Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Characters/Regulars

Buffy Anne Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar)
""Cool! Crossbow! Check out these babies. Goodbye stakes, hello flying fatality.""

The Slayer, main character, and leader of the Scooby Gang (except when she was absent or dead). Started out as a reluctant Slayer, but grew to accept her destiny. For much of the show's run, she was the only really combat-capable character. Died twice.

""You like men who hurt you. You need the pain we cause you. You need the hate. You need it to do your job, to be the Slayer.""
 * Action Girl
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Lampshaded by Buffy herself in "Something Blue" when she worries that a nice, safe relationship would lack the intensity. She falls in love with both Angel and Spike, but her Dogged Nice Guy boyfriend Riley Finn ends up leaving because Buffy doesn't love him as much as he loves her.
 * Deconstructed by Spike in "Never Leave Me".

""Dates are things normal girls have. Girls who have time to think about nail polish and facials. You know what I think about? Ambush tactics. Beheading. Not exactly the stuff dreams are made of.""
 * Awesome Moment of Crowning: Buffy being given the Class Protector Award nearly qualifies as a crowning.
 * Badass Adorable: Everyone thinks she looks adorable after her haircut.
 * Bad Liar: Buffy exhibits this trait on a few occasions.
 * Bastard Girlfriend: To Spike. It's all fun and games until she realizes she's turned into a funhouse mirror version of Faith, the chick who molested and almost strangled Xander.
 * Battle Couple: With Angel, Riley, and later Spike (once he's been re-ensouled).
 * Berserk Button: Faith was this for Buffy for a good while. Can't possibly imagine why.
 * Big Sister Instinct: To Dawn.
 * Blessed with Suck
 * Book Dumb: To an extent. Truth be told, much of her Book Dumbness comes from just being too busy saving humanity to study.
 * Braids of Action: Buffy, when on patrol, has the "two-braids" version. Alternate Buffy, from "The Wish," as the "one-braid" version.
 * Break the Cutie: Words cannot describe.
 * Brilliant but Lazy: She often skipped training or trained on her own time. It wasn't until Season 5 that she took training seriously.
 * Bully Hunter: She throws down Larry, defends Xander and Willow and when suspected witches start being targeted she steps in, causing the group of thugs to back off without her saying or doing a thing.
 * Buffy-Speak: Well, yeah.
 * Buffy The Terrible
 * Burger Fool: Her first (legitimate) job, slinging burgers at the Doublemeat Palace.
 * Came Back Wrong:.
 * The Cast Showoff: All that ass Buffy kicks? Sarah Michelle Gellar is in fact a kickboxer and black belt in tae kwon do.
 * The Chains of Commanding
 * The Cheerleader: Pre-series and the last time she so much as mentions it is in the third episode putting her firmly in the 'you can't stay a cheerleader and be a rounded person' side of the trope.
 * The Chosen One
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Frequently jumping to conclusions about Angel frolicking with his vampire honeys. Her jealous nature was tempered in later relationships, partly because she wore the pants by that time.
 * Cool Loser: Although it should be noted that the resident Alpha Bitch does scout her out to be one of the "cool girls" when she first arrives in Sunnydale.
 * Cursed with Awesome
 * Cute Bruiser
 * A Date with Rosie Palms: She admits to thinking of her boyfriend before moving to Sunnydale, listening to the song "I Touch Myself." Before claiming not to know what the song meant.
 * Dating Catwoman: Bangel and Spuffy.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: Twice. The second time however there was a price to pay, namely part of her sanity causing her to go off the rails.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: When Willow's punching arm is sore Buffy is usually the one to do this, taking out the invincible Judge, Mayor, Glory and Caleb.
 * Disappeared Dad: Divorced
 * Disney Death
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: Really nasty. After Chloe kills herself Buffy calls her a weak idiot and lashes out at everyone. When Faith returns to help she spits it when the potential Slayers are trying to choose between them and abandons them. She later admits she was a total Jerkass and comes crawling back.
 * Drives Like Crazy: "Summers, you drive like a spaz!"
 * Extraordinarily Empowered Girl
 * Expy: It's been theorized she was inspired by Regina and Samantha Belmont of Night of the Comet - Blonde, Californian teenage Action Girls who end up having to fight the undead.
 * Fallen Princess
 * Flying Brick:
 * Gallows Humor: Buffy has always had a morbid sense of humor; in Season Six after she's brought back from the dead it tends to get a Dude, Not Funny reaction from the Scoobies.
 * Genre Savvy
 * Healing Factor: Much slower than normal. Buffy will generally recover from her injuries in a matter of hours, or at most a day or two.
 * Heaven Seeker: In Season 6.
 * The Heroine
 * Hero with Bad Publicity: A tragic irony is that Joyce and Principal Flutie assume Buffy is a juvenile delinquent, when she's actually trying to do the right thing.
 * And then in Season 8 she literally has bad publicity, while the vampires are Villains With Good Publicity.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Willow
 * High School Hustler
 * Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Buffy often patrols wearing bright colors to lure out vamps.
 * Hot Amazon
 * I Can Change My Beloved: Her stance toward the rehabilitated Angel and Spike, to massive scoops of backlash by her cohorts.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal
 * Improbable Weapon User: She certainly qualifies, since she frequently uses improvised weapons to kill vampires, especially in the early seasons. Most of these are improvised stakes, ranging in size from a pencil to a mop handle (and, in "Homecoming", she stakes a vampire with a spatula). She also decapitates a vampire with a cymbal in "The Harvest".
 * Incompatible Orientation: With Satsu. Even though Buffy is flattered, and sleeps with her (twice!), she is quite adamant that she is not a lesbian and they can't be together.
 * Informed Flaw: Buffy does not really resemble the character type she is supposedly subverting -- the girly blonde cheerleader who gets killed by the monster in a Horror film. She is not a cheerleader (and, outside of one episode in the first season, shows no interest in becoming one), is not slutty or particularly flirty (she is a serial monogamist with only four sexual partners in the seven-year series), does not drink especially often and (after the first season) does not even wear skirts or dresses very often. A flashback eventually reveals that she fit the cheerleader image a bit more in the years before the series began, but in a lot of respects, she is much more like the classic Final Girl than monster fodder.
 * It is indicated that she started out as the girly bimbo cheerleader, but that becoming The Chosen One kind of put an end to much of that. The show doesn't start until after she has Taken A Level In Badass.
 * It Sucks to Be the Chosen One
 * Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: She has her moments, notably the time she used a cross and a vampire's burning throat, actually doing what the Trope Namer only threatened.
 * Kick Chick
 * Lethal Chef
 * "Ma'am" Shock: For a different reason than normal: when Satsu calls her ma'am, Buffy remarks that she can't believe she thinks that it is hot.
 * Magical Girl Warrior
 * Mama Bear
 * The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life:


