History Characters / BuffyTheVampireSlayerRegulars

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[[redirect:Characters/BuffyTheVampireSlayerRegulars]]

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The other pages are:
[[index]]
* [[Characters/BuffyTheVampireSlayerAntagonists Buffy Antagonists]]
* [[Characters/BuffyTheVampireSlayerRecurringAndMinorCharacters Recurring And Minor Characters]]
* Characters/AngelInvestigations
* Characters/AngelWolframAndHart
* Characters/AngelOtherEnemies
* [[Characters/BuffyTheVampireSlayerComic Dark Horse Comic Characters]]
[[/index]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:In General]]
!!Tropes that apply to the Scooby Gang as a whole:
%%* {{Adorkable}}: They all have their moments.
* BadassCrew: The Scoobies are a handful of humans and vampires that keep all the nasties in the Hellmouth from overrunning the world.
* BadassNormal: Xander is the most prominent example because he stays relevant even after his friends have become mages or werewolves or Super Soldiers. Giles and Anya also count to a degree.
* DeadpanSnarker: Buffy and Xander are the most prominent, [[WorldOfSnark but they all have their moments]].
* FireForgedFriends: Not only did they first become friends via slaying, a good fight is generally ''the'' best solution to any strife between them.
* GoodIsNotSoft: They're all nice kids and Giles is a QuintessentialBritishGentleman, but they've killed a lot of monsters.
* HeroWithBadPublicity: As of Season 8, many people believe them to be a speciesist group preying on vampires.
* KidHero: Most of them started demon fighting when they were back in high school.
* ThouShaltNotKillMuggles: The group insists that, while demons are fair game, humans are out of their jurisdiction period, though Buffy is the most adamant on this.
[[/folder]]

!The Original Scooby Gang

[[folder:Buffy]]
!!Buffy Anne Summers
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/summers_buffy_anne_7462.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I'm going to give you all a nice, fun, normal evening, if I have to kill every single person on the face of the earth to do it."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Creator/SarahMichelleGellar

-->''"Cool! Crossbow! Check out these babies. Goodbye stakes, hello flying fatality."''

The Slayer, main heroine, and unofficial leader of the Scoobies (when not fighting with Giles and Faith for control). Barbie with a kung-fu grip. Started out as a reluctant heroine, but grew to accept her destiny. For much of the show's run, she was the only really combat-capable character. [[DeathIsCheap Died twice]].

----
* ABirthdayNotABreak: ''Every single time'' her birthday is celebrated on-screen, it's followed by a big-time supernatural incident or crisis, the first of which being the [[SplitPersonalityTakeover return of Angelus]].
* ActionGirl:
** WordOfGod states the seed for Buffy was to take the opening of every horror movie and turn it on its head; namely, the dim blonde walks into the dark alley, a monster appears, and the girl rips the monster a new one.
** The movie and the TV series both feature such a scene: in the film, Buffy is told off for being an idiot. In the pilot episode, she clobbers Angel from above. And in the very first scene of the show, Darla chows down on a creeper while wearing a schoolgirl outfit.
* ActionFashionista: She has an extensive wardrobe. When joining the Initiative, she turns down their practical black-clad nightgear because it looks too ''Private Benjamin'' for her. The exception is when Buffy is having a crisis of confidence and changes into her Dungarees of Doom.
%%* {{Adorkable}}: Almost as much as Xander and Willow.
* AdultFear: Buffy comes home to find her mother dead on the couch. Buffy, a girl who fights vampires and demons, is reduced to a near catatonic state clearly wondering how long Joyce had been in the house and if she could have been saved. It gets worse several episodes later when, despite the Scoobies' best efforts, her sister Dawn is still captured.
* AerithAndBob: As is constantly {{Lampshaded}}, Buffy plus About Most of the Cast and Whoever's Left.
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Lampshaded by Buffy herself in "Something Blue" when she worries that a nice, safe relationship would lack the intensity.
* AllWomenLoveShoes: Buffy and Cordelia have one thing in common.
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: A more familial example: in "The Gift," she flat-out admits that she's perfectly willing to let Glory destroy the world as long as it means she can save and protect Dawn to the very end.
* AmbiguouslyBi: In ''Season 8'' Buffy has sex with LipstickLesbian Slayer Satsu, Twice, and then admits she can never return Satsu's affections. Then in ''Season 9'' she [[spoiler: thinks she slept with Willow after a night of partying, but didn't.]] This is likely due to the Buffyverse having NoBisexuals.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: She's the most combat-capable of the Scoobies, and their de facto leader. When she left at the end of season 2, the Scoobies picked up the slack without her, and got [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] by common vampires. It got to the point that, after her death in season 5, the Scoobies had to reactivate and reprogram the Buffybot to make ''any'' dent in Sunnydale's demon population.
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Buffy being given the Class Protector Award qualifies as a crowning.
* {{Badass}}: As the slayer, she was kicking vampire ass before the series started.
%%** BadassAdorable:
* BadassAngster: Often angst about her destiny of vampire slayer but especially in season 7 which was outright depression.
* BadassBoast: To the first Turok-Han:
--> "I'm the thing that monsters have nightmares about. And right now, you and me are gonna show 'em ''why''.
* BadLiar[=/=]BlatantLies: Buffy exhibits this trait on a few occasions. She seems to subliminally ''want'' to be caught out in her Slayer duties, but the adults around her are too wrapped up in denial. In ''Buffy'' season 4/''Angel'' season 1, when she chases Faith to L.A. and is arguing with Angel after Faith turns herself in, Buffy insists to Angel that she came because he was in danger (Faith ''was'' previously trying to kill him under Wolfram & Hart's employ), but Angel doesn't buy it for a second and accuses her of only coming for vengeance; Buffy doesn't even try to deny that.
* BareHandedBladeBlock: Pulls it off against Angelus at the end of season 2.
* BastardGirlfriend: To Spike. It's all fun and games until she realizes she's turned into a funhouse mirror version of Faith, the woman who molested and almost strangled Xander in a fit of pique.
* BatDeduction: In Season 6, when [[NotSoHarmlessVillain Warren]] [[MoralEventHorizon kills his ex-girlfriend Katrina]] and uses magic and time-distorting demons to trick Buffy into thinking that ''she'' was the one who did it. Just as she is about to turn herself in to the police and it looks like Warren's EvilPlan will succeed, she overhears the cops identify Katrina's body and immediately realizes Warren's scheme.
* BattleCouple: With Angel (after he drops the cryptic wise man act), Riley (after he discovers her SecretIdentity), and later Spike (once his "lovesick poet" personality comes out to play).
* BeautifulDreamer: Spike says that just [[SecurityCling holding Buffy]] and watching her sleep was the most beautiful night of his life. Also, after Angel lost his soul, he would watch Buffy sleep (and draw pictures of her). While it was probably to intimidate her, it was established that he had an obsession with her, akin to what he felt for the human Drusilla.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Very sweet and friendly but there is a reason vampires and demons are so afraid of her.
* BigSisterInstinct: To Dawn. [[spoiler: She'd rather risk the world then allow her to be killed.]]
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Eventually comes off as such in season 7, to the extent that both the Scoobies and the Potentials get fed up with her bossiness, as well as having doubts over both her leadership skills and methods, and finally decide that Faith would be a better leader and kick her out. [[note]] Within one episode, this decision blows up in their faces ([[TimeBomb literally]]) and Buffy's back in command. [[/note]] This is why she spends most of season 7 with Spike: he's the only one who can still stand to be around her.
* BlessedWithSuck[=/=]CursedWithAwesome: Generally she views her slayer powers as a hassle but sometimes they come in handy.
* BookDumb: Truth be told, much of her Book Dumbness comes from just being too busy saving humanity to study.
* BraidsOfAction: Buffy, when on patrol, has the "two-braids" version. Alternate Buffy, from "The Wish," as the "one-braid" version.
* BreakTheCutie: This is a Josh Whedon production. Cuties are inevitably broken; Season 7.
* BrilliantButLazy: She often skipped training or trained on her own time. It wasn't until Season 5 that she took training seriously.
