A while ago, skirbo brought us parts one and two of the Buffy 411. Then life happened — we’ll let her explain here in part three.
Here it is; the last installment of my Buffy the Vampire Slayer 411. FINALLY. I bet you thought (or hoped) I’d forgotten it. Alas, no. Real life reared its ugly head and took up just about every spare moment I had. I wish I could say that I had to prevent an apocalypse or slay a vampire, but truthfully it was problems with my teenaged daughter. She felt like it was the end of the world and I felt like I’d battled a demon by the time it was over, so I guess it’s pretty much the same thing.
For those of you that have not read the first two installments (or you did and chose to block the memory of it), take a look at them here:
Part 1
Part 2
First, we’ll take a mostly light-hearted look at the regulars. Then we’ll try for light-hearted on the shipping, but really, how funny can you make any ship with Andrew? It’s just wrong…
The Scooby Gang
Buffy Summers
“I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there’s evil and that I was chosen to fight it. I wish, a whole lot of the time, that I hadn’t been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn’t been either. But this isn’t about wishes. This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes, not when its army is ready - now. Tomorrow morning, I’m opening the seal. I’m going down into the Hellmouth and I’m finishing this once and for all.” - “Chosen”, season seven
Believe it or not, I wrote about Buffy herself last of all. Out of all the characters on the show, she is overall the most complicated. Take Buffy in an individual episode or season and her character seems pretty simple, sometimes selfish and sometimes shallow. Very human. The picture painted of Buffy over the course of the whole series is not - simple, I mean. The high school years as a whole were all about Buffy accepting her destiny as the Slayer and learning to live with - if not embrace - it. Her Slayer-ness is very front row, in your face, the lead of the series. High school Buffy is “I’m the Slayer and I love Angel”, “I’m the Slayer and I’m grounded”, “I’m the Slayer and I’m not popular anymore”, “I’m the Slayer and I have a chemistry assignment due”. Or the ever popular, “I’m the Slayer, ask me how”. She really never handled the competition of Kendra and Faith very well. For all that she complained about having to be the Slayer, she didn’t like it when another one came into play.
Post high school, the Slayer state of things seems to take more of a background. Sure, the evil has to get defeated every episode, but there seems to be more of a focus on life and the human experience - “I’m really struggling in college and I’m the Slayer”, “My mom is sick and I’m the Slayer”, “My mom is dead and I’m the Slayer”, “I just came back from the dead and I’m all depressed about it and I’m the Slayer”. Actually, those last two probably only ever happened to her.
I’m not really sure how I feel about her at series end. She always went from one extreme to the other; from “I must have people around to support me and the slaying” to “I must NOT have people around to support me and the slaying”. My honest opinion of season seven is that while it was great for almost everyone else, Sarah Michelle Gellar looked tired and removed from everything the whole time. It might have something to do with spending half the season playing the First as well as her own role. But I think she had decided to move on and was just killing time until the obligation was fulfilled. I’m going to get crucified for that, but oh well. Much as I love the show, that is how I feel.
Comic season eight finds Buffy as a General commanding an army now and not just playing at it, though most of the speech-giving seems to have died a merciful death. The setup she has in a castle in Scotland is huge, technologically impressive and paid for with ill-gotten gains. I find it disturbing and I’m not the only one. She struggles to find love as much as she ever did in the series, looking for it in new, but still wrong, places.
Willow Rosenberg
BUFFY: I need you, Will. You’re my big gun.
WILLOW: (alarmed) I’m your – no, I-I was never a gun. Someone else should be the gun. I, I could be a, a cudgel. Or, or a pointy stick.
- “The Gift”, season five
Willow undergoes probably the most significant character growth of the core characters during the series. I mean, how often do people go from being the quintessential computer nerd to ultimate evil to world-altering wiccan wonder in just seven years? In season one, she is a brilliant but shy and oddly dressed young girl who has spent her entire life in love with her best friend, Xander Harris. Season two still finds her in love with Xander, but she also acquires a werewolf boyfriend, begins dabbling in magic and even teaches computer classes at the school after the death of Jenny Calendar. Season three has a real low point for Willow, in my opinion. She cheats on her boyfriend with Xander and spends much of the season trying to make it up to the boyfriend. She continues her study of magic, gaining confidence as she gains skill. Other than graduation, her right of passage at the end of season three was the giving of her virginity to her boyfriend.
Season four finds Willow - no longer a nerd - in her element, thriving in her first year of college. She is blindsided by the unexpected loss of her boyfriend, causing her to lose control of her magic for a brief and amusing time. Season four begins the development of the most touching and important relationship for any character of the series, in my opinion - Willow’s relationship with Tara Maclay. This eventual love affair will carry us to the end of season six for Willow. Season five found Willow truly coming in to her own with her magic abilities; she is the only person in the group powerful enough to hurt season five’s Big Bad. Season six…well, season six is just as powerfully depressing for Willow as it is for everyone else, up until the end of the season when true tragedy strikes and Willow becomes Dark Willow. Dark, scary, veiny Willow. Season seven for Willow is all about redemption, dealing with grief and regret, and learning to move on from mistakes and loss. She’s an amazing character and I can’t wait to get caught up with what she’s doing in the comic series.
Edited just prior to posting to add that I have now caught up with what she’s doing in the comic series and she’s absolutely amazing. She is dealing with some emotional stuff that is somewhat surprising, but she has come into her own as a very powerful and confident magic user.
Xander Harris
XANDER: Hey, black-eyed girl. Whatcha doin’?
WILLOW: Get out of here.
XANDER: Ah, no. You’re not the only one with powers, you know. You may be a hopped-up uber-witch, but … this carpenter can dry-wall you into the next century.
- “Grave”, season six
Xander is the one that I most often consider my favorite Scooby. He is the average, ordinary joe-no-powers-schmo of the Buffy series. He is all too human and his mistakes, while regrettable, don’t often have direct hellmouthy consequences - indirect consequences abound though. Season one (er, and two and most of three) finds him completely oblivious to the crush his best friend Willow has on him. He sort of stumbles into a relationship with Cordelia, which he then botches by cheating on her with Willow. This causes Cordelia to make a wish to a vengeance demon. Said demon, Anyanka, has her amulet broken and is trapped in Sunnydale as a human high school student. Though he loses his virginity to Faith in a season three wham-bam-thank-you-Xander, season four finds him falling into a relationship with Anya for most of the remainder of the series, furthering his reputation as a “demon magnet”.
