#pro xander harris

[spangelmybeloved]

Thank you for saying what you did on my Xander post! Because I read the end of your response like... wait, yeah, Xander was never was in my top faves either and I'm just so on the defensive of him all the time now because his haters do blow everything out of proportion! And I am pretty anti-Xanya because Anya absolutely coerced him into a relationship, but I had to restrain myself on that because Anya is so beloved, haha.

Anyway, I was expecting a lot of shade for that post so I just wanted to thank you for backing me!

yeah, no problem!

As I've said, Xander has never been my number one fav (though, a lot of my favs also get a lot of hate, so...) but he gets a disproportionate amount of hate and I kind of feel bad for the guy.

I'm also very much not a xanya fan, either, I think maybe they could have made it work for me but they very much did not. I'm not even that squicked by the unhealthy aspects of it, cause, well, all the Buffyverse ships have 'em to some extent. But it does frustrate me when fans pin it all on Xander or whine about other ships being unhealthy while shipping Xanya... but yeah, I 100% see where you're coming from with that one.

[spangelmybeloved]

I pretty much 100% agree. Xander admittedly has his faults, and he's not perfect-- none of the characters are. He really never pushes Buffy to date him after she turns him down (and like you said, sure, he's hurt-- which happens to be the natural human reaction to getting rejected), admittedly he's not super mature all the time HOWEVER he is. A teenager the first time we meet him. It'd be unrealistic to expect him to be perfect all the time (or anyone, for that matter)...

ALSO! Thank you for pointing out all the stuff about Anya. No shade to Xanya shippers (god knows my ships have issues to the max, too) but yeahhh Anya is so much older than him and the way she comes onto him is actually kind of creepy. Xander isn't perfect in their relationship, but she's just as bad (if not worse).

I also love Xander's speech to Dawn in Potential and of course his yellow crayon speech to Willow-- it's clear how much he cares about his friends and how well he knows them.

I'm fairly neutral on Xander as a character, he's not my fav but I certainly don't hate him-- but all the bashing of him actually makes me a little defensive of him at times.

Okay so I don't make a lot of ranty posts, haha, I think it's exhausting to scream about something, so this is me getting on my soapbox to just say a word in defense of Xander, and if you're gonna be bothered by that, you don't have to read this.

But I just kind of don't understand all the hate surrounding him. Hating the Scoobies as a group I get, kinda, even though that must make rewatches of the show very unpleasant for those who do. But Xander specifically did nothing more egregious or irritating than any other Scooby member (DIFFERENT things, certainly, but they all had their faults) and he gets shit for being the worst just because he's the only male who sticks around long enough to rack up that kind of hate. I think in Spuffy circles it may be just because he hates Spike so much, and a. that is an overprotection of Spike's character that not even I can get behind, and b. I think you're misreading the show if you think Xander hated Spike without reason throughout.

Because he didn't hate Spike throughout. He (begrudgingly) allowed Spike to bunk with him twice, and gave him less than ideal conditions but DID pay for his blood, both times. He was the only one who didn't jump on board the "let's kill Spike" train in S7 and even suggested that Spike might have a trigger forcing him to kill people (he also correctly identified the tracer the Initiative shot him with in S4, stating that they didn't have much time before Riley and his gang found them). The only time he actively tried to kill Spike was when he saw him screwing his ex, and Buffy also was deeply wounded and offended by the Anya/Spike fling, and just reacted differently than Xander. Buffy also allowed Xander's hatred for Spike to go on, never correcting him or telling him that actually yes we ARE sleeping together so could you maybe not insult him so much, and I think he would have backed off, just like he eventually did with both Angel and Riley, if Buffy had been firm about her relationship with him.

And beyond the Spike thing, Xander followed Buffy into every single battle despite having no superpowers, and never once had an episode where he tried to make himself more special.

He went along with Anya's unconventional way of getting them to date, and fell in love with her despite all the forceful and less-than-ideal things about her. (You know what they tell you in those harrassment and safe environment work videos? That explicitly talking about your sexual life in public is a form of sexual abuse, and Xander is clearly uncomfortable every time Anya does, so what is he supposed to do? NOT correct her? He's seriously a saint for letting her say as much stuff as she does.)

He accepted Tara no problem, and Tara described him as a sweetie to Willow at the top of S5. He asked Buffy exactly once to go out with him, and when she said no he was hurt, and his feelings didn't disappear right away (nor should they have! Feelings don't quit just because it's never gonna happen!) but he never pursued her again, even when a love spell enticed her to come on to him.

He loved and cared for Dawn like a sister, he stayed loyal to Willow after her trying to end the world, he was the only Scooby that wasn't scattered to the winds at the start of S7, he rebuilt the Summers house again and again, he put in so much time in high school and after helping with research even though books and studying were like his least favorite hobbies, and he always, ALWAYS worked with whomever he needed to to accomplish the greater good, no matter who it was or why he was asked to do so.

Spike's "You're the one, Buffy" speech is my favorite moment in the whole show but I think it overshadows the fact that Xander had his own "here's why Buffy's amazing" speech to all the doubting Potentials just two episodes prior. His arcs were subtle and not as extreme as some of the others', but they were there all the same, and he started and ended a good person with a good heart and a fierce sense of love and loyalty.

