http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/btvs.jpg

->''"In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer."''

->''"Don't you ever think about anything besides boys and clothes?"''\\
''"Saving the world from vampires?"''

In 1992, JossWhedon wrote what turned out to be an [[Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer amusing film]] with a central idea he was so attached to that he jumped at the chance to re-visit it on television.

In 1997, with an abbreviated first season, ''Buffy The Vampire Slayer'' was raised from the dead on the fledgling network {{The WB}}. At its core was a subversion of the horror movie trope of the fragile and doomed Southern Californian cheerleader in a dark alley (there's an actual scene like this in the original movie) -- Buffy was a snappy, petite, blonde and when a vampire grabs hold of her and drags her into a dark alley, she turns around and kicks its ass. (Often literally; the alley behind the Bronze saw so many stakings that it was a wonder any vampires were willing to go within a mile of the place by season three.) And in general, the show promotes heavy feminist themes by featuring a literally empowered woman taking charge.

The show itself took the first movie as originally scripted as {{canon}}, not [[BroadStrokes the film that resulted.]] The show quickly established Buffy moving with her Mom to an isolated city in Southern California called Sunnydale. Initially wanting to escape the responsibilities of being [[TheChosenOne The Slayer]], she forms a tight-knit group of friends. But the [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Watchers Council]] (An AncientConspiracy who has been responsible for training Slayers for millenia) sends her a mentor named Giles to prepare her for some nasty things that are going down in Sunnydale, which happens to be the location of a [[HellGate Hellmouth]].

Joss and his team of merry writers at MutantEnemy took many [[PrettyWhiteKidsWithProblems standard teenaged issues]] ("high school is hell", "why is my boyfriend acting weird now that I've slept with him?", "now we're at college, and all my best friend wants to do is hang out with her boy/girlfriend"...) and explored them with a supernatural, self-knowing, but emotiona, eye. Most people miss this entirely, and think that the supernatural events are meant as near-literal moral consequences, rather than metaphors.

While not a smash hit at first, critical acclaim was rampant and by the second season a devoted fanbase developed. Part of its success is the very clever writing that involves what is now famously named BuffySpeak. The characters were prone to subvert a wide variety of tropes as being at least partially GenreSavvy and there is very clear, deliberate CharacterDevelopment for everyone.

In 1999, Buffy's LoveInterest {{Angel}} was [[SpinOff spun off]] into his own series set in nearby LA. {{Crossover}}s and cross-references between the two shows persisted until Buffy ended in 2003. In many ways the ''Angel'' series provides a contrast to Buffy themes as Angel was about dealing with past mistakes in comparison to the "growing up is ''hard''" notes hit by Buffy over its seven season span.

In 2007, "season eight" began, in a series of comics produced by Joss Whedon and declared as official series {{canon}}.

The influence of this show on later TV, within its genre and elsewhere, is plain to see. Modern MythArc and StoryArc based television owe at least some inspiration to this series, as well as the "superhero with high school problems" theme. As several commentators have observed, RussellTDavies had at least one eye on this show when he revived ''DoctorWho''.

This series is one of the single most TropeOverdosed and LampshadeHanging shows in existence (the term LampshadeHanging was invented by the show's creators), with over a thousand references strewn across this wiki. In fact this wiki originally ''began'' with a focus on ''Buffy'' before branching out to all of TV and eventually all of everything.
This series also has its own [[Analysis/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Analysis page]], [[Characters/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Character Page]], [[FetishFuel/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Fetish Fuel Page]], [[CrowningMoment/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Crowning Moments of Awesome]], [[WMG/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Wild Mass Guessing]], [[HoYay/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Ho Yay]] and (or course) [[JustBugsMe/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Just Bugs Me]] pages. Sadly, it has no Congressional pages. (That we know of.)

A new film of ''Buffy'' was announced in spring 2009. It will be a ContinuityReboot of the franchise, unsurprisingly, but it will also be directed by Fran Kuzui, the director of the original ''movie'', and Whedon is not on board, meaning it will have even less to do with the show than the first film did. No, we don't get it either.