* BroughtDownToNormal: In Season 3's "Helpless," Giles is forced to strip her of her powers using powerful mixtures of adrenaline suppressors and muscle relaxers as part of her Cruciamentum, a rite of passage to test the Slayer's intellect and wit.
* BullyHunter: She throws down [[JerkJock Larry]], defends Xander and Willow and when suspected witches start being targeted she steps in, causing the group of thugs to back off without her saying or doing a thing.
* BuffySpeak: TropeNamer
* FluffyTheTerrible
-->'''Xander:''' Someone has to talk to her, people. That name is striking fear in nobody's hearts.
** Even her allies can't quite believe it:
-->'''Ancient Guardian:''' What's your name?
-->'''Buffy:''' Buffy.
-->'''Ancient Guardian:''' No, really?
* BurgerFool: In Season 6 being desperately short of money, she's forced to take a job slinging burgers at the Doublemeat Palace.
* CameBackStrong: Shortly before her battle with the Master, Buffy overheard from Giles that she was prophesied to die in the struggle. Terrified at the thought of dying young, she was no match for the Master, who easily overpowered her and left her to die in a pool. After being resuscitated (technically 'dying' for a minute), Buffy felt renewed strength at cheating fate and faced the Master again and won.
* CameBackWrong: What Buffy believes she has becomes in Season 6, after Willow reanimates her cadaver using dark rites and blood of animals. Indeed, Spike's chip no longer reads her as human. Ultimately subverted; the spell only altered her molecular structure very slightly, but just enough to confuse Spike's chip.
* CartwrightCurse: All of her boyfriends either dump her (Angel, Riley) or die (Spike).
** LoveHurts: So, ''so'' much.
* TheCastShowOff: All that ass Buffy kicks? Creator/SarahMichelleGellar is in fact a kickboxer and black belt in tae kwon do. That won't do for the Gods of Irony. Therefore, Gellar also happens to be terrified of graveyards.
* CasualKink: Bondage, BDSM, handcuffs, spanking, naughty outfits, porn and biting are suggested to be just some of her interests. Yowza.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: If it sucks to be the Slayer than it also sucks to be the Head Slayer.
* TheCheerleader: Pre-series; the last time she so much as mentions it is in the third episode because she doesn't have time for it. Also, Giles couldn't stand the idea.
* ChildSoldier: Not as overt thanks to DawsonCasting, but when you forcibly recruit a fifteen year-old girl to fight monsters...
* TheChosenOne: "Into each generation, there is a chosen one....She is the slayer."
* ClingyJealousGirl: Frequently jumping to conclusions about Angel being involved with [[BettyAndVeronica Drusilla or Cordelia or Faith]]. Her jealous nature was tempered in later relationships, partly because she wore the pants by that time.
* CombatPragmatist: Using improvised weapons, [[GroinAttack kicking Angelus in the groin]]... the list goes on.
* ComfortFood: "When this is over I'm thinking pineapple pizza and teen video movie fest. Possibly something from the Ringwald oeuvre." There's also the Buffy sized tub of chicken she brings back from her intense visit to Angel when she was brought BackFromTheDead.
%%* CoolBigSis: To Dawn.
* CoolLoser: It should be noted that the resident AlphaBitch ''does'' scout her out to be one of the "cool girls" when she first arrives in Sunnydale, but her vampire-fighting ways quickly get her pegged as a violent juvenile delinquent. Which, technically, she is.
* CovertPervert: When hit with a love spell she tries stripping for Xander, and when normal she gets worse (better?) as the series progresses.
* CuteBruiser: Xander thinks so. [[AmazonChaser He has a thing for slayers.]]
* DarkAgeOfSupernames: Buffy Summers fits more with a trope below. What she's known as, the Slayer, definitely counts.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: She admits to thinking of her boyfriend before moving to Sunnydale, listening to the song "I Touch Myself." [[BlatantLies Before claiming not to know what the song meant]].
* DatingCatwoman: Managed to woo quite a few Big Leaguers in the vampire world, including Count Dracula himself. The notorious vampires Angel and Spike both fell hard for her, and show no signs of moving on anytime soon. She even attracted the attention of The Immortal, an Italian Lothario who had racked up quite a hit count in his own right; in this case, however, The Immortal was duped into dating an impostor.
* DeadpanSnarker: Often slinging some witty line at Giles for too serious (or too british) or the MonsterOfTheWeek or something else.
* DefectorFromDecadence: She never really cares about what the Watchers' Council has to say about how she does things. During season 3, she gets particularly disgusted when their Cruciamentum test results in the AxCrazy vampire they captured to test her breaking loose and kidnapping her mom, and when they refuse to help her save Angel after he is poisoned [[VanHelsingHateCrimes simply for being a vampire]], that was the straw that broke the camel's back: she cuts all ties with them for over a year.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Once. The second time there was a price to pay; Buffy suffers major depression that lasts the entire season.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Buffy is usually the one to do this, taking out the invincible Judge, Mayor, Glory and Caleb.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: When she had Willow activate all Slayers worldwide, it didn't occurred to Buffy that not all of the newly empowered Slayers would be willing to use their powers for good, with one Slayer in particular, Simone Doffler, becoming a terrorist and obsessed with killing her, and another, a mental patient named Dana, breaking out of a mental hospital and causing all manner of trouble for the Angel Investigations team in L.A.
* DisappearedDad: Divorced, and later [[PutOnABus vanishes overseas]] when Buffy really could use his help after her mother dies.
* DisneyDeath: Clinical death and the outright resurrection.
* [[DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength Does Not Know Her Own Strength]]: At times. For example, during the season one episode "Witch", she accidentally throws one of her classmates across the gym during cheerleading practice, and in Season Five's "Into the Woods", accidentally crushes the doctor who operated on her mother while hugging him in relief.
* DoesntLikeGuns: Partly because GunsAreWorthless against most supernatural beings, and partly because of Tara's death.
* DontYouDarePityMe: A variation. After revealing her mutually-abusive sexual relationship with Spike to Tara, Buffy tearfully begs Tara to ''not'' forgive her; not out of anger, but because she's so disgusted with herself that she doesn't think she deserves pity.
* TheDreaded: The aforementioned BadassBoast is not inaccurate at all.
* DrillSergeantNasty: Really nasty. After Chloe kills herself Buffy calls her a weak idiot and lashes out at everyone.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: "Summers, you drive like a spaz!"
* EasilyForgiven: By her family and friends, despite engaging in behavior ranging from jerkass ("When She Was Bad") to blatantly irresponsible ("Revelations") to insanely murderous ("Normal Again"). This is partly because the Scooby Gang genuinely admire Buffy's heroism, but also because their lives depend on her, plus when a Slayer goes off the rails [[BewareTheSuperman there's not much they can do about it]]. Besides, most of them have gone homicidally evil at some point, so it's kinda hard to judge.
* {{Expy}}: Buffy, as a character, is largely based on Kitty Pryde, a character in ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}.'' It's been theorized she was inspired by Regina and Samantha Belmont of ''Film/NightOfTheComet'': blonde, Californian morons who find themselves battling the undead.
* FallenPrincess: From AlphaBitch and Prom Queen at her last school, to a violent and flaky suspected-arsonist who hangs out with losers and is somehow involved with all the weird stuff in Sunnydale that no-one likes to talk about.
* FlyingBrick: [[spoiler:After getting a power-up in Season 8.]]
%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Choleric
* GallowsHumor: Buffy has always had a morbid sense of humor; in Season Six after she's brought back from the dead it tends to get a DudeNotFunny reaction from the Scoobies.
* GenreSavvy: As appropriate for TheProtagonist of the show that gave birth to this very wiki, she can easily spot tropes.
* GirlyBruiser: Cheerleading, dancing, and boychasing whenever she's not busy slaying vampires. In the season one finale, she killed The Master while wearing a prom dress. Her overt girliness does wane considerably after the first season however, and even during the first season some aspects (like the cheerleading) drop away very quickly.
* GoodIsNotSoft: She fights vampires and demons, but those who are human and evil she treats with particular disdain.
* HealingFactor: Buffy will generally recover from her injuries in a matter of hours, or at most a day or two.
* HeavenSeeker: In Season 6 because she was there before Willow revived her and the pull back was traumatic.
