and a cop, Forever Knight, the femme fatale was the saloonkeeper, a female vampire and a reoccurring character and btw far more alluring than any other female on the show. In Angel – Lilah is the femme fatal – she wears better clothes and delivers better lines than any other woman on the show. Just as Darla did before her. And Drusilla. In Btvs – the fatales have been Spike and Angel respectively.
The successful fatal gets redeemed and starts fighting for good, at first with an ulterior motive. In some movies and tv shows the fatal is the lead and becomes the anti-hero: Angel and Xenia for example. And they in turn get their own versions of the fatale – Angel gets Darla (a female vampire) and Xenia gets Aries (a dark war god). If you’re a fan of the series 24? The fatale is Nina – the coworker who has an affair with the hero and subsequently turns out to be the mole in the organization that kills his wife.
Lance and his brother (AJ) and Andrew represent Xander’s hidden desire to be the fatale. The desire of every guy or gal as the case may be to be the fatale. Let’s face it – it’s more fun. You can be evil and good. And look sexy while doing it. Far more fun than being a sidekick or comic relief.
Anya is an example of the fatale becoming the sidekick’s love interest and eventually comic relief, she is in a sense Xander’s anti-Buffy. The sidekick will often end up with the shady lady or shady informant when he/she can’t get the hero. The old – let’s go for the exact opposite of what I can’t have approach. Buffy may indirectly be doing the same thing – hunting her polar opposite. This is what makes the fatal so fascinating – the conflict and chemistry is much more charged onscreen or in literature between two opposites. As is the suspense – will the hero reform the fatale? Will the fatale pull the hero down to his/her level? Who will win the tug-of-war between the two?
Angel is an example of the tug of war being won by the hero and the fatal taking off for hero’s own good to complete his own journey. Xenia is another popular culture example of this occurrence. After falling for Hercules – she takes off in her own series to find her own path to redemption. As is Catwoman in the Batman comics.
The Season 6 Spike/Buffy relationship is an example of the hero being pulled into the fatale’s world and almost losing the battle. Similar occurrences of this happened in well Superman III, when the red kryptonite turned Superman evil, or the seduction of Jean Grey’s Phoenix by Mastermind in the X-man comics. Another example is the Dracula-Mina relationship in Bram Stoker’s novel or Lestate and Louis’ relationship in Ann Rice’s novels.
Lance/AJ is an example of the sidekick craving this role through the use of a costume.
4. OZ/Riley – the heroic boyfriend/sidekick/love interest
OZ and Riley represent the ideal guy – the one the sidekick envies and wants to be. OZ who is the epitome of cool or as described by Joss Whedon in an old interview – the boy in the band he always wanted to be. OZ gets the sidekick’s female alter ego, Willow, the other sidekick in the series. The one that Xander believed would always be waiting in the wings for him. Oops guess not. OZ also has the darkness Xander craves to be interesting and accomplishes the heroic acts – Xander wishes he could accomplish. In The Zeppo – OZ is still included, Xander is exiled – due to damsel status. OZ is dangerous, Xander only has the memories of being dangerous. OZ is also at the same time good. A perfect combo of ideal and fatale.
Riley on the other hand is the “ideal” guy. The perfect boyfriend from the “guy’s” perspective. Brave. Stoic. Polite. With a cool career and lifetime benefits. Xander not only envies Riley, he wants to be Riley. Riley is Xander’s fantasy self. Way back in Halloween – Xander gets a custom as Army Guy and due to a chaos spell briefly becomes the confident Army Guy and is the makeshift leader/hero in that episode. In Fear, Itself – he plays James Bond with the hopes that if another spell occurs, he’ll really be James Bond. Riley at different points in the series takes on both these roles. In Season 4 – he is Army Guy, in Season 6 – he is Secret Agent Guy. He rides to the rescue like John Wayne in Rio Bravo with Xander as Ricky Nelson, his trusty sidekick. But like all fantasies, Riley is a bit of a cipher as well – we know so little about him. He comes from Iowa. He has a family – we think. He loved Buffy. He is now married to Sam. And he joined the military. Actually sounds like quite a bit, what do you mean not well drawn, but wait…is it? Think about it. What do we really know about Riley Finn that’s not a time-worn cliché taken out of a military drama or war movie that Xander has watched a million times? Which makes Riley the perfect sugary version of the fantasy hero. The guy that Xander believes should be with the hero. The ideal. And like all ideal’s? He disappears in a puff of helicopter exhaust. Because the ideal – does not exist, except long enough to cast doubt on Xander’s role. Can Xander ever measure up to someone like Riley? Does Xander’s life have meaning? Riley has the perfect life right?