----
!! Buffy is the TropeNamer for:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Meta Tropes ]]

* LampshadeHanging
* TropeOverdose

[[/folder]]

[[folder: General Tropes ]]

* BigBad
* BreakawayPopHit
* BuffySpeak
* ButtMonkey (Xander used it to refer to himself in one episode. Andrew was also frequently abused and Spike in season 4)
* FunnyAneurysmMoment
* GameFace
* InsaneTrollLogic
* {{Jossed}} (More for the creator JossWhedon but the term came from the Buffy fandom)
* {{Spikeification}} (now known more accurately as simply BadassDecay)

----
!!Archetypes include:

* TheChosenOne
* {{Herald}}
* HeroicArchetype
* MentorArchetype (Giles)
* MixedArchetypes (Heroic Trickster)
* RyuAndKen (Kendra)
* ShadowArchetype (Faith, Ethan, Adam, etc)
* [[ShapeShifting Shapeshifter]]
* StarCrossedLovers (It's JossWhedon, so, eventually, ''everyone''.)
* [[ThresholdGuardians Threshold Guardian]] (Cordelia)
* TurnCoat (Faith, Spike, etc)
* WolfMan (Oz)

!!Character tropes include:

* AbusiveParents (Almost every character on the show has at least one parent who is abusive or neglectful. For instance, Tara's father, who convinced her that she was a demon.)
* ActionGirl (Take a big guess)
* AffablyEvil (Mayor Wilkins, Harmony, Clem, Spike (after his encounter with The Initiative) pretty much all the demons who showed up to Anya and Xander's wedding, Holden Webster from "Conversations With Dead People", and occasional random vamps.)
* AliensAndMonsters
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation (JossWhedon has stated that the ending of ''Normal Again'' might actually be true.)
* {{Angrish}} (Xander drops into this when asked why he goes to the library so much. His response is a bit... hilarious and it's caused more by panic but anger but fulfills this trope.)
* AmbiguouslyGay (Andrew)
* ArthurDent (Xander)
* ArmouredClosetGay (Larry)
* AsLongAsThereIsEvil (The First)
* AxCrazy (Drusilla, Faith, Caleb, Warren Mears)
* BadassBookworm (Giles, Robin Wood in season seven)
* BadassNormal (Xander, sometimes.)
* BarrierMaiden (Dawn)
* BasementDweller (Xander, The Trio)
* BetterThanItSounds
* BlackCloak
* TheBrainlessBeauty (Harmony)
* BreakTheCutie (Willow, Dawn, Buffy herself, Anya from ''Hell's Bells'' on, arguably Riley and even Faith. Blame JossWhedon)
* BrokenBird (Faith)
* CardCarryingVillain (Glory, The Trio, vampires in general)
* ComeOutComeOutWhereverYouAre (Spike to Buffy in "School Hard.")
* CompleteMonster (Angelus. Oh dear ''Lord'', Angelus. Caleb qualifies as well. And Warren Mears post [[spoiler: killing Tara.]])
* CoolLoser
* CoolOldGuy (Giles)
* CousinOliver (Dawn again)
* {{Cult}}
* CutesyNameTown: Welcome to ''"Sunnydale,"'' the most evil and horrible place on the planet.
* DarkActionGirl (Faith)
* DarkMagicalGirl (''Also'' Faith)
* DatingCatwoman (Buffy ♥ Spike)
* DawsonCasting (Some actors were a full decade older than their characters.)
