Romance has always been a part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with fans approving and disapproving of different match-ups, while shipping different characters together. However, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Dark Horse Comics' canonical continuation of the iconic television series, featured an unexpected pairing that remains one of the franchise's controversial decisions.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #28 – by TV series writer Jane Espenson, with art by Georges Jeanty – revealed the shocking romantic entanglement of Buffy's younger sister, Dawn Summers, and her close friend Xander Harris.
Dawn, introduced through mystical means in Season Five of the show, had a teenage crush on Xander, revealed in Season Five, Episode 2. Now both adults, Season Eight put them together as a couple, in a move many readers found controversial.
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A "Not Unweird" Love Story
Xander and Dawn first kiss in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #28. While their friendship seemed to continue in the comic book continuation of the show, this reveal baffled fans. At the time they fell in love, Dawn was a legal adult and there's only a 5-6-year age difference between the two. However, Xander had always been portrayed as an older brother figure to Dawn; further, there was no buildup to their romance. Season Five of Buffy saw Dawn inserted into the Summers family in an iconic twist; the season would eventually reveal that she was in fact a mystical object, given human form, made precious to the Slayer, so Buffy would protect her at all costs.
As even Xander its at the onset of their romance, it is "not unweird." Another reason for the weird fan feelings about this pairing is that it becomes an important part of the canon. The Buffy in-continuity comics concluded with Season Twelve; in those five seasons, creator Joss Whedon doubles down on the romance, perhaps to show that this wasn't a careless fling or that he really had an overarching plan. In Season Nine, because Buffy destroyed the seed of magic in the world, and Dawn was created from magic, Dawn starts to disappear. Xander betrays his friends to make a deal with the Big Bads to restore magic and save her.
This Controversial Pairing Still Upsets Fans
As it turns out, the return of magic "resets" Dawn's emotions, and she only feels a crush for Xander, not love. In Season Ten, the new Big Bads have opened a portal to a hell dimension that Dawn, as The Key, can close – but only from the other side. Xander goes with her during her sacrifice, and she falls in love with him again there. By Season Twelve, they live together and have a child named Joyce, named for Dawn and Buffy's deceased mom. Years later, this pairing is still very divisive in the fandom. Subsequent seasons added depth to the pairing, but it remained difficult for many readers to accept.
Xander was around for Dawn's (imagined) childhood and was that big brother figure, gives some fans – as Buffy might say – the wiggins. Xander also carried a torch for Buffy for years, and developing feelings for her younger sister is a messy situation; Buffy Season Eight, and subsequent seasons, rely on this for narrative tension. One of the reasons romances in Buffy the Vampire Slayer draw in so many people is that these characters feel real, and real relationships can be messy and nuanced. Feeling strongly about these characters reflects the writing and art that went into them over the past thirty-four years. Even an icky romance shows the deep love held by fans for this series.
