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First Evil
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The First Evil
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character
First appearance
"Amends"
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
Robia LaMorte
 Cornelia Hayes O'Herlihy
Edward Edwards
 Shane Barach
Adam Busch
Clare Kramer
George Hertzberg
Harry Groener
Juliet Landau
Mark Metcalf
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Azura Skye
Kristine Sutherland
James Marsters
Danny Strong
 Amanda Fuller
K.D. Aubert
Lalaine
Carrie Southworth
Nathan Fillion
Information

Notable powers
Assumes form of anyone that has died.
The First Evil (also called The First) is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The First Evil first appeared in the third season episode "Amends", and became the main antagonist of the 7th and final season.
A being manifested from all evil in existence, the First is an incorporeal entity that can assume the form of any person who has died, including vampires and dead persons who have been resurrected. Because of this it appears in various forms over the course of the series depending on who it is appearing to as a method of manipulation. For this reason, the First usually appears as Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) to the Slayer and her allies, but it also assumes the forms of Warren Mears, Spike, Drusilla and Jonathan Levinson on multiple occasions, among a variety of other forms taken less frequently.
Its only real weakness is that it is non-corporeal, and can therefore not do real physical damage. It is, however, expert at psychological manipulation, and can act through its servants, such as the Bringers, Turok-Han, Caleb or whatever person it can manage to trick.


Contents  [hide]
1 Biography 1.1 Character history
1.2 Powers and abilities
2 Appearances
3 Further reading
4 See also

Biography[edit]
Character history[edit]
The First Evil claims to be the source and embodiment of all that is evil. For technical purposes, the First Evil is neither male, female, demon, nor god; it is a "power". The First is older than demons, even the Old Ones, who themselves existed long before the first humans; it is older than the written word, the Big Bang and transcends all realities and dimensions; it is older than any other evil being and may even be the very first entity ever to have existed. It is said that the First lurked in the darkness long before the universe was even created and shall remain long after the universe ends. Few have heard of it and even fewer believe in its existence.
The entity cannot affect the world on a physical level. Its power lies in its ability to deceive, torment and manipulate others. It can take the form of anyone who has died, (or as an enormous, phantasmic demon with large horns and long, talon-shaped fingers), and it can choose to be seen and heard by just one person or by multiple people. The First has a deep understanding of human nature and it uses this knowledge to drive others to madness, murder and/or suicide.
The First makes its initial appearance in the series as a "monster of the week" that Angel must face in the episode "Amends". It tries to drive the vampire to kill Buffy by reminding him of his "true" nature (Angelus) and it sets about accomplishing this by appearing to him as some of his victims: Daniel, Margaret, Travis and Jenny Calendar. It tells Angel that it is responsible for his return from Hell, a claim which is ambiguous because of its deceptive nature and of The Powers That Be is likely the true culprit. The First suggests that Angel can end his sufferings by turning evil again, but the benevolent vampire chooses to kill himself using the sunrise instead out of fear of his evil alter-ego. Even though Angel's death is not a part of the ideal plan (killing Buffy), the First does not mind because a powerful blow to the forces of Good would still be dealt (an elimination of a champion for The Powers That Be and the Shanshu Prophecy candidate). Despite Buffy initially unable of saving Angel's life, The Powers That Be ultimately intervened thus resulting The First's defeat.
Buffy's death(s) at the end of season 1 and/or the end of season 5 and subsequent resurrections caused an irregularity, or glitch, in the Slayer line that the First realizes and uses to eliminate the Slayer line forever. The First planned to use this glitch and kill the two Slayers (Buffy and Faith) and all the Potential Slayers thus tipping the balance of good and evil completely off tilt. All of this is part of the First's master plan to become all powerful and enter into the hearts, minds and souls of every single man, woman and child on Earth.
First, the First orders its second-in-command, the defrocked priest Caleb to send the Bringers after potential Slayers and destroy the Watcher's Council. The First then went to Sunnydale to attempt to open the Hellmouth, manipulating Andrew to kill Jonathan to do so. However, as Jonathan was anemic, this only resulted in negative energy flowing out.
The First revealed itself after ordering the Bringers to capture Spike, who it had spent months psychologically tormenting. Bleeding Spike, it was able to open the Hellmouth and release a Turok-Han, an ancient primeval uber-vampire, which it sent after Buffy and company.
After Buffy managed to kill the uber-vampire, the First lays low for a few weeks, then returns to psychologically torment the Potential Slayers. It also summons its second in command, Caleb to Sunnydale and begins the search for the Slayer's Scythe, which Buffy eventually takes. The First was defeated as Buffy, Faith, Spike and the Potential Slayers made a final assault against The First's Army of Turok-Han inside the Hellmouth.
The First appears in the video game Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds as the main antagonist, having helped Ethan Rayne escape from his imprisonment at the hands of the Initiative, and also participating in a battle between the two (or rather, each of their five champions). Buffy, Willow, Xander, Faith, Spike, and Ethan are all transported to the First's dimension (which appears as a version of Sunnydale similar to "Wishverse" created by Anya) against their will.
Powers and abilities[edit]
Neither male or female, living or dead, the First is pure power. It is the darkness inside the hearts and souls of all living creatures. The fact that the First has no physical body makes it impossible, or at least extremely difficult to kill. Yet, because of this, the First cannot truly interact with the physical world. However, certain people are able to interact and even become one with the First, such as Caleb.
The First appears in the physical world as dead people. This included people who have died, vampires and even dead people who have been resurrected. This allows the First to manipulate people (such as appearing as Warren to get Andrew to kill Jonathan), or engage in psychological warfare such as torturing Spike or appearing as dead Potentials to attack the others. The First seems also to know mannerisms, information and details of the life of whoever it is appearing as. This is best shown in "Conversations with Dead People" as the First appears to Dawn as her mother Joyce, appears to Andrew as Warren and appears to Willow as Cassie Newton, in an attempt to manipulate them all into serving its purpose.
As essentially the source of all evil, the First has knowledge of every monster and dark ritual in existence. This was exemplified by the runes the Bringers carved into Spike's chest to summon the Turok-Han.
As the First is said to be eternal, existing before time and believed to be the only thing remaining after the end of time, it is infinitely patient. A defeat it suffers is nothing more than a minor setback.
Appearances[edit]
The First Evil has appeared in 16 canonical Buffyverse episodes:
Buffy the Vampire SlayerSeason 3 (1998) "Amends" (as Daniel, Margaret, Jenny Calendar, and Travis–name revealed in the shooting scripts).
Season 7 (2002–2003) "Lessons" (as Warren Mears, Glory, Adam, The Mayor, Drusilla, The Master, and Buffy Summers)
"Selfless" (as Buffy Summers)
"Conversations with Dead People" (as Warren Mears, Cassie Newton, and Joyce Summers)
"Sleeper" (as Buffy Summers and Spike)
"Never Leave Me" (as Buffy Summers, Spike, Warren Mears, and Jonathan Levinson)
"Bring on the Night" (as Spike and Drusilla)
"Showtime" (as Buffy Summers and Eve)
"First Date" (as Jonathan Levinson and Nikki Wood)
"Get It Done" (as Chloe)
"Storyteller" (as Warren Mears)
"Dirty Girls" (as Buffy Summers and Betty)
"Empty Places" (as Buffy Summers)
"Touched" (as Richard Wilkins and Buffy Summers)
"End of Days" (as Buffy Summers)
"Chosen" (as Buffy Summers and Caleb).

Further reading[edit]
Gallagher, Diana G. Prime Evil. Simon and Schuster, 2001. p. 60. ISBN 0-7434-3154-5
Holder, Nancy. CHOSEN. Simon Spotlight Entertainment, June 2003. ISBN 0-7434-8792-3
Jowett, Lorna. Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan. Wesleyan University Press, 2005. p. 116. ISBN 0-8195-6758-2
Kaveney, Roz. Reading the Vampire Slayer: The Complete, Unofficial Guide to Buffy And Angel. Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2004. pp. 49–51. ISBN 1-86064-984-X
South, James B. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: fear and trembling in Sunnydale. Open Court Publishing, 2003. p. 213. ISBN 0-8126-9531-3
Tracy, Kathleen. The Girl's Got Bite: The Original Unauthorized Guide to Buffy's World. St. Martin's Press, 2003. p. 342. ISBN 0-312-31258-X
Wilcox, Rhonda V. Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I.B. Tauris, 2005. pp. 32, 48, 51, 61, 77, 89, 91, 100, 105-106. ISBN 1-84511-029-3
See also[edit]

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Willow Rosenberg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Willow Rosenberg
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel character

Alyson Hannigan as Willow

First appearance
"Welcome to the Hellmouth" (Buffy, 1997)
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
Alyson Hannigan
Information

Affiliation
Scooby Gang
Notable powers
Powerful magical abilities
Willow Danielle Rosenberg is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the TV series by Alyson Hannigan. Willow plays an integral role within the inner circle of friends—later called the Scooby Gang—who support Buffy Summers, a teenager gifted with superhuman powers to defeat vampires, demons, and other evil in the fictional town of Sunnydale. The series begins as Buffy, Willow, and their friend Xander are in 10th grade and Willow is a shy and nerdy girl with little confidence. She has inherent magical abilities and begins to study witchcraft; as the series progresses, Willow becomes more sure of herself and her magical powers become significant if inconsistent. Her dependence on magic becomes so consuming that it develops into a dark force that takes her on a redemptive journey in a major story arc when she becomes season 6's "big bad", threatening to destroy the world in a fit of grief and rage.
The Buffy series became extremely popular and earned a devoted fanbase; Willow's intelligence, shy nature, and vulnerability often resounded strongly with viewers in early seasons. Of the core characters, Willow changes the most, becoming a complex portrayal of a woman whose powers force her to seek balance between what is best for the people she loves and what she is capable of doing. Her character stood out as a positive portrayal of a Jewish woman and at the height of her popularity, she fell in love with another woman, a witch named Tara Maclay. They became one of the first lesbian couples on U.S. television and one of the most positive relationships of the series. In addition to being the only character other than Buffy herself to appear in every episode, Willow is featured in three episodes of the spinoff Angel, an animated series and video game (both of which use Hannigan's voice), and the comic Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–2011), which uses Hannigan's likeness and continues Willow's storyline following the television series. Willow was included in AfterEllen.com's Top 50 Lesbian and Bisexual Characters, ranking at No. 7.[1] She was also ranked No. 12 in their Top 50 Favorite Female TV Characters.[2] UGO.com named her one of the best TV nerds.[3] AOL also listed her as the #1 TV witch of all time, and one of the 100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters.[4]


Contents  [hide]
1 Character history 1.1 Pilot and casting
1.2 Television series (1997–2003) 1.2.1 Seasons 1–3
1.2.2 Seasons 4–6
1.2.3 Season 7
1.3 Comic series (2007–)
2 Identities 2.1 Vamp Willow
2.2 Dark Willow
3 Relationships 3.1 Oz
3.2 Tara Maclay
3.3 Kennedy
3.4 Aluwyn
4 Cultural impact
5 See also
6 Notes
7 Citations
8 Bibliography
9 Further reading

Character history[edit]
Pilot and casting[edit]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (often simplified as Buffy) was originally conceived by Joss Whedon for a 1992 feature film. However, in its development Whedon felt it lost some of the quirkiness he considered was the heart of the project, and it was not received as well as he liked. He began to develop for television the concept of a fashion-conscious girl named Buffy, who is imbued with superhuman abilities and attends a high school situated on a portal to hell.[5] Whedon created a group of friends for the main character, including Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris. A half-hour pilot was filmed starring Riff Regan as Willow, but it was eventually left unaired and network executives requested that Regan be replaced. Willow's character demanded that she be shy and unsure of herself, and the casting department encountered some difficulty finding actors who could portray this effectively and still be likable.[6] After seven auditions, 23-year-old Alyson Hannigan was hired for the role.[7] She was chosen for being able to spin the character's lines with a self-effacing optimism. She later stated in an interview, "I didn't want to do Willow as someone who's feeling sorry for herself. Especially in the first season, she couldn't talk to guys, and nobody liked her. I was like, 'I don't want to play somebody who's down on herself."[8]
In the beginning of the series, Hannigan used her own experiences in high school—which she called "overwhelmingly depressing"[8]—to guide her portrayal of Willow. "My theory on high school was, get in, get out and hopefully I won't get hurt. Basically it was a miserable experience, because you're a walking hormone in this place that is just so cruel. There were times that were OK, but it's not the little myth that high school is the best years of your life. No way."[9][10] Whedon intended Willow to be realistically introverted, saying "I wanted Willow to have that kind of insanely colorful interior life that truly shy people have. And Alyson has that. She definitely has a loopiness I found creeping into the way Willow talked, which was great. To an extent, all the actors conform to the way I write the character, but it really stands out in Willow's case."[11]
Television series (1997–2003)[edit]
Seasons 1–3[edit]
The Buffy television series first aired mid-season in March 1997, almost immediately earning positive critical reviews.[12][13] Willow is presented as a bookish nerd with considerable computer skills, dowdily dressed and easily intimidated by more popular girls in school. She grows faint at the sight of monsters, but quickly forms a friendship with Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and is revealed to have grown up as friends with Xander (Nicholas Brendon). They are mentored by the school librarian who is also Buffy's Watcher, Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), who often works closely with Willow in researching the various monsters the group encounters. Joss Whedon found that Hannigan was especially gifted reacting with fear (calling her the "king of pain") and viewers responded strongly when she was placed in danger, needing to be rescued by Buffy. Willow in various predicaments became common in early episodes.[14][15] However, Willow establishes herself as integral to the group's effectiveness, often willing to break rules by hacking into highly secure computer systems.[16]
In the second season when the characters are in 11th grade, Willow becomes more sure of herself, standing up to the conceited Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), and approaching Xander, on whom she has had a crush for years, although it is unrequited as Xander is in love with Buffy. Seth Green joined the cast during the second season as Oz, a high school senior who becomes a werewolf, and Willow's primary romantic interest. The show's popularity by early 1998 was evident to the cast members, and Hannigan remarked on her surprise specifically.[7] Willow was noted to be the spirit of the Scooby Gang, and Hannigan attributed Willow's popularity with viewers (she had by May 1998 seven websites devoted to her) to being an underdog who develops confidence and is accepted by Buffy, a strong, popular person in school.[10] Hannigan described her appeal: "Willow is the only reality-based character. She really is what a lot of high-schoolers are like, with that awkwardness and shyness, and all those adolescent feelings."[17]
At the end of the second season, Willow begins to study magic following the murder of the computer teacher and spell caster Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte). Willow is able to perform a complicated spell to restore the soul of Angel, a vampire who is also Calendar's murderer and Buffy's boyfriend. During the third season three episodes explore Willow's backstory and foreshadow her development. In "Gingerbread", her home life is made clearer: Sunnydale falls under the spell of a demon who throws the town's adults into a moral panic, and Willow's mother is portrayed as a career-obsessed academic who is unable to communicate with her daughter, eventually trying to burn Willow at the stake for being involved in witchcraft;[18] her father is never featured. In "The Wish" a vengeance demon named Anya (Emma Caulfield) grants Cordelia's wish that Buffy never came to Sunnydale, showing what would happen if it were overrun with vampires. In this alternate reality, Willow is an aggressively bisexual vampire. In a related episode, "Doppelgangland", Willow meets "Vamp Willow", who dresses provocatively and flirts with her.[19]
Seasons 4–6[edit]
Willow chooses to attend college with Buffy in Sunnydale although she is accepted to prestigious schools elsewhere. Her relationships with Buffy and Xander become strained as they try to find their place following high school. Willow becomes much more confident in college, finally finding a place that respects her intellect, while Buffy has difficulty in classes and Xander does not attend school. Willow's relationship with Oz continues until he becomes involved with another werewolf and leaves town to learn how to control the wolf within. She becomes depressed and explores magic more deeply, often with powerful but inconsistent results. Her grief reaches such a point that she's offered a chance to replace Anya as the vengeance demon of scorned women. She joins the campus Wicca group, meeting Tara Maclay, eventually falling in love with and choosing to be with her even when Oz returns to Sunnydale after getting his lycanthropic tendencies under control.[20]
Each season the Scoobies face a villain they call the Big Bad. In the fifth season, this becomes a goddess named Glory (Clare Kramer) that Buffy is unable to fight by herself. The writers of the series often use elements of fantasy and horror as metaphors for real-life conflicts. The series' use of magic, as noted by religion professor Gregory Stevenson, neither promotes nor denigrates Wiccan ideals and Willow rejects Wiccan colleagues for not practicing the magic she favors. Throughout the series, magic is employed to represent different ideas—relationships, sexuality, ostracism, power, and particularly for Willow, addiction—that change between episodes and seasons. The ethical judgment of magic, therefore, lies in the results: performing magic to meet selfish needs or neglecting to appreciate its power often ends disastrously. Using it wisely for altruistic reasons is considered a positive act on the series.[21] Through witchcraft, Willow becomes the only member of the group to cause damage to Glory. She reveals that the spells she casts are physically demanding, giving her headaches and nosebleeds. When Glory assaults Tara, making her insane, Willow, in a magical rage that causes her eyes to turn black, finds Glory and battles her. She does not come from the battle unscathed and must be assisted by Buffy, but her power is evident and surprising to her friends. The final episode of the fifth season sees Willow restoring Tara's sanity and crucially weakening Glory in the process. It also features Buffy's death, sacrificing herself to save the world.[22] Willow subsequently appears in the season finale of Buffy spin-off Angel to deliver the sad news to her ex-boyfriend, Angel.
Willow and Tara move into the Summers house and raise Buffy's younger sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). Fearing that Buffy is in hell, Willow suggests at the beginning of the sixth season that she be raised from the dead. In a dark ceremony in which she expels a snake from her mouth, Willow performs the magic necessary to bring Buffy back. She is successful, but Buffy keeps it secret that she believes she was in heaven. Willow's powers grow stronger; she uses telepathy which her friends find intrusive, and she begins to cast spells to manipulate Tara. After failing Tara's challenge to go for one week without performing magic, Tara leaves Willow, and for two episodes Willow descends into an addiction that almost kills Dawn. Willow goes for months without any magic, helping Buffy track three geeks called The Trio who grandiosely aspire to be super-villains.
Immediately following a reconciliation with Tara, Warren (Adam Busch), one of the Trio, shoots Buffy with a single stray shoot hitting Tara who tells Willow about her shirt before falling to the ground, dead. In an explosion of rage and grief, Willow first summons Osiris, demanding that he bring Tara back to life but seeing as Tara's death wasn't supernatural, Osiris forbids it. After sending him away, Willow soaks up all the dark magic text she can with the powers altering her physical appearance, i.e. changing her red hair and eyes completely black which in turns results in the birth of her murderous alter-ego, "Dark Willow" and as such, Dark Willow embarks on a quest to get revenge against the Trio for Tara's death while also planning to destroy the world.
In the final episodes of the season Willow becomes exceedingly strong, surviving unharmed when Warren hits her in the back with an axe. She hunts Warren, tortures him and magically flays him, apparently fatally. Unsatisfied, she attempts to kill the other two members of the Trio and, unsuccessful at this, tries to destroy the world, only to be stopped by Xander.[23]
Season 7[edit]
Scared by her own power, the seventh season starts with Willow in England, studying with a coven near Giles' home learning to understand the depth of her power and to harness it for good, rather than destruction. She fears returning to Sunnydale and what she is capable of doing. Through the season, Willow worries that she may lose control and attack her friends. Buffy and the Scoobies face the First Evil, bent on ending the Slayer line and destroying the world. Potential Slayers from around the globe congregate at Buffy's home and she trains them to battle the First Evil. Willow continues to face her grief over Tara's death and becomes involved with one of the Potentials, Kennedy (Iyari Limon). In the final episode of the series, "Chosen", Buffy calls upon Willow to perform the most powerful spell she has ever attempted. With Kennedy nearby, cautioned to kill her if she becomes out of control, Willow 'activates' every Potential Slayer in the world, causing them to become Slayers themselves. The spell momentarily turns her hair white, and it ensures that Buffy and the Potentials defeat the First Evil. Willow is able to escape with Buffy, Xander, Giles, and Kennedy as Sunnydale is destroyed.[24]
Through the gamut of changes Willow endures in the series, Buffy studies scholar Ian Shuttleworth states that Alyson Hannigan's performances are the reason for Willow's popularity: "Hannigan can play on audience heartstrings like a concert harpist... As an actress she is a perfect interpreter in particular of the bare emotional directness which is the specialty of [series writer Marti] Noxon on form."[25]
Comic series (2007–)[edit]



 The one-shot comic cover of Willow: Goddesses and Monsters showing the character in an embrace with Aluwyn. Artwork by Jo Chen.
Subsequent to Buffy's television finale, Dark Horse Comics collaborated with Joss Whedon to produce a canonical comic book continuation of the series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–2011), written by Whedon and many other writers from the television series. Unfettered by the practical limitations of casting or a television special effects budget, Season Eight explores more fantastic storylines, characters, and abilities for Willow. Willow's cover art is done by Jo Chen, and Georges Jeanty and Karl Moline produce character artwork and provide alternative covers. It was followed by two closely interlinked sequels, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine and Angel & Faith (both 2012–).[26][27] Willow features at different times in both series, as well as in her own spin-off miniseries.[28] Jeanty continues to provide Willow's likeness in Season Nine, while Rebekah Isaacs and Brian Ching are the primary pencillers of Angel & Faith and Willow: Wonderland respectively. While Season Nine and Angel & Faith are substantially less fantastical in tone than Season Eight,[27] Willow's spin-off is high fantasy and focuses on her journey through magical alternate worlds.[28]
In Season Eight, Willow appears to Buffy and Xander, who are in charge of thousands of Slayers, a year after the destruction of Sunnydale. Willow reveals a host of new abilities including being able to fly and self-heal. The primary villain of Season Eight is a masked man named Twilight who is bent on destroying magic in the world.[29] A one-shot comic dedicated to Willow's story was released in 2009 titled Willow: Goddesses and Monsters. It explores the time she took away to discover more about her magical powers, under the tutelage a half-woman half-snake demon named Aluwyn. Willow is still involved with Kennedy through Season Eight, but becomes intimate with Aluwyn while they are together. She also continues to deal with grief from Tara's death, and struggles with the dark forces of magic that put her in opposition to Buffy.[30] At the conclusion of the season, Buffy destroys an object, a seed, that is the source of the magic in the world, leaving Willow powerless.[31] Willow also ends her relationship with Kennedy, due to guilt over her feelings for Aluwyn, whom she can no longer communicate with.
In Season Nine, restoring magic to the world is a personal obsession for Willow.[27] After a shared dream with Buffy, she realises Buffy's Scythe—which, like Buffy, retains its powers—is instrumental to the restoration of magic. She next appears in Angel & Faith for a story arc in which she uses residual magic in the Scythe in conjunction with Angel's son Connor to open a portal to the hell dimension where Connor was raised. Once in an alternate dimension, Willow is able to access magic, and begins travelling between dimensions on a quest to restore it to her home world. Her story continues in the spin-off series Willow: Wonderland,[28] where she struggles to achieve her objective or return to Earth, but is reunited with Aluwyn. After realizing that Aluwyn was keeping her apart from her friends, Willow has an epiphany concerning her own nature and comes to understand that "Dark Willow" and "Light Willow" are really one and the same person. After a journey to a sentient universe, she is brought back to her universe with her magic restored and with the message that it is for all the world to share.[32] In the final arc of the Buffy title of Season 9, Willow returns to San Francisco and is able to use her restored abilities to awaken Dawn Summers from a coma, but Dawn is still close to death without magic to sustain her form. Willow, Buffy and Xander head to the Deeper Well to find enough magic to save Dawn. She is angry upon learning Xander helped villains Severin the Siphon and Slayer Simone Doffler into the Well. Once inside she begins to charge with power and starts to turn red. She thinks the magic may be enough to restore the whole world. Buffy is worried Willow appears to be becoming Dark again, but Willow says it is and always was just her and the two mend the rift that was between them ever since the end of magic. Willow is able to convince Buffy to trust her, and to leave the magical side of the conflict in her hands while Buffy faces Simone. Willow sacrifices her powers to create a new Seed of magic which will save the world but not until the next millennium. Severin is unable to turn back time with his powers and is convinced to attempt to transfer his energy to the new Seed which might restore magic immediately. As the Scoobies evacuate, Buffy dusts Simone who had became a vampire, and Severin explodes seemingly killing himself, but restoring magic. Willow returns everyone to San Francisco and uses magic and Buffy's blood to restore Dawn. Willow can sense something in the world is different and the effects of humans being sired into vampires are shown to have drastically changed.
Identities[edit]
From the inception of Willow's character in the first season, she is presented with contradictions. Bookish, rational, naive, and sometimes absent-minded, she is also shown being open to magic, aggressively boyish, and intensely focused. Willow is malleable, in continuous transition more so than any other Buffy character. She is, however, consistently labeled as dependable and reliable by the other characters and thus to the audience, making her appear to be stable.[33] She is unsure of who she is; despite all the tasks she takes on and excels at, for much of the series she has no identity.[34] This is specifically exhibited in the fourth season finale "Restless", an enigmatic pastiche of characters' dream sequences. In Willow's dream, she moves from an intimate moment painting a love poem by Sappho on Tara's bare back,[note 1] to attending the first day of drama class to learn that she is to be in a play performed immediately for which she does not know the lines or understand. The dream presents poignant anxieties about how she appears to others, not belonging, and the consequences of people finding out her true self. As Willow gives a book report in front of her high school class, she discovers herself wearing the same mousy outfit she wore in the first episode of the show ("Welcome to the Hellmouth") as her friends and classmates shout derisively at her, and Oz and Tara whisper intimately to each other in the audience. She is attacked and strangled by the First Slayer as the class ignores her cries for help.[35][36]
Long a level-headed character who sacrifices her own desires for those of her friends, she gradually abandons these priorities to be more independent and please herself. She is often shown making choices that allow her to acquire power or knowledge and avoid emotional conflict.[37] The story arc of Willow's growing dependence on magic was noted by Marti Noxon as the representation of "adult crossroads" and Willow's inability and unwillingness to be accountable for her own life. Willow enjoys power she is unable to control. She steals to accomplish her vocational goals and rationalizes her amoral behavior. This also manifests itself in a competitive streak and she accuses others who share their concerns that she uses magic for selfish purposes of being jealous. No longer the conscience of the Scooby Gang, Willow cedes this role to Tara then revels in breaking more rules.[38] After Tara leaves Willow, Willow divulges to Buffy that she does not know who she is and doubts her worth and appeal—specifically to Tara—without magic. Contradicting the characterization of Willow's issues with magic as addiction, Buffy essayist Jacqueline Lichtenberg writes "Willow is not addicted to magic. Willow is addicted to the surging hope that this deed or the next or the next will finally assuage her inner pain."[39]





Vamp Willow visiting her counterpart's world.



Willow as Dark Willow, against Buffy and Xander.
Vamp Willow[edit]
Vamp Willow appears in the third season episodes "The Wish" and "Doppelgangland". She is capricious and aggressive, the opposite of Willow's usual nature; her bad behavior so exaggerated that it does not instill fear into the viewer like other female vampires in the series, but indicates more about Willow's personality. Shocked upon seeing her alter ego in "Doppelgangland", Willow states "That's me as a vampire? I'm so evil and skanky. And I think I'm kinda gay." Angel is stopped by Buffy in telling the Scoobies that the vampire self carries many of the same attributes as the human self.[33] As surprised as Willow is with Vamp Willow, she feels bound to her, and does not have the heart to allow Buffy to kill her. Both Willows make the observation that "this world's no fun",[40] before they send Vamp Willow back into the alternate dimension from which she came, whereupon she is staked by Oz and dies immediately.[41]
Dark Willow[edit]
A shadow of Dark Willow appears to fight Glory in the fifth season episode "Tough Love", but she does not come into full force until the sixth season in "Villains", "Two to Go", and "Grave". The transition from Willow into Dark Willow was ambiguously received by audiences, many of whom never foresaw Willow's psychotic break. It was simultaneously lauded for being an overwhelming depiction of a powerful woman, and derided as representative of a worn cliché that lesbians are amoral and murderous.[42][43] She changes visually when she walks into The Magic Box, a store owned by Anya and Giles, telekinetically retrieves dozens of dark magic books from the shelves, and leeches the words from the pages with her fingertips. As the words crawl up her arms and soak into her skin, her eyes and hair become black and her posture "aggressively aware and confident".[44]
Susan Driver writes that it is "crucial to recognize that never before in a teen series has raw fury been so vividly explored through a young queer girl responding to the sudden death of her lover".[45] Dark Willow is preternaturally focused on revenge, relentless and unstoppable. Lights explode when she walks past. She forcefully takes advantage of any opportunity to further her goals. She saves Buffy by removing the bullet from her chest, but later commandeers a tractor trailer, making it slam into Xander's car while he and Buffy are inside protecting Jonathan and Andrew, the other two members of the Trio. She floats, teleports herself at will, and dismantles the local jail where Jonathan and Andrew are held. She is cruelly honest to Dawn and Buffy, and overpowers everyone with whom she comes in contact. When she takes Giles' magic from him, she gains the ability to feel the world's pain, becoming determined to put the world out of its misery. She does not acknowledge her grief, and only Xander can force her to face it when he tells her that he loves her no matter what or who she is, and if she is determined to end the world she must start by killing him. Only then does Willow return, sobbing.[46]
At Salon.com, Stephanie Zacharek writes that Dark Willow is "far from being a cut-out angry lesbian, is more fleshed out, and more terrifyingly alive, than she has ever been before. More than any other character, she has driven the momentum of the past few episodes; she very nearly drove it off a cliff."[47] Several writers state that Willow's transition into Dark Willow is inevitable, grounded in Willow's self-hatred that had been festering from the first season.[48][49] Both Dark Willow and even Willow herself state that Willow's sacrifices for her friends and lack of assertiveness are her undoing. In "Doppelgangland", Willow (posing as Vampire Willow) says "It's pathetic. She lets everyone walk all over her and gets cranky at her friends for no reason." In "Two to Go", Dark Willow remarks "Let me tell you something about Willow. She's a loser. And she always has been. People picked on Willow, and now... Willow's a junkie." Vamp Willow served as an indicator of what Willow is capable of; immediately before she flays Warren in one violent magical flash, she uses the same line Vamp Willow used in the third season: "Bored now."[49][50]
Following the sixth season, Willow struggles to allow herself to perform magic without the darkness within her taking her over. She is no longer able to abstain from magic as it is such an integral part of her that doing so will kill her. In the instances when she is highly emotional the darkness comes out. Willow must control that part of her and is occasionally unable to do so, giving her a trait similar to Angel, a cursed vampire who fears losing his soul will turn him evil. In a redemptive turn, when Willow turns all the Potentials into Slayers, she glows and her hair turns white, astonishing Kennedy and prompting her to call Willow a goddess.[51] Her dark side continues to be a part of Willow. A story arc in Season Eight has Buffy travel 200 years into the future to battle and kill Dark Willow. Present-day Willow is aware of her capabilities, ever watchful of what she may turn into. In her Season Nine miniseries Wonderland, Willow is liberated by the realization that that Dark Willow is not a separate persona for her but simply the dark side of her own nature, which she must learn to accept and control.
Relationships[edit]
Willow's earliest and most consistent relationships are with Buffy and Xander, both of whom she refers to as her best friends although they have their conflicts. Willow takes on the leadership role when Buffy is unavailable, and her growing powers sometimes make her resent being positioned as Buffy's sidekick. Some scholars see Willow as Buffy's sister-figure or the anti-Buffy, similar to Faith, another Slayer whose morals are less strict.[52] In early seasons, Willow's unrequited crush on Xander creates some storylines involving the relationships between Xander, Cordelia, and Oz. Willow is part of a powerful quartet: she represents the spirit, Giles intelligence, Xander heart, and Buffy strength of the Scoobies. Although they often drift apart, they are forced to come together and work in these roles to defeat forces they are unable to fight individually.[53]
Oz[edit]
Main article: Oz (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Willow meets stoic Oz in the second season. Their courtship is slow and patient. Oz is bitten by a werewolf, and just as Willow begins to confront him about why he does not spend time with her, he transforms and attacks her. She must shoot him with a tranquilizer gun several times while he is wild, but her assertiveness in doing so makes her more confident in their relationship.[54] Oz's trials in dealing with a power he cannot control is, according to authors J. Michael Richardson and J. Douglas Rabb, a model for Willow to reference when she encounters her own attraction to evil.[55] When Willow and Oz decide to commit to each other, Willow is enthusiastic that she has a boyfriend, and, as a guitarist in a band, one so cool.[56] Her relationship with Oz endures the high school storylines of exploring her attraction to Xander, which briefly separates them. She worries that she is not as close to Oz as she could be. They stay together through graduation into college, but Oz is drawn to Veruca, another werewolf. He admits an animal attraction to Veruca, which he does not share with Willow. He sleeps with Veruca and leaves shortly after to explore the werewolf part of himself. Willow becomes very depressed and doubts herself. She drinks, her magical abilities are compromised, her spells come out wrong, and she lashes out at her friends when they suggest she get over it ("Something Blue").[57][58]
Joss Whedon did not intend to write Oz out of the series. Seth Green came to Whedon early in the fourth season to announce that he wished to work on his film career. Whedon admitted he was upset by Green's announcement and that if he had wanted to continue, Oz would have been a part of the story. However, to resolve the relationship between Oz and Willow Whedon says, "we had to scramble. And out of the heavens came Amber Benson."[59]
Tara Maclay[edit]
Main article: Tara Maclay



 Willow and Tara's first on-screen kiss did not occur until the fifth season episode "The Body" in a story that diverted attention away from the display.
Buffy earned international attention for its unflinching focus on the relationship between Willow and Tara Maclay. Whedon and the writing staff had been considering developing a story arc in which a character explores his or her sexuality as the Scoobies left high school, but no particular effort was made to assign this arc to Willow. In 1999, at the end of the third season, the Boston Herald called Buffy "the most gay show on network TV this year" despite having no overtly gay characters among the core cast. It simply presented storylines that resembled coming out stories.[60] In the fourth season episode "Hush", Willow meets Tara, and to avoid being killed by a group of ghouls, they join hands to move a large vending machine telekinetically to barricade a door. The scene was, upon completion, noticeably sensual to Whedon, the producers, and network executives, who encouraged Whedon to develop a romantic storyline between Willow and Tara, but at the same time placed barriers on how far it could go and what could be shown.[61][62] Two episodes later, Hannigan and Amber Benson were informed that their characters would become romantically involved. The actors were not told the end result of the Willow–Oz–Tara storyline, not sure what the eventual trajectory of the relationship would be, until Hannigan said, "Then finally it was, 'Great! It's official. We're in luurrvvve.'"[63]
Whedon made a conscious effort to focus on Willow and Tara's relationship instead of either's identity as a lesbian or the coming out process. When Willow discloses to Buffy what she feels for Tara, she indicates that she has fallen in love with Tara, not that she is a lesbian, and avoids categorizing herself. Some critics regard this as a failure on Willow's part to be strong;[64] Em McAvan interprets this to mean that Willow may be bisexual.[65] Scholar Farah Mendlesohn asserts that Willow's realization that she is in love with Tara allows viewers to re-interpret Willow's relationship with Buffy; in the first three seasons, Willow is often disappointed that she is not a higher priority to Buffy, and even after Willow enters a relationship with Tara, still desires to feel integral to Buffy's cause and the Scooby Gang.[66]
Willow's progression has been noted to be unique in television. Her relationship with Tara coincides with the development of her magical abilities becoming much more profound. By the seventh season, she is the most powerful person in Buffy's circle. Jessica Ford at PopMatters asserts that Willow's sexuality and her magical abilities are connected and represented by her relationships. In her unrequited attraction to Xander, she has no power. With Oz, she has some that gives her the confidence she sorely lacks, but his departure leaves her unsure of herself. Only when she meets Tara do her magical abilities flourish; to Ford, sexuality and magic are both empowering agents in Willow's story arc.[67] David Bianculli in the New York Daily News writes that Willow's progression is "unlike anything else I can recall on regular prime-time television: a character evolving naturally over four seasons of stories and arriving at a place of sexual rediscovery".[68]
Not all viewers considered Willow and Tara's relationship a positive development. Some fans loyal to Willow reacted angrily as she chose to be with Tara when Oz made himself available, and they lashed out at Tara and Amber Benson on the fansite message boards. Whedon replied sardonically, "we're going to shift away from this whole lifestyle choice that Willow has made. Just wipe the slate. From now on, Willow will no longer be a Jew. And I think we can all breathe easier." However, he seriously explained his motivation, writing "My show is about emotion. Love is the most powerful, messy, delightful and dangerous emotion... Willow's in love. I think it's cool."[59] Hannigan was also positive about the way the character and her relationship with Tara was written: "It is not about being controversial or making a statement. I think the show is handling it really nicely. It's about two people who care about each other."[69]
Contrasting with some of the more sexual relationships of the other characters, Willow and Tara demonstrate a sentimental, soft, and consistent affection for each other. Some of this was pragmatic: the show was restricted in what it could present to viewers. Willow and Tara did not kiss until the fifth season in an episode that diverted the focus away from the display of affection when Buffy's mother dies in "The Body". Before this, much of their sexuality is represented by allusions to witchcraft; spells doubled for physical affection such as an erotic ritual in "Who Are You?" where Willow and Tara chant and perspire in a circle of light until Willow falls back on a pillow gasping and moaning.[note 2] Within the Buffy universe, magic is portrayed in a mostly female realm. As opposed to it being evil, it is an earth-bound force that is most proficiently harvested by women.[67] The treatment of the lesbian relationship as integral to magic, representative of each other (love is magic, magic is love), earned the series some critical commentary from conservative Christians.[55] To avoid large-scale criticism, scenes had to be shot several different ways because censors would not allow some types of action on screen. In the fourth and fifth seasons, the characters could be shown on a bed, but not under the covers. Hannigan noted the inconsistent standards with the other relationships on the show: "you've got Spike and Harmony just going at it like rabbits, so it's very hypocritical".[70] As a couple, Willow and Tara are treated by the rest of the Scoobies with acceptance and little fanfare. Susan Driver writes that younger viewers especially appreciate that Willow and Tara are able to be affectionate without becoming overly sexual, thus making them objects of fantasy for male enjoyment. Willow and Tara's influence on specifically younger female viewers is, according to Driver, "remarkable".[71]
Academics, however, comment that Willow is a less sexual character than the others in the show. She is displayed as "cuddly" in earlier seasons, often dressing in pink fuzzy sweaters resulting in an innocent tomboyishness. She becomes more feminine in her relationship with Tara, who is already feminine; no issues with gender are present in their union.[72][73] Their relationship is sanitized and unthreatening to male viewers. When the series moved broadcast networks from the WB to UPN in 2001, some of the restrictions were relaxed. Willow and Tara are shown in some scenes to be "intensely sexual", such as in the sixth season episode "Once More, with Feeling" where it is visually implied that Willow performs cunnilingus on Tara.[74] When Willow and Tara reconcile, they spend part of the episode in "Seeing Red" unclothed in bed, covered by red sheets.
Willow is more demonstrative in the beginning of her relationship with Tara. Where in her relationship with Oz she described herself as belonging to him, Tara states that she belongs to Willow. Willow finds in Tara a place where she can be the focus of Tara's attention, not having to appease or sacrifice as she has in the past. Tara, however, eclipses Willow's role as the moral center of the Scoobies, and as Willow becomes more powerful and less ethical, Tara becomes a maternal figure for the group.[75] Willow acts as a sort of middle child between Xander's immaturity and Buffy's weighty responsibilities. She becomes completely devoted to and enamored of Tara, and then manipulates her to avoid conflict when Tara does not conform to what she wants.[33] Displeased with how Willow abuses her power, especially toward herself, Tara leaves Willow while continuing to counsel Dawn and Buffy. Long after Tara's death, Willow faces the choices she made: in the Season Eight episode "Anywhere But Here", Willow tells Buffy that she is responsible for Tara's death. Her ambition to bring back Buffy from the dead inevitably led to Tara getting shot and killed. In the one-shot comic, Willow is offered Tara as a guide for her mystical path to understanding her own powers, but rejects her as being an illusion, too much of a comfort, and not a guide who will force her to grow.
Kennedy[edit]
Main article: Kennedy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Following protests angry about the death of Tara, Whedon and the writing team made a decision to keep Willow gay. In 2002, he told The Advocate about the possibility of Willow having a relationship with a man, "We do that now, and we will be burned alive. And possibly justifiably. We can't have Willow say, 'Oh, cured now, I can go back to cock!' Willow is not going to be straddling that particular fence. She will just be gay."[42] Kennedy is markedly different from Tara. She is younger, outspoken, and aggressively pursues Willow, who hesitates to become involved again.[76] When they first kiss in the episode "The Killer in Me", Willow's realization that she let Tara go reacts with a curse put upon her by another witch named Amy Madison (Elizabeth Anne Allen), turning Willow into Warren, Tara's murderer. The spell is broken when Willow acknowledges her guilt and Kennedy kisses her again. Kennedy expresses that she does not understand the value of magic and assumes it involves tricks, not the all-consuming energy that Willow is capable of. When Willow eventually exhibits what power she has, it briefly frightens Kennedy. Willow worries about becoming sexually intimate with Kennedy, unsure of what may transpire if she loses control of herself.[77] In season 7 episode 20, "Touched", Willow and Kennedy take part in the first lesbian sex scene on primetime television.[78]
In Season Eight, Kennedy and Willow are still romantically involved, but separated during Willow's self-exploration. Unlike her relationship with Tara, Willow is able to hold a separate identity while with Kennedy.[79] When she realizes her powers have gone at the end of Season Eight, however, Willow ends her relationship with Kennedy, saying that there is someone else Willow is in love with, who she will never see again.[80]
Aluwyn[edit]
Willow first met Aluwyn when she arrived to the spirit world to look for a guide to help her control her powers. On their first meeting, Aluwyn told Willow that she was her guide and that she would help her better control the power that dwelled within her; however, Willow quickly learned that Aluwyn was not her guide and another goddess appeared and told Aluwyn to leave Willow alone. With Aluwyn gone, the other goddess offered Willow to have Tara be her guide on her journey toward improving her understanding of her powers. However, Willow surmised this would either be robbing Tara of her afterlife or an illusion, and instead chose Aluwyn. At some point during Willow's training, the two began an affair and even began to sleep together. When Buffy smashed the Seed of Wonder, Willow broke up with Kennedy because she realized she was in love with someone else; Aluwyn was heavily hinted to be the unnamed person. Eventually, Willow finally came across her mentor in Wonderland by chance while trying to return magic to her world. She was very shocked and happy, immediately kissing Aluwyn passionately after being apart for so long. Aluwyn decided to help her with bringing magic back, informing her of helpful facts along the way. However, while Willow does trust Aluwyn she is still aware of the fact that she is a trickster, even introducing Aluwyn to Marrak as 'the lying, deceitful, sexy snake.' Aluwyn had brought together a coven of witches and formed a paradise for herself and Willow. Aluwyn does not know how to restore magic to Earth and attempted to make Willow forget about her quest to return magic and to her friends. Willow eventually saw through this manipulation and resumed her quest to restore magic but still admits she may come back to Aluwyn after the Earth is safe.
Cultural impact[edit]



Willow Rosenberg is undoubtedly the most complexly represented girl in love and lust with other girls to be developed within a mainstream network television series.
Susan Driver in Queer Girls and Popular Culture[81]
Willow's religion and sexuality have made her a role model for audiences. Whedon, however, has compared her Jewish identity to her sexuality, stating that they are rarely made a significant focus of the show.[82] Willow at times reminds the other characters of her religion, wondering what her father might think of the crucifixes she must apply to her bedroom wall to keep out vampires, and commenting that Santa Claus misses her house every Christmas because of the "big honkin' menorah". Buffy essayist Matthew Pateman criticizes the show for presenting Willow's Jewish identity only when it opposes Christian declarations of holidays and other traditions.[83] The New York Times, however, named her as a positive example of a depiction of a Jewish woman, who stood out among portrayals of Jews as harsh, unfeminine, and shallow. Producer Gail Berman states that as a Jew, Willow "handles herself just fine, thank you".[84]
In Queer Girls and Popular Culture, Susan Driver states that television ascribes to viewers what lesbians look and act like, and that realistic portrayals of girls outside the norm of white, upper or middle class, and heterosexual are extremely rare. When girls on television explore their sexuality, they often go through an "immature phase of bisexual indecision". Realistic depictions of lesbians are so rare that they become strong role models and enable "hope and imagination" for girls limited by the conditions of their immediate surroundings, who may know of no other gay people.[85] The time and space given to Willow to go from being a shy scared girl into a confident woman who falls in love with another woman is, as of 2007, unique in television; it does not occur in one flash or single moment. It is a progression that defies strict definition. Manda Scott in The Herald states that Willow's lack of panic or self-doubt when she realizes she is in love with Tara makes her "the best role model a teen could ask for".[86]
When viewers realized that Willow was falling in love with Tara, Whedon remembered that some threatened to boycott the show, complaining "You made Willow a fag", to which he responded, "Bye. We'll miss you a whole lot."[87] However, he also said, "For every (negative) post, there's somebody saying, 'You made my life a lot easier because I now have someone I can relate to on screen'."[62] Gay characters had been portrayed before on television, and at the time the popular sitcom Will & Grace was on the air. Lesbian-themed HBO special If These Walls Could Talk 2 won an Emmy. Twenty-three television shows depicted a gay character of some kind in 2000.[88] However, these other characters were mostly desexualized, none were partnered or shown consistently affectionate towards the same person. Willow and Tara's relationship became the first long-term lesbian relationship on U.S. television. Jane magazine hailed Willow and Tara as a bold representation of a somewhat normal homosexual relationship, remarking that "they hold hands, slow-dance and lay in bed at night. You won't find that kind of normalcy on Will and Grace."[89] Despite Whedon's intentions of not making Buffy about overcoming issues, he said Willow's exploration of her sexuality "turned out to be one of the most important things we've done on the show".[87]
Although the show's writers and producers received a minimal negative reaction from Willow choosing Tara over Oz, the response from viewers and critics alike was overwhelming towards Whedon for killing Tara, accusing him of homophobia. Particularly because Tara's death came at a point where Willow and Tara had reconciled and were shown following an apparent sexual encounter, the writers were criticized for representing the consequences of lesbian sex as punishable by death. Series writer and producer Marti Noxon—whose mother fell in love with another woman when Noxon was 13 years old—was unable to read some of the mail the writing team received because it was so upsetting. To her, the pain expressed in viewers' letters was a logical reaction to the lack of realistic lesbian role models on television.[42]
Patrick Krug, a biologist at California State University, Los Angeles named a sea slug with traits of sexual flexibility Alderia willowi partly for his grandmother and partly after Willow's character.[90]
See also[edit]

Portal icon Television portal
Portal icon Fictional characters portal
Willow & Tara (Buffy comic)
Wicked Willow trilogy
Unnatural Selection (Buffy novel)
Deep Water (Buffy novel)
Apocalypse Memories
Homosexuality in speculative fiction
Queer horror
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ The lines are in Greek addressed to Aphrodite, translated as "I beg you, don't overcome my spirit with pain and care, mistress", foreshadowing Willow's conflict between her devotion to Tara and her addiction to magic (Battis).
2.Jump up ^ Buffy scholar Edwina Bartlem asserts that many of the sexual relationships on Buffy are symbolized. Willow and Tara's tend to be represented by otherworldly passion, "disembodied and spiritual". (Barlem, Edwina [2003]. "Coming out on a Mouth of Hell", Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media, 2, p. 16.) Hannigan noted in an interview, "Obviously during a couple spells they are so fucking. I was like, 'This isn't a spell—this is just the sex you can't get away with on television.' "(Epstein, Jeffrey [August 2001] "Alyson's Wonderland", Out, 10 (2), pp. 46–53.)
Citations[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "AfterEllen.com’s Top 50 Lesbian and Bisexual Characters". AfterEllen.com. March 15, 2010. Archived from the original on January 1, 2013. Retrieved June 16, 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "AfterEllen.com's Top 50 Favorite Female TV Characters". AfterEllen.com. February 27, 2012. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
3.Jump up ^ "Best TV Nerds". UGO Networks. March 7, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
4.Jump up ^ Potts, Kim (March 2, 2011). "100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters". AOL TV. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
5.Jump up ^ Bianco, Robert [January 18, 1998]. "Cool and Complicated Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Shaking up Plots so as Not to Hit the Same Beats", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. G-2.
6.Jump up ^ Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Fifth Season; "Casting Buffy" Featurette. (2008) [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
7.^ Jump up to: a b Bonka, Larry (January 12, 1998). Buffymania Sweeps the Land as Ultra-cool Kids Conquer the Un-dead", The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, (Norfolk, VA), p. E1
8.^ Jump up to: a b Cox, Ted (May 11, 1999). "Hannigan's Willow becomes a favorite of 'Buffy' fans", Chicago Daily Herald, p. 3.
9.Jump up ^ Owen, Rob (September 22, 1997). "Teen Life, with a Macabre Twist". The Cleveland Plain Dealer, p. 5E.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Mason, Charlie (May 16, 1998). "Beyond the Impaled Blossoming Wallflower's Appeal is Play to 'Vampire' Buffs", Times-Picayune, p. E1.
11.Jump up ^ Stafford, p. 72.
12.Jump up ^ Grahnke, Lon (March 10, 1997). "Biting satire: 'Buffy,' a sly new series, raises the stakes", The Chicago Sun-Times, p. 33.
13.Jump up ^ Okamoto, David (March 10, 1997). "Transylvania, 90210: 'Buffy' is back with bite in stylish new WB series", The Dallas Morning News, p. 15A.
14.Jump up ^ Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season; "DVD Commentary for "Welcome to the Hellmouth" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
15.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 38.
16.Jump up ^ Golden and Holder, p. 29.
17.Jump up ^ Rohan, Virginia (February 23, 1999). "The Dark Side of the Good Friend", The Record, p. Y01.
18.Jump up ^ Jarvis, Christine; Burr, Viv (2005). "‘Friends are the family we choose for ourselves: Young people and families in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 13 (3), pp. 269–283.
19.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 284–286.
20.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 287–291.
21.Jump up ^ Stevenson, pp. 128–130.
22.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 293–295.
23.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 295–300.
24.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 300–304.
25.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 242.
26.Jump up ^ Interview with Buffy creator Joss Whedon 3/26/07, Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved on August 17, 2010.
27.^ Jump up to: a b c Vary, Adam (January 19, 2011). Joss Whedon talks about the end of the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Season 8 comic, and the future of Season 9 -- EXCLUSIVE, Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on January 30, 2011.
28.^ Jump up to: a b c Glendening, Daniel (November 30, 2012). Allie discusses Willow's quest to bring magic back to the Buffyverse, Comic Book Resources. Retrieved on December 29, 2012.
29.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 367–373.
30.Jump up ^ Whedon, Joss; Moline, Karl (December 2009). Willow: Goddesses and Monsters, Dark Horse Comics.
31.Jump up ^ Phegley, Kiel (December 10, 2010). Behind Buffy Season 8: "Last Gleaming", Comic Book Resources. Retrieved on January 30, 2011.
32.Jump up ^ Jeff Parker, Christos Gage (w), Brian Ching (p), Jason Gorder (i), Michelle Masden (col). Willow: Wonderland 5 (March 6, 2013), Dark Horse Comics
33.^ Jump up to: a b c Battis, Jes (2003). "She's Not All Grown Yet": Willow as Hybrid/Hero in Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies, 8. Retrieved on August 16, 2010.
34.Jump up ^ South, p. 134.
35.Jump up ^ Driver, pp. 67–70.
36.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 244–246.
37.Jump up ^ Richardson and Rabb, p. 60.
38.Jump up ^ Stevenson, pp. 181–183.
39.Jump up ^ Yeffeth, p. 131.
40.Jump up ^ South, p. 139.
41.Jump up ^ Jowett, pp. 80–82.
42.^ Jump up to: a b c Mangels, Andy (August 20, 2002). "Lesbian sex = death?", The Advocate, 869/870, pp. 70–71.
43.Jump up ^ Barlem, Edwina (2003). "Coming out on a Mouth of Hell", Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media, 2, p. 16.
44.Jump up ^ Driver, p. 79.
45.Jump up ^ Driver, p. 81.
46.Jump up ^ Ruditis, pp. 145–153.
47.Jump up ^ Zacharek, Stephanie (May 22, 2002). Willow, destroyer of worlds, Salon.com. Retrieved on August 13, 2010.
48.Jump up ^ Yeffeth, p. 132.
49.^ Jump up to: a b South, p. 143–144.
50.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 60.
51.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 61.
52.Jump up ^ Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 46–56.
53.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 26.
54.Jump up ^ Waggoner, pp. 10–11.
55.^ Jump up to: a b Richardson and Rabb, p. 92.
56.Jump up ^ Richardson and Rabb, p. 94.
57.Jump up ^ Jowett, pp. 124–127.
58.Jump up ^ South, p. 138.
59.^ Jump up to: a b Stafford, pp. 15–16.
60.Jump up ^ Perigard, Mark (May 18, 1999). "Television; 'Buffy' promises finale with bite and takes high-stakes gamble", The Boston Herald, p. 44.
61.Jump up ^ "Interview: Writer and producer Joss Whedon discusses his career and his latest show, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'", Fresh Air, National Public Radio (May 9, 2000).
62.^ Jump up to: a b McDaniel, Mike (May 16, 2000). "Coming Out on 'Buffy': Willow discovers she's attracted to another woman, Tara", Houston Chronicle, p. 6.
63.Jump up ^ Stafford, p. 73.
64.Jump up ^ Driver, p. 74.
65.Jump up ^ McAvan, Em (2007). “I Think I’m Kinda Gay”: Willow Rosenberg and the Absent/Present Bisexual in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Slayage Online: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
66.Jump up ^ Lavery and Wilcox, pp. 45–60.
67.^ Jump up to: a b Ford, Jessica (March 10, 2011). Coming Out of the Broom Closet: Willow's Sexuality and Empowerment in 'Buffy'. PopMatters. Retrieved on March 13, 2011.
68.Jump up ^ Bianculli, David (May 2, 2000). "Buffy Character Follows Her Bliss", New York Daily News, p. 77.
69.Jump up ^ "Star stakes out Sydney", Sunday Telegraph (November 5, 2000), p. 31.
70.Jump up ^ Dudley, Jennifer (November 16, 2000). "Charmed, I'm Sure", Courier Mail (Brisbane, Australia), p. 7.
71.Jump up ^ Driver, p. 75–76.
72.Jump up ^ Jowett, pp. 56–57.
73.Jump up ^ Wilcox and Lavery, p. 58.
74.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 207.
75.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 52–53.
76.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 44.
77.Jump up ^ Ruditis, pp. 205–229.
78.Jump up ^ http://www.afterellen.com/buffy-to-show-first-lesbian-sex-scene-on-broadcast-tv/04/2003/
79.Jump up ^ Waggoner, p. 9.
80.Jump up ^ Hill, Shawn (January 24, 2011). Buffy the Vampire Slayer #40, Comics Bulletin. Retrieved on January 30, 2011.
81.Jump up ^ Driver, p. 62.
82.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 58.
83.Jump up ^ Pateman, Matthew (2007). "'That Was Nifty': Willow Rosenberg Saves the World in Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 25 (4). pp. 64-77.
84.Jump up ^ Hannania, Joseph (March 7, 1999). "Playing Princesses, Punishers and Prudes", The New York Times, p. 35.
85.Jump up ^ Driver, pp. 58–59.
86.Jump up ^ Scott, Manda (August 17, 2002). "If the Buffy generation turns out an excess of teenage dykes, I'll be happy but surprised", The Herald, p. 5.
87.^ Jump up to: a b Epstein, Jeffrey (August 2001) "Alyson's Wonderland", Out, 10 (2), pp. 46–53.
88.Jump up ^ Daly, Sean (November 11, 2000). "Ellen's children: No doubt, this is the Year of the Queer, with an unprecedented 23 prime-time programs featuring homosexual characters.", National Post, p. W06.
89.Jump up ^ Hoffman, Bill (January 3, 2001). "Magazine Hails Gutsy Gals who 'Bold' Us Over", New York Post, p. 3.
90.Jump up ^ Variable Larval Development Modes (poecilogony), California State University, Los Angeles Krug Labs. Retrieved on August 17, 2010.
Bibliography[edit]
Driver Susan (2007). Queer Girls and Popular Culture: Reading, Resisting, and Creating Media, Peter Lang. ISBN 0-8204-7936-5
Golden, Christopher; Holder, Nancy (1998). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 1, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-02433-7
Jowett, Lorna (2005). Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan, Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-6758-1
Kaveney, Roz (ed.) (2004). Reading the Vampire Slayer: The New, Updated, Unofficial Guide to Buffy and Angel, Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1-4175-2192-9
Richardson, J. Michael ; Rabb, J. Douglas (2007). The Existential Joss Whedon: Evil and Human Freedom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Serenity, McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-2781-7
Ruditis, Paul (2004). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 3, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-689-86984-3
South, James (ed.) (2003). Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale, Open Court Books. ISBN 0-8126-9531-3
Stafford, Nikki (2007). Bite Me! The Unofficial Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-807-6
Stevenson, Gregory (2003). Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hamilton Books. ISBN 0-7618-2833-8
Waggoner, Erin (2010). Sexual Rhetoric in the Works of Joss Whedon: New Essays, McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-4750-8
Wilcox, Rhonda (2005). Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-84511-029-3
Wilcox, Rhonda and Lavery, David (eds.) (2002). Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0-7425-1681-4
Yeffeth, Glenn (ed.) (2003). Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Discuss Their Favorite Television Show, Benbella Books. ISBN 1-932100-08-3
Further reading[edit]
The Death of Tara, the Fall of Willow and The Dead/Evil Lesbian Cliché FAQ