* DaydreamSurprise (Used brutally in "The Body", and "Seeing Red".)
* DeadpanSnarker (Oz, Spike, Buffy, Xander)
* DefrostingIceQueen (Cordelia)
* DemonicDummy (Subversion in season one)
* DePower (Anya; Spike; Buffy in ''Helpless'')
* DepravedBisexual (Vamp Willow and (arguably) Vamp Xander. Also arguably Andrew.)
* DepthDeception ("Aw, who's a cute little fear demon!")
* DisappearedDad (Frequent, but primarily Buffy's father.)
* DistressedDamsel (Cordelia in seasons 1 and 2, Willow fairly often, and, in a frequent subversion, Xander. Also, Dawn in seasons five and six and the potentials in season seven. Actually, every character was a Distressed Damsel sooner or later.)
* DoNotTauntCthulhu (Xander, when he sees the fear demon.)
* DoesntLikeGuns ("These things? Never helpful.")
* TheDragAlong
* TheDragon (Often)
* DramaticUnmask (Subverted by Twilight in the Season Eight comics. His neck just itches.)
* EnemyWithin (Vampires, "magic addiction", Anyanka, it goes on and on)
* EnfanteTerrible (The Anointed One)
* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex
* EvilCounterpart (Faith to Buffy, countless others.)
* EvilMentor (Maggie Walsh)
* EvilMinions
* EvilSorcerer (Warren Mears, among others)
* EvilTwin (Vamp Willow, subverted in "The Replacement")
* ExtraStrengthMasquerade
* TheFaceless (Xander's parents, generally, among others)
* FakeBoss (Spike, Mr Trick, The Initiative, Dracula, The Trio -- this happens a ''lot'')
* FallenHero (Dark Willow)
* FallenPrincess (Buffy, later Cordelia and Anya)
* FanServicePack {Willow}
* ForgottenChildhoodFriend (Billy Fordham, "Lie To Me")
* GirlPosse (The Cordettes)
* GirlishPigtails (Buffy sports pigtails during Giles' dream sequence in the episode "Restless". Buffy's attitude in the scene is that of a much younger child, and Giles is essentially her father. )
* HarmlessVillain (Harmony)
* TheHedonist (Faith)
* HeroicSacrifice (Buffy, Spike)
* HolierThanThou (Caleb)
* TheHunter
* ImplacableMan (Almost every BigBad, and they had a SubvertedTrope moment in "Innocence")
* IneffectualSympatheticVillain (Harmony)
* JekyllAndHyde (Glory and Ben, also the actual guy with a Hyde potion in series 3)
* JerkJock
* TheJuggernaut (Adam)
* KarmaHoudini (Xander, Andrew, Drusilla, arguably Willow)
**In the season 2 finale, Willow asks Xander to tell Buffy to buy some time while fighting Angelus, so that Willow can do the spell to to return Angel's soul. Instead, when Xander catches up to Buffy, he says Willow's message is: "Kick his [Angelus's] ass." Buffy ends up having to [[StakingTheLovedOne kill a re-ensouled Angel]] to save the world, which leads to a major HeroicBSOD. Xander's actions are only brought up once, years later, and even then he never suffers any consequences.
** "Once More With Feeling" has Xander summon a demon that danced several people to death and caused several unwanted confessions. No one says anything.
* KissMeIAmVirtual (April, the Buffybot)