* {{The Hero}}ine: She is the Slayer and so it is her job to kill bad guys ForGreatJustice.
* HeroWithBadPublicity: A tragic irony is that Joyce and Principal Flutie assume Buffy is a juvenile delinquent, when she's actually trying to do the right thing. Then in Season 8 she literally has bad publicity, while the vampires are [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Villains With Good Publicity]].
* HeroicSecondWind: During her fights with the Master, Angelus, Glory, and the First.
%%* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Willow
%%* HighSchoolHustler
* HighlyConspicuousUniform: Buffy often patrols wearing bright colors to lure out vamps.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Her attitude towards [[TheMagicGoesAway causing the end of magic]] during season 9, hence why she repeatedly dismisses Willow's concerns. She only accepts the true magnitude of it when she discovers that [[spoiler: Dawn is dying without magic]].
* IJustWantToBeNormal: She grows more accepting of her Slayer duties as time grows on, but the desire to be normal never completely goes away.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: She certainly qualifies, since she frequently uses improvised weapons to kill vampires, especially in the early seasons. Most of these are improvised stakes, ranging in size from a pencil to a mop handle (and, in "Homecoming", she stakes a vampire with a ''spatula''). She also decapitates a vampire with a cymbal in "The Harvest".
* IncompatibleOrientation: With Satsu. Even though Buffy is flattered, and sleeps with her (twice!), she is quite adamant that she is not a lesbian and they can't be together.
* InformedFlaw: A complicated example. Buffy is supposed to be a inversion of the girly blonde cheerleader who gets killed by the monster in a {{horror}} film. It's implied that the Buffy movie takes place before the series and there she ''started out'' as the girly bimbo cheerleader, but that becoming TheChosenOne put an end to that. The show doesn't start until ''after'' she has [[TookALevelInBadass Taken A Level In Badass.]]
* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: As early as the first episode she knows how much it sucks to be the Slayer: kicked out of school, losing friends, going out behind her mother's back, etc.
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: The time she used a cross and a vampire's burning throat and actually doing what the TropeNamer only threatened.
%%* KickChick
* KickTheSonOfABitch: Her beatdown of Glory in the fifth season finale counts as this. The way Glory is [[VillainousBreakdown breaking down]] near the end and tearfully begging for mercy ''almost'' compels you to feel sorry for her... until you remember that Glory had {{Mind Rape}}d Tara, threatened Buffy's family while confronting Buffy in her own home, and all in all put Buffy through a hell of a lot of pain and overall bullshit for the past year. Buffy certainly doesn't bother with pity and [[TranquilFury calmly]] beats Glory to a bloody pulp.
%%* LethalChef
%%* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: The Light to Faith's Dark.
%%* LightningBruiser
* MaamShock: For a different reason than normal: when Satsu calls her ma'am, Buffy remarks that she can't believe she thinks that it is hot.
* TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife:
-->"Dates are things normal girls have. Girls who have time to think about nail polish and facials. You know what I think about? Ambush tactics. Beheading. Not exactly the stuff dreams are made of."
* MasterOfTheMixedMessage: Tells Satsu that she can't be with her, but sleeps with her; twice. Poor Satsu was more than a little confused.
** And with Spike in Season 6, swinging between attraction and outright rejection, leading to some serious consequences in "Seeing Red".
* MayflyDecemberRomance: Both her main love interests are vampires. It can be argued that ''all'' her romances will end up as this, as Slayers don't exactly have long lifespans.
* MemeticSexGod (In Universe): According to Spike she can go for five hours straight. There's also the handcuffs and the bite marks and other things he's utterly blown away by.
* MommyIssues: With Joyce because she had to keep the slayer thing secret. Then her mother becomes more supportive of her.
* MuggingTheMonster: About OnceAnEpisode. [[InvertedTrope She's the monster]].
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: When it comes to demons, Buffy, as per her job description, will inevitably slay or attempt to slay them if they do something evil.
* MusclesAreMeaningless: She's not [[IncrediblyLamePun buff]] by any stretch of the imagination. She doesn't need to be -- she's the Slayer, she can throw down with anything short of an invincible BigBad or demon-human-cyborg hybrid, or PhysicalGod.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Has this twice, once in Season 6, when she learns that [[spoiler: she ''didn't'' [[CameBackWrong come back wrong]] and has been doing all sorts of horrible stuff of her own free will]], and again in Season 8 when [[spoiler: Giles is killed, magic is destroyed, and the Slayer line is ended, as a result of her [[FanNickname space frak]] with Angel.]]
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The Slayer.
* TheNeidermeyer: Sure, AsskickingEqualsAuthority and all, but some of her command decisions, especially in Seasons Six and Seven, are just awful and lead to a lot of people getting hurt needlessly. The Scoobies were right to question her judgment, and her defense of these bad decisions ("I'm the Slayer, do it my way because I say so") was less than convincing.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Creating the Twilight dimension by screwing Angel, which let thousands of demons invade Earth, which resulted in the destruction of the Seed of Wonder and removed all magic from the world]].
* [[NotHimself Not Herself:]] [[OnceAnEpisode Once a season,]] beginning with her stressing over The Master, then getting over the traumatic events that ended with her killing Angel. A demon tries to steal her soul, she has to deal with her Retconned sister, she sacrifices herself to save her sister only for her friends to bring her back to life (and pull her from heaven to hell on earth) and crack under the pressure of trying to command.
* ObliviousToLove: Seeing her on her first day at Sunnydale High caused Xander to fall head over heels, literally, as he crashes into a railing. Buffy, however, is completely clueless as to his feelings until he asks her to the dance in the season finale. Then in ''Season Eight'', when Buffy's loneliness and need for stability compels her to go to Xander. Xander declines, having long since decided he and Buffy are BetterAsFriends.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Buffy. Sword. Gut. GrandFinale.
* OnlyMostlyDead: In "Prophecy Girl," after the Master drowned her.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: If she ever willingly kills or attempts to kill another human being, you know things are getting bad.
* TheOtherDarrin: To anyone who's seen the movie.
* PersonAsVerb: The inimitable Buffyspeak.
* PintsizedPowerhouse: Who knew a highschool girl could pack such a punch?
* PlatonicLifePartners: With Xander eventually. To get there he had to get over his crush on her and she had to stop thinking of him as a simple 'friend'.
* PromotionToParent: After Joyce's death Buffy is forced to take over the parenting of Dawn.
* RageAgainstTheReflection: Her attempts to rediscover her passion in a DestructiveRomance with Spike during season 6 only make things worse. When Buffy (incorrectly) thinks she has murdered an innocent woman, she savagely beats an unresisting Spike, describing him in terms that clearly mirror her own fears over what she has become.
--> "You don't have a soul! There is nothing good or clean in you. You are dead inside! You can't feel anything real!"
* RefusalOfTheCall: She comes to Sunnydale to get away from her delinquent reputation and Slayer responsibilities, and is not happy to find a Watcher already in place waiting for her.
* RelativeButton: Do not threaten Dawn.
* ReluctantWarrior: Very much so, especially during the high school seasons. Giles has to do everything short of grabbing her by the hair.
* ResurrectionSickness: Upon her resurrection in season 6, Buffy is initially disoriented and out of it for a while, and is depressed and self-destructive until the sixth season finale.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Provoked by Faith stealing Buffy's body, and her boyfriend too. Once back in her own skin, Buffy becomes a bloodhound, chasing Faith all the way to Los Angeles with an intent to kill, only to form an EnemyMine with Faith to fight off the Watchers' Council black ops and be satisfied by Faith's voluntary incarceration.
* RousingSpeech: Pointed out in Season 7 that she's too good at this. She once gave a RousingSpeech to a telephone repairman. Averted in "The Gift", much to the bemusement of fellow Brits Giles and Spike, who were expecting something more Shakespearean.
* {{Sex God}}dess: At least twice in Season 4, it's suggested that Buffy's superhuman physical abilities translate to bedroom prowess; both her one-night stand Parker and Faith, who steals her body in a GrandTheftMe plot, comment explicitly on the matter. In Season 6 Spike mentions having sex for five hours straight and raves about what an animal she is; he specifically mentions biting -- coming from a vampire, that's an impressive recommendation!
