My Devon: A Personal View

The lovely Arundhathi wrote about how she views Devon. I thought it was a really interesting and insightful view and she's kindly given me permission to repost her thoughts here.

I don't think it's any secret that I have a fondness for Devon. As, it seems, do many people. He has a presence in fanfic which seems disproportionate to his presence on screen, especially in slash, which is the majority of what I read.

So there must be an appeal. Something that makes people want to write about him/read about him/lick him all over. And lets face it, a lot of it is about the latter. He is very pretty. And he should wear more eyeliner. Okay, so maybe the eyeliner is just me, but I'm not being entirely facetious. I think it's been very well established that I am often very much about the shallow, and that's as true when it comes to Devon as for anything else. But, as ever, I'm going to try and pretend that there's more to it than that.

Of course, it started with the pretty. And yet there's an appeal which is about more than just the visual. I think a lot of it is that there's not much canon background. There's no question that Devon is one of the minorest of characters. Over three seasons, he appeared in a total of eight episodes, and was mentioned twice after that (Something Blue and New Moon Rising), before disappearing into the ether. Even when he did appear, his lines were few and far between. He doesn't even appear as a featured character on the Buffy Dialogue Database (although interestingly, Parker, Graham, Mr Trick and Forrest all do). So what do I really know about him? The answer is, not a great deal. Singer, dated Cordelia and Harmony, knows Oz. From the few exchanges we've seen on the show, it would be easy to write him off as an empty-headed flake, all style and no substance. Which is probably a fair interpretation. And for the purposes of the show, that's all he needs to be. He exists purely as an adjunct to Oz. But that in itself suggests that there has to be more to him than meets the eye, because I can't imagine Oz having a huge amount of time for him otherwise.

So I want to know more about this character, but there is no more, at least in terms of the show. But I refuse to believe that anyone is that shallow, or one-dimensional, although there was never any need to add extra facets to him in terms of his function on the show so I have to build the character in my head. And it's relatively easy to develop an idea of what Devon is, because he comes from the same template that created so many of the boys I knew as a teenager. Granted, he's prettier than most of them, but he fits the mould well enough to give me a starting point. The number of 'stoned in Oz's van' fics suggests that plenty of other people are taking the same starting point. He's also very easy to slash. It's easy to assume that this slim-hipped almost androgynous wannabe rock star likes boys as well as girls, as long as he's getting laid. And in amongst the angst that pervades the Buffyverse and inevitably impacts on all the relationships within it, Devon gives me a way to do things that really are all about the fun, without having to take huge liberties with canon. There's also the general appeal of minor characters. If there's not a whole lot of canon material, then you can play much more extensively with characterisation without upsetting the applecart.

I have a real soft spot for imagined profundity, people who think they're a whole lot deeper than they really are. The kind of thing Orlando Bloom is so good at. And it isn't difficult to see Devon being quite similar; enough intelligence to want to be thought of as having depth, but not quite self-aware enough to realise that he's not really the modern day philosopher he imagines himself to be. It's fun to write in much the same way that it's entertaining to watch.

In summary, my Devon:

* Always writes songs in green or purple ink, never black.

* Only ever dates girls.

* But prefers sex with guys

* Is really a top, but will bottom for Oz.

* Can remember all the words to everything Jim Morrison ever wrote, but only knows that he didn't write Light My Fire because Oz told him.

* Still thinks Oz was probably shitting him about that.

* Knows he's hot, but sometimes wishes people would believe that there's more to him than that.

* Isn't as shallow as everyone thinks.

* Isn't as deep as he thinks.

* Sometimes wishes he was more like Oz

* More often, wishes Oz was more like him.

* Loves to dance.

* Hates team sports and has skipped every gym class since sophomore year.

* Likes Willow better than Oz thinks, but doesn't really 'get' her.

* Would probably like her more if she wasn't dating Oz.

* Has nightmares about 9 to 5, a station wagon, wife and two kids.

* Makes lists of words he likes, and tries to write them into his songs.

* Has recently added 'languor', 'solace' and 'kismet' to that list.

* Writes songs about love, but doesn't really believe in it.

* Secretly hopes he'll be proved wrong about that.

* Has a book about Buddhism by his bed.

* Has only read the first three pages.