 * Master of the Mixed Message: Tells Satsu that she can't be with her, but sleeps with her. Twice. Poor Satsu ends up more than a little confused.
 * Also with Spike; kissing or having sex with him, claiming that it's never going to happen ever again, then falling back in his arms the moment she gets depressed. This has consequences when Buffy really does end the relationship and Spike assumes she's just playing her usual games.
 * In Season 3 Buffy, torn between the knowledge that a relationship with Angel is impossible and her emotional and sexual desires, bounces back and forth between Just Friends and Star-Crossed Lovers until Angel forces the issue by leaving Sunnydale altogether.
 * Mayfly-December Romance: Both her main love interests are vampires. Actually, it can be argued that all her romances will end up as this, as Slayers don't exactly have long lifespans.
 * Mugging the Monster: About Once an Episode. She's the monster.
 * Muscles Are Meaningless: She's not buff by any stretch of the imagination. She doesn't need to be, she's the Slayer, she can throw down with anything short of a invincible Big Bad or demon\human hybrid, or Physical God.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Has this twice, once in Season 6, when she learns that, and again in Season 8 when
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: The Slayer.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:.
 * Not Herself: Once a season, beginning with her stressing over The Master, then getting over the traumatic events that ended with her killing Angel. A demon tries to steal her soul, she has to deal with her Retconned sister, she sacrifices herself to save her sister only for her friends to bring her back to life (and pull her from heaven to hell on earth) and crack under the pressure of trying to command.
 * Oblivious to Love: Seeing her on her first day at Sunnydale High caused Xander to fall head over heels, literally, as he crashes into a railing. Buffy, however, is completely clueless as to his feelings.
 * Subverted in Season Eight, when Buffy's loneliness and need for stability compels her to go to Xander. Xander declines, having long since decided he and Buffy are Better as Friends.
 * Only a Flesh Wound: Buffy. Sword. Gut. Chosen.
 * Only Mostly Dead: Buffy in "Prophecy Girl."
 * The Other Darrin: To anyone who's seen the movie.
 * Person as Verb: The inimitable Buffyspeak.
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse
 * Platonic Life Partners: With Xander
 * Power Blonde
 * Promotion to Parent
 * Refusal of the Call
 * Rousing Speech: Pointed out in Season 7 that she's too good at this. She once gave a Rousing Speech to a telephone repairman.
 * Sex Goddess: At least twice in Season 4, it's suggested that Buffy's superhuman physical abilities translate to bedroom prowess; both her one-night stand Parker and Faith, who steals her body in a Grand Theft Me plot, comment explicitly on the matter.
 * In Season 6 Spike mentions having sex for five hours straight and raves about what an animal she is; he specifically mentions biting -- coming from a vampire, that's an impressive recommendation!
 * She's Got Legs: They get a good showing in "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered".
 * She Is Not My Girlfriend: Says this word for word to Willow about Satsu. Also in Season 6 with Spike, even to Spike himself.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: Coming back from the dead is no picnic, as Buffy is to discover twice.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: Buffy loves pulling these.
 * Street Smart
 * Super Strength
 * Teens Are Short: Sarah Michelle Gellar is a good five inches shorter than the actress playing her mother.
 * Took a Level In Jerkass: Jumped into Jerkass territory with both feet after killing The Master, and slides into this after her resurrection.
 * Upbringing Makes the Hero: Discussed Trope with her comparisons to Dark Action Girl Faith. Losing any strong family figures (Joyce's death, Giles leaving) proves the trope correct.
 * Violently Protective Girlfriend
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Faith in the third season up until Faith joined the Dark Side.
 * Waif Fu
 * Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World
 * Weakness Turns Her On: She quite enjoys nursing Angel back to health, and says that Riley looked "even cuter when you're all weak and kitteny". In the Season 8 Comics we discover one of Buffy's sexual fantasies involves Angel and Spike chained to her; Buffy is dressed in a Naughty Nurse Outfit.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: EVERYONE freaks out on her when she comes back from running away (Xander, Willow, and Joyce in particular) to the point where she wants to run away again. Willow and a group of zombies crashing her house while she's getting her lecture keeps her from doing so, much to everyone's relief.
 * Also, in season 7, Buffy is kicked out of her house after treating the girls under her care like dirt.
 * Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: "Someone has to talk to her people. That name is striking fear in nobody's hearts."
 * Wrestler in All of Us: Buffy uses a Frankensteiner at least once.
 * You Fight Like a Cow

Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan)
""You're the Slayer and we're, like, the Slayerettes!""

Buffy's best friend. Started out as The Smart Guy, but eventually became an extremely powerful witch. Came out in Season 4, and is one of the most recognized lesbian characters in fiction.

"Xander: You need a life in the worst way."
 * Action Girl: Anyone who manages to inflict pain on a goddess deserves this title.
 * Adorkable
 * Adrenaline Makeover: Started out nerdy, shy and fairly weak, but as the show went on, she gradually became more assertive, powerful and hot.
 * All Witches Have Cats: Miss Kitty Fantastico!
 * And Starring: Starting in Season 6. It's pretty jarring.
 * Badass
 * Badass Adorable: In the later seasons.
 * Badass Bookworm: Not to the same extent as Giles, but she still fits the trope.
 * Took a Level In Badass: From being the show's main Distressed Damsel to virtually the most powerful character of the group.
 * Berserk Button: Do not hurt Tara. If you do, you might survive...if you're a god.
 * Best Woman: At Xander and Anya's wedding, Willow is Xander's best "man".
 * Beware the Nice Ones: "Bored now."
 * Break the Cutie
 * Cannot Spit It Out: Behaves like this toward Xander in Season One.
 * The Chick: In the first few seasons before Faith shows up.
 * Clipped-Wing Angel: After Tara was mindsucked, Willow got amped up on magic and attacked Glory, actually succeeding in hurting her... for a few seconds. Then she got her ass beat.
 * Covert Pervert: She's played by Alyson Hannigan, so hell yeah.
 * Cradle of Loneliness: Does this with Tara's clothes when Tara breaks up with her in season 6.
 * Cute Witch
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Does a better job at this than even Buffy, having punched out several legitimate gods. Buffy punches out the invincible, Willow punches out gods.
 * De-Power:.
 * Does Not Understand Sarcasm: Chibo Mato can clog dance!?
 * Evil Me Scares Me: The way Willow feels about the "Doppelgangland" Willow.
 * Fallen Hero: She gets better.
 * Debatable on the "getting better" part, if the canonical Season 8 comic books are anything to be believed. Specifically the "Time of Your Life" arc.
 * There was also an Alternate Universe book trilogy ("Wicked Willow") that explored what would have happened if she had stayed that way.
 * Fan Service Pack
 * Final Boss:
 * Gosh Darn It to Heck
 * Hard Work Hardly Works: Amy's motivation for hating uber-witch Willow by the seventh season.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Buffy
 * Hot for Teacher: Its mentioned that Willow developed a crush on Giles during series one, even having a photo of him in her locker.
 * Hot Witch
 * Informed Judaism: "I'm like Santa Claus--except thinner, and younger, and female, and Jewish."
 * Uh, hello. Rosenberg...
 * There are actually quite a few subtle things she does, like putting stones on a grave (rather than flowers), that are characteristic of a culturally Jewish background.
 * Intelligence Equals Isolation
 * Is This What Anger Feels Like?: Which hilariously carried over to her vampire counterpart. "I don't like you!"
 * Lesbian Vampire: Vamp Willow, more accurately a Depraved Bisexual.
 * Light Is Good: Bright white haired Willow from the last episode of Season 7.
 * Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: By the finale, Willow is considerably more powerful than Buffy, and is one of the most powerful witches on earth.
 * Lipstick Lesbian: From Season 4 onwards.
 * Literal Minded: Kiss Rocks? Why would anyone want to kiss-- oh.
 * The Medic / Combat Medic: During Season 8.
 * Most Definitely Not a Villain: Regular Willow and Vampire Willow, when impersonating each other.
 * Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: Ooh! Ooh! Study Party!

"Willow: It's a little binding. I guess vampires really don't have to breathe. Gosh look at those."
 * No Bisexuals
 * Of Corsets Sexy: Vamp Willow.

"Vamp Willow (looking Willow over): Well, look at me. I'm all fuzzy."
 * Oh My Gods: For the love of Hecate!
 * The Other Marty: Willow's played by a different actress in the unaired pilot.
 * Parental Neglect: To the point of not noticing a new haircut for four months. The extent of their neglect verges on Fridge Logic when you consider that the episode establishing their neglectfulness came about a half-season after a bookcase had fallen on her and briefly landed her in a wheelchair. You'd think if anything would make them pay attention...
 * Platonic Life Partners: With Xander
 * Power Strain Blackout: She often collapses after overdoing the spellcasting.
 * Progressively Prettier
 * Promotion to Parent: She's Dawn's favorite person; Dawn treats her and Tara like parents, and in the Season 8 comics, Dawn says "Will is like a Mom to me."
 * Relationship Reveal: With Tara in the fourth season.
 * The Reliable One: Buffy explicitly calls her this at one point. Which is part of why her behavior in season 6 was so shocking.
 * Retroactive Wish: Almost a Running Gag with her ("Dead Man's Party", "Beer Bad" and "Triangle").
 * Shrinking Violet: In the first few seasons.
 * The Smart Guy
 * Soapbox Sadie: Originally protested Thanksgiving because it was all about death.
 * Stock Super Powers: She starts displaying a ton in Season 8 with her magic.
 * Dishing Out Dirt
 * Flight
 * Hand Blast
 * Healing Hands
 * Playing with Fire
 * Teleportation
 * Stupid Sexy Friend: Willow finally gets together with Xander. When they're both with other people.
 * Suddenly Sexuality
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: During early Season 7, especially the scene in "Selfless" where she reverts to her evil personality for a few seconds while fending off a spider demon.
 * Sweater Girl: Season 3 Willow.