I remember watching "Welcome to the Hellmouth" for the first time, and Jesse was actually more triggering to me than anything. He mocked his friends and got in Cordelia's face and was the kind of boy I'm used to seeing in these kinds of shows. Insensitive and rude and emotionless. And Xander, by comparison, was sweet to the new girl he had a crush on, was defensive of Willow, and jumped on board the supernatural train with very little freakout. He showed his love and bravery and sensitivity straight away, and of course as a sixteen year old boy he couldn't be a model child ALL the time, but I remember being blown away in those first few episodes by how Xander was not the typical self-involved one-track-mind teen that was so often portrayed in media. And Jesse was.

I get that some characters just get on your nerves for no reason, and I have plenty of hate characters of my own, as do we all! And as I said before I know Xander's got plenty of faults, plenty of annoying qualities and plenty of dumb lines, and I remember my first run of S6, he and I did not get along at ALL (but I was also on the outs with everyone who brought Buffy back and then expected her to be normal, so it wasn't just him).

But I think he gets so much universal, unjustified hate throughout all the seasons, and that's not a fair interpretation of his character. It hurts me every time I see it, so I just wanted to add a counterpoint to the opinions out there.

[kyliafanfiction]

It’s not like Slayers are unbeatable, but the way some Xander-Stu fics will just have their pet OC that respects Xander right or whatever be just ‘SOOOOO’ much more capable than Xander.

[coraniaid]

reverse unpopular opinion meme: xander?

[Reverse unpopular opinion meme]

I like to consider my opinion of Xander Harris as being particularly complicated and nuanced, but – engaging in some critical self-reflection for just a moment – I think the objective truth is probably more that I’m just instinctively and aggressively contrarian about it.  I find that I tend to strongly disagree with most of the online takes about Xander I see, almost regardless of whether they’re pro or anti.  

I mean, on the one hand I do think it’s more than a bit silly to pretend, as many people seem to do, that Xander Harris is [somehow?] uniquely and only a Joss Whedon self insert [despite being written by multiple people] in a way that none of the other characters [that Whedon also created and that appear in the show Whedon created] apparently are. Or to ignore the fact that very often the audience is clearly meant to think that Xander is in the wrong and disapprove of his actions.  (You obviously aren’t supposed to be cheering for him when he lies to Buffy about Willow’s message about Angel in Becoming, for an easy example; or to be clapping and applauding him when he cheats on Cordelia or leaves Anya at the altar either.) And I think it would be wrong to dismiss the fact that Xander starts the show as a dumb but (mostly) harmless teenager and that, not only does he gradually mature and improve as a person as he grows up, he also [perhaps uniquely for this show?] manages to do so without killing even one person.    

But equally I would be lying if I didn’t admit that many of my least favorite episodes of the show are either Xander-centric episodes (Teacher’s Pet, The Pack, Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered for example) or episodes in which Xander plays a non-trivial role in exactly the parts of the episodes I most dislike (his treatment of Buffy in Dead Man’s Party, say, or his speech in support of Riley in Into The Woods).  The haters are right to say that Xander does often treat his female friends and partners abysmally, often in ways that the show doesn’t seem to acknowledge or which it briefly acknowledges only to brush them off with no consequences.  There certainly are times when the writers expect the audience to cheer for Xander a lot more than I personally want to, or when he says something gross and sexist which is just meant to be funny and that the writers simply didn’t think critically about at all.  And the flipside of Xander being written by a range of different writers is that his character growth is often slow, halting or inconsistent (which, while arguably realistic, is not particularly fun to experience).  And unlike some of the fandom I don’t really believe anything Xander does can be handwaved away by him being deeply affected by what happened to his “best friend” Jesse in Season 1’s The Harvest: in fact I would put money on a majority of the show’s writers having no idea who Jesse was.

Anyway, none of that preamble is really in the spirit of the ask game, is it?

Um.  Five things I like about Xander, then.  No hedging or clarification except for what I heavily imply above (oh, and also the comics aren’t canon and don’t mean anything and actually don’t even exist … I mean, uh, what comics are we even talking about?).

I think the show resolves the initial Season 1 “love triangle” (in which Xander is really into Buffy and she doesn’t reciprocate his feelings or even seem to notice them, while similarly Willow is really into Xander and he doesn’t reciprocate her feelings or even seem to notice them) in about the best way it possibly could have done.  Buffy and Xander don’t ever get together and there’s never really any suggestion that they might – one or two odd moments in Season 2 aside, I guess? – and Willow musters the self-respect required to firmly reject Xander when he tries to ask her to the dance that Buffy had just turned him down for in Prophecy Girl.  Not only that, but Willow goes on to have a serious relationship with a guy who isn’t Xander and then comes out as a lesbian and continues to have serious relationships with woman who aren’t Xander, right up to the end of the final season.  And this happens all while the three of them stay very close friends; in fact Buffy and Xander at least are clearly better friends in the second half of the season than they were at the beginning of the show [when, after all, Xander had only just met her].  Whether or not that was planned from the beginning – and to be honest, I think the Buffy fandom as a whole wildly overestimates how much of the show was planned from the beginning – I think that’s a pretty unambiguously great way for that particular subplot to have be handled.   (Although the funniest and most geometrically pleasing resolution of the Season 1 love triangle would, of course, have been for Buffy and Willow to end up together.)