* KnightTemplar (The Knights of Byzantium)
* TheLegionsOfHell
* LesbianVampire (Vamp Willow, more accurately a DepravedBisexual)
* TheLibby (Cordelia, initially)
*LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: By the finale, Willow is considerably more powerful than Buffy, and is probably one of the most powerful witches on earth.
* MagicalNativeAmerican (Hus in "Pangs")
* MagneticPlotDevice (The Hellmouth. And Slayers are also "Creatures of Destiny.")
* MagnificentBastard (Spike, though Ethan Rayne had a moment or two. Caleb, though a CompleteMonster, qualifies by virtue of being played by Nathan Fillion.)
* MailerDaemon (Moloch the Corruptor)
* MalignantTumor (The {{Big Bad}}s tend to follow this pattern)
* TheManBehindTheCurtain (Gachnar in "Fear, Itself")
* TheManBehindTheMan (Often)
* MasterApprenticeChain (The Master > Darla > Angelus > Drusilla > Spike)
* MauveShirt (Jonathan)
* MidlifeCrisisCar (Giles' second car)
* MixAndMatchMan (Adam)
* MonsterClown (In "Nightmares")
* {{Necromantic}} (In "Some Assembly Required", among others)
* MurderByCremation ("Never Kill a Boy on the First Date")
* TheNiles (Wesley)
* NobleDemon (Spike)
* NoBodyLeftBehind
* NonActionGuy (Xander)
* NotSoHarmless (Warren and the Trio)
* OneWingedAngel (Mayor Wilkins)
* TheOphelia (Drusilla and, to some extent, Tara after Glory wrecks her mind).
* OurDemonsAreDifferent
* PhysicalGod (Glory)
* PlayingWithSyringes (Adam)
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain (Part of what makes Caleb a CompleteMonster. Same for Warren Mears)
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy (Kulak of the Miquot, evil version of this trope)
* PsychoLesbian (Willow after Tara's death)
* ThePunishment (Angel)
* TheQuietOne (Oz)
* TheQuisling (Faith)
* RaisedByWolves (Anya)
* RedemptionEqualsDeath (Jenny Calendar, whose life expectancy was measured in hours after the Scoobies forgave her for lying to them)
* TheRenfield (Xander in "Buffy Vs. Dracula", Glory's minions)
* RivalTurnedEvil (Faith)
* SacrificialLamb (Jesse)
* SacrificialLion (Many, many of them)
* SadClown (Xander)
* SadistTeacher (Principal Snyder)
* ScarsAreForever (Xander's eye)
* SealedEvilInACan (The Master, Acathla, many others)
* ShrinkingViolet (Willow, Marcie Ross, Tara)
* SmartPeoplePlayChess (A chessboard can be seen in Giles' house.)
* SoapBoxSadie (Willow, at times)
* TeenGenius (Willow)
* TeensAreMonsters
* TerribleTrio (The Trio)
* TreacherousAdvisor (Gwendolyn Post, Doc)
* UnluckyChildhoodFriend (Willow)
* VainSorceress (Catherine Madison)
* WarriorPoet (Spike. Made actual poems too, although the only example we saw was quite, quite terrible.)
* TheWesley (Riley...just...Riley)
* WhoYouGonnaCall (The Slayer)
* WomanScorned (Anyanka)
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds (How ''you'' doin', Willow?)
----
!!Tropes:

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer
* AccidentalMurder (The launching event for both Faith and Willow's [[HeelFaceTurn heel face turns.]])
* AcceptableTargets (Wiccans, rather suprisingly, are portrayed quite negatively, at least by "real" witch Willow)
* AdaptationDisplacement
* AllBikersAreHellsAngels
* AllLoveIsUnrequited (initially)
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian
* TheAllegedCar (Giles' first car)
* AlwaysChaoticEvil (Vampires and, initially, demons)
* {{Anvilicious}} (Willow's storyline in season six, the season four beer episode)
* AppliedPhlebotinum
* AnyoneCanDie (Ms. Calendar, Joyce, Tara, etc.)
* BadGuyBar (Willy's)
* BecauseDestinySaysSo
* BechdelTest, although Joss was disappointed critics couldn't see the value of this trope over GirlsNeedRoleModels.
* BecomingTheCostume ("Halloween")
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy (Caligula and Jack the Ripper were the same vampire, and Anya was partially responsible for the Russian Revolution)
* BewareTheNiceOnes (when Willow snaps in season six, she ''snaps'')
* BlessedAreTheCheesemakers (The Cheese Man)
* BloodlessCarnage (''Lots'' of death, lots of vampires sucking blood out of people, a few plain old slit throats, very little red.)
* BroadStrokes (Between this series and the original movie.)
* ByTheEyesOfTheBlind
* CaliforniaUniversity
* CantCatchUp
* CarnivalOfKillers
* CharacterOverlap
* CharacterMagneticTeam
* ChopSockey
* ClippedWingAngel (The Mayor)
* CollectibleCardGame
* ConflictKiller (Spike then Angelus in Season 2, Adam in Season 4, and Willow in Season 6)
* ConspiracyRedemption (The Initiative)
* CosmicRetcon (Dawn)
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: That opening theme.
* CuckooNest (''Normal Again'', very scarily played)
* CurseEscapeClause: Angel is cursed with a soul [[CantHaveSexEver until he has a moment of perfect happiness.]] Buffy helps break the curse, and then needs to find a way to repair it...
* TheDanza: Larry Bagby III as Larry.
* DateRapeAverted: Violently.
* DeadlyGuest (Good lord, by this point someone should have slapped Sunnydale with the label "Death Trap" with all the times this trope is invoked.)
* DeadMansChest: In "Inca Mummy Girl" the mummy hid the body of the real Ampata in one of his trunks.
* DeadManWriting: The Mayor's video for Faith.
* DeadStarWalking (Amber Benson as Tara)
* DeconstructorFleet (The blond girl doesn't die, even after having sex -- she instead turns out to be GenreSavvy and an ActionGirl and proceeds to kick vampire butt.)
* DefiedTrope
* DidNotDoTheResearch (Whenever the military or large scale combat appears.)
* DisneyDeath (Buffy's death in "Prophecy Girl")
* DoomedAppointment (Ms. Calendar)
* EasyAmnesia (in the episode "Tabula Rasa")
* EmbarrassingCoverUp
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt (Frequent)
* EpicSong ("Walk Through the Fire", from the {{Musical Episode}}, "Once More With Feeling")
* EstrangedSoapFamily (Hank Summers, who was gradually retconned into being a dead beat dad. He made one reappearance in later seasons, but as part of the CuckooNest)
* EvilMeScaresMe ("The way Willow feels about the Dopplegandland Willow")
* [[FetishFuel Faith]] [[DracoInLeatherPants In Leather Pants]] (Those pants are personally responsible for most symapathetic views of Faith in fanfic. And many, ''many'' squiggly feelings in this female troper.)
* FantasticReligiousWeirdness (Willow nailing crosses to her bedroom as well as more general cosmology)
* FindingJudas (The musical episode)
* FishPeople (The [[{{Mutants}} mutated]] swim team in "Go Fish")
* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires (but not very many)
* FutureBadass
* GloryDays (a witch switches places with her cheerleader daughter because she misses being a cheerleader)
* GondorCallsForAid
* GoodFeelsGood (Faith, when she was in Buffy's body masquerading as her)
** Also Anya, concerning the incident where she loses her demon status for the second time, though that would be more appropriately characterized as Bad Feels Bad.
* GoshDangItToHeck (The Mayor)
* GRatedDrug (Magic during season 6, especially during the episode "Wrecked")
* GraveClouds (in a first-season episode, it is always night in a graveyard that had been magically relocated next to Sunnydale High)
* GroundhogDayLoop
* GroupieBrigade ("Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered")
* GuardingThePortal (a major part of the series premise)
* GunsAreUseless
* HardWorkHardlyWorks (Amy's motivation for hating uber witch Willow by the seventh season)
* HauntedTechnology ("I Robot, You Jane")
* HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster, one of the trope namers. Done twice, with Buffy coming out to her mother as a Slayer and Willow coming out to her mother as a witch. Then Willow just plain comes out. SoYeah.