* ShesGotLegs: They get a good showing in "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered".
* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend[=/=]HeIsNotMyBoyfriend: Says this word for word to Willow about Satsu and a RunningGag with Spike before, during and after their relationship.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Coming back from the dead is no picnic, as Buffy is to discover twice.
* StarCrossedLovers: With Angel, the ensouled vampire that kills other vampires. Somewhat with Spike--destiny doesn't keep them apart, their own insecurities and fears do.
%%* StreetSmart
* SuperStrength: It's one of her slayer powers.
* TeensAreShort: Creator/SarahMichelleGellar is a good five inches shorter than the actress playing her mother, and eventually ends up shorter than her 'little' sister.
* ThouShaltNotKill: She acknowledges that [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans can be just as bad, if not even worse, than demons]], but ''flat-out refuses'' to take a human life. Of course, she makes exceptions from time to time.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Jumped into {{Jerkass}} territory with both feet after killing The Master, and slides into this after her [[CameBackWrong resurrection]]. This eventually leads to a WhatTheHellHero from the others, particularly in Season 7, where she's kicked out of her house for being too bossy around the girls under her care.
* UnresolvedSexualTension: With Spike. After their relationship fell apart in season 6, they spent most of season 7 walking on eggshells despite still obviously having feelings. Then circumstances were such they had to go their separate ways and didn't reunite until season 9...at which point they still failed to resolve anything.
* UpbringingMakesTheHero: DiscussedTrope with her comparisons to DarkActionGirl Faith. Losing any strong family figures (Joyce's death, Giles leaving) proves the trope correct.
* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Never ever ever ''ever'' harm her boyfriends. Not even Giles is safe from her wrath, as he finds out when he tries to kill Spike in season 7.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Faith in the third season up until Faith [[FaceHeelTurn joined the Dark Side.]]
%%* WaifFu
* WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld: Early seasons were split between Buffy's slayer duties and her studies/dating life.
* WeaknessTurnsHerOn: She quite enjoys [[FlorenceNightingaleEffect nursing Angel back to health]], and says that Riley looked "even cuter when all weak and kitteny". In the Season 8 Comics we discover one of Buffy's sexual fantasies involves Angel and Spike chained to her, with Buffy dressed in a NaughtyNurseOutfit.
* WeaponOfChoice: The simple wooden stake, even against non-vampires. What else would a slayer prefer? She even has a crossbow for them.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Avoids killing humans, but will readily take out evil demons. Case in point: when Willow turns evil and kills Warren in season 6, Buffy tries her very best to help her and worries for her sake more than for the people she's trying to kill. When Anya grants a wish that kills several frat boys in season 7, Buffy immediately decides that MurderIsTheBestSolution and Anya can't be reasoned with like Willow because Willow is human and Anya isn't. It's part of the job description.
* WhatTheHellHero: EVERYONE freaks out on her (Xander, Willow, and Joyce in particular) when she comes back from running away at the end of Season 2, to the point where she wants to run away again. Willow and a group of zombies crashing her house keeps her from doing so, [[FireForgedFriends much to everyone's relief]]. They have the same reaction in Season 3 on discovering that Angel (last seen as Angelus) has returned and Buffy has been keeping it secret. Also, in season 7, Buffy is kicked out of her house.
* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: Many characters (heroic and villainous) wonder what kind of parents name their kid "Buffy"[[note]]A variant of the name Elizabeth[[/note]]. Some assume it's a nickname.
* WrestlerInAllOfUs: Buffy uses a Frankensteiner at least once.
* YouFightLikeACow: The ability to snark during combat is highly valued in a Slayer.
* YouAreWorthHell: Spike certainly thought so, and was nearly killed in the process of earning his soul back. Conversely, Angel turned down a chance to become human again rather than risk her dying on his watch.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Willow]]
!!Willow Rosenberg
->'''Played By:''' Creator/AlysonHannigan
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/willow_hannigan_7264.jpg
[[caption-width:255:[[labelnote:Click here]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/darkwill_7162.jpg[[/labelnote]] to see Dark Willow]]
->''"You're the Slayer and we're, like, the Slayerettes!"''

Wallflower and Buffy's best friend. Started out as the [[TheSmartGuy book-smart girl]], but gradually became an extremely powerful witch, giving her newfound confidence -- and hubris. She came out in Season 4, and is one of the most recognized lesbian characters in fiction.
----
* ActionGirl: Anyone who manages to inflict pain on a ''goddess'' deserves this title.
* {{Adorkable}}: In the early seasons where she's shy and quietly pining after Xander.
* AdrenalineMakeover: Started out nerdy, shy and fairly weak, but as the show went on, she gradually became more [[HotWitch assertive, powerful and hot]].
* AllWitchesHaveCats: Miss Kitty Fantastico!
* AndStarring: Starting in Season 6. It's pretty jarring.
* ArmorPiercingSlap: See MotiveRant below.
* TheAtoner: at the beginning of Season 7 because of the Dark Willow thing.
%%* BadassAdorable: In the later seasons.
%% Putting a trope into a secondary bullet of another trope is against the Examples Indentation rules.
* BadassBookworm: Studying magic leads to beating up monsters that give the Slayer trouble.
* BerserkButton: Do not hurt Tara. If you do, you might survive...if you're a god. Otherwise, best to check if you still have an epidermis. She tends to remove them.
* BestWoman: At Xander and Anya's wedding, Willow is Xander's best "man".
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Hints are given throughout the series of a more darker side to Willow's ShrinkingViolet nature -- her liking for revenge, her childlike petulance, her anger at being an ExtremeDoormat or mere {{Sidekick}} leading to a desire for power through magic (and a complete irresponsibility in its use) -- all culminating in tragedy at the end of Season 6 with the arrival of Dark!Willow.
-->[[PreMortemOneLiner "Bored now."]]
* BigBlackout: Dark Willow fuses out lights wherever she goes.
* BlackEyesOfCrazy / BlackEyesOfEvil: The dark arts cause Willow's irises to turn black. It also [[PowerDyesYourHair darkens her hair]], causing to complain that she can't get any work done without getting dark roots.
* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler: After her girlfriend was mindfucked.]]
* CannotSpitItOut: Behaves like this toward Xander in Season One just like how he does with Buffy.
%%* TheChick:
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Played with. She pines after Xander but when she and he do get together, she decides she doesn't want him. Then, when she was in a rut with Oz, she discovered that she prefers Tara.
* ClippedWingAngel: After [[spoiler: Tara]] was mindsucked, Willow got amped up on magic, attacked Glory and succeeded in hurting her... for a few seconds. Then she got her ass beat.
* CorruptTheCutie: Dark Magic addiction turned her evil and then filled with angst.
%%* CovertPervert:
* CradleOfLoneliness: Does this with Tara's clothes when Tara breaks up with her in season 6.
%%* CuteBookworm
%%* CuteWitch
%%* TheCutie
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Does a better job at this than even Buffy, having punched out several legitimate gods. Buffy punches out the invincible, Willow punches out ''gods''.
* {{Depower}}: [[spoiler:With the destruction of the Seed of Wonder]].
* DoesNotUnderstandSarcasm: "Cibo Matto can clog dance!?"
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Dark Willow because of the evil magic thing.
* EverybodyWasKungFuFighting: Dark Willow comes with SheFu skills that she uses in her fight with Buffy.
* EvilMakeover[=/=]PaintItBlack
-->'''Xander:''' And can I just ask, what's with the Make-Over of the Damned?
* EvilMeScaresMe: The way Willow feels about the "Doppelgangland" Willow, and her own DarkSide in Season 7.
* EvilSoundsDeep: Overlaps with CompellingVoice.
-->'''GetOut'''.
* FaceHeelTurn: Towards the end of Season 6. She gets better in the nick of time.
* FallenHero: Magic high leads to Dark!Willow. There was also an AlternateUniverse book trilogy ("''Wicked Willow''") that explored what would have happened if she had stayed that way. The canonical Season 8 comic books state she is still this; specifically the "Time of Your Life" arc. In the season nine comics we learn that while she is holding it together around Buffy, Willow is hell bent on bringing magic back, believing the world is going to end and she has to save it.