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Trio (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
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The Trio
Trio (Buffy the Vampire Slayer).jpg
First appearance
"Flooded" (assembled)
Last appearance
"Seeing Red" (as a trio)
Information

Purpose
To take over Sunnydale and get lots of chicks
Membership
Warren Mears
Jonathan Levinson
Andrew Wells

The Trio is the name of three fictional characters in the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who serve as the villains of the season. They continually strive to neutralize Buffy, the Slayer, and thus the primary obstacle to their ultimate goal of taking over Sunnydale. Though initially comic relief and little more than a nuisance to the Scooby Gang, they take a darker turn by the episode "Dead Things". Most of their schemes combine science and mysticism, and they are able to avoid detection by the Scoobies (who merely assume their conducts to be the doings of demons) until halfway through the season.
The Trio was formed by Warren Mears, technology expert; Andrew Wells, summoner of demons; and Jonathan Levinson, caster of spells. Jonathan was a long time recurring character, having first appeared in season 2, and was a friendly acquaintance of the Scooby Gang, and Warren had appeared twice in season 5. While Andrew had never been seen on the show before, his brother was in "The Prom" episode, and Andrew often speaks of the time he summoned flying demon monkeys to the school production of Romeo and Juliet, of which Buffy and the Scoobies have no recollection.
The three of them begin season 6 as good friends. Tired of being pushed around, they resolve to combine their expertise and "take over Sunnydale" as equal partners. As the stakes rise, the power shifts and Warren gradually dominates the group. Though Jonathan and Andrew lack the malice and hatred of true villains, Warren eventually reveals his true colors as a violent misogynist capable of murder. The Trio is continually thwarted by Buffy, and none of their actions make any name for themselves in Sunnydale's mystical underground, as revealed in "Villains". The group is ultimately disbanded when, after a face-off with Buffy, Warren flees and leaves Andrew and Jonathan to take the fall with the police.
Members[edit]
Warren Mears first appeared in season 5 when he made two gynoid robots (one for himself and one for Spike). He makes all of the mad science devices used by the Trio. He has the strongest will of the three and quickly assumes the leadership position, until he accidentally kills his ex-girlfriend and leads The Trio down a dark path. Warren is established early on as the one most willing to take real risks and do real harm to the Sunnydale citizens.
Jonathan Levinson is a sorcerer of considerable skill and ingenuity but only moderate power. Most reluctant member of the group, he consistently prefers the least violent solutions to their problems, especially having a soft spot for Buffy, who had saved his life on several occasions. Warren and Andrew eventually conspire against Jonathan and attempt to leave him to take the entire blame of their last heist, but Andrew fails to get away in time.
Andrew Wells is an expert summoner of demons. Andrew has the weakest will of the group and easily allows Warren to manipulate him against Jonathan, though Warren ultimately sacrifices Andrew for his own escape. Numerous hints imply that Andrew is gay, but he is generally too immature to even realize this about himself.
Group biography[edit]
The Trio first appear in "Flooded", where they hire a demon to rob a bank and attack Buffy. In "Life Serial" they compete with each other to disorient Buffy by magical and technological means. In "Smashed" they steal a large diamond from a museum, immobilizing the sole guard with a "freeze ray".
Also in "Smashed", Spike (who met Warren in "I Was Made to Love You") turns to the Trio to learn what has gone wrong with his inhibitor chip, forcing them to comply by threatening to break their Boba Fett action figure.
In "Gone", Warren incorporates the diamond into his invisibility ray. Jonathan and Andrew, quarreling over who will get to use the ray first, accidentally cause it to overload and turn Buffy invisible. They arrange to meet Buffy and restore her, but Warren secretly sets the device to kill her instead. A scuffle allows Willow to grab the ray, change the setting, and restore Buffy and the Trio to visibility, revealing their identities to the gang.
Warren increasingly treats the others as his lackeys, reserving to himself the use of whatever devices they make or steal. In "Dead Things" Warren hypnotizes his former girlfriend Katrina to be his sex slave, and kills her when she shakes off his control; the Trio then use time-distorting demons to convince Buffy that she killed Katrina. Though the plan nearly succeeds, Buffy immediately realizes the truth when she hears the police identify Katrina's body.
In "Normal Again", Andrew summons a demon which injects Buffy with a psychoactive poison, almost convincing her that her life as a Slayer is imaginary and she can cure herself by killing her friends. It is subsequently discovered in "Entropy" that the Trio has planted numerous spy cameras and bugs in the Bronze, the Magic Box, and the Summers household, through which both the Trio and the Scoobies discover Spike and Anya's affair and, by extension, Buffy and Spike's secret relationship.
In "Seeing Red", Warren invades the lair of the Nezzla demons to steal the Orbs of Nezzla'Khan, mystical artifacts that grant the bearer superhuman strength and physical invulnerability, with which they plan to commit a massive amount of bank robberies, starting with an armored car at an amusement park. When Buffy arrives to thwart them, the mystically-enhanced Warren easily outmatches her until Jonathan, fed up with Warren's lack of conscience and domineering attitude, surreptitiously tells Buffy how to defeat Warren. Just as Warren, ecstatic that he has defeated the Slayer when numerous demons and vampires have failed, has Buffy at his mercy, Buffy steals the belt pouch containing the orbs and destroys them before kicking Warren across the parking lot. As a furious Buffy advances, an outraged and humiliated Warren vows to take Buffy down before escaping with a jet pack, leaving Andrew and Jonathan to take the fall with the police, leaving the Trio officially disbanded.
The next morning, while Jonathan and Andrew languish in Sunnydale jail, Warren returns to Buffy's house with a gun and shoots Buffy in revenge. Buffy is injured, but Warren also unintentionally kills Tara, sending her girlfriend Willow into a magical rage. After saving Buffy, Willow begins to track Warren, easily dismissing most of his technological diversions and deceptions ("Villains"). Insane with rage and grief, Willow tortures Warren before flaying and incinerating him.
With Warren dead, Willow then heads after the remaining members of the Trio ("Two to Go"). Buffy and friends rescue Andrew and Jonathan before Willow can reach them, but Willow comes after them again. Eventually Andrew and Jonathan agree to run away to Mexico together, leaving Buffy to handle Willow.
The pair are seen again in "Conversations with Dead People," in which they return to Sunnydale on a quest to find an artefact hidden within Sunnydale High School. While they split up to search for it, "Warren" appears to Andrew to help in the search. Unbeknownst to Andrew, this is not really Warren but merely the First Evil using his image. As Andrew and Jonathan find the Seal of Danzalthar, Andrew stabs Jonathan to death on "Warren"'s urging, with Jonathan's blood helping to activate the Seal, leaving Andrew the only one of the original Trio still alive.
Andrew later runs into Willow purely by accident ("Never Leave Me"), and she drags him back to Buffy where, terrified of Willow and desperate for a new "gang" to belong to, he admits what he did. From this point on, Andrew grows closer to the Scoobies, helping to take care of the house for the Potential Slayers, even while the First Evil continues to use the images of Warren and Jonathan to taunt him. It is not until Buffy forces him to face the fact that he was not tricked into killing Jonathan by the First, but knew exactly what he was doing, that he is able to begin working towards redemption for his actions ("Storyteller").
Andrew goes into battle against the First Evil and its army of Turok-Han, not expecting to survive ("Chosen"). Instead he is denied a redemptive death when Anya saves his life at the cost of her own.
Andrew later appears in two episodes of the Buffy spin-off series Angel. In "Damage", a criminally insane Slayer is discovered in Los Angeles, and Buffy and Giles send their "best man" to handle it, which turns out to be Andrew. While Andrew has grown up considerably in the meantime, he is still largely ineffectual until he finally asserts himself by bringing out an army of Slayers to face down Angel's team and take the damaged Slayer away. Angel and Spike both remain quite amazed that Andrew outwitted them.
In "The Girl in Question", Spike and Angel rush to Rome in an attempt to save Buffy, who they think is in mortal danger. Instead they find Andrew functioning as chaperone to some more local Slayers, and Andrew again confounds them by explaining that Buffy can handle herself and they are the ones who now have to grow up.
Andrew appears as a member of the Scooby Gang in the "Season 8" comic books, where he continues to assist with training the Slayers. Warren also appears to have survived (casting confusion on the First Evil's use of his form in season 7), and is working with Amy Madison, who uses magic to keep Warren functioning despite his having been flayed.

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Glory (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (October 2011)

Glory
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character

First appearance
"No Place Like Home"
Created by
Joss Whedon, Douglas Petrie
Portrayed by
Clare Kramer
Information

Classification
Goddess
Notable powers
Superhuman strength, speed, and near-invulnerability, Immortality.
Glory is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer portrayed by Clare Kramer. Glory is a god from a hell dimension and was the main antagonist of the fifth season.


Contents  [hide]
1 Character biography 1.1 History
1.2 The Key
1.3 Sunnydale
2 Name
3 Powers and abilities
4 Personality
5 Servants
6 Art links
7 Appearances 7.1 Canonical appearances
8 Merchandise
9 See also
10 References

Character biography[edit]
History[edit]
Glorificus (also known as "Glory") is a god from a hell dimension in which she ruled alongside two other deities. Glory's power, army and dominion were vast and continued to grow stronger and stronger, as did her lust for misery and destruction, and Glory quickly became the most powerful of the three hell gods. Afraid and fearful that Glory would grow too powerful and seize the dimension for herself, the other two allied together and went to war against Glorificus. The hell gods barely defeated Glory, but despite their victory, Glory was too powerful to destroy, so they banished her into the earthly dimension, where her essence would be imprisoned in a human child named Ben, created solely to "contain" her until he eventually died as a mortal, sealing her.
Glory was too powerful to be completely contained within the human vessel and when Ben reached his 20s, Glory began to gain control over Ben for short periods of time, taking the form of a vain, self-centered human female possessing superhuman strength, speed and invulnerability. Glory's strength was greater than that of any Slayer, vampire or demon on Earth, although her powers were greatly diminished compared to those she had in her true form. Dark magicks prevent humans from learning that Glory and Ben are one and the same; even when she transforms right in front of someone, they instantly forget what they saw. The spell does not affect supernatural creatures like vampires and demons. This becomes a recurring joke in the penultimate episode of Season Five, where Spike finds himself repeatedly having to explain to that Ben and Glory are the same person, only for people to either to misunderstand him or to instantly forget. As Ben and Glory's personalities begin to merge more and more (see below), the magic weakens until, in the finale, the whole gang is able to see through it. This human form is Glory's only weakness; if the human vessel containing her is killed, then Glory perishes with him.
Glory's goal is to find "The Key", a "mystical energy nexus" which is the only way for her to return to her original dimension. Unfortunately, using The Key will break down the barriers between all dimensions, causing all worlds to bleed into each other and allowing "Hell to reign on Earth". The Key was safe, guarded by an ancient group of monks known as The Order of Dagon. When they discovered "The Beast" (Glory) was searching for The Key they chose to hide it. Using ancient magic they transformed The Key into a human girl and placed her under the protection of the Slayer Buffy, altering the memories of the Slayer and anyone connected to her into believing the girl was Buffy's younger sister Dawn. The Order of Dagon were eventually destroyed by Glory. The last monk of the order was taken prisoner and interrogated by Glory, and later rescued by Buffy. Before the monk died from his wounds he revealed to Glory (under torture) that The Key had been transformed, but not what The Key had become. The monk, after being rescued by Buffy, revealed to Buffy that Dawn was the key, something she already suspected.
Glory was also opposed by a military order known as the "Knights of Byzantium", composed of knights and clerics. They swore to prevent Glory from using The Key, and they attempted to kill Dawn (The Key) before Glory could find her. In the episode "Spiral", a large group of knights besiege Buffy and Dawn, but Glory arrives and slaughters nearly all of them, taking The Key with her.
The Key[edit]
The Key is an ancient power, an ancient green mystical energy that according to Glory "is almost as old as she is". The Key needs to draw on powers from the dimension it's in before being used, which is why it can only be used at a certain time and certain place. Who or what created The Key or how is unknown, even its true purpose is never fully revealed. The Key seems to work by destroying the barriers that separate one dimension from another. The longer The Key is in use, the more the walls of reality begin to break down. When The Key is activated, a small portal opens and begins to grow, in which demons, creatures and entire dimensions begin immediately bleeding through.
Buffy's first confrontation with Glory came shortly after discovering there was something not right about Dawn. Buffy tried to go up against Glory and failed miserably. Glory beat Buffy severely, destroying an entire building in the process. The only thing Buffy did manage to do was escape during a temper tantrum by Glory which caused the building to collapse, escaping with the last surviving monk who quickly revealed to her the truth about Dawn being The Key and Buffy as her protector.
Sunnydale[edit]
Although Glory enters early on in Season 5, the Scooby Gang knows very little about her, only discovering her name from one of Glory's minions. Glory's god-like status, her extreme power level, her origins, the Key's true nature and history are not known until later episodes, Glory comes to Sunnydale looking for "The Key", which will allow her to return to her own dimension. The Key would cause damage to all dimensions, including the dimension Buffy and her friends inhabit, though Glory seems to be unaware or unconcerned of this fact. Glory is not aware of what form The Key has taken, though she knows that Buffy, the Slayer, protects it. For her part, Buffy is not initially aware of The Key's nature either. It is eventually revealed that Buffy's "new sister", Dawn, is The Key, in human form.
She begins the quest to locate The Key, aided by a race of pale, black-eyed demons who are loyal to her almost to a fault, though she does not care for them and viciously abuses them, both verbally and physically, for even the slightest failures. Glory quickly establishes herself as one of Buffy's most dangerous and determined enemies. At one point, she confronts Buffy in her own home, openly threatening to kill Buffy's friends and family and force Buffy herself to watch her do so.
Due to Glory being a god in a human body, the human mind can not control such power and this gradually turns Glory insane. In order to maintain her sanity and power, Glory feeds off the mental energies of humans by a process that Buffy and her friends refer to as "brain-sucking". She inserts her fingers into the victim's head, absorbing the energies that bind the victim's mind. The humans that she "devours" in this way become incoherent and mentally unstable; those affected are also able to see Dawn in her true form. Glory's arrival in Sunnydale is followed by an inexplicable increase in the number of mental patients. One of her unfortunate victims is Willow's girlfriend, Tara, who later inadvertently betrays Dawn to Glory. The Scoobies try to run, but Glory still manages to kidnap Dawn shortly afterward.
The Key can only be used at a certain time, and as that time draws near, the power that separates Glory from Ben dissolves. They still inhabit Ben's body separately, but their memories and personalities begin to blur together.
After recovering from a mental breakdown caused by Glory's kidnapping of Dawn, Buffy decides to attack Glory with everything she has: Willow's magic spell to restore Tara's sanity stolen by Glory, at the same time weakening Glory's mind; the Dagon Sphere (a weapon created by the monks that causes physical pain to Glory); Buffy's robot double (the "Buffybot") originally Spike's sex toy; Olaf, The Troll God's Hammer (with which Buffy is able beat Glory in battle and severely weaken her albeit temporarily, due to the hammer being a weapon of the gods); and eventually a wrecking ball, commandeered by Xander. Meanwhile, Spike, Giles, and Anya attack her minions. The final spell that opens the rift between dimensions had already been started by one of Glory's disciples - Doc - by cutting Dawn with a knife and making her bleed (the act of which opens a portal to the other dimensions). After killing Doc, Buffy realizes that because the monks created Dawn from her essence, they share the same blood which means not only Dawn's blood but her own can close the portal, but it would also require her to die (her blood must stop flowing for the gateway to close). After saying goodbye to her sister, Buffy jumps into the portal that is opening, instantly dying and closing the gateway.
Glory is left defeated and significantly weakened, losing her hold on this reality and returning to the form and mind of Ben. Giles knows that Glory will eventually regain her power and return to get her revenge on Buffy unless Ben is killed, so he smothers Ben to death with his bare hands. As Ben dies, so does Glory.
Glory is also referred to as "Glorificus" by her minions and in most textual references, and occasionally as "The Beast" by the monks who created Dawn (although she has nothing to do with The Beast who appeared in Angel, the spin-off series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
After Glory's defeat, her final appearance in the series is at the end of the episode "Lessons", as an avatar of the First Evil along with most of the other major villains from the series.
Name[edit]
"That Which Cannot Be Named" came into existence before written word, and therefore (as its title implies) has no name. When the hell-god came to this dimension, she was dubbed "Glorificus" or sometimes "Glorifius," names which she shortened to "Glory." She was also known as "the Glorious One" (among many other amusing, groveling titles such as "Her Splendiferousness," "Her Sparkling Luminescence" and "Oh Sweaty-Naughty-Feelings-Causing One") by her demon minions, and as "the Beast" or "the Abomination" by the human priesthood and the Knights of Byzantium. The Scooby Gang and Ben often refer to her by the insulting name of "Hell-Bitch."
Powers and abilities[edit]
In Season 5, Episode 13, "Blood Ties," the gang begins discussing the Watcher Council's research on Glory. Buffy asks since Glory is a god, shouldn't she be able to throw lightning bolts? Giles responds, "Normally, yes, but since she is in human form, her powers are severely limited." During season five the following were demonstrated:
Near-invulnerability: Only a Troll God's hammer was able to do any lasting damage to Glory when used repeatedly. In "Tough Love," Willow's lightning bolts caused her pain, but caused no visible damage, though she comments that Willow's assault "slowed her down"; by the time of the season finale, Buffy mentions that Willow was the only one ever successful in actually hurting Glory up to that point. When a building collapses on top of her (see below), she was slowed down, but was unharmed. Similarly, she was unharmed after being hit by a truck.
Superhuman strength: Glory possesses enormous physical strength far beyond that of most, if not all, vampires, demons, or Slayers; in fact, she is considered to be the most physically powerful Big Bad in the series, shown to be able to inflict massive damage on her opponents through pure brute force and physical strength alone. At one point, a building collapses on her after she repeatedly stomps her foot in a temper tantrum over a broken shoe. In "Intervention", she kicked Spike clear across her living room, through a solid wooden door, and to the other end of the room behind said door after losing her patience with him. In "Spiral", she punches a hole through the barrier that Willow had previously generated. Even Buffy, with her slayer strength, could barely stand toe-to-toe in a fight of brawl.
Superhuman speed: Glory's super-speed is depicted as a fast-moving blur that is apparently invisible to the naked eye. This is seen when she pursues Buffy and Dawn immediately after Tara, in her insane state, accidentally reveals that Dawn is The Key.
Brain Sucking: The ability to drain the mental energy of humans. This was primarily to maintain her own mental strength, but would also prevent Ben's form from resuming control. Not only does the drain draw out all energy leaving the victims in an insane state, they are also able to visually see The Key's true energy and ultimately become psychically linked to Glory and The Key.
Shroud of Illusion: A mystical shroud cast to prevent people from learning that she and Ben were the same person, the origins of which are unclear. It only works on humans; vampires, demons, and other non-humans are immune. She loses this capability in the penultimate episode of Season Five.
Creature Identification: The ability to differentiate between vampires and humans and also from any other creature from the Key, as seen in "Intervention", when her minions capture Spike under the mistaken impression that he is The Key. And also when they assume Tara is the Key and Glory quickly identifies she is not.
Omnilingualism: Able to speak and understand any human or demon language. This is known when humans and demons would talk to her in other languages and she would easily be able to interpret and understand.
Magic: In "Shadow", Glory cast an ancient spell that caused an ordinary snake to grow to a massive size and granted it the ability to see the true form of The Key, in addition to making it completely loyal to her. According to Giles, a spell such as that would need enormous levels of magic to perform, and Glory cast it easily.
The extent of Glory's true powers as a hell-god were never revealed or used, though according to Gregor in "Spiral", they were beyond what even her compatriot hell-gods could conceive. She later secures Ben's aid in recapturing Dawn by promising him immortality.
Personality[edit]
Clare Kramer says Glory's strength was her lack of self-doubt: "She was completely secure in herself, focused on what she wanted and dedicated to her cause." Her strength was also her downfall; Kramer notes that Glory was unable "to look at more than just herself."[1]
Servants[edit]
Dreg
Jinx
Murk
Slook
Gronx
The High Priest Minion
Doc
Art links[edit]
The picture in the living room of Glory's mansion is a copy of Tamara de Lempicka's Irene and her sisters a.k.a. Four nudes. The Polish art déco/futurist artist is renowned for being strongly feminist and openly bisexual/lesbian.
In Buffy & Angel: Official Yearbook 2006, Glory was voted number one by fans as "Best Buffyverse Villain", followed by Angelus and the Mayor respectively.[citation needed]
Appearances[edit]
Canonical appearances[edit]
Glory appeared in 13 canonical episodes:
Season 5: "No Place Like Home" (first appearance); "Family"; "Shadow"; "Checkpoint"; "Blood Ties"; "I Was Made to Love You"; "Forever"; "Intervention"; "Tough Love"; "Spiral; "The Weight of the World"; "The Gift" (killed)
Season 7: "Lessons" (as an incarnation of The First Evil)
Merchandise[edit]
The character's popularity prompted Diamond Select Toys to release two unique Glory action figures in 2006 and 2007: one figure is modeled on the character wearing her trademark red dress, and the other features the character dressed in black, as seen in "The Gift". The latter action figure was released as part of a set, with the other figure being Dawn from the same episode.
A maquette of Glory was released as part of Electric Tiki's "Tooned-Up Television" line.[2]
See also[edit]

Portal icon United States portal
Portal icon Television portal
Portal icon Fictional characters portal
List of Buffyverse Villains and Supernatural Beings
Women warriors in literature and culture
List of women warriors in folklore
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ BBC Interview with Clare Kramer, retrieved 2007-07-18
2.Jump up ^ Electric Tiki 'Buffy Tooned-Up', [1].


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Adam (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
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Adam
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character

George Hertzberg portrayed Adam mindful both of "boyish innocence" and a programmed directive to kill.

First appearance
"The I in Team" (2000)
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
George Hertzberg
Information

Affiliation
Initiative
Classification
"Bio-mechanical demonoid"
Notable powers
Superhuman strength, stamina, and durability. Skewer, collapsible minigun and grenade launcher housed within arms. Cybernetic abilities.
Adam is a fictional character in the fourth season of the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Portrayed by George Hertzberg, he is a monster created from a man and the collected parts of demons, vampires, and technology: the product of a perverse experiment carried out by military scientists. The series' main character, Buffy Summers, encounters and ultimately defeats him in the fourth season. Adam is the creation of Dr. Maggie Walsh (Lindsay Crouse), the head of a military-like organization called The Initiative that studies how to alter the harmful behavior inherent to demons. Adam and the Initiative are the fourth season's primary antagonists, or Big Bad.
The premise of the series is that Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a Slayer, endowed with superhuman strength to fight vampires and evil creatures in the fictional town of Sunnydale. In the fourth season, Buffy begins attending college, where she discovers that her psychology professor, Walsh, is a scientist for the Initiative. Adam is Dr. Walsh's horrible masterpiece, an allusion to Frankenstein's monster, whose first conscious act is killing his creator. Adam's search for understanding himself and his true nature, combined for his penchant for chaos, leads him to orchestrate a massacre between demons and humans, after which he will be able use body parts leftover from the melee to create an army of monsters to set loose on Sunnydale. Buffy's effectiveness as a Slayer is increased because her close friends and family, called the Scooby Gang, assist her in her battles. By the end of season four the members of the group have become estranged and must come back together in order to defeat the apparently invincible Adam.
Buffy studies scholars have critically examined the character of Adam, noting that he is a clear reference to Frankenstein's monster. Throughout the action of the novel, the monster constantly asks what he is and why he was created, much like Adam. Whedon wanted Adam to be inquisitive and introspective, directing George Hertzberg to "find the stillness" in the character. The presence of Adam also serves to questioning tradition and authority, specifically institutional authority, which is a repeated theme on the show. Adam has a "design flaw": Adam supplants Dr. Walsh's existence with technology, finding her unnecessary and killing her—an act of questioning authority. Critical reception to Adam has been largely mixed, with critics' opinions ranging from negative to positive. Some commentators felt his subplot was confusing and unconvincing. Others enjoyed the concept and praised the make-up and special effects used to create the character.


Contents  [hide]
1 Character arc 1.1 Television appearances
1.2 Graphic novel appearance
2 Development 2.1 Creation and casting
2.2 Make-up
3 Themes
4 Reception
5 See also
6 References

Character arc[edit]
Television appearances[edit]
Adam makes his first appearance on the thirteenth episode of season four, "The I in Team". The first twelve episodes of the season establish the overarching themes, with increasing focus on the mysterious activities of the Initiative. Buffy and Willow begin attending college, an experience which overwhelms Buffy immediately as she finds herself far outside her comfort zone.[1][2] In the season premiere, Buffy and Willow begin attending a challenging psychology class taught by Dr. Maggie Walsh (Lindsay Crouse). She also meets Dr. Walsh's teaching assistant Riley Finn (Marc Blucas) and they become attracted to each other. Riley is in charge of a military commando organization that hunts vampires and demons, and captures them for research. It is not revealed to audiences that Dr. Walsh is the head of the research branch of Riley's military organization, called the Initiative, until the seventh episode.[3][4]
The Initiative's goals are gradually made clearer. A recurring character since the second season is Spike (James Marsters), a mercenary vampire who has fought both against and with Buffy in the past, depending on what suits his interests. Recently wanting to kill Buffy, Spike is captured by the Initiative before he can get to her and implanted with a chip in his brain that causes intense pain if he tries to attack humans to feed on them, or even to fight them.[5][6] Buffy begins enthusiastically training with the Initiative, spending more time with Riley, and trying to impress Dr. Walsh. At different times, Willow, Xander, and Giles caution Buffy that she does not know the Initiative's true motives and there are questions about their mission that are unanswered. Buffy begins asking questions during "The I in Team". After being sent after a Polgara demon, a being with a skewer in its arm, she wants to know why the demon must be captured alive and unharmed as she is used to killing demons. Her questions at first confound Dr. Walsh—who answers to no one—then cement Dr. Walsh's decision to remove Buffy from the Initiative. After a botched attempt to kill Buffy, Dr. Walsh consoles herself by going into laboratory room 314 and speaking to her pet project, Adam who is laying on a table, apparently unconscious. Adam rises and impales Dr. Walsh with the skewer in his arm—the one taken off the Polgara demon. His first word is "Mommy", which he says as Dr. Walsh falls to the floor, dead.[7][8]
Riley, meanwhile, learns of Dr. Walsh's death and his comrades Forrest (Leonard Roberts) and Graham (Bailey Chase) suspect Buffy to be her murderer. Extremely agitated and showing signs of drug withdrawal, he follows Buffy and demands to know the truth in "Goodbye Iowa". None of them are aware of Adam until he re-emerges in the underground laboratories of the Initiative, killing Dr. Walsh's assistant and another soldier. He tells Riley that he knows Dr. Walsh created them both, that she gave Riley chemicals to strengthen him, which makes them brothers. When Riley refuses to acknowledge their bond, Adam skewers Riley, and knocks Buffy across the room while Forrest and Graham are trying to enter the locked door. Adam leaves and the Initiative are tasked with hunting him down and killing him.[9][10] When one of Sunnydale's residents, Jonathan Levinson (Danny Strong), casts a spell making him the center of everyone's attention in "Superstar", Adam is the only character in town who realizes it is an illusion. He explains his insight by saying he is "aware". His uniqueness has set him apart.[11] Adam is interested in how the illusion will play out, however, and watches it unfold. During the illusion, Jonathan—temporarily a part of the Inititative—discovers Adam's only weakness: a uranium power core source which, effectively, will never allow him to die.[12]
Spike simultaneously discovers Adam to be communicating with the town's demon underworld, asking for favors through a charisma he has over them. Adam promises if Spike can drive apart Buffy and Riley and their friends, he will remove Spike's microchip.[13][14] The plan to drive Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles apart works for a while; at their lowest, the four refuse to speak to each other, but each of them realizes in "Primeval" that they were manipulated by Spike and return, apologetic. They realize that Adam has been orchestrating the capture of the town's vampires and demons so he can release them in the Initiative; the Initiative's holding cells are becoming overcrowded and the soldiers spread very thin and overworked. The soldiers and demons will then proceed to kill each other. Adam then intends to use the resulting carnage to create an army of monsters much like himself.[15][16]
Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles realize they must work as one unit to defeat Adam. They are captured sneaking into the Initiative, but Adam trips the power, releasing all the demons and a fight breaks out all over the facility. Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles get themselves into a room adjacent to 314 as Willow starts to cast the spell to join them all temporarily. Riley distracts Adam's demonoid minions while Buffy confronts Adam. However, Adam, after modulating his arm to dispense a minigun, is able to overpower her. Suddenly, the spell begins to work: to function as one unit, Willow becomes the spirit, Giles the mind, Xander the heart, and Buffy the hand, or strength of their ensemble. They work through Buffy to neutralize Adam, telling him "You could never hope to grasp the source of our power". Adam, alone but intrigued, shoots at them and they force the gun to retreat from his arm, then change his missiles to doves. They are able, through Buffy, to punch inside Adam's chest, remove his uranium core, destroying him.[17][18]
Adam's most significant influence following his death is in the next episode "Restless", where the cost of defeating Adam is made apparent. Buffy's fourth season was a first in the series in that the Scoobies' defeat of the Big Bad did not occur in a two-part grand season finale. "Primeval" is not the last episode of the season. Joss Whedon felt so strongly about the importance of the four core characters that he dedicated the finale to exploring their development.[19] "Restless" opens with Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles arriving at Buffy's mother's house still brimming with the energy of the spell that bound them together in "Primeval". Each of them falls asleep quickly, however, and their dreams are a pastiche of enigmatic episodes that both reveal much about each character, but also foreshadow what will occur in seasons to come. Their dreams also mirror their roles in the spell they performed to kill Adam. The magic they used to defeat the influence of science creates an inverse crisis, violating the series' set of laws.[17] Both Riley and Adam, now only in human form, appear in Buffy's dream. They are wearing business suits, sitting together at a glass conference table as Buffy walks into the room, telling her they are naming things—as Adam did in the Garden of Eden—and making plans to take over the world. Buffy asks Adam what his name was before he was a monster, but he cannot tell her. Adam appears once more in the series as one of the faces of the First Evil, the seventh season's Big Bad, in "Lessons".[20]
Graphic novel appearance[edit]
According to the comic book series Haunted, Adam was once a human member of the Initiative tasked with protecting Professor Walsh. The ghost of Mayor Richard Wilkins, however, took over the body of a vampire, which was then captured by the Initiative. Desperate to escape, the Mayor moved to the body of a dead demon and killed Adam. Having been one of her favorite agents, Professor Walsh vowed to bring him back to life and placed his body in her 314 Project.[21] However, due to the complex nature of the Buffyverse, this chain of events may not, in fact, be canonical.[22]
Development[edit]
Creation and casting[edit]



I think there is a boyish innocence to Adam, that coupled with his programming—which is basically to kill—makes him an evil demon being-man-machine-person. Is he evil or misunderstood? I don't think he's misunderstood. Can he be reprogrammed? I think it's possible, but if he was, I don't know how interesting that would be.
“
”
George Hertzberg, outlining his character.[23]
Series writer David Fury cited graphic novel author Alan Moore's Promethea—a story combining science fiction, mysticism, and a female superhero—as inspiration for the storyline, and another nod to Frankenstein as its original title was Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus.[19][24] In addition, series creator, Joss Whedon has long been interested in science fiction. He wrote the script for the film Alien Resurrection (1997), where an extraterrestrial creature is bred from a human and an alien in a laboratory, and went on to develop the space western television series Firefly. Buffy uses both science and magic as narrative devices. According to author Andrew Aberdein, the series employs science in three ways: to demonstrate what contemporary science explains, to posit what science may be able to accomplish, and the dominance of supernatural forces over science. According to Aberdein, Adam, a "kinematically redundant, bio-mechanical demonoid", is the series' deepest exploration of scientific potential.[25] Series writer Doug Petrie states that Adam is the embodiment of the invasion of science in a world where magic is the most powerful force. The series relied on its own form of magic to explain Buffy's superpowers and other supernatural occurrences up to the fourth season. Adam is "what happens when people who believe in science use demons for military gain", according to Petrie. The result is that science "gets its ass kicked" by magic.[19]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer had been very successful in its first three seasons on television, but some of the characters left the series and storylines ended, creating a need for an entire shift in location and mission. Buffy and the core group of friends who fight with her graduate from high school, while the school itself was blown up in the third season finale. The fourth season, therefore, presents viewers with Buffy, her best friends Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Xander (Nicholas Brendon), and mentor Giles (Anthony Head) at a crossroads. Series creator Joss Whedon called it a "strange, sort of schizophrenic season" with a "weird incoherence", but also stated that the episodes in the fourth season were among the series' best. The writers set out to explore the characters' trials as they discover more about themselves following the defining years of high school. Although they had been a cohesive group of friends in the first three seasons, situations arise in the fourth to separate them. The writers focused on each of the four core characters individually throughout the season to increase the impact of their finally coming back together in the penultimate episode, "Primeval", when they merge their essences to form a super-Buffy in order to defeat Adam.[19]



 Actor George Hertzberg portrayed Adam in the series.
George Hertzberg, a University of Southern California graduate with experience in sitcoms and commercials, was chosen based on one of Adam's monologues he was given to read for the audition. Hertzberg counted luck and being in the right place at the right time in helping him get the role. Many recurring characters on Buffy start with one or two episodes, and when the writers or producers like their chemistry with other actors, they often make them a regular part of the cast. Hertzberg, however, understood at his reading that Adam was to be a major part of the fourth season.[26] Casting Director Amy Britt needed someone physically imposing for the part, with the 6-foot-4-inch (1.93 m) Hertzberg fitting the bill. Britt stated, "this is a guy we're going to want eventually to have some affinity for. We can't just see him as an evil being. He is evil to the core [and] should scare us with his actions; but there's also innocence. Like the Frankenstein monster, you realize that they're only doing what they know. Or what they've been programmed to do. These aren't born creatures, these are creations."[27]
Make-up[edit]
When he auditioned, Hertzberg had no idea what Adam would look like in full costume and make-up. Buffy used a company named Optic Nerve to build the materials to make Hertzberg look like a demonoid. Almost immediately after Hertzberg got the part, Optic Nerve sketched and sculpted Adam's appearance. They had Hertzberg come in to have molds made for prosthetic parts to fit his head and face, arms, chest, and legs, then he was fitted for contact lenses. They also created separate hands and a chest to film for close-up shots. Adam has a floppy disk drive mounted on his chest which, when used, had to be filmed without Hertzberg behind it. The entire construction of Adam's appearance took about two weeks.[28] Hertzberg's voice was also modified post-production. When he saw the full Adam prosthetic and costume, his biggest concern was being able to show nuanced facial expressions under so much latex. It took hours to get Hertzberg into his full costume, but even after it was fully applied on set, often he would have to wait even longer before he went in front of the cameras. He spoke of the need to stay focused during all the waiting while sweating underneath everything he wore for the part.[29]
Themes[edit]



 Adam serves as an allusion to Frankenstein's monster.
Buffy studies scholar Roz Kaveney states that estrangement from the self and others is the primary theme of the fourth season. To illustrate the absolute search for identity, the series writers created Adam, who is more truly alone than is anyone else.[30] He is a creature assembled from a man, vampires, demons, and cutting edge cybernetic technology. Adam was not the first re-animated corpse to be presented in the series. "Some Assembly Required" in the second season also had a Frankenstein monster-like creation and "Beauty and the Beasts" in the third includes references to Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; both touch on the misuse or abuse of science.[31][32] Adam is a clear reference to Frankenstein's monster, who in the novel Frankenstein (1818) tells his creator that he is the "Adam of your labours". Mary Shelley wrote the novel to highlight the problems progress, science, and industry create for humanity.[33] Throughout the action, the monster constantly asks what he is and why he was created. Likewise, Adam escapes from 314 and makes his way out into the world, and much like Frankenstein's monster, he finds a little boy and asks the boy who and what he (Adam) is, then murders and dissects him. Adam is a curious character, seeking the truth and pontificating on what he has learned, even if he gained the knowledge through heartless violence. Whedon wanted Adam to be inquisitive and introspective, directing George Hertzberg to "find the stillness" in the character. Roz Kaveney notes that Hertzberg's "flawed but impressive performance" includes Adam's interesting idiosyncrasy of pausing each time he speaks, as if he is creating meaning with his own words and must consider the implications of what he is saying.[34] Author Nikki Stafford connects Adam's need to learn about the world around him to Frankenstein's monster: Adam must understand why other people are here and why he has emotions, a peculiarity of his creation as Dr. Walsh never encouraged others to question her.[35] One Buffy studies writer draws comparisons between Dr. Walsh and Victor Frankenstein, both of whom build monsters out of body parts "to compensate for human vulnerability".[36] The moral of Shelley's novel is that what science can accomplish is not necessarily what it should.[24][37][38]
Questioning tradition and authority, specifically institutional authority, is a repeated theme on the show. Buffy was created to subvert the media trope of a young, petite girl who easily falls prey to a male monster. Resisting patriarchy is exhibited in Buffy's opposing the first season's Master (Mark Metcalf), the leader of a cult determined to cause the apocalypse, and again in the third season where exploring the issues of power and its abuse is a primary theme. Buffy opposes Sunnydale's secretly evil Mayor (Harry Groener), who is planning to transform into a giant demon and feed on the graduating class of Sunnydale High School. The military-industrial complex is at the heart of the authority question in season four, again drawing comparisons to Frankenstein. Where Frankenstein's monster had no parental love, Adam has a "design flaw". Unlike Frankenstein's monster, who needs his creator to make him a mate, Adam supplants Dr. Walsh's existence with technology, finding her unnecessary and thus he kills her. Adam is the embodiment of the lack of moral guidance in pursuing scientific and technological advancement. He represents the cannibalistic nature of relentless and unchecked power: what that power wreaks comes back to devour its source.[39] Buffy, however, subverts Shelley's novel in the way Adam is defeated. Both Frankenstein and the monster must suffer alone. Frankenstein itself is an inversion of the Romantic era ideal of a solitary hero who must endure struggles, by portraying the monster and its creator as isolated and miserable. Buffy, as the embodiment of the postfeminist Romantic hero, further subverts this because the source of her success, according to Anita Rose, is that she fights with friends. Only then is she able to defeat Adam.[24]
Reception[edit]
Critical reception to Adam was largely mixed, with critics' opinions ranging from negative to positive. Nikki Stafford, in her book Bite Me!: The 10th Buffyversary Guide to the World of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was critical of Adam as well as the series doing several Frankenstein-inspired episodes so close together, noting that "Some Assembly Required" was aired "just two seasons" prior.[8] Stafford called the entire ending sequence of "Primeval", which featured the reanimated corpses of several minor characters as well as the death of Adam, "stupid and disgusting" and wrote that the scene was a main reason she was "happily bidding adieu" to the plot involving Adam and the Initiative.[14] Jenna Busch, in her book Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion, called Adam "one of Buffy's least interesting Big Bads" and argued that his story-arc involving the Initiative was "rather unconvincing and somewhat off-putting".[40]
Other reviews were more accepting of the character. Noel Murray from The A.V. Club was slightly more positive towards the concept of Adam. He wrote that he "love[d] the idea of Adam" but was having a hard time understanding the coherence of his application to the main plot. He cited inconsistencies in Adam's existence, noting, "Adam killed Professor Walsh weeks ago, and yet The Initiative is still fully operational, and no one seems overly bothered by the fact that one of their leaders was building a monster."[41] Murray, however, did conclude that the show's writers and producers "did a decent job of bringing [the plot involving Adam] to a conclusion".[41] Despite critiquing the larger plot, Murray was "always impressed with [Adam's] costume/make-up".[42] Furthermore, he was positively surprised that it "took [him] a minute to recognize" Adam's appearance in "Restless" sans makeup.[42]
See also[edit]

Portal icon Television portal
Portal icon Fictional characters portal
List of Buffyverse villains and supernatural beings
References[edit]
Footnotes
1.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., pp. 196–208
2.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 215–220
3.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., pp. 196–212
4.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 215–231
5.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., pp. 212–214
6.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 222–225
7.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., pp. 227–230
8.^ Jump up to: a b Stafford, pp. 231–232
9.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., pp. 231–232
10.Jump up ^ Richardson and Rabb, p. 67
11.Jump up ^ Stevenson, pp. 27–28
12.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., pp. 237–238
13.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., pp. 239–244
14.^ Jump up to: a b Stafford, pp. 239–242
15.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., pp. 246–247
16.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 242–244
17.^ Jump up to: a b Richardson and Rabb, pp. 73–74
18.Jump up ^ Stevenson, pp. 146–147
19.^ Jump up to: a b c d Joss Whedon, et al. (2000). Fourth Season Overview (DVD). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fourth Season: The WB Television Network.
20.Jump up ^ Ruditis, pp. 167–170
21.Jump up ^ Espenson, passim
22.Jump up ^ Naso, Markisan. "Jeff Mariotte: Cursed". Silver Bullet Comicbooks. Archived from the original on 7 June 2007. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
23.Jump up ^ Stokes, Mike (April 2001). "Young Frankenstein". Buffy the Vampire Slayer Magazine (19): 11.
24.^ Jump up to: a b c Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 133–142
25.Jump up ^ South, pp. 79–90
26.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., pp. 305–307
27.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., p. 347
28.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., pp. 380–384
29.Jump up ^ Hertzberg, George. "Interviews with George Hertzberg", BBC Cult Buffy News (2005). Retrieved on 26 November 2011.
30.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 23–27
31.Jump up ^ Golden and Holder, pp. 83–85
32.Jump up ^ Holder, et al., pp. 147–149
33.Jump up ^ Stevenson, p. 133
34.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 77–78
35.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 232–233
36.Jump up ^ South, pp. 91–93
37.Jump up ^ Dial-Driver, pp. 67–69
38.Jump up ^ Wilcox, pp. 47–48
39.Jump up ^ Stevenson, pp. 130–134
40.Jump up ^ Busch, Jenna (26 April 2012). "'Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion': Read an excerpt now". Zap2It. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
41.^ Jump up to: a b Murray, Noel (4 September 2009). "'The Yoko Factor' etc.". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
42.^ Jump up to: a b Murray, Noel (28 August 2009). "'Superstar' etc.". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
BibliographyDial-Driver, Emily; Emmons-Featherston, Sally; Ford, Jim; Taylor, Carolyn Anne (eds.) (2008), The Truth of Buffy: Essays on Fiction Illuminating Reality, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7864-3799-3
Espenson, Jane (2002). Haunted. Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 1-56971-737-0.
Golden, Christopher; Holder, Nancy (1998). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 1, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-02433-7
Holder, Nancy; Mariotte, Jeff; Hart, Maryelizabeth (2000). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 2, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-04260-2
Jowett, Lorna (2005). Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan, Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-6758-1
Kaveney, Roz (ed.) (2004). Reading the Vampire Slayer: The New, Updated, Unofficial Guide to Buffy and Angel, Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1-86064-984-X
Pateman, Matthew (2006). The Aesthetics of Culture in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 0-7864-2249-1
Richardson, J. Michael ; Rabb, J. Douglas (2007). The Existential Joss Whedon: Evil and Human Freedom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Serenity, McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-2781-7
Ruditis, Paul (2004). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 3, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-689-86984-3
South, James (ed.) (2003). Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale, Open Court Books. ISBN 0-8126-9531-3
Stafford, Nikki (2007). Bite Me! The Unofficial Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-807-6
Stevenson, Gregory (2003). Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hamilton Books. ISBN 0-7618-2833-8
Wilcox, Rhonda (2005). Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-84511-029-3
Wilcox, Rhonda and Lavery, David (eds.) (2002). Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0-7425-1681-4


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Mayor (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
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For the Australian television/entertainment personality, see Richard Wilkins (TV presenter).

The Mayor
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character

First appearance
"Homecoming"
Created by
Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt
Portrayed by
Harry Groener
Information

Classification
Mayor of Sunnydale
Notable powers
Sorcery, immortality.
 Superhuman attributes in demon form.
Richard Wilkins III (commonly referred to as The Mayor) is a fictional character in the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). Portrayed by Harry Groener, he is the mayor of Sunnydale, a fictional town rife with vampires and demons in which the main character, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) lives. The premise of the series is that Buffy is a Slayer, a young girl endowed with superhuman powers to fight evil, which she accomplishes with the help of a small group of friends and family, called the Scooby Gang. During the second season it becomes apparent that local authorities are aware of the endemic evil in the town, and either ignore it or are complicit in making it worse. The series regularly employs monsters and elements of horror to symbolize real problems,[1] and the abuse of power in relation to the forces of darkness is a repeated theme throughout the series, as well as in its spinoff Angel.[2] The third season reveals that the Mayor is involved in many of the evil occurrences and he becomes the primary villain, or Big Bad. His genial demeanor, promotion of family values, casual phobia of germs, and dislike of swearing belie his evil nature.
This season also marks Buffy's and her friends' last year in high school, and introduces a long-running character named Faith (Eliza Dushku), who is also a Slayer. Faith's disrupted and painful family life has left her without a stable moral center, and unlike Buffy, she is particularly vulnerable to the dark impulses associated with being a Slayer. After many months of fighting alongside Buffy and being under the authority of Buffy's Watcher, Giles, Faith becomes estranged from Buffy and aligns herself with the Mayor, who both employs her as an assassin and becomes a father figure to her while preparing to become a powerful demon that will destroy the town.


