...but I could see it happening, and making sense for the characters...
I could see it happening, too - but i do not see the sense in it. At the end of the day, Xander did just not get enough actual development on-screen/on-panel for a Buffy'n'Xander romance to make sense to me. Xander is (early on) the nerd, the writer and male audience stand-in and i have no respect for a story were the nerd gets the supergirl. It reeks too much of 'women have to be super to be worthy while men are allowed to be nerds or jerks, smelling of elderberries'.
For this to make sense (to me) Xander would actually need believable development and get out of the nerd cellar. He has to transform into a superboy himself. Well, You say - look at him in season 8 - he's all mature. Yeah, sure - but how did he get there? Via off screen development. This feels like cheating to me. I would need to actually see him transform, develop and grow instead of being told that he's all mature now. I'd like to see him overcome his weaknesses, his selfishness, his patronizing, his lying and bullying, his insecurities. Mind You, i don't think it is wrong that Xander has these "dark sides" - and i would like for him to work on these, get over (most of) these. I just need to see it.
In short, he needs his own arc, something that was sorely missing from season 7 and season 8 alike. But then, maybe we will get a glimpse of that (see cover #38) - but i doubt it. To me, it feels as if the writers ushered Xander to this place and don't feel like telling his actual story (anymore).
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Date: 2010-08-23 08:53 pm (UTC)I could see it happening, too - but i do not see the sense in it. At the end of the day, Xander did just not get enough actual development on-screen/on-panel for a Buffy'n'Xander romance to make sense to me. Xander is (early on) the nerd, the writer and male audience stand-in and i have no respect for a story were the nerd gets the supergirl. It reeks too much of 'women have to be super to be worthy while men are allowed to be nerds or jerks, smelling of elderberries'.
For this to make sense (to me) Xander would actually need believable development and get out of the nerd cellar. He has to transform into a superboy himself. Well, You say - look at him in season 8 - he's all mature. Yeah, sure - but how did he get there? Via off screen development. This feels like cheating to me. I would need to actually see him transform, develop and grow instead of being told that he's all mature now. I'd like to see him overcome his weaknesses, his selfishness, his patronizing, his lying and bullying, his insecurities. Mind You, i don't think it is wrong that Xander has these "dark sides" - and i would like for him to work on these, get over (most of) these. I just need to see it.
In short, he needs his own arc, something that was sorely missing from season 7 and season 8 alike. But then, maybe we will get a glimpse of that (see cover #38) - but i doubt it. To me, it feels as if the writers ushered Xander to this place and don't feel like telling his actual story (anymore).