%%* FanServicePack
* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:In Season 6 as Dark Willow]]
%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Melancholic
* FromNobodyToNightmare: See ''Beware the Nice Ones''. Jonathan, having known her almost as long as Buffy and Xander, can hardly believe she's the same person by the end of season six.
%%* GirlNextDoor
* GoshDarnItToHeck: "Why else would she be acting like a B-I-T-C-H?"
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Amy's motivation for hating uber-witch Willow by the seventh season.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Buffy, even after coming out as a lesbian.
* HijackedByGanon: [[spoiler:Dark Willow reappears in the ''Time of Your Life'' arc of Season 8.]]
%%* HollywoodNerd
* HotForTeacher: Its mentioned that Willow developed a crush on Giles during series one, even having a photo of him in her locker.
%%* HotWitch
%%* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation
* IsThisWhatAngerFeelsLike: Which hilariously carried over to her vampire counterpart. "I don't like you!"
%%* JewishAndNerdy
* LesbianVampire: Vamp Willow, more accurately a DepravedBisexual.
* LightIsGood: Bright white haired Willow from the last episode of Season 7.
* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: By the finale, Willow is considerably more powerful than Buffy, and is one of the most powerful witches on earth.
* LipstickLesbian: From Season 4 onwards. "I'm not good with the butch."
* LiteralMinded: "{{Kiss}} Rocks? Why would anyone want to kiss-- oh."
%%* LoveMakesYouEvil: Yet is brought back to normal thanks to ThePowerOfFriendship.
%%* TheMedic[=/=]CombatMedic: During Season 8.
* MisplacedRetribution: In season 6. After exacting her revenge on Warren, Willow promptly decided to try to kill his accomplices Jonathan and Andrew, who were in prison at the time and had absolutely nothing to do with it. While the Scoobies (sans Buffy) were so disgusted and furious with Warren that they rallied behind Willow en masse with her intent to kill, they all agree that Jonathan and Andrew don't deserve Willow's wrath.
* MostDefinitelyNotAVillain: Regular Willow and Vampire Willow, when impersonating each other in "Doppelgangerland".
* MotiveRant: In the "Family Reunion" arc of ''Angel & Faith'', when Angel [[WhatTheHellHero calls her out]] on wanting to involve Connor in her plans to restore magic, Willow loses it, bitch-slaps him, and calls him out on his ways before breaking down about how Earth is becoming a CrapsackWorld without magic:
-->"Don't you dare. Don't you ''dare'' try to say I'm like you! This is ''all your fault''! Thinking you can fix things! Running blindly down any road that might lead to redemption! And you're doing it ''again''! Never worrying about the consequences until it's too late! You've ruined ''everything'', Angel!!" ({{beat}}) "Can't you see what we're missing? How empty the world is? There hasn't been a decent song, movie or book, since we lost the Seed! [[DrivenToSuicide Suicide rates are spiking!]] All over the world people are losing hope! It's just starting! It only gets worse from here! The world's dying and nobody will admit it! I need to save it. There's nothing more important. Why doesn't anyone understand...?"
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: After going Dark Willow in the final few episodes of season 6, she is adamant that Warren needs to die for shooting Tara despite Buffy repeatedly insisting that they don't kill humans and there are other options. On top of it all, Xander and Dawn are so disgusted and furious with Warren that they declare him to be [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters just as bad as any vampire or demon Buffy's slain]] and fully support Willow's intent to kill... at least until the minute she actually goes through with it.
* NerdsLoveToughSchoolwork: Ooh! Ooh! Study Party!
-->'''Xander:''' You need a life in the worst way.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Willow's decision to resurrect Buffy in season 6 disrupted the magic protecting the Slayer line, which allowed the First Evil to embark on its infamous Slayer/Potential Slayer genocide in season 7.
* NoBisexuals: Turns gay and stays that way, despite having dated guys in the earlier seasons.
* OfCorsetsSexy: Vamp Willow.
-->'''Willow''': It's a little binding. I guess vampires really don't have to breathe. [[BuxomIsBetter Gosh look at those.]]
* OhMyGods: For the love of Hecate!
* TheOtherMarty: Willow's played by a different actress in the unaired pilot.
* ParentalNeglect: To the point of not noticing a new haircut for four months. The extent of their neglect verges on FridgeLogic when you consider that the episode establishing their neglectfulness came about a half-season ''after'' a bookcase had fallen on her and briefly landed her in a wheelchair. You'd think if anything would make them pay attention...
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Is so stricken by grief she decides to bring about the Apocalypse and end the world's pain.
%%* PlatonicLifePartners: With Xander
* PowerStrainBlackout: She often collapses after overdoing the spellcasting, or experiences a PsychicNosebleed.
%%* ProgressivelyPrettier
* PromotionToParent: She's Dawn's favorite person; Dawn treats her and Tara [[HasTwoMommies like parents]], and in the Season 8 comics, Dawn says "Will is like a Mom to me."
%%* PsychoLesbian: Dark Willow, natch.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Along with the MotiveRant above, she gives out one to Faith in season 3, especially since Faith was more prepared for an "it's not too late to turn back" speech:
-->'''Willow''': Faith, wait. I wanna talk to you.
-->'''Faith''': Oh yeah? Give me the speech again, please. "Faith, we're still your friends. We can help you. It's not too late."
-->'''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 like Buffy. Now you have no one. You were a Slayer and now you're nothing. You're just a big, selfish, worthless waste.
* RedheadsAreUncool: She is presented as a bookish nerd with considerable computer skills, dowdily dressed and easily intimidated by more popular girls in school. Willow becomes much more confident in college, finally finding a place that respects her intellect, and to show that, she has embraced the redness of her hair by having dyed it a brighter red.
%%* RelationshipReveal: With Tara in the fourth season.
* TheReliableOne: Buffy explicitly calls her this at one point. Which is part of why her behavior in season 6 was so shocking.
* TheResenter: "Six years as a side man, now I get to be The Slayer."
%%* RetroactiveWish: Almost a RunningGag with her ("Dead Man's Party", "Beer Bad" and "Triangle").
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Two.
** After Glory "[[MindRape brain-sucks]]" Tara in season 5, Willow is so pissed off that she attacks Glory in her own home, and manages to both cause Glory pain and weaken her somewhat before getting [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]]; if Buffy hadn't shown up when she did, Willow would've been toast.
** On a much bigger scale in season 6; when Warren [[VillainousBreakdown flips out]] and shoots Buffy and Tara (the latter accidentally), killing the latter, Willow, still recovering from her addiction to dark magic, suffers a relapse, personally hunts him down, and skins him alive, and ''all'' the Scoobies except Buffy herself back her up because they're so disgusted with Warren. However, Willow then proceeds to go after [[MisplacedRetribution Jonathan and Andrew]], who were in prison at the time and had nothing to do with it, which eventually spirals into a SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum that Xander just barely manages to talk her down from.
* ShrinkingViolet: In the first few seasons because of a lack of self-confidence and inability to spit it out to Xander
%%* TheSmartGuy
* SoapboxSadie: Originally protested Thanksgiving because it was all about death. Also in the season 6 Halloween episode goes off on a tirade on a customer wearing a witch costume.
* StepfordSmiler: By series' end, she could wipe out the human race with a snap of her finger, which she sometimes [[GallowsHumor makes light of]]. Realizing the threat she poses to her loved ones, she hammers on the {{moeblob}} mask and wears it to the end -- but she's clearly not the same person we knew.
* StockSuperpowers: She starts displaying a ton in Season 8 with her magic.
** DishingOutDirt
** {{Flight}}
** HandBlast
** HealingHands
** PlayingWithFire
** [[TeleportersAndTransporters Teleportation]]
* StupidSexyFriend: Willow finally gets together with Xander. It's when they're both with other people.
* SuperStrength: After casting a spell on herself, she's able to take on Buffy and win.
* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: When Giles tricks her into absorbing magic from him that puts her in touch with all of humanity's pain, Willow, either because the world just [[CrapsackWorld sucks so much]] or because she's in no mood to think of the positives, decides to destroy the world to end all of said pain. Fortunately, Xander shows up JustInTime and talks her down from it.
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: 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.
* SweaterGirl: Season 3 Willow.