Speaking of Buffy and Willow, for all his faults Xander is consistently written as somebody who cares about his friends and wants them to be safe and happy.  As well as the obvious big moments – helping to save Buffy’s life in Prophecy Girl; his speech assuring Buffy that she’s his hero in The Freshman; repeatedly assuring Willow in Grave that he’ll always love her, even if she ends up killing him or destroying the world; that moment in Season 7 where Buffy sends him away to look after Dawn because she “needs somebody [she] can count on” – I think it’s fun when we get to see the three of them just hang out, in those quiet little moments they get to just all be kids together.  I am very firmly in the camp that thinks Buffy should have friends and be allowed to not be treated for an idiot for liking said friends or wanting to spend time with them.  Whatever else you can say about it, I think it’s obvious that this is how the show’s writers expect you to engage with the show.   That’s part of why I’m more forgiving than some people of episodes like I Robot, You Jane or Bad Eggs or Amends: these are all episodes in which I can believe that Xander is fundamentally a good kid who Buffy would want to be friends with, and that he’d grow up to be somebody she’d still want to be friends with as an adult.    

Some people online – mostly not on Tumblr – talk a lot of rot about Xander getting self-defense training or somehow reconnecting with the military persona he had in Halloween or otherwise Learning How To Fight, and I can’t overstate how glad I am that the show didn’t go in this direction.  Xander makes sense as a character precisely because he isn’t a fighter.  Because he doesn’t occupy that more stereotypically masculine role: because he is the one who gets rescued and brings in baked goods and that the other, more powerful but emotionally repressed characters can go to to talk about their feelings.  Because he is the person who, by the end of the show, can best reassure Dawn that she doesn’t need to be a Potential Slayer or have superpowers to be special.  This idea that Xander complains too much during the show about not having special powers and that the “solution” to “fix” this is to have him go out and get some (as opposed to this being a deliberate character arc in which Xander learns to accept that he’s never going to be that sort of person) is not one I have a lot of sympathy for.  The show already has a human male character who is trained as a fighter so he can go on patrol with Buffy: he’s called Riley Finn and he’s insufferable. 

Although the fandom as a whole loves to massively oversell how “abusive” the Scoobies respective parents are, I do think that Xander’s home life is a key part of understanding who Xander specifically is as a person.  And – again, however deliberately planned from the beginning or not it was – there’s something nicely disturbing about how we never get a big dramatic reveal about how awful Xander’s parents are: it’s just something that the writers just slowly build up to – from the idea in Season 1 that Xander doesn’t regularly eat cooked meals at home (���do your parents even own a stove?”), to Xander joking about his dad trying to “send [him] to some Armenians once” early in Season 2, or calling home to say he’s going to be out all night and having his mother clearly not recognize his voice, through to Cordelia revealing in Season 3 that he admitted to her that sleeps outside during Christmas to avoid his parents drunken fights  – until by Restless we can see Xander having nightmares about being trapped in his parents basement and having his father come down the stairs and we don’t need to have anything more than that explained to us.  I think that’s all really effectively done, and while I don’t think it excuses te way Xander behaves I do think it does a lot to make sense of it.

Again, while I think it’s possible to drastically overstate the Mind/Spirit/Heart metaphorical reading – I don’t think this is something the writers were consciously thinking about most of the time and I don’t think the reading of the show in which everyone is reduced to a part of Buffy’s own psyche is even particularly interesting except perhaps as an intellectual exercise – I do think it’s a reading that works pretty well for Xander. (Actually of the three elements, that’s surely the one that’s easiest to see: I’ve never been completely sure why Willow is the Spirit rather than the Mind.)  Yeah, Xander can often be petty and jealous and selfish and hypocritical and refuse to analyze his own feelings: that doesn’t rule him out from being Buffy’s metaphorical heart, it’s evidence that he is.  Buffy can be all of those things too!  (I think I am rather more fond of Buffy herself than you are – she is my favorite character on the show, after all – but I don’t like Buffy because she’s flawless and perfect; I like her because she’s interesting and realistically flawed, and very often flawed in the same ways as her friends.)

[moistvonlipwig]

reverse unpopular opinion: xander harris

lol i literally sent someone else this very question today!! great minds think alike...

first of all i must remark upon this boy's fashion sense. it is unparalleled. i unironically love his fits. my 2 faves are his "earshot" fit with the christmas-colored shirt and his "i <3 dirt" shirt which is simply excellent beyond measure.

secondly i will say that, while xander can certainly be a jerk, he also does demonstrate growth and the ability to recognize his behavior and try to do better and make up for his mistakes. in "prophecy girl" he reaches out to angel for help to save buffy even though he's still in the midst of a jealous snit about buffy liking angel more. in "amends" he shows up to help buffy and giles figure out what's wrong with angel because he acknowledges he's been unfair to buffy about angel. in "the prom" he buys cordelia's dress for her (which is not a minor thing given his financial situation) without expectation that she will dance with him or go to prom with him because he is able to overcome his bitterness about her not forgiving him to see that she's a human person who has been hurting for some time. in "seeing red" he acknowledges that buffy had good reasons to not come to him about spike and says that he wants to be a better friend to her. and in s7 he is actually very non-judgmental about spike & her relationship with him, and in general is very supportive. granted in s7 he does not get much screentime lol. but still.

thirdly, although the theme of this ask meme is 'reverse unpopular opinions', i am going to take an unpopular stance and defend the Lie. i certainly understand why people take umbrage with xander, a boy who has repeatedly made sexist comments and shown jealousy over buffy preferring angel to him, deciding that buffy cannot be trusted with the knowledge that willow is trying to return angel's soul to him and telling her that willow simply told her to kick his ass instead. i don't think it's the best or most selfless or most morally correct decision ever, and there is an undertone of sexism and possessiveness in the decision to withhold this information from her.