I think Xander has grown and changed the least of the core characters during the series. With the exception of the wedding disaster, he’s always been able to face up to his fears and do what needs doing. He is often the voice of reason and in the season four spell that joins the essence of the group to empower the Slayer so she can kill Adam, Xander takes the Heart card. Romance wise, for someone who is supposed to see things clearly, Xander has traveled a rocky path during the series - as if he sees things clearly for everyone but himself. Perhaps that’s why I identify with him a great deal.
Edited just prior to posting to add that Xander in the comic series has become what he always had the potential to be. His sense of humor is as wonderful as ever and, tempered with his experience, he seems very wise at times - able to put smart strategy to work over the desire for personal involvement. He directs and Watches an entire castle of Slayers with military precision; he is wicked efficient and as insightful as ever. I hope we see a lot more of Xander in future issues. I would still very much like to see him solidly in a relationship and in love, since Xander “just want[s] a happy ending.” So do I, Xander, so do I.
Rupert Giles
“I had very definite plans about my future. I was going to be a fighter pilot. Or possibly a grocer.”
- “Never Kill A Boy On The First Date”, season one.
Giles vies with Xander for the top spot on my favorites list. I would call him the most enigmatic of the core four Buffy characters. After all, the audience watched the others grow up in front of the camera. Giles came to Sunnydale a fully formed adult, though he did change a great deal over the course of the series. We are shown sporadic (if very dark) glimpses of his past life and are generally left to assume that he has no dreams or plans other than being Buffy’s Watcher, particularly after the loss of Jenny Calendar in season two.
In season one, I sometimes wonder why he was chosen to be Buffy’s Watcher in the first place. He is often shy, awkward and seems to be lacking in confidence in every area other than his books. He suffers his mid-life crisis after being fired by the council in season three, seeming to flounder for purpose during much of season four. The rare glimpses of his humor, his whimsy and his talent singing balanced with a dark, mysterious past make him one of the most interesting and oft written BtVS characters in fan fiction. His journey through the series seems to me to be one of acceptance of who he is (and has been) as a whole, making peace with his mistakes and becoming a confident and pragmatic man. It is Giles who we can count on to make the hard decisions, to do the really dirty work. Right or wrong, he lives his life with conviction, generally with an eye toward the greater good.
Edited prior to posting to add that in the comic series this willingness to do what ought to be done, to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, has cost him the already damaged relationship he had with Buffy. I hope they work it out in future story arcs.
Regulars
I’ve put these guys together mostly by season order:
Angel - Also known as Angelus when gadding about soul-free, Angel is a vampire on a journey of redemption in the Buffyverse. Sired by Darla some 240 years prior to Buffy being Called, he spent the greater part of those years being infamous for torture and despicable acts which went above and beyond those of the average vampire. Cursed by gypsies with the restoration of his soul, he eventually decided to atone for his past with good works. Unfortunately, the curse had a sneaky little catch: a “get out of soul free” card to be played if he ever experienced a moment of true happiness. Enter Buffy. Exit Buffy’s virginity and Angel’s soul. Enter Angelus, season two’s Big Bad: mayhem, mayhem, mayhem; apocalypse averted; soul restored; Angel killed by Buffy; Angel returned from Hell; blah blah biddy blah. Buffy and Angel now have what has been jokingly referred to on the show as “the forbidden love of all time”. Angel left BtVS at the end of season three to star in his own series…er, to give Buffy a chance at a normal life. He is still undead in the Buffyverse.
Cordelia - Beautiful, shallow, rich - the original Tactless Girl before Anya took over that job in season four. Her eyes are opened early on in the series to the things that go bump in the night. The fact that Xander has repeatedly saved her life eventually makes him marginally cooler (and more attractive) in her eyes. She stands up to her friends and dates Xander for a chunk of season two and season three. In return, she almost dies from both her injuries and public humiliation when he cheats on her with Willow. Reconciled with the group but not dating Xander again, the end of season three finds her embarrassed to be penniless and working for a living. Cordelia was alive when she left for Los Angeles at the end of season three. She made the transition to Angel the series, where she lived until the end of the Buffy TV series but died during Angel. I hope they bring her back in the comic series, I always liked her.
Joyce Summers - Buffy’s mother and a character that the writers did so much with after they let her become aware of her daughter’s birthright. Early on, she was interesting but a little oblivious. Joyce had a remarkable ability to just accept the good in people. Even pre-chip Spike enjoyed a hot chocolate and a shoulder to cry on with Joyce. I know I already said so in Part II of this article, but the treatment of her death in the remarkable season five episode “The Body” is one of the most moving and flat-out gutting treatments of losing a parent that I’ve ever seen. It throws me back to the days when I lost my father every single time. Though she has made a posthumous appearance or two, Joyce Summers is dead of natural, non-neck rupture related causes in the Buffyverse.
Jenny Calendar - Sunnydale High’s computer teacher for seasons one and two; she called herself a “technopagan”. She was also involved with Rupert Giles for his only “long-term” relationship in the series. Sadly, Jenny was killed by Angelus in season two for her relationship to the Romany tribe that originally cursed him and her intent to curse him again to restore his soul. Her relationship with Giles and his reaction to her death is the most human and vulnerable that I believe we ever get to see him.
Harmony – A truly vacuous, spoiled, spiteful member of Cordelia’s sometime clique. I was not sad when Harmony died at graduation. She was a lot more fun when she returned for a few guest spots as a vampire in season four, most notably as Spike’s girlfriend (post-Drusilla and pre-Buffy obsession). She made the transition to Angel, the Series and was alive at the Buffy series end.
Amy Madison – We are introduced to Amy Madison in the first season when her mother takes over her body and attempts to kill Buffy over a spot on the cheerleading squad. After that, she drops out of sight until season two, when we learn she has taken up practicing witchcraft in her mother’s footsteps. The last time we see her she turns herself into a rat in order to avoid being burned at the stake. She is very, very briefly de-ratted in season four for about two seconds and then she’s a rat again. She remains a rat until the middle of season six when Willow de-rats her permanently. Notice I didn’t say “for good”. She makes sporadic bad guy appearances until the end of the series and even in the season eight comic.