-->'''Vamp Willow (looking Willow over)''': Well, look at me. I'm all fuzzy.
%%* TeenGenius
* TeenAreShort: Much like Buffy she's at least a head shorter than the actress playing her mother.
* TemptingFate: A RunningGag with her.
** "Dead Man's Party": ''Talking about it isn't helping. We might as well try some violence.'' (zombies crash into the house) ''I was just kidding!''
** "Beer Bad": ''Men haven't changed since the beginning of time.'' (cavemen burst in)
** "Triangle": ''I wish Buffy were here.'' (Buffy enters)
** "Two to Go": ''There's no one on in the world who has the power to stop me now.'' (Giles blasts her with a fireball)
* ThatManIsDead: Dark Willow talks about Willow as if she were a different person.
* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil: Especially due to magic being used as a FantasticDrug metaphor.
* TookALevelInBadass: From being the show's main DistressedDamsel to the most powerful character of the group.
* TookALevelInBadass: For almost two seasons, other characters had discussed how powerful Willow was becoming as a witch. Then she goes and becomes the first character in the series to cause [[PhysicalGod Glory]] pain.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Mocha coffee.
* [[TragicBromance Tragic Womance]]: Her refusal to lose Buffy pushes her to take more risks with magic than ever before. The resurrection leaves her so high off success that she responds to Giles' concern with threats, setting most of her season six arc into motion.
* TrainingTheGiftOfMagic: After Season 6 and for the first few episodes of Season 7 she undergoes a 'recovery course' with the Devon Coven in England at Giles' behest. Though a slightly odd version of this trope, given that Willow was already a powerful and capable magician, it's strongly implied that by embracing the Coven's philosophy on magic (a more Zen-ish, earth-based approach, in contrast to her previous reliance on raw power) she comes back a much better, or at least much more mature, witch.
* UnstoppableRage: Willow goes into one when Glory sucks Tara's mind, and again when Warren [[spoiler:shoots and kills Tara]].
** TranquilFury: In the case of hunting down The Trio. Although very enraged, she almost never raised her voice beyond a venomous half-whisper and aside from a few occasions was TheStoic for the whole ordeal. The most noticeable bit was her torturing and flaying alive a begging Warren without breaking her calm demeanour, even going so far as to say "Bored now" before killing him.
* [[VigilanteMan Vigilante Woman]]: Kills Warren (whom everyone figures deserves it) and tries to kill Andrew and Jonathan, even though they're only guilty by association.
* VillainousWidowsPeak: Willow wears one naturally. It becomes this once she morphs into Dark Willow.
%%* VillainTeleportation
* WickedWitch: As Dark Willow, because of the magic addiction and power madness. Anya calls her the most powerful Wicca in the Western Hemisphere, which of course would make her the [[OffToSeeTheWizard Wicked Witch of the West]].
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WordOfGod Word of Joss]] says the door was left open for either Xander or Willow to come out of the closet. Willow's backdoor was set up in "Doppelgangland" (see Wishverse Willow), and let's not forget Xander and Larry ("[[MistakenForGay Your secret's safe with me!]]"). Creator/SethGreen left the show to pursue other projects, and this sealed Willow's fate.
* WhatTheHellHero:
** In Season 6, Dawn slaps her after almost killing her in a car crash and Tara leaves her after she [[MindRape screwed with Tara's head]] and broke her promise to avoid magic for a week when she couldn't last a day.
** During ''Angel and Faith's'' "Family Reunion" arc, Willow and Angel give one to each other. She wants him to use his son to bring magic back. He's not willing to take such a risk:
-->'''Angel''': "You want me to find the son [[DisappearedDad I've never been there for]] and ruin the life he's built. Ask him to go back to the hell he grew up in because of me. For some wild goose chase. Something that's not even possible. Here ''I'' was ashamed to see ''you''."
** In general she's incredibly reckless with magic, until the events of Season 6. First Tara calls her on it, then her nearly destroying the world forces her to treat magic with a lot more caution.
* [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why Did It Have to Be Frogs?]]: Suffers from Ranidaphobia.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: In season 6, after Tara's death and her murder of Warren, Willow decides to destroy the world to end her own pain and everyone else's. She's thankfully stopped from that.
* YouAreInCommandNow: Took charge of the Scoobies when Buffy was absent or incapacitated; most notably between Seasons 2-3 and 5-6.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Xander]]
!!Alexander [=LaVelle=] "Xander" Harris
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/harris_xander_8943.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I laugh in the face of danger! Then I... hide until it goes away."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Nicholas Brendon

-->''"Whatever you choose, you've got my support. Just think of me as... as your... You know, I'm searching for supportive things and I'm coming up all bras. So, something slightly more manly, think of me as that."''

Buffy's other best friend. Unlike Willow, Xander never gained any powers (apart from some military training). He had a crush on Buffy early on.
----
* AbusiveParents: Not explicitly abusive ''per se'', but they're definitely not loving parents. His father is also, at least verbally and emotionally, abusive of his mother, and on one occasion tried to sell him to some Armenians. It's also noted that every Christmas, Xander sleeps outside so as not to deal with his drunken family.
* ADayInTheLimelight: Several, perhaps most notably "The Zeppo."
%%* {{Adorkable}}
* AmbiguouslyGay: Originally it wasn't certain whether Xander or Willow would come out as gay, so a few jokes on the subject were placed in the early seasons, continuing as a gag in later seasons after Willow became the gay character.
* AuthorAvatar: According to Nicholas Brendon, his character is based on Joss Whedon in high school, which is why Xander "gets all the good lines." They also dress alike. It would explain Xander's avowed fetish for [[SpandexLatexOrLeather spandex]] and his [[ComicBook/{{X-Men}} taste in comics]].
%%* {{Badass}}
* BadassNormal: ''This'' carpenter can dry-wall you into the next century!
* BasementDweller: Downplayed in that he pays rent and works a variety of jobs to support himself. It is very clear that he loathes every minute of having to live with his parents.
* BeardOfSorrow: Grows one shortly after Renee's death in Season 8.
* BelligerentSexualTension: With Cordelia before they started dating, and [[HomoeroticSubtext possibly Spike]].
* BodyMotifs: Xander is the one who sees everything, so Caleb pokes out one of his eyes. In "Restless" Xander is TheHeart of the group, so the First Slayer rips out his heart.
%%* BookDumb
* ButtMonkey: TropeNamer.
-->'''Xander:''' Dammit! You know what? I'm sick of this crap. I'm sick of being the guy who [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E1BuffyVsDracula eats insects]] and [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E8Pangs gets the funny syphilis]]. As of this moment, it's over. I'm finished being everybody's butt-monkey!\\
''[Giles, Riley, and Buffy nod and try to look solemn]''\\
'''Buffy:''' Check. No more butt-monkey.
* CartwrightCurse: Of his four major love interests, three are dead: [[spoiler:Cordelia, Anya, and Renee]], and all his other possible love interests turned out to be demons trying to kill him. Hopefully Dawn will have better luck.
* ClassClown: His personality in the early seasons. In "The Prom," he complains about not winning the ClassClown award.
* CombatPragmatist: In a world where most people think they need to use swords, stakes, axes, and other similar melee/medieval weapons, Xander came up with the idea to use a rocket launcher to kill the Judge, and later bashed Glory with a wrecking ball.
* CowardlyLion: His fear is a RunningGag, yet he shows incredible courage for someone with no superpowers whatsoever.
%%* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass
* DeadpanSnarker: Even among an entire cast of snarkers, Xander reigns supreme.
* DubNameChange: The French dub changes his nickname to a more widespread "Alex".
* EasyAmnesia: {{Exploited}}. After Xander is possessed by hyenas, he tells Buffy and Willow he has no memory of it, but when Giles confronts him, he confesses that he was lying so he wouldn't have to talk about it. In Season 2 he inadvertently reveals he was lying.
%%* EmbarrassingMiddleName
* EvenNerdsHaveStandards: His interactions with Andrew Wells.
* EyepatchOfPower: After [[spoiler:he loses his eye in Season 7]].
* EyeScream: See above. At least he gets to be NickFury now, right?
