Xander Harris
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Infobox Buffyverse Character
Alexander "Xander" LaVelle Harris (born 1981 in Sunnydale, California) is a fictional character in the cult television program Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Nicholas Brendon, whose twin brother Kelly Donovan appeared as his occasional double.
Contents |
Biography
Character history
Alexander LaVelle Harris was born to Anthony and Jessica Harris. According to Xander, his dad tried to sell him to some Armenians once. Tony was a self-pitying drunk who first appeared in a nightmare sequence in Season 4's Restless; he tore out his son's heart. Jessica is a fragile mess without a stove; her culinary repertoire includes a "famous phone call to the Chinese place." Xander's uncle Rory is an alcoholic taxidermist.
Willow broke up with Xander over a stolen Barbie when they were 5. At his 6th birthday party, which best friend Willow Rosenberg attended, his parents hired a clown who chased him and gave him a lifelong phobia of clowns. He faced it in Season 1's Nightmares. When he did not get a toy firetruck for his 7th birthday, the house next door caught fire. He saw real firetrucks then and thinks he had Willow to thank.
Every Christmas, Xander sleeps outside to avoid his family's drunken arguments. Neither parent is happy with their marriage, but they have stayed together for decades. When he was 13, Xander attended Willow's bat mitzvah, where his parents drank to excess. Throughout the series, Xander's family was said to be unreliable, even abusive and the main source of his insecurities. They finally appeared at Xander and Anya's aborted wedding in Season 6's Hell's Bells.
In 1997, Xander met Buffy Summers at Sunnydale High. He overheard her bizarre conversation with Rupert Giles in the library and lost his male best friend Jesse to vampires in The Harvest. Xander took the stand that "vampires are bad" and was forced to stake Jesse the following night. He became a wisecracking sidekick of the Scooby Gang, often annoying those around him, including Angel (Enemies) and the more uptight Giles. Despite his insecurities, Xander proves to be loyal and courageous. In Season 1's finale (Prophecy Girl), he revived a drowned Buffy, allowing her to defeat The Master. In the 2nd Season, Xander's military knowledge enabled Buffy to defeat the Judge, a supposedly invulnerable demon, in Innocence. In the Season 3 finale (Graduation Day, Part Two), he led Sunnydale High's students against Mayor and his vampires. In Season 4's Primeval, Xander gave Buffy his "heart" in the spell that defeated Adam. In Season 6's conclusion (Grave), Xander's love for his childhood friend Willow turned her around and saved the world.
Xander developed a crush on Buffy quickly, but it was not reciprocated. He gradually began a turbulent and ambiguous relationship with Cordelia Chase after they were thrown together in several life-or-death situations, though he had been the treasurer of the We Hate Cordelia club. Being seen with Xander cost Cordelia her position among Sunnydale High's fashionable clique, and she dumped him on Valentine's Day. Xander retaliated by coercing Amy Madison to cast a love spell, which misfired: for a few hours, until the spell was broken, Xander found himself irresistible to every girl, woman and female vampire in sight – except Cordelia, who, realizing how much Xander cared for her reunited with him in defiance of her former friends. Season 3 saw him revive an interest in best friend Willow and a kiss that led to Cordelia's near-fatal injury and Anyanka's arrival. He was used by Faith one night and asked to the Prom by the newly-human Anya.
After graduating from high school, Xander chose not to enroll in college. He set upon a cross-country trip that ended when his car broke down. He spent most of that summer working as a dishwasher in a male strip club to pay for a new car. One night, when a dancer was sick, Xander reluctantly took to the stage. He returned to Sunnydale and moved into his parents' basement, for which he had to pay rent. In the fourth season, he took a series of odd jobs as a food vendor, a bartender, a phone-sex operator and a delivery man. Xander eventually pursued a career in carpentry and construction work. He moved into his own apartment with Anya, where he stayed until the end.
He fell in love with Anya in season four after much persuasion, and proposed to her before the end of Season 5. His doubts about their future together caused him to leave her at the altar a year later. They still loved each other, however, when his left eye was gouged out by Caleb, a preacher for The First Evil in Season 7. His love did not survive the finale because of a Bringer's sword, her body motionless in the new Sunnydale High's remains as the empty town was swallowed by the earth. Andrew, with whom she had fought alongside, comforted Xander by telling him that she "died saving his life." Xander now lives in Africa, rounding up potential Slayers for Buffy.
