Xander's kind of the classic good-hearted version of the mope. But I always felt he'd have a lot more in him as he matured. I'll bet he'll be a very interesting 40 year old if he makes it that far. (If any of them do.) (Sorry -- wrong tense. Should have said "he'd" "made" and "did" to indicate that this is a fictional character. But you know, I'm still in denial.)

Apparently, the Buffy/Spike sex was all about...Angel. *headdesk*

Of course. As our infinitely wise mentor, Riley tells us, "It's understandable that there would be transference." And if Riley said it, it must be true.

As for Xander, I wish more fic writers would go for his bottled darkness a la Entropy (and Restless and Hells Bells). I think there's a lot of potential there that hardly ever gets tapped. Or at least, if it does, I've never seen it.

While I've gotten a ton done on meta this Spring Break, I was largely unproductive with regards to fanfics.

No complaints here. Meta - fic - it's all good.

Okay, that "suicidal vampire champion" thing made me giggle a whole lot more than it probably should have.

Read a few S6 Bangel fics. Apparently, the Buffy/Spike sex was all about...Angel. *headdesk* *headdesk forever*

Xander bores me to tears, too. I have zero interest in ever reading any fic about him.

I share your righteous indignation at the lack of Robin Wood fic and echo your: DEVON?

wait wha????? DEVON has fanfic?? . please wait a moment while i put you on hold * hysterical laughing.* ok i'm back *wipes tears o mirth*
how is this possable? how on earth can we have devon fic but no robin ??? this is very disturbing so i'm not going to believe it. i refuse your reality. i'm going to go in my happy place where there is wood fic abound and no ones ever heard of.. whats his name?

so are the suicidal vamps bothering you? shall we go get our stakes?

oh dear lordy.*shake of head* silly silly bangel fics. pish. because sleeping with spike has nothing to do with how smoking hot he is. of course not. i love your icon by the way!!!

The Powers must have a suicidal vampire champion here in Texas or something because it's snowing AGAIN.

Heee! (And sympathies.)

After reading several Xander fics, I've come to the conclusion that Xander, as a character, bores me to tears. I like him...I just don't find him very interesting.

Oh, but you're just not reading the right Xander fics. You need to find the ones that capture the true Xander, not the OOC version that canon had from "Welcome To The Hellmouth" and onwards. True Xander knows everything about firearms and is happy to demonstrate, all women recant their leadership/lesbianism/individuality/other reasons not to swoon before him, and all vampires are promptly staked shotgunned. Because True Xander is a man, damnit.

Every time I think I've seen the strangest pairing possible, I come across something even stranger. Fandom, you never disappoint.

Kaaark! I mean share! Share!

Xander, as a character, bores me to tears. I like him...I just don't find him very interesting.


*nods* Ditto.

I will read your Spike/Robin fic. And I'm also largely surprised there aren't any/very many!

Is it bad that I am drawing a blank on Devon? I just don't know who that is. Must mean I need to go do a rewatch of Buffy.

- The Powers must have a suicidal vampire champion here in Texas or something because it's snowing AGAIN. Third time this year. I don't know what to believe in anymore.

I had plans today, outsidey type plans and I about froze walking the dogs this afternoon. That comment made it worth it. :D

A character that maybe had ten lines throughout the entire series gets oodles of fic written about him, but I can barely find any Robin Wood fics? What's the deal?

I'm going to be that kid for a moment:

One (of many) reason's could possibly be an aversion to writing, erm, character's that are not white.

Which could factor into why a minor, minor (white) character is written more in fandom then a character of color who was pretty much a regular for most of season 7....

Oddly enough, if you read S6 Spangel fics, you will find out that the Buffy/Spike sex was also all about Angel.

I think Xander’s an interesting character in the show. His bottled rage, his partial blindness, his hatred of vampires and attraction to demons hinting at his mixed feelings about Buffy and her calling (and his place in her life), his fear of his ordinariness. His relationships with the other characters are very complex. I feel like most Xander fics just seize upon the “Xander is insightful and awesome” thing and neglect all the actually-interesting stuff in favour of the idealized version of him that all the other characters are so mean to, etc.

Devon: you know, Devon is Oz’ best friend, and canonically he dated Cordelia (Halloween) and Harmony (mentioned in The Harsh Light of Day). I could imagine an Oz fan wanting to flesh him out, or someone wanting to write about Cordy or Harm’s high school days, or even someone writing Willow getting revenge on Oz post-“Wild at Heart” with best friend!sex. But these are dependent on Devon being Oz' best friend. Why would anyone want to pair this no-personality guy with Buffy or GILES?

Of course, while Devon dated Cordelia and stood her up, and we were told years after the fact that he went on a few days with Harmony, Wood dated Buffy and Faith and was a significant guy in the latter’s life. If someone didn't want to write with Buffy or Faith there's tons of slayer issues to explore post-"Chosen" (since, tons of slayers). He’s coded as a Watcher so there should be lots of juicy stuff to do with him and Giles (their scenes in the show were strong). There’s the Spike thing obviously. And why don’t people write him and Holtz meeting up?

Re: Joyce/Holland Manners (way up above): well, there aren't all that many middle aged characters in the Buffyverse. I could kind of imagine a cute story of Holland having his heart warmed a little bit by Joyce's sweetness (not that this was what this story was, just saying). Joyce/Jonathan, I have no idea though.

Back in aught one, when I was an internet novice and very new to the fandom, I couldn't figure out why I kept running into Oz/Devon fics. One, because I didn't know who Devon was to begin with because I never paid attention to the three scenes he was in. And two, once I did realize who he was, I was confused because "wasn't Oz Willow's boyfriend?" Slash and non-canon pairings were unknown to me. Same confusion when I kept seeing Xander/Angel fics.

