Ron, Xander, and the Useless Best Friend

[prep0strus]

No: HPFGUIDX 137716


It's fun (and unavoidable) to make comparisons with other hero 
stories, and some are very easy - Dumbledore - Obi-Wan, Gandalf...

I'm a huge fan of Ron, however, and so I was trying to think of 
another example of a useless best friend.  I don't have cable right 
now, and a friend leant me the Buffy the Vampire series on DVD to 
while away the hours, and there it is: Xander.

The way both characters have been developed drives me nuts - they're 
funny, loyal, with potential, but ultimately without anything that 
really makes them special.  Xander is perhaps a little funnier than 
Ron, and Ron gets to be the *true* best friend to our hero as opposed 
to Xander taking 2nd seat to Willow, but they're both these 
entertaining, underappreciated characters.  And it's not that they 
haven't been given a spark of something - Ron's chess skills, which 
*should* carry over into strategic ability made their only important 
appearance in Book 1, and this is actually fairly similar to 
Xander's 'military memory', which could also be a source of strategic 
knowledge used more than it was in the series.  I haven't gotten all 
the way through Buffy yet, but I've heard some of what happens... and 
I just hope JKR gives Ron more in her last installment than poor 
maligned Xander got.

(There's also a good comparison to be made between Hermione and 
Willow - as the 'smart' friend who does research, and Willow may be 
THE witch on Buffy, but Hermione's intelligence & skill make her the 
arguably the best wizard of her group.  However, I tend to doubt 
Hermione will become a force for even temporarily evil in Book 7)

I saw in back messages that Buffy used to be brought up quite a bit - 
I hope this wasn't too redundant for anyone.  I wanted to mention it, 
though, and ask - what other examples can people think of for the 
Useless Best Friend - or other character comparisons that can be made 
with other characters and stories than the obvious ones (LOTR/Star 
Wars, Gandalf/Obi-Wan) that are made regularly.

~Prep0strus