Contents  [hide]
1 Creation and casting
2 Establishment
3 Conflict with Buffy and relationship with Faith
4 Demise
5 Influence
6 Citations
7 Bibliography

Creation and casting[edit]
In planning for the third season, series creator Joss Whedon and the team of writers for the show sought to explore the issues of the abuse of power, and the choices people in or with power make.[3] Veteran stage actor Harry Groener was cast in the role of the Mayor of Sunnydale, the embodiment of a quintessential American politician. In the second season, it becomes clear that the authorities at Sunnydale High School — under which a portal to hell called a Hellmouth is situated — are aware of the perpetual influence of evil at the school and have been reporting events to the Mayor's office.[4] While there are scenes in season two which indicate that the Mayor is a fear-inspiring figure, he is not seen until the third season.
Series writer Jane Espenson credited Groener's performance and his chemistry with co-star Eliza Dushku with propelling his character to greater importance and making their relationship a central focus of the season.[5] The writers created the blue collar Slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku) as an anti-Buffy: a young woman given extraordinary physical powers with no moral foundation. Whereas Buffy has had a stable family life up until her parents' divorce two years earlier, Faith does not know her father, and it is revealed that her mother was an alcoholic who beat Faith, before her death. She has been surviving on her own since her original Watcher, someone who teaches her about the demons and monsters she will face, was tortured and killed shortly before Faith's arrival in Sunnydale.[6]
Groener loved the part and was impressed with the writing. As a stage actor used to having rehearsal time to prepare for a role, he found himself often with little time for rehearsal in the environment of television production; actors sometimes get their lines the night before and must memorize them, then spend time on set learning how to block shots for cameras. Consequently, Groener said he did not have much time to rehearse and prepare for the role of the Mayor. He was surprised to see how involved Joss Whedon was in preparing scripts: sometimes Whedon would rewrite lines on set. Groener said, "Poor Joss. Here is a man who I think never sleeps. He never, ever sleeps and of course he was writing and directing the last two episodes, and there were times when we would simply get a synopsis the night before...and while they're setting everything up and getting everything ready to shoot the next scene, Joss is over in a corner writing the scene that's going to happen after that. It can be kind of nuts! But it all gets done. That's the magic of it."[7]
Establishment[edit]
The Mayor is first alluded to in the second season's 19th episode I Only Have Eyes For You in a conversation between Principal Snyder and the police, however he is not seen. The Mayor's backstory is revealed throughout the season. Richard Wilkins III is also Richard Wilkins I and II; he has been in office for a century, maintaining his long life and political power by paying tribute to an array of demons who live in or under Sunnydale. He has been aware of Buffy's presence in the town and has kept tabs on her through Sunnydale High School's Principal Snyder (Armin Shimerman). Buffy and the rest of the town - except for a small group of his aides - are unaware of the Mayor's dark nature.[8]
The script for the fifth episode "Homecoming", where audiences are introduced to the Mayor, describes him as a man who "couldn't be more unassuming ... one feels that this man has not raised his voice in years, and although he is mild enough in demeanor, one hopes he won't."[8] In the previous episode, Faith arrives in Sunnydale, as does a vampire named Mr. Trick (K. Todd Freeman), who tries to kill both Faith and Buffy. When this is unsuccessful, he attempts to kill both Slayers again—for fun—in "Homecoming", billing it as "Slayerfest" and charging a fee to those who have come to hunt the two. Impressed with his initiative, the Mayor invites Mr. Trick to work for him.[9][10] Mr. Trick's first assignment is to distract the entire town so four infants can be taken from the hospital to serve as a sacrifice to a demon in "Band Candy". Buffy and the Scooby Gang thwart the Mayor's plans; their successful interference signals to the Mayor that Buffy's efficiency as a fighter of evil will have long-ranging consequences for him. He tells Mr. Trick to keep an eye on her.
The Mayor carries out his evil schemes while exhibiting a paradoxical "fifties sitcom-dad demeanor". He dislikes swearing and disallows its use in his presence. He asserts that he is a family man; a specifically conservative politician who espouses family values. Inside his office cabinet he keeps a variety of skulls, shrunken heads, weapons, and other evil objects alongside a box of hand wipes, which he uses frequently in between dispensing "goofily prudish advice" tainted with dark threats.[11] His phobia of germs was an homage to Buffy producer David Greenwalt, who exhibits similar positive enthusiasm while often wiping his hands with wet towelettes.[12] Groener's acting was praised by author Nikki Stafford, who writes that he "is consistently wonderful in this role, one that would have been very difficult for many actors to maintain".[10] Likewise, Jane Espenson remarked that Groener played the part exhibiting a "wonderful innocent glee" towards evil that she thought was "delightful".[5] Groener stated that when he tried to play the Mayor too dark or evil, Joss Whedon or other directors would ask him to tone it down, take it easy and make the part "real nice". In contrast to the series' previous villains and monsters, the Mayor's evil hides behind a mask of humanity. Groener enjoyed this, saying "You don't have to be Snidely Whiplash to be evil. Look at Ted Bundy."[7] The Mayor's unassuming appearance, pleasure in such harmless activities as miniature golf and reading The Family Circus, and his quirky mysophobia are a part of the season's exploration of moral ambiguity.[13]
Conflict with Buffy and relationship with Faith[edit]
During the episodes which reveal the Mayor's true nature, Faith's darker nature also begins to appear. She shows herself to be purely motivated by pleasure, even enjoying to excess her fighting as a Slayer, but unreliable regarding the duties associated with that role. Her character tests ethics more than any other on the series, highlighting the repeated theme of the role of free will in the struggle between good and evil. Her reaction to killing demons and vampires is "positively joyful" contrasting with Buffy's frequent admissions that she considers her responsibilities an imposition on her life—although she is committed to her duty. In the early part of the season, Faith's actions aid the cause of good, but her motivations are ambiguous. She never reveals, other than the pleasure she receives, why she fights evil.[14]
Faith, Buffy, and the Mayor come into conflict during "Bad Girls", an episode in which Buffy allows herself to break rules and ignore responsibility. Needing to distract the Slayers so that he can be assured of the privacy required to complete an important ritual, the Mayor ensures they learn of a cult of vampires loyal to a demon named Balthazar, knowing they will be fully engaged in defeating him, giving the Mayor time to enact a ritual required as part of his preparation to become a demon (referred to as his Ascension). Its outcome is his invulnerability for the next 100 days, illustrated when he allows one of Balthazar's minions to slice his head in two so it can mend itself.[15]
In their efforts to track and defeat Balthazar and his cohorts, Buffy and Faith flirt with lawlessness, breaking into a store and stealing weapons, then escaping police custody to complete their mission. The Deputy Mayor, who has begun to show a reluctance to participate in the Mayor's plans and is keeping track of the Slayers, follows them to warn them of Mr. Trick and the Mayor's intention to have them killed. In the heat of fighting, Faith accidentally stakes and kills the Deputy Mayor, believing him to be a vampire. While Buffy feels terrible guilt for being a part of the Deputy Mayor's death, Faith claims not to, and resents Buffy for continuing to speak of it in "Consequences". Faith tells Buffy's Watcher Giles (Anthony Head) that it was Buffy who killed the Deputy Mayor; he does not believe her and she is taken into custody to be dealt with by the Watchers' Council. She escapes and tries to leave town, only to be stopped by Buffy. Mr. Trick appears on the scene to try to kill them both, and Faith saves Buffy by killing Mr. Trick. She then goes to the Mayor's office and offers him her services,[16] but continues to pretend to be fighting on Buffy's side. Eventually her alliance with the Mayor is exposed and she is revealed as Buffy's enemy.
The Mayor puts Faith up in a large, fully furnished apartment, buys her clothes, a video game system, and an expensive knife. He nurtures her, giving her a sense of belonging after her rift with the Scoobies, asking only in return she kill people when required. Faith has no problem with this arrangement and enjoys the lifestyle.[14] Buffy writer Marti Noxon states that villains who seek out love and social connections to counter their loneliness are complex and interesting to write. The Mayor shows absolute confidence in Faith's abilities and she in turn is validated by him. Among the characters who know them both, the Mayor is the only one who never compares Faith to Buffy. When Faith calls him her "sugar daddy", he gently scolds her, reminding her that he is a "family man". According to author Lorna Jowett, his rejection of any sexual element in their relationship makes their bond stronger. Faith's experience with sex has left her apathetic about her partners, but when the Mayor demands loyalty, she is able to give it.[13] His affection for Faith is genuine; like Faith, he has no living family, his wife having died of old age. The Mayor, according to Harry Groener, is a lonely father figure who "loves unconditionally". In series writer Doug Petrie's opinion, the Mayor is well-matched to Faith, who Petrie sees as "the loneliest person in Sunnydale" who "desperately needs a father". Eliza Dushku states that one of Faith's major life battles is constructing a viable self-esteem, which the Mayor never challenges, but his evil amplifies the "crazy" aspect of her nature.[5] Whedon declared Faith the writing team's first "really human monster". The Mayor intends Faith to inherit his evil empire, and shows unabashed pride in her achievements. Their tenderness with each other, according to Whedon, is a "beautiful counterpoint" to the violence and evil they wreak on the town.[12]
Demise[edit]
The Mayor plans his Ascension to demon form to coincide with Sunnydale High School's graduation day. In "Choices", the Mayor must complete another ritual involving a box full of grotesquely large insects which will, after he ingests them, imbue him with greater power. Faith retrieves the box for him, which Buffy then steals in order to prevent this important ritual from occurring. In the process, Buffy's best friend Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) is captured by Faith, and the Mayor meets Buffy for the first time when they exchange Willow for the box. During the confrontation, the Mayor pointedly asks questions about the viability of Buffy's relationship with Angel (David Boreanaz), a vampire who has been re-ensouled and who fights alongside Buffy. Although Buffy and Angel have been trying to avoid acknowledging the difficulties involved with continuing a relationship that can make neither of them happy, the Mayor's fatherly questions about their future and his comparison to his own experience of watching his wife Edna Mae die at an old age while he remained youthful, becomes a factor which forces them to admit that the relationship should end.[8][17]
Buffy and Angel mutually but sadly concede they cannot be happy together in the next episode but they continue to work toward the goal of defeating the Mayor's plan. The two-part season finale "Graduation Day" reveals that the Mayor will be the keynote speaker at Sunnydale High's commencement ceremony, where he will be able to feed on the students after his transformation. On orders from the Mayor, Faith murders a geologist who has uncovered evidence of a previously ascended demon, then shoots Angel with a poisoned arrow to distract Buffy and the Scoobies, who have to care for, and try to save, Angel. When they learn that the only antidote to the poison is the blood of a Slayer, Buffy tries to capture Faith in order to use her blood to cure Angel. During the fight to do so, Buffy stabs Faith with the knife given to her by the Mayor; Faith escapes, but her injuries put her into the hospital, comatose. Buffy then offers her own blood to Angel, who feeds on her, then takes her to the hospital after he recovers. There, the Mayor is poignantly grieving for Faith. He discovers Buffy in the next room and tries to smother her, but is stopped by Angel.[18][19]
In a redemptive turn, Faith comes to Buffy in a dream to tell her how to defeat the Mayor, saying "Want to know the deal? Human weakness. It never goes away. Even his." The knife the Mayor gave to Faith then flashes in the palm of Buffy's hand.[20] A fully recovered Buffy and the Scoobies enlist the graduating students of Sunnydale High, outfitting them with weapons to attack immediately after the Mayor's transformation, after learning his invulnerability will end once he is in demon form. The Mayor gives a speech about changes, growing up and moving on, mirroring the loose ends created by the series and the season.[21] A solar eclipse occurs during his speech, signaling the start of the Ascension. He transforms into an enormous snake, and devours the universally loathed Principal Snyder when the latter admonished him for disrupting the event. While Angel and the Scoobies fight the Mayor's force of vampires, Buffy taunts the now-transformed Mayor with Faith's knife and runs into the school. The Mayor follows her to the library, which is rigged with explosives, killing him and destroying the school with a series of explosions.[18][19]
Influence[edit]
Author Lorna Jowett considers the Mayor a classic villain, similar to the first season's vampire Master. Although the Mayor's appearance is not as frightening as the Master's, both are heads of hierarchies and symbols of patriarchy whose names are their titles.[13] Buffy Studies scholar Rhonda Wilcox calls the Mayor — particularly after his transformation — "Mr. Patriarchal Phallus of 1999".[22] Faith's relationship to the Mayor in many ways mirrors Buffy's relationship to her Watcher, Giles, who is Buffy's father figure.[23] Doug Petrie characterizes Faith as "Buffy's evil twin", who gets to do what Buffy would like to do, but cannot because Buffy is moral and not as "free-spirited" as Faith, according to Whedon.[3] Through the Mayor's effort to nurture his relationship with Faith she becomes his subordinate, despite her assertions to Buffy that she is independent. Her motivation to kill the geologist is never more complicated than, "The boss wants you dead", which she tells him just before stabbing him to death. Unlike Giles' mentoring of Buffy, in which he encourages her to make her own decisions despite what she is ordered to do by the similarly patriarchal Watcher's Council, Faith complies with everything the Mayor wants, creating "unquestioning service of the power structure for the sake of approval, comfort, and support of the father". In contrast, Buffy soon stops taking orders from the Watchers' Council.[24] Jowett writes, "The Mayor is ultimately a 'bad' father because he holds the status quo: like the Master before him, he is a powerful patriarch who wants to maintain his position at the top, and the children of such parents will never be able to grow up."[13]
Faith does not die from her injuries, but returns in the fourth season in "This Year's Girl". While still in her coma, she dreams of a pleasant picnic with the Mayor, who picks up a small snake that has slithered onto the blanket and tells it that it does not belong there. The dream-picnic is interrupted by Buffy who stabs him to death. Faith awakens in the hospital to discover that the Mayor has in fact died and left her a video and a device that will allow her to switch bodies with Buffy.[25][26][27] After Buffy recovers her own body, Faith goes to Angel in Los Angeles, turns herself in to the police and goes to prison, later emerging to begin her redemption on Angel. She returns to Sunnydale in season seven, not only to help Buffy and the Scoobies, but to perform in a position of leadership. In season seven the Mayor also returns as one of the faces of the First Evil in "Lessons" and "Touched".[28]
Citations[edit]

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1.Jump up ^ Wilcox, p. 18.
2.Jump up ^ South, p. 66.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Third Season; "Interview with Joss Whedon 'Bad Girls' and 'Consequences'" Featurette. [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
4.Jump up ^ Kaveny, p. 22–23.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Third Season; "Third Season Overview" Featurette (2008). [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
6.Jump up ^ Holder, et al, pp. 86–88.
7.^ Jump up to: a b Holder, et al, pp. 299–305.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c Holder, et al, pp. 100–102.
9.Jump up ^ Holder, et al, pp. 98–99.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Stafford, pp. 190–192.
11.Jump up ^ South, pp. 256–257.
12.^ Jump up to: a b Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Third Season; "Interview with Joss Whedon 'Enemies' and 'Earshot'" Featurette. [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
13.^ Jump up to: a b c d Jowett, pp. 168–171.
14.^ Jump up to: a b South, pp. 13–19.
15.Jump up ^ Holder, et al, pp. 172–174.
16.Jump up ^ Holder, et al, pp. 175–176.
17.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 210–212.
18.^ Jump up to: a b Holder, et al, pp. 187–191.
19.^ Jump up to: a b Stafford, pp. 212–215.
20.Jump up ^ Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 167–168.
21.Jump up ^ Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Third Season; "Interview with Joss Whedon 'Graduation Day'" Featurette. [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
22.Jump up ^ Wilcox, pp. 41–42.
23.Jump up ^ Jowett, pp. 83–90.
24.Jump up ^ Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 13–14.
25.Jump up ^ Holden, et al pp. 233–235.
26.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 233–235.
27.Jump up ^ Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 173–174.
28.Jump up ^ Ruditis, pp. 167–170, 227–229.
Bibliography[edit]
Holder, Nancy; Mariotte, Jeff; Hart, Maryelizabeth (2000). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 2, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-04260-2
Jowett, Lorna (2005). Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan, Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-6758-1
Kaveney, Roz (ed.) (2004). Reading the Vampire Slayer: The New, Updated, Unofficial Guide to Buffy and Angel, Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1-86064-984-X
Ruditis, Paul (2004). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 3, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-689-86984-3
South, James (ed.) (2003). Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale, Open Court Books. ISBN 0-8126-9531-3
Stafford, Nikki (2007). Bite Me! The Unofficial Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-807-6
Wilcox, Rhonda (2005). Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-84511-029-3
Wilcox, Rhonda and Lavery, David (eds.) (2002). Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0-7425-1681-4


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Buffy the Vampire Slayer


Canon ·
 Index ·
 Joss Whedon
 

Series
Film ·
 Television  (Episodes ·
 1 ·
 2 ·
 3 ·
 4 ·
 5 ·
 6 ·
 7)
   ·
 Comics  (Season Eight ·
 Season Nine ·
 Season Ten)
   ·
 Buffyverse canon
 

Main characters
Buffy ·
 Xander ·
 Willow ·
 Cordelia ·
 Giles ·
 Angel ·
 Oz ·
 Spike ·
 Riley ·
 Anya ·
 Dawn ·
 Tara
 

Antagonists
The Master ·
 Drusilla ·
 Angelus ·
 The Mayor ·
 Adam ·
 Glory ·
 The Trio ·
 Dark Willow ·
 The First
 

Spin-offs
Angel ·
 Fray ·
 Tales of the Slayers ·
 Tales of the Vampires ·
 Buffy the Animated Series
 

Expanded universe
Novels ·
 Undeveloped productions ·
 Video games
 

Auxiliary
Academia ·
 CCG ·
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Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
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 This television-related article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (October 2009)

Drusilla
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel character

According to actress Juliet Landau, Drusilla's costumes are intended to evoke both Victorian gentlewoman and mid-1990s heroin chic.

First appearance
"School Hard" (Buffy, 1997)
Created by
Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt
Portrayed by
Juliet Landau
Information

Affiliation
Wolfram & Hart
 The Whirlwind
Classification
Vampire
Notable powers
Supernatural strength, speed, stamina, agility, & reflexes, acute sensory perception, rapid healing & immortality
Precognition, hypnosis, miscellaneous psychic abilities.
Drusilla, or Dru, is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt for the American television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The character is portrayed by American actress Juliet Landau. Drusilla is introduced alongside her lover Spike (James Marsters) in the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to serve as new antagonists to the series' heroine, vampire Slayer Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar). In contrast to the series' previous central villain, the ancient and ceremonious Master (Mark Metcalf), Spike and Dru were introduced as a more unconventional but equally dangerous pair of vampires.
Though Spike and Dru had not been conceived as necessarily having to be either British or American, Landau chose to portray Drusilla with a Cockney accent in keeping with the characters' "Sid and Nancy analogy". Drusilla's physical appearance also drew from additional sources, such as supermodel Kate Moss and the mid-1990s heroin chic aesthetic. The character's backstory gives her ties to Buffy's boyfriend Angel (David Boreanaz), and it is gradually established over the course of Buffy and Angel. A young psychic in Victorian London with a potential for sainthood, Drusilla was driven insane by Angel before he eventually turned her into a vampire. In Angel, the character recurs both in the present-day narrative and in flashbacks which depict her adventures across Europe and Asia with Angel and Spike. After Angel ended in 2005, the character continued to appear in Expanded Universe materials in other media. Landau went on to co-write a two-issue Drusilla story arc for IDW Publishing's Angel comic book series in 2009, continuing her character's storyline.


Contents  [hide]
1 Character history
2 Powers and abilities
3 Personality and appearance
4 Appearances
5 References
6 External links

Character history[edit]
Drusilla's history unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; they are not presented in chronological order. In "Lie to Me", Angel explains that, in 1860 when he was still Angelus, he became obsessed with Drusilla, a beautiful young Catholic woman who lived with her parents and two sisters in London. Angelus' sire Darla first discovered Drusilla, and presented her to Angelus as a new possible victim to torment. Drusilla had psychic abilities, and was capable of occasionally foretelling the future, especially tragic situations. However, she believed this to be an evil affliction and wished to enter a nunnery to cleanse herself. Angelus sensed her purity and became obsessed with destroying her, as Drusilla had the potential for sainthood. Angelus first made contact with her by murdering Drusilla's priest, and impersonating him when she went to confession. When she confessed that she believed her abilities were evil, Angelus toyed with her by suggesting she embrace the evil instead of rejecting it. At some later point Angelus tortured and killed Drusilla's entire family, causing her to flee to a convent in Prague. On the day she was to take her holy vows, Angelus made her watch as he killed every person in the convent and engaged in sexual relations with Darla. The trauma of Angelus's atrocities drove Drusilla insane, and Angelus chose to turn her into a vampire, as he considered her a masterpiece, a testament to his talent. Believing death to be a mercy to her at this point, he chose to sire her to make her pain eternal as an immortal.
After being sired, Drusilla, now a predator, joined Angelus and Darla on their murderous travels. In 1880, Drusilla sired the young poet William, who joined the group. She and William, later known as "Spike", shared an intimate relationship, though Angelus continued to engage in sexual relations with Dru as well.
Shortly after Angelus is cursed with a soul, Spike and Drusilla (unaware of the ensoulment) go their separate ways from Darla and Angel. At some point before their arrival in Sunnydale in late 1997, Drusilla is attacked and severely injured by an angry mob in Prague, leaving her in a weakened and frail condition. Spike cares for her, and the couple decide to travel to the Hellmouth in hopes that its energy will help to restore Drusilla's strength and health.
They arrive in Sunnydale in the episode "School Hard", and Spike plots the downfall of the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. When he discovers that Drusilla can be cured by the blood of her sire, Spike captures Angel and allows Drusilla to torture him until it is time to perform the ritual. Although Buffy and her friends save Angel, the ritual is successful. Drusilla, fully restored, now takes care of Spike, who has been temporarily paralyzed by Buffy's attack. When Angel reverts to Angelus, he re-joins the couple. Drusilla soon kills Kendra, another Slayer, by hypnotizing her and cutting her throat with a fingernail (which impresses Spike when he learns of it).
Drusilla is delighted by Angelus's determination to destroy the world and encourages his ongoing sexual attention; both dynamics strongly disturb Spike, who wants Drusilla to himself again and does not particularly want the world to end. Spike decides to help Buffy save the world in exchange for his and Drusilla's safe passage from Sunnydale. Drusilla resists Spike's betrayal of Angelus, and he attacks her, ultimately carrying her unconscious body from the fray.
Drusilla and Spike flee to Brazil, where Drusilla becomes disillusioned with their relationship. Spike's alliance with the Slayer, combined with Dru's skills of foresight and perception, prove to her that Spike is now tainted (not "demon enough" for her) and that he is developing feelings for Buffy. Drusilla breaks up with Spike, and he rejects her offer to remain friends.
Drusilla reappears on Angel in 2001, when Wolfram & Hart brings her to Los Angeles to re-sire Darla, who had been resurrected as a human but is dying of syphilis. Drusilla, who loves Darla like a parent, genuinely believes she is doing Darla a favor by siring her and is puzzled by Darla's brief rage before her renewed vampire nature kicks in. Reconciled, the two wreak havoc in the city until Angel sets them on fire. The two go underground to heal, but Drusilla leaves Darla, who is then protected by Lindsey McDonald.
Drusilla returns to Sunnydale in the episode "Crush" to persuade Spike to join Darla and herself in reforming their "family" unit, but instead, Spike seizes the opportunity to try to prove his love for Buffy by offering to stake Drusilla. Heartbroken by the actions of her former lover, Drusilla departs Sunnydale and remains at large. However, in Season Seven of Buffy, the First Evil impersonates Drusilla in an unsuccessful attempt to break Spike's spirit. Spike claims that the First Evil's impersonation is not crazy enough to be Drusilla.
In Angel comics by IDW Publishing set after the television series ended, Drusilla reappears, breaking out of a psychiatric institution, in the story arc Drusilla (2009). Still mentally ill, her whereabouts since her last appearance in Angel remain unexplained. After assault by a crowd, she awakens, still pallid-skinned, in what appears to be Georgian London, in broad daylight and enters what seems to be her parent's home. She encounters a doll (which may or may not be "Miss Edith") and is called by a third party, possibly her parents. It is uncertain whether this is an elaborate hallucination, time travel to her personal past or an alternate universe where she was never turned by Angelus. It is strongly implied, however, that the story actually takes place before Drusilla is sired, and the parts of it set in the modern day are actually a premonition in the human, 19th-century Drusilla's mind. She later reappears in the Spike mini-series (2010–11) by IDW, where she encounters Spike in Las Vegas, having allied herself with a human who believes Spike stole his soul. Spike has Buffy's friend Willow magically transfer his soul to Drusilla to give her a shot at redemption, but they are forced to reverse the spell when it drives her even madder than she already is.
The character next appears in Angel & Faith by Dark Horse Comics in the story arc "Daddy Issues" (2012), in which Drusilla has become sane thanks to the Lorophage demon, popularly referred to as the Highgate vampire, which ate her trauma and pain. In her new role as "Mother Superior", she sought to perform similar treatments on the citizens of London, which Angel likened to lobotomies. When Angel killed the Lorophage, Drusilla becomes insane once more, and is free. Dark Horse intended to release the 5-issue miniseries Drusilla: Run and Catch, examining what happened next for her, but it was delayed until the conclusion of Season Nine. Later in the Angel & Faith series, it transpires she went on to kill one of the London Slayers affiliated with Faith.
Powers and abilities[edit]
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities. She is immortal, regenerates damage, drains human blood to survive, and is stronger than most humans. Drusilla's technique in combat, although awkward-looking, has allowed her to briefly hold her own in a fight against Angel (in "Reunion") and Spike (in "Becoming, Part Two"), along with besting Kendra the Vampire Slayer (in "Becoming, Part One") before using the hypnosis technique and then killing her. It was also in this fight with Kendra that Drusilla showed that her fingernails are sharper than one would normally expect, as she uses them to slit Kendra's throat. Darla had demonstrated a similar technique when she sired Angel; whether this is due to vampiric abilities or physical manipulation of nails is unclear.
Drusilla is also a seer with minor psychic abilities. However, since she had these before becoming a vampire their source and cause are unknown. She receives vivid visions that contain possible glimpses of the future, and can also see into people's minds and project false imagery into them (e.g. in "Becoming, Part Two", when she convinces Giles that she is really Jenny Calendar). She is also capable of hypnotizing people, which she does by catching their gazes, pointing her fingers towards her victim's eyes and then to her own, whispering to them ("Be in my eyes, Be in me"). Drusilla uses this technique to murder Kendra in the episode "Becoming, Part One". The Master uses a similar skill to paralyze Buffy in "Prophecy Girl".
Like all vampires, she is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, can be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, and cannot enter the home of a living human without being invited by someone who lives there first.
Personality and appearance[edit]
Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting.[1]
Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? All the parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue.
More signs of her madness can be seen through her speech:
"Everything in my head is singing."
"Do you know what I miss? Leeches."
"I think sometimes that all my hair will fall out and I'll be bald."
(To her dolls) "Miss Edith speaks out of turn. She's a bad example and will have no cakes today."
Dru: I'm naming all the stars. Spike: You can't see the stars, love, that's the ceiling. Also, it's day. Dru: I can see them. But I've named them all the same name, and there's terrible confusion."
"Run and catch. Run and catch. The lamb is caught in the blackberry patch."
"The King of Cups expects a picnic, but it is not his birthday."
(Imitating a growling dog) "Shhh, grrr. Bad dog."
"It's not nice to change the game in mid-play, Spike. You've taken my chair and the music hasn't stopped."
(Upon witnessing Angel and Darla having sex) "Snake in the Woodshed! Snake in the Woodshed! Snake in the Woodshed!"
Dru: "I saw you coming, my lovely; the moon showed me; it told me to come to the 20th century. Angel: "It's the 21st century, Dru." Dru: "Oh well. Still lagging."
"Dead already? Bad soldiers!"
(As The First Evil) "Daddy, no kicking . . . I've been so very good all year. It's not even Christmas yet and you've already gone spoiling it . . ."
Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau.[2]
Appearances[edit]
Drusilla appeared in 24 Buffyverse episodes:
Buffy the Vampire SlayerDrusilla has appeared in 17 episodes, appearing in the second, fifth, and seventh seasons.Season 2: "School Hard" (first appearance), "Halloween", "Lie to Me", "What's My Line, Part One", "What's My Line, Part Two", "Surprise", "Innocence", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Passion", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Becoming, Part One" (Also in flashbacks), "Becoming, Part Two"
Season 5: "Fool for Love" (flashbacks), "Crush" (last present appearance)
Season 7: "Lessons" (as the First Evil), "Bring on the Night" (as the First Evil), "Lies My Parents Told Me" (flashbacks)
Angel Drusilla has appeared in 7 episodes, appearing in the second and fifth seasons.Season 2: "Dear Boy" (flashbacks), "Darla" (flashbacks), "The Trial", "Reunion", "Redefinition"
Season 5: "Destiny" (flashbacks), "The Girl in Question" (flashbacks)
Drusilla also appears in issues 24 and 25 of the canonical Angel comics (both 2009). These are co-written by Landau, and tell the story of Drusilla after the television series.
Other stories featuring Drusilla include "The Problem With Vampires", from the 2004 comic mini-series Tales of the Vampires. Drusilla appears in a number comics/novels of the Buffy/Angel expanded universe. She appears notably in her own mini-series: Spike & Dru.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Cult - Buffy - Juliet Landau - Southern-style Spike". BBC. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
2.Jump up ^ "Cult - Buffy - Juliet Landau - Wickedly fashionable". BBC. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
External links[edit]

Portal icon United States portal
Portal icon Television portal
Portal icon Fictional characters portal
Drusilla at the Internet Movie Database
Drusilla Comic at FEARnet


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Master (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
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The Master
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel character

Mark Metcalf as The Master

First appearance
"Welcome to the Hellmouth"
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
Mark Metcalf
Information

Affiliation
Order of Aurelius
Classification
Vampire
Notable powers
Supernatural strength, speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes, acute sensory perception, rapid healing and immortality. Telepathy, telekinesis and hypnosis.
The Master is a fictional character on the action-horror/fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). He is a centuries-old vampire portrayed by Mark Metcalf, determined to open the portal to hell below Sunnydale High School in the fictional town of Sunnydale where the main character Buffy Summers lives. The premise of the series is that Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a Slayer, a teenage girl endowed with superhuman strength and other powers which she uses to kill vampires and other evil beings. Each season of the series Buffy and the small group of family and friends who work with her, nicknamed the Scooby Gang, must defeat an evil force referred to as the Big Bad; the villain is usually trying to bring on an apocalypse. The Master is the first season's Big Bad.
The Master is the head of an ancient order of vampires, a classic Old World villain devoted to ritual and prophecy. He has been entombed beneath Sunnydale for 60 years as the patriarch of a cult posed opposite Buffy, a character who was created to subvert media tropes about frail women falling victim to evil characters. Her youth and insistence on asserting her free will makes her unique in the Master's experience, but he is devoted to fulfilling a prophecy that states he will kill the Slayer and initiate the extermination of all humanity.


Contents  [hide]
1 Creation and casting
2 Establishment
3 Religiosity
4 Demise
5 Later appearances
6 Influence
7 Notes
8 Citations
9 Bibliography

Creation and casting[edit]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was originally conceived for a 1992 feature film that pitched Buffy against a similar villain controlling vampires below Los Angeles. Disappointed by the final film, screenwriter and series creator Joss Whedon reworked his script into a television series more in line with his original vision. He and the staff writers employ horror elements in the series to represent real-life conflicts for the adolescent characters, while frequently undercutting the horror aspect of the show with comedy. Sunnydale High School is situated atop a portal to hell called a Hellmouth, which Whedon uses to symbolize the high-school-as-hell experience.[1] Pragmatically, Whedon admitted that placing the high school on a Hellmouth allows the writers to confront the main characters with an endless array of evil creatures.[2]
Veteran character actor Mark Metcalf appeared in heavy prosthetic make-up for the role of the Master, belying his iconic performance in the film National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) as Douglas C. Neidermeyer, a strident rule-following ROTC officer (and the associated role in Twisted Sister's "We're Not Going to Take It" music video). In 2011, Metcalf acknowledged that his Animal House role would probably live much longer than he, but also recognized his roles on Seinfeld—where he plays a similarly named character called "Maestro"—and Buffy the Vampire Slayer as his favorites.[3] Many actors auditioned for the part, but Metcalf, according to Whedon, played it with more complexity, bringing a "sly and kind of urbane" sensitivity and a charm to the villainy of the character.[4]
Establishment[edit]
At the beginning of the series, Buffy has left behind a destructive past that has labeled her as a trouble-maker at school and instilled in her the fear that the actions she has had to take to be a successful Slayer are responsible for breaking apart her parents' marriage. She arrives at Sunnydale High School believing that she has made a fresh start. Her mother Joyce (Kristine Sutherland) is unaware of her daughter's vocation and stresses that Buffy's time in Sunnydale should be as peaceful as possible. When Buffy arrives in the school library, however, she finds that the new librarian, Giles (Anthony Head), is expecting her and ready to continue her training. His expectation that she is there to take up her role as Slayer upsets her; she wants nothing to do with him or with Slaying. Giles is, in fact, Buffy's new Watcher, a mentor who will teach her about the demons she must face, as well as supervise her training in weapons and battle strategy. Although she desperately desires to be a mere high school student, she is unsuccessful in avoiding her destiny to fight vampires. On her first day she finds a vampire's victim at school, and resumes her work as the Slayer.[5][6][7]
Because it debuted midway through the 1997 television season, the first season of Buffy has only 12 episodes as opposed to the standard 22 in subsequent seasons. The Master is first seen in the series premiere "Welcome to the Hellmouth", which was aired immediately before the second episode "The Harvest", which reveals more of the Master's character and backstory. Although the Master's identity is never revealed on screen, Joss Whedon wrote in the pilot's script that his name was Heinrich Joseph Nest, roughly 600 years old. In "Welcome to the Hellmouth" the Master is presented as one of the "old ones" a vampire with extraordinary physical and mental powers, but weakened through long isolation and needing to feed on people; he is raised from a pool of blood by his acolyte Luke (Brian Thompson). The head of a cult called the Order of Aurelius, the Master attempted to open the Hellmouth in 1937, placing himself in a church to do so. An earthquake swallowed the church during the Master's attempt, and he has been living in the ruins for 60 years.[8] He is imprisoned by a mystical force, unable to leave his underground lair, so he bids his minions to find people for him to feed from. The Master's incarceration underground was a device used by the writers to avoid having Buffy meet him and then thwart his attempts to kill her each week. Whedon was concerned that audiences would consider this implausible and that weekly confrontations would leave no tension for the season finale when Buffy and the Master would finally meet and battle each other.[9] In "The Harvest", in an ornately dark ceremony the Master makes Luke is his "vessel": every time Luke feeds, power will be transmitted to the Master.[10] Luke goes to The Bronze, the local nightclub frequented by Buffy and her friends and begins to feed on the patrons before Buffy — following a delay caused by getting grounded by her mother — can kill him. Although Luke successfully feeds on a couple of victims, Buffy defeats him, thereby leaving the Master contained underground and robbed of his proxy.
The majority of vampires on the series have a human face that can turn into what Whedon and the characters call "vamp face". When shown immediately before feeding, the vampire characters transform with prosthetic make-up and computer-generated effects, giving them prominent brows and cheekbones, sharpened yellow teeth, and yellow eyes. Whedon intended to use the vamp face to be able to place vampires around Buffy in different locations — especially at school — to highlight the element of surprise by illustrating that the characters often face friends and peers who appear normal, but have dark sides. Simultaneously, the vamp face shows that Buffy is killing monsters instead of people.[4] Whedon made a decision to have the Master in permanent vamp face to indicate that he is so ancient he precedes humanity. The Master never shows a human face; the make-up specialist conceived him as bat-like, intentionally making him look more like an animal.[9] His facial make-up, bald head, extremely long fingernails, and black costume all refer directly to the 1922 German Expressionist film Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau. Like the vampire of that film, Count Orlok, the Master lives in a state of furious isolation from which he is desperate to escape. According to author Matthew Pateman, the Master's presentation underscores both his great age and his European-ness — he is emphatically Old World. Even so, as a result of his entrapment in the New World, he adapts and shows himself able to incorporate American technology into his plans.[11] He also (perhaps anachronistically) speaks with a modern American accent.
Religiosity[edit]
In "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" the Master reads from a formally written Bible-like book of prophecy that foretells the arrival of a powerful warrior enigmatically named "The Anointed One" (Andrew J. Ferchland) who will become the Master's "greatest weapon against the Slayer". The Master sends other acolytes of the Order of Aurelius to bring The Anointed to him, instructing them to give their lives should it become necessary for them to succeed. When Buffy finally encounters him in the season finale, The Anointed One turns out to inhabit the body of a little boy.[12][13] The Master instructs the boy in the influence of fear ("Nightmares") and power ("Angel").
Buffy studies scholars have noted the role religion plays in the series, and have commented on the Master's sense of religiosity in particular. None of the main characters exhibit any prominent religious views although they observe some religious holidays. Several of the villains in the series, however, are nearly fanatical about religious ritual and custom, the first of which is the Master.[14] The rituals the Master performs to make Luke his vessel are, according to Wendy Love Anderson, an "inversion of Christianity". The Master attempts to restore the "old ones" and aligns himself with a child while setting up Buffy to be a Christ-like figure.[15] He foretells that when he is able to leave his mystical prison, "the stars themselves will hide", an aberration of a line from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, where Satan is musing on his own power.[16] The Master's entombment in a house of worship is a convenient vehicle to introduce the character's religiosity, but it also represents the way evil is at times allowed to thrive in churches.[note 1] The unChristian symbolism was intentional on Whedon's part, as he was cautious about including such subversive imagery in "The Harvest"; Buffy producer David Greenwalt was certain Christian groups would protest the ceremonial aspects of the plot.[9] Gregory Erickson notes that the Master's denigration of a Christian cross, what he calls the "two pieces of wood" even while being burned by it, reflects the series' treatment of Christianity overall and in turn, the American simplification of religion. On Buffy, a cross is a weapon, but beyond that is an empty symbol. Christian symbols and rituals traditionally play an integral role in many vampire stories, as in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Conversely, Buffy downplays their importance.[17]
Demise[edit]
The Master sends minions to kill Buffy in "Angel", an episode featuring the origin story of Buffy's romantic interest (David Boreanaz), a vampire with a murderous past who was re-ensouled by a Gypsy tribe as the ultimate punishment; this "curse" has caused him to feel remorse and live the past century in misery and torment. His desire for redemption, as well as his attraction to Buffy, compels him to assist her. She discovers he is a vampire in "Angel" and it is revealed that one of the Master's most powerful followers, Darla (Julie Benz), was the vampire who transformed Angel and was his lover for several generations. After the Master allows Darla to destroy the minions who failed to kill Buffy, Darla tries to lure Angel to the Master's side, but Angel stakes and kills her, further thwarting the Master's plans.[18][19]
Buffy and the Master finally meet in the season finale "Prophecy Girl", in which Giles translates a prophecy that states that if she fights the Master, she will die. Buffy overhears Giles discussing it with Angel and tells Giles she refuses to be the Slayer if it means she will die, then begs her mother to go away with her for the weekend. After five students are murdered by more of the Master's followers, however, Buffy decides she must fight the Master and is led to his underground lair by The Anointed One; she is wearing a long white dress, bought for a dance she was supposed to attend instead. He quickly hypnotizes her and tells her that "prophecies are tricky things" that don't reveal all: had she not come to fight him, he could not rise, as it is her blood which will free him. He bites and drinks from her, then tosses her to the ground face-down in a shallow pool where she drowns. Angel and Buffy's friend Xander (Nicholas Brendon), who have disobeyed her wishes and followed her, arrive after the Master has risen. Xander is able to revive Buffy through CPR, thus the prophecy of her death at the Master's hands is fulfilled, but its intention thwarted. She becomes stronger as a result of their encounter.[20]
An extension of the Master's religiosity is his preoccupation with prophecies. The themes of the first season are destiny and forming an identity separate from childhood: breaking the illusions that the world is safe and actions have no real consequences.[21][22] Destiny is repeatedly a theme between Buffy and the Master. The entire first season is underscored with prophecies — a narrative device used less frequently in later seasons of the series — that Buffy neglects to fulfill in various ways. Buffy often has prophetic dreams and the Master is nearly obsessed with recounting and confirming written prophecies.[23] Buffy's superhuman powers are her birthright. Despite her desire to live a normal life she feels compelled to fulfill her destiny as a Slayer, and the need for her to live up to this responsibility is reinforced by Giles. Buffy, however, subverts these elements to assert her own free will, which is illustrated in the season finale.[21] According to Buffy studies scholar Gregory Stevenson, the Master has such confidence in the prophecy that the Slayer will die that he is unable to comprehend her resurrection by Xander.[24]
When the Master rises, the Hellmouth opens in the floor of the school library where Giles, Buffy's friends Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), and a teacher, Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte) are present and fighting off the emerging monsters. Buffy finds the Master on the roof of the library watching through windows in the ceiling. Incredulous upon her arrival, he tells her she was destined to die in a written prophecy. She replies "What can I say? I flunked the written." She is now able to resist his attempts to hypnotize her and pushes him through the window into the library below, impaling him on a broken wooden table and killing him.[20][25]
Later appearances[edit]
Following his death, the Master makes several appearances in the series, and his presence is still palpable in early second season episodes. In the second season premiere Buffy has still not exorcised the trauma she experienced in her confrontation with the Master, and is masking her anxiety by being hostile towards her friends. She has her catharsis by smashing his bones with a sledgehammer.[26][27] The Anointed One remains alive until killed by a vampire named Spike (James Marsters) in "School Hard". In the third season, "The Wish" presents audiences with an alternate reality in Sunnydale: after dating Xander and breaking up, Cordelia expresses to Anyanka (Emma Caulfield), a vengeance demon, a wish to live in a Sunnydale where Buffy never arrived. In this reality the town is overrun with vampires loyal to the successfully risen Master who, in a capitalistic turn, has devised a machine to make an assembly line to bleed humans to feed his followers. In this Sunnydale, very powerful vampires Willow and Xander are his favorites. Near the end of the episode a very different Buffy arrives, friendless and fighting alone, and when she confronts the Master she falls quickly under his hypnotic powers and is killed when he snaps her neck (again fulfilling the prophecy that in their fight, she will die).[28][29][30] In the seventh season premiere of Buffy, "Lessons", the Master appears once more as a face of the First Evil, a shape-shifting villain and the Big Bad of the final season.[31] Metcalf also guest-starred on the Buffy spinoff series Angel in the second season episode "Darla", which goes into more detail about Darla's human life and her transformation into a vampire at the Master's hands.[32] In the canonical comic book series, it is revealed that the Master has been resurrected off-screen by the Seed of Wonder as its guardian at some point after the first season's finale. He is eventually killed by a far more powerful rogue higher power Twilight.
Influence[edit]
Joss Whedon created Buffy Summers to subvert the dual ideas of female subordination to patriarchy, and authority steeped in tradition, both dynamics well-established in the Master's world order. According to Buffy scholars, the Master is a classic villain. Rhonda Wilcox writes, "There could hardly be a nastier incarnation of the patriarchy than the ancient, ugly vampire Master",[33] and Gregory Stevenson places him in the category of "absolute evil" with the second season's Judge (also Brian Thompson), third season's Mayor (Harry Groener), and fourth season's Adam (George Hertzberg). In contrast, other Buffy characters are more morally ambiguous.[24] The Master is a grand patriarch consumed with hierarchy, order, subservience, and is defined by what is old. Buffy's opposition to the Master addresses media tropes found in many horror films where a young, petite blonde woman, up against a male monster, is killed off partway through the film as a result of her own weakness. The series also highlights the generational divide between the younger characters and the older ones. In particular, the dialogue, termed "Buffyspeak" by some media, frequently makes the younger characters indecipherable to the older ones.[4][34] The Master speaks with a stylistic formality found in Bible verses. According to Wilcox, Buffy can hardly understand Giles' language, much less the Master's "pompous, quasi-religious remarks". The entire first season confronts the younger characters with the problems of impending adulthood, which they only begin reconcile in the last episodes of the season.[33][35]
Each season finale signifies a turning point for the main characters — usually Buffy — and her confronting the Master, according to Stevenson, represents "the end of her childhood illusions of immortality".[36] The scene is fraught with romantic imagery, with Buffy in a white gown, initially intended to be her party dress. When the Master bites her it is, according to Elisabeth Kirmmer and Shilpa Raval, her sexual initiation: a different take on the young girl dying at the hands of a monster. Kirmmer and Raval write that the "paradigm of Death and the Maiden is replaced by that of the hero who faces death and emerges stronger".[37] When he tries to hypnotize her on the roof, she is able to resist him and kills him. Buffy's willful behavior and tendency to buck tradition is later underscored again in contrast with another Slayer. In the mythos of the series, when one Slayer dies, another takes her place somewhere in the world. Buffy's brief death introduces the Slayer Kendra (Bianca Lawson) in the second season. She is a committed, rule-abiding young woman who does everything authority figures tell her to do, and is therefore fatally vulnerable to being hypnotized by Drusilla (Juliet Landau), an insane vampire with extraordinary mental abilities who kills Kendra easily.[38]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ The Master's entombment also recalls Jewish apocalypse stories which can be found in the Book of Enoch. (Stevenson p. 66–68.)
Citations[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Tracy, pp. 6–37.
2.Jump up ^ Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season; "Interview with Joss Whedon: Welcome to the Hellmouth" Featurette. [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
3.Jump up ^ Andrews, Tom (October 28, 2011). 'Animal House' Fan Favorite Metcalf Still Crafting Film and Stage Memories, FoxPoint-Bayside Patch. Retrieved on November 20, 2011.
4.^ Jump up to: a b c Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season; "DVD Commentary for "Welcome to the Hellmouth" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
5.Jump up ^ Kaveny, p. 14.
6.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 2–6.
7.Jump up ^ Golden and Holder, pp. 2–5.
8.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 124–128.
9.^ Jump up to: a b c Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season; "DVD Commentary for "The Harvest" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
10.Jump up ^ Golden and Holder, pp. 54–56.
11.Jump up ^ Pateman, pp. 104–105.
12.Jump up ^ Tracy, pp. 149–152.
13.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 132–133.
14.Jump up ^ Stevenon, pp. 66–68.
15.Jump up ^ South, pp. 214–215.
16.Jump up ^ Dial-Driver, pp. 145–147.
17.Jump up ^ Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 108–115
18.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 135–137.
19.Jump up ^ Golden and Holder, pp. 64–65.
20.^ Jump up to: a b Golden and Holder, pp. 78–80.
21.^ Jump up to: a b Stevenson, pp. 47–48.
22.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 19–20.
23.Jump up ^ South, pp. 221–222.
24.^ Jump up to: a b Stevenson, pp. 71–74.
25.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 145–147.
26.Jump up ^ Golden and Holder, pp. 82–83.
27.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 147–148.
28.Jump up ^ Holder, et al, pp. 159–161.
29.Jump up ^ Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 101–102.
30.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 195–197.
31.Jump up ^ Ruditis, pp. 167–170.
32.Jump up ^ Holder, et al (2002), pp. 251–259.
33.^ Jump up to: a b Wilcox, pp. 21–22, 27–29.
34.Jump up ^ Williamson, pp. 76–90.
35.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 168.
36.Jump up ^ Stevenson, pp. 171–172.
37.Jump up ^ Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 156–158
38.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 46.
Bibliography[edit]

Portal icon Television portal
Portal icon Fictional characters portal
Dial-Driver, Emily; Emmons-Featherston, Sally; Ford, Jim; Taylor, Carolyn Anne (eds.) (2008), The Truth of Buffy: Essays on Fiction Illuminating Reality, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7864-3799-3
Golden, Christopher; Holder, Nancy (1998). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 1, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-02433-7
Holder, Nancy; Mariotte, Jeff; Hart, Maryelizabeth (2000). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 2, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-04260-2
Holder, Nancy; Mariotte, Jeff; Hart, Maryelizabeth (2002), Angel: The Casefiles, Volume 1, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7434-2414-X
Jowett, Lorna (2005). Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan, Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-6758-1
Kaveney, Roz (ed.) (2004). Reading the Vampire Slayer: The New, Updated, Unofficial Guide to Buffy and Angel, Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1-86064-984-X
Pateman, Matthew (2006). The Aesthetics of Culture in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-2249-1
Ruditis, Paul (2004). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 3, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-689-86984-3
South, James (ed.) (2003). Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale, Open Court Books. ISBN 0-8126-9531-3
Stafford, Nikki (2007). Bite Me! The Unofficial Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-807-6
Stevenson, Gregory (2003). Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hamilton Books. ISBN 0-7618-2833-8
Tracy, Kathleen (1998). The Girl's Got Bite: The Unofficial Guide to Buffy's World, Renaissance Books. ISBN 1-58063-035-9
Wilcox, Rhonda (2005). Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-84511-029-3
Wilcox, Rhonda and Lavery, David (eds.) (2002). Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0-7425-1681-4
Williamson, Milly (2005). The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction and Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy, Wallflower Press. ISBN 1-904764-40-1


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Tara Maclay
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Tara Maclay
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character

Amber Benson as Tara Mcclay

First appearance
"Hush"[1] (1999)
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
Amber Benson
Information

Affiliation
Scooby Gang
Classification
Witch
Notable powers
Magic
Tara Maclay is a recurring character created for the action-horror/fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed by Amber Benson from the fourth to the sixth season until the character's death. Tara is a shy young woman with magical talents who falls in love with Willow Rosenberg, one of the core characters. Together, they help Buffy Summers, who has been given superhuman powers to defeat evil forces in the fictional town of Sunnydale.
Willow was a popular character when Tara was introduced, and the onset of their relationship was met with some resistance from fans. Tara grows from a reserved girl who is unsure of herself to being the moral center of Buffy's circle of friends, named the Scooby Gang. She is the most virtuous character in the series. Her relationship with Willow is consistently positive, and the first recurring depiction of a lesbian couple on prime time network series television in the United States. Tara is killed by a stray gunshot toward the end of the sixth season, causing Willow to go on a rampage. Series writers and producers received angry protests from some fans when Tara was killed, including accusations of homophobia. Whedon upheld that it was the necessary course to take to propel Willow's story arc further; both the show's producers and Amber Benson deny that there was any malicious intent behind the decision. Tara was included in AfterEllen.com's Top 50 Lesbian and Bisexual Characters, ranking at No. 15.[2]


Contents  [hide]
1 Creation and casting
2 Progression 2.1 Seasons 4 and 5
2.2 Season 6
3 Death and response
4 Cultural impact
5 References
6 Bibliography

Creation and casting[edit]
Tara is introduced in the fourth season episode "Hush" as a college student who attends a Wicca meeting where Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) goes to find some like-minded people. Tara is hesitant to speak out during the meeting and has a pronounced stammer that returns throughout the series when she is upset. She reacts positively during the meeting to Willow's suggestion that the Wiccan group discuss spellcasting, but the rest of the group scoff at the suggestion and silence Tara and Willow. Tara was created to appear in only a few episodes as a friend with whom Willow could learn magic and develop her skills. Amber Benson had known Hannigan previously, but did not tell her she was up for the part. Benson almost missed a callback audition because she left town, but the casting department postponed the session so she could return and read. When she did, Hannigan found her on set and upon learning she was up for the role, told Whedon to hire Benson at the same moment Benson got the call from her agent that she had won the part.[3] Benson and Hannigan had such chemistry that the relationship was written to be more intimate. In "Hush", Tara and Willow each individually attempt to use magic to move a heavy object, without success. They then join hands and easily fling the object across the room. Whedon and the producers found the scene to be very sensual. Network executives also noticed the chemistry between the actresses. After some discussion, Whedon informed Benson and Hannigan that the characters would become lovers.[4]
Willow was featured from the beginning of the series and already had a strong fanbase. Earlier in the fourth season, she had a boyfriend named Oz (Seth Green), who abruptly left town. Oz returns in the episode "New Moon Rising", determined to win Willow back. That episode marked the first time Tara is introduced to the Scooby Gang as a whole, and Willow is faced with choosing between Tara and Oz. She favors Tara in the end, causing some of Willow and Oz's fans to react angrily on the fansite message boards, with some leaving homophobic remarks and characterizing Benson as fat and unattractive. Benson, who was referred to as "astoundingly non-Hollywood" by a Scottish journalist,[5] frequented the boards and read the comments, finding them hurtful and taking some of them personally. She responded, protesting that she was, at 5 feet, 4 inches (1.63 m) and 118 pounds (54 kg), quite slender, although she appears larger than her more petite costars. She went on to write:

You can judge me and Tara for being "fat", "gay", and "shy". I suppose that my being on TV gives you that right. But I DO NOT have to read what you say. I have enjoyed being a lurker. But my feelings just can't take the criticism. Those of you (you know who you are) with sensitivity will understand. Thank you for sticking up for us. Tara and I both appreciate it. I think that being a beautiful, heavy, lesbian witch rocks! No matters what happens, I'm glad I get the chance to walk in Tara's shoes.[6]
Network executives encouraged the lesbian element in the relationship, but put strict guidelines on what could be shown. For several episodes in the fourth season, Tara and Willow's friendship grows as they practice magic. To work within the censorship imposed on their relationship, writers used allusions to spells and witchcraft to symbolize their affection and growing sexuality.[7][8] Willow does not tell her friends about Tara for several episodes, instead just expressing the wish to spend time with Tara, where she can have something just for herself.[9] Tara is unwaveringly supportive and committed to Willow.
Progression[edit]
Seasons 4 and 5[edit]
When Tara and Willow meet, their proficiency at magic is about the same although Tara reveals that she has been practicing magic for most of her life. Willow, however, is inherently talented and begins to progress much faster than Tara through the fifth season, including experimentations in dark magic. Tara struggles with understanding her place among the Scoobies with Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), the leader; Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon), Willow's friend since childhood; and Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), their mentor. Tara's primary role throughout the series is that of Willow's partner. She feels somewhat useless until the fifth season episode "Family" when the entire Scooby Gang makes it clear that she is unquestionably a part of them. The episode introduces some of Tara's blood family: a cold, authoritarian father who has lied to her all her life, telling her that her magical powers are a result of her being half-demon; an overbearing brother; and a judgmental, repressed and repressive cousin, all of whom Tara dismisses at the end of the episode.[10] Tara later reveals in "The Body" that her mother died when she was 17. No more of her backstory is revealed in the series.
As Willow's character grows more self-assured and powerful through the seasons, Tara takes over some of the role of being placed in peril and needing to be rescued. The fifth season's primary villain, or Big Bad, is Glory, a goddess too powerful for Buffy to fight alone. Glory assaults Tara, stealing her sanity, and prompting Willow to go searching for retribution. Buffy scholar Ian Shuttleworth writes that Benson was able to "admirably" portray the same range of emotions inherent in Tara although the character loses her identity.[11] Willow's powers are significant enough that she is able to battle Glory more effectively than Buffy, if not completely successfully.[12] In the final episode of season 5, Willow uses her magic to restore Tara's sanity, significantly weakening Glory in the process.
Tara also becomes a guide of sorts, and a maternal figure. She appears to Buffy in a dream in the fourth season finale "Restless" to tell her about the arrival of Buffy's sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) and act as a translator for the voiceless First Slayer. Following the death of Joyce Summers and Buffy's sacrifice to save the world at the end of the fifth season, Tara and Willow move into the Summers house, taking Joyce's bedroom and becoming Dawn's surrogate parents.[13]
Season 6[edit]
Tara becomes more outspoken during the sixth season about the ethics of Willow's use of magic, cautioning Willow that she depends too much on it. The dynamics of their relationship suddenly turn during "Once More, with Feeling". Willow casts a spell on Tara to alter her memory in the preceding episode and Tara finds out about it during "Once More, with Feeling", the musical episode of the series. Although Tara frequently remains silent during the fourth season due to her timidity, Benson is given a much more prominent role in the musical due to the skill of Benson's voice: she sings a love ballad to Willow, a duet with Giles, and backup in two other songs. The musical nature of the episode compelled the characters to express what they had been feeling secretly, or had refused to admit to themselves. Tara's song is a fervent and explicit expression of love for Willow which she had not made clear to the audience until this point.[14] Tara later sings with Giles that she will leave Willow if she does not change. Self-conscious about her singing abilities, Hannigan requested not to be given a song and sings only a few lines in the episode. Critics saw this as Tara's personality becoming more forceful as Willow begins to show signs of weakness as she is ovetaken by her addiction.[15][16] Tara challenges Willow to go for a week without using any magic. Willow almost immediately breaks her promise, however, and Tara leaves her at the end of "Tabula Rasa". Tara remains a part of the group, spending time with Dawn, and non-judgmentally acting as Buffy's confessor when Buffy divulges she has a painful and compulsive sexual relationship with Spike, a vampire whom she loathes.[17]
Despite their separation, Tara remains devoted to Willow's recovery and supports her in her decision to abstain from using magic. She is, according to author Lorna Jowett, one of the few characters who is never seduced by evil.[17] Shuttleworth notes that most Buffy characters go through a rite of transformation except for Tara.[18] Among female characters she is the most virtuous. Like the other Buffy characters in the series whose names have symbolic interpretations, Tara's name resembles the Latin terra, meaning "earth." She is solidly grounded, with Willow attached to her, and Benson's body more naturally representative of women.[19] Tara is wholly feminine both in dress and demeanor, but never seeks male approval. She is clad in earthy, natural colors, long flowing skirts and clinging blouses, with an intent to comfort instead of arouse as other women on the show are dressed.[20] Her admonishments to other characters are always made with love, with their best interests at heart.[17] Even Tara's last words, commenting that Willow's shirt is stained (with Tara's own blood), indicate her preoccupation with the welfare of others.[21]
Death and response[edit]
After tentatively courting each other in "Entropy", Tara returns to Willow, and they reconcile through the next episode, "Seeing Red". Throughout the season, Buffy is dogged by three techno-nerds calling themselves The Trio, who envision themselves to be supervillains, with Buffy their arch-nemesis. She continues to foil their plans, and during "Seeing Red", Warren Mears, one of the Trio, arrives at Buffy's house with a gun. He shoots several rounds, hitting Buffy, and the last stray shot hits Tara through the heart, killing her as Willow looks on. Willow is taken over by a dark alter ego, going on a rampage, abandoning Tara's wishes, soaking up every dark magic text she can find and for the next three episodes, becomes so powerful that none of her friends can stop her. She murders Warren and attempts to murder the other two members of the Trio, but is unsuccessful. To end her pain, she attempts to end the world and only Xander can make her face her grief.[22]
During the fifth season, Whedon informed Benson that Tara would be killed off. He saw it as necessary to further Willow's character; she had to deal with her dark powers, but nothing short of Tara's death would allow them to come out so forcefully. Tara had become popular among fans, and Whedon and series writer David Fury decided that her death would elicit a strong response, something that Whedon felt sure was the correct course to take.[23] He was unprepared, however, for how forcefully viewers reacted to Tara's death. Fans were so upset that some stopped watching.[24] He had previously killed off black characters, and viewers and critics accused him of being racist, homophobic, and misogynistic. Because the death came at the end of an episode where Willow and Tara were portrayed in bed between sexual encounters, critics accused Whedon of implying that lesbian sex should be punishable by death, a familiar trope in film. Producers were inundated with mail from people—women especially—who expressed their anger, sadness, and frustration with the writing team. Series writer and producer Marti Noxon was unable to read some of the mail because it was so distressing, but she counted the response as a natural indication that television simply had few strong female role models, and no lesbian representation.[25]
Benson defended Whedon in 2007, saying he "is 100 percent behind the LGBT community. I know this for a fact."[26] Author Rhonda Wilcox writes that Tara's death is made more poignant by her earthy naturalness representing the "fragility of the physical".[19] Roz Kaveney comments that Tara's murder is "one of the most upsetting moments of the show's seven seasons",[24] and Nikki Stafford states that the episode in which Tara dies is possibly the most controversial of the series, causing divisions about whether it was necessary, or assertions that Tara was created only to be killed. In response to fans and critics who accused the writers of being motivated by homophobia, Stafford comments, "they seem to forget that it was those same writers who created such an amazing, gentle, and realistic portrait in the first place; that Tara is certainly not the first character to be killed off on the show; and Tara was a lot more than just 'the lesbian', and her character deserves better than that."[27] Kaveney concurs with the opinion that the series avoided playing a cliché, "proving that it is possible for a queer character to die in popular culture without that death being the surrogate vengeance of the straight world".[24]
Cultural impact[edit]
Although lesbianism had been addressed on U.S. television before Tara was introduced to Buffy, her relationship with Willow was heralded as a milestone.[28][29] Previously depicted lesbian relationships had not shown characters as sexual beings, or even touching each other.[30][31] Despite this, Tara and Willow's relationship was not heralded with any specific fanfare on the show; they are treated as other couples. Their relationship was frequently the subject of storylines, but no specific focus was on their identity as lesbians or the coming out process. Limited to what could be shown by the network, Tara and Willow are shown as consistently affectionate but not overly sexual.[5] Manda Scott in The Herald wrote in 2002 that the lack of realistic displays of touching or kissing between Willow and Tara made their relationship implausible, but because no other portrayals of lesbian relationships were on television, its importance is undeniable.[5] Tara and Willow did not kiss until the fifth season episode "The Body", which focused on the death of Joyce Summers. Not until Buffy moved from the WB to UPN in 2001 were Tara and Willow shown in sexual situations. Benson later recalled the issues of working with censors:

There was a big kerfuffle—they didn’t want us kissing on the show, and Alyson and I were both like, “Hey, this is bull[shit]. We should be able to kiss." And it was only after one of the crew members, who was gay, took us aside and said, ‘Hey, just the fact that the characters are having this positive relationship and they’re being portrayed as normal human beings—who just happen to be two women in love—that what’s important, not the physical stuff.” So, it was really just about saying hey we are two people and we are in this relationship and we are functioning like normal people. Just having a normal relationship, I think, that’s the biggest thing that we did.[4]
Like Whedon, Benson was surprised at the strength of the reaction to Tara's death. It indicated to her what kind of impact the characters had:

I thought I was on some science fiction show. I had no clue I was going to have some sort of impact on a whole group of people... Alyson and I would get letters, and you don't realize the impact you're making until you really start thinking about it. When kids come up and say, 'I didn't kill myself because of Buffy and your relationship,' it blows your mind. It wasn't about two women making out. It was about two women who fell in love with each other and happened, just happened, to have the same genitalia.[26]
The Big Bad of the seventh season is the First Evil, who taunts Buffy and her friends by appearing as loved ones who previously died. Whedon asked Benson to appear as Tara to Willow in "Conversations with Dead People", but Benson turned down the role, concerned about what fans of the show would think about an evil Tara. Instead, the producers used Cassie, a character who dies early in the seventh season and speaks for Tara, telling Willow to kill herself.[32] Whedon also considered bringing Tara back in a storyline where Buffy would be given one wish to be granted, but the possibility did not come to fruition.[33]
Writer Peg Aloi calls the backlash at Whedon "staggering", and summarizes Tara's effect with Willow, stating that they were a single unit the moment they met: "Willow's need for approval and Tara's need for unconditional love allowed their supernova trajectory its singular, incendiary thrust toward its triumphant but tragic end; like all witches who burn, martyred by flames, they move on to a place where their gods are the right ones."[34]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Stafford, p. 107.
2.Jump up ^ "AfterEllen.com’s Top 50 Lesbian and Bisexual Characters". AfterEllen.com. March 15, 2010. Retrieved June 16, 2012.
3.Jump up ^ Holder, et al pp. 281–283.
4.^ Jump up to: a b Byrnes, Lyndsey (June 8, 2010). An interview with Amber Benson, Afterellen.com. Retrieved on August 14, 2010.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c Scott, Manda (August 17, 2002)."If the Buffy generation turns out an excess of teenage dykes, I'll be happy but surprised", The Herald, p. 5.
6.Jump up ^ Stafford, p. 108.
7.Jump up ^ "Interview: Writer and producer Joss Whedon discusses his career and his latest show, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'", Fresh Air, National Public Radio (May 9, 2000).
8.Jump up ^ McDaniel, Mike (May 16, 2000). "Coming Out on 'Buffy': Willow discovers she's attracted to another woman, Tara", Houston Chronicle, p. 6.
9.Jump up ^ Stafford, p. 232.
10.Jump up ^ Locklin, Reid (2002). "Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Domestic Church: Revisioning Family and the Common Good", Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies. Retrieved on August 16, 2010.
11.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 252.
12.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 272–273.
13.Jump up ^ Jarvis, Christine; Burr, Viv (2005). "‘Friends are the family we choose for ourselves: Young people and families in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 13 (3), pp. 269–283.
14.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 272.
15.Jump up ^ Wilcox, p. 202.
16.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 253.
17.^ Jump up to: a b c Jowett, pp. 49–54.
18.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 251.
19.^ Jump up to: a b Wilcox, p. 50.
20.Jump up ^ Yeffeth, p. 43.
21.Jump up ^ Stafford, p. 304.
22.Jump up ^ Ruditis, pp. 145–153.
23.Jump up ^ Stafford, p. 342.
24.^ Jump up to: a b c Kaveney, p. 35.
25.Jump up ^ Mangels, Andy (August 20, 2002). "Lesbian sex = death?", The Advocate, 869/870, pp. 70–71.
26.^ Jump up to: a b Von Metzge, Ross (March 30, 2007). Ten Minutes with Amber Benson, Whedonsworld.uk; originally hosted at LesbiaNation.com. Retrieved on August 14, 2010.
27.Jump up ^ Stafford, p. 340.
28.Jump up ^ Eden, Carl (June 4, 2013). "Homosexuality In Buffy: Willow and Tara's Relationship". Vada Magazine. Retrieved November 17, 2013. "The relationship between Willow and Tara, one of the first homosexual relationships on mainstream television, still stands as a mature and fascinating portrayal of sexuality, and is worth looking at in more depth... Unlike other television shows exploring similar issues, there’s nothing broad or in-your-face about Willow's sexuality; it feels natural and understated. Willow initially falls for Tara as a person and the move fits in with her character. It's also interesting how she becomes a much stronger, more confident woman as she accepts her own sexuality. The coming out scene to best friend Buffy is surprisingly realistic, and Buffy's acceptance charming, the tone very in line with the show's accepting atmosphere."
29.Jump up ^ Akers, Laura (4 Nov 2013). "Amber Benson on Buffy, Tara and Willow, Husbands & more". Den of Geek. Retrieved November 17, 2013. "Well, it really wasn't us; it was the network. They really were anti-showing anything. Just to get the kiss in The Body was like pulling teeth. Literally, I remember Alyson and I being like, 'Spike and Buffy are shtupping on a gravestone, seeing everything... How come we can't? We were all up in arms about it. ... one of the guys on the crew was gay and he said, 'Look, I know you guys have a kind of anger that you can't embrace that aspect of the relationship, but what is important here is that you guys are making it okay. You are saying that this is okay. This is normal. You're putting it out into the mainstream. The relationship is so special, and the way you treat each other. That is what is important. You are making inroads into the normal populace and they see it's okay that these two women are in love and the more that that's out there, the more that it's going to be accepted.' He said what we were doing was going to have an impact ten years down the road. '...you have to understand that what you are doing is making social commentary.'"
30.Jump up ^ Mitchell and Reid-Walsh, p. 392.
31.Jump up ^ Tropiano, p. 44.
32.Jump up ^ Stafford, p. 111.
33.Jump up ^ Furey, Emmett (July 30, 2007). CCI XTRA: Joss Whedon on "Buffy" and Beyond, Comic Book Resources. Retrieved on October 24, 2010.
34.Jump up ^ Yeffeth, pp. 45–46.
Bibliography[edit]

Portal icon Television portal
Portal icon Fictional characters portal
Holder, Nancy; Mariotte, Jeff; Hart, Maryelizabeth (2000). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 2, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-04260-2
Jowett, Lorna (2005). Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan, Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-6758-1
Kaveney, Roz (ed.) (2004). Reading the Vampire Slayer: The New, Updated, Unofficial Guide to Buffy and Angel, Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1-4175-2192-9
Mitchell, Claudia; Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline (2008). Girl Culture: Studying Girl Culture — A Readers' Guide, ABC-CLIO. ISBN 0-313-33909-0
Ruditis, Paul (2004). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 3, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 068986984
Stafford, Nikki (2007). Bite Me! The Unofficial Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-807-6
Tropiano, Stephen (2002). Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV, Applause Theater and Cinema Books. ISBN 1-55783-557-8
Wilcox, Rhonda (2005). Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-84511-029-3
Yeffeth, Glenn (ed.) (2003). Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Discuss Their Favorite Television Show, Benbella Books. ISBN 1-932100-08-3


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Dawn Summers
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Dawn Summers
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character

First appearance
"Buffy vs. Dracula" (2000)
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
Michelle Trachtenberg
Information

Affiliation
Scooby Gang
Dawn Summers is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon and introduced by Marti Noxon and David Fury on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, portrayed by Michelle Trachtenberg. She made her debut in the premiere episode of the show's fifth season, and subsequently appeared in every episode of its remaining three seasons. Within the series, Dawn is the little sister of main character Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a girl chosen by fate to be a vampire Slayer. Whedon introduced Dawn to the series because he wanted to introduce a character with whom Buffy could have an intensely emotional non-romantic relationship.
After years of foreshadowing, Dawn was introduced at the start of the fifth season as part of a large in-story retcon: characters accepted Dawn's presence as if she had always been there, and as if Buffy always had a sister, with only the audience aware that this was not the case. As the series went on, the significance of Dawn's arrival is revealed to the series' other characters and they come to understand that she has not always been Buffy's sister, or indeed a sentient being; Dawn had originally been the mystical 'key' to unlocking dimensions, and was made into Buffy's sister so the Slayer would protect her. Dawn is, however, a real girl, Buffy's biological sister, and has real memories of her fictional childhood. She struggles in a very human way when she discovers the truth about her origins, and later endures problems with self-harm and kleptomania. The show's sixth and seventh seasons, as well as its canonical comic book continuation, follow Dawn's journey towards adulthood.
Dawn was included in TV Guide's list of The Most Loathed TV Characters.[1] Similarly, Entertainment Weekly named her one of the "21 Most Annoying TV Characters Ever".[2]


Contents  [hide]
1 Appearances 1.1 Television
1.2 Literature
2 Concept and creation
3 Characterization
4 References

Appearances[edit]
Television[edit]
Dawn is first introduced as Buffy's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) younger sister at the end of Buffy season five premiere "Buffy vs. Dracula", though Buffy had been previously established as an only child. Initially, the mystery of Dawn's sudden existence is not acknowledged in the series, with the other characters accepting her as a part of the status quo. Four episodes later Buffy discovers Dawn is in fact a mystical object known as The Key; a group of monks transformed The Key into human form and sent it to the Slayer for protection from the villainous Glory (Clare Kramer). The memories of Buffy and her associates were altered, along with relevant records, so that they believed her to have always existed as Buffy's sister. She is shown to look up greatly to Willow and Tara and has a crush on Xander. She also is friendly with Spike, who is as protective of her as Buffy herself. When Dawn learns of her origin, she resorts to self-harm and runs away from home, until Buffy assures her they are real sisters no matter what, securing it with a blood oath. Her relationship with Buffy, having been portrayed with a typical sister dynamic in the first half of the season, changes when she discovers what she is. The two become closer as Dawn becomes Buffy's sole focus once she drops out from college to protect her, going as far as to warn her friends she is prepared to kill anyone who attempts to go near Dawn in the finale. Dawn suffers more pain when her mother (Kristine Sutherland) dies unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm, which leads to Dawn resorting to black magic to try to bring her back from the grave, an action she immediately reverses upon realizing the consequences of her actions. It is eventually revealed that Dawn's purpose as The Key is to open portals to alternate dimensions, a power the hell-god Glory wishes to exploit to return home. When Glory successfully uses Dawn's blood to break down the dimensional barriers, Buffy sacrifices her own life, realizing that their blood is now the same, to end the apocalypse and save Dawn. Buffy's sacrifice also neutralizes the power of The Key, giving Dawn the opportunity of a normal life.
The following season opening sees Dawn struggle with abandonment issues, as well as her escalating kleptomania. Having been devastated by her sister's death, Dawn is overjoyed when Willow (Alyson Hannigan) casts a spell to bring her back to life. However, with Buffy spiralling into a deep depression, Dawn feels highly neglected and is often seen alone and seeking attention from her sister as well as other members of the group. She later experiences her first kiss with a vampire named Justin, whom she is reluctantly forced to stake (her first vampire kill) when he tries to turn her. Dawn's isolation from the other characters reaches its apex when she inadvertently makes a wish to the vengeance demon Halfrek (Kali Rocha) which results in trapping everyone who enters the Summers house. Halfrek herself is inadvertently trapped, and undoes the curse to free herself; meanwhile Dawn's kleptomania and feelings of neglect by her friends and family are exposed. Buffy vows to mend their relationship and starts spending more time with her sister, whilst still trying to shield her from her life as a Slayer – much to Dawn's disappointment as she is eager to help Buffy in her duties. While helping Buffy battle demons in the season finale, Dawn proves herself to be capable in a fight, finally earning her sister's respect and a promise to train her.
In the final season, Dawn becomes more grown-up and a full-fledged member of the "Scooby Gang" as witnessed in the first few episodes as she aids Buffy and Xander during Willow's absence and is trained by Buffy in combat. Falling victim to a love spell in the episode "Him", she displays dangerous behavior such as attacking people and trying to commit suicide to prove her "love" for classmate RJ Brooks. While home alone one night, Dawn is forced to perform a solo exorcism to protect what she believes to be her mother from a demon, though it is revealed to be The First Evil attempting to cause Dawn to doubt her bond with Buffy, which she does for several episodes following this. Dawn's feelings of neglect begin to resurface as Buffy spends time training the potentials now living in their home. After wrongly believing herself to be a Potential Slayer, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) explains to Dawn that being normal is perhaps the hardest burden of all, as nobody understands the pain of being overlooked–as he has been in Dawn's shoes. Dawn then falls into a watcher-esque role offering the group answers from research, such as ways to communicate with The Bringers and translating texts given to Buffy in a 'slayer keepsake'. When Buffy tricks her into leaving town before the impending apocalypse, Dawn adamantly returns to fight against the First, during which she battles alongside Xander and once again proves her worth by killing several Ubervamps and survives. Dawn was intended to appear in the Angel episode "The Girl in Question", but Michelle Trachtenberg was unavailable for filming, so Andrew Wells (played by Tom Lenk) replaced her.[3]
Literature[edit]



 In the comic book Buffy Season Eight, Dawn goes through a series of bizarre physical changes.
In the canonical comic book continuation to the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–2011), it is revealed that Buffy and Dawn's relationship has been strained and conflicted since the events of "Chosen." Dawn is revealed to have been cursed, apparently as a result of sleeping with a "thricewise demon" named Kenny while a college student, and is a giant. Throughout her affliction she spends a lot of time with Xander, to whom she reveals she was cursed as a result of cheating on Kenny with his roommate. While her personal issues are made to take a backseat with Buffy, in battles, her gigantism shows some utility; she is able to assist fighting Amy in "The Long Way Home", and rampages through Tokyo to distract their enemies in "Wolves at the Gate". In "Time of Your Life, Part One" she shrinks to normal size again, but then turns into a centaur. Xander surmises she will likely experience a third such transformation before she can return to normal. In "Living Doll", the twenty-fifth issue of the series, Dawn undergoes a transformation into a living doll and is kidnapped by a disturbed dollmaker for her 'protection'. After her sister, Andrew and Willow track down Kenny, he later appears to undo the curse, and the two have a heart-to-heart, where Dawn apologises for her infidelity and explains she had been unprepared for the seriousness of her feelings for Kenny. She subsequently spends some time bonding with Buffy. Dawn and Xander's growing friendship leads to them kissing, where they are discovered by Buffy, in "Retreat". In the series' final arc, Buffy brings about the end of magic, following which Xander and Dawn decide to settle down in San Francisco. They allow Buffy to live with them until she finds her own place.
Season Nine (2012–13) begins with Dawn and Xander living an ordinary domestic life, with much less contact with Buffy than before since she has moved out. They intend to capitalize on a world without magic and embark upon a life of normalcy. Their relationship is seen to be going through some difficulties, such as when Xander forgets Dawn's birthday. Buffy also reflects that Dawn is not on her mind much of late. In "Welcome to the Team," Dawn becomes sick with what appears to be a very serious flu. Buffy also forgets about one of Dawn's allergies. In the concurrent second issue of spin-off series Willow: Wonderland, Willow sees a worrying omen about Dawn while in an alternate dimension. Later in the Buffy arc, Dawn begins to die and the gang recognise it is due to magic leaving her body. Buffy contacts Faith for help, but (as seen in Angel & Faith) neither she nor Angel can remember Dawn. Spike, however, heads straight from Faith's apartment in London to be by Dawn's side, and Willow returns to California with her powers restored and attempts to prolong Dawn's life. In final arc "The Core", Buffy, Willow and Xander head to the Deeper Well in England in hopes of finding enough magic to restore Dawn. Fearing for his memories, Spike tries to record himself talking about Dawn but the tapes all become static, indicating that everything Dawn affected is also fading. Dawn continues to rapidly fade until she disappears altogether. After the gang restart magic, they return to San Francisco where Willow is able to bring back Dawn using Buffy's blood in conjunction with the spell which created her. Willow expresses that something feels different as she brings Dawn back, and Xander is suspicious of Dawn's knowledge of very recent events. Buffy tries to tell Xander that he is being paranoid.
In Season Ten (2014–), Xander continues to be suspicious of Dawn, and insecure concerning their relationship. Buffy compares their behaviour to that of her parents prior to their divorce.
Concept and creation[edit]
The arrival of Dawn Summers is foreshadowed in cryptic dream sequences in both the Season Three finale "Graduation Day, Part Two" and the Season Four episode "This Year's Girl", in which a still-comatose Faith says, while making a bed with Buffy in her bedroom, "Little sis coming, I know." Buffy replies, "So much to do before she gets here."(the first appearance of Dawn is in Buffy's room) In the season four finale, "Restless", Tara warns Buffy to "be back before Dawn."
According to Buffy creator Joss Whedon, the introduction of Dawn in Season Five was partly so protagonist Buffy Summers could experience a "really important, intense emotional relationship" with someone other than a boyfriend. "She's as intense as she was in Season Two with Angelus, but it's about her sister," Whedon says. "To me that was really beautiful."[4] Trachtenberg says she was thrust into the role without knowing much about Dawn's personality; she describes her initial meeting with Joss Whedon as "Alright, welcome to the cast, you're a teenager, you're a Key, have fun."[5]
Characterization[edit]
In the beginning of season five Dawn is portrayed as less mature than her age of fourteen. She is seen to be immature and klutzy, often breaking objects, and she keeps a diary. Buffy and Joyce also infantilise her to some degree; they are shown finding someone to babysit her, although they later become more relaxed about this as seen in "No Place Like Home". Joss Whedon stated that Dawn was originally going to be a younger character, with the writing reflecting this, but after Sarah Michelle Gellar suggested Trachtenberg for the role they raised her age.[citation needed]
Responding to fan complaints of Dawn being whiny throughout Season Six, Joss Whedon says, "I scratched my head. I was like, 'Excuse me, she's been abandoned by about six parental figures. The girl has huge issues.'" However, he acknowledges that he and the writers hit "the same note for a while... We needed to make some changes."[6] Whedon has expressed regret over not being able to go further with Dawn's character in season seven, but, as he says, "You get into a situation that you do like to stand alone [but] 'Dawn Goes on a Date' is not something that people would really sit for."[6]
Author Nikki Stafford saw the season seven episode "Potential" as an example of Dawn's growing maturity. She praises the character for taking charge and accepting the possibility she might be a Potential Slayer, and for quietly stepping back when she turns out to be wrong, without revealing how disappointed she really is. Stafford states, "Dawn has come a long way from the annoying adolescent she was in season five, and the screechy, difficult teen she was in season six ('get out, Get Out, GET OUT!'). She is a mature young woman, the same age as Buffy was in season one, but she is handling her problems with even more grace and acceptance than her older sister did."[7]
References[edit]

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1.Jump up ^ "The Most Loathed TV Characters Pictures, Dawn Photos". TV Guide. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "21 Most Annoying TV Characters Ever". Entertainment Weekly. April 1, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
3.Jump up ^ "The Girl in Question" commentary
4.Jump up ^ Miller, Laura (May 20, 2003), The man behind the Slayer, retrieved 07//17/2007
5.Jump up ^ Dawning glory Interview with Michelle Trachtenberg, BBC, retrieved 07//18/2007
6.^ Jump up to: a b P., Ken (June 23, 2003), An Interview with Joss Whedon, retrieved 07//18/2007
7.Jump up ^ Stafford, Nikki (2007), Bite Me!: The Unofficial Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Toronto: ECW Press, p. 338, ISBN 1-55022-807-2


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Buffy the Vampire Slayer


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Anya Jenkins
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Anyanka 'Anya' Jenkins
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character

Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins

First appearance
"The Wish" (1998)
Portrayed by
Emma Caulfield
Information

Affiliation
Scooby Gang
Classification
Human (originally)
 Vengeance demon (formerly)
 Ghost
Notable powers
Wish-granting.
 Superhuman physical attributes, teleportation, telekinesis, invulnerability.
Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She also appears in the comic book series based on the television show. Portrayed by Emma Caulfield, the character appears as a guest star in the third and fourth seasons of the show before becoming a series regular in the show's fifth, sixth, and seventh season. The character made her last television appearance in 2003, appearing in the series finale of the show that aired on May 20, 2003. A consistent idiosyncrasy of the character is her ever-changing hair color and style, something she humorously alludes to herself.
Within the series' narrative, Anya was originally human, but spent over a thousand years as Anyanka, a vengeance demon, wreaking havoc by granting the wishes of women who had been wronged by men. The character becomes human again in her first appearance, and is forced to learn what it means to be human again in subsequent episodes. Primarily, this is used by the writers for comic relief; Anya has a very poor sense of what behaviors are appropriate, and speaks very bluntly and honestly. However, the writers have also used this for more poignant purposes, such as when Anya finds herself struggling to deal with death. Flashbacks show that Anyanka's manner was much the same before she became a demon. Over a decade after being killed in the series finale, Anya returned as a ghost in the canonical comic book series Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten.


Contents  [hide]
1 Biography 1.1 Character history
1.2 Human onwards
1.3 Return to vengeance demon
1.4 Human again
1.5 Post-Sunnydale
2 Powers and abilities
3 Personality 3.1 Bunny phobia
4 Academic analysis
5 Appearances
6 Merchandise
7 References
8 External links

Biography[edit]
Character history[edit]
Anyanka 'Anya Jenkins' was born as Aud in the 9th century in Sjornjost, a small Scandinavian village. Aud grew up raising rabbits and became an outsider in her community, which dismissed her as "odd", because of her strange mannerisms and out-of-the-ordinary ideas (such as not wanting to sell the rabbits she had been breeding, but instead giving them to people in the village as gifts). She eventually falls in love with the boorish Olaf, a Viking warrior who enjoys hunting trolls and drinking at the bar. In 880, a furious Aud discovers that Olaf has cheated on her with a bar matron named Rannveig, and takes her revenge on him by using magic to transform him into a troll. Aud had previously used magic against her past lovers as well, casting spells to create boils on the penis, for example, but this act of vengeance against Olaf attracts the attention of the demon D'Hoffryn, who offers to transform her into a vengeance demon for scorned women. D'Hoffryn gives Aud the new name Anyanka, Patron Saint Of The Women Scorned, and a pendant which gives her the power to grant wishes.
Around 1199, Anyanka goes to the Koskov valleys above the Urals to curse an unfaithful man. She witnesses a sorcerer's Ascension into pure demon form. The death and carnage — only a few people survive — shock even her. Around 1580, Anyanka meets (and dates) Dracula, and later is in Salem, Massachusetts, during the witch trials of 1692.
In the 19th century, Anyanka becomes a close friend and fierce competitor of the vengeance demon known as Halfrek, whose specialty is avenging wronged children. They spend time together during the Crimean War. Anyanka impresses "Hallie" with a granted wish in Saint Petersburg, Russia, that sparks a revolution in 1905. In 1914, Anyanka travels to Chicago, Illinois, to exact vengeance on a man named Stewart Burns, turning him into a demon and sending him to a hell dimension to be tortured for all eternity.
Anyanka arrives at Sunnydale High in 1998 (in the episode "The Wish") as a student named Anya Emerson.[1] She's come to Sunnydale in response to the distress of Cordelia, who is upset after catching her boyfriend, Xander Harris, kissing their friend Willow. After some prompting, Cordelia states: "I wish that Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale." Anya shows her true demon face to Cordelia and says, "Done." and the world changes. Now they're in an alternative reality in which Buffy has not come to Sunnydale and the vampire population has multiplied and gained in power. Giles meets with Cordelia before she dies and manages to discern what has happened. He subsequently summons Anyanka and destroys her necklace. As a result, Anya is made mortal again and the world returns to normal.
Human onwards[edit]
Caulfield said, "As far as I know, I don't think Joss Whedon ever intended to have Anya around for more than one episode."[citation needed] However, Anya returns in the episode "Doppelgangland", duping Willow into assisting in a failed magical attempt to recover the necklace which was her power center, lost when Giles destroyed it to reverse the wish granted for Cordelia. When these efforts fail, she is forced to continue living as a typical high school student. Now with human feelings, she yearns to attend the school prom in spite of her abhorrence of all men; ironically, her only hope for a date is the last man she was sent to punish, Xander. Caulfield says, "[Whedon] found this great way to have her interact with the storylines that had developed throughout the entire [third] season."[2]
Anya develops feelings for Xander and asks him out again just before graduation. Her romantic plans are foiled when he tells her of the Mayor's plan for his own "Ascension", a transformation into pure demon, at the graduation ceremony. Anya decides to flee Sunnydale and invites Xander to join her, saying when she thinks something could happen to him, she "feels bad inside, like [she] might vomit". Xander refuses because he's got "friends on the line", and can't abandon them. She leaves without him.
Anya returns to Sunnydale early in Season Four, still infatuated with Xander. She seduces him (in the episode "The Harsh Light of Day"). Her lack of experience with people causes her to make straightforward, often tactless remarks, which soon put her at odds with other Scooby Gang members, especially Willow, who has little trust for the ex-demon. Anya's tactlessness is played both for humor and to highlight the truth in situations where others are reluctant to be frank. This is seen most poignantly in "The Body" when her inability to comprehend Buffy's mother's death leads to inappropriate remarks which at first make others angry, but then allow for catharsis and comfort.
Anya becomes a regular in Season Five of the show. While playing The Game of Life, she discovers her love for money and capitalism (as opposed to her belief in Communism during the early 20th century and her charitable attitude of her years as Aud). Anya's budding retail skills encourage Giles to hire her as a cashier at The Magic Box. In the episode, "Checkpoint", Anya is questioned by members of the Watchers' Council, and invents the full name Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins, and claims to have been born on the Fourth of July in Indiana.
During an impending apocalypse, brought about by Glory at the end of Season Five, Xander proposes to Anya and they are engaged for most of Season Six. Xander's doubts grow, however, and it is not difficult for Stewart Burns - escaped from Hell and impersonating Xander's future self - to persuade him to leave Anya at the wedding by showing him an illusionary life where Anya apparently cheats on Xander and is later killed in an argument between the two ("Hell's Bells"). Grief-stricken, Anya is vulnerable to D'Hoffryn's coaxing, and becomes a vengeance demon again.
Return to vengeance demon[edit]
In the Season Six episode "Entropy" Anya returns to Sunnydale. The audience can see her as a vengeance demon but the other characters are unaware until "Villains". Anya cannot find anyone who wishes vengeance on Xander and so she takes comfort in sex with Spike, an act which puts her relationship and friendship with Xander and Buffy in jeopardy. Spike nearly wishes for some kind of vengeance upon Xander, but after seeing how much her actions hurt him, Anya stops him, unable to go through with it. In the Season Six finale, Willow destroys The Magic Box, leaving Anya jobless in the mortal world. Anya does not enjoy her return to being a vengeance demon—her experience as a human has led to empathy, which makes exacting vengeance too painful for her to manage. She spends a summer granting half-hearted wishes and gains a reputation among demons as "Miss Soft-Serve".
When asked what direction she would like to see Anya's character go, Emma Caulfield said she hoped that in Season Seven Anya would become "kind of a badass". Caulfield said that Anya has always been strong in unorthodox ways, but "I'd like to see a more blatant display of her strength."[3] Appropriately, after Halfrek encourages Anya to return to her former level of work, Anya exacts a terrible vengeance on a group of college boys by unleashing a spider-like Grimslaw demon on them. This results in a battle with Buffy, in which they are almost evenly matched. The battle is interrupted when Willow shows up and summons D'Hoffryn. D'Hoffryn asks Anya what she wants, and she asks that her vengeance be reversed. D'Hoffryn tells her the price will be the life of a vengeance demon; Anya agrees, assuming it is she who will die, but D'Hoffryn summons Halfrek, incinerating her before Anya. "Never go for the kill, when you can go for the pain" he tells the distressed Anya, and strips her of her powers, making her once again mortal.
Human again[edit]
Anya decides that she has been too dependent on others and resolves to find an independent purpose in life for herself. She eventually rejoins the Scooby Gang as Season Seven focuses on the long fight against the First Evil and eventually becomes friends with Xander; although Xander and Anya still love each other, they never officially resume their relationship.
In the Series Finale, "Chosen", Anya fights with the others in the climactic battle against the First Evil and is brutally slain from behind, bisected by a Bringer's sword. Her body lies in the school's remains although Xander attempts to locate her while fleeing the collapsing building. After Sunnydale collapses into the Hellmouth, Andrew Wells comforts Xander by telling him that Anya had died saving his life, to which Xander tearfully replies, "That's my girl, always doing the stupid thing."
In an interview with Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Angel magazine #93, Emma Caulfield stated that she was okay with her character's abrupt death, stating, "She didn't get a big, maudlin send-off, it was very quick and to the point - very Anya in that respect." Although later, at Wizard World Philadelphia 2009 she said she didn't realize it was going to be abrupt and without fanfare, and would have appreciated a little something more.[4]
Joss Whedon joked at the Nocturnal convention in 2001 Anya was originally supposed to die during the Season Five finale, "The Gift", but he had to keep her alive because Emma Caulfield couldn't keep still while Xander was carrying Anya's supposedly lifeless body.[5]
Post-Sunnydale[edit]
It was stated that Anya would return in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season eight comic book series, even with Joss Whedon telling MTV that she was "definitely dead... but that doesn't mean she's gone."[6] However, Dark Horse Comics editor Scott Allie stated that there were no current plans for Anya to appear.
In the first issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten, Anya returns as a ghost, having a conversation with Xander during a battle with both a mindless breed of vampires, which Xander has dubbed "zompires," and another new breed who are stronger and has abilities of withstanding sunlight and shape-shifting. Currently, she is only visible to her former fiancé, and Xander hasn't yet informed the gang about Anya.[7]
Powers and abilities[edit]
Anyanka has the power to grant wishes made by women seeking revenge against men who have wronged them, even changing reality to accommodate these wishes, a gift which is supported by her ability to detect women's emotional pain at a distance. She has supernatural strength, teleportation (although in "Same Time, Same Place" she mentions that her use of teleportation is temporarily limited and requires bureaucratic paperwork), telekinesis and rapid healing, being able to survive impalement. As a demon she will not die of old age, having lived over a thousand years, but can be killed if her body is sufficiently damaged.
With over a thousand years of experience as a former vengeance demon, Anya's knowledge of demonology and various dimensions is immense, surpassing both Giles and his successor Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, but not as skilled as them in research. Although her native language is Old Norse, Anyanka/Anya speaks fluent English as well as some French, Latin and can read and speak Ancient Sumerian. It is implied that she can speak any human language, as she has granted wishes in many countries all over the world throughout many centuries. Despite being human, Anya still has contacts with some of her former associates.
Anya also exhibits some basic knowledge of magic, often commenting on Willow's spellcasting and interest in magic with a reasonable degree of insight, and she occasionally participates in the casting of spells herself ("Doppelgangland"). As a human, Anya's experience and practice of combat from her time as a demon allows her to be an effective fighter, as seen in the series finale.
As a ghost, Anya is incorporeal and invisible to everyone except Xander.
Personality[edit]
Commenting on the personality of her character, Caulfield said, "Anya remains mortal and ambivalent. She's just struggling with being human, and really, don't we all struggle with that from time to time? She's very irreverent - and definitely bitter."[2] Anya states in the "Selfless" flashback that she likes to bowl and she's "good with math".
Bunny phobia[edit]
Anya's irrational fear of rabbits (leporiphobia) is established for the first time in the Season Four Halloween episode "Fear, Itself", in which she appears in a bunny costume after Xander tells her to come to the party as something "scary". Her phobia becomes a running joke for the remainder of the series. In "The Gift", Anya sees a stuffed rabbit in the basement of The Magic Box (while looking for the Dagon Sphere with Xander), causing her to scream and exclaim, "Who would put something like that there?!" In "Once More, With Feeling", Anya sings, "Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes. They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses, and what's with all the carrots? What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?", a verse reminiscent of Willow's speech about spiders ("Nightmares"). In "Tabula Rasa", while suffering from memory loss, she repeatedly casts a spell that does nothing more than cause rabbits to appear in increasing numbers. The phobia also manifests itself in her final moments. As the final battle approaches, Andrew Wells suggests she "picture happy things: a lake, candy canes, bunnies..." The change is drastic and instantaneous. She confidently raises her sword, saying grimly, "Bunnies. Floppy, hoppy, bunnies."
In her "origins" episode, "Selfless", Anya (then known as Aud), is surrounded by rabbits without showing any signs of distress over their presence.
Academic analysis[edit]
Anya has been the subject of at least one academic article. For Tamy Burnett, "Anya ... stands alone as the only woman in the Buffyverse to remain unshamed and unpunished for her expressions of sexuality". Burnett argues that, among Buffy's female characters, despite their varying versions of personal and/or mental strength, Anya is the only one who is truly sexually liberated. Buffy and her friends tend to be "girly girls", who learn that "Sex is bad" and have their transgressions of traditional gender performance punished; Burnett cites the loss of Angel's soul, punitive interpretations of Tara's death, and Willow's transformation into Warren among other consequences. Faith comes "the closest" after Anya to breaking these traditional patterns because, while she is "just as sexual and outspoken" as Anya, she pivotally does not achieve Anya's acceptance within the group; for Anya, this "legitimizes her perspective". She identifies this motif with typical traits of horror fiction, citing Dawn Heinecken's feminist analysis in Warrior Women of Television. Anya frankly admits to masturbation and to her favourite sexual activities with Xander, and assumes that others share her attitudes. To Burnett, Anya's death in "Chosen" positions Anya as "failing to achieve [her] ultimate narrative legitimacy". Burnett concludes that "Anya's attitude toward sexual desire marks her as transgressing traditional forms of female sexuality, a significant break to the pattern by which other women on the show are constrained."[8]
Appearances[edit]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Anya appeared in 85 canon episodes. Anya was a series regular for Seasons Five through Seven (2000–2003), but did not appear in "Normal Again", "Help" (her scenes were cut), "Conversations with Dead People", and "Dirty Girls". Prior to Season Five, Anya was a recurring character, appearing in the following episodes:Season Three (1998–1999): "The Wish", "Doppelgangland", "The Prom" and "Graduation Day, Part One".
Season Four (1999–2000): "The Harsh Light of Day", "Fear, Itself", "Pangs", "Something Blue", "Hush", "A New Man", "The I in Team", "Goodbye Iowa", "Who Are You", "Superstar", "Where the Wild Things Are", "New Moon Rising", "The Yoko Factor", "Primeval", and "Restless".
Anya has also appeared in a number of comics including Past Lives, Ugly Little Monsters, and Reunion, and in novels including Unseen, Wisdom of War and Monster Island. She also makes a brief appearance in the 2003 video game Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds.
Merchandise[edit]
In 2005, Diamond Select Toys produced several action figures in the likeness of Emma Caulfield for their Buffy the Vampire Slayer line. Each figure featured a "real-scan" likeness of Caulfield and episode/character specific outfit. Figures produced were: "Season 5 Anya" in red top and black skirt, "Hell's Bells Anya" in wedding dress, "Once More, With Feeling Anya" in butterfly top and green skirt, "Anyanka" in demon dress, and "Bunny Suit Anya" in removable bunny suit. A repaint of "Bunny Suit Anya" was featured in the Vengeance Book box-set.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ The surname "Emerson" is given in the Sunnydale High Yearbook
2.^ Jump up to: a b Springer, Matt, "Hollywood Zen", from Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine #11 (UK, August 2000), page 12.
3.Jump up ^ LeeCategory:Fictional_American_people_of_Swedish_descent, Patrick, "The creators of Buffy head into season seven with a lighter heart", Science Fiction Weekly, retrieved 2007-07-18
4.Jump up ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igeBbGCkF3U
5.Jump up ^ groups.google.com/group/uk.media.tv.angel/msg/
6.Jump up ^ MTV News | Re-Buffed: New Comic Book Series Resurrects Vampire Slayer
7.Jump up ^ Gage, Christos (March 2014). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten. Dark Horse Comics. p. 12.
8.Jump up ^ Burnett, Tamy L. “Anya as Feminist Model of Positive Female Sexuality.” Sexual Rhetoric in the Works of Joss Whedon: New Essays. Ed. Erin B. Waggoner. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010. 117-145.
External links[edit]

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Anya at the Internet Movie Database


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Riley Finn
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Riley Finn
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character

First appearance
"The Freshman" (1999)
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
Marc Blucas
Information

Affiliation
The Initiative
Scooby Gang
Twilight
Riley Finn is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Portrayed by Marc Blucas, Riley was introduced in the 1999 season four premiere episode, "The Freshman", and Blucas was part of the series credited cast for the second part of season four and the first part of season five. Most notably, Riley is one of three long-term romantic interests for series' heroine Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar).
Whedon intended Riley to be the antithesis of Buffy's boyfriend of the past three seasons, Angel (David Boreanaz), who now headed his own spin-off show. In stark contrast to broody, often pensive Angel, Riley is optimistic, trustworthy and reliable, and in theory presents Buffy with her first opportunity for a "normal" romantic relationship. However, Riley also leads a double life: he is both teaching assistant at UC Sunnydale and a member of the Initiative, a government-sponsored special operations team which both researches and combats the demons which roam Sunnydale. This allows him to interact with Buffy both in her civilian life and assist her with her duties as Slayer; while Buffy has supernatural powers associated with her role, Riley must rely instead on his extensive military training.
In the show's fifth season, writers experimented with making Riley a more complex character, and so depicted Riley beginning to "fray around the edges". This storyline culminated in Riley being written out of the series in 2000. In 2002, Blucas returned for a final televised appearance in the show's sixth season, where he is seen to have moved on from Buffy and married. Subsequently, the character appears in Expanded Universe material such as the canonical comic book continuation to the series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–11). In Season Eight, the precise nature of Riley's role in the storyline is unclear for much of the story; writer Jane Espenson, however, wrote a Riley one-shot comic book focusing on Riley and his wife.


Contents  [hide]
1 Character history
2 Writing and acting
3 Appearances 3.1 Canonical appearances
4 Notes and references

Character history[edit]
A native of Huxley, Iowa, Riley was Buffy Summers' boyfriend for parts of Seasons Four and Five. He is first introduced during Buffy's relationship and conflict with Parker Abrams. Riley realizes his feelings for Buffy after punching Parker for an inappropriate comment he makes regarding their night together. Even though he led a double life as part of a secret government organization known as the Initiative, Buffy found some normalcy in Riley as a regular college guy and someone to whom she could relate. Initially, each kept the other from knowing their respective secret lives, but the truth came out during the events in the Emmy-nominated episode "Hush."
Buffy and Riley fought demons together and continued saving each other's lives and the world, although Riley was never quite let into Buffy's inner circle. Initially, Riley automatically assumed that all demons were evil, but discovered that demons are capable of both good and evil just as humans are after assisting in saving Oz from the Initiative complex. Having been torn between the Scooby Gang and the Initiative for some time, Riley decided to leave the Initiative upon discovering the extent of its corruption, and spent the remainder of the season in hiding within the ruins of Sunnydale High.
The Initiative was destroyed at the end of Season Four, and Riley was relieved of his military standing. He was left at loose ends, and his behavior became reckless. Over time, Riley began to see himself as below Buffy in strength, and began to push his body well past its limits. In "Out of My Mind," it was discovered that the drugs that Professor Walsh had secretly fed him were causing Riley's pain receptors to shut down and his heartbeat to spike, and would eventually have killed him. Even with this knowledge, Riley initially refused medical treatment from the government out of paranoia, though Buffy eventually convinced him to do so. Rendered a normal human by the procedure, Riley's insecurities and feelings of weakness only increased, and he became increasingly frustrated with Buffy's seeming inability to open up to and be honest with him.
Seeking thrills, and wondering what Buffy seemed to find so appealing about vampires - Buffy having allowed both Angel and Dracula to drink from her - Riley began to let vampires feed from him, which Buffy discovered in the episode "Into the Woods" when Spike reveals Riley at the vampire's nest. His behavior, as well as Spike's manipulations and a sense that Buffy would never truly love him, led to their breakup. Riley left Sunnydale to join another black ops army unit fighting demons elsewhere, and left the show.
Riley returned in the Season Six episode "As You Were," in which he showed up unexpectedly, tracking a demon about to hatch eggs that could wipe out Sunnydale. However, he did not return to make up with Buffy, having recently gotten married to a fellow demon hunter named Sam (Ivana Miličević). The battle done, Riley left Sunnydale, never to return again. He was, however, mentioned in Season Seven when Buffy asked for the Initiative to remove the malfunctioning chip in Spike's head.
In canonical comic book continuation Season Eight issue "Time of Your Life, Part IV," it is revealed that Riley is one of villain Twilight's followers, as he is present in the laboratory with Warren Mears, Amy Madison, and Twilight, and bears his mark. Samantha Finn did not appear in Season Eight. Pretending to be Buffy's "inside man," he arranged for their rendezvous in New York City. Later, seen in "Retreat, Part II," Riley is with Twilight and his other followers as they try and track the Scooby Gang through their use of magic; Riley tries to convince Twilight that the results could be a mistake of the scanning technology. He is also intrigued by Twilight's remark that he "knows" Buffy. During a large battle between the Slayers and Twilight's forces, Buffy recovers an injured Riley, revealing to the other characters that Riley was a double agent for her in an attempt to figure out Twilight's plans and identity.
Riley also appears in the first issue of the follow-up series Season Nine; the structure of "Freefall, Part I" suggests that Riley—like Spike, Xander, Willow and others—could have been Buffy's possible one-night-stand after the party she hosts at her apartment in San Francisco. Riley remains married to Sam. With the end of magic, Riley now uses his military resources to watch for ordinary terrorists. It is later revealed Buffy did not have sex with anyone. Andrew roofied her and placed her mind in a robotic body that made Buffy think she was pregnant.
Writing and acting[edit]
Marc Blucas was asked how the character was described to him during the audition process, he replied that "They said that Riley is a nice, charming guy, and there's going to be some kind of dichotomy, some kind of double role going on. But that was never really specified."[1] In contrast to both Angel and Spike, Riley held out the possibility of normality in Buffy's life. He is also notable in that he is the only boyfriend of Buffy who was accepted by and developed a friendship with Xander Harris, who usually displayed jealousy of the males in her life.
Whedon defended the character of Riley Finn, "The important thing for us was to find a character that was the anti-Angel and to have Buffy go through something very different, part of which was the question, 'How do I get over Angel?' That was the same thing the audience was going through. We knew it wasn't going to be easy and it was very hard trying to find somebody. But Marc [Blucas] has a quality that I love very much: he has sort of an un-David-like, firm, strong, trustworthy quality. I always think of him as Gary Cooper."[2] During Season Five, writer/co-executive producer, Marti Noxon, noted that they were making Riley a more tortured complex character, "He's starting to fray around the edges. That's very compelling to me - that this straight guy is starting to get a little strange."[3]
Actor Christian Kane also auditioned for Riley Finn. Kane went on to play the role of Lindsey McDonald on the spin-off show Angel. Kane says he played his audition for Riley "perhaps a little less than wholesome", which he feels resulted in Joss Whedon later casting him as a darker character.[4]
Appearances[edit]
Canonical appearances[edit]
Riley has appeared in:
Buffy the Vampire SlayerRiley was introduced in the show's fourth season as a recurring character and became a regular in the episode "Doomed" and continued on as a regular until season five's "Into the Woods", and appeared once afterward. He appeared in 31 episodes. His guest appearances include:Season 4: "The Freshman", "Fear, Itself", "Beer Bad", "Wild at Heart", "The Initiative", "Pangs", "Something Blue", "Hush"
Season 6: "As You Were"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season EightRiley has also appeared in the canonical comic book continuation. He has appeared in the issues:"Time of Your Life, Part IV", "Retreat, Part II", "Turbulence", "Riley: Commitment through Distance, Virtue through Sin"
Notes and references[edit]

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1.Jump up ^ Stokes, Mike, "The Life of Riley", from Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine #14 (UK, November 2000), page 11.
2.Jump up ^ Bassom, David, "Meet the Master", from Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine #11 (UK, August 2000), page 7-8.
3.Jump up ^ "High Five", from Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine #18 (UK, March 2001), page 6.
4.Jump up ^ Grimshaw, Sue, Return of the Spirit Boy: an Exclusive Spotlight on Christian Kane


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Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
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Spike
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel character

Spike, as portrayed by James Marsters.

First appearance
"School Hard" (Buffy, 1997)
Created by
Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt
Portrayed by
James Marsters
Information

Affiliation
Scooby Gang
Angel Investigations
Wolfram & Hart
Classification
Vampire
Notable powers
Supernatural strength, speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes, acute sensory perception, rapid healing, and immortality.
Spike, also known as William the Bloody and played by James Marsters, is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Spike is a vampire and played various roles on the shows, ranging from villain, lover to anti-hero. For Marsters, the role as Spike began a career in science fiction television, becoming "the obvious go-to guy for US cult [television]".[1] For creator Whedon, Spike is the "most fully developed" of his characters.[2] The character was intended to be a brief villain, with Whedon originally adamant to not have another major "romantic vampire" character like Angel. Marsters says "Spike was supposed to be dirty and evil, punk rock, and then dead." However, the character ended up staying for the second season, and then returning in the fourth to replace Cordelia as "the character who told Buffy she was stupid and about to die."[3]
Within the series' narrative, William was an unsuccessful aspiring poet in the Victorian era who was mocked and called "William the Bloody" because of his "bloody awful" poetry. Sired by the vampire Drusilla (Juliet Landau), William became an unusually passionate and romantic vampire, being very violent and ready to battle, but not as cruel as his companions. Alongside Drusilla, Darla (Julie Benz) and Angelus (David Boreanaz), William acquired the nickname Spike for his preferred method of torturing people with railroad spikes. He was noted for killing two vampire Slayers; one at the end of the 1800s during the Boxer Rebellion, the other in 1970s New York, where Spike acquired his trademark leather duster. During the second season of the series, Spike comes to Sunnydale hoping to kill a third Slayer, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), with whom he later forges an uneasy alliance. Over the course of Buffy, Spike falls in love with the Slayer, reacquires his soul to prove himself to Buffy and dies a hero in the show's series finale. He is subsequently resurrected in the fifth season of spin-off series Angel.
Considered a 'breakout character', Spike proved immensely popular with fans of Buffy.[4] The character appears substantially in Expanded Universe materials such as comic books and tie-in novels. Following the cancellation of Angel in 2004, Whedon considered creating a Spike film spin-off. Canonically, the character appears in issues of the comic books Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–11), Angel: After the Fall (2007–9), Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine, Angel & Faith (both 2011–2013) and several Spike limited series, spinning off from both Buffy and Angel.


Contents  [hide]
1 Appearances 1.1 Television 1.1.1 Early history
1.1.2 Sunnydale
1.1.3 Los Angeles
1.2 Literature
2 Characterization 2.1 Personality
2.2 Appearance
3 Powers and abilities
4 Unproduced spin-off movie
5 Reception
6 References
7 External links

Appearances[edit]
Television[edit]
Early history[edit]
Spike's story before he appears in Sunnydale unfolds in flashbacks scattered, out of sequence, among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The first flashback occurs in Buffy Season Five's "Fool for Love", and reveals William as in fact a meek, effete young man (and an aspiring poet) who lived in London with his mother, Anne.[5] Anne would often sing the folksong "Early One Morning" to her son, right up until the time he was turned into a vampire.[6] William's surname is given as "Pratt" in the non-canon comic Old Times and is written on the label of his jar of blood in the comic Spike: Asylum #002. The name William Pratt may allude to horror actor Boris Karloff, whose birth name was William Henry Pratt, and can also be understood as the British slang term "prat", describing a person of arrogant stupidity.
Spike is one of the youngest recurring vampires on the show, though the evidence of his age is contradictory, as the concept of the character evolved over time. When he was introduced in "School Hard" (season 2), Giles read that he was "barely two hundred," implying that he was either born or sired in 1797 or slightly earlier. In "The Initiative" (season 4) he said he was 126, thus born or sired in 1874. Flashbacks in "Fool for Love" (season 5) show that Spike was sired as an adult in 1880. Assuming he was in his early to mid 20s when he was sired, Spike would be in his 140s during the series. In the comic Spike: Asylum #002, Spike's jar of blood label gives his assumed human birth date in 1853. Thus making him about 23 years old when he was sired.