 * Teen Genius
 * Tempting Fate: Almost a Running Gag with her.
 * "Dead Man's Party": Talking about it isn't helping. We might as well try some violence. (zombies crash into the house)
 * "Beer Bad": Men haven't changed since the beginning of time. (cavemen burst in)
 * "Triangle": I wish Buffy were here. (Buffy enters)
 * "Two to Go": There's no one on this earth who has the power to stop me now. (Giles blasts her with a fireball)
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Mocha coffee.
 * Tragic Womance: Her refusal to lose Buffy pushes her to take more risks with magic than ever before. The resurrection leaves her so high off success that she responds to Giles's concern with threats, setting most of her season six arc into motion.
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend
 * Completely subverted in that when she and Xander do get together, she decides she doesn't want him. Then, when she was in a rut with Oz, she discovered that she prefers Tara. She actually has a tendency to make the other person the Unlucky Childhood Friend.
 * Unstoppable Rage: Willow goes into one when Glory sucks Tara's mind, and again when Warren.
 * Villainous Widow's Peak: Willow wears one naturally. It becomes this once she morphs into Dark Willow.
 * What Could Have Been: Word of Joss says the door was left open for either Xander or Willow to come out of the closet. Willow's backdoor was set up in "Doppelgangland" (see Wishverse Willow), and let's not forget Xander and Larry ("Your secret's safe with me!"). Seth Green left the show to pursue other projects, and this sealed Willow's fate.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: In Season 6, Dawn slaps her after almost killing her in a car crash and Tara leaves her after she screwed with Tara's head.
 * Tara left her because she promised to not do magic for a week but couldn't last even a day.
 * And the Mind Rape, and take into consideration that Glory did something similar to Tara in Season 5.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Frogs?: Suffers from Ranidaphobia.
 * You Are in Command Now: Took charge of the Scoobies when Buffy was absent or incapacitated; most notably between Seasons 2-3 and 5-6.

Alexander LaVelle "Xander" Harris (Nicholas Brendon)
""I don't like vampires. I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good.""

Buffy's other best friend. Unlike Willow, Xander never gained any powers (apart from some military training). He had a crush on Buffy early on.

"Cordelia: Does looking at guns make you wanna have sex? Xander: I'm 17. Looking at linoleum makes me wanna have sex."
 * Abusive Parents: Not explicitly abusive per se, but they're definitely not loving parents. His father is also, at least verbally and emotionally, abusive of his mother.
 * A Day in the Limelight: Several, perhaps most notably "The Zeppo."
 * Adorkable
 * Annoying Arrows
 * Author Avatar: According to Nicholas Brendan, his character is based on Joss Whedon in high school, which is why Xander "gets all the good lines." They also dress alike.
 * That would explain Xander's avowed fetish for spandex. And his taste in comics.
 * Badass Normal: This carpenter can dry-wall you into the next century!
 * Basement Dweller: In Season 4.
 * Beard of Sorrow: Grows one shortly after Renee's death in Season 8.
 * Body Motifs: Xander is the one who sees everything, so Caleb pokes out one of his eyes.
 * Book Dumb
 * Butt Monkey: Quite possibly the Trope Namer.
 * The Captain: Come Season 8, he's the de facto leader of the international Slayers' organization because of his uncanny ability to bring out the best in his girls. See The Heart below.
 * Cartwright Curse: Of his four major love interests, three are dead: Cordelia, Anya, and, and all his other possible love interests turned out to be demons trying to kill him. Hopefully Dawn will have better luck.
 * Class Clown: His personality in the early seasons. In "The Prom," he complains about not winning the Class Clown award.
 * Combat Pragmatist: In a world where most people think they need to use swords, stakes, axes, and other similar melee weapons, Xander come up with the idea to use a rocket launcher to kill the Judge.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
 * Deadpan Snarker: Even among an entire cast of snarkers, Xander reigns supreme.
 * Easy Amnesia: Exploited. After Xander is possessed by hyenas, he tells Buffy and Willow he has no memory of it, but when Giles confronts him, he confesses that he was lying so he wouldn't have to talk about it.
 * In Season 2 he inadvertently reveals he was lying.
 * Embarrassing Middle Name
 * Even Nerds Have Standards: His interactions with Andrew Wells.
 * Eyepatch of Power: After.
 * Eye Scream: See above.
 * At least he gets to be Nick Fury now, right?
 * The Face: He lacks the supernatural powers of his teammates, but is best friends with Buffy and Willow to the end. His storylines tends to revolve around interpersonal relationships, and, as the most consistent of the Scooby Gang, he interacts with everyone.
 * The Heart: It's made clear more than once that Xander's strength doesn't lie in battle or conjuring spells, but in his interpersonal skills which hold the group together and keep them sane despite all the insanity swirling around them.
 * Fatal Attractor: All of his dates are demons. All of them.
 * In the last Season, it is revealed that he and Willow devised a secret phone code for "My date's a demon who's trying to kill me."
 * Hormone-Addled Teenager:

""What am I going to do? I think about sex all the time. Sex. Help. Four times five is thirty. Five times six is thirty-two... Naked girls. Naked women. Naked Buffy. Oh, stop me.""
 * And when Buffy reads his mind:


 * Hopeless Suitor In the first season
 * Hot Men At Work
 * Hypno Trinket: Subverted. The shiny coin the confident Xander used wasn't hypnotic. It just looked cool.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He eventually reconciles himself to Buffy seeing him as a friend.
 * In Season Eight, Buffy briefly comes onto him. However, Xander recognizes that she's looking for a warm body, not love, and reaffirms that they are friends only.
 * In with the In Crowd: Due to possession by hyena spirits in "The Pack." He got better.
 * I Just Want to Be Special
 * The Lancer
 * Let Us Never Speak of This Again: After telling Buffy he was once roped into working as a male stripper.
 * Likes Older Women: Harbors an unspoken desire for . He's a conquistador!
 * And for some Sunnydale High teachers as well.
 * The Load: What most new characters think he is. They're wrong..
 * Making Use of the Twin: Nicholas Brendon's twin brother, Kelly Donovan, appears as a clone Xander in "The Replacement."
 * A Man Is Not a Virgin: Explicitly averted –- one episode revolves around his virginity.
 * Another showed him losing it, and it was the least of what happened that night. See "The Zeppo."
 * The Masochism Tango: With Cordelia.
 * Mission Control: Often served in this capacity for the Slayer Organization.
 * Non-Action Guy: Although he doesn't always accept this.
 * And his friends wish he were.
 * Non-Action Snarker
 * Number Two: To Buffy in the Slayer Organization.
 * Odd Friendship: With Dracula. Xander even taught him how to motorbike.
 * Overshadowed by Awesome: Giving him a sense of kinship with Dawn.
 * Perpetual Poverty
 * Platonic Life Partners: With Buffy and Willow
 * Pop-Cultured Badass: Badass enough to not only survive Sunnydale but save the world a couple of times; without powers, and geeky enough to want to be addressed as Sergeant Fury.
 * Runaway Groom
 * Sad Clown
 * Sarcastic Devotee
 * Scars Are Forever: His eye.
 * Screw Learning, I Have Phlebotinum
 * Shipper on Deck: For Buffy and Riley.
 * Stupid Sexy Friend: Xander only awakens to his love for Willow when they're both going steady. With other people.
 * Talking the Monster to Death: How he beat in Season 6.
 * Team Dad: To the new Slayers in Season 8. Any Slayer who ever seems depressed or on the verge of a Heroic BSOD is always quickly cheered up by Xander.
 * This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman: As foreman on the Sunnydale High 2.0 construction project, he has intimate knowledge of its blueprints. He's also handy at building barricades at Chez Summers.
 * Once got in a fantastic shot on a season's Big Bad using a wrecking ball.
 * Unfazed Everyman
 * Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: In Season 4.
 * Weirdness Magnet: While everyone shows some of this, Xander has it more than most. He probably comes closest to fulfilling this trope when he is recruited by Zombie Bank Robbers as a wheelman.

Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head)
""You're not, by any chance, betraying your secret identity just to impress, um, cute boys, are you?""

Buffy's Watcher. Very British. Originally just Mr. Exposition, turned out to have quite a past. Also played Team Dad to the Scoobies.

""'Do you like my mask? Isn't it pretty? It raises the dead.' Americans!""
 * Admiring the Abomination: He does this occasionally. "Werewolves, it's... it's one of the classics!"
 * Adorkable
 * The Alleged Car: Giles' first car.
 * All of the Other Reindeer: The Council shunned him even before they fired him, and wouldn't let him come to the Watcher Retreat in the Cotswolds.
 * Anti-Hero: Type III
 * Badass Bookworm
 * Berserk Button: When people threaten to harm/actually harm his friends.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Indeed.
 * British Stuffiness: "He makes that 'tut tut' sound when he's angry but too British to say anything."
 * At least to others. Early in Season 3, Joyce acquires an artifact that summons zombies. When he finds out, Giles is pissing and moaning in his car:

"""I know I'm back in America now; I've been knocked unconscious.""
 * The Cast Showoff: He was the first to show off his awesome singing voice.
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Cultured Warrior
 * Cunning Linguist
 * Dark and Troubled Past: It has trouble staying buried, too.
 * Embarrassing Tattoo: Well, not so much embarrassing as evil, but it's embarrassing because it's evil.
 * Expansion Pack Past
 * Evil Twin: Two Alternate Universe versions of him; Ripper from the game Chaos Bleeds, and a vampire Evil Overlord from The Lost Slayer book series.
 * The Extremist Was Right: Along with the other Watchers.
 * Fake Guest Star: Throughout Season Seven. But we'll act conciliatory and call him a Super-Duper Extra Special Guest Star.
 * Foe Yay: Two words -- Ethan Rayne.
 * Former Teen Rebel: Most of his friends from his rebellious twentysomethings still call him "Ripper."
 * Gentleman Snarker
 * The Glasses Gotta Go
 * Glasses Pull
 * Scary Shiny Glasses
 * Good Is Not Soft: Most extreme example? Smothering a wounded to death rather than risk  coming back. Before doing the deed, Giles cryptically remarks, "[Buffy's] a hero, you see. She's not like us." -- He wanted to spare Buffy from doing it.
 * Grandpa What Massive Hotness You Have
 * Guile Hero
 * Hard Head / Tap on the Head: Giles tends to get knocked out, but never suffers any brain damage (well, not counting some WMG's about S7).

"Jenny: Do you own anything else? Giles: Uh well, not as such, no."
 * Heel Face Turn: Pre-series-he used to be pretty much evil in his younger days, practicing dark magic and stuff like that and and was known as Ripper.
 * Helping Would Be Killstealing: Giles in the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  In principle he had good reasons, but he chose to make his stand right in the middle of a crisis, and forbade everyone else from helping Buffy. That can only vaguely be justified by him following musical logic at the time.
 * Hopeless with Tech
 * Hot Librarian
 * I Am Very British: In the second episode, he asks Willow to "wrest more information from that dread machine... That was a bit...British."
 * I Did What I Had to Do
 * I Need a Freaking Drink: "It's all right... I have more scotch."
 * In-Series Nickname: "Ripper."
 * Last-Name Basis: The only people who call him "Rupert" are his romantic interests and Spike.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: While in London during Season 6, Giles did a spell to bind a demon, but it required him to lose the memory of one of the happiest days in his life. That day was the day he fell in love with Jenny Calendar, leaving him with a heartache that he felt would never go away, even though he had no idea what the memory was about.
 * Limited Wardrobe: A Watcher scoffs at fashion! One tweed suit is all you need.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: While in London during Season 6, Giles did a spell to bind a demon, but it required him to lose the memory of one of the happiest days in his life. That day was the day he fell in love with Jenny Calendar, leaving him with a heartache that he felt would never go away, even though he had no idea what the memory was about.
 * Limited Wardrobe: A Watcher scoffs at fashion! One tweed suit is all you need.

""Because I've sworn to protect this sorry world, and sometimes that means doing what other people can't. What they shouldn't have to.""
 * Magic Librarian
 * Mangst: Not frequently, but when he is truly heartbroken, this is the result.
 * Mentor Occupational Hazard : In the comics, at least.
 * Midlife Crisis Car
 * The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: When transformed into a Fyarl demon in "A New Man," Giles experiences the demon's natural violent urges.
 * Mr. Exposition: Gets parodied in "Restless" when he sings his latest exposition.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: "Ripper."
 * Necessarily Evil: Best exemplified in the following quote:

"Giles: But that's the thrill of living on the Hellmouth! There's a veritable cornucopia of fiends and devils and ghouls to engage! (Beat) ...Well, excuse me for finding the glass half-full."
 * Nightmare Fetishist:
 * Nightmare Fetishist:


 * Non-Idle Rich
 * Occult Detective
 * Opening Narration / "Previously On...": Previouslys just aren't previouslys without Giles' smooth buttery tone.
 * Papa Wolf: Threatening Buffy isn't a wise move if you want to stay healthy.
 * Parental Substitute: Gradually becomes a surrogate father to Buffy and the gang as a whole (all of their biological fathers being sadly lacking in various ways), and partially to Faith in Season 8.
 * The Patriarch
 * Poisonous Friend: Acts as this on occasion.
 * Put on a Bus
 * Commuting on a Bus
 * The Smart Guy: Giles knows something about everything. Except synchronized swimming.
 * Smart People Play Chess
 * Smart People Speak the Queen's English
 * The Obi-Wan
 * The Spock
 * Team Dad
 * Uptight Loves Wild: With the lovely Romani granola girl Wicca hippie Ms. Calender.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Andrew has this reaction when he finds out that Giles knew that Buffy had gone to the future and killed an evil version of Willow, but didn't tell him or set up precautions in case Willow did turn evil again. Giles even acknowledges he is right, and they begin working on an emergency plan in case Willow does go evil again.
 * Workaholic
 * Xanatos Gambit: Season 6.
 * Your Door Was Open: This happens to Giles a lot in the fourth season, even when he's sure he locked the door.
 * Your Door Was Open: This happens to Giles a lot in the fourth season, even when he's sure he locked the door.

Angel, né Liam (David Boreanaz)
""For a hundred years, I offered an ugly death to everyone I met, and I did it with a song in my heart.""

Vampire cursed with a soul, and Buffy's first Love Interest. Loses his soul in Season 2, becoming a formidable Big Bad with a love of torture (both physical and psychological). Later got his own show.

He returned to Buffy in the Season 8 comics, and will be co-starring with Faith in an upcoming comic series called Angel and Faith.

"Buffy: Skip it. I don't have a puppy, I don't want to know. Skip it."
 * And Your Little Dog, Too: He meant actual dogs.
 * Giles' profile on Angelus suggests that he will lash out at everything that made him feel human. Buffy tops the list.
 * The Atoner
 * Back for the Finale
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: Liam always wanted to get out of Galway and see the world. So naturally, he jumped at Darla's offer to see it together.
 * Big Bad
 * Big Fancy House: A creepy, art deco mansion on the edge of town. Angelus moves into the abandoned residence along with Drusilla and Spike.
 * The Champion: He appointed himself as Buffy's guardian shortly after she was called as a Slayer.
 * The Corrupter: Angelus, in his past.
 * Cursed with Awesome: His soul.
 * Curse Escape Clause: Angel is cursed with a soul until he has a moment of perfect happiness. (Hey, the curse isn't specific!) Buffy helps break the curse, and then needs to find a way to repair it.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy
 * Deuteragonist
 * : Reversed when he came back.
 * Enemy Within: Angelus
 * Evil Is Hammy
 * Evil Is Stylish: Not only his clothes, but also wants his kills to be "poetic."
 * Face Heel Turn: Causes special problems during his tenure as Big Bad, considering his intimate knowledge of all the Scoobies, not to mention standing invitations to most of their homes.
 * He got better.
 * For the Evulz
 * Friendly Neighborhood Vampire
 * Hell-Bent for Leather: Angelus' leather pants.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: In every sense of the word. Buffy . Putting a damper on this irony is the knowledge that.
 * Hollywood Tone Deaf: On his own show, which displays his more vulnerable sides in a way the original show doesn't.
 * Jekyll and Hyde
 * Hunk: His attractiveness is how he got his nickname.
 * Kick the Dog: As Angelus, oh so much. Giles was going to read something about an incident with a puppy:

"Xander: Okay, that's it. I'm putting a collar with a little bell around that guy."
 * Knight of Cerebus: Sort of. The previous villains certainly weren't harmless, but the show did become darker once Angelus was unleashed.
 * Large and In Charge: Angel's a pretty big guy. Good thing he's on our side! ...oh, wait.
 * Loophole Abuse: He gets into the high school to kill  using this: Vampires can only enter buildings by the personal invitation of the owner or the owner's family, but apparently the sign above the school, which reads "Enter, all ye who seek knowledge" in Latin, qualifies as an invitation.
 * Love Interest: To Buffy.
 * Love Makes You Evil: Literally.
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Mayfly-December Romance
 * Mind Rape: His specialty. What he did to Drusilla is much, much worse. Actually, Angelus arguably crossed the line from the start by massacring his entire hometown, family included.
 * Mr. Fanservice: He really is something to look at, and he's often chained up and shirtless. He's even been tortured by a vampire dominatrix more than once.
 * Mysterious Protector
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:.
 * Not Himself: When he loses his soul after having sex with Buffy.
 * Of Corpse He's Alive: Any fool can eat somebody. Angelus likes to make art with the corpse afterward. He infamously posed Jenny Calender like a doll in Giles' bed (staging the scene to resemble a romantic interlude), and tricked a man into thinking his slain sons were still "asleep".
 * Omnicidal Maniac
 * Politically-Incorrect Villain: Angelus' constant jibes at the wheelchair-bound Spike. He's got a million of 'em, ladies and gentlemen.
 * The Punishment: MAN can those gypsies hold a grudge.
 * Psychotic Smirk
 * Rescue Romance: Strikes one up with Buffy, in Season One.
 * Reduced to Ratburgers: By the time Whistler found him, Angel was homeless and scrounging off of rat blood. (To add insult to injury, he has difficulty catching one.)
 * Restraining Bolt: One moment of bliss will turn him psychotic.
 * Shirtless Scene: The man likes his tai chi.
 * Shoo Out the Clowns: Poor Spike is left to rot in a wheelchair while the significantly less cuddly Angelus steals the spotlight.
 * Sidekick Graduations Stick
 * Spiky Hair
 * Stalking Is Love: Angel has definite tendencies in that direction, in both his evil and not-evil incarnations.
 * He actually met and fell in love with Buffy when she was 15. He then stalked her for a year before revealing himself.
 * And he's still up it on the fifth season of Angel, despite being burdened with a desk job! (He has "a source" keeping tabs on her in Italy.)
 * Star-Crossed Lovers: With Buffy.
 * Stealth Hi Bye
 * Stealth Hi Bye


 * Suicide by Sunlight: Attempted.
 * Terms of Endangerment: You can always tell when he's crazy because he refers to Buffy as "Buff."
 * Token Heroic Orc
 * Tragic Monster
 * Vegetarian Vampire
 * Villain Cred: Even the Master held Angelus in high regard, intending to appoint him Dragon. The Mayor was keen to have Angelus on his team, as well.
 * Warrior Poet: More like a warrior man of letters -- well-read, multilingual and a talented artist.
 * Weak but Skilled: As far as credible villains go, Angelus is not that much stronger than normal vampires. He's been in the game for two hundred years though, with his greatest asset (aside from a viciousness that would make The Joker proud) being his mind, which he uses to full effect.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: As a human, Liam was held in contempt by his father, who believed that his son would never amount to being anything else but being a lazy, promiscuous drunk. When he became Angelus, he sat out to prove his father wrong by making a name for himself, namely by becoming the most famboyantly sadistic vampire ever recorded in human history.
 * What the Hell, Hero?:
 * Who Wants to Live Forever?

Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter)
""Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass.""

Started out as the Alpha Bitch, before joining the Scooby Gang and eventually being spun off to Angel.

""Actually, I'm looking forward to it. I do well on standardized tests." (Beat) "What? I can't have layers?""
 * All Women Love Shoes: Her passion for footwear is noted on several occasions.
 * Alpha Bitch: Was definitely this while at Sunnydale during the first season. She eventually became the Lovable Alpha Bitch.
 * Backhanded Compliment: Any time Cordy tries to be relatively nice, this is the result.
 * Bad Liar: It's just as well that doesn't sugarcoat the truth, because she can't lie to save her life.
 * The Brainless Beauty: Was originally led to be this, but then subverted all to hell when she showed Hidden Depths.
 * Lampshaded early in Season 3 when discussing the SAT:

"Xander: You're talking about messing with powerful magic, and you're weak. Willow: I'm okay. Xander: You don't look okay. (to Cordelia) Does she? Cordelia: You should listen to him. The hair, it's so flat, and the lips..."
 * Brutal Honesty: "Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass."
 * Butt Monkey
 * The Cheerleader
 * The Chick
 * Comically Missing the Point: All too often, someone will make a remark and Cordelia will agree in some shallow, appearance-related fashion.


 * Deadpan Snarker
 * The Drag Along
 * Defrosting Ice Queen
 * Fallen Princess
 * The Fashionista
 * Gang of Bullies / Girl Posse: The Cordettes. Angel would later liken them to the KGB, but with nicer shoes.
 * Cordelia's "friends" give her a taste of her own medicine when she starts to date Xander.
 * Good Is Not Nice
 * Hidden Depths
 * Lovable Alpha Bitch: The season one finale and onward see her becoming one.
 * Mandatory Line: Most of the time, her role in Season One was just to appear, act bitchy, then leave.
 * Mean Character, Nice Actor: Charisma Carpenter is noted for her many outreaches to fans, most prominent of which is that, unlike most of her co-stars, she absolutely refuses to charge for an autograph any conventions she attends.
 * Ms. Fanservice
 * Put on a Bus: To L.A.!
 * Rich Bitch
 * Riches to Rags: When her father loses all his money.
 * Romantic False Lead: Angel immediately ends up in her crosshairs. Luckily, Angel later confesses that he always found the noblewomen of his era (for whom Cordelia is the modern avatar) to be a horrific bore.
 * Screaming Woman
 * Ship Tease: With Wesley, ending with a particularly cringe-worthy Moment Killer.
 * Skewed Priorities: Though they become less skewed over the years.
 * Those Two Guys: Usually ends up as Giles's research partner while Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Oz are out on patrol. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Threshold Guardian
 * Took a Level In Kindness: Zig Zagged in Season Three when Xander cheats on her, effectively ousting her from the Gang. Cordelia attempts to return to her old ways, but Harmony has usurped her position and shut the door. Cordelia returns to aid the Scoobies in the Season Three Finale. Her move to Angel cements her growth as a caring person.
 * Uptown Girl: She kept her torrid love affair with Xander secret out of fear of what her peers would think.
 * Vanity License Plate: Cordelia's car has "QUEEN C" for its plates.

Anya, née Aud (Emma Caulfield)
"" I was feared and worshipped across the mortal globe and now I'm stuck at Sunnydale High. A mortal! A child! And I'm flunking math.""

Originally a 1,120-year-old vengeance demon who lost her powers and eventually joined the Scooby Gang. Was a Love Interest for Xander for three seasons before their relationship ended, and she went back to being a Vengeance Demon. Lost her powers and rejoined the Scoobies in early Season 7.

"Anya: OK. A man walks in to the office of a doctor. He's wearing on his head-- um, oh wait, there's a duck. Is that right? Heckler: YOU SUCK! Anya: Quiet! You'll miss the humorous conclusion."
 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Her relationship with Willow is meant to be like this; despite being thousands of years older than Willow, she's more naive and immature, which Willow is frequently annoyed by.
 * Ascended Extra: Originally intended as a one-shot character for "The Wish."
 * Badass: When a vengeance demon. However, she did kill a few demons and vampires as a normal human.
 * Being Evil Sucks
 * Break the Cutie: From "Hell's Bells" on.
 * Brutal Honesty: "I hate us! Everybody's so *nice*. Nobody says what's on their mind."
 * Cannot Tell a Joke: Though, with little doubt, she's the funniest character from Season 4 onwards.