* TheFace: He lacks the supernatural powers of his teammates, but is best friends with Buffy and Willow to the end. His storylines tends to revolve around interpersonal relationships, and, as the most consistent of the Scooby Gang, he interacts with everyone.
* FatalAttractor: All of his dates are demons. ''All'' of them. He and Willow have devised a secret phone code for "My date's a demon who's trying to kill me."
%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Sanguine
* TheHeart: His position in the Scooby Gang as 'The Heart' was a key component of a spell - the others were 'The Mind', 'The Spirit', and 'The Hands'. It's made clear more than once that Xander's strength doesn't lie in battle or conjuring spells, but in his interpersonal skills which hold the group together and keep them sane despite all the insanity swirling around them. [[spoiler:He brought Willow back from the brink by telling her he loved her.]]
%%* HiddenDepths
* HormoneAddledTeenager:
-->'''Cordelia''': Does looking at guns make ''you'' wanna have sex?\\
'''Xander:''' I'm 17. Looking at linoleum makes me wanna have sex.
** When Buffy [[DirtyMindReading reads his mind]]...
-->'''Xander:''' "What am I going to do? I think about sex all the time. Sex. Help. Four times five is thirty. Five times six is thirty-two... Naked girls. Naked women. Naked Buffy. Oh, stop me!"
-->'''Buffy:''' "God, Xander! Is that ''all'' you think about?!"
* HopelessSuitor: In the first season he tries and fails to get Buffy's attention in a romantic manner.
%%* HotMenAtWork
* IronicEcho: In "The Gift," Spike mockingly refers to him as a glorified bricklayer. He uses this in a BondOneLiner after nailing Glory with a wrecking ball:
-->''Xander:''' And the glorified bricklayer picks up a spare.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: He eventually reconciles himself to Buffy seeing him as a friend. In Season Eight, Buffy briefly comes onto him. However, Xander recognizes that she's looking for a warm body, not love, and reaffirms that they are friends only.
* InWithTheInCrowd: Due to possession by hyena spirits in "The Pack."
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: It relates more to his lack of powers or supernatural abilities as anyone who has helped save the world multiple times can hardly claim that ''they'' have lived an unexceptional or unexciting life.
%%* TheLancer
* TheLeader: Come Season 8, he's the ''de facto'' leader of the international Slayers' organization because of his uncanny ability to bring out the best in his girls. See TheHeart below.
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: After telling Buffy he was once roped into working as a male stripper.
* LikesOlderWomen: Harbors an unspoken desire for [[spoiler:Joyce Summers]]. He's a conquistador! And for [[HotForTeacher some Sunnydale High teachers]] as well. And Anya, who is 1120 years old.
* LiteralMetaphor: In "Dead Man's Party," while Joyce and the Scoobies are taking turns giving Buffy a WhatTheHellHero speech, Xander tells Buffy that "You can't just bury stuff; it'll come right back up to get you." Unbeknownst to the gang, Sunnydale is undergoing a ZombieApocalypse at that very moment.
* TheLoad: What most new characters think he is. [[HiddenDepths They're wrong]]...
* MakingUseOfTheTwin: Nicholas Brendon's twin brother, Kelly Donovan, appears as a clone Xander in "The Replacement," and as his double for most of the episode "Intervention" while Brendon was sick.
* AManIsNotAVirgin: Explicitly averted –- one episode revolves around his virginity. Another showed him losing it, and it was the least of what happened that night. See "The Zeppo."
%%* TheMasochismTango: With Cordelia.
* MissionControl: Often served in this capacity for the Slayer Organization.
%%* NiceGuy
%%* TheNicknamer
* NonActionGuy: He doesn't always accept the fact that he's not supposed to confront evil things and his friends wish he were.
%%* NonActionSnarker
* NumberTwo: To Buffy in the Slayer Organization.
* NeuralImplanting: After being turned into a soldier during the first Halloween episode, he still retains military knowledge, which helps out the Scoobies on more than one occasion.
* OddFriendship[=/=]PalsWithJesus: With Dracula in the comics. Xander taught him how to motorbike.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: Giving him a sense of kinship with Dawn, who likewise feels overshadowed by her big sister.
%%* ThePaladin
* PerpetualPoverty: Until he gets promoted at work.
* PlatonicLifePartners: With Buffy and Willow
* PopCulturedBadass: Badass enough to not only survive Sunnydale but save the world a couple of times; [[BadassNormal without powers]], and geeky enough to want to be addressed as [[NickFury Sergeant Fury]].
%%* RunawayGroom
%%* SadClown
%%* SarcasticDevotee
* ScarsAreForever: His eye never heals.
%%* ScrewLearningIHavePhlebotinum
* SexGod: According to Anya, he is "a real Viking in the sack!" and she would know, because she was a real Viking once upon a time.
-->'''Anya:''' "I love Xander because of his thoughtfulness, and compassion, and his kindness. Plus he can hold his breath for nearly twenty minutes, which is a bonus during some sexual acts, I can tell you."
* ShipperOnDeck: For Buffy and Riley.
* ShippingTorpedo: To wit: he loathed Buffy with Series/{{Angel}} because he's in love with Buffy; was a Torpedo to Spike/Buffy because he dislikes Spike and thinks he's bad for Buffy, and anti-shipped Wesley/Cordelia for all of the above reasons.
* SlutShaming: Xander's favourite form of comeback against Cordelia after they break up.
-->''Cordelia:'' You dragged me out of bed for a ride? What am I, mass transportation?
-->''Xander:'' That's what a lot of the guys say, but it's just locker room talk. I wouldn't pay it any mind.
%%* StepfordSnarker
* StupidSexyFriend: Xander only awakens to his attraction to Willow when they're both going steady. With other people.
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: How he beat [[spoiler:Dark!Willow]] in Season 6.
-->"I saved the world with talking from my mouth. My ''mouth'' saved the world!"
* TeamDad: To the new Slayers in Season 8. Any Slayer who ever seems depressed or on the verge of a HeroicBSOD is always quickly cheered up by Xander.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: With Buffy's vampire {{Love Interest}}s because he is one himself and overshadowed by them.
* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: As foreman on the Sunnydale High 2.0 construction project, he has intimate knowledge of its blueprints. He's also handy at building barricades at Chez Summers. Once got in a fantastic shot on [[PhysicalGod Glory]] using a '''[[ImprovisedWeaponUser wrecking ball]]'''.
%%* UnfazedEveryman
%%* UnluckyEverydude
* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler:Leaving Anya at the altar]] was not so suave.
* WhyDoYouKeepChangingJobs: In Season 4, he goes from being a bartender, a phone sex operator, and a pizza delivery boy before finally settling on construction worker.
* WeirdnessMagnet: While everyone shows some of this, Xander has it more than most. He probably comes closest to fulfilling this trope when he is recruited by [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Zombie Bank Robbers]] as a ''wheelman''. Plus nearly every single woman interested in him turns out to be a demon.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Giles]]
!!Rupert Giles
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/giles_rupert_2227.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"The Earth is ''definitely'' doomed."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Creator/AnthonyStewartHead

-->''"In the end, we all are who we are, no matter how much we may appear to have changed."''

Buffy's Watcher. Very British. Originally just MrExposition, turned out to have [[DarkAndTroubledPast quite a past]]. Also played TeamDad to the Scoobies.
----
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: While he's describing how the phases of the moon exert a degree of psychological influence over people and the full moon brings out their darkest qualities, Xander quips that it led to the creation of the moon pie. Buffy and Willow are [[ToughRoom unimpressed]], but Giles almost cracks up right then and there.
* AdmiringTheAbomination: He does this occasionally. "Werewolves, it's... it's one of the classics!"
%%* {{Adorkable}}
%%* TheAllegedCar: Giles' first car.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: The Council shunned him even before they fired him, and wouldn't let him come to the Watcher Retreat in the Cotswolds. This is [[JustifiedTrope Justified]]: [[spoiler: before Giles was as we currently see him, he was part of a group of magic-abusing rebellious youths, who did things like '''summoning demons and getting high on the possession''' as a fun, everyday activity.]]
%%* AntiHero: Type III
%%* {{Badass}}
%%* BadassBookworm
* BatmanGambit: Season 6. [[spoiler:The magic Willow stole from him tapped into what humanity was left in her. As a result Willow senses the pain of all human beings. And her reaction is to try to wipe out all life on earth. However, this also gives Xander the opportunity to get through to her and talk her down.]]
