Most people who love fiction are attracted to certain types of character. We find ourselves drawn to particular archetypes with specific personality traits. Maybe we’re attracted to these characters because we relate to them, or maybe we’re attracted to these archetypes because they possess traits we would like to have. In any case, one of my favorite character archetypes is the Dorky, Funny, Average Guy, best represented by Xander Harris in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter series.
I once read a book of academic essays about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because I am a huge huge nerd, and one chapter compared the pilot episode of Buffy, “Welcome to the Hellmouth,” to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The setups for both stories are remarkably similar: Buffy/Harry enter a new world where they are immediately introduced to two outcasts in Xander/Ron and Willow/Hermione, and Buffy/Harry choose the friendship of the two outcasts and reject the shallow advances from the wealthier, more socially popular Cordelia/Draco. (The big difference, of course, is that Harry just found out he is a wizard and learns about the wizarding world through his new companions, and Buffy is the one introducing the supernatural world to her friends.) The Buffy characters are not exactly the same as the Harry Potter characters, but they fall into the same archetypes – the Chosen One, the Dorky Funny Average Guy, the Academic Whiz Kid Girl, and the Rich Bitch.
For the record, I prefer Hermione to Willow, I MUCH prefer Cordelia to Draco, and I ever so slightly prefer Buffy to Harry even though I’m immensely fond of both of them (and I reserve my right to change my mind at any time depending on which text I’m currently re-obsessed with). But don’t you dare make me choose between Xander and Ron, because I’ll throw myself in front of them and cry, “Take me instead!”
I love Xander and Ron so much. I recognize and respect feminist criticisms of their characters, and I think there’s some merit to the “Nice Guy” description for both of them (especially Xander), but that doesn’t stop me from loving them. They’re both the average guys of their groups. Xander doesn’t have Buffy’s supernatural strengths, Willow’s computer hacker or witch skills, or Giles’ academic and historical knowledge. Ron is a wizard like Harry and Hermione, but lacks Harry’s Chosen One status and Hermione’s academic strengths. Xander barely passes his classes and Ron is an average student. They are not special – except they are, because if there’s trouble afoot and Buffy or Harry have to fight the good fight, they will not hesitate to jump in and help.
Some of my favorite moments from Buffy and Harry Potter come from Xander and Ron – Xander bringing Buffy back to life in “Prophecy Girl,” Ron standing on his broken leg and yelling that “if you want to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill all three of us!” Those are two prime examples of their bravery. Xander and Ron are both considered average in the worlds they inhabit, but they are remarkably brave, because they always step up to the plate when their friends need help.
They’re also wickedly funny, able to turn a phrase in a way that makes me envious:
“XANDER: That’s Rodney Munson. He’s God’s gift to the bell curve. What he lacks in smarts he makes up for in lack of smarts.”
“RON: Percy wouldn’t recognize a joke if it danced naked in front of him wearing Dobby’s tea cozy.”
“CORDELIA: I have a paper to write for English and you’re English, so I thought … I study best in a good restaurant, around eightish? Think it over?
XANDER: And on the day the words ‘flimsy excuse’ were redefined, we stood in awe and watched.”
” ‘I’ve got two Neptunes here,’ said Harry after a while, frowning down on his parchment, ‘that can’t be right, can it?’
‘Aaaah,’ said Ron, imitating Professor Trelawney’s mysical whisper, ‘when two Neptunes appear in the sky, it is a sure sign that a midget in glasses is being born, Harry…’ “
Dorky, funny, average guys who are super loyal to their best friends and will do anything to help fight the good fight? Sign me up on the Favorite Character Express!
There’s no question as to why I gravitate towards Xander and Ron. When I was in school, I was an academically gifted girl (like Willow and Hermione), and I asked a lot of questions and wanted to learn things (like Willow and Hermione). But more than anything, I wanted people to think I was funny. If I was told I was pretty, I would react with skepticism and disbelief. If I was told I was smart, I would smile and accept the compliment and secretly think, “Thanks, but I know.” If someone told me I was funny, it took all my self-control to not blurt out, “Really? Am I? What was the BEST joke you heard from me this week?”
