The character of Xander--or, (Alex)ander LaVelle Harris, as he's mortifyingly known by his parents--has been typed by many critics as a hyrbid figure who complicates masculine and feminine identity politics within the show. His evolution from a teenage boy with a crush on Buffy, to a haunted and conflicted man capable of leaving his bride at the altar, has continually frustrated (and teased) audience expectations. He is known, variously, as the "heart" of the Scoobies, and "the one who sees things," but it is still unclear just what the position of "heart" entails, and moreover, why Xander should occupy this position rather than Buffy, or even Willow. Yes, Xander "sees" positive traits within his surrogate family, but he is often unable to communicate what he intuits, or, just as often, he says absolutely the wrong thing at the wrong time.

This paper aims to interrogate Xander not as an effeminate male caught between strong female binaries, but as a cohesive figure whose very "ordinariness" is what makes him so valuable to his surrogate family. If Xander is indeed ordinary--and we must keep in mind that he has, at one time or another, been possessed by a hyena spirit, fallen in love with a vengeance-demon, and saved the world from Willow--then *Buffy's* concept of "ordinary" is a radical departure from the traditional term. By "ordinary," Xander means to say that he is invested with no spectacular abilities--no slayer-strength or wiccan power. Yet his oblique relationship to these more violent and visible forces is what allows his *own* power to manifest--that is, the ability to preserve his friends as they were *before* they were empowered, and thus, to continually remind them that they are human, fallible, and loved. Through laughter, sarcasm, commemoration, and often, embarrassment, Xander holds the Scoobies together, providing the frivolity that responsible-Buffy cannot, and demonstrating openly the fear that timid-Willow tries so desperately to repress.

That said, the goal of this investigation is not to canonize Xander as a heroic figure, but to explore how his extreme fallibility makes him powerful--and how, in the absence of "real" power, he becomes an invaluable archive of the Scoobies' collective memories, binding them together by constantly re-narrating their "story."