HOWEVER. if buffy DOES falter in her fight against angel. and i cannot stress this enough. literally the entire world goes to hell. and honestly, as much as we the audience sympathize with buffy's emotional struggle to kill angel, the reality is that she has not yet demonstrated that she can. for all that xander's Lie comes across to many as paternalistic and condescending in its assumption that she would hold back and endanger the world if she knew willow was trying to save him, the truth is that xander has good reasons, based in experience and buffy's past actions, to make this assumption. i also just frankly think that the Lie did not change the outcome of the buffy/angel fight for the worse; it either did not change the outcome at all, or xander was right and it helped buffy cement her decision to fight angel as hard as she could.

now that said i do think the Lie made it much harder for buffy emotionally to kill angel since she was not prepared for his soul to return, and i do think it probably contributed to her leaving town because she felt like her friends were all pro-killing angel and wouldn't sympathize with her. and also just in general it's not super kosher to lie to your friends about what your other friends said! so i'm not saying it was a good or heroic thing. but i do think it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. and the writers bringing it up in 7x05 (a full 4 years later) to make xander look worse in an argument where he is 100% correct was pure ridiculous nonsense.

fourthly i think his struggle with his abusive father, and particularly his fear of becoming his abusive father, is very sad and poignant. his dream in "restless" is maybe my favorite; the way he keeps ending up back in his parents' basement no matter where he turns, with his father at the top of the stairs looming threateningly over him, is so. raaaagh. can we get him out of there!!! and i think of all his missteps, his choice in "hell's bells" is by far the most sympathetic, because they do a really fantastic job of showing us just how deep-seated his fear of turning into his father is. (and unfortunately, "entropy" demonstrates that this fear is not entirely baseless.) the fact that he ends up hurting anya so profoundly anyway in his quest to not hurt her is also deeply sad and speaks to the cycle he's trapped in and how difficult it is for him to get out of it.

fifthly he is extremely brave. he challenges angel to his face in "killed by death." he plays a game of chicken with a zombie who wants to blow up the school in "the zeppo" and he wins. he stands in between willow and the statue she needs to destroy the world and fully invites her to kill him, just to show her he's there for her. xander claims in s1 that he "laugh[s] in the face of danger" and then "hide[s] until it goes away" but in actuality he is one of the consistently bravest characters in the buffyverse.

sixthly he did NOT mooch off buffy in s6. that man was EMPLOYED and he did his best to help her, with getting discounts for her through his connections to plumbers, etc. the same cannot be said for everyone that season !

lastly i admire his commitment to being a hater. like in that one episode where he's at the bronze complaining about angel like "angel, angel, angel! why is everyone always talking about that FREAK who i HATE" and then angel shows up behind his shoulder and clearly heard him and xander says, completely confidently, "hey man :)" with absolutely no shame. i love angel but one must respect a committed hater and xander's haterism is unparalleled. just like his love of dirt <3

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

[goongiveusnothing]

my friend group who is college aged is moving more towards noah kahan and chappell roan style of music. their sound and messaging is more authentic and relateable. that’s where harry is losing ground fast. he can’t rely on his looks anymore (which i feel like i was gaslighted by his fans and media). he had a charisma that was more due to his youth and the 1d phenomenon. that charisma is gone now. the old greats like madonna and lady gaga could get away with image and sound changes because they were committed and more importantly, you could see how involved they were. with harry, it feels like he only wants everything he does to keep up with money trends so he can keep his fuckboi lifestyle. his beliefs are whatever is popular at the moment and even then he plays it ambiguous so it could be interpreted he’s for both sides so he keeps their $$$$ support… except the zionist thing which he definitely is and that he doesn’t give a fuck about genocides. no fucks either with lgbtq or pocs unless it’s for press.

this feels totally accurate to the situation. i think harry deciding he was above social media and with communicating with anyone, plus his political stances and being a massive zionist have really set him back with young people. added to that his aging issue and how fucking weird he looks now... it's all working against him.

it's going to be so interesting seeing if his fans bring palestinian flags to whatever shows he has next. how will he respond? and with the israeli flags that will no doubt be there.

his management team, ben winston, corden, gabe, xander, ALL of them are so rabidly zionist, i simply do not believe he will even try and pick up a flag or make nice with pro palestinians in an overt way because he knows his entire friend group and his managers and colleagues will ditch him. not that he would anyone, but in order to try and not look like a massive zionist and have his fans who aren't try and support him.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, June 13

XANDER: Laugh now, missy, they assigned you to the booth for law enforcement professionals. BUFFY: (stunned) As in police? XANDER: As in polyester, doughnuts and brutality.