 William, before becoming a vampire
In 1880, William was a struggling poet, often mocked by his peers who called him "William the Bloody" behind his back because his poetry was so "bloody awful."[5] The true origins of this nickname were not revealed until three years after it was first mentioned in Season Two, when it was believed to have purely violent connotations.[7] William showed a strong capacity for loyalty and devoted love, which remained after his siring. After his romantic overtures were rejected by the aristocratic Cecily, William wandered the streets despondently and bumped into Drusilla. She consoled him, drained him of blood and made him drink of her blood, thus transforming him into a vampire – "siring" him, in the jargon of the series.[5] Spike's grand-sire Angelus became his mentor (leading Spike occasionally to describe him loosely as his sire): "Drusilla sired me, but you, you made me a monster."[8] Whereas new vampires in the Buffyverse often delight in killing their families once they become evil, William was a notable exception. Having always been very close to his mother, he turned her into a vampire to save her from tuberculosis. But his mother, as a vampire, taunted William and insinuated he had always had a sexual fascination with her. William chose to stake her because he found he could not bear to see his mother behaving like the soulless vampire he had made of her.[6] She, like most vampires, lacked his unusual capacity for some of the softer human emotions, like love and compassion. But again (or better firstly - as being a flashback into XIX Century), it shows Spike's violent and killing nature, though not sadistic like Angelus'.
After staking his mother, William began a new life with Drusilla, to whom he was utterly devoted. Euphoric with his newfound vampiric abilities, he adopted the poses and trappings of a cultural rebel, affecting a working class East London accent and embracing impulsiveness and extreme violence. He adopted the nom de guerre "Spike" based on his habit of torturing people with railroad spikes – possibly prompted by criticism of his poetry: "I'd rather have a railroad spike through my head than listen to that awful stuff."[5] In "The Weight of the World" Spike mentions having spent "the better part of a century" in delinquency, suggesting criminal activities other than killing for blood. In the company of Drusilla, Angelus and Darla, Spike terrorized Europe and Asia for almost two decades. He had a strained relationship with Drusilla's sire Angelus, who continued a sexual relationship with her despite Spike's strong disapproval.[8] Although Angelus did enjoy the company of another male vampire in their travels, he found Spike's recklessness and lust for battle to be unnecessary risks. Angelus regarded killing as an art, not a sport, and killed for the sheer act of evil; Spike did it for amusement and the rush.[5]
In 1894, Spike and Angelus developed a rivalry with the enigmatic Immortal, who later had Spike sent to prison for tax evasion.[9] In 1900, Spike killed a Slayer in China during the Boxer Rebellion.[5] In 1943, he was captured by Nazis for experimentation and taken aboard a submarine, where he was briefly reunited with Angel.[10] By the 1950s, Spike had reunited with Drusilla, and they traveled to Italy.[9] At some point, Spike also became rivals with famous vampire Dracula. The enmity between Spike and Dracula was explored in the comic series Spike vs. Dracula, in which their mutual hatred is caused when Spike, along with Darla and Drusilla, slaughtered the Romani (gypsy) tribe who had cursed their patriarch, Angelus, with a soul, although it is unclear if either Spike or Drusilla knew precisely why Darla was so angry with the tribe. That clan (unknown to Spike) was favored by Dracula and he sought revenge for their deaths. Spike later mentions in a conversation with Riley Finn, "Dracula? Poncy bugger owes me £11, for one thing," because Dracula tossed Spike's signed copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula in a fire in 1898. Spike also notes that Dracula's fame has done more damage to vampires than any Slayer.[11] Spike attended Woodstock in 1969, whereupon he accidentally became high after ingesting the blood of a hippy, he claims to have spent the next six hours following the incident "watching my hand move".[7] In 1977 he fought and killed a second Slayer, Nikki Wood, aboard a subway train in New York City, taking from her a black leather duster which he wears throughout his appearances on Buffy and Angel until it is destroyed in an explosion in Season Five of Angel, whereupon he gets a new one that looks exactly like the old one ("The Girl in Question"). At some point post-1977, Billy Idol allegedly "stole" Spike's look and made it famous as his own (as revealed in Season Seven's "Sleeper"; see "Appearance" below); Spike's thoughts on this are unrecorded. Inasmuch as Buffy knew of the "theft" as of "Sleeper," Spike presumably shared the detail with her in an undepicted moment.
Spike's flashback appearances, in chronological order, include:
Lies My Parents Told Me 2nd flashback: In 1880 England, William, pre-Spike, tends to his ailing mother Anne.
Fool for Love 1st flashback / Darla 3rd flashback: In 1880, William is rejected by Cecily and sired by Drusilla, with whom he immediately falls in love.
Lies My Parents Told Me 3rd and 4th flashbacks: In 1880, William sires his mother Anne, who, as a vampire, turns against him, forcing him to destroy her.
Destiny series of flashbacks: In 1880, Drusilla introduces William to her sire Angelus. Although the two become fast friends, they later clash when William discovers Angelus making love with Drusilla. Angelus, informing William that when one is a vampire "you can take what you want, have what you want, but nothing is yours," fights William for the first time.
"Fool for Love" 2nd flashback: Months after being sired, William, now called Spike, has through acts of public mayhem forced Angelus' vampire group (himself, Spike, Drusilla, and Angelus' sire/paramour Darla) to flee London; Spike first learns of the existence of the Vampire Slayer.
The Girl in Question 1st flashback: In 1894, Spike and Angelus are imprisoned by the mysterious Immortal, who seduces Drusilla and Darla in their absence.
Darla 4th flashback: In 1898 Romania, Spike and Drusilla, under Darla's orders, attack the Kalderash tribe who ensouled Angelus, later called Angel. Following this incident, Angel parts company with the group, and the other three vampires resume their travels without him.
"Fool for Love" 3rd flashback / Darla 5th flashback: In 1900 China, Spike kills the Chinese Vampire Slayer. Angel, still ensouled, briefly reunites with the group; when Spike and Drusilla boast of Spike's deed, Angel pretends to be impressed but is actually disgusted.
Why We Fight series of flashbacks: In 1943, Spike and two other vampires are abducted by Nazi agents onto a Nazi sub. Angel, working for the US government, helps Spike seize control of the sub and escape.
The Girl in Question 2nd flashback: Spike and Drusilla visit Italy.
Lies My Parents Told Me 1st flashback: In 1977 New York, Spike fights Vampire Slayer Nikki Wood while her young son Robin watches from a hiding place.
"Fool for Love" 4th flashback: In 1977 New York, Spike again fights Nikki Wood, killing her. These are Spike's last depicted activities preceding his arrival in Sunnydale, California.
Sunnydale[edit]
Spike first arrives in Sunnydale in the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the episode "School Hard", accompanied by Drusilla.[7] Spike and Dru were modeled on Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen; punk, "badass" vampires to contrast sharply with the more ceremonial tradition of the Master and the Order of Aurelius from Season One.[12] Spike is in fact a fan of Sid Vicious' band The Sex Pistols and punk band The Ramones. In the final scene of the episode "Lovers Walk", he can be seen singing to a cover of "My Way" by Gary Oldman, who portrayed Vicious in the film Sid and Nancy.[13] Notably, Spike's first act in Sunnydale is to attack Buffy and a large group of people at her school, making his first appearance the deadliest of any of Buffy's "Big Bads", as he very nearly kills Buffy, but Buffy's mother distracts Spike long enough for Buffy to recover. Throughout Season Two, Spike and Dru are the canon's most prominent example of affection between vampires, displaying the humanity and intricacies of vampire relationships. Spike was initially conceived as a disposable villain to be killed off, but proved so popular with fans that Joss Whedon decided to merely injure him instead,[12] in the episode "What's My Line, Part Two", in which Spike is crushed by a collapsing pipe organ and left paralyzed.[14] (Later it is revealed that he has recovered at some point, and has chosen to stay in the wheelchair to deceive Angel whom he intended to betray.)



 Spike's first appearance in the episode "School Hard".
Spike and Drusilla are major enemies of Buffy for much of the second season. They arrive shortly after Drusilla is seriously weakened by an angry mob in Prague, as recounted in the canon comic book The Problem with Vampires. Spike is a devoted caretaker to Drusilla in her weakened condition, and initially hopes the Hellmouth's energy can help restore her strength. He reunites with Angel and seems genuinely pleased to see him, but is disgusted to find that Angel has a soul (whether or not Spike in fact knew that Angel's acquisition of a soul is why he left the group nearly a century before has never been made clear) and is in love with the current Slayer, Buffy Summers.[7] When Angel loses his soul and rejoins Spike and Dru, Spike's initial celebration soon turns to resentment when Angelus starts pursuing Drusilla as a lover and taunting him. Spike decides to ally himself with Buffy against Angelus; as he explains to Buffy, in addition to wanting Drusilla back, he also wants to "save the world":[15]
“ "We like to talk big, vampires do. I'm going to destroy the world. That's just tough guy talk. Strutting around with your friends over a pint of blood. The truth is, I like this world. You've got – the dog racing, Manchester United, and you've got people: billions of people walking around like Happy Meals with legs. It's all right here. But then someone comes along with a vision, with a real passion for destruction. Angel could pull it off. Goodbye Piccadilly, farewell Leicester bloody Square." — Spike ("Becoming, Part Two"). ”
Spike reappears in the Season Three episode "Lovers Walk", in a drunken depression after Drusilla, offended by his alliance with Buffy, dumps him for a Chaos demon. He kidnaps Willow and Xander, and forces Willow to conduct a love spell for him to make Drusilla love him again, even coercing Buffy and Angel to help him in exchange for the safe return of their friends. The excitement of a brawl with the Mayor's vampires helps him see that Drusilla left him because he had begun to go soft; he resolves to win her back by torturing her until she likes him again, and tells Buffy where to find Willow and Xander. He also tells Buffy and Angel that they can never be friends because of their love for one another.[13] This insight foreshadows Spike's later role as the "truth-seer" of the group.
Spike returns to Sunnydale alone in Season Four, in the episode "The Harsh Light of Day", briefly living with Harmony Kendall, a shallow young vampire, and former classmate of the "scooby gang."[16] He is in Sunnydale to look for the Gem of Amarra, a ring which makes a vampire effectively invulnerable. He finds it and attacks Buffy in daylight, but she wrests the ring from his finger and sends it to Angel. Spike goes to Los Angeles, and hires a vampire named Marcus to torture Angel in order to get the ring, but Marcus takes the ring himself and Angel finally destroys it.
After being captured by the Initiative and implanted with a cerebral microchip which punishes him with debilitating pain whenever he harms or attempts to harm any non-demon life forms, Spike turns to the Scooby Gang for protection, bartering his knowledge of the Initiative. (Though he still spars with Buffy, provided he has no real intent on harming her) His inability to bite is comically compared to impotence, much to Spike's constant humiliation;[17] in "Doomed", he attempts to commit suicide by staking himself at Xander's house, but is stopped by Willow and Xander. Occasionally helping the Scooby Gang by providing them with information and/or combat assistance in exchange for cash[18] or for the joy of fighting, but having no qualms about betraying them to such enemies as Faith[19] and Adam.[20] In Season Four, Spike was introduced to fill the antagonistic role that Cordelia had in seasons One to Three; as Joss Whedon explains on the DVD featurette, "All of our characters got to the point where they were loving and hugging, and it was sort of like, where's Cordelia?"[21] Spike appeared in every episode thereafter with the exception of "The Body".
In Season Five, after some erotic dreams, Spike becomes aware to his horror that he has fallen in love with Buffy.[22] He becomes a more active participant in the Scooby Gang, jumping into several of Buffy's fights to provide assistance, whether she wants it or not. When Buffy rejects his advances, Spike attempts to prove his love by kidnapping her so that she can witness him killing Drusilla for her, to little avail; in her disgust, Buffy un-invites him from her house (something she had not bothered to do in the almost three years since their alliance against Angelus) and alienates him from the group.[23]
Spike then has Warren Mears make a robot in Buffy's likeness, programmed to love and obey him. Though Buffy is disgusted by this, her hostility towards him fades considerably when she learns that Spike refused, even under intense torture, to reveal the identity of The Key to Glory, nearly laying down his life to protect Buffy's sister Dawn. Buffy is moved by this unexpected loyalty and kisses him, saying she will not forget what he has done.[24] In the days and hours leading up to the final showdown with Glory, Spike fights by Buffy's side, earning her trust and a re-invitation to her house. Spike displays unabashed grief after Buffy dies in the showdown with Glory,[25] Spike honors her memory by remaining loyal to the Scoobies, fighting at their side and serving the role of baby-sitter / older brother / protector to Dawn, helping Willow and Tara to raise her in Buffy's absence.
After Buffy is resurrected at the beginning of Season Six, she is despondent and detached from her friends. During this time, her relationship to Spike deepens and she is able to talk to him about things she feels she cannot share with the Scooby Gang. She gets drunk with Spike, and calls him "a neutered vampire who cheats at kitten poker." After a demon's spell makes them express their emotions in song, and Buffy sings "I want the fire back",[26] Buffy and Spike begin a physical relationship, consummated two episodes later.[27] The relationship is frequently violent, with Buffy most often initiating both the violence and the sex between them; the violence is made all the easier when Spike finds that (as a side effect of Willow's resurrection spell) his chip now does not stop him from harming Buffy. Buffy threatens to kill Spike if he ever tells anyone about their relationship. Both are unsatisfied; Buffy is ashamed of her dark desires, while Spike obsessively craves the love, trust, and affection that she is unwilling to give. In "As You Were", Buffy tells Spike she is using him and ends their relationship.[28] Believing he still has a chance with Buffy after seeing her reactions of jealousy and hurt when he has a drunk sexual encounter with Anya, Spike corners her and makes aggressive sexual advances. When she refuses him, he grows desperate and unsuccessfully tries to rape her.[29] He is at once horrified by his own actions and intentions, while also somewhat remiss that he did not go through with the rape, since he is still essentially a demon and has had no problem committing such acts in the past. This is seen in his reactions to reliving the memory of the event while discussing his subsequent mood with Clem, who has come by with hot wings to hang out. Spike heads to a remote area of Africa, where he seeks out a legendary demon shaman and undergoes the Demon Trials, a series of grueling physical challenges. Proving his worthiness by surviving the trials, Spike earns his soul back.[30]
In Season Seven, a re-ensouled Spike must cope with the guilt of his past actions and try to win back Buffy's trust. But under influence of the First Evil's hypnotic trigger, Spike unknowingly starts killing again. Upon discovering what he has done, he begs Buffy to stake him, but she refuses and takes him into her house, telling him she has seen him change.[31] Buffy guards and cares for Spike throughout his recovery, telling Spike she believes in him,[32] a statement which later sustains him throughout his imprisonment and torture at the hands of the First.[33] When Spike's chip begins to malfunction, causing him intense pain and threatening to kill him, Buffy trusts him enough to order the Initiative operatives to remove it from his head.[34] When Nikki Wood's son Robin tries to kill Spike, he unwittingly frees Spike from his hypnotic trigger: the song "Early One Morning", a favorite of his mother, which evokes Spike's traumatic memories of his mother's abusive behavior toward him after she turned; after Spike is able to address these issues, he realizes his mother had always loved him, knowledge which frees him from the First's control.[6]
Later in the season, Spike and Buffy achieve an emotional closeness; he alone stays loyal to her when the Scoobies and Potentials mutiny against her, and his words and encouragement give a depressed Buffy the strength to continue fighting. They spend three nights together, one of which Spike describes as the best night of his life, just holding her.[35] It is unclear whether they resume their sexual intimacy during the third night; creator Joss Whedon says on the DVD commentary for "Chosen" that he intentionally left it to the viewers to decide how they felt the relationship progressed, though Whedon had earlier stated on the commentary he personally felt having them resume a sexual relationship would send the wrong message. In the final battle inside the Hellmouth, Spike, wearing a mystical amulet, sacrifices himself to destroy the Turok-Han and close the Hellmouth. He is slowly incinerated in the process, but not before Buffy tells him "I love you." He replies, "No, you don't; but thanks for saying it."[36] Even as he burns and crumbles to dust, Spike laughs and revels in the destruction around him and the burning presence of his soul, glad to be able to see the fight to its end. In dying to save the world, he becomes a Champion.[37]
“ "Now, you listen to me. I’ve been alive a bit longer than you. And dead a lot longer than that. I’ve seen things you couldn’t imagine - done things I’d prefer you didn’t. I don’t exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood. Which doesn’t exactly rush in the direction of my brain. I've made a lot of mistakes. A lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred plus years and there’s only one thing I’ve ever been sure of. You." — Spike ("Touched"). ”
Los Angeles[edit]
Spike had previously appeared in the season 1 episode of Angel "In the Dark", Spike goes to Los Angeles at the same time as Oz arrives to give Angel the Gem of Amarra, Spike's objective was to get the ring and kill Angel. Oz gives Angel the ring who then hides it in the sewer, just as he is about to leave for another case he is ambushed by Spike who hits him with a wooden plank, Angel defeats Spike but Spike warns him that he will get the ring one way or another. Angel takes precaution and goes on a manhunt for Spike, Angel finally finds him, chases him through the alley, and corners him only to fall into Spike's trap. Spike captures Angel and hires a vampire named Marcus to torture Angel until he tells him where the ring is. After a while Spike gets bored of waiting so he goes to Angel's apartment to find the ring and leaving Marcus to torture Angel, he gets to the apartment only to find Cordelia and Doyle aiming at him with weapons and demanding to know where Angel is. Spike reveals Angel's location and tells them that the only way he will release Angel is if they find him the ring. Cordelia and Doyle find the ring in the sewer and head straight to Spike. When they arrive at the location they find out that Spike had lied about releasing Angel. Taking precautions however, they then throw the ring away and just as Spike was about to retrieve it, Oz bursts through the wall in his van and rescues Angel. Spike looks for the ring but finds out that Marcus took it. Spike begins smashing Marcus's things and shouting about how he is going to work alone from now on until a hole that was in the ceiling lets sunlight in and sets the back of his hair on fire.
Despite his apparent death at the end of Buffy's final season, Spike returns in the fifth and final season of the spin-off series Angel. Resurrected by the amulet in the Los Angeles branch of supernatural law firm Wolfram & Hart, he spends seven episodes as an incorporeal being akin to a ghost; he starts to understand being one when he battles "the Reaper" Matthias Pavayne.[38] During this time he realizes he is being slowly pulled into hell. Later he becomes corporeal, due to a mysterious gift that arrives at the office of Wolfram and Hart. Soon afterward he is kidnapped by the psychotic Slayer Dana, who believes he was responsible for kidnapping and torturing her as a child.[39] After this, Spike takes on Angel to prove which one of them is the Champion spoken of in the Shanshu Prophecy. Spike defeats Angel, but the prophecy remains ambiguous (the Cup of Torment is revealed as a fake containing Mountain Dew).[8] Manipulated by Lindsey McDonald into "helping the helpless", Spike becomes a sort of rival to Angel; resembling the heroic Champion Angel was in earlier seasons before becoming disillusioned and corrupted by the bureaucracy of Wolfram & Hart.[40] Cordelia comments on this strange turn of events after coming out of her coma in "You're Welcome", exclaiming to Angel, "Okay, Spike's a hero, and you're CEO of Hell, Incorporated. What freaking bizarro world did I wake up in?"[41]
When Fred is killed by Illyria,[42] Spike mourns her death and decides to join Team Angel in her honor.[43] Upon learning that Buffy is now dating The Immortal, Spike and Angel travel to Rome on the pretext of business but spend most of the time there trying to find Buffy. In the end, they fail to catch up with her. (The blonde glimpsed in Rome is later revealed to be a decoy Buffy, set up by Andrew Wells, who had researched the history between Angel, Spike and The Immortal, and thought the idea would be "hilarious".)[9] During the final episodes of Angel, Spike is the first to vote for Angel's plan to wound the Senior Partners by massacring the Circle of the Black Thorn. He then spends what might be his last hours on Earth returning to his mortal roots as a frustrated poet, triumphantly knocking them dead (figuratively) in an open mic poetry slam at a bar. After single-handedly (literally, he held the baby in one hand and a sword in the other) rescuing an infant and destroying the Fell Brethren, Spike joins Angel, Illyria, and a badly-wounded Charles Gunn in the alley behind the Hyperion as the series draws to an end, preparing to incur the apocalyptic wrath of the Senior Partners, as a way of going out in a blaze of glory that will probably cost their lives.
Literature[edit]
Spike appears significantly in a number of canonical Expanded Universe literature concurrent with and subsequent to the television series, including both Buffy and Angel comic books. Many of these novels and comic books concern Spike's backstory in the periods between the events shown in flashbacks in the television series. From 2007, both Dark Horse Comics and IDW Publishing began telling canonical continuations of Buffy and Angel, respectively. Marsters himself wrote for the miniseries Spike & Dru in 2000. The collection also featured the Christopher Golden stories "The Queen of Hearts", "All's Fair", "Paint the Town Red" and "Who Made Who?", set in or around episodes of Buffy in Seasons Two and Four; "Who Made Who" is set during the Buffy episode "Lovers Walk" and depicts the disintegration of his relationship with Drusilla when they were together in Brazil. After Buffy finished in 2003, Spike appeared in a comic story from the canonical Tales of the Vampires series. Written by series writer Drew Goddard, "The Problem with Vampires" establishes his adventures in Prague prior to his introduction Buffy episode "School Hard". Christopher Golden's 2000 novel Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row depicts Spike killing a Slayer named Sophie in the 1940s, contradicting the two Slayers whom Spike is later established to have killed; the second Slayer Spike killed was established as New Yorker Nikki Wood. The short story "Voodoo Lounge" from the collection Tales of the Slayer is a sequel to this novel. Golden's 2006 novel, Blackout, is truer to the series' chronology by depicting Spike's fatal encounter with Slayer Nikki Wood in 1977. Diana G. Gallagher's 2005 novel Spark and Burn depicts the struggling early-Season Seven Spike remembering an account of his life, amounting to a chronological character history of Spike's life from the 19th century to the time of the framing device.



 This promotional poster for Brian Lynch's IDW Spike series was drawn by artist Franco Urru in response to the spoiler leak controversy for the Dark Horse Comics series Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight.[44] The image is reflective of Spike's role in both franchises. Note that as the series' central character, Spike receives his own stylised logo.
Most Spike-centric stories, however, have been published subsequent to Angel's finale episode. The 2005 IDW comic book Spike: Old Times, by Peter David, depicts Spike's encounter with the vengeance demon Halfrek, explaining his recognition of her in Buffy episode "Older and Far Away", and clarifying that she was in fact his beloved Cecily. Mutant Enemy approved the story, even though IDW did not have rights to a Buffy-only character like Halfrek, because of her importance to Spike's backstory, on the condition that the story's timing was deliberately ambiguous.[45] Following Angel's cancellation, Spike immediately appeared in the Angel miniseries Spike vs. Dracula by Peter David, a sequel to the Buffy episode "Buffy vs. Dracula" and expanding on the characters' century-old rivalry established in that episode. Scott Tipton's 2006 comic Spike: Old Wounds is detective fiction set during Season Five, and also features allusions to Spike's activities in the late 1940s. Tipton's Spike: Lost and Found in 2006 is a Season Five story that acts as a sequel to the 1999 Buffy/Angel crossover episodes "The Harsh Light of Day" and "In the Dark", featuring the immortality-bestowing Gem of Amarra in 2005 Los Angeles. Lastly, writer Brian Lynch teamed up with Franco Urru to produce the story arc Spike: Asylum (2006-7), depicting Spike's stay in a supernatural medical facility. Although originally of the same ambiguous relationship to canon, the characters it introduced would reappear in the canonical Angel comic books to come later. Whedon appreciated Lynch's writing of Spike in Asylum so much that he commissioned him to co-write the canonical continuation of the series, Angel: After the Fall, in 2007.[46] Lynch and Urru also penned Spike: Shadow Puppets, featuring Spike and Lorne doing battle with the muppet demons of Angel episode "Smile Time" in Japan. In the explicitly-canonical Whedon stories of 2007, Spike and Angel first appear in a joint cameo in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (Dark Horse) as part of Buffy's sexual fantasies.[47][48] In the Dark Horse Presents #24 Season Eight tie-in, "Always Darkest", Spike and Angel appear (again in a dream sequence) at Buffy's side when she is fighting Caleb, but to her dismay the two start flirting with and kissing one another.[49] Spike appears in Season Eight properly at the conclusion of the "Twilight" story arc. Lynch's Spike series features some collaboration with Whedon to connect the IDW and Dark Horse series' continuities.[50] IDW had planned to launch the series as a bona fide ongoing series, and as such it establishes a support cast for Spike suited to his position headlining the title.[51] The transfer of Angel rights from IDW to Dark Horse necessitated that it end instead as an 8-issue miniseries.[52]
In IDW's Angel: After the Fall, Spike does not appear until the second issue, written by Brian Lynch with art by Franco Urru (the creative team of Spike: Asylum and Spike: Shadow Puppets) with plotting and "executive production" by Whedon himself. In Angel: After the Fall, Spike has adjusted to Los Angeles' new status as a literal hell on Earth; he and Illyria both serve together as the Demon Lords of Beverly Hills, living in the Playboy Mansion after the death of Hugh Hefner and served by a harem of human and demon females known collectively as the "Spikettes." How Spike and Illyria got to be Lords of Los Angeles is detailed in the Spike: After the Fall (2008) miniseries, which also introduces a human friend for Spike in Jeremy Johns. In their new capacity, Spike and Illyria secretly rescue humans and benevolent demons, evacuating them into the care of Connor, Nina Ash, and Gwen Raiden. Spike rallies alongside Angel against the other demon Lords. When vampire Gunn causes Illyria to revert to her monster form, memories of Fred from Spike and Wesley are transplanted into her to restore her humanity. After the Senior Partners revert time to before the Fall, Spike begins a loosely-affiliated relationship with the reformed Angel Investigations company, collaborating with Angel and his associates while maintaining independence. Spike continues to appear in the ongoing Angel spin-off series by IDW, under the pens of Kelley Armstrong, Bill Willingham and others. As part of its After the Fall franchise, IDW also published Bill Williams' miniseries, Spike: The Devil You Know in 2010. Spike (2010) follows Spike's journey out of Los Angeles and into Vegas, where he acquires a spaceship and a crew of alien bugs after learning from Wolfram & Hart of a prophecy concerning the impending apocalypse (featured in Buffy) which has driven them to abandon this dimension.
Spike's IDW series feeds into the "Twilight" and "Last Gleaming" arcs of Buffy Season Eight, concluding that series in 2011. In Season Eight, Spike and his crew come to Buffy's aid to help prevent the end of the universe. Due to his own research into the prophecies concerning this apocalypse, Spike is able to lead Buffy and friends to the site of the final showdown with Twilight. When Buffy's decision sees the world lose its magic, Spike is the only one to be emphatically supportive of the decision she had to make. In the follow-up series Season Nine (2011–present), Spike bases himself out of his ship in San Francisco to be near Buffy, but eventually leaves due to the complicatedness of their relationship, setting up the miniseries Spike: A Dark Place (2012), which follows Spike and his insectoid crew aboard his spaceship. Dark Horse also gives the Spike title a new stylised logo, distinct from the Angel-typeface logo used prior. The arc serves to divest Spike of the ship and crew, and sets up his 2013 crossover stint in Angel & Faith ahead of an eventual return to the main Buffy series.[53] In issues of Angel & Faith, Spike helps Angel defeat a demon in possession of Giles' soul, but leaves London where they are based without hesitation when he learns that Dawn is gravely unwell back in San Francisco. He returns to San Francisco to provide comfort to Dawn who is rapidly fading away without magic in the world to sustain her form. However, his memories of her start to quickly fade and recordings he makes of himself talking about her turn to static. Spike appears unconcerned he missed the chance to talk to Buffy who, along with Willow and Xander, has gone to find magic to save Dawn at the Deeper Well in England. When nobody can remember the name of Buffy's sister, he phones her boyfriend Xander, and also warns him that the rogue Slayer Simone Doffler has been seeking a way to become the ultimate vampire. When the others return and Dawn is restored Buffy thanks him for staying with her sister, Spike says all that matters to him is that Dawn is safe again.
Characterization[edit]
Personality[edit]
Spike is seen as something of a paradox amongst vampires in the series, and frequently challenges vampire conventions and limitations. As a soulless vampire, he exhibits quite a few human traits such as love, loyalty, and aesthetic appreciation. As an ensouled vampire, Spike's need for violence remains unapologetically intact. Spike's actions are motivated by love in all of its incarnations (love of objects, love of life, love of a specific person). Drusilla does, however, make it seem that all vampires are capable of exhibiting human emotions (such as love) when she says to Buffy, "We can love quite well. Though not always wisely."[23]
Throughout the Buffy series, Spike's character changes and develops the most out of them all. He begins as "evil" and obsessed with Drusilla, then becomes a depressed drunk after Drusilla leaves him for a Chaos demon because he is not "demon enough" for her anymore. He then heard about the "Gem of Amara," a gemstone that is rumored to give vampires the ability to walk in the sun; it was called a kind of holy grail for the vampires because it was only assumed to be real. Spike set his sights on finding it and ended up locating it in Sunnydale. It was taken away from him by an angry Buffy who subsequently gave it to Angel in Los Angeles. Spike was then captured by The Initiative and was going to be used as a government science experiment. His next character development and change was after he escaped the Initiative, realized he could not harm any living being because of the chip they put in his brain, and saw his only option as going to Buffy and the Scooby Gang for help. Their relationship then grew slowly from a hostile tolerance to a confusing romantic relationship to a mutual respect and understanding. Spike had setbacks along the way; there were times when he reverted to his former "evil" self and tried to hurt Buffy or the Scoobies. But there were also times when he showed astounding amounts of human emotion and responsibility for a supposedly "evil," soulless creature.
Spike is also rare among vampires because he does not fear Slayers; he seeks them out and has killed two by the time he arrives in Sunnydale. He is proud of this accomplishment despite the fact that his victories had more to do with the Slayers' state of mind than a special prowess on his part (or "luck," as he reveals in Buffy episode Fool for Love). Spike admits this to an inquiring Buffy in the season 5 episode Fool for Love, and the impact of his revelation has probably not been completely felt as of the completion of season 8.
Spike is intelligent, insightful and a skilled analyst. His sense of humor is dry and sarcastic, and he carries himself with swagger.
Spike has a habit of pithy remarks and glib insults, even toward the few he does not view as antagonists. Among his favorite targets are Angel, Xander, Giles, and (to a lesser extent) Buffy. Joss Whedon credits this antipathy as what convinced him in the episode "Lovers Walk" to bring Spike back as a cast regular. As James Marsters put it, "I was supposed to be the one who stood at the side and said, 'Buffy, you're stupid, and we're all gonna die'."[21]
Spike often nicknames people, both as insults and as terms of endearment; for example, he calls Dawn "Little Bit" or "the Niblet". Spike also retains something of his literary intellect from his human side, routinely referencing poetry, songs, and literature; on occasion he even waxes poetic on the nature of love, life, and unlife as being driven by blood, reasoning that blood is more powerful than any supernatural force because it is what separates the living from the dead.[13][25]
Spike often treats his vulnerability to the sun as simply an annoying inconvenience. He drives in broad daylight in vehicles with blacked-out windows, and on several occasions travels outside during the day using a blanket for cover. Indeed, he has a remarkably stronger resistance to sunlight than most all other vampires seen in the series except Angel; their elevated ability to endure the sun should not be confused with total immunity, however.
Appearance[edit]



 The character's look has been compared with rock musician Billy Idol (pictured)
Spike has a punk look which strongly resembles English rock musician Billy Idol; humorously, Buffy claims that Billy Idol in fact stole his look from Spike. His hair is peroxide blond for the duration of his time on Buffy and Angel, although in flashbacks it can be seen in its natural medium brown state as well as dyed black.[10] His nails are often painted black.
“ Bouncer: [When asked if he has seen Spike] "Yeah, yeah, I know the guy. Billy Idol wannabe?"Buffy: "Actually, Billy Idol stole his look from-- never mind."[31] ”
A Y-shaped scar on Marsters's left eyebrow, received during a mugging,[54] was worked into the show; make-up artist Todd McIntosh decided to shave out his eyebrow in order to make it more prominent. He also included the scar on Spike's "vamp face" prosthesis, albeit slightly altered as though the skin has stretched.[55] In Spike's first appearances the wound still looks fresh, but it gradually fades until, in Angel season 5, it is barely visible. A flashback in "Fool for Love" reveals that Spike received the scar from the sword of the first Slayer he killed in 1900.[5]
Spike usually wears long black leather coats, including one that he took from a Nazi officer[10] and another that he took as a trophy from Nikki Wood, the second Slayer he killed.[5] He wore the Slayer's black duster for over twenty-five years. When the coat was destroyed by a bomb from the Immortal in Italy, Spike heartbrokenly declared it to be irreplaceable; but the Italian branch of Wolfram & Hart quickly supplied him with a whole wardrobe of new ones, nearly identical, which he happily began wearing.[9] His trademark look includes the leather duster, a black t-shirt or v-neck shirt and black denim pants, usually with heavy boots or Doc Martens. He also wore a red long-sleeved shirt fairly often, particularly during the earlier seasons of Buffy, and a bright blue shirt early in Season 6 & 7. He explained that the shirt was supposed to show Buffy that he had changed and give him confidence (because the First was messing with his head and he did not want Buffy to think he was still evil or crazy). But later, he returned to his trademark look, commenting that he was back.
Powers and abilities[edit]
In addition to possessing the common powers and weaknesses of vampires, Spike's age and experience makes him a highly effective, skilled, and versatile fighter in both armed and unarmed combat. For example, he is able to briefly overcome Illyria during a testing of her abilities prior to her powers being greatly reduced by Wesley. Illyria criticizes his (and others') ability to adapt, calling it "compromise."[56] He is able to withstand excessive amounts of pain for extended periods of time, particularly when properly motivated, as seen in the episodes "Intervention"[24] and "Showtime".[57] While not as skilled or as sadistic as Angelus, Spike also proves himself to be effective at torture, noting he had gained "screams, various fluids, and a name" from Doctor Sparrow.[43] Much like Angel, he is highly proficient in various forms of martial arts, and his typical fighting style blends karate, kung fu, and others.
Spike often displays insight and skills in perception and observation, especially with regard to relationships and personalities, so long as the relationship in question does not concern him personally. This ability allows him to wield powerful psychological weapons as easily and effectively as physical ones. For example, when he wants to create disharmony among the Scoobies, Spike divides-and-conquers with "The Yoko Factor", exploiting tensions that exist under the surface to alienate Buffy and her friends against each other.[20] He explains to Buffy he was able to defeat two Slayers because he sensed and exploited their secret desires to be free of their burden.[5] Spike's skills of analysis allowed him to realize Willow was barely holding it together after Oz's departure even though Giles and Buffy thought she was doing better, to be the first to see through Tara's abusive and controlling family,[58] forced Buffy and Angel to admit that they were more than "just friends"[13] and identify when and why some relationships, such as between Buffy and Riley, are not meant to last, masterfully feeding Riley's insecurities in an effort to sabotage his relationship with Buffy, so Spike can pursue her. His analytical skills also help him in battle from time to time; for example, in "Time Bomb", he identifies Illyria's fighting style as a Tae Kwon Do/Brazilian Capoeira / Ninjitsu hybrid. While many vampires cling to the mannerisms and speech patterns prevalent at the time they were sired, Spike has been shown to easily adjust to changing fashions and styles over the decades and displays an impressive knowledge of both British and American popular culture, demonstrating another aspect of his potential for analysis and adaptability.
Although capable of developing sound battle strategies, Spike (particularly in the days before receiving his chip and being re-ensouled) often loses patience with anything more complicated than outright attack, as mentioned in the episode "In the Dark".
“ Spike: I had a plan.Angel: You, a plan?Spike: Yeah, a good plan. Smart. Carefully laid out. But I got bored. ”
He is also impatient to fight the Slayer upon his initial arrival in Sunnydale; the attack is supposed to coincide with the Night of St. Vigeous (when a vampire's natural abilities are enhanced), but he "couldn't wait" to go after the Slayer and recklessly leads a mass assault against Buffy at Sunnydale High, which fails and results in the deaths of many Aurelian vampires. However, Spike did exercise patience throughout the later half of Buffy Season Two, when he used a wheelchair for several months after a brutal battle with the Scoobies in the episode What's My Line left him paraplegic. Feigning weakness, he endured torturous weeks watching Angelus sexually pursue Dru as he waited for the right time to strike against his enemy.
Spike's "vampire constitution" provides him with an extremely high tolerance for alcohol (which he regularly consumes in copious quantities). Due to his experience in criminal activities, he is skilled at picking locks, hotwiring cars, and pick-pocketing. He is also capable of easily operating various vehicles, such as various cars, a Yamaha XJR400 motorcycle ("Bargaining"), and a Winnebago ("Spiral"). He has also been shown using video game systems and a computer, treating injuries, and playing poker and pool. Spike is also seen speaking/understanding Latin, Luganda (a language of Uganda, where he meets the demon shaman), and the language of Fyarl Demons, two of whom he once employed as underlings during his pre-Sunnydale days. He is also shown to be capable of recognizing literature; in the last episode of season five, he paraphrases a line from the St. Crispin's Day Speech while in conversation with Giles after Buffy tells them her plan of attack on Glory.
When Spike was transformed into a ghost-like intangible state following the destruction of Sunnydale and the Hellmouth and his subsequent materialization at Wolfram & Hart, he was capable of walking through solid objects. He was initially unable to make contact with objects around him until he learned how to focus his abilities through desire, allowing him to make brief contact with people and things if he concentrated enough. This ability was relatively useless in a fight; he was unable to pick up a wooden bar to hit the demon Tezcatcatl in "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco", and required a few moments to properly punch a cyborg strangling Gunn in "Lineage". Naturally, he lost these capabilities when he was recorporealized by Lindsey.
Unproduced spin-off movie[edit]
In 2004, Joss Whedon set plans for a Spike movie. The film, if ever greenlit, would star James Marsters, Alyson Hannigan and Amy Acker. At a convention, Acker stated the film was not going ahead due to money issues.[59][60]
Reception[edit]
Spike was placed first in SFX magazine's "Top 50 Vampires" on television and movies list.[61] The same list featured rival Angel in the third place. Spike was described as an "antihero in the true sense of the word, Spike is morally ambiguous and ready to fight pretty much anyone, for fun. But underneath it all, he loves deeply and earnestly in a way that remains achingly human. Although, ironically, his personality remains pretty much the same, whether he has a soul or not – in stark (and more entertaining) contrast to Angel." Other Buffyverse vampires to appear on the list included Drusilla (at 10th place), Darla (at 25th place), Vampire Willow (at 32nd place), Harmony Kendall (at 31st place), and the Master (at 39th place).
Spike is also featured in Forbes magazine's "Hollywood's Most Powerful Vampires" list along with Angel.[62]
In 1999, Spike won a TV Guide Award for "Scariest Villain".[63]
References[edit]
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External links[edit]

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Spike at the Internet Movie Database


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Oz (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
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Daniel "Oz" Osbourne
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel character

Oz playing at the Bronze.

First appearance
"Inca Mummy Girl" (Buffy, 1997)
Created by
Matt Kiene
 Joe Reinkemeyer
Portrayed by
Seth Green
Information

Affiliation
Scooby Gang
Classification
Werewolf
Notable powers
Superhuman strength and speed in transformed state, and acute sensory perception in both states.
Daniel "Oz" Osbourne is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Seth Green. Green also portrays the character in one episode of spin-off series Angel.
In Buffy, Oz is portrayed as a taciturn, guitar-playing teen who becomes boyfriend to Willow (Alyson Hannigan), one of the show's main characters. After first appearing in the episode "Inca Mummy Girl", Oz discovers he is a werewolf in the episode "Phases" and becomes a recurring character throughout the second season. Green is elevated to main cast for the third season, and departs from the series in season four. Green portrays the character for a final time in the season four finale "Restless" as part of a dream sequence. The character made a brief canonical 'return', however, in the 2009 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight storyline "Retreat".


Contents  [hide]
1 Appearances 1.1 Television
1.2 Literature
2 Dingoes Ate My Baby 2.1 Buffyverse appearances
2.2 Music
3 Concept and creation
4 References

Appearances[edit]
Television[edit]
Oz's most outstanding trait is his detached, ironic approach to life, masking a deeply philosophical interior and a very devoted, gentle nature.[1] He is also the lead guitarist for the band Dingoes Ate My Baby, which performs frequently at The Bronze. A high school senior, one year above Willow and the rest of the group, he is highly intelligent and "tests well", but his only real ambition lies in his music.
He notices Willow in her Eskimo costume at a dance at The Bronze, and seems to be interested in her at first sight; but does not meet her directly until several episodes later. They have several dates, on one of which he witnesses a vampire being dusted by Buffy for the first time, and is unsurprised upon learning vampires exist and merely remarks that "it explains a lot". After this he becomes a member of the Scooby Gang, helping with research and fighting.
In the episode "Phases" Oz learns he has become a werewolf, turning into a monster on the three nights around a full moon, having been bitten on his finger by his cousin Jordy. On his third night as a wolf, Oz is nearly killed by werewolf hunter Gib Cain for his pelt, but is saved by Buffy and the Scooby Gang, with whose help he quickly finds a way to minimize the danger posed by the wolf: he locks himself into a cage for the appropriate nights, watched over by the Scoobies in shifts. The revelation that Oz is a werewolf does not dissuade Willow from dating him, and they become a couple.
Even though he is intelligent, several incompletes in his Senior year require he repeat it, putting him in the same graduating year as the rest of the gang. During this year, his relationship with Willow goes through rough water as he and Cordelia catch Xander and Willow kissing. They break up, but get back together again after Oz confesses he misses her ("Amends"). In the episode "Graduation Day, Part One," Oz and Willow make love before the impending confrontation with the evil Mayor Wilkins.
After graduation, he attends UC Sunnydale together with Buffy and Willow, and is seen taking 'Introduction to Psychology' by Professor Walsh along with them. Unlike the other two, he does not have a dorm room, but stays in a house off campus along with the rest of the band,[2] and now locks himself up into a cage in a crypt at a local cemetery. Oz makes one appearance on Angel to deliver the Ring of Amarra, and plays a crucial role in the plot of that episode ("In the Dark").
While appearing to the outside world to have come to terms with his lycanthropy rather easily, evidence arises he indeed is fearful of his werewolf side ("Fear, Itself"), and especially of hurting others with it.[3] Moreover, he starts to see that he and his wolf side may not be as separate as he'd like to think. When he meets a female werewolf, Veruca, a seductive UC Sunnydale student who sings in a band, they are immediately drawn to each other, and unbeknownst to him, they meet as wolves in the woods and have sex on the first night of the full moon. Veruca, who, unlike Oz, is conscious of her state and believes they are "the wolf all the time," tries to convince Oz that they belong together. Unlike Oz, Veruca sees nothing wrong with killing humans when she is a werewolf as she feels that that is her true identity. Instead of telling the others about Veruca, he convinces her to join him in his cage on the next night they are due to turn into werewolves. They have sex again and are found the next morning lying together naked by Willow, who is devastated. Willow tries magic to hurt Veruca, but is attacked by her. During the attack she transforms into a werewolf and tries to kill Willow, but Oz, also in werewolf form, protects Willow and kills Veruca.[4] Oz realizes that Veruca was correct, and tells Willow that he is, indeed, "the wolf all the time" and needs to leave in order to try to better understand his own nature.
Some months later, Oz returns to Sunnydale, having made progress with his lycanthropy through techniques learned in Tibet.[5] He no longer uncontrollably changes into a werewolf during a full moon, and can now control his transformations, and shows Willow this when he takes her outside and shows her that the moon is full and he has not changed. However, when experiencing the powerful negative emotion of jealousy evoked by the discovery that Tara Maclay has replaced him in Willow's affections, he does change, and is seized by The Initiative and locked in their cells until Buffy, helped by Riley Finn, sets him free.
The knowledge that Willow now loves Tara makes Oz leave Sunnydale for good, though he and Willow each affirm the depth and permanence of their connection. He is last seen in Willow's dream in the episode "Restless."
Literature[edit]
In 2007, Joss Whedon launched a "canonical" Buffy continuation in comic format, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight. The series follows Buffy and her allies some time after the events of the television series finale. Oz initially features in a minor dream sequence in Whedon's premiere story arc, "The Long Way Home" arc amid a collage of friends and family, but is not featured in any principal role until the 2009 story arc "Retreat", written by Jane Espenson.[6] The story sees Buffy and her army of Slayers magically transport themselves to Oz's sanctuary in Tibet to escape the pursuit of her masked enemy, the mysterious "Twilight". There, they hope to learn from Oz how to suppress their magical abilities, as he did, and therefore to avoid Twilight's detection. Oz introduces Buffy, Willow and friends to his wife Bayarmaa, who is also a werewolf, and his young son, Kelden. Oz and a number of other werewolves assist the rendered-powerless Slayers when Twilight's armed forces attack, though Oz subsequently remains with his family when Buffy and her company depart once again.
Oz also appears in Buffy Expanded Universe materials; the details offered in these appearances would later be contradicted by canonical stories, such as Espenson's arc for Season Eight. In addition to supporting roles in a number of novels and comic books, Oz is central to the comic book trade paperback Oz (2001) and the novel Oz: Into the Wild (2002). Both of these appearances are written by Christopher Golden. Into the Wild is set during Oz's quest to control his wolf-side, set after the television episode "Wild at Heart". Golden's frequent writing partner Nancy Holder also wrote the 2005 novel Queen of the Slayers, set after the events of the season seven finale. In Queen of the Slayers, forces conspire to kill Buffy for destroying the Hellmouth in Sunnydale. When Buffy encounters Oz, he is the leader of a pack of werewolves who can completely control their wolf forms; Oz assists in the final battle of the book, set during a full moon.
Dingoes Ate My Baby[edit]
Oz plays guitar in a rock band named Dingoes Ate My Baby.[7] The name alludes to the widespread news coverage of the death of nine-week-old Azaria Chamberlain in Australia in 1980.[8]
The only band member mentioned by name, other than Oz, is lead singer Devon MacLeish (played by Jason Hall). Devon is a friend of Oz and he also briefly dated both Cordelia Chase and Harmony Kendall.
Willow has the band's poster on her dorm room wall beginning in season 4 episode 2.
Buffyverse appearances[edit]
The band is first mentioned in the unaired Buffy pilot with a title card date of 05/03/96. Xander says, "They don’t know any actual chords yet, but they have really big amps." They did not appear on the show until the second season, in "Inca Mummy Girl," October 6, 1997. Dingoes continued to appear throughout Seasons 3 and 4 until Oz left Sunnydale. A poster of theirs is seen once afterward, in the episode Superstar. Most of their performances took place at The Bronze, Sunnydale's local nightclub.

Episode
Location
Songs
"Inca Mummy Girl" The Bronze "Fate" & "Shadows"
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" The Bronze "Pain"
"Dead Man's Party" Buffy's House "Never mind", "Pain" & "Sway"
"Homecoming" The Bronze "She knows"
"Band Candy" The Bronze "Violent"
"Revelations" The Bronze "Run"
"Living Conditions" Buffy's dorm room "Pain" (on stereo)
"The Harsh Light of Day" The Bronze "Dilate"
"The Initiative" Frat House "Fate" (on stereo)
Music[edit]
The music of Dingoes Ate My Baby was actually composed and performed by Four Star Mary. Most of the songs that were used on the show featured on their 1998 album, Thrown to the Wolves. The band is featured on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Album. They also made a one-time appearance as themselves in "Restless". They provided the music along with Christophe Beck to the Joss Whedon-written song, "Giles' Epiphany".
Concept and creation[edit]
Oz originated as a temporary cast member for the show. He was based on a student with whom Buffy-creator Joss Whedon attended college, as Whedon mentions in his commentary on "Innocence" in the Season Two DVD boxed set. In the writers' original plans Oz was to be killed early in Season Two by a vampire, presumably Angelus, before this dubious honor went to Jenny Calendar.[citation needed] The plan changed, as shown in "Phases" when Oz's plot is expanded as he becomes a werewolf. On the season 4 featurette: Oz Revelations: A Full Moon, the writers related Oz's inner werewolf to the dark urges every person encompasses. Even Oz, being a stoic and calm persona, still had a strong and violent force inside, which became increasingly harder to control.
In several episodes during Season Four, Oz can be seen wearing a sheepskin jacket, alluding to the Aesopian fable, origin of the well-known phrase "a wolf in sheep's clothing".
References[edit]

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1.Jump up ^ Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Three, episode 18, "Earshot"
2.Jump up ^ Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Four, episode 1,"The Freshman"
3.Jump up ^ Writer David Fury in The Monster Book (2000) by C. Golden, S.R. Bisette and T.E. Sniegoski, New York: Pocket Books, page 51. ISBN 0-671-04259-9. "[...] [T]he fears are personalized: Oz fears hurting Willow [...]."
4.Jump up ^ Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Four, episode 6, Wild at Heart
5.Jump up ^ Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Four, episode 19, New Moon Rising
6.Jump up ^ Vineyard, Jennifer (2 July 2008). "Joss Whedon Sends Buffy Back To The Future In New Season-Eight Comic". MTV. Retrieved 4 July 2008.
7.Jump up ^ Childs, T. Mike (2004). The Rocklopedia Fakebandica. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-32944-X.
8.Jump up ^ [1]"Azaria still a vestige of human frailty," TheAge.com.au, July 10, 2004. Retrieved July 1, 2011


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Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
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This article is about the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" character and eponymous character of "Angel". For the Buffy episode, see Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode).

Angel/Angelus
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel character

First appearance
"Welcome to the Hellmouth" (Buffy, 1997)
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
David Boreanaz
Information

Affiliation
Scooby Gang
Angel Investigations
The Powers That Be
Wolfram & Hart
Classification
Vampire
Notable powers
Supernatural strength, speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes
 Acute sensory perception, rapid healing, and immortality
Angel is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt for the American fantasy television programs Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series Angel. He is played by actor David Boreanaz. As introduced in Buffy in 1997, Angel is a love interest for heroine Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a young woman whose destiny as "the Slayer" is to fight the forces of evil, such as vampires and demons. However, their relationship is complicated by the fact that Angel is himself a vampire cursed with remorse and a human soul, which motivates him to assist Buffy in her duties as Slayer. The character's popularity led to the production of the spin-off Angel, which follows the character's struggle towards redemption after moving to Los Angeles. In addition to the two television series, the character appears in the comic book continuations of both series, as well as much other expanded universe literature.
In the character's fictional backstory, Angel—originally known as Liam—was an 18th-century Irishman who after becoming a vampire and assuming the name Angelus became famous as the most sadistic vampire in European history. After angering a gypsy clan, he was cursed with his human soul, leading to great personal torment and the decision to resist the evil impulses that come with being a vampire. He later assumes the shortened name Angel, and over the course of Buffy and Angel he matures into an altruistic champion of mankind, and learns he is a central figure of several prophecies concerning an approaching apocalypse. Angel ended its five-year run in 2004. However, the canonical comic books Angel: After the Fall (2007–2009), Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–2011) and Angel & Faith (2011–2013) depict the character's continued story, in which he is caught up in events of cosmic proportion and must deal with the fallout from enormous mistakes he has made.
Storylines in season two of Buffy and season four of Angel, where he is removed from his soul, see Angel resume his Angelus persona and cruelly torment and even kill some of his allies. Academic literature concerning the character has often focused on the implications of Angel's dichotomous personality in the presence or absence of his soul, and the ways in which his relationship with Buffy conforms to and subverts the tropes of romantic drama and horror fiction.


