Xendra/Trivia

Trivia about Xendra includes:

Pastiche: Chapter 131 is a deliberate pastiche of Dragnet (with a little Adam-12 thrown in). Castle explicitly describes it as such.
Shout-Out: Many many. Part of the fun is how many and how rapid-fire they are, and the characters they confuse. Just to name a few (because there are so many it's impossible to list them all):
- Many from Monty Python's Flying Circus, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Blackadder: Multiple invocations of "I have a cunning plan" -- even from the Watchers!
- GURPS, Pathfinder, Vampire: The Masquerade and other RPGs played by Xander's gaming group.
- "Lestat", the would-be master vampire.
- The Wizard of Oz, when Andrew summons the flying monkey demons.
- Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Xander's rapid-fire list of suggested names for Willow's/the Rosenbergs' car.
- Xander's disguise during the research excursion to Sacramento in chapter 87 sounds very much like Kevin Lynch, the nerd character Nicholas Brendon played in Criminal Minds
- When Wesley and Xander encounter a vampire child among a group of older vampires outside of Monterey, CA, reference is made to Kirsten Dunst in Interview with the Vampire and Anne Rice is said to have much to answer for.
- At one point there is an extended exchange lifted almost directly from Get Smart.
- Kim Possible gets referenced in an exchange between Xander and Willow that leaves Buffy baffled.
- Xander and Buffy together get in a three-in-one in chapter 96:

Buffy wondered, "Xander, are you pondering what I'm pondering?”
He grinned at her and dropped down a few tones to his dopey voice. "Well sure Brain, but if we put the laser beams on the sharks' heads, how do we make the tornado toss 'em on top of the mayor?"

- Early in the Initiative arc there is a comparison of the DRI's "super taser" weapon to Alex Mack's lightning.
- Chapter 131 is an extended Pastiche of Dragnet.
- At one point Willow says the Sunnydale cops make Gunther Toody look like Columbo. It's not the first Car 54 comparison she makes about the Sunnydale police.
- When Willow and Xander lead Faith down to Willow's basement workspace, Xander says, "So come up to the lab, and see what's on the slab!" (Faith, predictably, asks which one of them wears the corset and stockings.) He repeats the line several months later when they take Giles, Wesley and others down to the lab, only to have Willow object that she doesn't see anyone "shivering with antici..." "Pation!" Xander completes.
- During the Glory arc, Xander refers to the doctors at Sunnydale's hospital as having degrees from the Frank Burns School of Medicine.
- Joyce's hospital food is described as tasting like Akane Tendo made it.
- The Scoobies routinely refer to the Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart as "Hokey, Lamb Chop and Bambi".
- Chapter 190 has a large collection in the form of a list of Wolfram & Hart clients.
Shown Their Work: As is usual for one of her fics, Diane Castle has done all the research necessary to make the jargon used by specialists correct and accurate, such as when Willow worries about a Jarisch–Herxheimer reaction when treating human!Darla for advanced syphilis.

Back to Xendra