Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Characters/Regulars

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


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.

  • 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".

"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."

"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."

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.

Willow: It's a little binding. I guess vampires really don't have to breathe. Gosh look at those.

Vamp Willow (looking Willow over): Well, look at me. I'm all fuzzy.

  • 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 shoots and kills Tara.
  • Villainous Widow's Peak: Willow wears one naturally. It becomes this once she morphs into Dark Willow.
  • 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.

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 Renee, 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.
  • Cool Loser: To the point the trope could be named "The Xander". Despite continual and multiple accomplishments throughout his high school years (such as joining a varsity sports team, winning a championship, publicly saving the lives of other students, dating the head cheerleader) any single one of which would normally result in at least some kind of popularity boost for a student, Xander not only maintains an absolute zero social status but substantially reduces the social status of anyone else who is regularly seen associating with him.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
  • A Day in the Limelight: Several, perhaps most notably "The Zeppo".
  • 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 he loses his eye in Season 7.
  • Eye Scream: See above.
  • 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. He brought Willow back from the brink by telling her he loved her.
  • 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."
  • Hopeless Suitor In the first season.
  • Hormone-Addled Teenager:

Cordelia: Does looking at guns make you wanna have sex?
Xander: I'm 17. Looking at linoleum makes me wanna have sex.

    • And when Buffy reads his mind:

"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."

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!"

""I know I'm back in America now; I've been knocked unconscious."

  • 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. He chose to abandon Buffy because he felt that she was limiting herself by clinging to him in a immature way. 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.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Giles got between a Twilight possessed Angel and Buffy as they fought near the Seed of Wonder, wielding the Scythe to try and destroy the Seed himself and end Twilight's invasion of Earth, or get killed by Twilight and give Buffy the motivation she needed to take the Scythe and end things herself.
  • 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
  • In-Series Nickname: "Ripper".
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: "It's all right... I have more scotch."
  • Killed Off for Real: In the comic, and in a way mirroring Jenny Calendar's death no less.
  • 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.
  • Last-Name Basis: The only people who call him "Rupert" are his romantic interests and Spike.
  • Limited Wardrobe: A Watcher scoffs at fashion! One tweed suit is all you need.

Jenny: Do you own anything else?
Giles: Uh well, not as such, no.

"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."

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.

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.

  • 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 Jenny Calendar 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: Creating the Twilight dimension by screwing Buffy, which let thousands of demons invade Earth, which resulted in the destruction of the Seed of Wonder and removed all magic from the world.
  • 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.
  • Psychotic Smirk
  • Redemption Equals Death: Just as he casts off the Angelus persona, Buffy runs him through with a sword and he gets pulled into Hell by Acathla.
  • 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).
  • Rescue Romance: Strikes one up with Buffy, in Season 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

Xander: Okay, that's it. I'm putting a collar with a little bell around that guy.

  • 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?: After he gets exposed as Twilight, everybody has this reaction to him, especially after it is revealed he was an Unwitting Pawn to a evil dimension trying to end the world. After he gets possessed by the real Twilight and kills Giles and Buffy is forced to destroy the Seed of Wonder is destroyed to stop the destruction of the world, the only ones willing to associate with Angel and not try to kill him are Buffy and Faith, and Buffy doesn't even want to be around him anymore.
  • 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?"

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...

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.

  • 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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

Spike: I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.

"Effulgent"?

  • 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.

Robin Wood: Because the military gave him a soul?

Spike to Buffy, after he's caught lurking outside her house: "And I never really liked you anyway, and and you have stupid hair (Beat) [Leaves]."

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...your soul."

Glory (about Spike): What the hell is that, and why is its hair that color?

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.

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."

"Everyday was like the end of the world. She doesn't get worked up like that over you."

    • Or to her sister:

"Buffy, Spike's completely in love with you."

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. Killed off in Season 6. She and Willow were the longest-lasting lesbian couple in network television history as of the end of the series, 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)

Joss: Yeah... this is porn.

"Sweetie, I'm a fag. I've been there."

Tara: I am, you know.
Willow: What?
Tara: Yours.

  • White Sheep
  • Wise Beyond Her Years: Despite being the most innocent of the Scoobies, Tara takes the revelation of Joyce's death much more like an adult than any other member of the gang. We later learn it's because her own mother died when she was 17, so she's been through this before.
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