Summary
Buffy the Vampire Slayerfeatured a slew of dangerous villains over the course of its seven seasons. Some of them became the overarching villains of a particular season, and others just turned up to wreak havoc as a monster of the week villain, more so in the earlier seasons of the show.
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Some of the villains were relatively easy to beat forthe strongest slayer, Buffy, and the rest of the Scooby gang, but there were certain antagonist encounters that caused the slayer to question her own strength and resulted in not only her death but the deaths of some of her closest allies.
10Adam
High school was officially over when the fourth season began, and Angel and Cordelia had departed for Los Angeles to fight the demons and vampires in the spin-off. Buffy and Willow started at Sunnydale University, with Xander still loitering around doing odd jobs.
The big bad of this season was a cannibalized monster known as Adam, who had cybernetic enhancements and was controlled by a group of hunters known as The Initiative. He was a tough enemy to defeat, but a handy spell did the trick in the end.
9The Mayor
Mayor Wilkins doesn’t seem like a strong villain on the surface, but he actually has some crazy powers lurking beneath the respectable front he puts on for the people of Sunnydale.
It took the blowing up of Sunnydale High School to defeat this demon on Graduation Day. He was a very strong big bad in the third season of the show, and it took a couple of seasons for a villain to live up to his strength and evilness.
8The Gentlemen
“Hush” is widely considered to be one of thecreepiest episodes ofBuffy the Vampire Slayerever. It was during the fourth season when this episode debuted, and it took everyone by surprise. The Gentlemen were the monsters of the week who turned up and trapped the voices of the whole town, leaving them unable to scream when they cut their hearts out.
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Despite only turning up for one episode, they were memorable and strong villains that the audience would never forget.
7Dracula
The most famous vampire of them allhas to be Dracula, so when it was revealed that he would appear in an episode ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer, the excitement of the fans was palpable.
Dracula turned up in the opening episode of the fifth season and kicked off a fantastic year for the show. He only appeared in one episode, but his appearance was memorable, giving Buffy a run for her money. He turns into a bat during the episode, which is one of the highlights, but just his presence alongside Buffy is something to behold.
6Caleb
The First Evil was the big bad of the final season, but it was the bible-bashing preacher, Caleb who carried out a lot of his dirty work.
Caleb actually very nearly defeated Buffy, which is often overlooked, and also took out one of Xander’s eyes. He only appeared in a couple of episodes, but Nathan Fillion plays him so well that it’s a shame he didn’t get a longer run on the series.
5Dark Willow
It’s always heartbreaking when a fan-favorite character becomes the villain, and in Willow’s case, the devastation of losing Tara led her down a very dark path. She was taken over by her addiction to magic and became evil, being known as Dark Willow.
Willow had one of the most interesting character arcs on the show, going from a heart-of-gold nerd to the black magic witch. It creates an interesting and different big bad for the show, having it be one of the Scooby gang turning to the dark side. It’s believable that this transition would happen after everything Willow was forced to ensure. She was ultra-powerful as a villain, and the Scoobs had their work cut out defeating her.
4The Master
The original big bad villain inBuffywas The Master. He is very muchan unappreciated vampirein the Buffy-verse, but he is one of the strongest in the show, as he technically kills Buffy before she is brought back. He spends a large majority of the first season building up his strength, and by the end, he seems unstoppable.
He rises from the Hellmouth beneath the ground in Sunnydale to wreak havoc on the population of the sleepy town. He is defeated in the end, but not without dire consequences for the titular slayer.
3Angelus
It’s hard to find a match for Angel’stwist on the vampire mythos, with his evil alter ego Angelus, the bloodthirsty vampire from the 18th century. David Boreanaz played the evil side of his character with such brilliant menace that it felt like a completely different character to the sweet vampire with a soul who fell in love with Buffy.
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His soul was taken from him after a gypsy curse, which resulted in him experiencing true love after consummating his relationship with Buffy. It was a shock to the audience when he transformed into Angelus, and it felt like nobody could defeat him. But love is every man’s weakness, and Buffy kills him.
2The First Evil
The big bad of the final season was naturally one of the strongest in the whole show. The First Evil originally made an appearance in the third season as a demonic force that preyed upon Angel’s guilt, trying and failing to get him to end his life.
It returned in the seventh season to become the villain to end the show and was a strong adversary for Buffy because she wasn’t able to fight it in physical form. It was an entity that used minions to carry out its deadly work. Buffy defeated it in the end, but it came at the price of losing some friends along the way.
1Glory
The fifth season ofBuffy the Vampire Slayeris one of the strongest of the whole show, and that is largely because it features the strongest villain of the entire series. Her name is Glory, and she is literally a god. She’s billed as an unbeatable villain, and she lives up to that mantra.
She is trying to find a way to return to her own universe, and for that to happen, she needs a key. The key happens to be in the form of Buffy’s little sister, Dawn, who appeared at the start of the season, much to the surprise of the viewer, who didn’t know the slayer had a sister. Buffy fails to defeat her and ends up dying (for a second time) as the season draws to an end.
