Best Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer

[Azucena Mcquay]

Anex-demon, Anya was one of my absolute favourite characters. One of the best things BtVS did acknowledge the origins of reformed/reforming villains. Anya was once a demon: even though she ends up helping the Scooby Gang, she retains her questionable morals. (And fear of bunnies?) ^^ Gif above is Anya playing the Game of Life. BtVS acknowledges the grays in life, there is no black and white in human morality.

Also the fact that at the end of season two I was crying actual tears and had to go cry in bed for a good half hour because I was so emotional. It got me THAT BAD. Future seasons did not treat me better.

Since I hear of this book I want to see Buffy the vampire slayer haha, I seriously never heard of it before.. (Maybe it is not an european thing?!)

I will probably read slayer and if I like it, try and watch buffy ?

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Creator Joss Whedon saidthe idea came from a desire to turn around the stereotypical character of the frightened blonde woman in a horror movie. But Buffy became much more than that. Not only was she a hero that could slay vampires with her eyes closed, she was also a complex, imperfect character. The women who surrounded her on the show, like Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Cordeila (Charisma Carpenter), Tara (Amber Benson) and Anya (Emma Caulfield), likewise had fully-realized personalities and lives.

Buffy's mark is also felt in many of the female heroes who have debuted since she punched her way onscreen. Veronica Mars is particularly reminiscent of the slayer, with her snark and mile-a-minute pop culture references coming out of a petite, blonde package.

Before shows like Glee and The L Word, Buffy had a revolutionary lesbian storyline on network television. In Season 4, Willow realizes that her feelings for fellow wicca Tara are more than just friendly, and the pair became one of the first lesbian couples on TV. Though Tara's death made her one of the first victims of the unfortunate "bury your gays" trope, their relationship was an early beacon for LGBT representation.

Movie and TV sets bring people together all the time, but a show as good and as pervasive as Buffy has the power to bring its fans together, too. There's a shared language among the Buffy devotees, and online or in person, I've forged friendships and connections because of the show. There was no show as easy to agree on for my family asBuffy, and watching the show brought me closer to my equally-obsessed sisters.

While Buffy's story continues on in a series of comics, what truly keeps the show alive for me is showing it to those lucky few who've never seen it. There's nothing like seeing someone meet The Gentlemen for the first time, or finding out that the "the Earth is definitely doomed."

Criteria: To be included on this list, a character has to have a name, appear on Buffy and/or Angel for at least three episodes, and meaningfully participate either in the episodes' plot or in a larger, season-long storyline. (Sorry random teacher or Wolfram & Hart flunky!) When it made sense, I grouped some characters, and there are also a handful of special exceptions for standout characters in just one or two episodes who have significant arcs of their own. Also, for the persnickety, since an actor's performance plays a definite role in the success or failure of a character in these rankings, I did not factor in the post-finale comic books.

The worst "villain" in the Buffyverse is barely a villain at all. He's just a not-even-that-creepy kid whose lines are pretty much all overdubbed, until he and the rest of us are put out of our misery with the arrival of Spike and Drusilla.

Glory's human alter ego is a huge wasted opportunity. He's sort of a romantic interest for Buffy, until he isn't, and he's sort of around for Joyce's medical care, but not really. He's also hugely selfish, summoning a demon to kill mental patients rather than deal with them himself, and ultimately colluding with Glory to kill Dawn. Frankly, other than to provide Giles with a simple way of killing Glory, it's not all that clear why he exists in the first place.

Another example of a decent idea that really went nowhere, Kate is supposed to be our human companion into Angel's phantasmagoric world, but it turns out we don't need one. (Who cares what the LAPD thinks or doesn't think about vampires and zombies?) Rhm left Angel to be on Law & Order, and all I can say about that is that she's a consistent performer.

Willow's tutoring student demands she do his work for him, until Vamp Willow attacks him, and then he's a perfect student. But later in college, he calls Willow "captain of the nerd squad." Not cool, Percy.

A bias: I hated the Los-Angeles-goes-to-hell storyline on Angel. But even if I didn't, The Beast is a total nonstarter, an over-the-top, personality-free behemoth whose appearance is a craggy rip-off of Tim Curry's Darkness from the movie Legend. The fact that Angelus kills this seemingly un-killable dude almost by accident tells you everything you need to know about how effective a villain he ultimately was on the show.