Darla – Not much of a recurring character on Buffy, but an important one. She was Angel’s sire and he dusted her to save Buffy fairly early on. That didn’t stop her from making the transition to a regular recurring role on Angel, the Series though.
The Master – Season one’s Big Bad. He had “fruit punch mouth” and an excellent, if macabre and grotesque, sense of humor. Notwithstanding an attempt to restore him at the beginning of season two, he’s really most sincerely dead.
Principal Flutie – A sweet, simple, somewhat neurotic man. I thought he was a lot of fun. A pity he was eaten by Xander’s hyena-possessed pack of bullying teenagers. Fortunately, Xander was locked in the bookcage at the time and was not involved.
Principal Snyder – A spiteful, vindictive little man who loved to make life difficult for the Slayer, and her friends and Watcher. It was implied more than once that Snyder knew about what went bump in the night in Sunnydale. I’ve never decided whether he knew who the Slayer was and just didn’t care or if he was oblivious. I was tickled when he was eaten.
The Anointed One – A little-kid-made-vampire in season one who, I think, was originally intended to be much more of a recurring character in season two than he was. As it turns out, he was dreadfully boring. Colin is - thank goodness - a teeny pile of dust, which is one of the few things we can be undeniably grateful to Spike for.
Spike – Explaining Spike is a bit tricky in more than one sense. Angelus is his grandsire, despite fan fiction and one line in “School Hard” which names him sire. Drusilla vamped Spike during the Angelus days; “William the Bloody” actually earned said nickname while human for the bloody awful poetry he wrote. Really getting into the whole vampire gig, he took after Angelus with the torture and the violence, earning himself a new nickname: Spike (for creative use of railroading implements). He even killed two Slayers. When he first came to Sunnydale in season two, he was an evil vampire looking for a cure for his ill lady love, Drusilla. When he next came to Sunnydale in season three he was an evil vampire looking for a spell to make Drusilla love him again. He came to Sunnydale again in season four as an evil vampire looking for a ring to make him unkillable. Then the Initiative caught him and put a chip in his head which prevented him from hurting humans, rendering him a neutered - but still evil - vampire. It completely ruined his unlife.
He helped the Slayer fight other demons in late season four and early season five because he was an evil, neutered and bored vampire. Late season five, he helped Buffy fight demons because he was an evil and neutered vampire in love with the Slayer. After Buffy’s death, he apparently continued to help out, probably because he was still bored. When Buffy returned in season six, he helped out because - while still evil, bored and in love with the Slayer - he was also getting some. Then he left Sunnydale and got his soul back, becoming a neutered, ensouled, not evil but slightly insane vampire in season seven. By the end of season seven, he was ensouled, not evil, not neutered, not insane and a self-sacrificing, world-saving champion. Hmmm. Maybe I’m wrong and Willow isn’t the most significantly changed character during the series. In the BtVS portion of the Buffyverse, Spike is dead. That didn’t stop him from going to Angel, the Series, but the Slayer was not supposed to find out about him having been brought back to unlife.
Drusilla – Drusilla is a cool and freaky character. One of only three vampires in the series to have the power of thrall or hypnosis or whatever you want to call it, Drusilla was sired by Angelus after he drove her insane by killing her family one at a time. She is gifted with “The Sight”, which means that she sees visions of the future and is apparently incapable of talking about them in a clear and lucid fashion. As fascinating as Dru was, we didn’t see much of her after season two. She makes a brief season five appearance in the episode “Crush”, which felt like watching an episode of The Dating Game (if, you know, The Dating Game was evil). As far as I’m aware, she’s still undead.
Daniel “Oz” Osbourne – Oz was introduced early season two in order to become Willow’s boyfriend. A lot of fun, while at the same time being a very stoic, quiet and laid back kinda guy - he’s also a werewolf. Oz left for parts unknown in early season four, made a brief reappearance late season four and then left for parts unknown again. If he came back after that, I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t remember. He makes a lot of appearances in all kinds of fan fiction, many of which feature him working in some capacity for the government and/or the Initiative, oddly enough. Enjoyably played by the stoic, quiet and laid back Seth Green, I believe Oz is very much alive in the Buffyverse.
Kendra the Slayer – Buffy’s brief death in the season finale of season one Called a new Slayer. Appearing in a mere handful of episodes, Kendra is the classic model Slayer. Carrying the Council’s seal of approval, Kendra is entirely awkward with everyone but Giles. Buffy and Giles get a glimpse of who Buffy could have been had she been raised in the traditional manner - without family or friends. An enjoyable and under-explored character, Kendra died at the hands of Drusilla during the second season’s two part finale. She also gave us a brief taste of Buffy’s surprisingly green-eyed desire to remain the only Slayer even though she complained incessantly about having to be the Slayer in the first place.
Ted – Okay, so Ted wasn’t a recurring character, though he was the focus and title character of an episode. I mention him solely because of the enjoyable performance of the late, lamented John Ritter. Ted himself is not lamented, but he is dead. Or permanently deactivated… Or whatever.
Jonathan – Jonathan is a character that I identified with fairly strongly during the early years of BtVS. He made several appearances as a nerd/geek who was supposed to be virtually friendless. Buffy saved his life when she prevented him from committing suicide in the bell tower during season three. Jonathan was at least popular enough to serve on the awards committee, as he was the presenter of Buffy’s toy surprise at the prom. He starred in one of my favorite episodes in season four, then he inexplicably joined forces with two other nerds and attempted to take over Sunnydale in season six. He nearly killed Buffy several times that year and fled Sunnydale rather than face the wrath of Dark Willow at the end of season six. In the end, Jonathan usually found the courage to do the right thing, even when he was in the middle of doing something bad. He returned to Sunnydale early season seven in order to right his wrongs at which time he was promptly gutted and bled to death.