~~What's My Line~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Annoyance by Enigmatist (Spike, Angel, Joyce, Buffy, Not Rated)

kiss that’s black as sea by evesock (Buffy/Willow, E)

Up all Night, I Won't Quit by Hecate (Faith/Katherine Pierce, TVD xover, M)

Love (Spaith; Spike/Faith) by Datherine100 (Spike/Faith, T)

VD/Buffy: Last Battle by Datherine100 (Buffy, Faith, TVD xover, T)

OUAT/Angel: Love Will Conquer by Datherine100 (Cordelia/Hook, Once Upon a Time (TV) xover, T)

In Disarray and Dazed (Spike x Y/N) by itsalwaysteatimeinwonderland (Spike/reader, unrated)

Leaving Sunnydale by Rea (Buffy/Spike, G)

[Chaptered Fiction]

Overheard - Ch. 1-3 by silvain (Giles/Ethan, T)

The Adventures Of Cordelia Chase and Xander Lavelle Harris vol.1: She's Back - Ch. 1-8 by Datherine100 (Xander/Cordelia, T)

and multiple other works by Datherine100, a few directly linked below. all rated T, some are one shot collections. other pairings include: Buffy/Spike, Angelus/Darla, Angel/Darla, Buffy/Angel

Xanya (Xander/Anya) - Ch. 1-3 by Datherine100 (Xander/Anya, T)

Coyle (Cordy/Doyle) - Ch. 1-3 by Datherine100 (Cordelia/Doyle, T)

Biley (Buffy/Riley) - Ch. 1-4 by Datherine100 (Buffy, Riley, T)

The Devil's Trill - Ch. 9 by Murray (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Deliverance From Destiny - Ch. 31 by Ragini (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Reclaimed - Ch. 6 by Holly (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Waiting for You - Ch. 8 by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

To All We Guard - Ch. 23 by simmony (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Out of Time: 1942 - Ch. 57 by Jonayla (Buffy, HP xover, FR18)

Ship of The Line – Effect 31 - Ch. 14 by KnifeHand (Xander, Mass Effect and Star Trek xover, FR18)

You Drive Me Out Of My Mind - Ch. 1-35 by Geliot99 (Buffy/Spike, R) COMPLETE!

Bruises - Ch. 20 by hulettwyo (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

Bruises - Ch. 19 by hulettwyo (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

Waiting for You - Ch. 8 by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Dear Journal - Ch. 6 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) COMPLETE!

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: Does it burn? - Ch. 1 by Dirtyaim (Spike, NSFW, rated PG-13)

Artwork: Spuffified: A Collection - Ch. 5 by satinsafe (Buffy/Spike, NSFW, rated PG-13)

Textpost: spuffy + textposts (4/?) by spikespeaches (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)

Gifset: buffy + angel's claddagh ring by ptieuca (Buffy/Angel, worksafe)

Gifset: buffy + wearing angel's jacket by ptieuca (Buffy/Angel, Giles, Willow, worksafe)

Artwork: “You ask me to dance and you just stand there?” by l0veisntbrains (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)

Gifset: 6x15 || 7x05 by clarkgriffon (Buffy, Anya, Spike, Xander, worksafe)

Gifset: Willow Rosenberg + Outfits (Season 4) by clarkgriffon (Willow, worksafe)

Gifset: Ranking Buffy Summers' hair evolution (as voted by my followers) 6/11 by buffysummers (Buffy, worksafe)

Artwork: ☀️☀️ ATS 219. Belonging ☀️☀️ by tmcarlee (Cordelia, worksafe)

[Reviews & Recaps]

REACTION VIDEO: May 22, 2001: Watching 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Season 5 Finale by 90s Grunge Dreams

[Recs & In Search Of]

l0veisntbrains recs So It Goes by scratchmeout [bonus Spuffy art]

ISO: Pineappleskies1991 seeks Rainy Episodes [from BTVS or ATS]

ISO: thisguy49 seeks shooting location - Does anyone know what school was used to film Angel episode Happy Anniversary

[Fandom Discussions]

POLL: Absolute BEST Faith dream scene? (R2 - bonus round - photos below) by elizadushkudaily

POLL: Vampire Media Guys Round 16: Spike or Klaus Mikaelson? by vampirewrestlinglover

POLL: If Angel existed in “Detroit: Become Human”, would he be pro-android rights or anti-android rights? by giveamadeuschohisownmovie

POLL: Spike from Buffy the vampire slayer, plz. by bedpolls

Anya/Xander vs Other Age Gap Relationships by lightningrain

... Kendra leaves the next day. Where did she stay that night? by finalgirl1984

Cordelia deserved to be back in season 7 for the finale or at least have a comeback... by cordelia-slay

[poll on non-canon crack Buffyverse ships - see commentary in tags] by cangeltwillowinvestigations

Oz in Buffy is often praised for his emotional maturity and calm demeanor... by air--so--sweet

Show me a HERO & I'll write you a T R A G E D Y [Xander rp] by theanimulus

Was Riley Suicidal? by nightshade

I refuse to accept Kennedy as Willow's end game pairing / one true love. updated by garfan

What's your favorite Buffy merchandise? by jigglesauruspuff

behind the scenes photo of amber (tara) in the [new] film ‘i saw the tv glow’ by amigaraaaaaa

Who else is still annoyed that Eliza [who played Faith] wasn't invited to the 20th reunion in 2017? by Other_Thing_2551

Sineya by illvria

Kendra’s existence is confusing. by Complex_Bit_4921

Good point [Riley's sense of masculinity] by jogaforacont

Tara was on a slow and gradual course... to become Buffy's closest friend. by GreyStagg

