Written by Chris Snelgrove | issued
In most cases, buffy the vampire slayer Fans were satisfied with the final season. Sure, it didn’t have the emotional and creative highs of seasons 2 and 3, but it felt like a refreshing return to form after the empty desolation of season 6. However, the last season turned out to be almost ruined by the most unexpected cause of all. Along with co-star Nicholas Brendon, Sarah Michelle Gellar originally pitched the idea to showrunner Joss Whedon that Buffy and Xander should get together in season seven.
buffy and xander romance
Some longtime fans of the show may be lamenting right now, but don’t worry…we’ll dig deeper into why this romantic pairing is such a terrible idea. But first, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Why on earth did Sarah Michelle Gellar and her co-stars think a romance between Buffy and Xander was a good idea in the first place? I mean, both of their characters were dealing with heartache. Xander left Anya at the altar in season 6, and she ended up bonding with Spike, Buffy’s enemy with benefits, who tried to rape her before the season ended.
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Nicholas Brendon want each character to have a romantic happy ending, and they believe that having Buffy and Xander as an item will give each character a romantic ending. I felt it. Of course that didn’t happen, and Season 7 was all about unrequited feelings for our favorite characters. Buffy didn’t land the perfect boyfriend, but she did nail both Angel and the redeemed Spike before the season ended. As for Xander, he ended up bonding with Anya once more before tragically losing his life in the final episode.
Why Sarah Michelle Gellar was wrong
Now, we love Sarah Michelle Gellar more than anyone else in the family, so why do we think she was wrong to want a romance between Buffy and Xander? First, it felt like a bad throwback. Xander’s unrequited love for Buffy the Puppy in season 1 highlighted how immature he was, and his later relationship with Anya highlighted how much he had grown as a character. When he and Buffy suddenly bond, it feels like his character has regressed, and he even cheapens his romance with Anya by implying that he never stopped wanting Buffy.
Plus, Sarah Michelle Gellar’s great performance shows that Buffy doesn’t see Xander as a love interest, that all the time she falls in love with a bad boy vampire or the occasional corn-eating super soldier. It emphasizes that this is the reason why you spent . Suddenly linking her and Xander would have felt completely arbitrary and unmotivated, and the show would have been infinitely worse, especially in the final season. Honestly, it might have been even worse than Willow’s character assassination in season 6. Willow went from being a lesbian goddess of magic to being a magic addict who can’t stop hurting the people she loves most.
The final reason for Buffy/Xander
Finally, Buffy and Xander’s romance would ruin a core aspect of Buffy’s personality. That is, she always wants what she cannot have, after all. Falling in love with a chiseled but unavailable man was part of it, and was the Slayer’s way of subconsciously making sure no one got too close to her. Because of his embarrassing little crush, Xander is someone she could have had at literally any point in the series, and suddenly abandons her love for an unavailable bad boy in favor of hooking up with a harmless little guy. That would be very out of character for her otaku who hasn’t stopped chasing her since they first met.
Luckily, Joss Whedon didn’t listen to Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Buffy didn’t end up with Xander or anyone else by the end of season seven. This was sad but appropriate. Once again, the Slayer saves a world she can’t get enough of. But let’s be real. Wouldn’t it be much, much better to be alone than to end up with Xander?