* HeyItsThatGuy: Now with its own [[HeyItsThatGuy/BuffyTheVampireSlayer page.]]
* HiddenDepths (Cordelia, Oz)
* HumanSacrifice
* IHateYouVampireDad
* IJustWantToBeSpecial (Xander and Dawn)
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice
* InverseDialogueDeathRule
* IWantSong ("Going Through the Motions" from "Once More With Feeling" is referred to as this by Whedon himself in the commentary)
* IWorkAlone
* JumpedAtTheCall (Faith)
* JustAKid
* LampshadeHanging (Whedon appears to have bought up an entire IKEA worth of lampshades, here and in his other work)
* MagicFloppyDisk (Ms. Calendar's spell, Maggie Walsh's data)
* MagneticPlotDevice (The only reason the Hellmouth existed was as a perpetual handwave, only a few villains are directly connected to it.)
* MakeOutPoint (Oz goes when he's a werewolf; Dawn goes with two vampires)
* MaskOfPower (''Dead Man's Party'' and the Nigerian zombie mask. Note a MaskOfPower that does not need to be worn.)
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Done at least twice, first with the episode that leaves us unsure if Buffy is actually in a mental institution and the whole show has been dreamed up by her, and also with the blizzard that prevents Angel from killing himself.
* {{Mayincatec}}: "Inca Mummy Girl" where the titular mummy was a victim of human sacrifice.
* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: In the episode "Earshot."
* TheMinnesotaFats (Subverted in "Superstar")
* MonsterOfTheWeek
* MusicalEpisode ("Once More, With Feeling")
* MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels ("The cow should touch me from Thursday.")
** Also, "Debase the beef canoe".
* NeverSayThatAgain
* NeverBringAKnifeToAFistfight
* NotSoInvincibleAfterAll
* OffscreenAfterlife (twice -- Buffy in Heaven and Angel in Hell)
* OptOut (Anya got the hell out of Dodge before Graduation Day. Contrast with fifth and seventh season finales)
* OurVampiresAreDifferent
* PickOnSomeoneYourOwnSize: Buffy gets this a lot, from both male and female villains.
* PutOnABus (Oz, Faith, Angel, and Cordy; of course, we know [[{{Angel}} where the latter two went]] ([[{{Angel}} Faith too, actually]].)
**Don't forget about Amy, who spent three years as a rat
** TheBusCameBack: Oz and Riley both get episodes like this.
* RetroactiveWish (In "Triangle")
* {{Robocam}} (Buffybot POV)
* RomanceOnTheSet
* ScapegoatCreator (Marti Noxon)
* ScreamingWoman (Subverted in "Hush")
* SeasonFinale
* SeriesFauxnale
* ShuttingUpNow: Xander, when singing about witches.
* SickEpisode ("Killed by Death")
* SmashToBlack
* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil
* SpoilersOff (This show is at the top of the list. Remember that, tropers.)
* StakingTheLovedOne (several times, most notably with Angelus)
* StoryArc
* SuperpoweredEvilSide (Willow during early Season 7, especially the scene in "Selfless" where she reverts to her evil personality for a few seconds while fending off a spider demon.)
* SwordFight (Becoming, Part 2. Hell yes.)
* TeamRocketWins (Vampires -- run of the mill, common vampires, under no leadership but their own -- have bested Buffy on a couple of occasions and are among the most common sources of Slayer overall deaths in the series)
* TerribleTicking
* ThereIsAnother
* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil
* TomeOfEldritchLore
* TooSoon (the {{Columbine}} massacre caused the season 3 episode "Earshot", originally set to air just four days after the shooting, to be delayed by several months)
* TrashTheSet (many times)
* TrojanPrisoner
* TropeOverdosed (dear lord...)
* TruceZone (Willy's Bar)
* TryNotToDie
* UltimateEvil
* UndeadChild (The Anointed One in seasons 1 and 2)
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee ("Graduation Day, Part Two")
* VideoWills (Mayor Wilkins)
* VillainSong ("What You Feel")
* VillainPedigree (Vampires, the {{Big Bad}}s for the first two seasons, are little more than no-name {{Mook}}s by the end)
* TheVirus (Vampirism)
* VanityLicensePlate (Cordelia's car has QUEEN C for its plates)
* VampireHunter: No shit Sherlock.
* VillainOnABus: The First Evil & (to a lesser extent) Spike
* WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld
* WallGlower (Spike)
* {{Wangst}}
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway
* WhatNowEnding
* WhatYouAreInTheDark
* YearInsideHourOutside
* YouHaveFailedMe - The Master kills one of his minions in episode 2. "You have something in your eye."
* YourVampiresSuck (Aimed at Anne Rice a few times, but Buffy's also been on the receiving end)
* YouShouldKnowThisAlready (Angel is a vampire. A big deal when revealed in the sixth episode.)
* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb

----
<<|AmericanSeries|>>
<<|TropeOverdosed|>>