Contents  [hide]
1 Appearances 1.1 Buffy the Vampire Slayer
1.2 Angel
1.3 Comic books
2 Reception
3 References 3.1 Notes
4 External links

Appearances[edit]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer[edit]
Angel's first appearance is in "Welcome to the Hellmouth", the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 1997. In it, he meets the protagonist Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a young girl destined to fight evil in the small town of Sunnydale. For the first half of the season, Angel is an enigmatic love interest for Buffy, showing up only to offer her cryptic messages about upcoming threats. It isn't until the episode "Angel" that the character is revealed to be a benevolent vampire from Galway, Ireland, who emigrated to the United States to escape his past as the sadistic Angelus after his soul is restored by a vengeful gypsy clan. Although uneasy about trusting a vampire, Buffy and the Scooby Gang eventually come to view Angel as an ally. In the second season (1997–1998), Buffy and Angel's romantic relationship develops and the pair have sex in the episode "Surprise". For experiencing a moment of pure happiness, however, the gypsy curse on Angel is revoked, unleashing his soulless alter-ego, who reunites with his old friends, vampires Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau), and begins terrorizing Buffy and her friends. Upon discovering gypsy descendent Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte), who is working to translate the text of a spell to restore Angel's soul, Angelus murders her by breaking her neck, and places her body in the bed of her boyfriend, Giles (Anthony Head), for him to discover. Angelus then attempts to destroy the world by awakening the demon Acathla. In the season finale, neophyte witch Willow (Alyson Hannigan) manages to restore Angel's soul at the last moment, but Buffy is forced to kill him to save the world from Acathla, and Angel is sent to hell. In season three (1998–1999), episode three, "Faith, Hope & Trick", Angel is inexplicably returned from hell by an unknown agent. The Scooby Gang are outraged when they discover that Buffy has been secretly caring for him since his resurrection, but grudgingly accept him after he saves Willow's life in episode seven, "Revelations". In the episode "Amends", the primordial First Evil attempts to manipulate Angel to murder Buffy, but Angel chooses suicide instead by waiting for the sun to rise on Christmas morning. California's heatwave is interrupted by a freak snowstorm, sparing Angel's life, which he takes as a sign from above. Buffy and Angel initially attempt to be friends but eventually resume a celibate romantic relationship. However, Angel becomes more aware of their limitations as a couple and breaks up with her in the hopes that she will be happier without him, leaving Sunnydale altogether after attending Buffy's prom and helping her in the battle against Mayor Wilkins (Harry Groener).
Angel[edit]
After his departure from Buffy, Angel appeared in his own spin-off series, titled Angel. Moving to Los Angeles, he starts a supernatural detective agency called Angel Investigations. He dedicates himself to "helping the helpless", and becomes a Champion of The Powers That Be, who send him psychic visions through his employees Doyle (Glenn Quinn), and later Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter). In doing so, he frequently clashes with the powerful law firm Wolfram & Hart, who represent the evil of the world. During this season (1999–2000), Buffy and Angel appear in each other's shows (the Buffy episode "Pangs" and the Angel episode "I Will Remember You"), but are forced to accept that nothing has changed and they still can't or shouldn't be together. Later in the television season, Buffy crosses over into the episode "Sanctuary" where she attempts to kill rogue Slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku) to whom Angel shows compassion, and Angel appears in Buffy's "The Yoko Factor" where he squares off with Buffy's new boyfriend Riley (Marc Blucas). In the season one finale, Angel is given some hope at redemption when the Shanshu prophecy reveals that a vampire with a soul may eventually become human after fulfilling his role in the upcoming apocalypse.
In season two (2000–2001), Angel discovers that Wolfram & Hart has brought his sire and former lover Darla (Julie Benz) back from the dead in human form. Although Darla is intent on bringing back Angelus, Angel hopes to save her soul and help her seek redemption while she still has a chance. However, just as it looks like he might succeed, Wolfram & Hart bring in Drusilla to turn Darla back into a vampire. Embracing his dark side, Angel fires his employees, Cordelia, Wesley (Alexis Denisof) and Gunn (J. August Richards), and embarks on a vendetta against Wolfram & Hart; Angel allows Darla and Dru to massacre a group of lawyers. Losing faith in his mission, he has sex with Darla in the hopes of losing his soul. Instead, however, he experiences an epiphany and realises that the good fight is still worth fighting. A disgusted Darla flees L.A. and Angel reconciles with his friends, who eventually forgive him. Angel also appears in Buffy season five's "Forever", comforting Buffy after her mother's death.
Season three (2001–2002) sees Angel struggle with fatherhood when Darla returns pregnant with his child, despite the fact that vampires are unable to conceive. When Darla kills herself to give birth, Angel is left to raise the baby Connor (played by triplets Connor, Jake and Trenton Tupen) and protect him from those who wish to get their hands on a child of two vampires. False prophecies, time travel, and betrayal lead to Angel losing his infant son to an old enemy, Holtz (Keith Szarabajka), who abducts Connor into a hell dimension where time passes differently. Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) returns days later, fully grown and under the belief that Angel is a soulless monster. Holtz kills himself and Angel is framed for his death by Holtz's lover, prompting Connor to take revenge by sinking his father to the bottom of the ocean. Over the course of this season, Angel's friendship with his colleague Cordelia evolves into romance, but circumstances prevent him from confessing his feelings.
In Angel's fourth season (2002–2003), Angel is rescued from the ocean by his former friend Wesley. As Los Angeles crumbles under the apocalypse, Angel is forced to cope with the romantic relationship between his son and Cordelia. In order to find out more about the Beast (Vladimir Kulich) terrorizing L.A., Angel Investigations remove Angel's soul and bring back Angelus. Their plan fails, and Angelus wreaks havoc until an old friend, Willow, manages to return his soul for the second time. It is eventually revealed that Cordelia is possessed by Jasmine (Gina Torres), a higher power who puts humanity under her thrall in the hopes of achieving world peace. When Angel restores free will and ruins Jasmine's plan, Wolfram & Hart offer him control of their L.A. branch as a reward for putting a stop to world peace. Angel accepts when they agree to rewrite Connor's memories of growing up in hell, allowing him to live a normal life with a new family. Afterwards, Angel appears in the penultimate and final episodes of Buffy, presenting Buffy with an amulet to help her battle the First Evil.
In the final season of Angel (2003–2004), the character has made a deal with the Devil to become CEO of Wolfram & Hart's Los Angeles office. All of his friends have also become W&H employees, hoping to reform the organization from within under Angel's supervision. His life this season is complicated by the increasingly blurred line between good and evil, the deaths of loved ones Cordelia and Fred (Amy Acker), and the possibility that the Shanshu prophecy may in fact be referring to Spike (who is now also a vampire with a soul) rather than himself. Allowing his friends to believe he is being corrupted, Angel secretly plots to bring down the Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart by assassinating the Circle of the Black Thorn, signing away his prophesied humanity in the process. Realizing that he may never be able to fully stop the forces of evil, Angel and his friends enter into a suicidal battle against the Senior Partners, and the series ends with the question of their survival unanswered.
Between 2001 and 2004, Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb developed a 4-minute pilot episode for Buffy the Animated Series, which was set during the show's first season. Had the series been picked up by a network, it would have featured Angel (voiced by David Boreanaz) in more adventures set during Buffy's first season. Following a 2008 leak of the pilot to YouTube, Loeb expressed some hope that the series may be resurrected in some form.[1]
Comic books[edit]
In 2007, Angel began appearing in two canonical continuations of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel from Joss Whedon. The first of these was Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, published by Dark Horse Comics, which continued the story of the Buffy television series. Later that year, Whedon and IDW Publishing released the series Angel: After the Fall, which continued on from the series finale of Angel. The two series were published by different publishers due to Dark Horse initially giving up the rights to licensed Angel comic books several years ago when the series was still on air. In Dark Horse's Buffy continuation, Angel initially appears to feature in Buffy's dream sequences (in the comic's third and twentieth issues, as well as in the Dark Horse Presents special Season Eight comic "Always Darkest"), but is later revealed to have been in the series from the beginning in its 33rd issue, published in 2010, in which the recurring villain "Twilight" is unmasked as Angel.[2] He then features substantially in the remainder of the series. Angel features as the central character in IDW's After the Fall, however, which has no crossover with the events of Buffy. Whedon devised the storyline for After the Fall issues 1-17 with writer Brian Lynch, but did not write for the series himself as with Buffy. Beginning with the eighteenth issue of the series, IDW chose to continue telling Angel stories in an ongoing comic book with rotating writers and artists, although these stories "did not come from Whedon himself".[3][4] In the continued series without Whedon's involvement, Angel engages in episodic adventures, while the series also takes breaks to focus on other characters. Subsequent writers included Bill Willingham.[5] When rights to Angel settings and characters reverted to Dark Horse, IDW promised to end their ongoing Angel series with its forty-fourth issue in 2011, and began negotiating with Dark Horse so that it would bridge continuity with Season Eight and the upcoming Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine.[6] Its final Angel story is the hardcover send-off Angel Yearbook. During its tensure, IDW also published various miniseries depicting Angel and related characters, such as John Byrne's Angel: Blood and Trenches (2009), and several Illyria and Spike stories.
In After the Fall, set after the fifth season, Angel and his friends struggle as Los Angeles has been moved to a hell dimension by the Senior Partners who have also turned Angel human as a punishment.[7][8][9] With the help of Wesley's ghost,[7] magical spells to simulate his old abilities,[10] and a friendly dragon (seen in "Not Fade Away") which he names after Cordelia,[11] Angel continues helping the helpless. Angel eventually outsmarts and kills the Demon Lords of Los Angeles to win the city back for its people.[12] Gunn, now a vampire out for revenge against Angel following the fight in the alley,[8] confronts Angel,[13] and brings him to the point of death.[14] Cordelia's spirit comes to convince Angel to keep fighting, in spite of a vision of the "final battle" which sees Angel responsible for countless deaths.[11][15] Wesley also confirms that Angel is still viable for the Shanshu prophecy, because his signed contract was never filed.[11] Angel's body is subsequently taken by the Senior Partners and restored to health while Gunn successfully manages to restore the demon Illyria (introduced in season five) to her true form, hoping she will restore time to before the Fall of Los Angeles only to embark on a destructive rampage instead.[16] Gunn kills Connor,[17] but rather than avenge the death Angel allows Gunn to kill him, forcing the Senior Partners to restore time back to before the Fall, as he is necessary to their plans. Restored to the fight in the alley with memories intact, Angel saves Gunn this time and later is happily reunited with Connor.[18] Angel enjoys celebrity status from the citizens of Los Angeles, and gives Cordelia the dragon over to Groosalugg. As a mark of respect for his friends, he names a wing of the Los Angeles public library after Wesley and Fred; Wesley is no longer a ghost. Angel leaves the human, traumatised Gunn an Angel Investigations card and returns to his duties helping the hopeless.[19]
In Season Eight, Twilight appears in the premiere issue, written by Whedon; his shoes are seen floating in the air as he surveys Buffy. At the end of the arc, the military general who coordinated a large-scale attack on Buffy is revealed to be a follower of "Twilight";[20] later issues show that many of the anti-Slayer forces serve under the leadership of a masked person known as Twilight.[21] Buffy herself finally confronts Twilight in "A Beautiful Sunset", along with the Slayer Satsu, but Twilight's superior strength and ability to fly ensures his easy victory.[22] In Jane Espenson's story arc "Retreat", Twilight locates Buffy's allies through their use of magic, forcing them to converge and retreat.[23] In Tibet, Slayers and witches suppress their magic,[24][25] which ultimately leads to a mutually destructive military conflict between the Slayers and Twilight's forces.[22] In its aftermath, however, Buffy mysteriously acquires abilities conspicuously similar to Twilight's.[26][27][28] In the penultimate arc, written by Brad Meltzer, the newly empowered Buffy faces up to her masked enemy again. Twilight reveals himself to be Angel, and claims to have been distracting the various groups that would seek to destroy Buffy while pushing her towards some other end.[29] Buffy and Angel — destiny's agents in discarding the old reality and ushering in a new one — are overcome with desire for one another. They kiss, have sex and fly through space, eventually ascending to a dimension called Twilight. Meanwhile, Giles exposits a prophecy pertaining to the creation of a new universe, brought about by a Slayer falling in love with a vampire.[30] The two come to their senses and return to Earth to fight off the hordes of demons unleashed by their ascension.[31] Espenson's Riley one-shot flashes back to an uneasy Angel, early in his Twilight masquerade, convinced by Whistler (Angel's mentor in flashbacks from Buffy season two) that this course of actions leads to the only possible future in which Buffy survives.[32] The final arc, "Last Gleaming", depicts Angel's first encounter with the higher power which bestowed Twilight's superheroic abilities on him. Spike explains the next step in the prophecy, which concerns the new universe springing from the mystical Seed of Wonder, a source for all the magic in the universe, buried beneath Sunnydale.[33] Although he tries to stop more of the damage caused by the Twilight dimension's coming, the Twilight dimension (the aforementioned higher power) possesses Angel.[34] To protect the seed, a possessed Angel then tries to kill Buffy and Spike, and goes so far as to snap Giles' neck. This prompts Buffy to destroy the Seed. This stops the Twilight dimension from destroying the existing world, and Angel is dispossessed, but the universe is also stripped of all magic.[35]
Following on from this, Angel headlines the series Angel and Faith, primarily set in London. Its stories aim to be respectful to the storylines featured in IDW's forty-four issue Angel run,[36] and maintains a very tight continuity with Buffy Season Nine and other related comics.[37] In his series, Angel faces the looming threat of his now unstable former mentor Whistler, who helped bring about his transformation into Twilight, as well as his two dangerous former acolytes, half-demons Pearl and Nash, in addition a group of British Slayers who cannot forgive his actions as Twilight. Along with Faith, he lives in Giles' London apartment where they are joined by Giles' ageless aunts, witches Lavinia and Sophronia. Angel intends to honor Giles' memory, and seeks to collect fragments of Giles' soul from magical items as part of a plan to resurrect him. In the series' conclusion, Giles is successfully resurrected, albeit as a young teenage boy, and the gang pursue Whistler, Pearl and Nash to a rooftop, where they plan to unleash a horrific magical plague on the world as an inelegant means to restore magic to the universe. Nash is killed, and Angel is able to persuade Whistler to see the error of his ways, successfully limiting to the extent of the plague to an area of Hackney in London. In the season's denouement, Faith returns to America alongside Giles, while Angel remains behind to guard over the plagued neighborhood, now called Magic Town, where residents—magically mutated into all manner of creature—are already causing problems. A second volume of the series will launch alongside Buffy Season Ten in 2014.
Reception[edit]
SFX magazine named Angel as the third greatest vampire in television and film, with rival Spike in first place. They claim that, while he could have worked simply as a brooding love-interest (Buffy) or redemption-seeking hero (Angel), the character also has a "wonderfully appealing, self-effacing humour, helped no end by Boreanaz's ability to look like a slapped puppy". While Angel could be "big and hard and manly", he could also be "sulky, pathetic, in need of a hug". They also cite his poor singing and dancing as examples of his "amusing awkwardness", which "spoke volumes about who he was".[38] For his role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Two, Whatculture placed Angelus at Number One on their list of Buffy Big Bads, alongside Spike and Drusilla, stating that having Buffy's lover become her enemy 'emphasiz[es] the tragedy at the show’s centre that Buffy’s Slayer responsibilities mean she has to make difficult choices.' [39]
Angel was voted by thousands of Hello! readers as the sexiest on-screen vampire in 2009. He gathered 34 percent of the vote and finished ahead of other popular vampires like Edward Cullen, Eric Northman, Lestat de Lioncourt and Spike.[40] Forbes named Angel The Series as the Hollywood's second most powerful vampire show. Rankings were based on television ratings, inflation-adjusted box office performance, as well as presence in popular culture through blog and press mentions since 1979.[41]
References[edit]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1997–2003, created by Joss Whedon.
Angel, 1999–2004, created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt.
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Vineyard, Jennifer (2008-08-26). "‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Animated Series To Be Resurrected?". MTV Movies Blog. MTV.com. Archived from the original on 4 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-05.
2.Jump up ^ Phegley, Kiel (January 8, 2009). "Behind Buffy's Twilight Reveal". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved January 9, 2009.
3.Jump up ^ "Kelley Armstrong - "Angel : Aftermath" Comic Book - Q&A". Whedon.info. 2010-06-13. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
4.Jump up ^ [1][dead link]
5.Jump up ^ "Bill Willingham Talks About Angel & Fables at The Blog From Another World". Tfaw.com. 2009-10-07. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
6.Jump up ^ "The official ANGEL IS LEAVING IDW Q&A". IDW Publishing. 2010-08-23. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
7.^ Jump up to: a b Brian Lynch (w), Franco Urru (a). Angel: After the Fall 2 (2007-11-21), IDW Publishing
8.^ Jump up to: a b Brian Lynch (w), Franco Urru (a). Angel: After the Fall 1 (2007-12-19), IDW Publishing
9.Jump up ^ Brian Lynch (w), Franco Urru (a). Angel: After the Fall 3 (2008-01-14), IDW Publishing
10.Jump up ^ Brian Lynch (w), Franco Urru (a). Angel: After the Fall 4 (2008-02-20), IDW Publishing
11.^ Jump up to: a b c Brian Lynch (w), Stephen Mooney and Nick Runge (a). Angel: After the Fall 12 (2008-09-04), IDW Publishing
12.Jump up ^ Brian Lynch (w), Nick Runge (a). Angel: After the Fall 8 (2008-06-18), IDW Publishing
13.Jump up ^ Brian Lynch (w), Nick Runge (a). Angel: After the Fall 10 (2008-07-02), IDW Publishing
14.Jump up ^ Brian Lynch (w), Nick Runge and David Messina (a). Angel: After the Fall 11 (2008-08-13), IDW Publishing
15.Jump up ^ Brian Lynch (w), Stephen Mooney (a). Angel: After the Fall 13 (2008-10-22), IDW Publishing
16.Jump up ^ Brian Lynch (w), Stephen Mooney (a). Angel: After the Fall 14 (2008-11-19), IDW Publishing
17.Jump up ^ Brian Lynch (w), Franco Urru (a). Angel: After the Fall 15 (2008-12-17), IDW Publishing
18.Jump up ^ Brian Lynch (w), Franco Urru (a). Angel: After the Fall 16 (2009-01-21), IDW Publishing
19.Jump up ^ Brian Lynch (w), Franco Urru (a). Angel: After the Fall 17 (2009-02-11), IDW Publishing
20.Jump up ^ Joss Whedon (w). "The Long Way Home" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 4 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
21.Jump up ^ Brian K. Vaughan (w). "No Future for You" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 9 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
22.^ Jump up to: a b Joss Whedon (w). "A Beautiful Sunset" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 11 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
23.Jump up ^ Jane Espenson (w). "Retreat" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 26 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
24.Jump up ^ Jane Espenson (w). "Retreat" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 27 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
25.Jump up ^ Jane Espenson (w). "Retreat" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 28 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
26.Jump up ^ Jane Espenson (w). "Retreat" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 30 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
27.Jump up ^ Joss Whedon (w). "Turbulence" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 31 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
28.Jump up ^ Brad Meltzer (w). "Twilight" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 32 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
29.Jump up ^ Brad Meltzer (w). "Twilight" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 33 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
30.Jump up ^ Brad Meltzer (w). "Twilight" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 34 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
31.Jump up ^ Brad Meltzer (w). "Twilight" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 35 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
32.Jump up ^ Jane Espenson (w). "Commitment through Distance, Virtue through Sin" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight: Riley ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
33.Jump up ^ Brad Meltzer (w). "Last Gleaming" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 36 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
34.Jump up ^ Joss Whedon, Scott Allie (w). "Last Gleaming" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 38 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
35.Jump up ^ Joss Whedon, Scott Allie (w). "Last Gleaming" Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight 39 ({{{date}}}), Dark Horse Comics
36.Jump up ^ "http://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/78/angel-returns-dark-horse-comics". Dark Horse Comics. 2010-08-24. Archived from the original on 23 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
37.Jump up ^ "(SPOILER) Big Buffyfest Interview with Scott Allie about Angel's return to Dark Horse.". Whedonesque.com. 2010-08-20. Archived from the original on 22 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
38.Jump up ^ "The Top 50 Greatest TV and Film Vampires of All Time". SFX Special Edition (39): 33. 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
39.Jump up ^ "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Ranking the Big Bads". Whatculture. Retrieved 2014-04-19.
40.Jump up ^ "'Angel' hunk David takes 'sexiest vampire' crown from Robert Pattinson in our poll". Hello Magazine.
41.Jump up ^ Streib, Lauren (2009-08-03). "Hollywood's Most Powerful Vampires". Forbes Magazine.
External links[edit]

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Rupert Giles
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Rupert Giles
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character

First appearance
"Welcome to the Hellmouth"(1997)
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
Anthony Stewart Head
Information

Affiliation
Watchers' Council
Scooby Gang
Classification
Watcher
Rupert Giles is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head. He serves as Buffy Summers' mentor and surrogate father figure. The character proved popular with viewers, and Head's performance in the role was well received. Following Buffy's run, Whedon intended to launch a television spin-off focused on the character, but rights issues prevented the project from developing. Outside of the television series, the character has appeared substantially in Expanded Universe material such as novels, comic books, and short stories.
Giles's primary role in the series is Watcher to Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) in her capacity as vampire Slayer; he is in the employ of the Watchers' Council, a British organization that attempts to oversee the actions of the Slayer. From youth, Giles was expected to follow the family tradition and become a Watcher, though as a teenager and young adult he rebelled, dropping out of Oxford University to experiment in dark magic and the rock music scene, until a bereavement brought him to his senses. In adulthood, his loyalty to Buffy and her group of friends costs him his job for a time. As the series progresses, Giles increasingly becomes a father figure to Buffy and her friends Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander (Nicholas Brendon). His encyclopedic knowledge, affinity for magic, moderate fighting skills and willingness to kill make him an asset to Buffy in her fight against the supernatural evils that plague Sunnydale, California.
Following Buffy's conclusion in 2003, Whedon intended to continue Giles' story as a spin-off series, Ripper, which he intended to produce with the BBC. The series was to depict Giles in ghost stories set in present-day England, coping with loneliness as well as figurative ghosts from his own chequered past. Over several years Whedon restated his commitment to the project, though announced it would take the form of a one-off TV movie. Despite Head's availability and the BBC's willingness to fund the project, rights issues concerning the character ultimately led to it not developing further. Canonically, the character's story is continued in the comic book Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–2011) and subsequent stories. The Season Eight sequel Angel & Faith (2011–) heavily features Giles and utilises ideas and characters from the proposed Ripper spin-off.


Contents  [hide]
1 Biography 1.1 Character history
1.2 Sunnydale
1.3 Literature
2 Powers and abilities
3 Reception
4 References
5 External links

Biography[edit]
Character history[edit]
Rupert Edmund Giles (most frequently called Giles) was born circa 1955 in England. His family has worked within the Council of Watchers for at least three generations; both his father and grandmother, Edna Giles, were also Watchers. As a child, Giles dreamed of being either "a fighter pilot or possibly a grocer", but he soon learned that being a Watcher is a calling, much as being a Slayer is, and Rupert's father explained his destiny to him when he was ten years old (revealed in "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date").
Although the Scooby Gang later joked that he wore tweed diapers as a child, Giles was in fact a rebellious youth, rejecting his responsibility as a Watcher and dropping out of Oxford University, where he was studying history, when he was twenty-one. During this time, Giles claimed to be a founding member of Pink Floyd in order to impress girls (although since Pink Floyd was founded in 1965, when Giles would have been around ten years old, it was not a particularly credible claim), and may have delved into criminal activity (he remarks that hot-wiring a car is "like riding a bloody bicycle", and a psychologically younger Giles has no qualms about breaking into a clothing store and attacking a police officer). He is a talented singer and guitar player (as Head is in real life) which the gang discovered, to their astonishment, when they saw him singing "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who in "Where the Wild Things Are". Spike also saw him singing "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd in "The Yoko Factor".
He began to explore dark magic and befriended a group of young people who delved into the dark arts for fun or money: Ethan Rayne, Philip Henry, Dierdre Page, Thomas Sutcliff, and Randall. Giles gained the nickname "Ripper" during this time. Together, the group summoned a demon called Eyghon, who would eventually murder Randall. Following Randall's death, Ethan and the others failed to exorcise Eyghon, and Giles accepted his destiny of becoming a Watcher. Before becoming a fully-fledged Watcher, he also worked as "the curator of a British museum, maybe the British Museum" as Willow says ("Welcome to the Hellmouth"), although, given the context, she may well have been repeating a rumor that was going around the school.
Sunnydale[edit]
At the behest of the Watchers' Council, Giles travels to Sunnydale, California, and works as the librarian at the local high school. There he meets the current Slayer, Buffy Summers, whom he begins training. The library, a sort of command center for Buffy's demon-hunting gang, sits right above the Hellmouth.
As the Watcher, librarian, and general authority figure, Giles often delivers exposition. He is a father figure to Buffy and her friends Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg, together forming the "core four" of the Scooby Gang. Giles is often portrayed as something of a "straight man" and his "stuffy" Oxford sensibility serves as counterpoint to the stereotypical Southern Californian characters and setting. He makes a "weird cluck-cluck sound with his tongue" when he is angry but is "too English to say anything" ("Faith, Hope & Trick"). He admits to being technophobic, a fact which often brings him into conflict with technopagan and computer science teacher, Jenny Calendar. However, after Jenny aids him in casting the demon Moloch out of the Internet, the pair reach an understanding and begin a romantic relationship. Despite his apparent fear of technology, Giles is quite adept with computers ("Gingerbread").
In Season Two, Giles's dark side is revealed and his relationship with Jenny deepens. In "The Dark Age", Ethan Rayne comes to Sunnydale to flee the demon Eyghon. Giles ashamedly admits to Buffy that he was responsible for summoning the demon in his youth, and is horrified when Jenny becomes possessed by Eyghon. Although Eyghon is defeated, Jenny takes time to cope with her ordeal, remaining distant from Giles in the meantime. When new Slayer Kendra Young arrives in Sunnydale, Giles shares with her an appreciation for obscure texts, resulting in Buffy nicknaming her the "She-Giles." Giles feels betrayed when Jenny reveals she is actually a member of the Kalderash gypsy clan, sent to keep an eye on Buffy's relationship with the vampire Angel. When Angel loses his soul and murders Jenny, leaving her corpse for Giles to find in his apartment ("Passion"), Giles seeks revenge by burning down Angelus' base. Angelus later kidnaps and tortures him, and Drusilla hypnotizes him into thinking she is Jenny so he will reveal how to awake Acathla. Buffy is forced to kill Angel to save the world, despite Willow's restoring his soul, and subsequently leaves Sunnydale.
In Season Three, Giles's paternal feelings for Buffy strengthen significantly. He spends the summer desperately following up every clue as to Buffy's whereabouts, and is overjoyed when she finally returns months later. Giles briefly serves as Watcher for Kendra's replacement Slayer, Faith Lehane. The Scoobies are given another disturbing glimpse in Giles' past when, along with every other adult in Sunnydale, he reverts to being a teenager by enchanted band candy supplied by Ethan Rayne. He indulges in theft and vandalism, and makes out with and has sex with Buffy's mother, Joyce Summers. When Buffy keeps Angel's return from hell a secret from the other Scoobies, Giles feels betrayed by her love for the man who tortured him and murdered Jenny, but later agrees to help Angel in "Amends".
As Buffy's Cruciamentum approaches (a brutal tradition of the Watchers' Council in which a depowered Slayer is forced to battle a particularly dangerous vampire using only her wits), Giles struggles to cope with the guilt of betraying Buffy's trust. Despite describing the test as "an archaic exercise in cruelty", he secretly injects Buffy with muscle relaxants and adrenaline suppressors, which weaken her significantly, before finally coming clean when the vampire she is meant to fight escapes. Buffy is disgusted, but is later moved when Giles interferes to save her life and is subsequently dismissed for having a father's love for her. Giles is fired, and replaced with Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, but continues to act as Buffy's unofficial Watcher, proving especially helpful when Wesley turns out to be an incompetent coward. When Buffy briefly finds herself endowed with telepathic powers, she 'hears' her mother remembering that Giles was "like a stevedore" during sex. In a battle with the demonic Mayor of Sunnydale, Giles presses the trigger which destroys the Mayor and Sunnydale High, putting himself out of a job.
In Season Four, Giles must cope with unemployment and a growing awareness that Buffy no longer needs him. He continues a sexual relationship with his old friend Olivia. Lacking a sense of purpose, he spends most of his time lounging around his apartment, watching Passions with Spike. He gets depressed, especially when the Scoobies fail to keep him in the loop regarding Buffy's new boyfriend Riley Finn and his membership in the Initiative. In the episode "Something Blue", Giles becomes blind as a result of a faulty spell cast by Willow Rosenberg. When Ethan Rayne casts a spell on Giles which turns him into a Fyarl demon ("A New Man"), he must enlist Spike's help to escape the Initiative and Buffy, which believes him to be a demon who murdered Giles. Buffy, about to kill him, at the last moment recognizes his eyes and "annoyed" expression, and Ethan is taken into custody by the Initiative. In order to defeat the cyber-demonoid Adam, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles cast a spell to combine their strength. Giles provides the "mind," and Buffy is able to defeat Adam.
At the beginning of Season Five, Giles no longer sees his place in Sunnydale and decides to go back to England, telling no one except Willow, whom he needs to organize the research documents for the Scoobies. He quickly abandons this decision when Buffy asks him to be her Watcher again, confessing that she needs him, both emotionally and in order to discover more about what being a Slayer means.
When the owner of The Magic Box is killed by vampires, Giles is convinced by the shop's high profit margins to buy it, hiring Anya as his overly enthusiastic assistant. Buffy learns that her sister, Dawn Summers, is actually the Key: mystical energy disguised in human form to conceal it from the hell-god Glory. Buffy initially confides only in Giles about Dawn's true nature, and he decides to contact the Watchers' Council for more information about Glory. In "Checkpoint", Quentin Travers tries to coerce Buffy to obey the Council's demands, by threatening to have Giles deported. Buffy stands up to the Council, pointing out that without her there's no need for a Council, and tells them to give her all information concerning Glory and to reinstate Giles as her official Watcher. Travers reluctantly agrees, and leaves.
As the Scoobies labor to find a way to defeat Glory, Giles brings up the difficult idea of killing Dawn to end Glory's plans to take over the world. Buffy vows to protect Dawn at all costs. Glory shares her body with an innocent human named Ben, and can be killed if Ben dies. In the final battle against Glory, Buffy abandons the fight when Glory turns back into a wounded Ben, so that she can save Dawn. Giles is less merciful. Explaining that Buffy is a hero and therefore different from the rest of humanity, he suffocates Ben with his bare hands ("The Gift").
Season Six sees Giles reluctantly stepping back to allow Buffy to gain independence. One hundred and forty-seven days after her death, Giles decides to return to England. On the very day he leaves, Willow, Xander, Anya and Tara resurrect Buffy, and he comes back as soon as he hears of this. Despite being overjoyed to have Buffy back, he is furious at Willow for invoking such dark magic, and angrily dismisses her as "a rank, arrogant amateur." While the other Scoobies believe Buffy was in Hell, Giles is not convinced, and his suspicions prove true when a demon's musical spell causes Buffy to reveal to them all that she was indeed in Heaven. As Buffy begins to rely excessively on Giles for financial and emotional support, he decides his presence is preventing her assuming responsibility for her life. He leaves again for his native England, moving to a place near Bath, where he works with a powerful local coven.
A few months later, Tara is killed by a stray bullet as Warren Mears attacks Buffy. Willow, still recovering from an addiction to magic, suffers a relapse, kills Warren and attempts to kill his former partners in crime, before resolving to end humanity's pain (and her own) by destroying the world. Hearing of a dark power rising in Sunnydale, Giles teleports back there, wielding great magical power borrowed from the Devon Coven. As Dark Willow boasts of her indestructibility, Giles knocks her to the floor with a blast of magic energy, saying "I'd like to test that theory" ("Two to Go"). After being filled in on everything that has happened to the Scoobies in his absence, Giles apologizes to Buffy, insisting that he never should have left them, but Buffy assures him that he did the right thing. Knowing that Willow is too strong to defeat, he tricks her into draining him of his white magics, which brings him near death. It also allows Xander to reason with Willow as the good magic brings out her natural love and compassion, eating away at the evil within her. Giles returns to England with Willow for her rehabilitation. A few months later, he brings Potential Slayers to Sunnydale to protect them from the First Evil and its Bringers. Giles had removed a few volumes from the headquarters of the Watchers' Council, which is soon afterward destroyed by Caleb, an agent of the First. An injured Watcher named Robson witnessed Giles about to be decapitated by a Bringer before blacking out. When the Scoobies hear about this, they worry that Giles may have been killed and the First is merely impersonating him. They are relieved when Anya, Dawn, Xander and Andrew tackle him to the ground, proving he is corporeal and therefore not the First. Giles later loses Buffy's trust somewhat when he takes part in a scheme with Robin Wood to kill Spike ("Lies My Parents Told Me"). Buffy tells him, "I think you've taught me everything I need to know." Giles believes that Buffy kept Spike around for personal reasons rather than tactical ones; this is confirmed when she talks to Spike the night before the final battle under the Hellmouth. In the series finale, Giles participates in the battle of the Hellmouth, and survives.
Shortly after Buffy ended its seven-year televised run, there was talk of a Giles-based spin-off series for the BBC entitled Ripper. At Comicon in 2007, Joss Whedon confirmed that Ripper was still planned and in the pipeline.
In season five of Angel, Angel contacts Giles via phone twice. It is established that, after the events of "Chosen", Giles travels to Europe with Buffy to train new Slayers. He also takes Andrew Wells under his wing, training him to be a Watcher. In "Damage", Andrew claims to be "faster, stronger and 82% more manly" as a result of Giles' mentoring. Later in "A Hole in the World", after Fred dies, Angel phones Giles, desperate to get in contact with Willow, who cannot be located. After Angel confirms that he still works for Wolfram & Hart, Giles coldly hangs up on him. Originally, Giles was to appear in "A Hole in the World" as the one whom Angel and Spike approached in an attempt to save Fred, because Whedon needed a character who would be instantly believed (by the characters and by the audience) when he said there was no way to save Fred. As it was too expensive for Anthony Stewart Head to fly out to Los Angeles to guest-star, Whedon created Drogyn the Battlebrand, who was mystically compelled to tell the truth.
Literature[edit]
In the canonical comic book continuation of the series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, the Scooby Gang has expanded into a global organization, training approximately five hundred Slayers spread over ten squads. Giles is head of the Slayer operations in England, parallel with Andrew's operations in Italy and Buffy and Xander's in Scotland, and he keeps in close contact with Xander and Andrew, discussing issues. In the Season Eight arc, "No Future For You", he comes to Faith to request her assistance assassinating another Slayer, who will bring about the Apocalypse if left unchecked. After they are both forced to make the difficult decisions to kill the rogue Slayer Gigi and her mentor Roden, they decide to work together in the future as equal partners, keeping Slayers from turning down the dark path that both Faith and Gigi walked. As a result of their covert operation, Buffy and Giles are no longer on speaking terms.
In the story "Safe," Giles and Faith hear of a "Slayer Sanctuary" in a town called Hanselstadt from a young Slayer named Courtney. There, Giles encounters Duncan Fillworthe, a former Watcher, who claims vampires do not dare to enter the town because they know the town contains an army of Slayers. Later, as Giles argues that a stalemate is not a solution to the vampire problem, Duncan reveals that in fact the town is feeding the Slayers who come seeking sanctuary to an ancient demon. The fear of the demon is what really keeps the vampires from entering. Giles goes to warn Faith as Duncan states this is the fate that Slayers deserve for rejecting the Watchers Council, especially Buffy, reminding Giles that Buffy's relationship with Angel resulted in Jenny Calendar's death. Giles finds Faith already in combat with the demon, which feeds on beings who feel regret and fear. While trying to free Courtney from the demon, Duncan intercepts Giles. During their skirmish, the demon devours Duncan and Giles saves Courtney while Faith kills the demon. The stalemate ended, Giles and Faith rally the reluctant townspeople against the coming vampires, telling them if they want to live, they'll have to fight.[1] After Harmony Kendall's reality show establishes a new pro-vampire, anti-Slayer world order, Faith and Giles are in hiding in the Führerbunker in the "Retreat" storyline. Once their underground hideout is compromised by demons, they retreat to Scotland to reunite with Buffy. Giles and Buffy are driven to reconcile by Twilight's attacks. The entire group are later transported to Oz in Tibet to learn how to suppress magic to stop Twilight tracking them.
In the penultimate issue of Season Eight, Angel is possessed by a powerful mystical entity known as Twilight, and while under its influence, murders Giles, after Giles deliberately put himself in harm's way to provoke Buffy to action. Angel does so by snapping Giles' neck, homaging Angelus' murder of Jenny Calendar.[2] While Angelus killed Jenny in vampiric face—a result of Joss not wanting the audience to truly hate Angel's face—Giles is murdered while Angel's face is in human form. Afterwards, it is revealed that Giles has left to Faith his entire estate in his will (with the exception of the 'Vampyr' book from the first episode of the series, which he leaves to Buffy), and Faith assures Buffy this doesn't mean Giles cared about her less but rather felt Faith needed it more.
In a 2011 interview, Whedon stated that his decision to kill off Giles could not be discussed in detail "because ripples from that event" will also be a large part of both Buffy Season Nine and Angel and Faith. However, he was able to explain other motivations; he felt that from a writing perspective, Giles did not work in the comic book medium where he had flourished on the television show. His primary roles - provider of narrative exposition, and paternal figure - didn't work well in the comic book format. Whedon killed off Giles where he did so that it might have a greater effect on the coming season, "because [he] wanted to make all this matter".[3]
In the follow-up comic series Angel & Faith, Angel makes it his personal mission to bring Giles back to life. Over the course of several arcs Giles' life before Sunnydale is shown in flashbacks as Angel and Faith gather pieces of Giles' soul from demons or magical objects that were significant in Giles' life. These parts of his soul are absorbed into Angel's body using the mystical Tooth of Ammuk. They are joined by Rupert's great-aunts Lavinia and Sophronia Fairweather, two depowered witches who used magic to remain young, and an old friend of Giles named Alasdair Coames who is a depowered magical archmage and collector of magical artifacts. In the "Death and Consequences" arc Angel and Faith discover Giles is not buried in his grave. It has been possessed by the demon Eyghon who had survived The Dark Age (Buffy episode). Because Giles had sold his soul to Eyghon in his youth, he did not move on even though he died a natural death, and the core of his soul went to Eyghon, while smaller parts broke off and attached themselves to the things Angel & Faith had found. Thus, it is possible for Giles to be resurrected from a natural death in a world with no current source of magic. Angel recruits Spike to help him kill Eyghon and a group of British Slayers reluctantly agree to work with them to save their friends who are still alive from Eyghon's control. The presence of three beings inside Angel's body (himself, Angelus and Giles) prevent Eyghon from controlling Angel, and Giles speaks through him as Angel kills Eyghon and therefore has all of Giles' soul. It is later transferred out of Angel to a mystical vessel. Using a mystical item to restore Giles' corpse to full health and Coames' collection of artifacts to provide magic for a resurrection spell, Angel, Faith, Coames and the Fairweathers try to bring him back to life. The group is shocked when Giles comes back to life with all his memories intact, but in the body of a 12 year old boy due to his Aunts thinking of him as a child during the ritual. Giles is grateful to be free of Eyghon but furious at the age of his body and they have been trying to bring him back and not stopping a plot by villains Whistler (Buffyverse), Pearl and Nash to mutate humans into a magical species at the cost of a few billion lives. Before confronting them, Giles says to Faith she has grown into a fine woman and they may have wanted him back, but none of the group needs him like they used to. The villains plan to unleash their plague by releasing an orb of pure magic into the upper atmosphere. Giles is able to use ambient magic to attack Nash with a fireball causing him to drop the orb but it also mutates a nearby crowd. Nash is killed causing Pearl to flee. Whistler sees the error of his ways and sacrifices his life to destroy the orb. In the aftermath of the battle, Giles wants Faith to keep his money. He decides to return to America because he was at his best with Buffy, not noticing he has hurt Faith's feelings. He parts on good terms with Angel who is staying in London's new Magic Town suburb.
Powers and abilities[edit]
Giles has extensive knowledge of demonology and Slayer combat (including at least a theoretical knowledge of jujutsu and aikido, but excelling at the art of fencing), mainly due to his training as a Watcher. His youthful interest in witchcraft and sorcery has endured into his adult life; though his natural aptitude for it is only moderate (much less than that of Willow), he does have a high amount of magical knowledge. Giles is proficient in several languages, including Latin, ancient Greek, Sumerian ("Primeval"), Japanese ("Checkpoint"), and possibly Gaelic ("Fear, Itself"), but weak in German ("Gingerbread"), Mandarin and Cantonese ("First Date"). While he has no prominent supernatural powers of his own, his extensive experience with dealing with vampires, demons, and other creatures makes him capable of handling them effectively.
Giles has moderate skill in hand-to-hand combat, as well as various melee weapons. While his demeanor is typically mild and polite, Giles is not above using raw violence to solve a problem, such as physically threatening Principal Snyder into readmitting Buffy to school after her expulsion ("Dead Man's Party"), pummeling Angelus senseless with a flaming baseball bat and burning down his hideout upon discovering that he had killed Jenny Calendar ("Passion"), manhandling Spike while ordering him to get over his feelings for Buffy ("I Was Made to Love You"), forcing Glory's minion Slook to talk by inflicting a painful-sounding injury offscreen ("Tough Love"), severely beating up Ethan Rayne for information ("Halloween"), and suffocating a critically injured Ben with his bare hands to keep Glory from awakening in his body. ("The Gift"). Typically, however, Giles' calm demeanor and professionalism offer him a detached state of authority even in the face of fearsome monsters, as demonstrated during his confrontation with a violent demon in "The Long Way Home". He is also shown to be able to quickly hotwire a car in the episode "Dead Man's Party".
In the season six finale, Giles was temporarily endowed with powers of the Devon Coven in an attempt to stop Willow. During this time, he demonstrated powers such as teleportation, telekinesis, and energy projection. He lost all of these powers when Willow drained him and left him on the brink of death, but he recovered immediately after Xander calmed her down from her rampage. His moderate proficiency in magic combined with his natural acumen and intelligence still make him quite formidable; in Season Eight's "No Future for You", he kills the warlock Roden, who could fly and conjure easily, through using a spell inventively.
Despite his vast intelligence, Giles is not what one would call technology-savvy and is, by his own admission, somewhat technophobic. However, in one episode ("Gingerbread"), shows that Giles is proficient with computers at least on a basic level.
Reception[edit]
Head's portrayal of Giles was largely well received by television critics. An article for The Wrap summarised, "For more than five seasons, the British actor added depth and charm to Joss Whedon's groundbreaking 1997-2003 series as mild-mannered librarian Rupert Giles."[4] Head was nominated in for the 2001 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, but lost out to co-star James Marsters.[5]
[icon] This section requires expansion. (May 2011)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 - #24 "Safe"
2.Jump up ^ "Exclusive Scott Allie interview". Buffyfest. December 2, 2010. Retrieved December 9, 2010. confirms that the resemblance between the two deaths was intentional.
3.Jump up ^ Vary, Adam B. (January 19, 2011). "Joss Whedon talks about the end of the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Season 8 comic, and the future of Season 9 -- EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 8 May 2011.
4.Jump up ^ "Welcome Back, Anthony Stewart Head and Other 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Alums". TheWrap.com. May 17, 2011. Retrieved May 24, 2011.
5.Jump up ^ "Saturn Awards for 2001". IMDB.com. 12 June 2001. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
External links[edit]

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Cordelia Chase
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Cordelia Chase
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel character

Producers sought Carpenter for a final appearance in the 100th episode of Angel (pictured above) to return the show and its characters to their "original concerns".

First appearance
"Welcome to the Hellmouth" (Buffy, 1997)
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
Charisma Carpenter
Information

Affiliation
Scooby Gang
Angel Investigations
The Powers That Be
Notable powers
Precognitive visions
Cordelia Chase is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer; she also appeared on Buffy's spin-off series Angel. Portrayed by Charisma Carpenter, the character appears as a series regular in the first three seasons of Buffy, before exiting the show and becoming a series regular during the first four seasons of Angel. The character made her last television appearance in 2004, appearing as a special guest star in Angel's one hundredth episode. Cordelia also appears in both canonical and apocryphal Buffy and Angel material such as comic books and novels.
Cordelia is introduced in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" as one of Sunnydale High's popular cheerleaders, attending school alongside vampire slayer Buffy Summers. Through her interactions with Buffy and her friends, she comes to accept the existence of supernatural forces and helps Buffy fight against them. In the television series Angel, Cordelia joins Angel, a heroic vampire with a soul, in forming a detective agency dedicated to stopping supernatural forces and helping the helpless. After Cordelia acquires the ability to see visions of those in need, she becomes a more compassionate and heroic character. In the middle of the third season, she becomes a love interest of the main protagonist Angel. In the fourth season of Angel, she appears to take on a villainous role before it is revealed that she is possessed by a malevolent deity; this storyline eventually leads to her death and subsequent exit from the series. The character makes further canonical appearances in the comic books Buffy Season Eight and Angel: After the Fall, in a dream flashback and as a spirit guide.
Created as a foil for Buffy's titular heroine, Cordelia was initially characterized as "shallow", "vain" and "self-centered", and was used in the series to create conflict for the other characters. The character went through changes as she gradually redeemed herself throughout the course of Buffy and Angel, and has received attention in academic texts related to gender studies and social status.


Contents  [hide]
1 Appearances 1.1 Television
1.2 Literature
2 Conception and casting
3 Characterization 3.1 Characteristics and analysis
3.2 Development
4 Reception
5 References
6 External links