Powers & Abilities
Xander is notable for not having a superhero power. He represents the Everyman, but his experience battling vampires and demons at Buffy's side has made him a more capable fighter. Xander has grown to rarely flinch when in danger, and his loyalty to his friends is absolute.
While possessed by a hyena spirit (in The Pack, Season 1), Xander exhibited enhanced strength and heightened senses as well as a taste for fresh raw meat and a lack of social inhibitions.
Xander was briefly transformed into a soldier on Halloween night (Season 2), and thereby acquired military training and weapons knowledge which faded a few years later.
Xander was unwittingly exposed to an experimental genetic treatment (Go Fish, Season 2) which may have enhanced his natural swimming ability.
Xander was once hit by a bolt from the Ferula-Gemina which split his personality into two different beings (The Replacement, Season 5).
On one occasion (Seeing Red, Season 6), Xander shows that he can read Klingon.
Romantic Relationships
- Buffy Summers: Seeing her on her first day at Sunnydale High caused Xander to crash into a railing, literally falling head over heels. She saw him only as a friend though, and over time, they became surrogate siblings.
- Miss Natalie French: The real teacher was born in 1907 and taught for a few decades. Her name was stolen by a demonic she-mantis whose pheromones attracted many of Sunnydale's males. She drugged Xander's drink at her house and intended to mate with him before beheading him. Buffy managed to stop her and save Xander in time.
- Ampata: The Incan mummy girl wanted to live a life she never had the chance to, but her love with Xander was short-lived when she attempted to kiss him (and thus draining him of life to continue her own).
- Cordelia Chase: Cordelia and Xander had known each other since they were little kids, and have always had a Love/Hate relationship (Love coming later). Their relationship in High School was rocky due to the stress Cordelia's clique put on her for going out with a 'loser' (which caused her to break up with him for a short while), Cordelia's straightforward and abrupt way with people, and Xander's unresolved attraction to his best friend Willow (and possibly Buffy and Faith to some degree). When Cordelia discovering Xander and Willow kissing in the basement of an abandoned factory the vampire Spike had locked them in, she ended their relationship for good. Near the end of the 3rd Season, feelings had settled to the point where they were on speaking terms again, and upon finding out her family lost their wealth, Xander bought her prom dress for her. She left Sunnydale after graduation and moved to L.A. to become an actress (See Angel (TV series)).
- Willow Rosenberg: Xander shared a moment of tenderness with Willow during the boring summer of 1998, which was ended by Buffy's return. Later, in the show's 3rd Season, Xander and Willow began a secret romance while he was dating Cordelia and she was dating Oz. This ended when Cordelia and Oz rescued Xander and Willow, who had been held hostage by Spike, and discovered them kissing.
- Faith Lehane: Some weeks after his relationship with Cordelia dissolved, Xander found himself helping vampire slayer Faith fight a group of vampires one night. After the battle an adrenaline-fueled Faith took Xander back to her apartment and had sex with him. This was Xander's first sexual encounter. Weeks later, after Faith had gone rogue and killed a man, Xander confronted her about her actions. She began simulating rough sex and then started to strangle him before being interrupted.
- Anya Jenkins.
Around the second season of the show, the program's creator Joss Whedon decided that either Xander or Willow would eventually become openly homosexual as the entire idea of Buffy was to show stereotypically weak and oppressed social groups as strong, powerful superheroes. Personality changes were made to make them relatively sexually ambiguous, regardless of the gender of the characters with whom they were romantically linked. In Season 2's Phases, Xander confronted jock Larry to find out whether the high school football player was a werewolf. Larry confessed that he was homosexual and, much to Xander's dismay, believed that Xander was, too. Willow eventually came out. In Beneath You a character, confronted with the convoluted sex lives of the main characters, asked if any of the characters had not had sex with each other. Xander and Spike exchanged awkward glances. In another episode, Xander asks Willow to make him gay after noting all the women he dates are demons of some sort until someone points out that he would just end up attracting demonic men.
Appearances
Xander has appeared in:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Xander was a series regular for all seven seasons, appearing in 143 episodes. He did not appear in Conversations with Dead People.
See also
Template:Buffyversenaves:Xander Harris sv:Alexander "Xander" Harris