Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Characters/Antagonists

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Big Bads

The Master (Mark Metcalf)

"Some claim that death is our art. I say to them - well, I don't say anything to them because I killed them."

Ancient vampire who spent most of Season 1 trapped in the Hellmouth. Got out at the end after temporarily killing Buffy, and was killed by Buffy shortly thereafter. The Big Bad for Season 1.

Mayor Richard Wilkins III (Harry Groener)

"Now, Faith, I don't find that sort of thing amusing. I'm a family man. Now, let's kill your little friend!"

Mayor and founder of Sunnydale. A sorcerer who planned to undergo Ascension, becoming a pure demon named Olvikan. Big Bad for Season 3.

Faith: Thanks, sugar daddy.
Wilkins: Now Faith, I don't find that sort of thing amusing. I'm a family man. Now, let's kill your little friend.

"Misery loves company, young man, and I'm looking to share that with you and your whore!"

Adam (George Hertzberg)

"Don't tell me you've never heard of The Beatles?"
 "I have. I like 'Helter Skelter'."

"What a surprise."
—Spike and Adam

Kinematically-redundant bio-mechanical demonoid. Inimical to all life, human and demon alike. The Big Bad for Season 4.

"Adam, Maggie would want you to stand down."
"Yes, but I seem to have a design flaw."

Spike: So you help me and you get this chip out of my head?
Adam: Scout's honor.
Spike: You were a boy scout?
Adam: Parts of me.

Glorificus aka Glory (Clare Kramer)

"You can't go around hitting people. What, were you born in a barn?""

Hell-god trapped in the body of a human medical student in this dimension (shifted from her own appearance to his, seemingly at random). Living on a lower plane was making her mind deteriorate, and the only way she could maintain her semi-coherence was by draining sanity straight from humans' brains. Planned to return to her own dimension by using the Key (Dawn) to break down the dimensional barriers; this would have destroyed the universe. The Big Bad for Season 5.

Warren Mears (Adam Busch)

"Let's see how popular you are without a face."

Fellow student at Sunnydale High. Good with robots, but a misogynistic bastard. Leader of the Trio, before he cut them loose and killed Tara. Was subsequently flayed alive by Dark Willow. The Big Bad for Season 6 until Dark Willow showed up. He got better in Season 8, where it was revealed Amy had kept him alive: but he was still skinless.