Re Robin Wood. Kendra doesn't have a whole lot written about her either, maybe a drabble here or there. I'll leave you to ponder what they have in common.

For Xanderfic, have you tried nwhepcat? She's one of the first ficwriters I found in fandom. She writes quiet, understated, long fics with complex characters, and is just in all ways excellent, and Xander's one of her pet characters. Her stuff is here. I have a particular fondness for "Lilac City" (Xander/Faith), mostly because it's set in a city I know really well, but there's lots of other things to choose from.

And I say all this even though I'm pretty much not a Xander fan, either.

What?! No, Devon is fandom *gold*. He's a minor character, sure, ....but Oz likes him. Or at least likes him enough. Ergo he must be interesting for something, right? Did you read the one where its an Oz/Giles with a heavy dose of Devon on the side? That one made Devon!fic make sense to me. Otoh, one good Devon fic might be all one needs, kwim?

Huh - wow, I don't actually remember Devon even speaking in the show - so that's ten more lines than I would have credited him with! Oh no - hang on - I do remember him and Oz having a quick onstage convo once about Willow. Still...interesting. I haven't read any of those though...

Gotta say - personally - Robin never really did it for me - I mean, he was okay as a means to an end etc., but I just was a little bored by him. So a lack of Robin fic wouldn't make me too sad...

LOL! I bet you have that champ somewhere.
Humm. Interesting theory. I bet both Buffy and Spike were thinking about Angel.
Not big on slash but no Robin fics? Really? The guy had a thing with Buffy. And Faith. And Spike. And Giles even. What does a character have to do to get some atention?! :D

It's snowing in Texas? But it's WARM in MASSACHUSETTS! What is wrong with the world?!

- Read a few S6 Bangel fics. Apparently, the Buffy/Spike sex was all about...Angel. *headdesk*
Well I wrote S6 Spike/Buffy/Angel (because trust me, what AYW needed was the addition of Angel! No really, it's brilliant! *g*). If nothing else, just nip over and have a look at the banner ruuger made for me, because it makes me crack up every. single. time I see it! Angel's face! :D

And I think you might be right about Xander, which is probably why I never write or read Xander-centric fics.

I've heard there's fic where even Devon's van is a slashable character. The Devon stuff started pretty early ie when the show was still in its high school seasons and people wanted someone to slash Oz with. Also in those days RPS wasn't mainstream so people wanting to slash musicians couldn't simply get their rocks off by writing about My Chemical Romance.

As for the lack of Robin fic, he's the kind of middle class (aka non-stereotypical) black character who doesn't get written about (like other people said upthread). With Robin/Spike specifically many POC writers are violently anti-Spike because of what he did to Xin Rong, Nikki and Robin so that's not going to happen either. Have you seen giandujakiss's vid Origin Stories or the discussions it led to? Like this one:
http://thuviaptarth.livejournal.com/92385.html

- After reading several Xander fics, I've come to the conclusion that Xander, as a character, bores me to tears. I like him...I just don't find him very interesting.

While I feel the exact of opposite of what you're saying, I do understand that we all have different tastes. And I think this is one of the reasons why you couldn't get into Xander/Spike. Because part of what makes Xander/Spike work is dealing with a lot of issues regarding Xander's character -probably way more than dealing with Spike's issues.

Personally, the way you feel about Xander is the same way I feel about Willow, and sadly to a lesser extent Spike. I love them both, but fics that center only around them? Don't really interest me. I enjoy reading about them interacting with other characters, but not them as individuals, and the same goes when watching the show.

I find myself getting more interested in Buffy and Giles as characters lately, but nothing really moves me like a good Xander fic.

Your tiny, innocuous comment about Xander produced a flood of tl;dr in me that I felt obliged by courtesy - and the constraints of the comment box - to take to my own journal.

I'm still really perplexed by LJ etiquette, so not sure if linking here is rude or polite. However, it felt cheeky to be (kind of, in the loosest of ways) responding to your post without letting you know, so here is the link. Feel free to delete if this is not the done thing.

Edited at 2010-03-21 12:35 pm (UTC)

Have you read waddis He ain't no Jack Sparrow? I was led to this and really enjoyed it- maybe because it felt more like the show.

Read a few S6 Bangel fics. Apparently, the Buffy/Spike sex was all about...Angel. *headdesk*

I read several fics where Buffy and Angel use Spike as a buffer. To me, it was hilarious. Apparently, I watched a different season 6 :)

After reading several Xander fics, I've come to the conclusion that Xander, as a character, bores me to tears. I like him...I just don't find him very interesting.

I didn't find him interesting until I started writing him. After the very first chapter suddenly he became as deliciously complicated, and messy, and torn as Buffy or Spike. I discovered that I can look at the show through his eyes. To comment on the events with his voice. To put myself in his shoes - the shoes of a normal human in the crazy, supernatural world.

Am I gonna have to write this Robin/Spike slash myself?

*giggles* looking forward to it!

After reading several Xander fics, I've come to the conclusion that Xander, as a character, bores me to tears. I like him...I just don't find him very interesting.

As much as I like Xander and think he's an essential part of the Scooby system and Willow's life, I agree with this statement. Not big on the Xander-fics, but if there's a big enough draw, it might suck me in. There have only been two for me, both by McGregor, and I recommend each.

See Noir Evil They say Xander killed them all. They say Xander’s crazy. Xander says he’s crazy too. It’s only Xander’s imaginary friend who says otherwise.
It's jeepy. Funny and exciting and the characters are spot on.

I Am What I Am Halloween occurs a little differently - what happens if Xander Harris dresses as himself? (Great Willow development going on, too - that was the pull for me.)