History Awesome / BuffyTheVampireSlayer

* Willow uses her magic to warn Spike to help Giles out with a demon currently attacking him. Spike's response? [[SmokingIsCool To light up a cigarette]]. Willow, panicked by his inaction, demands that he helps Giles and Spike points out he already did. The demon's back then proceeds to go up in flames.

* The leader of the demon bikers rips off a vampire's head with his bare hands. He throws a punch...and Buffy catches it in her palm and thrashes him effortlessly. Looks like dying made her stronger. Again.
* Tara saving Willow from a biker demon by burying an axe in his back.

** Toru intercept's Dracula's sword as it's thrown to him, but he takes it away and utterly destroys Toru by cutting off his arms and a leg, followed by Xander doing an UnflinchingWalk through the battlefield to take Dracula's sword from him and decapitate Toru in revenge for him killing Renee. And during the first part of that, Dracula's YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith speech towards Toru.

-->'''Buffy:''' I let you steal my Slayers. I let you twist what we were all about. I let you terrorize too many people. But now... now you've turned yourself into everything I'm not. And I'm going to stop you.\\

* When Dracula's hubris at anipulating the book turns him into Maloker, the Old One who originated vampires, what do the gang do? Make Dawn a giant to distract him, have Buffy and Spike on his head to stab his eyes out, have Willow fly a priest to the top of a pointy skyscraper to ''bless it'' and make it a holy object, and helicopters with spotlights form a giant cross in the sky. Dawn finishes it off by body-slamming the blind and cross-stunned Malorker into the now-holy building's spire.
* With ''Angel & Faith'' having kicked into high gear the main series needed to step up and the long awaited return to Sunnydale does so big time. For a while now it's been hinted that Warren will be resurrected. Well...the Scoobies chase Andrew when he steals the Vampyer book who intends to use it to bring Johnathan BackFromTheDead. There's someone else he intends to resurrect as well. [[WhamLine Tara. McClay]]. Oh... here we go.
** "...we'll be fighting a megapowerful hell demon that can probably slaughter us in out sleep. Or as we call it, Wednesday." As well as a BadassBoast Willow says of herself, Buffy and Spike the issue was in fact released on Wednesday, making this literally true.
* Half of ''Angel & Faith'' has become ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' with Kennedy and Faith filling in for Price and Soap. Well Sam, Riley's wife, shows up as a MacMillin {{Expy}}, sniping a good dozen vamps. GunsAreWorthless? Not as long as she's around they ain't.
* Under Archaeus' thrall, Angel runs Spike through with a sword. What does Spike do? Declare Angel just made on hell of a mistake, pull the sword out of his chest, and start DualWielding.
* Guess which bus came back? Dru's. Before proving she's no match for an experienced Slayer Faith gives this gem with a big shit eating grin on her face.
-->'''Drusilia:''' Spike always said there was no tastier treat than taking down a Slayer.\\

* Some may remember Nadira, the violent vigilante Slayer. When Drusilia kidnaps her she's all smiles and perfectly happy to go along. Why? Meeting Archaeus, the [[GodOfEvil King of Hell,]] she wants to save him. ''[[TookALevelInKindness Oh Nadira? Really? Kindness levels don't go up that high.]]'' Nadira tries to reason, and when that doesn't work, [[TechnicalPacifist well she never stopped being a Slayer.]]
* Just the cover for the April 2016 issue does this with Buffy [[https://freshcomics.s3.amazonaws.com/issue_covers/FEB160049.jpg throttling a demon and crushing it's head.]]
* The season overall is chock-full of the gang marvellously averting PoorCommunicationKills and showing how they've grown.

** Spike's insecurities get the better of him and he suggests he and Buffy break up before they ruin their friendship too? Buffy doesn't let him take the easy way out and they talk the issue out while in between stops of Buffy's plan to stop D'Hoffryn, sticking together and admitting they're both scared.

* The finale and final fight against D'Hoffryn. When the tide of battle turns on him with the Anya ghost's betrayal he quickly hightails it out of that dimension to recover. The crew ''don't let him'' and hunt him down. He quickly tries to get on their good sides, promising them one wish each, no backstabbing, using insecurities or other long-standing wishes they've had throughout the season (Xander to bring Anya back, Giles to be restored to his real age, Spike to be TheChosenOne and/or human, Buffy and Dawn to have Joyce back, and Willow to have Tara back). Everyone turns him down and Buffy cuts his head off.