Ethan Rayne – Ethan, Ethan, Ethan. Probably the Buffyverse’s most infamous villain, he made several appearances in seasons two through four, but has much more frequent mention in fan fiction. As an old friend of Rupert Giles, he’s also sparked a lot of fan fiction of the slashy persuasion with Giles and others. I have now read the Buffy season eight comics and Ethan was alive and still incarcerated by the military up until Buffy attempts to free him. The illustration showing his head half blown off was graphic enough to indicate that Ethan is now dead in the Buffyverse. Unless someone does some fairly significant magic, which is as likely as not, I suppose. I hope they do, I’ve always liked Ethan.
Larry the football player – Larry is fairly insignificant really, but has sparked a great deal of slash-oriented fan fiction, especially with Xander. Something Xander said to him in high school during his neanderthal phase made him realize he was gay. It also convinced him to come out and by the end of season three he was out, proud and pretty cool. Unfortunately, Larry died during graduation.
Faith the Slayer – Faith made her first appearance early in season three, having been called by the death of Kendra in season two’s two part finale. Without being given too much detail about her personal life, it is safe to assume that Faith comes from a background of abuse and violence. She is without Watcher, without family and without friend when she comes to Sunnydale. In my opinion, the potential to have all three in one fell swoop scared her to death. She falls victim to re-enacting her own traumatic background of rejection through her negative actions and allows her lack of self-worth to make her feel as though she will never be as good as Buffy in the eyes of anyone, least of all herself. Her selfish, survivalist way of life (”Want, take, have”) is rejected by Buffy after Faith accidentally kills a man. Rather than see the error of her ways, Faith sees Buffy’s higher moral code as a rejection of Faith herself.
Believing that she will never truly be a part of the Sunnydale gang, Faith turns to working for the season three Big Bad, Mayor Richard Wilkins. He provides her a nice apartment, clothes, toys, weapons and becomes an odd sort of father figure. I think they were good together - pity they were evil. After being stabbed during a fight with Buffy and falling off a building onto a truck, Faith falls into a coma and does not awaken until mid-season four where she immediately causes trouble. Crossing over to Angel, the Series briefly, she decides to turn herself in and do her time in prison for her crimes. She returns to Buffy in late season seven, being brought to Sunnydale by Willow (who crossed over to Angel for an emergency soul restoration). But first she broke out of prison to help save Angel. An unexpected mutiny on the part of the residents of Revello Drive places the startled Faith in charge and she doesn’t like it one bit. She quite happily passes the reins back to Buffy at the first opportunity. She is alive at the end of the BtVS television series.
The comic season eight paints Faith as still very much a loner, bearing the burden of the jobs so hard no one else can handle doing them. Haunted by her past and present both, Faith’s calling weighs on her as never before. Giles gives her an assignment - the wrong thing for the right reason - and its conclusion helps her decide what path she wants to walk down. Interestingly enough, Giles decides he will walk that path with her, though what that will mean in future issues, I do not know.
Wesley Wyndham-Pryce – I actually almost forgot about Wesley. The Giles Mach II, he was sent to be Buffy’s watcher mid-to-end of season three after the council fired Giles following the events of Buffy’s 18th birthday. He seemed to serve primarily as comic relief and a means to move the plot along. Well educated and pompous, he is completely inexperienced as a watcher and also a total wussypants, though he seems well intentioned. Buffy’s Wesley bears almost no resemblance to the really tough and cool character he grew into by the end of the Angel series. He was a regular on Angel from season two until he died at the end of the last season. He’s another character I hope they bring back.
Anya – I have rarely felt as badly for a fictional character as I have, at times, felt for Anya. So totally displaced and trying so hard throughout her time on the series; she joined BtVS for a spot or two in season three and became a regular in season four through the series’ end. Having lived for 1,100 years as Anyanka, the vengeance demon, she was inadvertantly turned human by Giles when he broke her power center, rendering her mortal, eighteen and returned to high school. She struggled so hard to understand how to be human again. I was devastated for her when Xander left her at the altar and again when she caused the death of her best friend in season seven. She died defending Sunnydale in the last episode of the series. Rest in peace, Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins.
D’Hoffryn – Sort of like the Godfather of Vengeance Demons. Okay, a lot like the Godfather of Vengeance Demons. He first appeared when he told Anya he wouldn’t give her another amulet - we see him a few times through the rest of the series though. Very jovial when he wants to be, he is never scary in the big, flashy “turn into a snake” kind of way, but he does some very scary things with the snap of a finger just because he can. Still alive…and I imagine he’s still scary.
Mayor Richard Wilkins – For a Big Bad, he was a very nice guy and I actually miss his jolly presence since he is, of course, dead. The writers were never very clear about what motivated the Mayor. Nonetheless, he wanted to take over Sunnydale even more than he had previously, having been the Mayor for well over one hundred years. I assume the Mayor was once human, but since he didn’t age and had been making deals with demons for so long, who knows whether he actually was or not. Monkishly germaphobic and unfailingly well-mannered, he did not tolerate foul language out of his minions; cursing earned his vampires a visit behind the woodshed. Richard Wilkins had genuine, strong paternal feelings for Faith and they were ultimately his downfall. He seemed to sincerely care about securing the future of Sunnydale and improving life for the city’s citizens, which is odd considering how many of them he planned to eat. Then again, no one ever said megalomania was logical.
Mr. Trick – An African-American vampire who shows up early season three. Traveling with an ancient vampire named Kakistos in search of Faith (the Slayer, not religion), he shows up in Sunnydale and ends up working for the mayor for a good part of the season. For some reason, he reminds me a great deal of Chris Tucker in Money Talks, but with a much better wardrobe - very well dressed is Mr. Trick. He’s a thinking man’s vampire; give him electronics and investments and competition. Mr. Trick brought us such wonders as “Slayerfest”, subcontracting evil work and was the first to point out the heavily Caucasian population of Sunnydale. I just love this bit of his so much, I have to stick it in here:
“Sunnydale. Town’s got quaint. And the people? (smiles) He called me ’sir’. Don’t you just miss that? I mean, admittedly, it’s not a haven for the brothers, you know, strictly the Caucasian persuasion here in the ‘Dale. But, you know, you just gotta stand up and salute their death rate. I ran a statistical analysis, (smiles) and hello darkness. It makes…D.C. look…like Mayberry and ain’t nobody saying boo about it. We could fit right in here. Have us some fun.”
Alas, he went poof, but he was fun while he lasted.