  • Accidental Murder: Katrina, Tara.
    • Not that he felt very bad either one.
  • Asshole Victim: Good god did he have it coming.
  • Ax Crazy
  • Badass Normal: Save for Angelus, no other villain has screwed with Buffy on such a mental and emotional level. And he did it without sleeping with her.
    • Badass Abnormal: When he gains the Orbs of Power in Season 6, and when he returns from the dead in the comics.
  • Bad Boss: Ultimately leaves Andrew and Johnathan in to take the fall for him.
  • Basement Dweller
  • Big Bad: For Season 6--Dark Willow's more of a Final Boss than a schemer.
    • Big Bad Duumvirate: Subverted. Theoretically The Trio is a gathering of equals, but its clear from early on that Warren is the nastiest of the three and the one who's really in control.
  • Body Horror: When he's brought back in Season 8, he's still without skin. It gets worse when Buffy destroys the Seed of Wonder, wiping out magic and negating the spells holding Warren together, causing him to collapse into a pile of gore.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Sort of. He only appeared in two episodes in late Season 5, which was actually supposed to be the last season. When the show was renewed on UPN, he was brought back as a major villain.
  • Co-Dragons: To Twilight with Amy and The General in Season 8.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He's a brilliant technician. How brilliant? He has created three fully functioning cyborgs that are capable of passing for human and possess superhuman levels of strength and endurance and can be programmed with memories and knowledge. Why he never thought to sell his prototype to the military and become obscenely wealthy (Wealthy enough to get women) is not specified. Of course, it does fit his petty and immature character and may have been a deliberate choice to emulate fictonal villains.
  • Evil Counterpart: Has been suggested he's basically what Xander could have become, if things went differently.
  • Evil Genius
  • Evil Is Petty: When he gains Super Strength, one of the first things he does is... beat up a jock who tormented him in high school and try to steal his girlfriend.
  • Face Heel Turn: In a way. In Season 5, he is clearly not malevolent in the least and tries to aid Buffy in stopping the rampage of his creation.
    • I think it's arguable that he wasn't malevolent at first. He was certainly callous about the fate of his robot girlfriend and watching her run out her batteries waiting for him was absolutely heartbreaking.
    • Yes, but he didn't seem to see her as anything but a machine which he created. He was insensitive from the start, but not evil until he found how much he enjoyed having power in Season 6. Also see Real Life Writes the Plot below.
    • His first appearance also sees him pretty indifferent to Buffy's fate and sees the first seeds of his misogyny (The way he brushes off his girlfriend when she is justifiably angry at him).
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: He got flayed. Worse when he returns in the Season 8 comics as a body with no skin.
  • Faux Affably Evil
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: And does it all under his own power.
  • Grand Theft Me: Nearly succeeded in stealing Willow's body.
  • He-Man Woman Hater: His anger over his inabilitly to get a date, and subsequent poor luck when he does, leds to him descending into this.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: How he and Amy survived under the Sunnydale sinkhole.
  • It's All About Me: Nobody else matters to Warren. Not Andrew, not Johnathan, not anybody.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Warren originally created a robot that would obey his every whim, but he eventually abandoned the android because he wanted a girlfriend that would be a partner in the relationship and he fell in love with a woman with her own ideas and personality. His creation of a Sex Bot and then abandoning it to "die" raises plenty of questions about his character, but he ultimately decides that he wants a woman that he can respect and interact with. In his later appearances in Season 6, he is a mysoginistic bastard who tried to brainwash, and eventually kills, his ex-girlfriend because she would not submit to his desires.
  • Lack of Empathy
  • Loners Are Freaks
  • Mad Scientist
  • Mundane Solution: After numerous failed high-tech and/or magical schemes, he just got a gun, went to the Summers house, and started firing.
  • Not Quite Dead: In the comics. To prevent Fanon Discontinuity, please imagine it is Back from the Dead.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: The poster boy.
  • Politically-Incorrect Villain: The number of times Warren uses the word "bitch" would make a good drinking game.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: Warren was only intended to be a lackey on par with Jonathan during Season 6, working under Tucker Wells (from the episode "The Prom"), who would have been the real villain of the season. It would have made sense as well, since Tucker's misdeed was far more malevolent than Jonathan's ("Superstar") or Warren's ("I was Made to Love You"). However, actor Brad Kane was unavailable to reprise the role, so Andrew Wells was created to be Tucker's brother as a substitute. Warren was likely promoted to main villain because he ended up being the most unpleasant of the three -- Andrew was an amusing Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, and Jonathan was generally well-liked by the audience for being the Butt Monkey.
  • Robot Master
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: During the Battle in Sunnydale during the Twilight crisis, he and Amy escape Spike's airship and run away.
  • Super Villain: Wants to be one.
  • Super Villain Packing Heat: After his final scheme collapses he elects to just shoot Buffy.
  • Unknown Rival: His need to be taken seriously as a Super Villain got him killed.
  • Villainous Breakdown: When he realised that Willow could not be reasoned with.

The First Evil (various, primarily Sarah Michelle Gellar)

"Into every generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world. She alone will have the strength and skill to -- There's that word again! What you are, how you'll die: Alone.

The source of all evil. Could take the appearance of anyone who has died, including Buffy and any vampire. Incorporeal, relying on manipulation to achieve its ends. The Big Bad for Season 7.

The First: "I'm not a demon, little girl. I am something you cannot even conceive. The First Evil. Beyond sin. Beyond death. I am the thing the darkness fears. You'll never see me but I am everywhere. Every being. Every thought. Every drop of hate."
Buffy: "All right, I get it. You're evil. Do we have to chat about it all day?"

Secondary and Minor Villains

Darla (Julie Benz)

"So many body parts, so few bullets. Let's begin with the kneecaps. No fun dancing without them."

Vampire who sired Angel. Was killed by him in Season 1 before re-appearing on Angel.

"You're (Angel) angry, that's good. You're hurting me, that's good, too."