* As if Buffy having been BroughtDownToNormal because of a SuperRegistrationAct going full Creator/RondaRousey on a UFC thug wanting to take her down wasn't cool enough later in the comic two army drones spying on her are taken out by, seemingly, a full on ninja. Said ninja enters Buffy's apartment except it's something even deadlier...hi Faith.
* Buffy, Faith and Willow breaking into the Safe Zone (with the help of Riley and Sam) to get Willow and Buffy's powers back.
** Spike smashing a rock over the head of the soldier holding them at gun point.

* Spike killing two slayers, especially Nikki Wood (sorry Robin). This is far beyond the usual. A vampire who isn't extremely old might get very lucky and be the one to catch a slayer in a mistake, or she might be overwhelmed by a group, but that's not what happened with Spike. He purposefully, on two occasions, sought a slayer out and beat her in a fair fight. One-on-one, with no weapons other than his own fists and fangs and whatever he might find in their surroundings. And he did it before he'd been undead even one century. In fact, Spike is so awesome InUniverse that ''there's at least one thesis by the Watcher written specifically on him''.

* Joyce's life as the mother of the slayer, half of it completely unaware yet still completely supportive.
* The Initiative are bastards, no doubt about that, but it's still awesome and even reassuring to see that we the humans are able to put up at least a fairly decent fight against the demons even with no vampire slayers and watchers around.

* When Faith wakes up from her coma, the group goes searching for her. Giles and Xander run into Spike, and describe the situation, and Faith. Spikes response "Tell you what I'll do then. I'll head out, find this girl... tell her exactly where all of you are and watch as she kills you." Xander and Giles look at each other in confusion. Spike continues, "[[CharacterCheck Can any one of your damn little Scooby club at least try to remember that I HATE YOU all?]]" When Xander tries to retort that Spike doesn't even know what Faith looks like, Spike calmly recites Xander's physical description: "Dark hair, this tall, name of Faith, ''criminally'' insane. Like this girl already," as he walks off. Xander and Giles are left behind, utterly dumbstruck, until all Xander can say is "We're dumb."

* When Willow gets taken by Faith, Buffy wants to trade the Box of Gavrok for her best friend. Wesley refuses to let her do this because it's exchanging thousands of lives for one person, and everyone present - Wesley, Buffy, Giles, Xander, even Angel - begin shouting their opinions, standing around arguing. Oz, after wordlessly staring at Wesley through his speech, calmly stands up, walks over the vase he and Xander prepared for the Box-destroying ritual, grabs the pedestal, and sends the entire thing flying into the wall, smashing it to pieces. It's quickly decided afterwards to trade the Box for Willow.

'''Willow:''' It's way too late. You know, it didn't have to be this way. But you made your choice. I know you had a tough life. I know that some people think you had a lot of bad breaks. Well, boo hoo! Poor you! You know, you had a lot more in your life than some people. I mean, you had friends in your life like Buffy. Now you have no one. You were a slayer and now you're nothing. You're just a big, selfish, worthless waste.

* There's [[BigBad Mayor Wilkens]], right, who's invincible, on the verge of ascending into a [[ScaledUp giant snake]], and he's come to threaten the Scoobies in the library. When he menaces that he's going to kill Buffy, Giles stabs him through the chest with a saber. Being invincible and all, it only offends The Mayor that Giles would use violence, but it still shows him as a badass PapaWolf.

* Giles makes a last ditch effort to protect Buffy, and gears up to battle the Master ''himself.'' He never gets the chance thanks to Buffy, but that's pretty badass for a stuffy librarian.

** Just come back to life and hunting down the Master, Buffy's strut set to the theme song definitely counts too.

** "You have fruit punch mouth."

* Cordelia calling Buffy out on her alienting behaviour:

* The first time Ethan shows up, we haven't really seen much evidence of Giles' FormerTeenRebel self. So when he shows up in Ethan's shop and proceeds to absolutely kick his ass-- in a state of TranquilFury no less-- it is both unexpected and ''amazing''.

** When Spike and Buffy's WillTheyOrWontThey starts becoming an issue again, Xander and Dawn immediately confront them on it, enabling them to realize they can take the steps towards having a relationship again. This enables them to resist Harmony and Viki's blatant attempts to break them up. And when Spike's own insecurities pop up and he tries to end things before he messes them up too badly to even be friends, Buffy calls him on it.

* Katrina, Warren's ex, definitely deserves some credit; once the date rape spell the trio have cast on her wears off she responds with fury for the things they've done (and were planning to do) to her, outright identifying it as rape which [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horrifies Andrew and Jonathon.]] She then proceeds to fight her way out of their lair, almost making it to the basement door until Warren kills her with a bottle to the head.

** It should be noted that these two magic orbs in a pocket at his girdle have been what made Warren invincible, and Jonathan moments before had faked an attack on Buffy, whispering to her to destroy these orbs, probably because he didn't wanted Buffy to die.