Unpopular opinion: Willow should have been killed off. by Kat-Attack-52

Angels Timeline [on ATS] by CazzaGal

Los Angeles as a character [in ATS] by Berry-Pie216

Gunn & Fred by Trick-Flight-8749

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[juniperhillpatient]

Okay BEARING in mind please that I have a lot of thought out ATLA opinions (most of them can be found in the tag for my first rewatch) & also that i do not analyze smartly on first watches / read throughs of ANYTHING (examples include that on my first watch of Buffy I shipped Buffy/Xander & hated Dawn, on my first watch of ATLA I disliked Azula for a long time & didn’t care about Jet, on my first watch of Scream I wanted Dewey to be the killer because of Scary Movie. I could go on probably)

—- here are my initial reactions to ATLA LA as someone who’s been having fun watching (usually tipsy) & enjoying my faves in live action even if it’s badly written 😃

Pros:

Jet is hot

Uh… um. Uh… umm. That was my big one okay..

….

….

Oh! Oh! Suki is also hot.

….

…

I think Katara’s live action actress did a really nice job even if I don’t always love how she was written I could tell this girl put her heart into it

Same with Azula’s actress tbh. And Aang. Zuko & Iroh also. It took me a second to get used to this Iroh but acting wise ignoring the script Zuko & Iroh did good. (Sokka & Yue were only okay but they didn’t do bad by any means once I got used to them.)

Azula’s intro was super fun. I thought for a second they were even gonna do something fun with her & this whole ratting out the rebellion plot. Also the actress did good & there were a few parts that were well written like her early displays of insecurity & her beating the shit out of that trainer & shooting Zuko’s letter. There was promise until there wasn’t.

They didn’t do a bad job of combining some of the plots. “Masks” was the strongest for me. It did a nice job showcasing several plots & I really enjoyed the significance placed on Zuko valuing the lives of inexperienced soldiers. Everything just came together super well in that episode with the Koh plot & everything. Now that certain criticisms of the Omashu episodes (like Jet’s mischaracterization in hurting his own people) have been brought up to me I dislike those episodes more than on my first watch through but I still think the Freedom Fighters were fun to see. And if you don’t analyze it too hard the plot combinations are fun. Anyway why would you analyze this adaptation too hard?

Cons:

Why isn’t Azula scared of Ozai? I get it he’s forged her into the perfect weapon & she did what he technically wanted but she disrespected him publicly & he was fine? Okay.

Above mentioned explanation of why Jet wasn’t done right ^^ He shouldn’t be willing to hurt Earth Kingdom citizens. Even if it was fun to see his logic & the Jetara moments & I do think the actor did a good job (no I’m not just saying that ‘cause he’s hot. That helps though).

Katara didn’t have to struggle at all she’s just a #girlboss! Isn’t that great? #feminism!

Who’s this super serious kid who always puts the mission first & where’s my silly goofy guy who wants to go on endless side quests? The actor does decent but that’s just not Aang.

Discount Zhao 😭😂

I just -

Discount Zhao lmaoooo 😭

Overall: I had fun. I will repeat myself - this is like the Harry Potter movies or the Series of Unfortunate Events tv show or any other adaptation of something I loved in its original form that’s never going to get it quite right to me. I hated some things. I had fun with other parts. Mostly? It was just fun to see my faves in a new format. It’ll never ever live up to the original but I never in a million years wanted nor expected that. Quite frankly? I didn’t want this to be made at all. But since it is whether I wanted it or not? I’m glad it was at least entertaining & enjoyable to have fun with.

This was ALWAYS going to be an example of what I call the “Marvelification” of television. Nothing is nuanced everything is quippy everyone’s edges are dulled. I never expected anything else so I’m not even listing that as a con it’s just a given to me. Binge culture whole season releases & the endless remakes & reboots of streaming sites are the death of television. This is again just a given to me I don’t have much more to say about it right now (though I’m sure I do just not now).

The original ATLA will always mean everything to me & this was just a fun little adaptation. Like a fanfic. If it gets renewed? Sure I’ll have fun watching more. But if it doesn’t I truly don’t care. Anyway I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts eventually these are INITIAL reactions please don’t treat them like I signed this post in blood I’m just thinking out loud having just finished this show! That’s all for now lol

[gaylortruther]

hey we saw you from across the club🤩

(New pinned post ⬇️)

me🩷

i’m Xander I made this blog as a writeblr in 2019(??I think) and at some point after that I deleted my original blog which I had made in like 2011, which obv took all my sideblogs with it. Anyway Fast forward to now i am an adult and i live with my partner who I met on Percy Jackson tumblr 🤯 and have re-emerged into the tumblr cave system.