 * Characterization Marches On: Her social prowess rivaled Cordelia in her first couple of appearances, then she swung in the complete opposite direction once she started appearing regularly.
 * The Comically Serious
 * Death Is Dramatic: Heavily subverted, to the point of it arguably being a bridge-dropping.
 * De-Power: Twice.
 * Dyeing for Your Art: Originally a brunette (her hair color as a human), but later went blonde.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Was completely freaked out by witnessing an Evil Sorcerer become an Eldritch Abomination and go on a rampage via performing a ritual similar to the one the Mayor planned on using.
 * Forgotten Phlebotinum: Her power center necklace. When she turned demon again, it seemed she never needed it.
 * Good Costume Switch / Evil Costume Switch: When Anya introduced, she has brunette hair. She colors it blond after becoming human, then goes back to brunette when she becomes a vengeance demon again. When she turns human for the second time, she goes back to blond.
 * Good Hair, Evil Hair
 * Happy Dance: The Dance of Capitalist Superiority!
 * Heel Face Revolving Door
 * Humanity Ensues
 * Humans Are Bastards: Why it was easy for her to be a vengeance demon. Three years of fighting alongside the Scoobies allowed her to see the goodness in people and made it hard to go back to vengeance.
 * In Love with the Mark
 * Literal Genie
 * Literal Minded
 * Magical Girlfriend
 * Meaningful Name: Anya's a little "Aud", isn't she?
 * Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: As a result of being both knowledgeable about demons and very, very blunt.
 * No Social Skills
 * Opt Out: Anya got the hell out of Dodge before Graduation Day. Contrast with the fifth and seventh season finales.
 * Paint It Black: When she became a demon again.
 * Patriotic Fervor: "You know what else is un-American? French people.
 * Especially funny as she's technically speaking from Scandanavia
 * Promotion to Opening Titles
 * Punny Name: Aud. (Yes, she is.)
 * Reality Warper
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Well, 1,120. And she's still being carded.
 * Redemption Equals Death
 * Revenge Against Men: Describes herself as a righteous sword for all Woman Scorned (her actual behaviour as a demon belies this -- Anya essentially tricks women into inflicting Disproportionate Retribution on former loved ones, and took open pleasure in the Crapsack World she accidentally created in "The Wish").
 * Start of Darkness: "Selfless".
 * Spock Speak
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For Cordelia. Greedy and high-maintenance? Check. Xander's love interest? Check. Brutally honest to a fault? Check.
 * Tsundere
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Willow, with Anya serving as a surrogate annoying younger sister.
 * Why Did It Have To Be Bunnies: Though she was shown to be fine with them while alive, suggesting something (possibly a wish gone horribly awry) occured while she was demon.
 * Woman Scorned

Daniel "Oz" Osbourne (Seth Green)
""Huh. A werewolf in love.""

Guitarist for a local band who became a werewolf, as well as Willow's boyfriend. Left in early Season 4. Nigh-impossible to faze. In the comics, he married a fellow werewolf with whom he had a son. Together they teach other werewolves to conquer their demons. He later assisted the Slayer Organization during the Twilight crisis.


 * Above the Influence: He is listed on the trope page, however this bears some explanation. The first time Willow tries to get him to kiss her, he thinks she is trying to get at Cordelia and Xander and instead he wants to be the gentleman and wait. The second time is after he caught Willow cheating on him, and she tries to seduce him. He lets her down and says she doesn't have to prove anything to him, and rejects her obvious sexual advances.
 * Badass: He has his moments.
 * Retired Badass: A point of contention between him and Willow in Season 8 is the fact that he stopped fighting evil and started a family.
 * Black Eyes of Evil: One of the first things to change during a transformation.
 * Brilliant but Lazy
 * Cannot Convey Sarcasm
 * Captain Obvious: But lovably so.
 * The Comically Serious
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Fake Band: Oz is in a band called Dingoes Ate My Baby, after the famous case where Azaria Chamberlain was reportedly taken by a wild dog.
 * Fridge Brilliance: Dingoes are from Australia, or 'Oz.'
 * Fantastically Indifferent
 * Goal in Life: To perfect the diminished ninth! "You could lose a finger."
 * Happily Married: In the Season 8 comic.
 * Hidden Depths
 * Leaving You to Find Myself
 * Look What I Can Do Now!: Oz gains near-total mastery over his werewolf side by the time he returns, able to stand directly under a full moon without transforming.
 * Not a Morning Person: He sleeps until 3PM.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname
 * Our Werewolves Are Different
 * Hulking Out: When he learns of Willow and Tara's relationship.
 * Involuntary Shapeshifting
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: After Tibet.
 * Partial Transformation: Mode locked during "Fear, Itself".
 * Painful Transformation: Although his later transformations transpire much more quietly. Nevertheless he agrees with Veruca when she describes the first few stages as blood boiling.
 * Papa Wolf
 * Playing Against Type: So Seth Green isn't the Plucky Comic Relief?
 * The comic relief is his unruffled reaction to pretty much everything.
 * Put on a Bus
 * The Bus Came Back: "New Moon Rising".
 * Real Men Wear Pink: Literally in the season 2 finale. He also occasionally wears a t-shirt over his monk's robes, which makes it seem he's wearing a skirt.
 * Romantic Runner-Up
 * Spiky Hair
 * Split Personality Takeover: Comes very close to invoking this voluntarily after it appears his struggles against his werewolf self are futile.
 * The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: The closer it is to sunset on a full moon night, the harder it is to resist his most primal urges.
 * The Nose Knows
 * The Quiet One
 * The Stoic: His reaction upon finding out that he's a werewolf? "Huh." He has the same reaction with a bemused grin when he's meditating in Tibet and a submarine is teleported outside the temple.
 * Not So Stoic
 * Terse Talker
 * Walking the Earth: Though he eventually settled down.
 * Wolf Man

Spike, né William Pratt (James Marsters)
""I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.""

British vampire who served as the villain for early Season 2. Was planned to die, but his status as Ensemble Darkhorse saved him. He showed up in one episode in Season 3 before returning for good in Season 4. Had a chip in his head that prevented him from hurting humans, so he joined up with the Scoobies for survival and so he could get his kicks by fighting demons. Eventually fell in love with Buffy, and had a twisted relationship with her in Season 6. Got a soul at the end of Season 6 and made a Heroic Sacrifice in the finale. Reappeared on Angel. He is Tropetastic.

""I know it looks like a closet but it's a room now.""
 * Anti-Hero: Type V. Turns Type III after getting his soul back.
 * Author Appeal: Show Runner Marti Noxon is often accused of having an affinity for Naked!Spike.
 * Badass: Until his decay.
 * Badass Biker
 * Badass Longcoat
 * Cultured Badass: Can quote Henry V with the best of them.
 * Pop-Cultured Badass
 * Bad Boss: In Season 2 Spike sacrifices a vampire mook on two separate occasions ("School Hard" and "Halloween") just to get an idea of how the Slayer fights.
 * Basement Dweller: Parts of Season 4 and 7.
 * Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: He didn't steal Billy Idol's look. Billy Idol stole his!
 * Blood Knight Light: Fighting isn't all he lives for, but it's a good portion of it. He especially likes it when he really can't tell who's going to win, which Angelus found unsophisticated.
 * Bond Breaker: In the season four finale. He didn't create the problems they were facing, but made them likelier to anger and alienate each other. He calls it the Yoko Factor.
 * Breakout Character / Breakout Villain
 * Break the Haughty: For a guy that cocky, his face sure does seem to be a fist-magnet.
 * Bruiser with a Soft Center
 * Brutal Honesty
 * Can't You Read the Sign?: A sign saying BEWARE OF DOG is shown behind Spike on several occasions.
 * Closet Geek: Develops an unlikely passion for Passions.
 * Closet Sublet: With Anya gone, Spike ignominiously moves into a 'spare room' in Xander's apartment.

