deird1 | (Reply)

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I do think this can be applied to lots of character-shippers.

THIS. Depending on the quality of the writer, this can be true of MANY characters.

I will say that I think Xander suffers from the "Marty Stu" complex more than others because he is normal. He's more of a blank slate that people can really play with.

As for "the Lie" getting explained all the time -- again, I've seen this in what I would consider some of the poorer fanfic. These fanfics often are REALLY anti-Buffy or anti-Willow (unless they are the other member of the ship).

Conversely, there are some very good Xander shipping fanfics that don't fall prey to these trends (the need to talk about "the Lie", villainous Buffy or Willow, and never before seen superpowers).

I don't ready Spuffy fic but I'm curious, do they have a lot of fics that "explain" Seeing Red? I ask because I could see that as an equivalent trend. Spuffy fans are generally unhappy with that moment from what I've seen so I could see fics that "fix" that.

As for Bangle, IDK what would need "fixing" (except maybe fics written during the Riley years BEFORE the cookie-dough talk).

I guess what I'm saying is that while I agree, there are some REALLY poor fanfics that seem to need to be "lie-apologists", I'm not sure it's just limited to Xander.