Humor was important to me as a defense mechanism, a weapon, a way to connect with people, and the best way to get my point across. No wonder I loved Xander and Ron so much.
Which leads me to the question of the evening – where are the female Xanders and Rons?
Maybe I haven’t found the right book or television show yet, but I can’t think of a series I know that had a dorky, funny, average girl as a central character. A girl who was clumsy without being “adorkable” and falling over while wearing high heels, a girl who wasn’t an academic genius or at all supernatural, but who was brave and loyal and had a wicked sense of humor.
Where are the female Xanders and Rons?
Don’t misunderstand me – I appreciate Willow and Hermione, and I love that Joss Whedon and J.K. Rowling gave millions of viewers and readers some incredibly smart, academically driven young women who devour books by the bucketful. Thank you for giving us those wonderful characters. In a world where women are still treated as second-class citizens in many, many states and countries, we need more and more examples of strong, independent, smart women who can think their way through any problem with their brains.
But someday, I hope we can have a fantasy series with a trio of best friends where the dorky, funny, average character is a girl. I hope we get to a point where female characters don’t have to be exceptional in order to be special.
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That is a very good question. I can’t even think of any good examples from predominantly female casts let alone a cast with a mix of men and women. I suppose Amy Pond from the current series of Doctor Who comes relatively close as she is funny and lacks the Doctor’s brilliance, River’s combat acumen, or Rory’s Roryness but she also has such deep ties in major plot points that it’s hard to call her ‘average’. She’s the closest I can think of to a female version of Ron (though she splits some of those qualities with Rory). I’m literally racking my brain trying to think of some other funny, dorky, average girls in fiction but nothing is coming to mind. It seems like even the ‘girl next door’ archetype tends to be either physically or mentally above average (usually the latter). There are probably a few in anime that I’m not thinking of from the ‘harem’ shows like Ranma 1/2 where one of the female leads is more normal (by the standards of the setting) and down to earth than the rest of the female cast.
I actually think Rose would be a better example, though that’s just me. She might not be particularly dorky, but she’s brave, rather funny and for most of the show, pretty average.
Maybe I should just start watching Doctor Who, then. 🙂
It seems like even the ‘girl next door’ archetype tends to be either physically or mentally above average (usually the latter).
Yes, exactly. Even “average” girls tend to be the smart ones in the group.
On the other hand, Xander and Ron aren’t exactly dumb – they get bad or average grades in school, but they’re too witty and clever to be considered unintelligent. I guess that’s what I want to see in a female character – the one with a quick wit whose intelligence is not measured academically.
Elliot from Scrubs is dorky and not very smart but not very funny either. Brittany from Glee is stupid and funny but not a main character. Hmmm.
I wouldn’t consider either Elliot or Brittany a Xander/Ron type, though. Elliot is supposed to be a quite academically gifted, neurotic mess, and Brittany is just…I have no idea what the hell she’s supposed to be. The dumb blonde stereotype exaggerated to a T? Neither of them would be the sarcastic wisecracking average dude in the group.
Nope, agreed. They were the closest to dorky and/or funny I could come to think of.
I don’t know if you’re interested in video games at all, but Merrill from Dragon Age II fits into the dorky mode. Though I’m not sure if I would an elf blood mage average but she still kind of fits.