Appearances[edit]
Television[edit]
Cordelia Chase first appears in the premiere episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, titled "Welcome to the Hellmouth". Introduced as a potential friend for Sunnydale High's newest student, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Cordelia reveals her true colors by cruelly mocking Willow (Alyson Hannigan), whom Buffy befriends instead.[1] Ignorant of the supernatural, Cordelia shows up regularly throughout the first season of Buffy to insult and ridicule the other characters. She plays a larger role in the episode "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", in which she falls victim to a social outcast who wants revenge on popular students for ignoring her so much that she turned invisible.[2] In the season finale, Cordelia helps Buffy and her friends battle vampires, finally coming to terms with the existence of supernatural forces.[3] In season two, Cordelia becomes a more active ally to the "Scooby Gang" and begins a romantic relationship with Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon). In "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", dating someone of Xander's social status causes Cordelia's ostracism from her popular peers and she reluctantly breaks up with him. However, when Xander performs a love spell to pay her back for hurting him, Cordelia realises how much he cares about her and takes him back, rejecting her superficial friends in the process.[4] In season three's "Lovers Walk", Cordelia is heartbroken to see Xander kissing Willow and ends their relationship.[5] By the season three episode "The Wish", Cordelia slips back into her antagonistic persona from the first season, disassociating herself from the Scooby Gang altogether.[6] In the episode "The Prom", she reveals that her family's wealth has been seized for tax fraud. Cordelia later attempts an unsuccessful relationship with Wesley (Alexis Denisof) and makes peace with Xander at the prom.[7] In the season three finale, she rallies alongside Buffy and her friends at graduation against the demonic Mayor of Sunnydale (Harry Groener), where Cordelia slays her first vampire.[8]
After three seasons on Buffy, Cordelia moved over to star in Angel, a spin-off series focusing on Buffy's vampire ex-lover Angel (David Boreanaz). The first season of Angel sees Cordelia move to Los Angeles, in the hopes of escaping her new-found poverty by becoming an actress. After Angel saves her life in the series pilot, Cordelia helps him found the supernatural detective agency Angel Investigations, working in an administrative position.[9] She also becomes close to half-demon co-worker Doyle (Glenn Quinn), but their budding romance is ended by his death nine episodes into the series. Before dying in the episode "Hero",[10] Doyle passes his ability to see people in distress over to Cordelia when he kisses her.[11] Although she initially views the visions as a curse, in the season one finale, a demon causes Cordelia's visions to overwhelm her—causing her to experience worldwide pain—and upon her recovery she vows to help those in need.[12] In season two's "Reunion", Cordelia and the other staff at Angel Investigations are fired by Angel, who is becoming increasingly obsessed with bringing down the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart.[13] Cordelia joins Wesley and Charles Gunn (J. August Richards) in re-forming the agency on their own.[14] Angel and Cordelia eventually reconcile in the episode "Epiphany".[15][16] As her acting career continues to flounder, Cordelia is sucked into and made princess of a medieval hell dimension called Pylea in the season two episode "Over the Rainbow".[17] When presented with the opportunity to pass her visions over to a champion named the Groosalugg (Mark Lutz), Cordelia refuses and returns to L.A. with her friends in the season two finale.[18][19]
In season three's "Birthday", Cordelia learns from the demon Skip (David Denman) that her visions are slowly killing her because human beings are not strong enough to control them. To save her life, Cordelia accepts Skip's offer to alter history so that she never met Angel in L.A., instead landing her big break as an actress. However, even in this alternate timeline, Cordelia feels compelled to help others and eventually crosses paths with Angel again, who received the visions in her place and is now insane. Unable to let her friend suffer, Cordelia has Skip return the timeline to normal, and agrees to become half-demon, with new powers, in order to harbor the visions safely.[20] This season also sees Angel become a father,[21] with Cordelia stepping in to mother the infant Connor until he is kidnapped into a hell dimension in the episode "Sleep Tight",[22] only to emerge as a disturbed teenager (Vincent Kartheiser) in "The Price".[23] In the episode "Waiting in the Wings", Angel realizes he has romantic feelings for Cordelia, but is prevented from voicing them by the return of Groosalugg.[24] Cordelia dates Groosalugg for the remainder of the season, but Groo notices she loves Angel instead and decides to leave. In the season finale, Cordelia arranges to meet Angel to confess her feelings, but is prevented from doing so by Skip, who informs her that she has become a higher being. Cordelia accepts her duty, and leaves Earth for another dimension.[25] In season four, Cordelia feels trapped in her position as a higher being,[26][27] and so in the episode "The House Always Wins" she returns to Earth in an amnesiac state.[28] In "Spin the Bottle", her memories are returned via a spell, along with a vision of a mysterious Beast (Vladimir Kulich). Afterward, she admits to Angel the feelings she once had for him.[29] As L.A. succumbs to the apocalypse in season four's "Apocalypse, Nowish", Cordelia begins to behave out-of-character; she seduces Connor,[30] murders Lilah (Stephanie Romanov) in the episode "Calvary",[31] commands the Beast in "Salvage",[32] and magically battles former friend Willow to keep Angel from his soul in the episode "Orpheus".[33] In season four's "Players", the team realize that the now pregnant Cordelia is possessed,[34] so Cordelia takes the unstable Connor on the run with her so they may give birth to their supernatural offspring, Jasmine (Gina Torres). In "Inside Out", Skip explains that Jasmine is his master, and a higher being who possessed Cordelia before her returning to Earth, manipulating events to be born in a new body of her own.[35]
Cordelia falls into a post-natal coma for the remainder of season four. Following an eleven-episode absence, Cordelia returns to Angel in season five, in the 100th episode "You're Welcome". Having apparently awoken from her coma, Cordelia reunites with Angel Investigations, who she discovers have taken over Wolfram & Hart since their defeat of Jasmine. She chastises Angel for accepting W&H's "deal with the devil", and reminds him of his true mission and higher calling. Together, they face and defeat their old enemy Lindsey McDonald (Christian Kane), who had been impersonating Doyle in an attempt to destroy Angel. In the episode's closing moments, Cordelia reiterates to Angel that she loves him and kisses him, shortly before he receives a phone call reporting that Cordelia died that morning. When Angel turns around, Cordelia is gone. It is later revealed that this encounter—the Powers That Be repaying their debt to Cordelia—allowed Cordelia to pass one last vision over to Angel, giving him the knowledge he needs to bring down the Circle of the Black Thorn.[36]
Between 2001 and 2004, Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb developed a 4-minute pilot episode for Buffy the Animated Series, which was set during the show's first season. Had the series been picked up by a network, it would have featured Cordelia (voiced by Charisma Carpenter) in more high-school adventures. Following a 2008 leak of the pilot to YouTube, Loeb expressed some hope that the series may be resurrected in some form.[37]
Literature[edit]
Cordelia also appears in comic books and novels based on the Buffy and Angel television series. The Cordelia Collection, Vol. 1 by Nancy Krulik is a novelization of the Buffy episodes "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", "Some Assembly Required" and "Homecoming". These episodes tell specific incidents in which Cordelia becomes targeted: by a scorned classmate, to become a zombie's bride and by hunters in a case of mistaken identity.[38] She appears in numerous Angel novels as a member of Angel Investigations, but some feature Cordelia more prominently; in Not Forgotten she uncovers exploitation of child immigrants, while in Haunted she appears as a contestant on a supernatural-themed reality television show when she has a vision about another applicant. Cordelia appears in the majority of Angel comics, published by Dark Horse Comics during 2000–2002 and set between episodes of the television series. She appears less frequently in those by IDW Publishing between 2005 and 2011, mainly in stories set in and after the fifth season. Cordelia typically plays a minimal role in the Dark Horse Angel comics. However, issue seventeen was a "Cordelia Special", in which demonic items are stashed in Cordelia's apartment. In the Dark Horse Presents story "Lovely dark and deep", Cordelia lands a role as the star of a demonic movie. Cordelia appears in the IDW Publishing comic mini-series Angel: The Curse, set after season five, in flashback scenes.[39] She subsequently reappears in the mini-series Angel: Old Friends, which sees Angel battle evil clones of his friends. Cordelia claims to be the genuine article, having returned from the dead, but Angel is unconvinced and kills her; his suspicions prove correct when her body immediately disintegrates like the other clones.[40]
Angel: After the Fall, a canonical comic book continuation of the television series plotted by Joss Whedon and written by Brian Lynch, features the characters of Angel and all of Los Angeles condemned to Hell after the events of the series finale "Not Fade Away". Cordelia does not appear until the twelfth issue, in which she acts as a guide to Angel in his dying moments; it is revealed she serves in some capacity as a higher power now. The character departs in issue thirteen. Cordelia also appears in a dream sequence within the twentieth issue of Buffy's canonical continuation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, titled "After These Messages... We'll Be Right Back!". Buffy dreams of when she was in her first year at Sunnydale High; Cordelia's physical appearance is based on the art style of Loeb and Whedon's unproduced Buffy animated series.
Conception and casting[edit]
Cordelia was originally intended to serve as a dramatic foil to the series' main character Buffy Summers. Adapting the concept of the movie into a television series, Whedon decided to reinvent the character of Buffy. The shallow cheerleader of the 1992 Buffy film, as played by Kristy Swanson, had grown more mature and open-minded. Buffy now identified with the social outcasts, such as Willow and Xander. As a result, Cordelia Chase was created to embody the traits of that shallower Buffy.[41] Despite portraying a shallow, valley girl stock character, actress Charisma Carpenter felt that Cordelia in early seasons was not "one-dimensional", nor was she "as superficial as people thought". At the same time, Carpenter was critical of her frequent role as the damsel in distress.[42] Angel co-creator and executive producer David Greenwalt describes Cordelia in her Buffy years as "a somewhat shallow, somewhat vain, somewhat self-centered but [a] lively and honest character who spoke her mind".[43]
Charisma Carpenter had originally planned to read for the role of Buffy, but was late for her audition and instead tried out for Cordelia. Carpenter, who had dressed casually for the role of Buffy—who she believed "could really be herself"—felt unprepared to read for Cordelia because she "was definitely a character to dress for". Although she had only fifteen minutes to prepare for the character, the producers were "really responsive" to Carpenter's audition, and she left feeling confident she had got the part.[44] After Carpenter's audition, actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, who had been offered the role of Cordelia before Carpenter, was asked to come back and audition for the part of Buffy. Bianca Lawson originally won the role of Cordelia Chase, but turned it down due to other contractual obligations. Lawson would later be cast as vampire slayer Kendra in the show's second season.[45] Carpenter, proud of her own character's growth across the two series, did not envy Gellar for winning the role of Buffy over her.[46]
Characterization[edit]
Characteristics and analysis[edit]
Cordelia's representation of an assertive modern woman and her character arc in Buffy has been commented on in several academic texts, particularly in gender studies, such as "Praising Cordelia: Aggression and Adaptation Among Adolescent Girls", or Sex and the Slayer. In the latter, Dr. Lorna Jowett of the University of Northampton describes Cordelia's initial place in the series where "At first glance, Cordelia seems to have the 'normal life' Buffy often longs for. She is a familiar character from the teen drama: popular, a cheerleader, the center of cliques (power as status). Furthermore, Cordelia's exceptionalism is based on 'real' material privilege rather than supernatural power. She represents in more exaggerated form the unnamed white middle-class heterosexual qualities (read privilege) of the other characters (to the point that it becomes visible)."[45] Elizabeth Rambo notes how Cordelia's status is highlighted by her nickname, "Queen C", and Harmony's remark to her, "Cordy, you reign."[6][47] Cordelia functions recognizably as the typical female victim of horror, often screaming and running away, and this makes her a perfect contrast for other female characters."[45]
"Praising Cordelia" argues that both Buffy and Cordelia are representations of assertive and competitive young women, who "represent two kinds of aggressive adolescent girls". The article focuses on the competitive relationship between the characters. Buffy's initial friendship with Cordelia is compromised once Cordelia sees the attractive, socially competent Buffy as a threat to her. Even after Cordelia joins the Scooby Gang and becomes Buffy's friend, theirs is not a friendship of "mutual support, warmth and intimacy" but rather one of "mutual antipathy". The authors opine that Cordelia, unlike Buffy, is a "representation of the archetypal 'feminine type'", one who conforms to the "pervasive stereotypes of femininity while, at the same time, dominating the other girls in the school" and commanding the attention of the boys.[48] Describing her character arc in Buffy, Mary Alice Money views Cordelia as one of many transformed or redeemed Buffy characters, one who "reveals a previously unexpected vulnerability that nullifies some of their less attractive traits."[49] Jowett argues that Cordelia's assimilation within the main group is due largely to her relationship with main character Xander, and she is rendered sympathetic to the audience once they witness her rebuff the peer pressure from her old friends. She is further endeared to the viewer when Xander betrays her, because the scenes showing her pain are shown only to the viewer. After Cordelia is cheated on by Xander with Willow she chooses not to go back to him, and instead retains her autonomy.[45]
Others such as Susanne Kord and Elisabeth Krimer note how Cordelia is also a subversive representation of feminine stereotypes, describing "Although superficially, Cordelia conforms to the stereotype of the insensitive bitch", what she actually does is "offers her viewers the clandestine pleasures of female self-assertion". One of Cordelia's strongest traits, her honesty, is also highlighted in "Earshot", where Buffy temporarily develops telepathic powers and can hear the thoughts of her friends, who avoid her to hide these thoughts. For Cordelia however, "her thought processes and actual utterances are completely identical" and because of this she embodies an "antithesis of female self-sacrifice" in these years but also "the opposite of the kind of hypocrisy that is typically attributed to women".[50] Writer Jennifer Crusie interprets this as Cordelia's "lack of depth" becoming "her strength". She does not mean to argue that Cordelia is stupid however, pointing out "Cordy's solipsism could easily be mistaken for stupidity, but it comes coupled with a keen intelligence and a fixity of purpose that makes her almost invincible."[51] Jowett feels Cordelia's confidence is based in her wealth. Despite becoming more sympathetic as the series progressed, "bitchiness enhances Cordelia's comic appeal", as it offers viewers an opportunity to relish its honest truth-telling.[45]
Development[edit]
"I provide conflict, and that's what good drama needs."
— Charisma Carpenter on her role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[44]
In early seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cordelia was often used both as comic relief and occasionally for the damsel in distress plot device, which would require series' heroine Buffy to save her. Any concerns that she was simply one-dimensional were alleviated for the actress when writers developed the character through her relationships with Xander and later Wesley, which led Carpenter to become more convinced of her potential.[52] In an article about the psychology of characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Steven C. Schlozman writes about how "Cordelia is wealthy and, at first glance, superficial, appearing to care most about her own popularity. However, as the show progresses, we learn that her mother suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome and her father was prosecuted for income tax evasion. She is a reluctant participant, baffled at her own loyal feelings and bewildered at her attraction to the unpopular Xander." He goes on to describe how Cordelia, and "all the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are particularly compelling for their depictions of important adolescent themes."[53] Discussing Cordelia's relationship with Xander, Carpenter says, "A lot of Cordy's conflict, and a lot of who she is, comes out around Xander. Because she is in love with him in spite of herself, or in spite of him. I have my best moments with [Nicholas Brendon]." However, her character's growing involvement with Buffy and her friends caused the actress some concern; "I wasn't sure how I felt about it, because I didn't want to lose my edge. I didn't want her to be nice; I didn't want her to change because that's who she is." Carpenter's challenge was to find a balance between the good and bad sides of Cordelia, and she explains, "That's why I enjoy playing her so much. She's got to be somewhat tolerable or why would they hang out with her? But I [try] not to lose her edge, her honesty." Carpenter claims that Cordelia's "rough edges" made for difficult experiences with fans, who expected her to be snobby like her character.[44] Charisma continually pleaded to get to slay a vampire, which the writers let her do in her final Buffy appearance, "Graduation Day, Part Two".[42]
Over the course of her appearances in Angel, Cordelia would develop enormously as a character. Describing this evolution, Carpenter comments, "When I first started playing Cordelia, she wasn't nice. She has really deepened and has a stronger sense of responsibility. She's a team player, which was not the case in the beginning." [52] Carpenter cherishes what playing a multi-faceted character like Cordelia meant for her as an actress, describing "The road Cordelia has travelled, the journey she has taken up to now has been such a joy to play as an actress, because there have been so many chances to do so many different emotions. Heroic, vulnerable, just angry, possessed, funny - I get to be all those different things rolled into one. Getting this role, in hindsight... God I made a good decision, or they did."[54] Cultural critic Jennifer Crusie points out how Cordelia was initially perfect for the transition to "selfish, superficial Los Angeles", which turned out to be her "trial by fire".[51]
Executive producer David Greenwalt was very keen to acquire the character of Cordelia for the spin-off series, commenting, "I desperately wanted her to come to Angel because Angel being dark and broody, we need a big bright smile." At the same time, Whedon felt her presence was sorely missed in the fourth season of Buffy where "All of our characters got to the point where they were loving and hugging, and it was sort of like, where's Cordelia?", leading him to introduce Spike (James Marsters) to the cast to accommodate her absence.[55] Kelly A. Manners describes Cordelia as a "rich gal whose family ended up losing everything to the IRS. So in episode one of Angel, Cordelia showed up in LA trying to start a career as an actress because her family was in jail, actually." Crusie states that in mourning for Doyle Cordelia also begins "finding within herself a new level of humanity".[51]
"Time and time again, [Cordelia] realize[s] what [her] calling truly is ... when [Cordelia] gets the pain of the world and the suffering that's out there, ... [she] realize[s] just how important it is that [she] stay[s] doing this mission alongside Angel."
— Charisma Carpenter on Cordelia's development in Angel.[43]
Greenwalt discusses how Cordelia "is sort of forced to become a deeper character" when she starts to receive the visions of the suffering and helpless, "She's sort of living with one foot in the world of 'I want to be an actress' and with another foot in the world of 'I want to save and help people, and I have a deeper purpose and mission.'"[43] Greenwalt felt that this development allowed Cordelia to develop from a "vainglorious high schooler to someone who's almost like a superhero"; this also provided Carpenter with the opportunity to stretch her potential as an actress.[42] From the tenth episode, "Parting Gifts", Cordelia begins to actively function as a supernatural character in the series while the introduction of Wesley also contributes some added comic relief to the series. It is from this episode Cordelia is also forced to mature as she mourns the death of Doyle, whose visions serve as a painful reminder of him. The first season finale saw Cordelia's visions inflict all the suffering of the human world upon her, and to effectively act this, Carpenter's acting coach showed her pictures of real human pain as motivation. The scene took over eight hours to film, and Carpenter was relieved when it was over.[52] The experience saw Cordelia further resolve to help those in need, stating "I saw the world and there's so much pain. We have to help them." Carpenter explains, "Through the suffering of the world, and through her own experiences, she discovers what's important in life."[43]
Carpenter pleaded to the producers to let her cut her hair in the second season of Angel, but they were dissatisfied with the darker tone and cut which created a "dark edge of Cordelia" which wasn't as "warm and effervescent as she usually is", so for the third season they wanted her to "go shorter and blonder".[56] Angel's third season demonstrates Cordelia's development into a fully-fledged heroine. The episode "Birthday" saw her being offered the chance to live a life where she never met Angel, but her inner desire to help others sees her sacrifice this life and her humanity to become a half-demon who can better withstand the visions she carries.[20] In "Billy", Cordelia begins to train alongside Angel to become a better fighter and learns quickly. Carpenter began to train extensively with the show's stunt co-ordinators both to learn how to fight and to handle weaponry.[42] In the episode "Waiting in the Wings", both Angel and Lorne remark on what a fine woman Cordelia has finally become, with Cordelia noting she is more like a superhero than she ever expected to be growing up in Sunnydale. Also in this episode, she and Angel both realize they have fallen for one another, but their love goes unconsummated. Critically, Jennifer Crusie considers Cordelia's ascension to the heavens at the end of season three to be the "point that the Mutant Enemy Productions writers evidently lost their minds". She goes on to describe how Cordelia's compliance with Skip seems entirely out of character.[51] Jes Battis also argues that a paradox is created when "the character who embraces her privilege (Cordelia) gets to become a higher being and exit Angel, and as an overwhelmingly positive force" where later Fred (Amy Acker), "the character who is conflicted about her privilege" in season five "ends up being possessed by a millennia-old demon".[57]
Angel season four played with audience's expectations of the now heroic Cordelia by revealing her to be the season's Big Bad; it was later established that Cordelia was possessed by a manipulative deity called Jasmine. The storyline was controversial with fans, and Carpenter has admitted hating how a possessed Cordelia seduced Angel's teenage son. Carpenter has said, "I'm in denial about that whole storyline. It was creepy."[52] However, director Terrence O'Hara comments that Carpenter had "a lot of fun" with playing a manipulative Cordelia in the episode "Orpheus" because she enjoyed coming up with Cordelia's new "schizophrenic madwoman" characterization.[58] The episode "Inside Out" saw the height of this inversion of Cordelia's character, where she is seen urging Connor to murder an innocent girl in order to expedite the birth of the child they conceived together. In an effort to stop Connor, the Powers That Be send the spirit of Connor's mother Darla (Julie Benz) to convince him not to go through with it. The episode sees Carpenter dressed in black, while Benz appears in heavenly white as she becomes the voice of reason and morality. Steven S. DeKnight, who wrote and directed the episode, felt this was a brilliant role-reversal for both actresses as Carpenter is accustomed to playing the benevolent Cordelia where Darla is normally seen as a sinister vampire.[59] Much of season four's storyline had to be adjusted due to Carpenter's real-life pregnancy;[60] after Cordelia gives birth to Jasmine in the episode "Inside Out" she is left in a coma for the remainder of the fourth season. Crusie discusses what she felt were the flaws in the execution of the fourth season, "It's that she betrays the man she trusts above all others and who trusts her absolutely; it's that she seduces a boy she once diapered; it's that she dresses like a drag queen and talks like a Dynasty reject. It's that she's not Cordy, and what might have been fun to watch had we been let into the secret before the Beastmaster seduced Connor becomes the extended rape and death of a much-beloved character."[51]
Matt Hills and Rebecca Williams also discuss the treatment of Cordelia (and Darla) in "Angel's Monstrous Mothers and Vampires with Soul: Investigating the Abject in 'Television Horror'", from Reading Angel: The TV Spin-off With a Soul by Stacey Abbot. They see the send-offs of Cordelia, Fred and other characters as part of a pattern of highly gendered "elaborated abjection" seen in Angel. They also see Cordelia's possession in season four as part of a recurring pattern: "More so than other characters in [Buffy] and Angel, Cordelia has suffered or been threatened with bodily invasion and rape, either symbolically or literally" and recounts the demon impregnation in "Expecting", and similarly in "Epiphany", where she develops a gestating demon in her head and then told she must mate with the Groosalugg in "Through the Looking Glass". Cordelia even remarks on this, as Hills and Williams quote her as she remarks on her "status as a violated and devalued character"; Cordelia states, "If you ever figure out how to get us out of here, I want you to find me a dimension where some demon doesn't want to impregnate me with his spawn!" They liken the horror motif in these examples, and in "Inside Out", to what Barbara Creed called the 'monstrous womb' in her book The Monstrous-feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis.[60][61] Jes Battis also comments how, in comparison with the Fred-Illyria season five storyline, Cordelia's storyline is not as positive as Fred's rebirth, because Fred got to "'live on' through Illyria, whereas Cordelia is taken right out of the show and receives no interesting blue-haired reincarnation". Continuing, they say that in fact, there is no meaningful connection between the "real" Cordelia and Jasmine, as the Cordelia who did those bad things is killed the moment Jasmine is, "and the 'true' Cordy wakes up from her coma". Further illustrating the comparisons, "Fred/Illyria become a joined mother/daughter subjectivity, a dual being whose constituent essences are inseparable; Cordelia is never so intimately connected with her evil child and is remembered as the healthy, vibrant Cordy that everyone knew." Pointing out symbolic parallels in the subtexts of these gestations, Battis notes "Cordelia, a vocal advocate of her own privilege, creates a fully formed supernatural being, Jasmine, who attempts (shockingly) to control the world. Fred, on the other hand, who internalizes her own privilege and cannot express it except in terms of insecurity and awkwardness, has her body devoured from the inside by the demon Illyria."[57]
For Angel's fifth season, as with Buffy's fourth, Spike steps in to replace Cordelia as a source of comedic dialogue within the series. It is also noted by critics that, in the fifth season, "it doesn't take long for Illyria to become a version of Cordelia, giving everyone the cold and honest truth whether they want it or not".[57] Concerning Cordelia's last appearance in Angel's fifth and final season, Joss Whedon says he used the 100th episode to reinforce the "mission statement" of the show,[62] as well as assess where the characters are now compared to how they began. Whedon explains this episode presents an ideal opportunity to—through Cordelia, who was "there at the beginning"—ask of Angel, "Where are you now? Where were you when you started and where are you now and how do you feel about that?"[63] The return to the show's "original concerns" is echoed by the flashback to Doyle's first season advertisement; Sara Upstone points out aerial images of Los Angeles reappear at the same time Cordelia tells Angel "You forgot who you are," bringing back the show's link to the city.[64] Buffy Summers was originally intended to appear in the 100th episode to get Angel 'back on track', but Sarah Michelle Gellar had other obligations. Writer/director David Fury explains that since "we couldn't get Sarah" the episode was instead written for Cordelia. He adds, "This turned out to be a Godsend because Charisma was fantastic."[65] In the original script, Fury wrote a conversation between Wesley and Angel while driving to the hospital that set up Cordelia as a possible vegetable. The scene was never shot because "the shock of seeing her up and around after a 9-month coma was enough. We just didn't want to tip it too soon," says Fury.[66]
Reception[edit]
For her role as Cordelia Chase, as she appeared in the television series Angel, Charisma Carpenter has been nominated four times by the Saturn Awards. Carpenter earned back-to-back nominations in 2000 and 2001 for Best Genre TV Supporting Actress and Best Actress on Television, respectively.[67] The actress did not receive any nominations in 2002, but again obtained two back-to-back nominations in 2003 and 2004 for Best Actress in a Television Series and Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series, respectively.[68][69]
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External links[edit]

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Cordelia Chase at the Buffyverse Wiki
Cordelia Chase at the Internet Movie Database


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Willow Rosenberg
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Willow Rosenberg
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel character

Alyson Hannigan as Willow

First appearance
"Welcome to the Hellmouth" (Buffy, 1997)
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
Alyson Hannigan
Information

Affiliation
Scooby Gang
Notable powers
Powerful magical abilities
Willow Danielle Rosenberg is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the TV series by Alyson Hannigan. Willow plays an integral role within the inner circle of friends—later called the Scooby Gang—who support Buffy Summers, a teenager gifted with superhuman powers to defeat vampires, demons, and other evil in the fictional town of Sunnydale. The series begins as Buffy, Willow, and their friend Xander are in 10th grade and Willow is a shy and nerdy girl with little confidence. She has inherent magical abilities and begins to study witchcraft; as the series progresses, Willow becomes more sure of herself and her magical powers become significant if inconsistent. Her dependence on magic becomes so consuming that it develops into a dark force that takes her on a redemptive journey in a major story arc when she becomes season 6's "big bad", threatening to destroy the world in a fit of grief and rage.
The Buffy series became extremely popular and earned a devoted fanbase; Willow's intelligence, shy nature, and vulnerability often resounded strongly with viewers in early seasons. Of the core characters, Willow changes the most, becoming a complex portrayal of a woman whose powers force her to seek balance between what is best for the people she loves and what she is capable of doing. Her character stood out as a positive portrayal of a Jewish woman and at the height of her popularity, she fell in love with another woman, a witch named Tara Maclay. They became one of the first lesbian couples on U.S. television and one of the most positive relationships of the series. In addition to being the only character other than Buffy herself to appear in every episode, Willow is featured in three episodes of the spinoff Angel, an animated series and video game (both of which use Hannigan's voice), and the comic Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–2011), which uses Hannigan's likeness and continues Willow's storyline following the television series. Willow was included in AfterEllen.com's Top 50 Lesbian and Bisexual Characters, ranking at No. 7.[1] She was also ranked No. 12 in their Top 50 Favorite Female TV Characters.[2] UGO.com named her one of the best TV nerds.[3] AOL also listed her as the #1 TV witch of all time, and one of the 100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters.[4]


Contents  [hide]
1 Character history 1.1 Pilot and casting
1.2 Television series (1997–2003) 1.2.1 Seasons 1–3
1.2.2 Seasons 4–6
1.2.3 Season 7
1.3 Comic series (2007–)
2 Identities 2.1 Vamp Willow
2.2 Dark Willow
3 Relationships 3.1 Oz
3.2 Tara Maclay
3.3 Kennedy
3.4 Aluwyn
4 Cultural impact
5 See also
6 Notes
7 Citations
8 Bibliography
9 Further reading

Character history[edit]
Pilot and casting[edit]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (often simplified as Buffy) was originally conceived by Joss Whedon for a 1992 feature film. However, in its development Whedon felt it lost some of the quirkiness he considered was the heart of the project, and it was not received as well as he liked. He began to develop for television the concept of a fashion-conscious girl named Buffy, who is imbued with superhuman abilities and attends a high school situated on a portal to hell.[5] Whedon created a group of friends for the main character, including Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris. A half-hour pilot was filmed starring Riff Regan as Willow, but it was eventually left unaired and network executives requested that Regan be replaced. Willow's character demanded that she be shy and unsure of herself, and the casting department encountered some difficulty finding actors who could portray this effectively and still be likable.[6] After seven auditions, 23-year-old Alyson Hannigan was hired for the role.[7] She was chosen for being able to spin the character's lines with a self-effacing optimism. She later stated in an interview, "I didn't want to do Willow as someone who's feeling sorry for herself. Especially in the first season, she couldn't talk to guys, and nobody liked her. I was like, 'I don't want to play somebody who's down on herself."[8]
In the beginning of the series, Hannigan used her own experiences in high school—which she called "overwhelmingly depressing"[8]—to guide her portrayal of Willow. "My theory on high school was, get in, get out and hopefully I won't get hurt. Basically it was a miserable experience, because you're a walking hormone in this place that is just so cruel. There were times that were OK, but it's not the little myth that high school is the best years of your life. No way."[9][10] Whedon intended Willow to be realistically introverted, saying "I wanted Willow to have that kind of insanely colorful interior life that truly shy people have. And Alyson has that. She definitely has a loopiness I found creeping into the way Willow talked, which was great. To an extent, all the actors conform to the way I write the character, but it really stands out in Willow's case."[11]
Television series (1997–2003)[edit]
Seasons 1–3[edit]
The Buffy television series first aired mid-season in March 1997, almost immediately earning positive critical reviews.[12][13] Willow is presented as a bookish nerd with considerable computer skills, dowdily dressed and easily intimidated by more popular girls in school. She grows faint at the sight of monsters, but quickly forms a friendship with Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and is revealed to have grown up as friends with Xander (Nicholas Brendon). They are mentored by the school librarian who is also Buffy's Watcher, Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), who often works closely with Willow in researching the various monsters the group encounters. Joss Whedon found that Hannigan was especially gifted reacting with fear (calling her the "king of pain") and viewers responded strongly when she was placed in danger, needing to be rescued by Buffy. Willow in various predicaments became common in early episodes.[14][15] However, Willow establishes herself as integral to the group's effectiveness, often willing to break rules by hacking into highly secure computer systems.[16]
In the second season when the characters are in 11th grade, Willow becomes more sure of herself, standing up to the conceited Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), and approaching Xander, on whom she has had a crush for years, although it is unrequited as Xander is in love with Buffy. Seth Green joined the cast during the second season as Oz, a high school senior who becomes a werewolf, and Willow's primary romantic interest. The show's popularity by early 1998 was evident to the cast members, and Hannigan remarked on her surprise specifically.[7] Willow was noted to be the spirit of the Scooby Gang, and Hannigan attributed Willow's popularity with viewers (she had by May 1998 seven websites devoted to her) to being an underdog who develops confidence and is accepted by Buffy, a strong, popular person in school.[10] Hannigan described her appeal: "Willow is the only reality-based character. She really is what a lot of high-schoolers are like, with that awkwardness and shyness, and all those adolescent feelings."[17]
At the end of the second season, Willow begins to study magic following the murder of the computer teacher and spell caster Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte). Willow is able to perform a complicated spell to restore the soul of Angel, a vampire who is also Calendar's murderer and Buffy's boyfriend. During the third season three episodes explore Willow's backstory and foreshadow her development. In "Gingerbread", her home life is made clearer: Sunnydale falls under the spell of a demon who throws the town's adults into a moral panic, and Willow's mother is portrayed as a career-obsessed academic who is unable to communicate with her daughter, eventually trying to burn Willow at the stake for being involved in witchcraft;[18] her father is never featured. In "The Wish" a vengeance demon named Anya (Emma Caulfield) grants Cordelia's wish that Buffy never came to Sunnydale, showing what would happen if it were overrun with vampires. In this alternate reality, Willow is an aggressively bisexual vampire. In a related episode, "Doppelgangland", Willow meets "Vamp Willow", who dresses provocatively and flirts with her.[19]
Seasons 4–6[edit]
Willow chooses to attend college with Buffy in Sunnydale although she is accepted to prestigious schools elsewhere. Her relationships with Buffy and Xander become strained as they try to find their place following high school. Willow becomes much more confident in college, finally finding a place that respects her intellect, while Buffy has difficulty in classes and Xander does not attend school. Willow's relationship with Oz continues until he becomes involved with another werewolf and leaves town to learn how to control the wolf within. She becomes depressed and explores magic more deeply, often with powerful but inconsistent results. Her grief reaches such a point that she's offered a chance to replace Anya as the vengeance demon of scorned women. She joins the campus Wicca group, meeting Tara Maclay, eventually falling in love with and choosing to be with her even when Oz returns to Sunnydale after getting his lycanthropic tendencies under control.[20]
Each season the Scoobies face a villain they call the Big Bad. In the fifth season, this becomes a goddess named Glory (Clare Kramer) that Buffy is unable to fight by herself. The writers of the series often use elements of fantasy and horror as metaphors for real-life conflicts. The series' use of magic, as noted by religion professor Gregory Stevenson, neither promotes nor denigrates Wiccan ideals and Willow rejects Wiccan colleagues for not practicing the magic she favors. Throughout the series, magic is employed to represent different ideas—relationships, sexuality, ostracism, power, and particularly for Willow, addiction—that change between episodes and seasons. The ethical judgment of magic, therefore, lies in the results: performing magic to meet selfish needs or neglecting to appreciate its power often ends disastrously. Using it wisely for altruistic reasons is considered a positive act on the series.[21] Through witchcraft, Willow becomes the only member of the group to cause damage to Glory. She reveals that the spells she casts are physically demanding, giving her headaches and nosebleeds. When Glory assaults Tara, making her insane, Willow, in a magical rage that causes her eyes to turn black, finds Glory and battles her. She does not come from the battle unscathed and must be assisted by Buffy, but her power is evident and surprising to her friends. The final episode of the fifth season sees Willow restoring Tara's sanity and crucially weakening Glory in the process. It also features Buffy's death, sacrificing herself to save the world.[22] Willow subsequently appears in the season finale of Buffy spin-off Angel to deliver the sad news to her ex-boyfriend, Angel.
Willow and Tara move into the Summers house and raise Buffy's younger sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). Fearing that Buffy is in hell, Willow suggests at the beginning of the sixth season that she be raised from the dead. In a dark ceremony in which she expels a snake from her mouth, Willow performs the magic necessary to bring Buffy back. She is successful, but Buffy keeps it secret that she believes she was in heaven. Willow's powers grow stronger; she uses telepathy which her friends find intrusive, and she begins to cast spells to manipulate Tara. After failing Tara's challenge to go for one week without performing magic, Tara leaves Willow, and for two episodes Willow descends into an addiction that almost kills Dawn. Willow goes for months without any magic, helping Buffy track three geeks called The Trio who grandiosely aspire to be super-villains.
Immediately following a reconciliation with Tara, Warren (Adam Busch), one of the Trio, shoots Buffy with a single stray shoot hitting Tara who tells Willow about her shirt before falling to the ground, dead. In an explosion of rage and grief, Willow first summons Osiris, demanding that he bring Tara back to life but seeing as Tara's death wasn't supernatural, Osiris forbids it. After sending him away, Willow soaks up all the dark magic text she can with the powers altering her physical appearance, i.e. changing her red hair and eyes completely black which in turns results in the birth of her murderous alter-ego, "Dark Willow" and as such, Dark Willow embarks on a quest to get revenge against the Trio for Tara's death while also planning to destroy the world.
In the final episodes of the season Willow becomes exceedingly strong, surviving unharmed when Warren hits her in the back with an axe. She hunts Warren, tortures him and magically flays him, apparently fatally. Unsatisfied, she attempts to kill the other two members of the Trio and, unsuccessful at this, tries to destroy the world, only to be stopped by Xander.[23]
Season 7[edit]
Scared by her own power, the seventh season starts with Willow in England, studying with a coven near Giles' home learning to understand the depth of her power and to harness it for good, rather than destruction. She fears returning to Sunnydale and what she is capable of doing. Through the season, Willow worries that she may lose control and attack her friends. Buffy and the Scoobies face the First Evil, bent on ending the Slayer line and destroying the world. Potential Slayers from around the globe congregate at Buffy's home and she trains them to battle the First Evil. Willow continues to face her grief over Tara's death and becomes involved with one of the Potentials, Kennedy (Iyari Limon). In the final episode of the series, "Chosen", Buffy calls upon Willow to perform the most powerful spell she has ever attempted. With Kennedy nearby, cautioned to kill her if she becomes out of control, Willow 'activates' every Potential Slayer in the world, causing them to become Slayers themselves. The spell momentarily turns her hair white, and it ensures that Buffy and the Potentials defeat the First Evil. Willow is able to escape with Buffy, Xander, Giles, and Kennedy as Sunnydale is destroyed.[24]
Through the gamut of changes Willow endures in the series, Buffy studies scholar Ian Shuttleworth states that Alyson Hannigan's performances are the reason for Willow's popularity: "Hannigan can play on audience heartstrings like a concert harpist... As an actress she is a perfect interpreter in particular of the bare emotional directness which is the specialty of [series writer Marti] Noxon on form."[25]
Comic series (2007–)[edit]



 The one-shot comic cover of Willow: Goddesses and Monsters showing the character in an embrace with Aluwyn. Artwork by Jo Chen.
Subsequent to Buffy's television finale, Dark Horse Comics collaborated with Joss Whedon to produce a canonical comic book continuation of the series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–2011), written by Whedon and many other writers from the television series. Unfettered by the practical limitations of casting or a television special effects budget, Season Eight explores more fantastic storylines, characters, and abilities for Willow. Willow's cover art is done by Jo Chen, and Georges Jeanty and Karl Moline produce character artwork and provide alternative covers. It was followed by two closely interlinked sequels, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine and Angel & Faith (both 2012–).[26][27] Willow features at different times in both series, as well as in her own spin-off miniseries.[28] Jeanty continues to provide Willow's likeness in Season Nine, while Rebekah Isaacs and Brian Ching are the primary pencillers of Angel & Faith and Willow: Wonderland respectively. While Season Nine and Angel & Faith are substantially less fantastical in tone than Season Eight,[27] Willow's spin-off is high fantasy and focuses on her journey through magical alternate worlds.[28]
In Season Eight, Willow appears to Buffy and Xander, who are in charge of thousands of Slayers, a year after the destruction of Sunnydale. Willow reveals a host of new abilities including being able to fly and self-heal. The primary villain of Season Eight is a masked man named Twilight who is bent on destroying magic in the world.[29] A one-shot comic dedicated to Willow's story was released in 2009 titled Willow: Goddesses and Monsters. It explores the time she took away to discover more about her magical powers, under the tutelage a half-woman half-snake demon named Aluwyn. Willow is still involved with Kennedy through Season Eight, but becomes intimate with Aluwyn while they are together. She also continues to deal with grief from Tara's death, and struggles with the dark forces of magic that put her in opposition to Buffy.[30] At the conclusion of the season, Buffy destroys an object, a seed, that is the source of the magic in the world, leaving Willow powerless.[31] Willow also ends her relationship with Kennedy, due to guilt over her feelings for Aluwyn, whom she can no longer communicate with.
In Season Nine, restoring magic to the world is a personal obsession for Willow.[27] After a shared dream with Buffy, she realises Buffy's Scythe—which, like Buffy, retains its powers—is instrumental to the restoration of magic. She next appears in Angel & Faith for a story arc in which she uses residual magic in the Scythe in conjunction with Angel's son Connor to open a portal to the hell dimension where Connor was raised. Once in an alternate dimension, Willow is able to access magic, and begins travelling between dimensions on a quest to restore it to her home world. Her story continues in the spin-off series Willow: Wonderland,[28] where she struggles to achieve her objective or return to Earth, but is reunited with Aluwyn. After realizing that Aluwyn was keeping her apart from her friends, Willow has an epiphany concerning her own nature and comes to understand that "Dark Willow" and "Light Willow" are really one and the same person. After a journey to a sentient universe, she is brought back to her universe with her magic restored and with the message that it is for all the world to share.[32] In the final arc of the Buffy title of Season 9, Willow returns to San Francisco and is able to use her restored abilities to awaken Dawn Summers from a coma, but Dawn is still close to death without magic to sustain her form. Willow, Buffy and Xander head to the Deeper Well to find enough magic to save Dawn. She is angry upon learning Xander helped villains Severin the Siphon and Slayer Simone Doffler into the Well. Once inside she begins to charge with power and starts to turn red. She thinks the magic may be enough to restore the whole world. Buffy is worried Willow appears to be becoming Dark again, but Willow says it is and always was just her and the two mend the rift that was between them ever since the end of magic. Willow is able to convince Buffy to trust her, and to leave the magical side of the conflict in her hands while Buffy faces Simone. Willow sacrifices her powers to create a new Seed of magic which will save the world but not until the next millennium. Severin is unable to turn back time with his powers and is convinced to attempt to transfer his energy to the new Seed which might restore magic immediately. As the Scoobies evacuate, Buffy dusts Simone who had became a vampire, and Severin explodes seemingly killing himself, but restoring magic. Willow returns everyone to San Francisco and uses magic and Buffy's blood to restore Dawn. Willow can sense something in the world is different and the effects of humans being sired into vampires are shown to have drastically changed.
Identities[edit]
From the inception of Willow's character in the first season, she is presented with contradictions. Bookish, rational, naive, and sometimes absent-minded, she is also shown being open to magic, aggressively boyish, and intensely focused. Willow is malleable, in continuous transition more so than any other Buffy character. She is, however, consistently labeled as dependable and reliable by the other characters and thus to the audience, making her appear to be stable.[33] She is unsure of who she is; despite all the tasks she takes on and excels at, for much of the series she has no identity.[34] This is specifically exhibited in the fourth season finale "Restless", an enigmatic pastiche of characters' dream sequences. In Willow's dream, she moves from an intimate moment painting a love poem by Sappho on Tara's bare back,[note 1] to attending the first day of drama class to learn that she is to be in a play performed immediately for which she does not know the lines or understand. The dream presents poignant anxieties about how she appears to others, not belonging, and the consequences of people finding out her true self. As Willow gives a book report in front of her high school class, she discovers herself wearing the same mousy outfit she wore in the first episode of the show ("Welcome to the Hellmouth") as her friends and classmates shout derisively at her, and Oz and Tara whisper intimately to each other in the audience. She is attacked and strangled by the First Slayer as the class ignores her cries for help.[35][36]
Long a level-headed character who sacrifices her own desires for those of her friends, she gradually abandons these priorities to be more independent and please herself. She is often shown making choices that allow her to acquire power or knowledge and avoid emotional conflict.[37] The story arc of Willow's growing dependence on magic was noted by Marti Noxon as the representation of "adult crossroads" and Willow's inability and unwillingness to be accountable for her own life. Willow enjoys power she is unable to control. She steals to accomplish her vocational goals and rationalizes her amoral behavior. This also manifests itself in a competitive streak and she accuses others who share their concerns that she uses magic for selfish purposes of being jealous. No longer the conscience of the Scooby Gang, Willow cedes this role to Tara then revels in breaking more rules.[38] After Tara leaves Willow, Willow divulges to Buffy that she does not know who she is and doubts her worth and appeal—specifically to Tara—without magic. Contradicting the characterization of Willow's issues with magic as addiction, Buffy essayist Jacqueline Lichtenberg writes "Willow is not addicted to magic. Willow is addicted to the surging hope that this deed or the next or the next will finally assuage her inner pain."[39]





Vamp Willow visiting her counterpart's world.



Willow as Dark Willow, against Buffy and Xander.
Vamp Willow[edit]
Vamp Willow appears in the third season episodes "The Wish" and "Doppelgangland". She is capricious and aggressive, the opposite of Willow's usual nature; her bad behavior so exaggerated that it does not instill fear into the viewer like other female vampires in the series, but indicates more about Willow's personality. Shocked upon seeing her alter ego in "Doppelgangland", Willow states "That's me as a vampire? I'm so evil and skanky. And I think I'm kinda gay." Angel is stopped by Buffy in telling the Scoobies that the vampire self carries many of the same attributes as the human self.[33] As surprised as Willow is with Vamp Willow, she feels bound to her, and does not have the heart to allow Buffy to kill her. Both Willows make the observation that "this world's no fun",[40] before they send Vamp Willow back into the alternate dimension from which she came, whereupon she is staked by Oz and dies immediately.[41]
Dark Willow[edit]
A shadow of Dark Willow appears to fight Glory in the fifth season episode "Tough Love", but she does not come into full force until the sixth season in "Villains", "Two to Go", and "Grave". The transition from Willow into Dark Willow was ambiguously received by audiences, many of whom never foresaw Willow's psychotic break. It was simultaneously lauded for being an overwhelming depiction of a powerful woman, and derided as representative of a worn cliché that lesbians are amoral and murderous.[42][43] She changes visually when she walks into The Magic Box, a store owned by Anya and Giles, telekinetically retrieves dozens of dark magic books from the shelves, and leeches the words from the pages with her fingertips. As the words crawl up her arms and soak into her skin, her eyes and hair become black and her posture "aggressively aware and confident".[44]
Susan Driver writes that it is "crucial to recognize that never before in a teen series has raw fury been so vividly explored through a young queer girl responding to the sudden death of her lover".[45] Dark Willow is preternaturally focused on revenge, relentless and unstoppable. Lights explode when she walks past. She forcefully takes advantage of any opportunity to further her goals. She saves Buffy by removing the bullet from her chest, but later commandeers a tractor trailer, making it slam into Xander's car while he and Buffy are inside protecting Jonathan and Andrew, the other two members of the Trio. She floats, teleports herself at will, and dismantles the local jail where Jonathan and Andrew are held. She is cruelly honest to Dawn and Buffy, and overpowers everyone with whom she comes in contact. When she takes Giles' magic from him, she gains the ability to feel the world's pain, becoming determined to put the world out of its misery. She does not acknowledge her grief, and only Xander can force her to face it when he tells her that he loves her no matter what or who she is, and if she is determined to end the world she must start by killing him. Only then does Willow return, sobbing.[46]
At Salon.com, Stephanie Zacharek writes that Dark Willow is "far from being a cut-out angry lesbian, is more fleshed out, and more terrifyingly alive, than she has ever been before. More than any other character, she has driven the momentum of the past few episodes; she very nearly drove it off a cliff."[47] Several writers state that Willow's transition into Dark Willow is inevitable, grounded in Willow's self-hatred that had been festering from the first season.[48][49] Both Dark Willow and even Willow herself state that Willow's sacrifices for her friends and lack of assertiveness are her undoing. In "Doppelgangland", Willow (posing as Vampire Willow) says "It's pathetic. She lets everyone walk all over her and gets cranky at her friends for no reason." In "Two to Go", Dark Willow remarks "Let me tell you something about Willow. She's a loser. And she always has been. People picked on Willow, and now... Willow's a junkie." Vamp Willow served as an indicator of what Willow is capable of; immediately before she flays Warren in one violent magical flash, she uses the same line Vamp Willow used in the third season: "Bored now."[49][50]
Following the sixth season, Willow struggles to allow herself to perform magic without the darkness within her taking her over. She is no longer able to abstain from magic as it is such an integral part of her that doing so will kill her. In the instances when she is highly emotional the darkness comes out. Willow must control that part of her and is occasionally unable to do so, giving her a trait similar to Angel, a cursed vampire who fears losing his soul will turn him evil. In a redemptive turn, when Willow turns all the Potentials into Slayers, she glows and her hair turns white, astonishing Kennedy and prompting her to call Willow a goddess.[51] Her dark side continues to be a part of Willow. A story arc in Season Eight has Buffy travel 200 years into the future to battle and kill Dark Willow. Present-day Willow is aware of her capabilities, ever watchful of what she may turn into. In her Season Nine miniseries Wonderland, Willow is liberated by the realization that that Dark Willow is not a separate persona for her but simply the dark side of her own nature, which she must learn to accept and control.
Relationships[edit]
Willow's earliest and most consistent relationships are with Buffy and Xander, both of whom she refers to as her best friends although they have their conflicts. Willow takes on the leadership role when Buffy is unavailable, and her growing powers sometimes make her resent being positioned as Buffy's sidekick. Some scholars see Willow as Buffy's sister-figure or the anti-Buffy, similar to Faith, another Slayer whose morals are less strict.[52] In early seasons, Willow's unrequited crush on Xander creates some storylines involving the relationships between Xander, Cordelia, and Oz. Willow is part of a powerful quartet: she represents the spirit, Giles intelligence, Xander heart, and Buffy strength of the Scoobies. Although they often drift apart, they are forced to come together and work in these roles to defeat forces they are unable to fight individually.[53]
Oz[edit]
Main article: Oz (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Willow meets stoic Oz in the second season. Their courtship is slow and patient. Oz is bitten by a werewolf, and just as Willow begins to confront him about why he does not spend time with her, he transforms and attacks her. She must shoot him with a tranquilizer gun several times while he is wild, but her assertiveness in doing so makes her more confident in their relationship.[54] Oz's trials in dealing with a power he cannot control is, according to authors J. Michael Richardson and J. Douglas Rabb, a model for Willow to reference when she encounters her own attraction to evil.[55] When Willow and Oz decide to commit to each other, Willow is enthusiastic that she has a boyfriend, and, as a guitarist in a band, one so cool.[56] Her relationship with Oz endures the high school storylines of exploring her attraction to Xander, which briefly separates them. She worries that she is not as close to Oz as she could be. They stay together through graduation into college, but Oz is drawn to Veruca, another werewolf. He admits an animal attraction to Veruca, which he does not share with Willow. He sleeps with Veruca and leaves shortly after to explore the werewolf part of himself. Willow becomes very depressed and doubts herself. She drinks, her magical abilities are compromised, her spells come out wrong, and she lashes out at her friends when they suggest she get over it ("Something Blue").[57][58]
Joss Whedon did not intend to write Oz out of the series. Seth Green came to Whedon early in the fourth season to announce that he wished to work on his film career. Whedon admitted he was upset by Green's announcement and that if he had wanted to continue, Oz would have been a part of the story. However, to resolve the relationship between Oz and Willow Whedon says, "we had to scramble. And out of the heavens came Amber Benson."[59]
Tara Maclay[edit]
Main article: Tara Maclay



 Willow and Tara's first on-screen kiss did not occur until the fifth season episode "The Body" in a story that diverted attention away from the display.
Buffy earned international attention for its unflinching focus on the relationship between Willow and Tara Maclay. Whedon and the writing staff had been considering developing a story arc in which a character explores his or her sexuality as the Scoobies left high school, but no particular effort was made to assign this arc to Willow. In 1999, at the end of the third season, the Boston Herald called Buffy "the most gay show on network TV this year" despite having no overtly gay characters among the core cast. It simply presented storylines that resembled coming out stories.[60] In the fourth season episode "Hush", Willow meets Tara, and to avoid being killed by a group of ghouls, they join hands to move a large vending machine telekinetically to barricade a door. The scene was, upon completion, noticeably sensual to Whedon, the producers, and network executives, who encouraged Whedon to develop a romantic storyline between Willow and Tara, but at the same time placed barriers on how far it could go and what could be shown.[61][62] Two episodes later, Hannigan and Amber Benson were informed that their characters would become romantically involved. The actors were not told the end result of the Willow–Oz–Tara storyline, not sure what the eventual trajectory of the relationship would be, until Hannigan said, "Then finally it was, 'Great! It's official. We're in luurrvvve.'"[63]
Whedon made a conscious effort to focus on Willow and Tara's relationship instead of either's identity as a lesbian or the coming out process. When Willow discloses to Buffy what she feels for Tara, she indicates that she has fallen in love with Tara, not that she is a lesbian, and avoids categorizing herself. Some critics regard this as a failure on Willow's part to be strong;[64] Em McAvan interprets this to mean that Willow may be bisexual.[65] Scholar Farah Mendlesohn asserts that Willow's realization that she is in love with Tara allows viewers to re-interpret Willow's relationship with Buffy; in the first three seasons, Willow is often disappointed that she is not a higher priority to Buffy, and even after Willow enters a relationship with Tara, still desires to feel integral to Buffy's cause and the Scooby Gang.[66]
Willow's progression has been noted to be unique in television. Her relationship with Tara coincides with the development of her magical abilities becoming much more profound. By the seventh season, she is the most powerful person in Buffy's circle. Jessica Ford at PopMatters asserts that Willow's sexuality and her magical abilities are connected and represented by her relationships. In her unrequited attraction to Xander, she has no power. With Oz, she has some that gives her the confidence she sorely lacks, but his departure leaves her unsure of herself. Only when she meets Tara do her magical abilities flourish; to Ford, sexuality and magic are both empowering agents in Willow's story arc.[67] David Bianculli in the New York Daily News writes that Willow's progression is "unlike anything else I can recall on regular prime-time television: a character evolving naturally over four seasons of stories and arriving at a place of sexual rediscovery".[68]
Not all viewers considered Willow and Tara's relationship a positive development. Some fans loyal to Willow reacted angrily as she chose to be with Tara when Oz made himself available, and they lashed out at Tara and Amber Benson on the fansite message boards. Whedon replied sardonically, "we're going to shift away from this whole lifestyle choice that Willow has made. Just wipe the slate. From now on, Willow will no longer be a Jew. And I think we can all breathe easier." However, he seriously explained his motivation, writing "My show is about emotion. Love is the most powerful, messy, delightful and dangerous emotion... Willow's in love. I think it's cool."[59] Hannigan was also positive about the way the character and her relationship with Tara was written: "It is not about being controversial or making a statement. I think the show is handling it really nicely. It's about two people who care about each other."[69]
Contrasting with some of the more sexual relationships of the other characters, Willow and Tara demonstrate a sentimental, soft, and consistent affection for each other. Some of this was pragmatic: the show was restricted in what it could present to viewers. Willow and Tara did not kiss until the fifth season in an episode that diverted the focus away from the display of affection when Buffy's mother dies in "The Body". Before this, much of their sexuality is represented by allusions to witchcraft; spells doubled for physical affection such as an erotic ritual in "Who Are You?" where Willow and Tara chant and perspire in a circle of light until Willow falls back on a pillow gasping and moaning.[note 2] Within the Buffy universe, magic is portrayed in a mostly female realm. As opposed to it being evil, it is an earth-bound force that is most proficiently harvested by women.[67] The treatment of the lesbian relationship as integral to magic, representative of each other (love is magic, magic is love), earned the series some critical commentary from conservative Christians.[55] To avoid large-scale criticism, scenes had to be shot several different ways because censors would not allow some types of action on screen. In the fourth and fifth seasons, the characters could be shown on a bed, but not under the covers. Hannigan noted the inconsistent standards with the other relationships on the show: "you've got Spike and Harmony just going at it like rabbits, so it's very hypocritical".[70] As a couple, Willow and Tara are treated by the rest of the Scoobies with acceptance and little fanfare. Susan Driver writes that younger viewers especially appreciate that Willow and Tara are able to be affectionate without becoming overly sexual, thus making them objects of fantasy for male enjoyment. Willow and Tara's influence on specifically younger female viewers is, according to Driver, "remarkable".[71]
Academics, however, comment that Willow is a less sexual character than the others in the show. She is displayed as "cuddly" in earlier seasons, often dressing in pink fuzzy sweaters resulting in an innocent tomboyishness. She becomes more feminine in her relationship with Tara, who is already feminine; no issues with gender are present in their union.[72][73] Their relationship is sanitized and unthreatening to male viewers. When the series moved broadcast networks from the WB to UPN in 2001, some of the restrictions were relaxed. Willow and Tara are shown in some scenes to be "intensely sexual", such as in the sixth season episode "Once More, with Feeling" where it is visually implied that Willow performs cunnilingus on Tara.[74] When Willow and Tara reconcile, they spend part of the episode in "Seeing Red" unclothed in bed, covered by red sheets.
Willow is more demonstrative in the beginning of her relationship with Tara. Where in her relationship with Oz she described herself as belonging to him, Tara states that she belongs to Willow. Willow finds in Tara a place where she can be the focus of Tara's attention, not having to appease or sacrifice as she has in the past. Tara, however, eclipses Willow's role as the moral center of the Scoobies, and as Willow becomes more powerful and less ethical, Tara becomes a maternal figure for the group.[75] Willow acts as a sort of middle child between Xander's immaturity and Buffy's weighty responsibilities. She becomes completely devoted to and enamored of Tara, and then manipulates her to avoid conflict when Tara does not conform to what she wants.[33] Displeased with how Willow abuses her power, especially toward herself, Tara leaves Willow while continuing to counsel Dawn and Buffy. Long after Tara's death, Willow faces the choices she made: in the Season Eight episode "Anywhere But Here", Willow tells Buffy that she is responsible for Tara's death. Her ambition to bring back Buffy from the dead inevitably led to Tara getting shot and killed. In the one-shot comic, Willow is offered Tara as a guide for her mystical path to understanding her own powers, but rejects her as being an illusion, too much of a comfort, and not a guide who will force her to grow.
Kennedy[edit]
Main article: Kennedy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Following protests angry about the death of Tara, Whedon and the writing team made a decision to keep Willow gay. In 2002, he told The Advocate about the possibility of Willow having a relationship with a man, "We do that now, and we will be burned alive. And possibly justifiably. We can't have Willow say, 'Oh, cured now, I can go back to cock!' Willow is not going to be straddling that particular fence. She will just be gay."[42] Kennedy is markedly different from Tara. She is younger, outspoken, and aggressively pursues Willow, who hesitates to become involved again.[76] When they first kiss in the episode "The Killer in Me", Willow's realization that she let Tara go reacts with a curse put upon her by another witch named Amy Madison (Elizabeth Anne Allen), turning Willow into Warren, Tara's murderer. The spell is broken when Willow acknowledges her guilt and Kennedy kisses her again. Kennedy expresses that she does not understand the value of magic and assumes it involves tricks, not the all-consuming energy that Willow is capable of. When Willow eventually exhibits what power she has, it briefly frightens Kennedy. Willow worries about becoming sexually intimate with Kennedy, unsure of what may transpire if she loses control of herself.[77] In season 7 episode 20, "Touched", Willow and Kennedy take part in the first lesbian sex scene on primetime television.[78]
In Season Eight, Kennedy and Willow are still romantically involved, but separated during Willow's self-exploration. Unlike her relationship with Tara, Willow is able to hold a separate identity while with Kennedy.[79] When she realizes her powers have gone at the end of Season Eight, however, Willow ends her relationship with Kennedy, saying that there is someone else Willow is in love with, who she will never see again.[80]
Aluwyn[edit]
Willow first met Aluwyn when she arrived to the spirit world to look for a guide to help her control her powers. On their first meeting, Aluwyn told Willow that she was her guide and that she would help her better control the power that dwelled within her; however, Willow quickly learned that Aluwyn was not her guide and another goddess appeared and told Aluwyn to leave Willow alone. With Aluwyn gone, the other goddess offered Willow to have Tara be her guide on her journey toward improving her understanding of her powers. However, Willow surmised this would either be robbing Tara of her afterlife or an illusion, and instead chose Aluwyn. At some point during Willow's training, the two began an affair and even began to sleep together. When Buffy smashed the Seed of Wonder, Willow broke up with Kennedy because she realized she was in love with someone else; Aluwyn was heavily hinted to be the unnamed person. Eventually, Willow finally came across her mentor in Wonderland by chance while trying to return magic to her world. She was very shocked and happy, immediately kissing Aluwyn passionately after being apart for so long. Aluwyn decided to help her with bringing magic back, informing her of helpful facts along the way. However, while Willow does trust Aluwyn she is still aware of the fact that she is a trickster, even introducing Aluwyn to Marrak as 'the lying, deceitful, sexy snake.' Aluwyn had brought together a coven of witches and formed a paradise for herself and Willow. Aluwyn does not know how to restore magic to Earth and attempted to make Willow forget about her quest to return magic and to her friends. Willow eventually saw through this manipulation and resumed her quest to restore magic but still admits she may come back to Aluwyn after the Earth is safe.
Cultural impact[edit]



Willow Rosenberg is undoubtedly the most complexly represented girl in love and lust with other girls to be developed within a mainstream network television series.
Susan Driver in Queer Girls and Popular Culture[81]
Willow's religion and sexuality have made her a role model for audiences. Whedon, however, has compared her Jewish identity to her sexuality, stating that they are rarely made a significant focus of the show.[82] Willow at times reminds the other characters of her religion, wondering what her father might think of the crucifixes she must apply to her bedroom wall to keep out vampires, and commenting that Santa Claus misses her house every Christmas because of the "big honkin' menorah". Buffy essayist Matthew Pateman criticizes the show for presenting Willow's Jewish identity only when it opposes Christian declarations of holidays and other traditions.[83] The New York Times, however, named her as a positive example of a depiction of a Jewish woman, who stood out among portrayals of Jews as harsh, unfeminine, and shallow. Producer Gail Berman states that as a Jew, Willow "handles herself just fine, thank you".[84]
In Queer Girls and Popular Culture, Susan Driver states that television ascribes to viewers what lesbians look and act like, and that realistic portrayals of girls outside the norm of white, upper or middle class, and heterosexual are extremely rare. When girls on television explore their sexuality, they often go through an "immature phase of bisexual indecision". Realistic depictions of lesbians are so rare that they become strong role models and enable "hope and imagination" for girls limited by the conditions of their immediate surroundings, who may know of no other gay people.[85] The time and space given to Willow to go from being a shy scared girl into a confident woman who falls in love with another woman is, as of 2007, unique in television; it does not occur in one flash or single moment. It is a progression that defies strict definition. Manda Scott in The Herald states that Willow's lack of panic or self-doubt when she realizes she is in love with Tara makes her "the best role model a teen could ask for".[86]
When viewers realized that Willow was falling in love with Tara, Whedon remembered that some threatened to boycott the show, complaining "You made Willow a fag", to which he responded, "Bye. We'll miss you a whole lot."[87] However, he also said, "For every (negative) post, there's somebody saying, 'You made my life a lot easier because I now have someone I can relate to on screen'."[62] Gay characters had been portrayed before on television, and at the time the popular sitcom Will & Grace was on the air. Lesbian-themed HBO special If These Walls Could Talk 2 won an Emmy. Twenty-three television shows depicted a gay character of some kind in 2000.[88] However, these other characters were mostly desexualized, none were partnered or shown consistently affectionate towards the same person. Willow and Tara's relationship became the first long-term lesbian relationship on U.S. television. Jane magazine hailed Willow and Tara as a bold representation of a somewhat normal homosexual relationship, remarking that "they hold hands, slow-dance and lay in bed at night. You won't find that kind of normalcy on Will and Grace."[89] Despite Whedon's intentions of not making Buffy about overcoming issues, he said Willow's exploration of her sexuality "turned out to be one of the most important things we've done on the show".[87]
Although the show's writers and producers received a minimal negative reaction from Willow choosing Tara over Oz, the response from viewers and critics alike was overwhelming towards Whedon for killing Tara, accusing him of homophobia. Particularly because Tara's death came at a point where Willow and Tara had reconciled and were shown following an apparent sexual encounter, the writers were criticized for representing the consequences of lesbian sex as punishable by death. Series writer and producer Marti Noxon—whose mother fell in love with another woman when Noxon was 13 years old—was unable to read some of the mail the writing team received because it was so upsetting. To her, the pain expressed in viewers' letters was a logical reaction to the lack of realistic lesbian role models on television.[42]
Patrick Krug, a biologist at California State University, Los Angeles named a sea slug with traits of sexual flexibility Alderia willowi partly for his grandmother and partly after Willow's character.[90]
See also[edit]

