Buffy villains appreciation thread

Buffy has the best villains of any tv hero after the Doctor himself.

Which do you think were the best however?

How would you rank them.

1/ The Master (8/10)

I loved his look, his motivation, and the actor playing him was amazing. (He was also the Maestro from Seinfeld in what was another brilliant performance.)

He starred in some of the all time best episodes like Prophecy Girl, The Wish, Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest, Angel. In fact I don't think there is a single bad episode with the Master.

He was also responsible for creating more of the lore than other big bads, but the only reason I'd give him a 8/10 was that I don't think we found out enough about his past which was a shame. Though perhaps for some that was part of what made him great?

Sadly after what's happened in New Who, this guy is now the best villain called The Master.

2/Angelus, Spike and Dru (10/10)

Possibly the best villains in the series. Spike was so much fun as a villain, whilst Dru was both terrifying, tragic and at times hilarious. I just loved the mad child like quality Juliet Landau brought, and the way she would just flip at random "THESE FLOWERS ARE WRONG!"

Angelus meanwhile was just such an unmitigated bastard. His killing Jenny is the most brutal moment in the show. It was just so needlessly cruel, and what he did to Giles after. Passion is a tv classic IMO.

3/ The Mayor and Faith (8/10)

Their relationship was brilliant, Eliza is a goddess, and the final battle to take him down was brilliant. However the Mayor didn't really do as much as other villains. Okay the Master was inactive, but he killed Buffy (three times!)

4/ Adam (7/10)

Everybody hates this villain, I'm not sure why? The make up was scary, he had a badass voice, and I liked the way he was an evil messiah type figure. The episode where they beat him was also brilliant, and I loved his interactions with Spike. I knocked points off however because he didn't show up until so late.

5/ Glory (8/10)

Great villain, great story, and the cost to stop her was the biggest. I loved the way she actually made Buffy flee she was so unstoppable. The Gift also might be the best episode where they stop a main villain too.

6/ The Trio (1/10)

Now we're sadly into the dregs. The actors were fine, (particularly Adam Busch) but I just don't think these guys worked as season long villains. Why didn't Buffy just phone the police on them?

Also Warren killed Tara the most genuinely likable character so he can fuck off LOL. His death was cool, but that's it.

7/ Dark Willow (6/10)

One of the most genuinely terrifying villains in the series, but came too late. Also I think making Willow too powerful undermined Buffy. Still her final scene with Xander was very touching.

8/ The First (6/10)

I feel the First was a great idea, but in all the different stories of season 7, he didn't really do much but just annoy people.

You missed out Caleb there. I know he's only in the last quarter of season 7 but he sure makes an impact (especially on Xander!)
I like them all. I agree the Trio were kinda weak, though I get they were going for not making it obvious who the bad guys were in season 6, esp given the Big Bad turns out not be them after all but Dark Willow.
Even Adam is fine with me. I think they were slightly screwed in that Maggie Walsh had to be killed off sooner than they planned due to the actress' other commitments, so it might have worked better with her as the main villain and Adam as her attack dog, but he's fine.
They were all strong, memorable and well played characters.

The Mayor was my favourite. He was impeccably mannered, cheerfully polite to a fault, averse to swearing and always wanting to maintain good old fashioned family values. A villain having some and/or most of those qualities is fairly cliche nowadays, but where the Mayor still triumphs over those tiresome cliches is that all of those qualities about him are totally genuine. There's no facade there. His entire method of deception is to simply lie by omission. Even that aspect of his character is rooted in a twisted kind of honourable morality. I don't think he'd feel comfortable in blatantly lying to his voters lol.

I also loved Spike on account of how just insanely cool he was. The Billy Idol hairdo, the black leather, trenchcoat, the cockney accent, the black nail polish, etc. As a kid I used to be kind of irritated at how he was relegated to minor villain/ally in the wake of Angelus' ascent, but obviously I now recognise it as a necessary plot progression. And Angelus was pretty terrifying anyways. As you said in your OP, his pursuit of Jenny was incredibly tense to watch. That episode was probably the closest a Buffy villain has come to scaring me.