Quentin Travers – Having Quentin Travers appear in an episode was never of the good. Head of the Watcher’s Council and very deliberately unlikeable, he is so steeped in tradition and protocol that he is completely unable to understand or appreciate Buffy. It never occurred to him, or most of the rest of the council, that a slayer could mature to the point that she no longer needed a Watcher - that a slayer could actually become the strong, independent warrior they were supposed to train her to be. A very popular bad guy in fan fiction, he got all explode-y with the rest of the council in season seven.
Tara Maclay – Tara Maclay is probably the single most beloved lost character on Buffy. Introduced at the beginning of season four, Tara is reminiscent of early Willow. She is very shy and quiet but is confident enough to approach Willow about magic use after a Wiccan group meeting at UC Sunnydale, hoping to find a like-minded friend. Yet another character from a dysfunctional family background, she is accepted into the group after some initial awkwardness, first as a friend and then, ultimately, as family and Willow’s lover. A sweet and accepting person, Tara becomes a confidante to Buffy, a surrogate mother to Dawn and is strong enough to stand up to the woman she loves and walk away due to Willow’s unethical use of magic. She was also able to forgive and accept Willow back into her life. Tara died tragically in Willow’s arms, causing the creation of season six’s Big Bad. Joss teased Buffy fans forever with the possible return of Tara, particularly after disclosing his desire to return Tara to Willow through the use of Buffy being granted one wish. If I could pick just one character to have returned to life (and not in any way evil) in the Buffyverse, it would be Tara.
Riley Finn – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I really liked Riley and thought he was an excellent love interest for Buffy. Introduced at the beginning of season four, by day he works as a teaching assistant to Professor Maggie Walsh and we later find out that he has a secret identity as interesting as Buffy’s - he’s part of the secret military installation beneath UC Sunnydale called the Initiative. He’s human, but when we meet him he’s been given some medical enhancements that make him more than average in the same way that the new Shelby Cobra Mustang is more than the average Kia - just flat out better. After the fall of the Initiative, Riley has to lose all his enhancements and doesn’t deal well with it; he soon becomes addicted to the rush of a vampire bite. Just when Buffy is overwhelmed by the problems in her life (her mother’s health problems, her sister’s sudden existence and the still mysterious season five Big Bad) Riley rejoins the military and disappears. He makes a season six appearance, apparently just so Buffy has to face how low she has actually sunk. As far as I know, Riley is alive and well - if a bit scarred up - and fighting demons with his wife in South America.
Graham – We don’t see a whole lot of Graham in season four, or at all really. He does make a brief appearance in season five, but really he’s just a co-worker of Riley’s, though for some reason he’s pretty popular in fan fiction, particularly when paired with Xander. He’s alive, as far as I know.
Forrest – Forrest is another co-worker of Riley’s. He was nice enough, I suppose - a little cocky and African-American (rare enough that it bears mentioning). He died at the hands of Adam, just after an argument with Buffy; she was unable to save him. Adam did the demonic six million dollar man job on him, re-animated him and then Riley killed him again. I believe he has remained dead.
Maggie Walsh – A government funded, secretly mad scientist/college psych professor in season four. If she was capable of doing the six million dollar frankenstein number on Adam, then I’m not sure why she was teaching introduction to psychology, but whatever. She was also in charge of the Initiative, or at least in charge of Riley’s squad. One would think that someone with her level of education would have known, historically, what would happen to her if she tampered that much with the natural order of things. Ah, those wacky “God complex-having” scientists. Not the writers’ most subtle symbology ever either, Project 3:14 and Adam. I mean, come on, why not just have her part a sea and be done with it, already? Riley was Maggie’s living favorite and once she decided Buffy was a bad influence on him, she did something about it. Her attempt to have Buffy killed was what caused Riley to begin doubting the Initiative. Hoisted on her own petard, Maggie was killed by Adam, then reanimated as sort of a medical droid zombie thingie and assumed to be dead after the fall of the Initiative. I suppose she could come back, but what with the way she looked the last time she made an appearance, I’d really rather she didn’t.
The First Slayer – A primitive without [much] speech, the First Slayer’s appearances are always in dreams. I can’t not mention her, but at the same time, she’s just not that interesting. A justifiably angry woman with bad hair, she was never really there in the first place, so I guess she’s not alive in the Buffyverse.
Adam – Season four’s Big Bad, Adam was, well, big and bad. Maggie Walsh intended for him to be the first in a new line of Very Super Soldiers™, hence the name Adam. He was her favored son, with Riley coming in a close second. Originally a human Initiative soldier who was killed, I assume, in the line of duty, after his death Maggie and her fellow mads implanted a bunch of mechanical stuff into him, then they implanted a bunch of demon stuff into him and grafted a bunch more onto him. When he woke up, he returned the favor. Sort of. He killed Maggie and one of her cohorts and then turned them into little helper droids. Sort of a step down from where they used to be running things, but on the plus side there was none of that pesky free will stuff Maggie was just getting into trouble with. Adam had a child’s curiosity about how things worked and the desire to take them apart to figure it out. He could put it back together again and make other things fit there too, turning the original being into something Picasso might have painted and subsequently had nightmares about. He wanted to create an army of beings just like himself, only not nearly as cool because, after all, he wanted to stay in charge. He’s been both killed and deactivated.
Dawn Summers – Dawn first appeared early season five. The reason I say “appeared” is because she wasn’t there one minute and the next she was….as Buffy’s sister…and everyone acted like that was normal and that she’d been there the whole time. It was weird to watch the first time and made me feel like I’d gone to sleep watching one show and woke up watching another that had the same cast. At any rate, Dawn appeared because an ancient order of monks had been protecting a ball of energy called “The Key” from a hell goddess for eons and they could no longer do so. They made the energy into Dawn and implanted her into the lives and memories of everyone that had ever touched Buffy’s life. Then they inconveniently got themselves killed before they could fully explain that to anybody. In season five she’s a whiny brat, in season six she’s a whiny brat who steals things - she’s much less annoying in season seven. Dawn is alive and [cough] living large in the season eight comic series. Anyone who has read season eight will want to hit me for that really bad line, but I couldn’t resist.
