By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
For the most part, Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans were happy with the final season. Sure, it lacked the emotional and creative heights of Season 2 and Season 3, but it felt like a refreshing return to form after the empty bleakness of Season 6. However, it turns out that the last season was nearly ruined by the most unexpected source of all. Along with costar Nicholas Brendon, Sarah Michelle Gellar originally pitched showrunner Joss Whedon the idea that Buffy and Xander should hook up in Season 7.
The Buffy And Xander Romance
Some longtime fans of the show are groaning right now, and don’t worry…we’re going to take a deep dive into why this romantic pairing would be such an awful idea. First, though, let’s address the elephant in the room: why the heck did Sarah Michelle Gellar and her costar think a Buffy/Xander romance would be a good idea in the first place? In short, both of their characters were dealing with heartache. Xander left Anya at the altar in Season 6, and she ended up hooking up with Spike, Buffy’s frenemy with benefits who ended up trying to rape her before the season was over.
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Nicholas Brendon wanted their respective characters to get a romantic happy ending, and they felt that Buffy and Xander becoming an item would give each of their characters some romantic closure. This didn’t happen, of course, and Season 7 was all about unrequited feelings for our favorite characters. Buffy didn’t get a perfect boyfriend, but she got to be pined over by both Angel and a redeemed Spike before the season ended; as for Xander, he got to hook up with Anya one more time before she tragically lost her life in the final episode.
Why Sarah Michelle Gellar Was Wrong
Now, we love Sarah Michelle Gellar more than some of our family members, so why do we think she was wrong to want a Buffy/Xander romance? For one thing, it felt like a bad throwback. Xander’s puppy dog crush on Buffy back in Season 1 highlighted how immature he was, and his later relationship with Anya underscored how much he had grown as a character. He and Buffy suddenly hooking up would feel like his character had regressed and would even cheapen his romance with Anya by implying that he never stopped wanting Buffy.
Additionally, Sarah Michelle Gellar’s great acting has emphasized that Buffy never saw Xander as a romantic interest, which is why she spent all her time falling for bad boy vampires and the occasional corn-fed super soldier. Suddenly hooking her and Xander up would have felt completely arbitrary and unmotivated, and the show would have been infinitely worse for it, especially in the final season. Honestly, it might have been even worse than the character assassination of Willow in Season 6, where she went from being a magic lesbian goddess to a magic junkie who can’t stop hurting the ones she loves the most.
The Final Reason Against Buffy/Xander
Finally, a Buffy/Xander romance would have ruined a core aspect of Buffy’s character: that, at the end of the day, she always wants what she can’t have. Falling in love with chiseled but unavailable men was part of that, a way for the Slayer to subconsciously keep anyone from getting too close to her. Xander is someone that she could have had at literally any point in the series due to his embarrassing little crush, and it would be wildly out of character for her to suddenly ditch her love for unavailable bad boys in favor of hooking up with the harmless little nerd who has never stopped following her around since they first met.
Fortunately, 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 7. This was sad but fitting. Once again, the Slayer saves a world that she cannot fully enjoy. But let’s be real: isn’t being alone way, way, way better than ending up with Xander?