"Joyce: Honey, did you somehow, unintentionally, lead him on in any way? Send him signals? Buffy: Well, I do beat him up a lot. For Spike, that's like third base."
 * Combat Sadomasochist: Lampshaded on several occasions, most notably when Spike makes his Anguished Declaration of Love.

"Spike: I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it."
 * The Confidant: For Buffy in the first half of Season 6.
 * Cool Airship: We don't know where he got it, but it is awesome.
 * Cool Bike: That he stole from a demon biker in Season 6.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Depending on the Writer: Spike's level of evilness after being chipped seems to depend on who's writing him. Borders on Heel Face Revolving Door.
 * Drop in Character: In Season 4 and 5 after he's chipped.
 * Embarrassing Nickname: "William the Bloody" actually refers to his bloody awful poems.
 * Entitled Bastard: Spike expecting Buffy's help when the Initiative are after him.
 * Eternal Love: With Drusilla. ...or so he thought.
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: William's hope was to live in blissful trinity with his vampirized mum and Drusilla (to Dru's consternation). The plan went sour when his mum promptly tried to molest him.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Spike has a low tolerance for "poseur" vampires who act above their station, believing they give the undead a bad name. Contrary to his love of brawling, he's also adverse to wanton destruction; Spike enjoys the good life and isn't going to let Angelus destroy the world if he can help it.
 * Evil Counterpart: To Angel, initially.
 * Faux Affably Evil: Before getting chipped.
 * Freudian Excuse: Two of them. The first was Spike sired his mother, who he adored, only for her to try and seduce him as a vampire, leading to him being forced to stake her. Naturally this would be very traumatic and likely sent him off the rails.
 * The second is Angelus. It's been discussed in the show that Angelus made Spike a Complete Monster and Spike hated that Angelus did so in order for there to be someone as disgusting as he was before as Liam and after as a vampire.
 * Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Trope Namer, though it was on Angel and he was being sarcastic.
 * Fully-Embraced Fiend
 * The Glasses Got to Go: Needed them while alive, with no explanation given as to why he doesn't need them afterward.
 * Good Is Not Nice
 * Guilty Pleasures: Dawson's Creek and Passions.
 * Heel Face Turn: Slowly over the course of four seasons.
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath
 * Heroic Sacrifice: He gets better.
 * Hero with an F In Good: In Seasons 5 and 6.
 * Hidden Depths: He's surprisingly good at predicting Willow's behavior.
 * I Am Very British
 * I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In Season 9, he wants Buffy to have as normal a life as possible and is avoiding any romantic entanglement with her because of it. He even says he would be thrilled if Detective Dowling wanted to date her. Both Dowling and Eldre Koh can tell that he's still carrying a torch, however.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: After his Badass Decay got well underway.
 * Knight of Cerebus: When Spike comes crashing through the Sunnydale welcome sign, gets out of his car and says "Home sweet home", it marks the beginning of the storyline that takes the entire series in a darker direction.
 * Knight in Sour Armor: After his Heel Face Turn.
 * Leeroy Jenkins: On more than one occasion, his lack of patience has resulted in him heedlessly screwing up his own plans.
 * Limited Wardrobe
 * Living Forever Is Awesome: This sums up the differences between him and Angel in a nutshell.
 * Living Lie Detector: Combined with Brutal Honesty. Mocks Buffy and Angel's attempts at being "just friends", points out that Willow is "hanging on by a thread" after breaking up with Oz, and accuses Buffy (and, by extension, all Slayers) of having a secret death wish in season five.
 * Lovable Rogue
 * Lovable Traitor
 * Love Hurts
 * Love Interest
 * Love Martyr: Lampshades it with both his character quote and the page quote.

""Effulgent"?"
 * Love Redeems
 * Manchurian Agent: In the seventh season.
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Mayfly-December Romance: With Buffy. Not Dru.
 * Menacing Stroll
 * Momma's Boy: Even turned his mother into a vamp so they can be together forever. Also the root of his attraction to Drusilla, his sire.
 * Morality Chip: Spike's chip.
 * Mr. Fanservice
 * Musical Trigger: The First takes control of Spike with the folk song "Early One Morning."
 * Nerd in Evil's Helmet
 * Noble Demon
 * Only Sane Man: Quickly assumes he is this when Glory's spell makes everyone forget Glory is Ben every time he explains it to them.
 * Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Does this often when he's trying to court Buffy.
 * Poisonous Captive: In season four, Spike was often this to the Scoobies.
 * Popularity Power
 * Promotion to Opening Titles
 * Prophetic Name: "Pratt" = "idiot" in English parlance.
 * Quizzical Tilt
 * Real Men Wear Pink
 * Restraining Bolt: Once the Initiative puts a chip in his head.
 * Retcon: Angel being his sire and that he respected him. Flashbacks show Drusilla sired him and that he and Angel were always at each other's throats.
 * Word of God says that vamps refer to anyone in their bloodline before them as their sire, so Spike would refer to Darla and The Master as his sires too.
 * Sir Swearsalot: Some of this is due to Did Not Do the Bloody Research, but it's also a character trait.
 * Smoking Is Cool
 * Sour Supporter: After being chipped. He becomes a more enthusiastic Scoobie after falling in love with Buffy.
 * Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Like it or not, Spike eventually became the center of gravity for the entire cast. This started out gradually, kicking into overdrive once Marti Noxon took the helm. There's a reason it's just him and Buffy on the Season 7 box.
 * On the other hand, many viewers hold this opinion of all of Buffy's boyfriends who aren't Angel. "Something Blue" routinely ends up on Best Episode lists solely due to Buffy/Spike's short-lived (and magically-inspired) 'engagement', thanks in no small part to their immediate chemistry... in marked contrast to (yep) Buffy's then-boyfriend Riley Finn, who is mostly detested by fans. Sensing a pattern here?
 * Stalker with a Crush: How he acts initially after falling in love with Buffy.
 * The Starscream: First to the Anointed One, then to Angelus, both successfully.
 * Start of Darkness: "Fool for Love".
 * Street Smart
 * Stylistic Suck: Spike's bloody awful poetry.

"Robin Wood: Because the military gave him a soul?"
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Spike was initially demoted to comic relief as a way of filling the gap left by Cordelia. Joss felt the absence of both Cordy and Oz left the heroes without a dissenting voice.
 * There Is Another: Spike gradually takes on 'Angel' mantle in Seasons 5-7, whereupon he get treated to guilt, hallucinations, eating rats -- the works.

"Spike to, after he's caught lurking outside her house: "And I never really liked you anyway, and and you have stupid hair (Beat) [Leaves].""
 * He still caught a lot more breaks that Angel did. When Angel got his soul back, he was obliged to let himself be shackled to the wall of an empty house. Spike gets tied up in Buffy's bedroom with nice soft rope.
 * This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: What's he doing outside Buffy's house? Five words or less. He's "Out. For. A. Walk." *Beat* "Bitch."
 * Throwing Off the Disability: Ends up in a wheelchair after a church organ falls on him, but he gets better in a few episodes' time.
 * Token Evil Teammate: Especially in Season 4 and part of Season 5.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Heralded by adopting the name Spike.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Aside from blood obviously, he fancies those onion blossoms and buffalo wings served at The Bronze, even though he can't digest them. He also likes to sprinkle Wheatabix into his blood bags for "texture."
 * Trenchcoat Brigade
 * Tsundere: After he develops a crush on . "First he'll kill her, then I'll save her... No, I'll save her, then I'll kill her..." Played shallowly in his fling with Harmony, where the Deredere is mostly an act, partly a rebound crush, and the Tsuntsun is because she's just that annoying.

"Spike: "So you'll give me what I want. Make me what I was. So Buffy can get what she deserves." Demon: "Very well. We will return....""
 * Wall Glower
 * Warrior Poet: Literally, although the latter isn't really showcased until Angel.
 * Wham! Line: Several.
 * Season 2: "Oh, I will. Sooner than you think."
 * Season 5: ", I love you. God, I love you so much. ...Oh, God, no. Please, no."
 * Season 6: Not by him, but about him.

"Glory (about Spike): What the hell is that, and why is its hair that color?"
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: It's dyed, but beyond that.