* Willow summons this otherworldly being, Osiris the ancient Egyptian god of the Underworld, to try to resurrect Tara but he gave a huff about how she died by human means. Willow screams at the thing and you can tell that she hurt it.

-->''No! I'm strong and I'm beautiful and I don't need you to complete me. (pulls out stake) And you're mean!''.

* In the comic adaptation of the original movie, Kimberly is a bit less of a useless BetaBitch in the final fight and smashes a vampire with a piece of furniture, while JerkJock Andy eagerly throws himself into the fight and is staking vampires expertly before being {{Zerg Rush}}ed.

* Xander gets a series long SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome simply for surviving. Buffy's a slayer and she died, twice. Willow's a witch and the most powerful character on the show. Anya's a demon and she died. Spike's a vampire and he died. Xander's human, arguably not even a BadassNormal, and he's survived.
* Even if you weren't a Spuffy shipper you have to admit Spike being willing to go up ''in flames'' even when he knew she didn't return his feelings to save the day is awesome.

* Buffy returns home to find a pissed off little sis in front of her. She stares at Dawn for a moment, then Dawn kicks her in the shin. Which ''hurts'' Buffy, before Dawn calls her a dumbass. The best bit of this is when you expect a ridiculous Buffy speech but she just says "...if you get killed, I'm telling".

* Amanda seeks Buffy's advice on an abusive boyfriend...should she pound him into the pavement some more. As a long term BullyHunter the question leaves Buffy speechless. [[{{Foreshadowing}} Of course]], Amanada turns out to be a Potential.

* During the final prom battle, some of the other students start fighting back after being inspired by Buffy and Pike, with Buffy's ditzy former GirlPosse member Nicki and JerkJock Andy both managing to kill at least one vampire.

[[folder:Other]]

* In the E-Comic "Harmony Comes to the Nation", Creator/JaneEspenson writes a Buffyverse-only one for... Creator/StephenColbert! It's a S8 tie-in. The plot? It's a two page comic showing an interview with Harmony after her show becomes big. Oh, and in his trademark style, points out her hypocrisy and stupidity.
* Buffy vs Dragon. Mid air. Shown during the AnimatedAdaptation preview and when it was worked into the comics it's shown the Dragon loses.
* Buffy's first big win over vampires was over Luke. Who's Luke? A vampire the Master had made his vessel to enact the Harvest, which is all kinds of awesome as it would have led to the [[NightmareFuel Wishverse.]] Faith's first big win over vampires? In the book ''Go Ask Malice'' she wards off the vengeful ghost of a former Slayer, who was captured by Kakistos and basically had every horror visited on her to become a mindless slave and Faith comes dangerously close to the same happening to her, she hunts down Kakistos, makes him believe she is broken before ''[[GroinAttack stabbing his balls off,]]'' wipes out a whole gang of vampires, cleaves Kakistos' head in two with an ax (he gets better) and still has the energy to brutally beat down and possibly kill the abusive pimp who targeted her mother. '''In. One. Night.'''

* In the short story “The Show Must Go On”, Angel, Giles and Jenny track down five vampires who are working backstage at a theater, split up, and manage to dispatch all five vampires without either the audience or Willow and Xander (who are volunteering backstage) finding out what's going on. On a lesser note, Willow and Xander manage to salvage the production while juggling their jobs and those of the disappearing vampire crew members.
* In the novel ''Doomsday Deck'', Buffy gets diverted from stopping the BigBad by a vampire attack on a convenience store where her Cordelia is visiting with an art critic who Joyce and Cordelia are showing around town. Most of the would-be victims (the critic being a notable exception) [[BadassBystander are fighting back]] when Buffy arrives, although they need her to turn the tide. One teenage customer is throwing cans at one vampire, two other customers and a young cashier are wrestling with another vampire. Cordelia whacks a third vampire over the head with a broom and then stakes him with the broken broom after he snaps it in half.

** Spike and Dru's crusie ship is sunk by a u-boat, and the two vampires swim out to the sub and kill or turn every Nazi onboard.

* The comic one-shot "Sonenblume" ends with the Slayer of 1938, who is on the verge of being seduced by Adolph Hitler's [[RabbleRouser rabble rousing]], snapping out of her brainwashing and vowing to fight Nazis as well as vampires.

* Heartbreaking as it is, Tara's breakup with Willow counts as this. This is a woman who spent most of her life in a household that tried to control her by making her believe she was a demon. Willow was the first person who helped her see herself as a person who deserved to be treated with respect. And when Willow proves that she's more interested in the magical solution, the quick fix, and won't give up the magic even when Tara tells her that she needs Willow to stop... She steps back and away from Willow, refusing to enable her or let her actions not have consequence. She takes a stand to protect herself from someone who, even though Willow loves her, was abusing her (the memory spell, which Tara even explicitly compares to what Glory did to her the previous season).