Collin, The Anointed One (Andrew J. Ferchland)

Child turned into a vampire in Season 1. Originally planned as the Big Bad for Season 2, the actor's growth made it implausible for him to be ageless, and was killed off by Spike. And There Was Much Rejoicing.

Drusilla (Juliet Landau)

"We're going to destroy the world. Want to come?"

Creepy cockney vampire who sired Spike in 1880. Formerly a chaste Catholic girl, cursed with "the sight" -- visions of the future. Spotted by Angelus during his heyday, he took a liking to her and set about tormenting her and killing her entire family. Then, on the day she was to become a nun, he slaughtered the convent and turned her into a vampire. Certifiably insane, Drusilla has an almost child-like demeanor, hiding how extremely dangerous she is.

Spike: It's DEAD, Dru. You didn't feed it, now it's DEAD, just like the last ones.

Ethan Rayne (Robin Sachs)

An old friend of Giles', and a chaos-worshipping sorcerer.

Kakistos

Mr. Trick (K. Todd Freeman)

"Sunnydale. Town's got quaint, and the people! He called me "sir", don't you just miss that? I mean, admittedly, it's not a haven for the brothers. You know, strictly the Caucasian persuasion here in the 'Dale. But you know, you just gotta stand up and salute that death rate. I ran a statistical analysis and, Hello Darkness! Makes D.C. look like Mayberry."

Tech-savvy vampire from early Season 3. Aided the Mayor before being killed and replaced by Faith.

"Nobody can tell Marmaduke what to do. That's my kinda dog".

Vampire Willow (Alyson Hannigan)
That's me as a vampire? I'm so evil and...skanky! (And I think I'm kinda gay.)
—Willow

Willow's doppelgänger from an alternate universe in which Buffy never moved to Sunnydale. With no one around to prevent the Master's return, the town was taken over by vampires, with Willow and Xander serving proudly as the Master's top lieutenants. Vampire Willow is staked by Oz, who shoves her into a broken wooden board. She is momentarily saved from death by a botched magic spell (courtesy of her non-vampire counterpart) which deposits her in the 'real' world. Disappointed by the mundane Sunnydale, Vampire Willow decides to recreate her own world by taking over the town.

Willow: I guess vampires really don't have to breathe. [glances down] Gosh, look at those."

D'Hoffryn (Andy Umberger)

Anya's old boss, and the one responsible for recruiting and training new vengeance demons.

Professor Maggie Walsh (Lindsay Crouse)

"Almost time to wake up, Adam. And take your first look at the world."

Head of The Initiative and Buffy's psych professor.

Veruca (Paige Moss)

A werewolf singer with an interest in Oz.

Forrest Gates (Leonard Roberts)

Riley's best friend and second-in-command in the Initiative, who gets very jealous of Buffy's influence. Killed and re-animated by Adam near the end of the season.

Harmony Kendall (Mercedes McNab)
"Harmony, when you tried to be head cheerleader, you were bad. When you tried to chair the homecoming committee, you were really bad. But when you try to be bad... you suck."
—Buffy

Formerly Cordelia's best friend, turned into a vampire at the end of Season 3. Spent a while as Spike's squeeze, and made a laughable attempt at becoming the Big Bad in Season 5. Eventually moved to Angel, but returned in Season 8, where she reveals the existence of vampires and demons to the world, and gets a reality show. Basically Tori Spelling if she were undead.

Dracula

"What can you tell me about Dracula?"

"Dracula? [scoffs] Poncey bugger owes me £11, for one thing."
—Riley and Spike

Dracula. Does more need to be said?

Actually, for this version, it does. He is evil, politically incorrect, and extremely powerful, having far more powers than a normal vampire. He is also best friends with Xander, and was taught how to ride a motorbike by him. Nobody really understands this relationship, and most are really confused by it. He's also not exactly well liked among his own kind as it was him who gave Bram Stoker the inspiration for the book bearing his name, which first put vampires in the public eye (even though still fictional). As Spike puts it, they consider him a "sell out".