Glory/Ben – A long time ago in a hell dimension far, far away, Glorificus was a goddess who ruled the world with two other gods. Apparently, they got just as tired of the diva ‘tude as I did, because they banished her. Somehow she was trapped in the body of a human male child and they grew up together - two halves of a whole. A Jekyll/Hyde relationship, they communicated with one another through her fawning minions, who were actually a lot of fun, albeit scabby and gross. I would have liked to have seen the minions explained by the writers, such as how Ben/Glory’s parents reacted when they showed up on the doorstep; perhaps the OCD housecleaning service made them overlook a lot. Ben, the human male, became a doctor. As Glory came more and more into her power as a hell goddess and became season five’s Big Bad, Ben was no longer the in-control, dominant personality, particularly once they moved to Sunnydale. In a story arc not heartwarmingly reminiscent of E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, Glory just wanted to go home. She wanted to go home and kick the butts of the gods who dared to throw her out and she didn’t care how many worlds she had to destroy to get there and do it either. So there. She’s dead in the Buffyverse because Ben is dead in the Buffyverse. It’s complicated. But we weren’t good enough for her anyway.
Warren – He first makes an appearance in season five as a geek with a robot girlfriend he built himself. Unfortunately he forgot to install an off switch and she’d gone looking for him once he acquired a real girlfriend whom he brought home to Sunnydale for the holidays. Sad, sad, sad - in the pathetic sense of the word. He loses the robot, loses the real girlfriend and crawls off into the sunset to become an angry, bitter geek. He turns up in season six with a shining new burning desire to wreak horrible vengeance on the Slayer and rule Sunnydale. Yes, in that order. He has somehow become friends with Jonathan and Andrew and never really got over the attitude that women were things he could own. While I was incredibly sorry that he killed Tara, I was not sorry (though I was a bit creeped out) when Willow killed him. Of course, the season eight comic series, after heaping Willow with guilt for a year, has him Very Not Dead, if a bit, er, flayed. Well, at least Willow can stop feeling guilty about killing him. Though you would think that if Amy was good enough with magic to save his life, she’d be able to put some skin back on him.
Andrew – Andrew is someone that I still don’t understand having made it to where he’s made it in the Buffyverse. I just don’t get it. He’s amusing in a “put the geek under the microscope and watch him squirm” kind of a way, but he was never as interesting to me as Jonathan was. Oh well, that’s why Joss makes the big bucks and I make just a few of the little ones. Andrew is part of Warren’s “Trio” of bad guys. He’s quite happy on more than one occasion to sell his friends out, even Warren, who it is heavily implied that he has a really big crush on. When he shows up in season seven after killing Jonathan at the urging of the First, he is taken hostage by the Scoobies and not allowed to leave. It’s like the writers of the show wanted one more easy joke target so they forgot to write him off. Yes, he’s funny. He’s a “guestage” by the end of the series and stands with Anya in the final battle of the finale. In the comic series, he is thankfully not written about much and, when he is, it’s just comic filler. You know you’ve got way too many Slayers when Andrew ends up a Watcher in charge of a bunch.
Clem – Clem is very sweet, a lot of innocent fun and also happens to be a demon who reminds you of a bald shar-pei - Clem has wrinkles, lots of wrinkles. He is a good friend to Spike and, as such, house sat for Spike in season six (when he was introduced, I believe) and even babysat Dawn for Buffy. We didn’t get to see nearly enough of Clem on the show and I rarely see him mentioned in fan fiction. He was just too nice to be interesting to most people, I suppose. Not at all dangerous, just a fluffy, wrinkly guy who is still alive in the Buffyverse.
The First – Okay, so even though the First originally “appeared” in season three by attempting to make Angel take a long walk into a short sunbeam, it is actually season seven’s Big Bad. I question how it was so easily defeated in season three and yet such a problem in season seven, but I’m given to understand that has something to do with the imbalance in the cosmos caused by Willow’s resurrection of Buffy in season six. Whatever. The First is incorporeal on this earthly plane. It can appear normally - which seems to be a non-flamey Balrog-looking thing - or it can choose to appear as anyone who is dead. Sarah Michelle Gellar was a busy girl in season seven since The First seemed to spend most of it’s time appearing as Buffy - no wonder she looked so tired towards the end. The First was defeated because its army was defeated. I doubt it got dusted when it’s minions died, so I’m sure we’ll see it again at some point in the comic series given the writers’ love of recycling.
Robin Wood – The new principal of the brand new Sunnydale High School that opens at the beginning of season seven. One of the few African-American characters on Buffy, he turns out to be the son of the slayer that Spike killed in New York. This man is smart, tough, gritty and, frankly, hot. Faith thinks so too, at least through the end of the season. Their relationship apparently didn’t last into the comic season 8 past a trite phone call that Faith seems non-too-pleased to receive. He breaks with tradition and is the first Sunnydale principal to avoid being eaten on the job.
Caleb – Caleb is, for lack of a better word, the avatar of the First - he’s the solid, earthly presence of season seven’s Big Bad, giving Buffy something to get whaled on by before she manages to kill him. The First has hundreds of Bringers, thousands of Turok-ahn and none of them are as scary as Caleb. A misogynistic former preacher, I’m almost grateful to him for giving Xander the cool new eye patch. At the same time, I heartily dislike the Deliverance-flavored woman-hating. At least he was really good looking. I started to call him “easy on the eyes”, but that would just be tacky.
Kennedy – Actually one of the season seven potential slayers, she became Willow’s girlfriend and therefore rose above the pack a bit. This is an unfortunate thing as far as I’m concerned, since I can’t stand her. She comes from a wealthy, privileged background and I find her to be arrogant, bratty, bossy and spoiled rotten. She quickly took on drilling the other potentials in their training sessions and just generally running as much as she could get away with running. Did I mention that I really didn’t like her? The comic season eight has her still with Willow and recovering from being recently dead.
The Potentials
ANYA: Come on, let’s go assemble the cannon fodder.
XANDER: That’s not what we’re calling them, sweetie.
ANYA: Not to their faces. What, am I insensitive?