It’s interesting that both OZ and Riley leave their first loves in the lurch to find themselves. And both have hidden dark sides that threaten to consume them. Oz’s werewolf persona, Riley’s Initiative past and vamp trulls. Possible evidence the what lies on the surface, the ideal, may not be any more real than AJ’s prized jacket in HIM or Xander’s costume in Halloween.
5. Wes/Giles – the wise mentor/information resource/invaluable guide
In Season 4 – Xander tries to become Giles’ protégée. He tries to learn what Giles knows and take on the Watcher duties. But it doesn’t work out. He can’t take over the role of the mentor and guide. A traditional role in fantasy genre filled by Gandalf in Lord of The Rings to Frodo, Glinda the Good Witch in Wizard of Oz, and Alfred in the Batman series. The kind old mentor passes his wisdom on to the hero then quietly fades into the sunset or sunrise as the case may be. The reader/audience always misses him because in a sense he was our surrogate father too.
This role is less of a sidekick or damsel – although the mentor often finds himself captured or comes to the rescue as both the damsel and sidekick do. Giles in Becoming is captured by Angelus and tortured – playing the damsel. In Fear, Itself – he comes to the gang’s rescue.
But Giles partly due to age and experience – remains outside the sidekick role and in the role of mentor, teacher. When he is finished – he will disappear as all mentors eventually do.
Wes in contrast to Giles – is the damsel in Btvs and the comic relief. He would like to be the mentor, but he neither has the age nor the experience to fulfill the role. Xander and Wes have a lot in common – both men have troubles with Daddy, neither want to be their father yet both crave the father’s approval. Xander craves Giles’ approval. While Wes craves his biological father’s approval. Later, when Wes moves to Angel – he first plays the comic relief role than slowly moves to the Giles role, an example of the comic sidekick moving to the wiser more developed role. But to do it, he must at some point break with the hero, which he does more than once on the series. Just as Willow moves from sidekick to information role on Buffy, slowly taking Giles’ place on the series and manages it by also breaking with the hero and doing her own thing, requiring the hero’s forgiveness in the process.
Xander remains the sidekick and unlike Cordy on Angel – does not get promoted to romantic love interest. The difference may be gender – while the female sidekick can get promoted to this role – see Gabrielle on Xenia as another example, the male sidekick may be considered too comical and inept to reach this role, Ionaus certainly didn’t get it in Hercules. The only male sidekick I’ve seen make the transition was possibly Pike in the BTVS movie. There may be others. Of course the more likely reason is unlike Cordy and Wes and Willow, Xander has never quite broken with the hero and sought out his own path, he’s never quite betrayed her or had to leave her for a time due to some type of betrayal.
IV. Conclusion: So Where is Xander headed? (Future Spec)
The one thing Xander has yet to do in his traditional sidekick role is turn on the hero, betray her. Willow did it last year and afterwards moved beyond the sidekick role. In order to develop past a sidekick and eventually find your own place in the world, the sidekick must at some point break with the hero’s path.
In Batman – Dick Grayson finally rebels, stops being Robin, and becomes Night Wing. Similar to Xander’s Night Hawk in Anne and Dead Man’s Party when he attempts to take over Buffy’s role with his friends. But this is short lived – Buffy quickly takes back the role when she returns demonstrating with a few kicks and a lung how inept Xander is.
Outside of possibly the Pack and OMWF, Xander has never truly turned his back on or betrayed the hero, he has remained trusted sidekick. Now Willow has – and her character as a result finally confronted the hero regarding this role and broke free of it.
Wes and Cordelia have both accomplished this task on Ats. Wesely did it first in Sleep Tight and left the hero or in this case anti-hero’s fold, forming his own crew and finding his own identity as a result. An identity that is separate yet parallel to Angel’s and as a result - becoming a better-rounded character in his own right. Cordelia did it recently by sleeping with Connor. Interesting – in both cases the betrayal involved Angel’s child. First by kidnapping the child for it’s own good. Second by providing it with sexual comfort.
The series Xenia had a similar betrayal, which served to strengthen the Gabrielle character. Gabrielle against Xenia’s orders did not kill her demon child and as a result the demon child lived to kill Xenia’s innocent son.
