Xander - The Magician

[madimpossibledreamer]

Follow-up to Buffy - Death

I thought about Fool for 0.2 seconds.  It’s possible Fool is one of his Secondary, because he is kind of naïve and sometimes easily manipulated, but given his similarities to Yosuke (and Junpei, who’s often the darker, more jealous version of the Magician Best Friend character)…yeah, it’s Magician for Xander.  He pretty much fits all the characteristics in the games.

 

(Like Yosuke, at the beginning of the story he lost someone he really cared about and from then on was probably the most driven member of the team about the Mission.  So he’s often the one pushing for action, sometimes throwing himself in recklessly, even when he should be using his brain instead.  Action, initiative, check.  Legit, if he could burn up every vampire by sheer will and belief in Buffy, they’d all be gone.)

He refuses to just listen to prophecy, and words and wounds might hurt him but they won’t stop him from being there for his friends.  He’s at his best when he’s not letting his pride get the better of him, and knowing when to step back and be more passive is important, too.  And when he’s being supportive and helpful and loyal, because social links make Magician characters shine and mature and grow.  When he’s not stuck in his own head (like Yosuke) he actually has a decently high social IQ.

His mouth gets away with him a lot, he’s had tragedy and a bad home life, of which he both jokes about and says nothing at all, he gets bored and likes the idea of being able to help save the world (when he’s allowed, anyway).  And at his darkest moments, he can be a little manipulative (again, like Yosuke, because he’s insecure, and, specifically in Xander’s case, possibly because he’s never had a healthy relationship, romantic or not, modeled for him).  Like other Magicians in Persona, part of the reason he’s so focused on the Mission, wants to be a hero so bad, is because he’s been convinced he’s worthless otherwise.  If he’s saving the world or other people at least he’s useful to someone.  And he has a sometimes uncomfortable focus on sex, but when it comes to it as I’ve mentioned previously he’s at least as interested in romance as sex.  Generally like the other Magician characters in Persona, he only encounters tragedy when it comes to romance.  [I refuse to acknowledge Xander/Dawn in the comics, because given Whedon that’s just squick.  I’ve mentioned that elsewhere.]  (Also like Yosuke, he has a crush on his Leader because he admires her and is jealous of her because she gets to be the hero and no matter how much he blusters deep down he thinks he never will be…)

Gameplay-wise, Magician Persona have a magic-focus.  Which, you know, you could do the ‘forbidden to speak Latin in front of the books’ with this, with Personas or without.  If he does get magic, it wouldn’t work the way he expects and he’d probably be really clumsy with it.  Given his caring nature he should probably have at least one healing spell, like Yosuke’s various Persona.

>Xander will now die for you.