  • Animorphism
  • Badass: What did you expect, it's Dracula.
    • Badass Grandpa: Part of his speech to Toru when the other vampires mock him by calling him "Old Man" is basically bitch-slapping him and stating that Europe ran red with the blood of his enemies LONG before he became a vampire, so, really, it's the "Old Man" that he should be afraid of.
  • Cool Sword
  • Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?
  • Dual Age Modes
  • Enemy Mine: "I loathe Buffy Summers, her whole army makes me want to retch, and I'd just as soon see them wiped off the map once and for all. However, nobody steals from Dracula."
  • Game Face: He is the rare exception in that he doesn't have one.
  • Man of Wealth and Taste
  • Odd Friendship: With Xander.
  • Pet the Dog: He has genuine fondness for Xander and considers Xander to be one of his dearest friends, to the point that he was enraged on Xander's behalf after Renee's death and tore vampire chumps to pieces like wet paper.
  • Politically-Incorrect Villain: He is portrayed as simply politically incorrect, without malice behind it, his attitudes being mainly a result of extraordinary age.
    • Politically incorrect nothing. A slayer is murdered and strung up, a message written in her blood. Buffy brings her body home, where she meets Dracula and plans an attack. Before they go, however, Dracula asks if anyone is going to finish eating the dead slayer.
    • He refers to Renee as "[Xander's] moor"
  • Retired Monster
  • Running Gag: The "Eleven Pounds" he owes Spike.
  • Smoke Out
  • Taken for Granite: In 1947 by Comte de Saint-Germain. He is freed by Spike inadvertently.
  • Teleport Spam
  • This Is Not My Life to Take: Dracula cripples the leader of the vampire army, who screams at Dracula to let him die with honor. Dracula tells the crippled vampire that he knows nothing of honor, and that he is not Dracula's to kill —- after which he hands his sword to Xander, whose girlfriend, Renee, the vampire leader had murdered. Xander delivers the coup de grace.
  • Super Smoke
  • Villainous Widow's Peak
  • Villain Teleportation
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting

Halfrek (Kali Rocha)

Anya's friend and fellow vengeance demon. Her specialty is answering wishes from children to punish bad parents and parental figures (which was bad when Dawn's issues reached boiling point).

  • Affably Evil: Acts quite sweet, calls Willow "lemon drop", etc. Genuinely friendly to Anya, in fact her only real friend in demondom.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Related to the above, being a seemingly sweet-natured guidance counselor who is really a vengeance demon. Also, her insinuations against Xander to Anya.
  • Daddy Issues: According to Anya.
  • Evil Counterpart: Has no empathy for her victims. She is essentially Anya before becoming human.
  • Failed Attempt At Drama: In "Older And Far Away," she tries to teleport away dramatically (twice) but her own spell kept her in the house.
  • Famous Last Words: "Anya...?"
  • Friendly Rival: To Anya.
  • Game Face
  • Pet the Dog: She seemed to genuinely care about Dawn's problems and thought she was doing the right thing.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Halfrek was more easygoing and worldly compared to the workaholic and awkward Anya.
  • Rich Bitch: As Cecily.
  • Technicolor Death
  • You Look Familiar: Kali Rocha played Cecily, the woman who spurned Spike when he was William the human poet. The inspiration for the famous "My heart expands, 'tis grown a bulge in't, inspired by your beauty, effulgent." Halfrek and Spike recognize each other, then embarrassedly deny knowing each other. Word of God confirms that Halfrek = Cecily.
    • Although, when speaking to Anya, Halfrek mentioned "...that thing during the Crimean War. We laugh about it now." The Crimean War happened before Spike was turned, so either Cecily was already a vengeance demon in disguise or there's time travel involved.
  • Villain Teleportation

Dark Willow (Alyson Hannigan)

Girl is running on pure fury. I've never felt anything like it.

Appears in the last three episodes of Season 6. What Willow turns into after she absorbs all the Magic Shop's Tome of Eldritch Lore after her lover Tara was accidentally shot dead by Warren. When the Scoobies try to stop her Roaring Rampage of Revenge, she's fully prepared to kill them as well.

Xander: And can I just ask, what's with the Make-Over of the Damned? I mean, the hair...!

