Sarah Michelle Gellar almost ruined Buffy’s final season

According to Chris Snellgrove
| Published 6 hours ago

for the most part Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans were satisfied with the last season. Sure, it lacked the emotional and creative highs of seasons 2 and 3, but it felt like a refreshing return to form after the empty bleakness of season 6. However, it turns out that the final season was nearly ruined by the most unexpected source of all. Along with star Nicholas Brendon, Sarah Michelle Gellar originally pitched the idea of ​​Buffy and Xander teaming up in Season 7 to showrunner Joss Whedon.

Buffy and Xander’s 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 a terrible idea. But first, let’s address the elephant in the room: why the hell did he do it Sarah Michelle Gellar and her fellow citizens think a Buffy/Xander romance would be a good idea? In short, both of their characters struggled with grief. Xander left Anya at the altar in Season 6, and she ended up hooking up with Spike, Buffy’s freak with benefits, who ended up trying to rape her before the season ended.

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Nicholas Brendon wanted their respective characters to have romantic happy endings and felt that with Buffy and Xander becoming a part, each of their characters would have some romantic closure. Of course, that didn’t happen and Season 7 was all about unrequited feelings for our favorite characters. Buffy didn’t get the perfect boyfriend, but by the time the season ended, she had both Angel and a redeemed Spike to torment her; as for Xander, he got to bond with Anya one more time before she tragically lost her life in the last episode.

Why Sarah Michelle Gellar was wrong

Now, we love Sarah Michelle Gellar more than some members of our family, so why do we think she was wrong to want a Buffy/Xander romance? For one thing, it felt like a bad comeback. Xander’s puppy crush on Buffy in Season 1 emphasized how immature he is, and his later relationship with Anya underscored how much he’s grown as a character. He and Buffy, when they suddenly hook up, will feel like his character has fallen, and he would even cheapen his romance with Anya by implying that he never stopped wanting Buffy.

Plus, Sarah Michelle Gellar’s great acting emphasized that Buffy never saw Xander as a romantic interest, which is why she spent all her time falling for vampire bad boys and the occasional corn-fed super soldier. To suddenly pair her and Xander together would be completely arbitrary and unmotivated, and the show would be infinitely worse for it, especially in the final series. Honestly, it could have been worse than Willow’s character assassination in Season 6, where the magical lesbian goddess became a magical junkie who can’t stop hurting those she loves the most.

The final case against Buffy/Xander

Finally, a Buffy and Xander romance would destroy a fundamental aspect of Buffy’s character: that at the end of the day, she always wants what she can’t have. Falling in love with handsome but unavailable men was part of it, the Slayer’s way of subconsciously preventing anyone from getting too close to her. Xander is someone she could literally have at any point in the series because of his awkward little crush, and it would be completely out of character for her to suddenly give up her love of unavailable bad boys and hook up with a harmless little nerd who has never stopped stalking her since, when they first met.

Thankfully, Joss Whedon didn’t listen to Sarah Michelle Gellar and Buffy didn’t end up with Xander or anyone else until the end of Season 7. It was sad but fitting. Once again, the Slayer saves a world she can’t fully enjoy. But let’s be real: isn’t being alone so much better than ending up with Xander?