What We Think We Know: Devon in Fanon

When there isn't so much canon to work with, people try to fill in the blanks. With Devon a fairly sophisticated fanon has built up, and people are clearly influenced by other writers. In this section there will be an examination of the top ten tenets of Devon fanon. This is intended to be an objective view about their merits and potential drawbacks, so please don't assume their inclusion here suggests disapproval. That said, if you thought something was canon and read about it here it does mean you can ignore it in your writing as they are only conventions.

1. Devon hates Willow
On the few occasions when they shared screentime, Devon and Willow had no obvious animosity, but it does feature in quite a few fics. The rationale for this is that Devon is either jealous of Willow as she takes up more and more of Oz's time (and in the time honoured tradition of teenage best friends dislikes the girlfriend for changing the nature of the friendship) or he blames her for Oz's departure. It can vary from mild annoyance to near violence and often involves a lot of swearing. Some authors do admit that they personally dislike Willow and Devon is used as a means of expressing this but it is still possible to see why Devon might behave this way.

2. Devon is a slut
There's no denying that Devon was strikingly good-looking, and he dated two of the most popular girls in school. However, we never saw him as quite the turboslut he almost always is in fic. There, Devon sleeps with anyone and everyone, from groupies to school friends to passing vampires (and is evidently particularly fond of oral sex). There's no reason why he shouldn't be of course, but for all we know he is a card carrying virgin-until-he-gets-married. Just like, er, Britney.

3. Devon is a bisexual slut
A variation on the above (perhaps the more common), this time Devon is a slut and one quite indiscriminate of gender. Even where he is written as slightly more restrained, there is still a tendency to make Devon (who is more than a little glam rock to be fair) bisexual.

4. Devon is good at sex
If Devon is a slut (bisexual or otherwise), he's a damn good one at that. Whether this is likely in a boy in his late teens who apparently has sex presented to him on a plate (and therefore doesn't really need to try) is open to debate (some people are naturally talented after all) but then being good at the horizontal ho-ho is fairly common for most characters in fanfic - especially for those who look so very pretty.

5. Devon had sex with Oz when they were younger
This is unsurprisingly more common in slash (but slash is the most common type of Devonfic) and it's actually fanon for Oz's character too. Basically, in slash where they form one but not both halves of the pairing it is often nevertheless said that they've screwed around together in the past. The intensity varies from story to story: it can be a fairly casual thing (two best friends who are merely somewhat unusually close) or anything up to and including them being each other's first true love. They're certainly portrayed as good friends, so it's not an enormous leap of imagination. The huge amount of Devon/Oz fic is testament to that.

6. Devon smokes
As a bad boy rocker, Devon cares not for his lungs and as he does have a touch of James Dean about him it is not uncommon to read him having a puff or two.

7. Devon does lots of drugs (particularly grass)
It's hardly surprising we didn't see Devon on drugs in Buffy - addiction to magic was coda for that - but again Devon's involvement in the entertainment industry makes it quite easy to imagine he would be exposed to drugs and equally easy to imagine he might use them. In fact, Stoner Dev is almost a character in himself.

8. Devon swears quite a bit
He's rock and roll. Of course he swears! Well, that's the rationale for making him do so in fic. On the show he was always a polite boy - but then he only got eight lines, so what do we know?

9. Devon wears make-up
A less common occurrence than some of the above but in enough to make it semi-fanonical. It's all to do with the sparkly clothes and the afore-mentioned glam rock tendencies. If he wears sparkly clothing he can easily be perceived as having a fondness for the Maybelline - particularly eyeliner and nail polish - and several authors have chosen to do just that.

10. Devon has the intelligence of a doorknob
Admittedly this has a fair bit of basis in canon, but in fic Devon's cognitive ability can often be verging on Neanderthal (though with more of an emphasis on mating than violence). He's certainly lacks Oz's sagacity - but he did at least graduate from High School so he does have at least some higher brain function.

Have I missed any out? Got it wrong? Tell me!