The betrayal by the trusted sidekick serves to strengthen and advance the hero on their journey as well. For they are forced to come to grips with 1) how they’ve used and relied on the side-kick over the years, 2) that the side-kick is a person in their own right, and 3) forgiving someone close to them and through it realizing that evil can be done by those we love the most, it’s not limited to the fatale or the demons. And in realizing this, the hero finally learns how to forgive themselves for not being perfect or gods.
Last year Buffy had to face a betrayal by her spiritual sidekick – Willow. This year she may have to face a similar betrayal by the sidekick that represents her heart or her humanity – Xander. In Season 3 – she had to face betrayal by her parents and authority.
In fantasy, particularly horror, the hero must often pass through the fire of betrayal to reach enlightenment.
For Xander – such a betrayal would aid him in three ways 1) breakage with the hero and discovery of his own identity, 2) recognition of his own capacity for evil, 3) finally coming to grips with his own resentment and anger towards the hero.
I also believe Xander’s forthcoming betrayal has been foreshadowed by the series and developed. Like Willow was at the end of Season 5 and beginning of Season 6, Xander saves the day, appears on a superficial level to be confident and in control of his future and heroic. But Willow falls off the cliff, goes nuts in Smashed and Wrecked, goes through what appears to be rehab, saves Buffy’s life a few times, only to go wacko when she loses Tara. Xander similarly saves the day at the end of Season 6, finally reaches success with his company, and seems to be a recognized and necessary part of the Buffy slaying machine. Yet…he tells Andrew in Never Leave Me that his heart is gone and in it’s place is darkness and there’s nothing to look forward to. He tells Nancy in Beneath You that his ex is still affecting his life. And in Selfless – he turns on the hero, literally pushes the hero aside, to save Anya, the femme fatale. Selfless is the first time Xander breaks with the hero, choosing someone over Buffy.
In the episodes Him, Beneath You and Lessons, the writers have gone out of their way to have Xander either save the day or help in a crucial way. Even in Selfless, Same Time Same Place, and Never Leave Me – Xander supports the decision to think first before killing a friend. He’s the one who stops Buffy from killing Anya in Selfless, he’s the one who believes in Willow in Same Time Same Place, and he figures out that Spike is not responsible for the killings in Never Leave Me but rather being controlled by an outside force. This is similar to Willow’s investigative work in Double Meat Palace and Gone last season, as well as her activities in the beginning of the year.
In order for the sidekick’s betrayal to work – the audience must feel that the sidekick can and should be saved and forgiven. The sidekick needs to build up a record of good deeds.
We have to be rooting for the hero to bring the sidekick back from the dark side, otherwise the betrayal lacks suspense and emotional impact. Also the hero must feel that the sidekick is salvageable. So as a writer – you build up a record or score sheet of good deeds. But, at the same, you also show the cracks.
So what are the cracks in Xander’s façade? Well in Same Time Same Place – Xander is called “her boy” by Spike, is treated like a second banana and the brunt of a few quips.
“Or we could do the smart thing…Sorry Xander.” Later in Him – we see that Xander does want to try on the evil jacket. In Selfless – Anya voices Xander’s fear – of being a nobody of having nothing – a fear he echoes in Never Leave Me.
How about foreshadowing? In the Replacement – we see the war between the two Xander’s buttmonkey and SuaveXander. In the Zeppo – we see Xander flirt with the dark side, by running with the evil dead. In The Wish – we see what Xander would be like as a vampire. And in Becoming Part II – we see Xander betray Willow’s trust and led Buffy to believe both of her friends want her to kill her beloved, “Willow said to kick his ass”, while he knows Willow is attempting to return Angel’s soul. An act that causes Buffy to lose faith in her friendship with Willow due to her belief that not only had Willow wanted her to kill Angel, she ensured that Buffy would have to kill the ensouled version. A betrayal Willow doesn’t discover until three years later, when it may be too late to repair the damage. Finally in the Pack – we see who Xander is without a conscience or a suppressed one. Then of course we have Andrew – Xander’s doppleganger. Is it too big a leap to see the First Evil jump from Andrew to Xander??
Xander’s break with Buffy may not be as drastic as Willow’s, it doesn’t have to be in order for the character to grow and Buffy to advance to the next step in her journey. Xander could do something as simple and as well-meaning as Wes does in taking Connor or Cordelia does in sleeping with Connor. He could even do something he truly believes is right – like Gabby does in Xenia Warrior Princess, by not killing her child. The possibilities are endless. All that is required is that Buffy perceives his actions as a cruel betrayal.
Ok - not sure if any of that makes sense. Agree? Disagree? Feedback appreciated as always.
Shadowkat