- “Chosen”, season seven
There were so many potentials that came and went without the viewer getting to know them, it’s not really worth mentioning most of them by name. What the Buffyverse fan writer needs to know is that they didn’t come into play until season seven. The Watcher’s Council generally took any potential they could identify from their family as soon as they were identified, raising and training them with the skills they would need if they were called to be the Slayer. In season seven, the First Evil had minions seek out and kill all the potentials they could find, even those not yet identified by the Council. The Council gathered as many of them up as they could (prior to the entire Council dying in a fiery explosion, that is) and sent them to Sunnydale for the Slayer to protect. I don’t think the Council anticipated Buffy having them turned into an army of actual Slayers, but then again, they all died, so who cares what they might think.
Romance, fan fiction and the Buffyverse:
“Love isn’t brains, children, it’s blood - blood screaming inside you to work its’ will. I may be love’s bitch, but at least I’m man enough to admit it.” - Spike, “Lover’s Walk”, season three
The one thing you really need to know about the Buffyverse for writing shippy fan fiction is that no one ever got a happily ever after in canon except Willow/Kennedy (which I dislike enormously). It’s probably why I want happily ever afters so badly in all my fan fiction, no matter what the pairing is. It’s also very hard to say, “oh, that would never happen, they’d never get together” in Buffy because so many characters did so many unexpected things romantically. The Buffyverse is fortunate to have a great deal of quality genfic out there - fan fiction with no particular relationship pairing.
First, let’s take a look at the canon relationships in the series, earliest to latest.
Buffy/Angel – What’s to say about Bangel? It’s the series’ One True Pairing (OTP) for many people. Buffy’s life focused almost obsessively around Angel for the first three years of the series and he popped up off/on thereafter. Granted, it’s hard to find post-series written fiction that has them getting back together. Their lives grew so far apart, I don’t know that they’d join up again even though the last part of season seven implied they were still waiting for one another. Comic series eight so far hasn’t given us an Angel appearance, so who knows what might or might not ever happen to this pairing in canon.
Giles/Jenny – The only real adult relationship featured in the series. As a character, Jenny’s arrogant attitude sometimes got on my nerves, but she was perfect for Giles. I actually think that Giles choosing Buffy over Jenny when Angel became Angelus and Jenny’s true identity was revealed is what fuels a great deal of Buffy/Giles fan fiction. I was so sad for Giles that Jenny died before they could fully reconcile. Seeing as Giles never really became emotionally involved with a woman after her death, I would welcome more Giles/Jenny fan fiction featuring a resurrected but not evil Jenny, so Giles can be happy.
Willow/Oz – This is Willow’s first real relationship. While I think they were a cute couple and good together, I never really saw much chemistry between them either. Oz is able to put Willow’s cheating on him with Xander behind him without any ugliness or bringing it back up. Unfortunately, Oz becomes a victim of his own werewolf nature when he cheats on Willow with Veruca in season four, a female werewolf who he then kills to save Willow’s life. His struggle to contain that nature causes him to leave Sunnydale and Willow.
Xander/Cordelia – This is very much a case of opposites attracting. Cordelia decides Xander is attractive after he saves her life. Nearly dying a few times while in each other’s company kick started their relationship with lust. Even though lust was all they seemed to have, I really liked this couple and was so disappointed in Xander when he cheated on Cordelia with Willow in season three. Cordelia was never willing to forgive Xander and get back together. Can’t say I blame her.
Willow/Xander – This was a brief moment of illicit smoochies, which was sweet to watch in many ways. However, I hated to see Cordy hurt so badly over the betrayal. Oz was, as always, incredibly stoic. This was the first time I was ever disappointed with Xander in the series. I did think less of Willow for it too, but not as much because she’d always wanted Xander to notice her.
Buffy/Scott Hope – Pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things, really. She dated a fellow student during season three who dumped her because she seemed so “distracted” during the period she was caring for the recently returned from hell Angel. I can’t recall actually seeing any fan fiction for this pairing - it’s a pretty forgettable.
Xander/Faith – Well, no, not really - but they did bump pelvises once…Then she tried to kill him. However, it is significant because Xander lost his virginity to her. A limited amount of fan fiction about this pairing exists.
Giles/Joyce Summers – For one episode only, due to the effects of the Band Candy. Now you generally see it used against Giles either by Joyce when he gets together with Buffy or by Buffy when he gets together with anyone but her mom.
Xander/Anya – Xander has a habit of dating and/or sleeping with any woman that wants him. Poor self-esteem? Possibly. Submissiveness? Who knows - I think yes. People will argue that he constantly corrected Anya, but there is no denying that Cordelia initiated the relationship with Xander, Faith took Xander and even Anya was the aggressor early in the relationship. She was also the assertive partner in the arena of initiating sex, at least on screen, throughout the whole relationship. They had some really enjoyable moments as a couple prior to Xander leaving her at the altar in season six. I have two favorite episodes for them as a couple: the musical episode “Once More With Feeling” and Anya’s season seven biographical episode “Selfless”. I don’t see much fiction written post series that resurrects Anya. Their relationship chapter was pretty much over at the end of the series, even before she died.
Buffy/Riley – A season four to mid-season five relationship for Buffy that I think of fondly as the best of three. Riley was initially in the Initiative (say that five times fast) and was a bit more than human. Buffy was still stronger, faster and generally more than he was, but he could keep up. He wasn’t really intimidated by her - they were a good team. Then after the fall of the Initiative and the removal of his super soldier enhancements, Riley suddenly lost confidence in Buffy’s love. The health problems her mother was having didn’t help; Buffy couldn’t lean on Riley because she couldn’t let herself fall apart. Some vampire prostitution, some Spike manipulating and some innocent Dawn complimenting sent Riley running for the military and South America. At least he managed to get married and be happy, but I think that was mostly so the writer’s could rub Buffy’s nose in it during season six.
Willow/Tara – I have purposefully left Willow and Tara’s relationship until last to write about. I understand the characters were originally just supposed to be good friends, but the chemistry they had on screen just popped and so the writer’s made them a couple. I believe they shared television’s first on screen lesbian kiss, first on screen lesbian love scene and first gay relationship for a major character in a drama - lots of firsts. Barring the Hollywood-style magical use, I felt their relationship was about the most realistic of any in the series. They had problems, they talked about it. Willow did something stupid to cover it up, they broke up, then they worked it out like adults. Willow/Tara is my Buffyverse One True Pairing. I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t really gotten over her death as far as my love of the series goes. I still love Buffy, I just look for Tara in every episode or panel. I understand why they killed her off, I understand why they haven’t brought her back - that doesn’t mean I like it. Lots of Tara/Willow fan fiction out there that brings Tara back and picks up where they left off. For that I am grateful and I say to Joss: Neener, neener, neener.
