Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Ho Yay

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Buffy and Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • A lot. This GIF pretty much sums it up.
    • Buffy's reaction to Faith hitting on Scott, Faith drawing a heart on the outside of Buffy's window, Buffy telling Xander and Willow that she has a 'date' with Faith, the two of them dancing together, Faith's blatant jealousy of Angel that parallels Xander's hatred towards him, Faith's attempts to bring Buffy over to The Dark Side, Faith kissing Buffy's forehead (which Buffy returns when Faith's in her coma), Buffy's reccurring dreams about Faith (in one of them they 'make a bed' together), Xander telling Cordelia that Faith and Buffy were in the library 'getting sweaty', and the countless times their faces come close when they fight.
    • Also Faith's habit of calling Buffy "girlfriend" in "Bad Girls" and her Foe Yay request to "Give us a kiss" before their final fight in "Graduation Day".
  • Also Angel and Giles. Man that vampire gets around.
    • The vampire getting around may just have something to do with both the attractiveness of David Boreanaz and the fact that he is a really good actor who could create chemistry with a dishrag.
      • In the first season of Buffy, he couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. The first time he showed real improvement in his acting was when Spike had him tied up and shirtless in season 2.
  • Drusilla and Kendra. The final scene between them has been described as "almost sexualized" and "a G-rated lesbian interlude". This foreshadows the Les Yay between Drusilla and Darla in Angel
  • There was also that season seven episode where the intertwined sexual history of Buffy, Spike, Xander and Anya is explained to a girl Xander likes. In response, she asks if any of them haven't slept together, and Xander and Spike share an awkward look.
    • When Spike and Xander start rooming together in "Him," Spike sleeps in a closet.
    • Spike calling Xander a 'nummy treat'.
    • this clip sums Spander up
  • It's pretty much considered cfanon that Giles and Ethan were involved in one way or another pre-series. Writer Jane Espenson has said that she thought the two of them had a past involvement romantically.
    • It certainly helps that nearly their every encounter comes across not as "Why did you turn away from the dark side, Ripper?" so much as "What happened to us, Ripper?" Either that, or it's a noticeably more serious case of Go-Karting with Bowser considering how often Ethan's visits get people killed.
    • Ethan: "Oh, we go back - we go way back."
      • Parodied in "A New Man" when Giles thinks Ethan is drunkenly hitting on him when he's really hitting on the waitress.
      • Also in "A New Man", Ethan describes them as 'a couple of old mystics' in about the same tone of voice he'd use to call them 'a couple of old queens' (maybe more of a British thing), and after Ethan tells him that 'the night is still [their] time, the time of magic,' the scene immediately cuts to Willow and Tara sharing one of their most obvious 'MAGIC IS HOMOSEXUALITY' moments. Yeah, Joss was not subtle about that one.
      • Following the 'old mystics' line, it cuts to Giles and you hear Ethan say, 'You know, I find you very attractive. Maybe you could give me a call some time.' Cut back to Ethan hitting on a waitress.
  • The comics bring us Satsu, a Japanese Slayer who wakes Buffy with a True Love Kiss. Buffy is touched but tries to invoke It's Not You, It's My Enemies to break up with her. Then they sleep together, twice, the first time Buffy saying it was one of the best nights of her life. Satsu, for her part, is upset when Angel returns because she sees him as a threat to her love interest.
  • Buffy and Willow have a very developed relationship that strongly rivals the more prominently known Buffy/Faith Les Yay. This is more noticeable in Seasons 1, 2, and 3 despite their romantic interests. It still appears from time to time in the final three seasons, specifically in Season 7's episode Same Time, Same Place. They link arms several times in the presence of others in school or at school related events (Inca Mummy Girl, and Bad Eggs). They hold hands several times as well in other episodes (The Pack and Some Assembly Required). They hug constantly throughout the series run (Dead Man's Party their hug is treated as a big step towards them making up with one another after Buffy returns). That is just the physical touches, ignoring the incredibly close emotional and supportive bond they have for each other including constantly sharing looks at the same time and mimicking each other's actions (Teacher's Pet).
    • Further explained in this ten reason manifesto
    • The most notable example is probably the opening scene in Season 2's Passion. Xander/Cordelia are walking out of the Bronze clearly treated as a couple, with their arms wrapped around each other. Buffy/Willow are walking in front of (and eventually beside them) with their arms linked together and expressing happiness. The shot from behind the four as they walk away would lead one to assume that Buffy/Willow were a couple just like Xander/Cordelia.
    • The interactions between Buffy and Willow in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" are very easy to see as "love at first sight", particularly note the longing looks when Cordelia runs Willow off at the water fountain and the decisive way in which Buffy chooses Willow, despite Cordelia and Willow separately telling her that she can't have both and that choosing Willow will instantly mark her as unpopular.
    • Willow plying Satsu for details after she found out she slept with Buffy in Season 8.
    • Buffy's reaction to Willow's relationship with Tara; it is clear that Buffy is not homophobic, so why is she so freaked? Because she wants Willow to herself!
    • Buffy hug-tackling Willow when she learns Will is staying in Sunnydale.
    • Sarah and Alyson also seemed to have a close relationship off screen, at least through Season 2. Sarah's hosting of SNL in 1998 saw her hold up a sign reading, "I miss you Aly 'Willow' Rules" and Sarah mouths, "I remembered!" while pointing down at the sign as the show goes off the air.
    • At the start of season nine, Buffy wakes up from a wild night with Willow, the indication being they slept together. Willow doesn't deny this happening. Throughout the series Willow has always had two love interests: the current boy/girl she liked, and Buffy.
  • There was plenty of Les Yay of the uber-creepy kind in the episode "Doppelgangland" between Willow and her vampire counterpart from a parallel universe, culminating in VampWillow licking Willow's neck.
    • Willow, when describing this encounter (with the Vampiric Willow) to the other Scoobies, says, "Not only that ... I think I'm kinda gay!" This seems to portend the eventual overt gay relationship that occurs between Willow and Tara, but it actually doesn't. Joss Whedon has gone on record saying that, at the time, he knew he wanted either Xander or Willow to experiment with their sexuality, but didn't yet know which one. It was only later that Willow became the obvious choice, making this Hilarious in Hindsight.
  • Check the way Buffy kisses Dawn in "The Gift".
    • Joss says on the season 5 DVD special features; "[Buffy's] love interest for the season was her sister."