OK, one more thing: Buffy and Angel were on different networks by this season, granted, but I always thought it was telling that not once did anyone in Sunnydale even mention the fact that L.A. was trapped in an eternal night of fire and brimstone.

Seriously? Knights?! Who ultimately served no purpose other than to fill up time before Glory's inevitable capture of Dawn? OK, there was that kinda exciting RV-vs.-knights-on-horseback action sequence, but still. COME ON.

She's the first potential on this list since Kennedy to have a distinct personality. It's just that that personality is of a perpetually sullen grump who celebrates Buffy's expulsion from the Scoobies by proclaiming "ding, dong, the witch is dead." So why is the only black potential also the only angry potential, again?

It seemed like, as a part of Joss Whedon's Firefly cast member relocation program, Baldwin was just beginning to get warmed up in the part of Eve's replacement liaison to the Senior Partners when Angel kills him in the series finale. And also: "Not Fade Away" is an excellent series finale, but the fact that this guy is Angel's last fight on the entire show is the episode's weakest element. (The guy can really wear a suit, at least.)

The only truly normal guy who ever showed an interest in dating Buffy went away just as fast as he showed up once he realized dating Buffy is, let's face it, kind of a nightmare. And then we learn in Season 6 that he tried to spread a rumor Buffy was gay because it turns out he himself is gay, which, come to think of it, makes a lot of sense.

Glory's oily-haired, demon-y worshippers are essentially parodies of sniveling, supplicatory flunkies, and that's all they're ever allowed to be. They don't even get an Oompa Loompa-style origin story musical number. Poor minions.

First, she's the mysterious liaison to Angel for the Senior Partners, then she's suddenly boinking Angel, then she's just as suddenly boinking Lindsey while acting uncomfortably like a widdle baby, then she's no longer a liaison but still somehow hanging around Wolfram & Hart, then she's begging for Angel's protection after Lindsey bounces on her. Make up your damn mind, Eve!

Another Lilah rival, Gavin at least proved to be a moderately effective Wolfram & Hart flunky, bugging Angel Investigations. But the fact that his most memorable exploit is savagely beating Lilah after getting infected by misogyny monster Billy Blim is not in any way a mark in his favor.

The Pylean priest has a cartoonish low voice, flat affect, and Cardinal Richelieu power complex laced with genocidal xenophobia. He's the embodiment of Angel's mid-series crisis/vacation to Pylea, in the worst way.

She's just your average hit-'em-and-bite-'em-and-wolf-out-with-'em local band frontwoman-cum-werewolf-cum-homewrecker, but she hits and bites and wolfs out with Oz, breaking Willow's heart in the process. AND WE DO NOT ABIDE THAT.

I'm probably reading way too much into it, but Forrest's powerful dislike of Buffy feels like it has to do with much more than an unyielding devotion to the Initiative. Oh, let's not be coy, Forrest clearly has a crush on Riley and has chosen to channel his unrequited sexual frustration into his work as a top-secret super soldier. At least, that would be a much more compelling character arc than just a generic bros-before-hoes sidekick who is around only to maintain dramatic pressure on Riley to choose between Buffy and the Initiative, hmmm?

"The Timeshifter" brings Angelus' mortal enemy Daniel Holtz from the 18th century to keep Angel's son Connor from fulfilling a prophecy that Connor would kill him, but then Connor eventually kills him anyway. And apparently that sentence is supposed to make sense.

He may be a lousy snitch content to serve libations to the demon underworld, but you can't help but feel a little bit for the guy given how often he gets the stuffing beaten out of him. (He ranks higher than Merl because he never tried to trick Angel into letting a pregnant woman's child die.)

This millionaire software engineer could have been Angel's adult version of Buffy's ber-geeky Trio (just not evil), but after showing up for a couple adventures and helping Angel figure out how to buy the Hyperion Hotel, he disappeared. Oh well!

I could look at Robin Wood for all the days, and his deep, resonant voice isn't too shabby either. But unlike a lot of strong starts that fizzled out so far on this list, the last principal of Sunnydale High School starts as an obvious and dull Big Bad red herring, only to grow into a surprisingly compelling expansion of the Slayer mythology as the adult child of a previous Slayer. But after his confrontation with Spike over the death of his mother, Wood basically twiddles his thumbs (and hops into bed with Faith because why not?) until the finale. To recap: a tasty character sandwiched by two lame, limp pieces of bread. More sandwich metaphors!

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