* In one corner we have Buffy, the slayer, the embodiment of female empowerment. In the other, Warren, the ultimate misogynist who's made himself invincible. The winner?

** It should be noted that these two magic orbs in a pocket at his girdle have been what made Warren invincible, and Jonathan moments before had faked an attack on Buffy, whispering to her to destroy these orbs, probably because he didn't wanted Buffy to die. So yeah, while a cool dialogue, Buffy definitely had some help here.
* A small moment - when Warren shows up at Buffy's house with a gun, Buffy immediately pushes Xander out of the way. Instead of jumping for cover herself, she tries to save her friend.

* Willow summons this otherworldly being to try to resurrect Tara but he gave a huff about how she died by human means. Willow screams at the thing and you can tell that she hurt it.
* Willow's [[FlayingAlive flaying of Warren]]. Disturbing in execution, but so, so deserved. [[FanNickName Willow the Vampire Flayer.]] Whoever thought up the idea deserves a date with Willow for that one.
** Let's face it, her torture and hunt for him was pretty special as well. Before she foregoes the torture and shows just what she's capable of by ordering Warren off the bus before choking him until his head pops like a grape. It was a robot clone, but NoNonsenseNemesis much?

* A Dark Willow moment: "Jonathan. Andrew. You boys like magic, don't you? [[ShockAndAwe ABDA KADABRA.]]"
* While Buffy fights Dark Willow, Anya recites a spell that will weaken her, staying behind while the rest escape. This is the same woman who skipped town rather than fight at the high school battle.
* Giles' return: "[[TheBusCameBack I'd like]] to [[BigDamnHeroes test that theory]]" had viewers cheering. This was after Willow's boast that no one can stop her, and Giles promptly proves her wrong.

* Spike gets tortured by a [[PhysicalGod hellgod]] that no one has been able to beat, and the only thing he has to do to save himself pain is tell Glory where the Key is. ''And he doesn't do it.'' Because he couldn't hurt the real Buffy by betraying Dawn.

* Having learnt that Scott has dumped Buffy, Faith goes in to bat for her, grossing out his current girl with claims of having several [=STDs=]. Buffy's other friends...do sweet jack all.

* When Buffy is turned into a helpless 18th-century woman and Willow becomes a ghost, Xander becomes a badass M16-wielding, fatigues-wearing soldier. In the course of about twenty minutes he gets to kick monster ass, rock-and-roll with an M16, beat up a jock-turned-pirate who constantly picks on him, impress the resident hot airhead cheerleader, and even stand up to Spike.

** Just come back to life and hunting down the Master, Buffy's PowerWalk set to the theme song definitely counts too.

* In ''Unnatural Selection''

** The final MeleeATrois between a group of arrow-shooting fairies, the Scooby Gang, and various vampires (with the latetr two groups swatting at the fairies with blunt instruments).

** The vampries then try to kill past Slayers to mess up the Slayer timeline and the Scooby Gang goes after them. Their first attempt leads to a MeleeATrois fight on a battlefield between Romans and Druids, with the latter group using their magic to bring rocks and trees to life as combatants.
** In ancient Sumeria, when the gang is under attack by a plague demon, Willow uses magic to [[SummonBiggerFish summon a dragon to fight the demon]], harnesses the infecteous plagues that are felling the Scooby Gang to incapacitate a vampire assasin, and draws the demon's attention away from her friends by making various DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu insults in a language she barely understands.

* In the novel ''Monster Island'', fifty-five foot tall Old One god/demon Garth initially refuses to help fight an army of villains largely because he thinks his powers would make the fight too unfair for the villains. Once Garth finally does decide to fight, Fred Burkle describes this as a DeusExMachina. Garth interrupts the invasion of Nazi-like demons who see his neighbors as impure and makes a Breaking Speech about how if someone with his powers and pedigree doesn't view the half-demons as unworthy and impure, then the so-called Coalition of Purity has no right to that mindset. Whether or not his words move all of the villains is unclear, but the ones who are unmoved are too terrified at the idea of fighting Garth to press the matter.

* Anya and Xander working together to kill the demons coming after Xander--pretty impressive for two BadassNormals.

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* Spike calls out the Scoobies for their reckless use of magic and for leaving him out of the loop on the topic. Xander retorts for Spike to look him in the eyes and say that her coming back didn't make that day the happiest day of his life. Spike looks him dead in the eyes and says nothing of the sort, pointing out instead that strong magic like what was used to bring Buffy back would have unforeseen consequences. [[{{Foreshadowing}} He turns out to be completely correct]].