Willow: (about Tara) She's my girl.
Buffy: I understand.
Willow: I know you do. [Buffy strokes Dawn's hair]

    • Joss makes it clear Dawn was introduced as an intense non-romantic interest for Buffy however.
  • The Buffybot talks about Willow "servicing" her in Season Six. When you add in the pre-existing Les Yay with Buffy and Willow, Willow's overt homosexuality, and the Buffybot's original purpose...
  • Buffy and Kendra in season 2, kind of a "warm-up" to the Buffy-Faith relationship next season.
  • Buffy and Cordelia ("I know you share this feeling we have for each other, deep down...")
  • Anya and Willow (On doing a spell in season 7 "It did get a little bit sexy, didn't it?")
  • Xander and, well, everyone. Spike, Angel, Oz, Andrew, even Giles. He kind of owns this trope.
    • Xander explained why Willow would find Oz attractive. Later, he explained why Buffy would find Spike attractive. Which lead to the immortal line, "I am not having sex with Spike - but I'm starting to think that you might be." Spander is very popular in Fanfic.
    • That's not the only immortal line coupling Xander and Ho Yay. The first time he sees the Initiative's Elaborate Underground Base: "Can I sleep with Riley too?" He sounds at least as sincere as he did when he half-jokingly suggested a "pre-birthday spanking" for Buffy in season two.
  • It's heavily implied that there was something, even if we're not sure exactly what, between Warren and Andrew during season 6. Andrew was pretty obviously in love with him.
    • Ehm...

Andrew: (Crying) He left me. He flew away and left me. How could he do this to me? He promised we'd be together, but he was just using me. He never really loved... hanging out with us.

  • Honestly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans are second only to Harry Potter fans with their ability to see gay subtext between anyone. But Joss isn't exactly Mr. Anti-Subtext.
    • The show is considered a landmark in the portrayal of homosexuals on television, particularly lesbians. At least half the cases on this list were probably intentional. A decent part of it is Joss basically saying that fans can bring their own subtext to the show. Several characters (Xander and Willow) were set up as possibly being gay in future seasons. Several other characters have been hinted as having or shown to have same sex encounters (Giles with Ethan Rayne, Angel and Spike, Buffy with Satsu, Buffy with Faith). That isn't even going into the canon Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual characters on the show such as Larry, Tara, Vampire Willow, and Kennedy, or the admitted subtext between Buffy and Dawn.
  • Glory induced this way too much, to almost Depraved Bisexual levels. Particularly with Dawn: changing in front of the girl, playing with her hair, accusing her of "trying to get a peek at [my] unmentionables?" Just the start.
    • Dawn/Glory goes both ways:

Dawn: All of a sudden Glory's standing right there in front of us, all skanky and blonde and thinkin' she's all that just 'cause some bumpy heads kiss her stinky feet ... (pauses, very quietly) She does have nice feet.

    • Glory talks about having "girl time" with and says to her "Let's have big girl fun"
    • She also talks about having "girl time" with Tara and licks her hand in a sensual way
    • Not to mention Glory's response to Buffy breaking a date with her male alter-ego: "She turned us down?"
  • Buffy and Tara.
    • What's rather interesting about this one is that Willow and Riley had significant chemistry in "The Initiative". If the writers had taken this to its logical conclusion...
    • To elaborate, the episode "Dead Things" had Buffy break down crying in Tara's lap over Coming Back Wrong, begging Tara to not forgive her.
    • Tara, of all people, is Buffy's dream guide in "Restless".
  • Xander is very complimentary of Dracula after being hypnotised by him in the season 5 premiere. The season 8 comics more or less make them canon.
  • In the season 1 finale "Prophecy Girl", while walking in the sewers together, Xander yells at Angel for staring at his neck. The innuendo is as obvious as it gets.
  • Andrew and Jonathan in "Storyteller". You might half-expect them to snuggle in the bed together.
  • Spike's victims in Season Seven were mostly women, but there was Holden Webster. Who Spike told his name to before siring him. Is the implication that he picked him up too?
    • Yes. It was obvious. Although Spike was under the First Evil's control at the time, it arguably could be considered More Than Mind Control.
    • Since Angel Season 5 has him mention him and Angelus were never intimate "except that one time", I'd say Spike, like most of the cast (even though the word seems to be missing from their universe) is bisexual.
  • Spike and Giles also have some rather interesting connection, it feels pretty much like Belligerent Sexual Tension
  • In "Once More With Feeling" the demon Sweet plans to take Dawn (who he incorrectly assumes summoned him) back to the underworld to make her his queen. When Xander is revealed as the once who actually summoned Sweet, he asks if that means that he has to become Sweet's 'queen'. Sweet eyes him and says, "It's tempting".