This is going to function as a writeblr , multi fandom and also whatever else I want blog. Most of my time on tumblr has been spent organizing tags and themes and pages and networks and working my ass off to edit for my WIPs instead of actually writing. Anyway. I return with the intent to use it for GOOD 🩷 while touching grass. ask me about my blorbos or make me write using any means necessary

old urls

Percy Jackson pjo riordanverse : @herojason @deathbydiangelo @nicodianjealousofannabeth (there were more but i do not remember them)

All for the game aftg tfc the foxhole court : @andrewsnothing @jostenminyards

once upon a time ouat : @swanm1lls @storybrooxe

Misc : @typeswriters @feralfolklore @queersreadthis @halohidings @nostalges @succulester

what I write 🤓

Gay people. Weird unreality. Unreliable narration meets low fantasy in fact VS fiction

Strained family / sibling dynamics

Dystopian fantasy

Toxic two side same coin dark edgy enemies to lovers dynamics

Im interested in what it means to be human and what it means to humans to be human

A lot of fairy/folk/old wives tale reworks because I literally can’t help it

Also historically a good amount of poetry but I don’t really think about her rn

greatest hits💔

dni (up to you whether you take it seriously)

captain swan shippers / Killian jones fans// apologists // basically I want him dead in a ditch

Anyone who will morally dislike me for multi shipping bellarke and clexa (which fair I get)

Anti gaylors in a way that matters

Harry Potter fans

Soup haters except Phil Lester

Etc

Pro Palestine Free Gaza

I am an undefined trans person on hormones don’t be terfy at me

✅verified drug addict don’t say crackhead weirdly

[thereideffects]

Xander Harris walked so Matt Donovan could shit all over his legacy

[ask-a-simple-hero]

“It’s okay, I have more! And I still need to check some stuff out down here anyways...”

[mj-spooks]

Alright, judging by how successful that last Harry Potter experimental question was, Buffy's scooby gang, as a Leverage Crew? Is it too simple to say Buffy as a hitter and Giles as a mastermind?

Which version of the gang are we talking here? Can I go across the whole series? Season 1 only? All Stars? Fuck it I’m cherry picking because THAT’S HOW WE DO.

So, Giles is absolutely on the money. He’s the Mastermind, no doubt. He’s the watcher, he trains the others (mostly Buffy and Faith, but let’s be real, he trains all of them in their own way), he’s the one that works things out, leads research parties, comes up with plans. He’s the Mastermind, at least at first. Like Nate, he graduates out of that position (although I think the others sort of share it after he steps down, rather than one person picking it up).

But Buffy’s not the hitter.

Buffy is the grifter.

Think about it. Pretty, blonde, posterchild for popularity. She’s charismatic. She’s endearing.  You like her. You’d probably do anything she asked you to. She’s an an excellent liar, a brilliant actor. She plays the part. The only reason she doesn’t have Sunnydale wrapped around her fucking finger is because all the bullshit with demons and vampires is Too Obvious for no one to ever notice how weird she is. If they could be even slightly more subtle, or pick slightly more convenient times to get up to their nonsense, no one would ever suspect she was anything but what she looks like.

No, the hitter? That’s Faith. And yes, I’m counting her as a Scooby. My girl got done dirty, alright. Granted, she did some people pretty dirty as well. But she was a teenage girl with a really shitty childhood, and I’m not one to use the shitty childhood as a get out of jail free card (get it), but dude. Dude. Every single thing that could’ve gone wrong for her, did. And every time the team had a chance to prove she could trust them, they fucked it up. Mostly Wesley fucked it up, but let’s not go there. And did I mention she was a teenage girl? Also, it helps that she was only Properly Evil for like, a few months, after which she was in a coma, and was Properly Evil for all of five minutes before deciding “Actually I just wanna be Buffy,” because guess what, she never WANTED to be the bad guy-

I’m getting off topic. The point is. Faith is the brawn, alright? Post-Faith, I guess that position goes to Spike, who let’s face it, is basically Buffy’s backup/guard dog from the moment he realizes he can still kill demons, and especially after his big “Oh shit I love the slayer” realization. For the record, bad decisions being made by an ostensibly helplessly evil soulless monster aside, no one EVER had Buffy’s back like Spike did. Not a single damn person. Fucking fight me. Every. Single. Other. Person. Let her down. Constantly. Or they were never in a positoin to properly have her back in the first place. The one time he really did screw it up, he realized how fucked up he was, and went off and got a fucking soul for her, so basically

Riley, for the record, is not a Hitter and does NOT count as a Scooby, because screw that guy. Also while I’m on the subject, screw Xander, because the episode where Riley leaves and Xander gives Buffy the “you’re the bad guy” speech sits so fucking wrong with me, and Xander goddamn Harris can get fucking bent. I’m still off topic, I know, I know. Sorry, I just. I have VERY STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT BUFFY.

ANYWAY. Willow is the hacker, big fucking shock. She’s... she’s literally a hacker, okay. Even when she stops being all computer-y and starts being all witch-y, her approach to witchcraft is... is to hack it. She hacks magic. Literally. That’s what gets her in so much trouble with it, because she’s too fucking good at cheating the system. It’s how she brought Buffy back. She’s the goddamned Hacker. Age. Of. The. Fucking. Geek. Baby.

Thief............ hmph. I don’t know?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?

See, the thing is, basically all of the properly involved Scoobies had to steal something at one point or another, all with basically the same level of success, so... wait.

Okay. No. The thief is Dawn.