Portal icon Television portal
Portal icon Fictional characters portal
Willow & Tara (Buffy comic)
Wicked Willow trilogy
Unnatural Selection (Buffy novel)
Deep Water (Buffy novel)
Apocalypse Memories
Homosexuality in speculative fiction
Queer horror
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ The lines are in Greek addressed to Aphrodite, translated as "I beg you, don't overcome my spirit with pain and care, mistress", foreshadowing Willow's conflict between her devotion to Tara and her addiction to magic (Battis).
2.Jump up ^ Buffy scholar Edwina Bartlem asserts that many of the sexual relationships on Buffy are symbolized. Willow and Tara's tend to be represented by otherworldly passion, "disembodied and spiritual". (Barlem, Edwina [2003]. "Coming out on a Mouth of Hell", Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media, 2, p. 16.) Hannigan noted in an interview, "Obviously during a couple spells they are so fucking. I was like, 'This isn't a spell—this is just the sex you can't get away with on television.' "(Epstein, Jeffrey [August 2001] "Alyson's Wonderland", Out, 10 (2), pp. 46–53.)
Citations[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "AfterEllen.com’s Top 50 Lesbian and Bisexual Characters". AfterEllen.com. March 15, 2010. Archived from the original on January 1, 2013. Retrieved June 16, 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "AfterEllen.com's Top 50 Favorite Female TV Characters". AfterEllen.com. February 27, 2012. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
3.Jump up ^ "Best TV Nerds". UGO Networks. March 7, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2012.
4.Jump up ^ Potts, Kim (March 2, 2011). "100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters". AOL TV. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
5.Jump up ^ Bianco, Robert [January 18, 1998]. "Cool and Complicated Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Shaking up Plots so as Not to Hit the Same Beats", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. G-2.
6.Jump up ^ Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Fifth Season; "Casting Buffy" Featurette. (2008) [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
7.^ Jump up to: a b Bonka, Larry (January 12, 1998). Buffymania Sweeps the Land as Ultra-cool Kids Conquer the Un-dead", The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, (Norfolk, VA), p. E1
8.^ Jump up to: a b Cox, Ted (May 11, 1999). "Hannigan's Willow becomes a favorite of 'Buffy' fans", Chicago Daily Herald, p. 3.
9.Jump up ^ Owen, Rob (September 22, 1997). "Teen Life, with a Macabre Twist". The Cleveland Plain Dealer, p. 5E.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Mason, Charlie (May 16, 1998). "Beyond the Impaled Blossoming Wallflower's Appeal is Play to 'Vampire' Buffs", Times-Picayune, p. E1.
11.Jump up ^ Stafford, p. 72.
12.Jump up ^ Grahnke, Lon (March 10, 1997). "Biting satire: 'Buffy,' a sly new series, raises the stakes", The Chicago Sun-Times, p. 33.
13.Jump up ^ Okamoto, David (March 10, 1997). "Transylvania, 90210: 'Buffy' is back with bite in stylish new WB series", The Dallas Morning News, p. 15A.
14.Jump up ^ Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season; "DVD Commentary for "Welcome to the Hellmouth" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
15.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 38.
16.Jump up ^ Golden and Holder, p. 29.
17.Jump up ^ Rohan, Virginia (February 23, 1999). "The Dark Side of the Good Friend", The Record, p. Y01.
18.Jump up ^ Jarvis, Christine; Burr, Viv (2005). "‘Friends are the family we choose for ourselves: Young people and families in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Nordic Journal of Youth Research, 13 (3), pp. 269–283.
19.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 284–286.
20.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 287–291.
21.Jump up ^ Stevenson, pp. 128–130.
22.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 293–295.
23.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 295–300.
24.Jump up ^ Kaveney, pp. 300–304.
25.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 242.
26.Jump up ^ Interview with Buffy creator Joss Whedon 3/26/07, Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved on August 17, 2010.
27.^ Jump up to: a b c Vary, Adam (January 19, 2011). Joss Whedon talks about the end of the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Season 8 comic, and the future of Season 9 -- EXCLUSIVE, Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on January 30, 2011.
28.^ Jump up to: a b c Glendening, Daniel (November 30, 2012). Allie discusses Willow's quest to bring magic back to the Buffyverse, Comic Book Resources. Retrieved on December 29, 2012.
29.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 367–373.
30.Jump up ^ Whedon, Joss; Moline, Karl (December 2009). Willow: Goddesses and Monsters, Dark Horse Comics.
31.Jump up ^ Phegley, Kiel (December 10, 2010). Behind Buffy Season 8: "Last Gleaming", Comic Book Resources. Retrieved on January 30, 2011.
32.Jump up ^ Jeff Parker, Christos Gage (w), Brian Ching (p), Jason Gorder (i), Michelle Masden (col). Willow: Wonderland 5 (March 6, 2013), Dark Horse Comics
33.^ Jump up to: a b c Battis, Jes (2003). "She's Not All Grown Yet": Willow as Hybrid/Hero in Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies, 8. Retrieved on August 16, 2010.
34.Jump up ^ South, p. 134.
35.Jump up ^ Driver, pp. 67–70.
36.Jump up ^ Stafford, pp. 244–246.
37.Jump up ^ Richardson and Rabb, p. 60.
38.Jump up ^ Stevenson, pp. 181–183.
39.Jump up ^ Yeffeth, p. 131.
40.Jump up ^ South, p. 139.
41.Jump up ^ Jowett, pp. 80–82.
42.^ Jump up to: a b c Mangels, Andy (August 20, 2002). "Lesbian sex = death?", The Advocate, 869/870, pp. 70–71.
43.Jump up ^ Barlem, Edwina (2003). "Coming out on a Mouth of Hell", Refractory: a Journal of Entertainment Media, 2, p. 16.
44.Jump up ^ Driver, p. 79.
45.Jump up ^ Driver, p. 81.
46.Jump up ^ Ruditis, pp. 145–153.
47.Jump up ^ Zacharek, Stephanie (May 22, 2002). Willow, destroyer of worlds, Salon.com. Retrieved on August 13, 2010.
48.Jump up ^ Yeffeth, p. 132.
49.^ Jump up to: a b South, p. 143–144.
50.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 60.
51.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 61.
52.Jump up ^ Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 46–56.
53.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 26.
54.Jump up ^ Waggoner, pp. 10–11.
55.^ Jump up to: a b Richardson and Rabb, p. 92.
56.Jump up ^ Richardson and Rabb, p. 94.
57.Jump up ^ Jowett, pp. 124–127.
58.Jump up ^ South, p. 138.
59.^ Jump up to: a b Stafford, pp. 15–16.
60.Jump up ^ Perigard, Mark (May 18, 1999). "Television; 'Buffy' promises finale with bite and takes high-stakes gamble", The Boston Herald, p. 44.
61.Jump up ^ "Interview: Writer and producer Joss Whedon discusses his career and his latest show, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'", Fresh Air, National Public Radio (May 9, 2000).
62.^ Jump up to: a b McDaniel, Mike (May 16, 2000). "Coming Out on 'Buffy': Willow discovers she's attracted to another woman, Tara", Houston Chronicle, p. 6.
63.Jump up ^ Stafford, p. 73.
64.Jump up ^ Driver, p. 74.
65.Jump up ^ McAvan, Em (2007). “I Think I’m Kinda Gay”: Willow Rosenberg and the Absent/Present Bisexual in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Slayage Online: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
66.Jump up ^ Lavery and Wilcox, pp. 45–60.
67.^ Jump up to: a b Ford, Jessica (March 10, 2011). Coming Out of the Broom Closet: Willow's Sexuality and Empowerment in 'Buffy'. PopMatters. Retrieved on March 13, 2011.
68.Jump up ^ Bianculli, David (May 2, 2000). "Buffy Character Follows Her Bliss", New York Daily News, p. 77.
69.Jump up ^ "Star stakes out Sydney", Sunday Telegraph (November 5, 2000), p. 31.
70.Jump up ^ Dudley, Jennifer (November 16, 2000). "Charmed, I'm Sure", Courier Mail (Brisbane, Australia), p. 7.
71.Jump up ^ Driver, p. 75–76.
72.Jump up ^ Jowett, pp. 56–57.
73.Jump up ^ Wilcox and Lavery, p. 58.
74.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 207.
75.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 52–53.
76.Jump up ^ Kaveney, p. 44.
77.Jump up ^ Ruditis, pp. 205–229.
78.Jump up ^ http://www.afterellen.com/buffy-to-show-first-lesbian-sex-scene-on-broadcast-tv/04/2003/
79.Jump up ^ Waggoner, p. 9.
80.Jump up ^ Hill, Shawn (January 24, 2011). Buffy the Vampire Slayer #40, Comics Bulletin. Retrieved on January 30, 2011.
81.Jump up ^ Driver, p. 62.
82.Jump up ^ Jowett, p. 58.
83.Jump up ^ Pateman, Matthew (2007). "'That Was Nifty': Willow Rosenberg Saves the World in Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 25 (4). pp. 64-77.
84.Jump up ^ Hannania, Joseph (March 7, 1999). "Playing Princesses, Punishers and Prudes", The New York Times, p. 35.
85.Jump up ^ Driver, pp. 58–59.
86.Jump up ^ Scott, Manda (August 17, 2002). "If the Buffy generation turns out an excess of teenage dykes, I'll be happy but surprised", The Herald, p. 5.
87.^ Jump up to: a b Epstein, Jeffrey (August 2001) "Alyson's Wonderland", Out, 10 (2), pp. 46–53.
88.Jump up ^ Daly, Sean (November 11, 2000). "Ellen's children: No doubt, this is the Year of the Queer, with an unprecedented 23 prime-time programs featuring homosexual characters.", National Post, p. W06.
89.Jump up ^ Hoffman, Bill (January 3, 2001). "Magazine Hails Gutsy Gals who 'Bold' Us Over", New York Post, p. 3.
90.Jump up ^ Variable Larval Development Modes (poecilogony), California State University, Los Angeles Krug Labs. Retrieved on August 17, 2010.
Bibliography[edit]
Driver Susan (2007). Queer Girls and Popular Culture: Reading, Resisting, and Creating Media, Peter Lang. ISBN 0-8204-7936-5
Golden, Christopher; Holder, Nancy (1998). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 1, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-02433-7
Jowett, Lorna (2005). Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan, Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-6758-1
Kaveney, Roz (ed.) (2004). Reading the Vampire Slayer: The New, Updated, Unofficial Guide to Buffy and Angel, Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1-4175-2192-9
Richardson, J. Michael ; Rabb, J. Douglas (2007). The Existential Joss Whedon: Evil and Human Freedom in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Serenity, McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-2781-7
Ruditis, Paul (2004). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 3, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-689-86984-3
South, James (ed.) (2003). Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale, Open Court Books. ISBN 0-8126-9531-3
Stafford, Nikki (2007). Bite Me! The Unofficial Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-807-6
Stevenson, Gregory (2003). Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hamilton Books. ISBN 0-7618-2833-8
Waggoner, Erin (2010). Sexual Rhetoric in the Works of Joss Whedon: New Essays, McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-4750-8
Wilcox, Rhonda (2005). Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-84511-029-3
Wilcox, Rhonda and Lavery, David (eds.) (2002). Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0-7425-1681-4
Yeffeth, Glenn (ed.) (2003). Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Discuss Their Favorite Television Show, Benbella Books. ISBN 1-932100-08-3
Further reading[edit]
The Death of Tara, the Fall of Willow and The Dead/Evil Lesbian Cliché FAQ


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Xander Harris
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Xander Harris
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character

Nicholas Brendon as Xander

First appearance
"Welcome to the Hellmouth" (1997)
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
Nicholas Brendon
Information

Affiliation
Scooby Gang
Alexander LaVelle "Xander" Harris is a fictional character created for the action-horror/fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). He was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the television series by Nicholas Brendon and in two episodes by his twin brother, Kelly Donovan. He was conceived as an everyman and a male character for series heroine Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) to interact with, and to provide comic relief in the series. Xander is one of several friends of Buffy who assist her in saving the world against numerous supernatural events that plague Sunnydale, California, a town built over a doorway to hell.
Xander is based in part on Whedon himself, particularly in his high school years; as such, he is often the most geeky as well as witty and verbose of Buffy's characters. The character's overriding arc through the series has been his struggle towards maturity and earning the respect of others. In the canonical comic book continuation of the series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007–2011), Xander comes to achieve these goals in becoming the tactical leader of a global army of Vampire Slayers alongside Buffy.
Academic attention to the character has frequently come in the form of gender studies or with a focus on social class, reflecting Xander's working class home life and his fears of inadequacy. However, Xander's unique position as both outside of and within the main group enhances his insight into the other characters, especially as the series continues; in Season Eight, he is Buffy's unofficial "Watcher". As such, his character is noted for being the one who observes and sees everything rightly. Critics have noted that although Xander frequently exhibits a struggle of masculinity, his storylines often focus on his romantic conquests. Following his unrequited love for Buffy, these include the tumultuous relationship with rich girl Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), brief fling with his best friend Willow (Alyson Hannigan) prior to her coming out, and his long-term relationship with ex-demon Anya (Emma Caulfield). In Season Eight, the character's older-brother relationship with Buffy's little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) also develops along romantic lines, too late for Buffy to realise her compatibility with Xander.
The character of Xander Harris also appears in numerous items in the series Expanded Universe, such as comic books, tie-in novels and video games.


Contents  [hide]
1 Appearances 1.1 Television
1.2 Literature
1.3 Video games
2 Casting
3 Development
4 Reception 4.1 Impact
5 References
6 External links

Appearances[edit]
Television[edit]
Xander Harris is introduced in season one's (1997) two-part premiere "Welcome to the Hellmouth"/"The Harvest". Xander meets Buffy Summers (Gellar), the Slayer, on her first day at Sunnydale High, as well as her Watcher Rupert Giles (Anthony Head). After his friend Jesse (Eric Balfour) is made a vampire, Xander accidentally kills him, resulted him resenting vampires. Xander and his best friend Willow (Hannigan) become Buffy's reliable sidekicks. He pines for Buffy's romantic affection, oblivious to Willow's affections for him, and distrusts Buffy's boyfriend, the ensouled vampire Angel (David Boreanaz). In the season finale, "Prophecy Girl", Xander saves Buffy's life by administering CPR after she is drowned by the Master (Mark Metcalf). In season two (1997-8), Xander begins a turbulent and ambiguous relationship with popular girl Cordelia Chase (Carpenter) after they are thrown together in several life-or-death situations. Xander is turned into a soldier in the episode "Halloween", and retains extensive military knowledge and training thereafter; in "Innocence", this knowledge proves essential to helping Buffy defeat a demon known as The Judge who had been believed practically invincible. When Cordelia decides she needs to break up to preserve her social status, Xander coerces witch Amy Madison (Elizabeth Anne Allen) to cast a love spell, which misfires; Cordelia is unaffected but, seeing how much Xander loves her, reunites with him in defiance of her former friends, in "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered". The episode "Go Fish" focuses on Xander, after he joins the swim team to investigate the disappearances of Sunnydale High swimmers. In the season finale "Becoming, Part Two", Xander decides not to tell Buffy about Willow's plan to re-ensoul Angel—who has lost his soul and is going to bring about the apocalypse— so that she will not hesitate to kill him in order to save the world.
Season three (1998-9) begins with Xander and his friends slaying demons since Buffy ran away to Los Angeles. When Cordelia catches Xander kissing Willow in "Lovers Walk", she dumps him, this time permanently, though they ultimately part as friends. "The Zeppo" is a comedic episode focusing on Xander: the episode begins with Cordelia mocking him as a "loser", which upsets him. A solo adventure begins when the rest of the Scoobies insist he stay away from the dangerous fight with the Sisterhood of Jhe; he borrows his uncle's classic car, loses his virginity to mentally unstable rogue Slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku), and single-handedly stops Jack O'Toole and his fellow zombies from destroying Sunnydale High School. His calm handling of the crisis with O'Toole significantly enhances his self-confidence and, when again mocked by Cordelia, is unperturbed. Xander takes Anya (Caulfield), formerly vengeance demon Anyanka, to his prom in "The Prom", and his military training proves useful in defeating the evil Mayor (Harry Groener) in season finale "Graduation Day". In season four (1999–2000), Xander's feelings of inferiority and isolation increase, as he has not enrolled in college with his friends. Outside of the core group, Xander strengthens his relationship with Anya and the two eventually fall in love. In the season four climax "Primeval", Xander becomes the "heart" in the spell, which conjoins him with Buffy, Willow and Giles to defeat Adam (George Hertzberg), a part-demon, part-human, cyborg monster. Finale episode "Restless" delves into the characters' psyches through dream sequences; Xander's dream involves his erotic attraction to Buffy's mom (Kristine Sutherland), Willow and her girlfriend Tara (Amber Benson), his fear of his abusive father, and features a re-enactment of 1979 film Apocalypse Now.
In season five (2000-1), Xander matures; he becomes a carpenter and construction worker, and moves into his own apartment with Anya. He comes under the thrall of Dracula in premiere episode "Buffy vs. Dracula", becoming his Renfield. The episode "The Replacement" focuses on the two aspects of Xander: the emotionally sensible, driven man, and the comedic buffoon. Xander-centric episode "Triangle" sees him defend Willow and Anya equally from Anya's ex-boyfriend Olaf the Troll (Abraham Benrubi) when ordered to choose between them. In the season finale, he asks Anya to marry him; he uses a wrecking ball to assist Buffy in fighting the season's villain, hell-goddess Glory (Clare Kramer). In season six (2001-2), Xander and his friends resurrect Buffy; this has consequences, and Buffy sinks into depression. Xander's doubts about his future with Anya are expressed when he summons the all-singing demon Sweet (Hinton Battle), in the musical episode "Once More With Feeling". A demon exploits these fears in "Hell's Bells"; Xander leaves Anya heartbroken at the altar, and she returns to her old job as a vengeance demon. In the season finale, when a griefstricken Willow tries to end the world, only Xander's compassion and love for her is able to stop her. In season seven (2002-3), when Buffy's little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) mistakenly believes herself to be a Potential Slayer, Xander empathizes with her disappointment over not being the one in the spotlight, in "Potential". Season seven episode "Conversations with Dead People" is the only Buffy episode in which Xander does not appear. In the episode "Dirty Girls", Xander's left eye is gouged out by the evil preacher Caleb (Nathan Fillion), and he begins wearing an eyepatch. Though he and Anya get back together, in the series finale, "Chosen", Anya is killed by a Bringer's sword. Andrew (Tom Lenk), the only witness to her death, tells him Anya died saving his life. Xander responds, "That's my girl. Always doing the stupid thing."
Though Brendon does not portray Xander again subsequent to "Chosen", the Angel episode "Damage" (2004) mentions that Xander is in Africa, recruiting newly activated Slayers for Buffy's team. Between 2001 and 2004, Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb developed a 4-minute pilot episode for Buffy the Animated Series, which was set during the show's first season. Had the series been picked up by a network, it would have featured Xander (voiced by Nicholas Brendon) in more adventures set during Buffy's first season. Following a 2008 leak of the pilot to YouTube, Loeb expressed some hope that the series may be resurrected in some form.[1]
Literature[edit]



 Xander along with Buffy in the comic book continuation Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight.
Concurrent with the television series, Xander appears in canonical tie-ins to the television series. Xander appears in most Buffy comics and novels (those set within Buffy's Sunnydale years), and is the featured character of several. The Xander Years, Vol 1. and Vol. 2 for instance are each novelization of three key Xander episodes from the show's first three seasons, spanning "Teacher's Pet" to "The Zeppo".
The 2004 comic "Antique" depicts Xander resuming his position as Dracula's loyal manservant at the vampire's Translyvanian castle for several months, before Buffy and two new Slayers rescue Xander.[2] Subsequently, the character appears three years later in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight series of comic books. Xander appears from the premiere issue, "The Long Way Home" (2007) by Joss Whedon. In Season Eight, Xander leads the Slayers and operates their central command in Scotland; Buffy describes him as her unwilling "Watcher". Xander invites comparison to Marvel Comics' character Nick Fury. Xander's new relationship with Slayer Renée is cut short when she is killed in "Wolves at the Gate" (2008) by Drew Goddard. Goddard's story is also a continuation to "Antique"; Xander ends his friendship with Dracula. In Jane Espenson's "Retreat" story arc (2009), as Buffy begins to realize she has developed a romantic attraction to Xander, she discovers his newfound romantic relationship with Dawn; Xander had previously been her confidante throughout Season Eight. Buffy tries to explain her feelings to Xander in Joss Whedon's "Turbulence" (2010), though he dismisses this feelings as her need for stability; Xander admits to Buffy, that he truly loves Dawn. In its final arc, "Last Gleaming" (2011), Xander witnesses a possessed Angel kill Giles in the ruins of Sunnydale, as well as Buffy's destruction of the source of all magic. Subsequently, he and Dawn settle down and move to San Francisco, where they allow Buffy to stay with them while she waitresses and hunts vampires by night.
In the follow-on comic book, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine (2011–), Buffy has moved out of Xander and Dawn's home, and they have less contact with her than before. Following the events of Season Eight, Xander struggles to control his anger. In "Welcome to the Team" (2012–13), Dawn falls ill and begins to die as a result of magic's absence. What's more the world, including Xander and Buffy, is slowly forgetting she ever existed. In "The Watcher" (2013), the season's villains, mystical 'Siphon' Severin and rogue Slayer Simone persuade Xander to assist them in their plot to turn back time and avert Twilight. In the final arc, "The Core," Xander supplies them with information from an ancient tome on vampires Buffy owns. Acting on the same information, Buffy and Willow decide that the Deeper Well in England—a prison for ancient demons—may contain enough magic to save Dawn, and Xander travels with them. While entering the Well, Xander confesses his betrayal to Buffy and informs her of Severin's plan to use the magic in the Well to turn back time, which could destroy the universe. He stands beside Buffy when they discover Simone's ulterior motive for entering the Well; she has allowed herself to be sired by the very demon which created the first vampire, transforming herself into a powerful vampire/Slayer hybrid. During battle in the Well Severin dies as he explodes with power. The energy is absorbed by the new Seed of Wonder Willow had created, restoring magic to the world. Buffy dusts Simone and Willow returns everyone to San Francisco and saves Dawn with magic and Buffy's blood. Xander thinks Dawn feels different and is guiltily convinced she somehow knows about his betrayal, despite Buffy forgiving him and telling him he is being too hard on himself.
In the sequel Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten Xander and Dawn's relationship is strained with Xander convinced something is odd about her. And he has begun talking to some sort of form of Anya that is visible only to him.
Video games[edit]
Xander appears in video games based on Buffy. Brendon lent his voice for Xander in the 2002 Buffy game for Xbox and the multi-console 2003 video game Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, in which Xander is a playable character. In the 2002 game, Xander is not a playable character, but Buffy can acquire weapons from him over the course of the game. Chaos Bleeds is set in season five of the television series; in Xander's levels, he is sent to an alternate universe. After the level at Sunnydale High, he has to do battle with an alternate universe Anyanka, the level's boss; a magical tophat that releases rabbits evens their playing field slightly. Following the level at the zoo featured in "The Pack", Buffy battles against an evil alternate reality version of Giles, styled "Ripper". Chaos Bleeds prompted prequel comic books published by Dark Horse and a novelisation, which treats it as a "lost" episode of season five.
Casting[edit]








Kelly Donovan (left) would occasionally appear as a stunt double for Nicholas Brendon (right)
Nicholas Brendon's twin brother Kelly Donovan would often stunt double for Xander in the series, most notably in the episode "The Replacement", where dual Xanders appear on-screen at the same time. They both use stage names; their surname is Shultz; as children, they were inseparable. Before landing the role of Xander, Brendon had hit "rock bottom": his girlfriend had left him, he was working as a waiter and could barely afford his rent, and had almost given up on getting good work. After buying the wrong kind of Pop Tarts for his co-workers, his boss fired him and told him "You should be acting." Brendon was attracted to the pilot script for Buffy because of how much he had hated high school. Brendon recognised that Xander was based on Joss Whedon when he had attended high school, accounting for why Xander "gets all the good lines". Brendon did not get much acting work after Buffy finished, and went into an alcoholism rehabilitation centre in 2004.[3] As of 2007, as Niki Stafford notes in her Unofficial Guide, the actor has had comparatively more work since with stage productions.[4]
For the season five episode "The Replacement", where a demon splits Xander into two people along the lines of his immature and his more adult characteristics, Donovan is cast to play the "other" Xander in scenes where both appear onscreen together.[5] Both actors found playing the character together to be a fun experience.[4]
Development[edit]



Cordelia: It must be really hard when all your friends have, like, superpowers; Slayer, werewolf, witches, vampires; and you're, like, this little nothing. You must feel like Jimmy Olsen.
Xander: I was just talking to... hey, mind your own business.
Cordelia: Ooo, I struck a nerve. The boy that had no cool.
Cordelia mocks Xander for his lack of specialness in "The Zeppo".
One academic analysis of the series finds that Xander has much in common with the Harry Potter character Ron Weasley. The writer cites his proximity to the main character, his comparative working class status to best friend Willow (as with Weasley and Hermione), his status as an object of mockery in school. For both Xander and Ron, their comparative lack of special gifts "accentuates the loyalty and bravery... [each] offers as a friend" given that the characters often place themselves in mortal danger. Cordelia's statement to Xander in the Zeppo, which compares him to Superman character Jimmy Olsen, is noted as another example qualifying Xander's everyman status.[6]
Though Xander is often "the heart" of the Scooby Gang, in "The Zeppo" he is excluded from their battle against a hydra-like demon. Through the use of jump cuts between melodramatic scenes with Buffy, and for instance, informant Willy the Barkeeper (Saverio Guerra) to Xander and a gang of zombies in a drunken car journey, Xander is used as a vehicle to point out the ways in which Buffy ordinarily avoids being "over the top" by integrating Xander (as the show's source of humour) into the main narrative rather than separating the two. His loss of his virginity to Faith, for example, is musically cued as an anti-romantic parallel to the swelling, symphonic romance scene that Xander oversees between Buffy and Angel; on his departure from the carnal bed, the music is re-cued. The episode depicts Xander single-handedly saving the school, and potentially the world (given the Hellmouth beneath it) from an explosion in simultaneity against glimpses of the other Scoobies' struggles with the hydra demon. As the episode draws to a climax, the two settings begin to erode into one, as the demon breaks through walls in the basement and enters into the episode's Xander scenes. Stevenson notes that it is fitting for the character to have his most heroic moment in the school basement, given that in season four he will be reduced to living in his parents'; Xander's fears in "Restless" explore his feeling of being "trapped" in that basement. Wilcox argues that the basement is a representation of the subconscious, and that young carefree zombie Jack O'Toole (Channon Roe) represents Xander's id, his inner desires. The episode brings to light how the basis for heroism rests in the subconscious, and also how as the two battles increasingly merge, his friends cannot hope to save the world and save others unless Xander's battle with the Self is also won. In his confrontation with Jack, just as in his confrontation with Dark Willow in season six's "Grave", Xander saves the world through his words. As the "warrior of words", Wilcox feels that this makes Xander the character who most clearly represents series creator Joss Whedon.[7]
Throughout the series, Xander's family are seen to be highly dysfunctional and composed of alcoholics. Xander relates in "Amends" that he sleeps outside at Christmas to avoid the family quarrels. This leads him to seek a surrogate family in his friendships with Buffy, Willow and Giles. Xander lacks Giles's and Willow's academic intelligence, and Buffy's physical prowess. Cordelia is initially ashamed to be Xander's girlfriend. Throughout the series, Xander struggles to contribute meaningfully to the group dynamic. His dissatisfaction reaches a nadir in season four: Xander's physical dislocation from his college friends leads to a profound sense of being useless. In "Restless", his menial jobs and degrading habitat rise to the surface of his dream narrative. Before falling asleep, he begins to watch Apocalypse Now with Willow, Buffy and Giles, who comments, "Oh, I'm beginning to understand this now. It's all about the journey, isn't it." Xander's dream, in turn, is one of intense self-exploration. In his dream, Xander goes to use the bathroom, and is emasculated and infantilized by Buffy asking him if he needs any help: this scene shows Xander's "sense of insecurity and powerlessness". Nevertheless, he becomes lost and finds himself in his parents' basement. From there, he finds himself in his ice cream truck, where Anya asks if he knows what he is doing, underlining the aimlessness of his journey; he is in the basement once again. When suddenly he is in the army and Principal Snyder (as a character in Apocalypse Now) asks where he comes from, he says, "The basement, mostly." He fears that his military interrogator is correct in saying that he is "the whipping boy" and "set on a sacrificial stone". (This position of being less "chosen" for social inclusion and great things than his peers makes him uniquely able to comfort Dawn in season seven's "Potential".)[8]
Although "The Replacement" sets up its narrative as an evil twin television narrative trope, its catch is that both Xanders are in fact the real Xander. In this episode, Xander uncovers that he has the power within himself to be the adult, suave and confident man whom he had spent the episode envying. "The dual Xanders", Stephens argues, "represents the duality in all of us." The episode demonstrates that Xander is not defined by his weaker personality traits but by the core personality that is a merger of his stronger and weaker traits.[8] Xander's costume choices in various Halloween episodes show the audience his desire for macho credence: he comes, variously, as a cowboy, a soldier and as James Bond. As a soldier, he was in fact magically turned into his costume, and got to retain his macho status along with the useful military knowledge. Following this incident, his choice of costume represents explicitly whom he would like to actually become. Various episodes highlight Xander's intense bravery; for example, he faces down evil Angelus (Boreanaz) at Buffy's hospital door in the episode "Killed by Death", and he offers his life in place of Willow's in "Inca Mummy Girl". When Buffy prepares to face Angelus in the season two finale, he arrives with a rock in hand saying "Cavalry's here. Cavalry's a frightened guy with a rock, but it's here." Stephens argues that this makes up the essence of Xander's character; though powerless, he is always both loyal and brave. As his relationship with Dawn in "Potential" and his support of Buffy show, Xander finds that his real calling seems to be in his role as the "eternal supporter".[8] One journalist describes the character as a modern-day Greek Chorus, always an outsider looking in, and a version of Joss Whedon himself. One author writes that the focus of Xander's character development has always been his quest for maturity.[4]
While their characters were an item, Brendon was close friends with Charisma Carpenter, who portrays Cordelia. When they broke up on the show, and Cordelia transitioned to the spin-off Angel, he commented that they had hardly spoken due to being in different scenes all the time. This felt like a real-life breakup in many ways. When Xander got to become serious with Anya in season five, the actor commented that it was nice to see Xander mature after four years of playing the "nerd".[4] Lorna Jowett feels that Xander's romances throughout the season almost seem to "make up" for the character's shortcomings,[9] which Stafford attributes to Xander's origin as Whedon's author surrogate in the show.[4] Anya comments that Xander is "a Viking in the sack" in "The Yoko Factor", indicating not just masculinity but also virility. Within the show, gay character Larry mistakes Xander for being gay, and Xander's unguarded comments towards Spike have led some fans who write fan fiction to depict Xander as being gay. Jowett attributes this to Xander's internal struggles (which concern a crisis of masculinity and his role amongst his friends) do not contain a readily accessible solution for viewers to hold onto. She argues that some fans see this as a "stumbling block", perhaps unconsciously, to recognising the character's masculinity and at a wider level, in constructing a notion of contemporary masculinity.[9]
In the DVD commentary for the episode "Dirty Girls", writer Drew Goddard mentions there was talk of killing off Xander towards the end of Season Seven and having the First Evil assume Xander's appearance when conversing with Buffy for the remainder of the season. This was ultimately rejected since Xander was thought to be too important to the series, and his death occurring so late in the season would leave little time to deal with it correctly, and that throughout the series' run, Xander was the one character who never wavered, and to punish that characteristic with death would send a message the staff wasn't trying to convey. Instead of killing Xander, he was blinded in one eye.
Reception[edit]
For his role as Xander, Brendon was nominated for Saturn Award in 1998 and 1999 for Best Genre TV Actor and in 2000 for the Supporting Actor.[10]
Impact[edit]
"The Zeppo" in season three was a Xander-centric episode, which only featured the other characters in humorous aside glimpses of their struggle to save the world. This episode has proved very influential on later television writers. In his "Production Notes: Doodles in the Margins of Time" in 2007, Doctor Who executive producer Russell T Davies cites "The Zeppo" along with Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Lower Decks" as an influence on his 2006 Doctor Who episode "Love & Monsters".[11] The episode provided a television format that came to be known as the "Doctor-lite episode", an annual tradition for Doctor Who from 2006 to 2008, often featuring a significant guest star carrying the bulk of the acting responsibilities as Doctor Who has a much smaller cast than Buffy.[12]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Vineyard, Jennifer (2008-08-26). "‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Animated Series To Be Resurrected?". MTV Movies Blog. MTV.com. Retrieved 2008-09-05.
2.Jump up ^ "Tales of the Vampires #3, "Antique" (2004)
3.Jump up ^ "Former Buffy star Brendon enters rehab". Whedon.info. April 30, 2004
4.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Stafford, Niki (2007). Bite Me!: The Unofficial Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Chosen Edition. Ontario: ECW Press.
5.Jump up ^ Koontz, K. Dale (2008). "Notes on Chapter 3". Faith and choice in the works of Joss Whedon. McFarland & Company. p. 195.
6.Jump up ^ Wilcox, Ronda (2005). "When Harry Met Buffy". Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, and Palgrave Macmillan (distributor). pp. 66–78.
7.Jump up ^ Wilcox, Ronda (2005). "When Harry Met Buffy". Laughter: For Those of Us in the Audience Who Are Me. London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, and Palgrave Macmillan (distributor). pp. 129–145.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c Stephens, Gregory (2003). "Identity and the Quest for Self". Televised Morality: The case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Maryland: Hamilton Books. pp. 91–104.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Jowett, Lorna (2005). Sex and the Slayer. Wesleyan University Press.
10.Jump up ^ "Awards for Nicholas Brendon". IMDb. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
11.Jump up ^ "Review: Doctor Who 2x10 - Love and Monsters". The Medium is Not Enough. 2006-06-19. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
12.Jump up ^ "'Doctor-Light': The Doctorless 'Who' Stories". Digital Spy. 2008-06-22. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
External links[edit]

Portal icon United States portal
Portal icon Television portal
Portal icon Fictional characters portal
The BtVS Writers' Guild - Main character page for The BtVS Writers' Guild featuring Xander's various incarnations and relationships. Each page features character profiles, essays on the character and writing, as well as fan fiction and links.
Buffyverse Dialogue DB:: Xander - Character profile for Xander Harris including his main story arcs and a detailed list of episodes and script lines.


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Buffy Summers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other uses, see Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Buffy Summers
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel character

Buffy as portrayed by Sarah Michelle Gellar, the actress most associated with the role.

First appearance
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film) (1992)
Created by
Joss Whedon
Portrayed by
Kristy Swanson
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Giselle Loren
Information

Affiliation
Scooby Gang
Watchers' Council
Sunnydale High Administration
Classification
Slayer
Notable powers
Supernatural strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, and rapid healing.
 Enhanced intuition, prophetic dreams.
Buffy Anne Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name. The character has also appeared in the spin-off series Angel, as well as numerous non-canon expanded universe material, such as novels, comics, and video games. Buffy was portrayed by Kristy Swanson in the film, and later by Sarah Michelle Gellar in the television series. Giselle Loren has lent her voice to the character in both the Buffy video games and an unproduced animated series.
Buffy is the protagonist of the story, and the series depicts her life and adventures as she grows up. In the film, she is a high school cheerleader who learns that she is the Slayer (a Chosen One gifted with the strength and skills to fight vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness). The television series shows Buffy carrying out her destiny in a small town built atop a portal to hell (Hellmouth), surrounded by a group of friends and family who support her in her mission. In the comic book continuation, she is a young woman who has accepted her duties and is now responsible for training others like her.
Buffy was created to subvert the stereotypical female horror film victim; Whedon wanted to create a strong female cultural icon. In 2004, Buffy was ranked at number 13 in Bravo's list of The 100 Greatest TV Characters.[1][2] In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly ranked her third in its list of the 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years.[3] AOL named her the sixth Most Memorable Female TV Character.[4] She was ranked at No. 5 in AfterEllen.com's Top 50 Favorite Female TV Characters.[5]


Contents  [hide]
1 Appearances 1.1 Film
1.2 Television
1.3 Literature
2 Concept and creation
3 References
4 External links

Appearances[edit]
Film[edit]
The character of Buffy first appears in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, played by Kristy Swanson. The film, written by Joss Whedon, depicts Buffy as a shallow high school cheerleader who is informed by a man named Merrick (Donald Sutherland) that she has been chosen by fate to battle the undead. Buffy reluctantly undergoes training in her abilities by Merrick, and as her responsibility as the Slayer causes her to become alienated from her valley girl peers, she finds friendship and romance with fellow outcast Pike (Luke Perry). Merrick eventually comes to respect Buffy's rebellious nature, and she defeats vampire king Lothos (Rutger Hauer) by relying on her own contemporary style as opposed to traditional Slayer conventions.[6] Although this film is not in continuity with the later television series, in 1999, author Christopher Golden adapted Joss Whedon's original script into a comic book entitled "The Origin", which Whedon later confirmed to be "pretty much" canonical.[7][8]
On May 25, 2009, The Hollywood Reporter revealed Roy Lee and Doug Davison of Vertigo Entertainment would be working with Fran Rubel Kuzui and Kazi Kuzui on a relaunch of the Buffy series for the big screen. The series would not be a sequel or prequel to the existing movie or television franchise and Joss Whedon will have no involvement in the project. None of the cast or original characters from the television series will be featured.[9] Television series executive producer Marti Noxon later reflected that this story might have been produced by the studio in order to frighten Joss into taking reins of the project.[10] Studio interest in the project has continued, however. A script was rejected in 2011.[11]
Television[edit]
Buffy returned in Joss Whedon's television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this time played by Sarah Michelle Gellar for all of the show's 144 episodes. In season one (1997), Buffy begins to accept the responsibilities and dangers of her calling as the Slayer after moving to the small California town of Sunnydale. She becomes best friends with Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) and Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan), and meets her new Watcher, Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head).[12] Together, they form the Scooby Gang, and work together to battle various supernatural occurrences which plague Sunnydale High. In the season finale, Buffy battles the villain known as the Master (Mark Metcalf), and is drowned in the process. She is resuscitated by Xander and rises to defeat the vampire.[13] In the show's second season (1997–1998), Buffy continues to come to terms with her destiny, finds forbidden love with benevolent vampire Angel (David Boreanaz), and clashes with new villains Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau). In the episode "Surprise", Buffy loses her virginity to Angel, an event which triggers the loss of his soul and unleashes his sadistic alter-ego, Angelus.[14] Angelus proceeds to subject the characters to mental and physical torture for the remainder of the season. In the final episode of season two, Buffy is forced to reveal her identity as the Slayer to her mother (Kristine Sutherland), and send the newly good Angel to hell in order to save the world. She then leaves Sunnydale for Los Angeles in the hopes of escaping her life as the Slayer.[15] Season three (1998–1999) sees Buffy reconnect to her calling, her friends, and her family after her departure, as well as make difficult life decisions regarding her relationship with the resurrected Angel. She must also deal with the introduction of rebellious new Slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku), who becomes increasingly destructive and disloyal over the course of the season. In the season finale, Buffy stabs Faith in an attempt to save Angel's life, and leads her classmates into a climactic battle against the demonic Mayor of Sunnydale (Harry Groener). Angel then leaves Sunnydale in hopes that Buffy can have a more normal life without him.[16]
In the fourth season (1999–2000), Buffy balances her Slayer duties with her new life as a college student at UC Sunnydale. She experiences some difficulty adjusting to college life, and becomes increasingly disconnected from her friends, who all seem to be moving in different directions. Buffy eventually finds a new love interest in the form of Riley Finn (Marc Blucas), a soldier in the demon-hunting government task force known as the Initiative. She briefly joins forces with Riley's team, until they discover one of the Initiative's experiments, Adam (George Hertzberg), is creating an army of demon-human hybrids.[17] Buffy literally unites with her friends to defeat Adam in a spell which invokes the power of the First Slayer.[17] During Buffy season four, Buffy also appears in the first season of spin-off series Angel (1999–2000), guest starring in the episodes "I Will Remember You" and "Sanctuary". In season five (2000–2001), Buffy battles the hell-goddess Glory (Clare Kramer), and fully embraces her destiny for the first time. A younger sister named Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) mysteriously appears in Buffy's household, her existence having been seamlessly integrated with memories of the other characters. Buffy suffers emotional turmoil throughout this season, including the realization Dawn is not actually her sister,[18] the deterioration of her relationship with Riley,[19] the discovery that Spike has become obsessed with her,[20] and her mother's death from a brain aneurysm.[21] While on a quest to learn more about her nature as the Slayer, Buffy is told "death is her gift,[22] a message she has difficulty understanding until the episode "The Gift", in which she sacrifices herself to save Dawn and the world by diving into Glory's interdimensional portal and closing it.[23]
Season six (2001–2002) depicts Buffy's struggle with depression after her friends, believing she was trapped in a Hell dimension, performed a spell to bring her back from the dead; however, she was actually in Heaven, and feels great loss after being ripped out. Forced to take a mundane and degrading job slinging burgers at the Doublemeat Palace after realizing her family were in financial ruin, she sinks into a deep depression amid feelings of self-loathing, embarking on a violent sexual relationship with the vampire Spike which leaves neither satisfied and spawns dire consequences for the both of them. As the season draws to a close, Buffy is forced to battle her best friend when Willow becomes psychotic with dark magics after the human, Warren (Adam Busch) shoots and kills Willow's girlfriend Tara (Amber Benson) and wounds Buffy in the process. Willow then tries to destroy the world to end all suffering, although Xander gets through to her in the end. Buffy then promises to change her self-destructive behavior in order to be there for her sister. In the final season of the show (2002–2003), things start to come around for Buffy when Principal Robin Wood hires her as a school counselor for the newly rebuilt Sunnydale High School and she has repaired her relationships with Dawn and her friends. However, she is also confronted with the threat of the First Evil and becomes a reluctant leader to the Potential Slayers, who are initially respectful of her, but become increasingly more alienated by her tactics and decisions throughout the season. She unexpectedly becomes emotionally close with Spike, who has sought out his soul in an effort to prove himself to her. In the show's final episode "Chosen", Buffy shares her power with her fellow Slayers before leading them into an epic battle against an army of Turok-Han vampires. She also confesses her love to a disbelieving Spike before he sacrifices himself to save the world; as he dies, Buffy escapes Sunnydale's destruction with the surviving characters.[24] Following the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the character maintains a presence in the fifth season of Angel (2003–2004), but does not appear onscreen. In the episode "The Girl in Question", Angel and a resurrected Spike travel to Rome to find her, where they learn she is apparently now dating the Immortal.[25] Sarah Michelle Gellar was approached to appear as Buffy in Angel's one hundredth episode, but declined, so the character of Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) was used instead. She was asked to appear in the second to last episode of the series, "Power Play", but had to decline due to outside conflicts.[26]
Between 2001 and 2004, Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb developed a 4-minute pilot episode for Buffy the Animated Series, which was set during the show's first season. Had the series been picked up by a network, the series would have focused upon Buffy (voiced by Giselle Loren) in more high-school adventures. Following a 2008 leak of the pilot to YouTube, Loeb expressed some hope the series may be resurrected in some form.[27]
Literature[edit]



 Buffy appears in literature such as the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight comic book series and various spin-offs. Art by Jo Chen.
As the main character of the franchise, Buffy appears in almost all Buffy the Vampire Slayer literature. This includes a Dark Horse ongoing comic book and a series of novels. Buffy's debut into literature came in the comic Dark Horse Presents 1998 Annual on August 26, 1998,[28] while her first prose appearance was in Halloween Rain by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder on October 5, 1998.[29] Most of these stories occur between episodes and seasons of the television series, however, some are set outside the timeline of the show to explore in depth other areas of Buffy's history. Christopher Golden adapted the film into a comic entitled "The Origin" (1999) which more closely resembles Joss Whedon's original script.[7][8] In 2003, Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza wrote a Year One-style run on the Buffy comic book series which filled the gap between the film and the first season of the show. These stories explain how Buffy's relationship with Pike ended,[30] as well as fleshing out events alluded to in the television series, such as the time she spent in a mental institution and her parents' divorce. The novel Queen of the Slayers (2005) by Nancy Holder offers a potential follow-up to the television series; set after season seven, it depicts Buffy living in Italy with the morally ambiguous Immortal.[31]
Buffy also makes appearances in literature outside of her own titular series. In the Tales of the Slayers comic one-shot "Broken Bottle of Djinn" (2002) by Doug Petrie and Jane Espenson, Buffy battles a spirit in Sunnydale High,[32] while the Tales of the Vampires comic book story "Antique" (2004) by Drew Goddard sees her breaking into Dracula's castle to rescue Xander from the infamous vampire.[33] Volume II of the similar series of novels Tales of the Slayer (2003) features two stories about Buffy; the character battles a mummified spirit in Todd A. McIntosh's "All That You Do Comes Back Unto Thee," while Jane Espenson's "Again Sunnydale" sees a season six-era Buffy sent back in time to high school, when her mother is still alive but Dawn does not exist.[34]
In 2007, Buffy's story was continued when Joss Whedon resurrected Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a comic book. These comics differ from previous Buffy literature in that they are the official continuation of the television series and are considered canon.[35] In Season Eight (2007–11), it establishes Buffy is not living with the Immortal in Rome which is simply a cover story to ensure her safety as she is now the leader of a global organization which recruits and trains Slayers to deal with demonic threats worldwide.[36] However, a mysterious group led by the masked villain 'Twilight' believe the Slayers themselves are the danger, should they begin to consider themselves superior to mankind.[37] In the story "Wolves at the Gate", Buffy shares a sexual encounter with fellow Slayer Satsu;[38] however Satsu leaves soon after because she realizes Buffy cannot return her feelings. Earlier in the series, the audience glimpsed Buffy's most personal sexual fantasy in her dreamspace: a threesome with Angel and Spike.[39] The series' final two arcs are in some sense are about Buffy's relationships with Angel and Spike. In "Twilight", Buffy mysteriously obtains super powers and discovers that Twilight is in fact Angel. Despite his actions, Buffy succumbs to her passions and engages in an act of passionate airborne sex with Angel, only having them return on waking up in a paradise dimension which will replace the existing universe. In spite of the lure of eternal happiness together in this new dimension, the two return to Earth to assist their friends against extra-dimensional demons, when Spike arrives. In "Last Gleaming", Spike's information leads them to source both of magic and of Twilight's power, a mystical "seed" buried beneath Sunnydale. Giles plans to destroy it, but Twilight possesses Angel and snaps his neck. Distraught, Buffy smashes the seed herself. Twilight is stopped but magic is also removed from the universe. Though Slayers and vampires retain their powers, witches for example are left entirely powerless. A pariah in the community of Slayers and former witches, Buffy moves to San Francisco where she lives with her sister and Xander, and resumes her former duties as Slayer: patrolling at night for vampires.
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine (2011–13), Buffy adjusts to the new status quo of a world without magic. As a consequence of demons no longer being able to enter their dimension and fully possess human bodies, newly sired vampires are feral and mindless creatures, which Xander dubs "zompires". Buffy faces a new antagonist in Severin, who works with the rogue slayer Simone Doffler and has the power to drain others of their mystical energy. In the story arc "Apart (of Me)", Buffy mistakenly believes that she is pregnant and makes the difficult decision to have an abortion. Spike also leaves San Francisco after it becomes difficult for him to be around Buffy anymore. Willow also leaves town on a mission to restore her abilities, leaving Buffy to patrol for vampires with new friends, including SFPD officer Robert Dowling and teenager Billy Lane. As the season goes on, Buffy teams with a council of powerful supernatural beings to take on Severin. However, Severin is able to steal the powers of Illyria, a member of that group, including her time travel abilities. When Buffy learns Dawn is dying as a result of the end of magic and Willow returns with restored powers, they venture to the Deeper Well in England, a tomb for ancient demons in the hopes of finding magic to save Dawn. Desperate to save Dawn, Xander informs Simone and Severin of Buffy's plan because Severin wants the same magic to avert the events of Season Eight using time travel. Within the Well, Buffy fights and kills Simone who had intentionally became a vampire, as Severin in an act of redemption, restores magic to the universe for which he and Illyria sacrifice their lives. Though Dawn has faded from the world, Willow is able to bring her back, but Xander—who has apologized to Buffy—suspects something is awry with Dawn. Buffy and Willow begin to realize however that the rules of magic and vampire abilities have been entirely rewritten by their actions.
Concept and creation[edit]
The character of Buffy was conceived by Joss Whedon as a way of subverting the cliché of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror film".[40] Whedon stated "Rhonda the Immortal Waitress" was the first incarnation of Buffy in his head, "the idea of a seemingly insignificant female who in fact turns out to be extraordinary."[41] When asked how he came up with the name of "Buffy," Whedon states "It was the name that I could think of that I could take the least seriously. There is no way you could hear the name Buffy and think, "This is an important person. To juxtapose that with Vampire Slayer, just felt like that kind of thing—a B movie. But a B movie that had something more going on. That was my dream." Whedon claims the title was criticized for being too silly, and the television network begged him to change it. He refused, insisting "You don't understand. It has to be this. This is what it is."[42] Jason Middleton feels that Buffy avoids the "final girl" character trope seen in horror films, where the androgynous and celibate heroine gets to outlive her friends and exact revenge on their killer; in Middleton's words, "she... gets to have sex with boys and still kill the monster".[43]
Whedon always intended for the character to become an icon, claiming "I wanted her to be a hero that existed in people's minds the way Wonder Woman or Spider-Man does, you know? I wanted her to be a doll or an action figure. I wanted Barbie with Kung Fu grip! I wanted her to enter the mass consciousness and the imaginations of growing kids because I think she's a cool character, and that was always the plan. I wanted Buffy to be a cultural phenomenon, period."[44] In developing Buffy, Whedon was greatly inspired by Kitty Pryde, a character from the pages of the superhero comic X-Men. He admits, "If there's a bigger influence on Buffy than Kitty, I don't know what it was... She was an adolescent girl finding out she has great power and dealing with it."[45][46][47] In a 2009 interview, Whedon revealed he only recently realised how much he saw of himself in Buffy. After years of relating more to Xander, he says, "Buffy was always the person that I was in that story because I'm not in every way." Whedon openly wonders why his identification figure is a woman, but describes it as "a real autobiographical kind of therapy for me" to be writing a strong female character like Buffy.[48]
According to Whedon, Buffy "had been brewing in [him] for many years" before finally appearing in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film played by Kristy Swanson. However, he was not satisfied with the character's treatment in the film, feeling "that's not quite her. It's a start, but it's not quite the girl."[44] Although Whedon's vision of female empowerment was not as apparent as he would have liked in the 1992 film, he was given a second chance when Gail Berman approached him with the idea of re-creating it as a television series.[49] Adapting the concept of the movie into a television series, Whedon decided to reinvent the character of Buffy slightly. The shallow cheerleader of the original film had grown more mature and open-minded, identifying with social outcasts such as Willow and Xander, and instead, the character of Cordelia was created to embody what Buffy once was.[50] Early in the television series, make-up supervisor Todd McIntosh was instructed to make Buffy "a soft and sort of earthy character." He gave Gellar a soft, muted green make-up and kept her look very natural. However, it was later decided this was inappropriate for the character, and Buffy needed to look more like a valley girl. McIntosh switched her make-up around, giving her frosted eyeshadow and lip colors, bright turquoise and aqua marines, bubblegum colored nails, and bleach-blonde hair, causing the character to "blossom."[51]
References[edit]
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External links[edit]

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