Giles/Olivia – These two lasted for two episodes in season four and a brief appearance in Giles’ dream in that season’s finale, “Restless”. I really only see this pairing in fics where Buffy ultimately ends up with Giles after having a jealous snit fit over Olivia which causes her to realize where her heart truly lies.
Buffy/Spike – I think that Joss’s treatment of the Spuffy relationship was his revenge for the fans disliking Riley so much that they drummed him off the show. First Spike obsesses about Buffy, then when Buffy dies and is brought back, he manipulates her until she believes she can’t feel anything unless it’s with him in the dark. Depressed (well, duh!), Buffy is used by him and uses him during most of season six. Very, very dark, like most of season six. Season seven does not revisit that type of relationship, per se, but the two are very tender toward one another during much of the season. Buffy believes Spike has stayed dead after sacrificing himself for the world during the finale. Much fan fiction centers around her finding out otherwise and getting them back together. This is an OTP for many people.
Willow/Kennedy – I’ve made it pretty clear that I don’t like this pairing, but it’s canon so I’m stuck with it. Willow was very conflicted about them getting together initially and Kennedy pursued her pretty relentlessly in season seven. Their relationship is the only canon one still together in the season 8 comic and yet their relationship is still colored by the death of Tara, who I think most fans will always see as Willow’s true love.
Faith/Robin Wood – I actually like these two together really well and think it is a terrible pity that they didn’t stay together in the comic series. They are both worldly and experienced, though Faith is a great deal more jaded by life than Robin. They got together at the end of season seven and by the time season 8 picked up (a year and half later chronologically I believe) they were over. No explanation was given.
The non-canon relationships could go on nearly ad infinitem, but I’ll try to keep it to what I see the most. By all means, if I missed some, let me know. Some I like, some I don’t and I’ll mention it either way. If you are a loyal shipper of a pairing I don’t care for, please do try to convince me. I love reading new Buffy fic! Threesomes are pretty popular in Buffy fiction, but come on, this article is long enough already.
Buffy/Giles – This competes for my favorite non-canon het pairing for Giles. Mostly because I can’t figure out why the heck Giles would continue to hang around and take Buffy’s neglect and indifference if he didn’t love her. The series is pretty insistent that he loves her as a father and that she regards him as one as well; however, there is a great deal of very well written fiction turning this into something else. Giles is often very in character and Buffy just basically grows up and, as an adult, is someone who loves Giles. Believable and enjoyable - a OTP for many.
Buffy/Xander – I don’t see this pairing written very often anymore, but I predict a resurgence of it after reading the comic series. He’s always loved her, sometimes as a girl, sometimes as a sister. He’s always saved her. She’s always saved him. I can see it. I don’t see it enough, but I can see it, particularly post series.
Buffy/Willow – Before the comic series, I really just didn’t ever see Buffy as going there. I suppose we’ll see a lot of Buffy/Willow fiction after what Buffy’s been up to in the comics though. This pairing doesn’t do much for me either direction: I don’t love it, I don’t hate it.
Buffy/Faith – I’ve seen a lot of fan fiction for this pairing and most stories seem to be set in season three before Faith went bad and are mostly PWP - just so you know. These two have so much negative history together, a writer would have to do a fabulous job of convincing me that they could work those problems out and have a relationship.
Willow/Giles – This competes for my favorite non-canon het pairing for Giles. There is a lot going for this pairing - both are brains, both have similar interests and now there is the past trouble with magic they both share. Usually when this pair is written post-Tara or post-series finale, the author alludes to Giles having a past sexual relationship with Ethan, which gives them bi-sexuality in common. Believable, enjoyable and a OTP for many.
Willow/Angel – I just don’t really see Angel with anyone on the series but Buffy. Maybe it’s because he’s so broody and always angsting over her, maybe it’s because of the whole Angelus thing. Either way, I’ve never believed that he could work it out with anyone else and so I haven’t been able to suspend my disbelief long enough to enjoy this pairing.
Willow/Spike – This is a pairing that I enjoy and find believable if it is written during the time after Oz left, but before Willow began seeing Tara. Feel free to hair off AU after you get the two together. I love Willow and Tara too much to see her with anyone except Tara and, by the time Tara was gone, Spike was obsessed with Buffy. The real Spike is the computer nerd of his day - he was sensitive and loved poetry, and Willow would have appreciated that side of him.
Xander/Giles – My favorite slash pairing for the series. And oddly enough, that only started season seven and post series. I don’t care for most of the underage fic you can find out there. I prefer a strong, confident Xander, even if he’s totally straight up until Giles, convincing Rupert that he’s not too young to love him. Giles is someone whose feelings are kept mostly beneath the surface and Xander is the “one who sees.” Both are sensitive, vulnerable men who aren’t really allowed to show it - I can see this pairing working for lots of different reasons.
Xander/Giles/Spike – Okay, I know I said I wouldn’t get into threesomes here, but I like this one story so much I have to mention it. Taking place after the end of the Buffy series, I think everyone is basically in character and yet the relationships are plausible and the story engaging. We find Giles and Xander as an existing couple in London and Spike ends up on their doorstep - shanshu’d, human and nowhere to go. It’s by authors Jane Davitt and Wesleysgirl, and titled “Saturation”. It’s rated NC-17 most places, so PM me for a link if you’re old enough and interested in reading it.
Xander/Spike – I actually like this pairing if it is well written, as it sometimes is. I generally only like the fiction that is written with the banter that the show had between them. They picked and poked at each other constantly after Spike got his chip. This is one of those pairings that has a great deal of very dark fiction written around it: VampXander, SlaveXander, etc. Not for me, thanks much.
Xander/Angel – There are not enough words for me to describe how much I cannot see this pairing. Xander has always been so adamant in his dislike of Angel. After what Angel did to Giles, whom Xander indisputably l
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