 * You Are Number Six: The Initiative rechristens him "Hostile 17".

Riley Finn (Marc Blucas)
""So, what have you got going on tonight?" "Patrolling." "Patrolling?." "..Petroleum.""

- Riley and Buffy

Initiative soldier and Buffy's Love Interest in Season 4 (and early Season 5). Put on a Bus, but came back for an episode in Season 6, and later on a recurring basis in the comics.


 * Badass
 * Badass Abnormal: When on the Initiative Super Serum.
 * Badass Normal: After being taken off the Super Serum.
 * Battle Couple: Riley is eager to form one with Buffy, but she finds his lack of superpowers cramps her style and his inability to measure up makes Riley feel inadequate even as a Love Interest. When Riley returns for one episode ("As You Were") in Season 6, he's married a Badass Normal Action Girl, forming a new Battle Couple.
 * Dogged Nice Guy: In Season 6 when he returns to find Buffy working in a dead-end job and sleeping with Spike, Riley refuses to condemn her for it, instead giving Buffy the encouragement to start pulling her life back together.
 * : In the comics.
 * The Easy Way or the Hard Way: "We can do this the hard way, or the fatal way."
 * Fantastic Drug: Became addicted to having his blood sucked by vampire prostitutes. And no, that is not an Unusual Euphemism.
 * Farm Boy
 * Feel No Pain: An eventual side-effect of Professor Walsh's experiments, though the strain it put on his body led to a Hollywood Heart Attack.
 * The Generic Guy
 * Good Looking Privates
 * Good People Have Good Sex: Accidentally sleeping with Faith (in Buffy guise). His tenderness is so alien to her that she nearly freaks out.
 * Happily Married: After returning in Season 6.
 * Love Interest
 * : In the comics.
 * Put on a Bus to Hell
 * The Bus Came Back: "As You Were".
 * Romantic Runner-Up: He does have a successful relationship with Buffy for some time, but it's made plain that she doesn't love him the way she loved Angel.
 * Scars Are Forever: When he comes back in Season 6, he has your standard Awesome McCool scar across his left eye. He also has one from when he cut out Adam's mind control chip, and probably has another from when Adam stabbed him.
 * Super Soldier: On the mild side of "super", but he and the other Initiative troops are chemically augmented.
 * Wham! Line: "But she doesn't love me."
 * Super Soldier: On the mild side of "super", but he and the other Initiative troops are chemically augmented.
 * Wham! Line: "But she doesn't love me."

Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenberg)
""We destroyed The Mall? ...I fought on the wrong side.""

Buffy's younger sister who was Cosmic Retconned into existence in Season 5. Was actually a Key that could open dimensional barriers. Spent two seasons as The Chick before becoming The Smart Guy.

""Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday.""
 * Age-Appropriate Angst: Or so Joss thought, which is why he "scratched his head" when viewer response wasn't ideal. He later admitted the writers were "hitting the same note" with Dawn in Seasons 5-6.
 * Age Is Relative
 * Annoying Younger Sibling
 * Apocalypse Maiden
 * Badass
 * Badass Normal
 * Badass Abnormal: When she was a giant and a centaurette.
 * Barrier Maiden
 * Big Sister Worship: Dawn both resents and idolizes her superhero sister.
 * Blue Eyes
 * Bratty Half-Pint
 * Break the Cutie: Pretty much all of Season 5.
 * The Chick
 * Cousin Oliver
 * Cosmic Retcon
 * Cursed with Awesome: While being a giant and centaurette were annoying to her, she at acknowledged they had some good points. Being turing into a doll though... not so much.
 * Dawson Casting: Considering how much the show made use of it, Dawn was a pleasant aversion; Michelle Trachtenberg started playing the 14-year-old at 14. Probably done to ensure that she would look younger than her sister.
 * Ironically, she became taller than her by Season 7.
 * Freak-Out: After learning she's the Key.
 * Genre Savvy: In Season 8.
 * Has Two Mommies: As part of the Cosmic Retcon, it's stated that she spends the night at Willow and Tara's place whenever she gets upset. Later they semi-adopt her and move into her mom's old bedroom. Even when Willow and Tara separate early Season 6, Tara goes out of her way to assure Dawn, "This has nothing to do with you. You know we both still love you." Also, in Season 8, she directly says that Willow is like her mother.
 * I Just Want to Be Special
 * Incest Subtext: With her adopted mother, she shows signs of this. She wants Willow and Tara to teach her the stuff they do together, and is promptly told to go to her room. In another episode, Willow is perving on a girl dancing, to discover it was Dawn.
 * Not to mention she has this vibe with her own sister.
 * The Load: Lampshaded in Season 6.

""Everyday was like the end of the world. She doesn't get worked up like that over you.""
 * Minored in Asskicking
 * Missed the Call
 * The Not Love Interest
 * Rapunzel Hair
 * Remember the New Guy?:.
 * Screaming Woman
 * Shipper on Deck: Hardcore Willow / Tara fangirl.
 * The Smart Guy: She took a role like this in Season 7.
 * Sticky Fingers
 * The Team Wannabe
 * Took a Level In Badass: In Season 7 (technically starting in the season 6 finale).
 * Wham! Line: Dawn has a couple, inadvertently or otherwise. Like when talking to Riley about Buffy's relationship with Angel:

""Buffy, Spike's completely in love with you.""
 * Or to her sister:


 * Wrong Genre Savvy: In a lot of Season 7, she amusingly seems to think she's in CSI.
 * Younger Than She Looks: A 14-year old girl who is more than Really Seven Hundred Years Old and is technically no more than a few hours old when first introduced.

Tara Maclay (Amber Benson)
""I want my room to be Willow-friendly.""

Willow's love interest in Seasons 4-6. Also a capable witch, and a lot wiser about her powers than Willow. . She and Willow are the longest-lasting lesbian couple in network television history, and one of the best known.

""Oh my God, I'm cured! I want the boys!" (pretends to run off, only to collapse giggling into Willow's arms)"
 * Abusive Parents: As part of her family's misogynistic tyranny of the women of the clan, they told her she was half-demon her entire life and that if she ever left them for too long, she'd turn into a monster.
 * All Witches Have Cats: Miss Kitty Fantastico, again!
 * Cure Your Gays: Parodied in "Once More, With Feeling."
 * Cure Your Gays: Parodied in "Once More, With Feeling."
 * Cure Your Gays: Parodied in "Once More, With Feeling."

"Joss: Yeah... this is porn."
 * Fake Guest Star: Despite appearing in almost fifty episodes.
 * : "Your shirt..."
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Her love song to Willow in "Once More, With Feeling" is extremely touching. And extremely sexy if you actually listen to what she's singing: "Willow, you make me complete." Whedon said after the fact that it was the dirtiest thing he'd ever written.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Her love song to Willow in "Once More, With Feeling" is extremely touching. And extremely sexy if you actually listen to what she's singing: "Willow, you make me complete." Whedon said after the fact that it was the dirtiest thing he'd ever written.

""Sweetie, I'm a fag. I've been there.""
 * Hot Witch
 * Mind Rape: What Glory did in "Tough Love," and what Willow did in "All The Way."
 * Nice Girl: The closest this series has to one. Stands out especially during Season 6.
 * N-Word Privileges: In this cut scene from "Dead Things".
 * N-Word Privileges: In this cut scene from "Dead Things".

"Tara: I am, you know. Willow: What? Tara: Yours."
 * Promotion to Opening Titles: For one episode.
 * Relationship Reveal: With Willow.
 * Shrinking Violet
 * Speech Impediment: Clearly an artifact of her abusive childhood, as it gets worse when her family comes to town, but almost disappears once she gains more confidence in herself.
 * Team Mom: Evolves into this during Seasons 5 and 6, thanks to her maturity
 * Wham! Line: If you thought Willow and Tara were "just friends"...
 * Team Mom: Evolves into this during Seasons 5 and 6, thanks to her maturity
 * Wham! Line: If you thought Willow and Tara were "just friends"...
 * Wham! Line: If you thought Willow and Tara were "just friends"...


 * White Sheep
 * Wise Beyond Her Years: Despite being the most innocent of the Scoobies, Tara takes the revelation of much more like an adult than any other member of the gang. We later learn it's because.