Hi! Stumbled across your blog looking for Lyanna/Rhaegar theories, and was delighted to find that your writing style is not the “shove the ideology down the throat” kind. Allow me to express one reservation about Ron though. Notice that in the HP series, he betrays Harry several times? His treatment of Hermione, I feel, was quite stereotypically misogynistic teenaged boy. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I feel that a female Ron already does exist in popular fiction in the form of the frenemy. While in HP7 Ron’s actions can possibly be dictated by the Horcrux, his constant bullying of Hermione turned me off on the character, and I’ve always been disappointed that such a brilliant witch chose to marry the boy who laughed at her, flaunted his relationship with Lavender in her face, and was always ready to think the worst of her. I can only hope that outside the books he grew up and was a lot better as a friend than what’s shown in them, because after the first and second HP books, Ron was portrayed as someone who did not have “heart” the way Xander did. In re Xander, yes, he would lash out at Cordy and Buffy and even Willow when frustrated, but the major difference between him and Ron was that his actions were rarely truly malicious, and he was always sincerely sorry after he had hurt any of the females on BtVS. Just to point something out: in the HP series we never see the Weasley twins actively working to undermine or hurt Harry the way Ron did in HP 4 and 7. I realize that Ron’s actions can all be explained away by his immaturity–but then again, Xander in “Band Candy” realizes he is immature and yet the difference between Xander and Ron as best friends to Buffy/Willow and Harry/Hermione is noticeable. Sorry for the long explanation 🙂
I have to disagree about Ron vs. Xander in terms of their friendships. I think Xander has been a bigger ass to Buffy than Ron ever was to Harry or Hermione. He’s never made himself absent when Buffy and the Scoobs needed him in battle, no, but “You want to forget all about Ms. Calendar’s murder so you can get your boyfriend back” still sticks out in my memory, as does every time he’s been a jerk to Buffy about her love life. Xander was extremely judgmental in a way that I don’t think Ron ever was. The major times Ron betrayed Harry – in Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows – he KNEW he was being an immature idiot and that he had no reason to be angry with Harry, but knowing he was wrong made him even angrier and dumber, until he finally came around. Most of the time Xander was a jerk, I think he believed he was right to do it, and I don’t think he starts to really understand Buffy until around “Seeing Red” and “Selfless.”
I also don’t think Ron ever bullied Hermione. Teased her, yes. Was sometimes mean to her, yes. But I don’t think it ever extended beyond typical teenage bullshit, and his behavior never made me worry about how he would treat her in a romantic relationship. (I was more disturbed by his treatment of Lavender than his treatment of Hermione, to be honest.) As much as he teased her, he was also the first to defend her whenever Draco insulted her or if someone called her a Mudblood.
I’ve been rewatching the series and have to say I’ve been seeing Xander in a different light. His insistence on Angel being the bad guy does get tiring–a lot. I’m only up to Season 3 though so that may change. I’m not sure Ron was just teasing Hermione though–and I wonder if he defended Hermione just to get back at Draco or to be able to pick a fight. (Unfortunately in the movies Rupert Grint plays him more sympathetically, so I had to check back in the books to see when he defends her.) In GoF, I was not amused by how he reacted to Hermione and Krum, and his HBP behavior after learning that Hermione kissed Krum–yes, he’s a jealous guy but I would have thought that as a friend he could at least have told her why. His behavior in Books 1 and 2 though was so much better. I wonder if JKR was looking to use Ron as the inconsistent friend? Second-guessing the author isn’t likely to get us anywhere but yes, his treatment of Lavender was much worse.
His insistence on Angel being the bad guy does get tiring–a lot.
Ha, well, personally, I love that Xander hates Angel. I love when he gives Angel shit. I hate when he gives Buffy shit about Angel.
and I wonder if he defended Hermione just to get back at Draco or to be able to pick a fight.
Ron is characterized as very quick to stand up for his friends. He wants to kill Draco “with his bare hands” after Draco sneers that he wished Hermione had been killed by the Chamber monster. And Ron, who is terrified of spiders, doesn’t want to go into the Forbidden Forest to confront them – until he notices Hermione’s empty desk, which strengthens his resolve, and he agrees to go with Harry.
I don’t disagree that Ron has several times behaved like an ass to Harry and Hermione, but I think most of it can be chalked up to extreme insecurity. He was a jerk about Krum because (he thought) it confirmed that Hermione would never like someone like him anyway.
This is very, very true, and I think it’s one of the reasons I tend to be more irked by female characters than male – girls always seem to have some talent or aspect of their personalities exaggerated to the point of being exceptional. I would like to see more female characters who may not be the most academically gifted, or the best at whatever it is they happen to be good at, but are still appreciated, admired and, as you said, special.
I could name a few books where there are female characters I really like, but as for witty girls … Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing will always be the yardstick by which I measure witty females.
Beatrice is GREAT, definitely one of my favorite Shakespeare characters (and one of the only “good” female characters who might not be a virgin).
What about Garcia from Criminal Minds? I think she’s a great female character in a world where we don’t get many of those.