Although I will admit to having the odd moment of unease whenever Adam was onscreen. He was an interesting mix of Frankenstein's monster and Charles Manson. What more do you need? I think he's a tremendously underrated Buffy villain. His little monologue about how he 'saw the inside of that boy' was really nasty to listen to, and established him as an unpredictable adversary.

I hated Glory though. She sucked.

I do think Adam was underrated and complex. That scene with the boy is so unexpected, in perhaps Buddy's most humorous season, easy to miss the 1st time. Also agree Caleb was brilliantly brutal, really gave s7 a lift.

The more I see of Dark Willow the more I think that storyline went the wrong way, towards fan service, and led to the kind of cliche (dead lesbian, psycho lesbian) the show used to subvert. Adam Busch's Warren was actually more interesting, the way his humanity and his pitiful lack of responsibility becomes a genuine threat which Buffy struggles to deal with - a 'weak' villain can be more dangerous in the right circumstances than a powerful one . I also liked the way the Trio reacted in 3 totally different ways after things went wrong.

JJ Chambers wrote:The Mayor was my favourite. He was impeccably mannered, cheerfully polite to a fault, averse to swearing and always wanting to maintain good old fashioned family values. A villain having some and/or most of those qualities is fairly cliche nowadays, but where the Mayor still triumphs over those tiresome cliches is that all of those qualities about him are totally genuine. There's no facade there. His entire method of deception is to simply lie by omission. Even that aspect of his character is rooted in a twisted kind of honourable morality. I don't think he'd feel comfortable in blatantly lying to his voters lol.

I also loved Spike on account of how just insanely cool he was. The Billy Idol hairdo, the black leather, trenchcoat, the cockney accent, the black nail polish, etc. As a kid I used to be kind of irritated at how he was relegated to minor villain/ally in the wake of Angelus' ascent, but obviously I now recognise it as a necessary plot progression. And Angelus was pretty terrifying anyways. As you said in your OP, his pursuit of Jenny was incredibly tense to watch. That episode was probably the closest a Buffy villain has come to scaring me.

Although I will admit to having the odd moment of unease whenever Adam was onscreen. He was an interesting mix of Frankenstein's monster and Charles Manson. What more do you need? I think he's a tremendously underrated Buffy villain. His little monologue about how he 'saw the inside of that boy' was really nasty to listen to, and established him as an unpredictable adversary.

I hated Glory though. She sucked.

Spike was cool. This bit is my favourite moment of his in Buffy.



Nikki Wood was sexy as hell. I'd love to have seen more of the past slayers. What's scary is that nobody remembers their name. Buffy wouldn't know about Niki had it not been for Spike. We also don't even know who the Slayer before Buffy was. They are like soldiers just left to rot on the battlefield, or buried in unmarked graves.

Also their deaths aren't always these big grand battles against evil. Spike's just a punk ass Vampire, and Niki has been around for years at this stage. She's probably saved the world, fought monsters, Hellgods, but in the end it was just a thug Vampire that took her down in a deserted railway line. Really quite a bleak scary moment.  

Though the bit when she sticks his head out of the window and he screams is hilarious.

I think though this is proof that he should have stayed the way he was in S4. Imagine how much more unnerving it would be if he genuinely wanted her dead there.

As it is because he loves her he ends up at the end of the episode comforting her which kind of undermines how he really got under her skin and freaked her out more than even Glory could at this point.

Still shagging Buffy hundreds of times does just add to his coolness I'll give you that

What did you not like about Glory?

burrunjor wrote:
What did you not like about Glory?

A trip home being her sole reasoning for essentially laying waste to our dimension, thus further demonstrating how insignificant humanity is to such a godly being, is so lame and feels like such a cop-out motive. Even back then it felt cliched, overly simplistic and just a major letdown.

Also I just found her personality to be immensely annoying and tiresome. In general I don't have the greatest regard for Season Five. I'm continually amazed that a lot of fans like it best.