She’s literally a thief! She steals from everybody all the goddamned time! With varying degrees of success, sure. But if she was actually trained at it, she’d be better than all of them. She’s the only Little Sibling out of the bunch (Well, okay, Tara had an older brother, but her homelife was so fucked she has Very Different Younger Sister energy than Dawn). She has a specific talent for it that I bet would serve her well if she was actually trained. I honestly at this point have read so much fanfic that I cannot for the life or me remember if canon!Spike ever helped teach her to knick stuff or if that’s just widely accepted fanon!Spike because people love that dynamic (as they should, it’s great). I’m doing a rewatch but... uh... I kinda stopped partway through S5 because I’m like four episodes away from The Body and gods I just can’t take it. Point being, I dunno if that’s legit or not. BUT. If it were legit, and she was taught how to steal, she’d be great at it.

I guess Spike is kind of also the thief. But he’s also the only one of the scoobies that’s properly been a villain (I’m not counting Faith or Willow’s brief insanity, and Angel isn’t the villain, Angelus is, so...), so naturally he’s got the shady skills. He can kind of grift and mastermind, too, except he’s too impatient for it, which is why he ends up stuck as a hitter most of the time. Everything else is too slow for his ass. See, the entirety of S2.

For fun, under the cut, the remaining scoobies and what position they’re best suited for:

Xander: Hitter??? He’s not got the super strength and he’s kind of played for laughs, but there was that whole bit where he had the tactical training from his brief stint as GI Joe in the Halloween episode. He’s a decent tactician, which is kind of the hitter’s job. I bet that if the wasn’t so busy feeling inferior to Buffy and he actually like. Trained. He could be a decent fighter.

Cordelia: Straight fucking grifter. Which she proves plenty of times on Angel. It’s extra great because she basically IS Sophie, what with the whole “can grift like a boss but put her on stage and she’s terrible” bit. She’s also a decent mastermind, also showcased on Angel. She whips him into shape from day one, and is the only thing that keeps AI running half the time. Also not unlike Sophie. Honestly Cordelia is my favorite character from the OG cast. She deserved better.

Angel: Mastermind. He’s got all of Angelus’ brains, remember, just not necessarily any reason to use them. He’s smart, though, and definitely good at planning. He’s also really into knowing the most and keeping his cards close to his chest. The parallels with Nate are a little strong, honestly, because he also has that whole... guilty conscience spiraling downward holier than thou thing going on. And yes, I do ship him and Cordy, thanks for asking.

Oz: Hacker! Not a lot of people really remember this, since his prominent character traits were “In a band”, “Willow’s boyfriend”, and “werewolf”. Plus there’s the whole flunked-senior-year plot point which I honestly think they did just to keep him around. But the first time Oz actually properly interacted with Willow was because they’d both gotten singled out for their badass computer skills on career day. He’s very nearly as good as her.

Anya: Grifter. I mean, the whole vengeance demon schtick relies on the grift. She’s very good at it. Which, she ought to be, she’s been doing it for over a thousand years. It’s sort of hilarious though because it seems like the second she loses her powers, she also loses her ability to blend in. I think that’s likely because she’s used to short term cons, and running the long con that is being human again is more difficult. Still, this is where she shines.

Riley: He doesn’t count because I kinda hate him. But fine if you wanna go there. Hitter. He doesn’t deserve the title though because Eliot is both brains and brawn and Riley can’t think his way out of a paper sack without someone giving him directions, and even then it’s dicey.

Tara: This one is super hard for me! I can’t see her as any of the actual team positions. I suppose the one skill she displays would be grifting, since she does try to hide her identity as a supposed demon from the others for a while before her birthday comes up. But honestly I see her less as a member of the crew and more as a Maggie. Voice of reason, moral high ground, not putting up with shenanigans if she can help it... yeah. Tara’s the Maggie. Every crew needs one.

[buffyconfessions]

Xander is a wonderful character with so much growth, and he doesn't deserve the hate he gets from the fandom.

[marigoldbaker]

(tags from @petpluto)

this is GORGEOUS and i completely agree!!! my focus is obvs more on the way that this impacts giles but there was another part of this scene that really got me thinking about xander. specifically, its continuation:

i think that this absolutely supports the point you're making. suggests, even, that this runs deeper than petty vengeance, and that xander may have actually cared a lot about jenny. makes me wish we had actually seen them interact, but that's more a jenny-specific minor character issue than it is an indictment of xander.

here's the link to the draft btw! i left it out last time, rip

ANYWAY in the process of looking for something in the iryj script (and then looking for the iryj script) i came across an early draft of revelations and am now chewing drywall

[wellthatwasaletdown]

I’m the CDAN anon and I want to be clear that the guy who writes the blinds is a virulent racist and anti-Muslim who has been accusing Z of being a drug addict for years bc of his pro Palestinian position. He constantly attacks the Hadids for their support of their homeland and not for them being the problematic attention seekers they are. I brought up the blind only bc it is highly unusual for Enty…he claims to be an entertainment lawyer🙄…to hint at Zayn and Harry being in touch much less friendly enough to perform together. He’s been saying for years that H is gay and has linked him to Louise, Rande Gerber and Xander (he actually published a blind saying they were buying a house together🙄). You can check out what I’m saying by googling Harry’s name and blind gossip and it’ll pull up all the blinds…he calls H “flopsy” and/or “the closeted” foreign boybander . I in no way believe that Z is a drug addict as the kind of substances this person is alluding to don’t have users that look like Zayn Malik after a decade of hard core drug use…he has literally been saying this about him for 10 yrs🤨. When I look at Zayn all I’m seeing is a healthy man who has found peace and that’s an awesome thing to have…no matter who you are.

.