Amy Madison (Elizabeth Anne Allen)

Fellow student at Sunnydale High, and a witch. Introduced in Season 1 when her mother switched bodies with her to relive her glory days as a cheerleader. Thanks to Buffy's help, the spell was reversed and her mother got a spell rebounded on her that trapped her in a cheerleading trophy. Continued her school life since then with occasional run-ins with the Scoobies. Turned herself into a rat in Season 3, and was turned back by Willow in Season 6. Notable for appearing in one episode per season of the first four seasons. Had an expanded role in the comics.

Caleb (Nathan Fillion)

"Back before I met you, there was this choir girl in Knoxville I used to give singing lessons to. She even screamed on-key"

Former priest and physical vessel for The First.

Comic-specific Villains

Twilight

"Look around you. The Queen is dead. Long live me."

A mysterious masked villain who leads an alliance of Buffy's old enemies and the US military against the new army of Slayers that Buffy created at the end of Season 7. He has Super Strength and Flight, and can be summoned by anyone who is marked with his symbol. Turns out he's actually Angel; he took the Twilight identity to take command of those who would target the Slayers and manipulate them into keeping the body count as low as possible.

However, Twilight also turned out to be the name of a sentient dimension that manipulated Angel into giving birth to itself with the help of Buffy, and attempts to steal the Seed of Wonder from underneath Sunnydale, which would end that dimension and make Twilight the most powerful dimension.

Tropes that apply to the person Twilight (a.k.a. Angel)

Tropes that apply to the sentient dimension Twilight

General Voll

The original leader of the U.S. military forces alligned with Twilight. Word of God states that the writers forgot about him when replacing him with the second General.

Genevieve Savidge

"Buffy has forced our kind to be the serfs of this world, when we should have been lording over the masses."

A rich British Slayer and daughter of a powerful noble, she is recruited by Roden to kill Buffy and take over the Slayer Organization, in order to impose their rule on the world. She is befriended by an undercover Faith, who foils her attempt to kill Buffy and is then accidentally killed by Faith as she attempts to redeem her.

Roden

A Irish warlock and a master of The Dark Arts who joined Twilight's cause in an attempt to survive the end of magic, recruiting Genevieve Savidge to kill all the other Slayers.

Simone Doffler

"Come back?! Haven't you heard? We're the bad guys now. People think vamps are cool and Slayers are the threat. Difference between you and me? I am a threat."

A rogue Slayer who broke off from Buffy's organization and started her own, believing that Slayers were better than other humans and that they should rule over them, no matter the cost. Simone also really likes guns.

Sephrilian

"All my faces are there to see. But you humans... you have too many. I would be rid of your kind. I welcome this war. I know all you weaknesses. And soon all my brethren will as well."

A draconic-looking Old One, Sephrilian is one of the Demon elite who walk the line between the human reality and the others. He was approached by Buffy and Willow, who sought information on Twilight. Has four unmoving faces: happy, sad, angry and fearful.

Toru

The leader of a large vampire gang based out of Tokyo, Toru tricked Dracula into giving his powers to Toru and all his men, stole the scythe from Buffy's fortress, and planned to use it to De-Power all of the Slayers in the world. In the process, he killed Renee, Xander's Love Interest. He was defeated by Dracula, who let Xander kill him in Revenge.

Raidon

Toru's right-hand man, he is killed by Satsu right before he can bite Buffy.

Kumiko Ishihara

A Japanese vampire witch and follower of Toru, Kumiko was trained by the same demon guide as Willow.

Monroe

A werewolf and former student of Oz and Bayarmaa who learned to control his transformation, but strayed off the path. Now heads a group of werewolves that share his way of thinking: the wolf is the best part of them, they should revel in it, and anyone thinking differently is to be eliminated.

The Swell

A group of demons that all resemble vampire cat dolls, they could possess people by crawling down their throats, and join together to create a giant Vampy Cat.

The General

The second leader of the US military forces working with Twilight against the Slayer Organization.

Pearl and Nash

Half-demon/half-human twins raised by their human mother to usher in the next stage of human evolution. They worked for Twilight to achieve this goal, until it was revealed that Angel was Twilight and tricking them. Now they want Revenge.

Severin

A mysterious young man with the power to burn the demon spirits out of vampires, leaving behind ordinary corpses.

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