* BerserkButton: When people threaten to harm/truly harm his friends, particularly his [[PapaWolf surrogate daughter Buffy]].
* BewareTheNiceOnes: He's not above using violence to solve a problem. So far, he's done the following:
** Beaten the living shit out of Ethan Rayne for information on how to break his "turn people into their Halloween costumes" curse.
** Embarked on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Angelus upon discovering that he killed Jenny Calendar, burning down his Abandoned Factory hideout and beating him senseless with a flaming baseball bat.
** Physically and professionally threatened Principal Snyder into readmitting Buffy back into Sunnydale High.
** Manhandled Spike while ordering him to get over his [[StalkerWithACrush obsession]] with Buffy and move on.
** Tortured one of Glory's minions for information.
** Finally, smothered Ben to death with his bare hands to prevent his SuperpoweredEvilSide Glory from coming back.
* BritishStuffiness: When Giles is mad, but too English to say anything, he makes a weird "cluck-cluck" sound with his tongue. At least to others. Early in Season 3, Joyce acquires an artifact that summons zombies. When he finds out, Giles is pissing and moaning in his car:
--> "Unbelievable. '[[SarcasmMode Do you like my mask? Isn't it pretty? It RAISES THE DEAD.]]' ''Americans!''"
** The best part is that he becomes so engrossed in kvetching about {{Eagleland}}ers that he wraps his {{Alleged Car}} around one of the aforementioned [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W23IwSNLcq8 raised dead]].
* TheCastShowOff: He was the first to show off his awesome singing voice.
%%* TheComicallySerious
%%* CoolOldGuy
%%* CulturedWarrior
%%* CunningLinguist
* DarkAndTroubledPast: It has trouble staying buried, too. 'Ripper' Giles used to be evil in his younger days; a vicious delinquent practicing dark magic.
%%* DeadpanSnarker
* EmbarrassingTattoo: Not so much embarrassing as evil, but it's embarrassing ''because'' it's evil. It's like a [=DIY=] [[Franchise/HarryPotter Dark Mark]] except it binds him, [[spoiler: Ethan Rayne and other former "friends" from his youth to the demon they used to get high on.]]
%%* ExpansionPackPast
* EvilTwin: Two AlternateUniverse versions of him; Ripper from the game ''Chaos Bleeds'', and a vampire EvilOverlord from ''The Lost Slayer'' book series.
%%* TheExtremistWasRight: Along with the other Watchers.
* FakeGuestStar: Throughout Season Seven. But we'll act conciliatory and call him a Super-Duper Extra Special Guest Star.
%%* TheFinickyOne: In early seasons.
* FormerTeenRebel: Most of his friends from his rebellious twentysomethings still call him "Ripper."
%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Phlegmatic (Shares this with Oz.)
%%* GentlemanAndAScholar
%%* GentlemanSnarker
* GlassesPull: A CharacterTic, and often lampshaded.
* GoodIsNotSoft: Most extreme example? Smothering a wounded [[spoiler:Ben]] to death rather than risk [[spoiler:Glory]] coming back. Before doing the deed, Giles cryptically remarks, "[Buffy's] a hero, you see. She's not like us." He wanted to spare Buffy from doing it.
%%* GuileHero
* TheHandler: In theory anyway; he realises early on that Buffy doesn't respond well to orders.
* HardHead[=/=]TapOnTheHead: Giles tends to get knocked out, but never suffers any brain damage. On one occasion, he quipped that he believed that he had developed a resistance to head trauma.
-->"I know I'm back in America now; I've been knocked unconscious."
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Giles got between a Twilight possessed Angel and Buffy as they fought near the Seed of Wonder, wielding the Scythe to try and destroy the Seed himself and end Twilight's invasion of Earth, or get killed by Twilight and give Buffy the motivation she needed to take the Scythe and end things herself.]]
* HelpingWouldBeKillStealing: Giles in the sixth season of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. [[spoiler: He chose to abandon Buffy because he felt that she was limiting herself by clinging to him in a immature way.]] In principle he had good reasons, but he chose to make his stand right in the middle of a crisis, and forbade everyone else from helping Buffy. That can only vaguely be justified by him following musical logic at the time. When he comes back to help against Dark Willow, he apologizes for leaving her, especially after hearing about everything that had gone wrong with the gang since he skipped town, but Buffy assured him that he was right.
* HopelessWithTech: He admits to being scared of technology, and when he finds out that the library of Sunnydale High 2.0 consists of nothing but computers, he's absolutely horrified.
%%* HotLibrarian
* IAmVeryBritish: In the second episode, he asks Willow to "wrest more information from that dread machine... That was a bit...British."
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: His reaction to smothering Ben to stop Glory for good.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: "It's all right... I have [[DrinkOrder more scotch]]."
* InSeriesNickname: Ripper.
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: A kidnapped minion of Glory defiantly refuses to talk. Giles asks Willow and Tara to get twine, the camera follows them, and a snapping sound is heard. The minion sings like a canary, with Giles answering Willow's question about what happened with a very casual, "He changed his mind." Exactly what he did is unclear.
* LastNameBasis: The only people who call him "Rupert" are his romantic interests [[HoYay and Spike.]]
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: While in London during Season 6, Giles did a spell to bind a demon, but it required him to lose the memory of one of the happiest days in his life. That day was the day he fell in love with Jenny Calendar, leaving him with a heartache that he felt would never go away, even though he had no idea what the memory was about.
* LimitedWardrobe: A Watcher scoffs at fashion! One tweed suit is all you need.
-->'''Jenny''': Do you own anything else?\\
'''Giles:''' Uh well, not as such, no.
** It gets to the extent that the Scoobies joke that he wore tweed diapers as a baby. However, in the post-high school seasons, he dresses casually far more often.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: For Buffy in the first half of Season 6. Giles eventually leaves to force her to become independent.
%%* MagicLibrarian
* {{Mangst}}: When he is truly heartbroken, this is the result.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: [[spoiler: In the comics but not the series because he doesn't die in the series.]]
* MidlifeCrisisCar: It seduced him, all red and sporty.
* TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: When transformed into a Fyarl demon in "A New Man," Giles experiences the demon's natural violent urges. Also, in Season 10, [[spoiler: his 12-year-old body leads to him being more impulsive and less able to concentrate, not to mention becoming more fixated on the other sex's physical charms, much to his embarrassment.]]
* MrExposition: Gets parodied in "Restless" when he ''sings'' his latest exposition.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: "Ripper."
* NecessarilyEvil: Best exemplified in the following quote:
-->''"Because I've sworn to protect this sorry world, and sometimes that means doing what other people can't. What they shouldn't have to."''
* NeckSnap: [[spoiler:This is how Angel, as Twilight, ultimately kills him.]]
* NightmareFetishist:
-->'''Giles:''' But that's the thrill of living on the Hellmouth! There's a veritable cornucopia of fiends and devils and ghouls to engage! ''({{beat}})'' ...Well, excuse me for finding the glass half-full.
%%* NonIdleRich
%%* OccultDetective
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: In the season 5 episode "Tough Love", Giles, Willow, and Anya capture one of Glory's minions and are about to interrogate him for information. Giles tells Willow and Anya to get some rope to tie him up, and the minute they turn around, we hear a SickeningCrunch and the minion painfully and frantically agrees to tell them everything. Giles' response to their questions?
-->'''Giles''': [[BlatantLies He changed his mind.]]
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In the Season 5 finale. Buffy flat-out tells him to the face that they are ''not'' talking about killing Dawn to stop Glory, at which point Giles loses his temper and screams ''"YES, WE BLOODY WELL ARE!!"'' at the top of his voice. Cue shocked reactions and gaping mouths from all the other Scoobies.
* OpeningNarration[=/=]PreviouslyOn: Previouslys just aren't previouslys without Giles' smooth buttery tone.
* PapaWolf: Threatening Buffy isn't a wise move if you want to stay healthy.
* ParentalSubstitute: Gradually becomes a surrogate father to Buffy and the gang as a whole (all of their biological fathers being sadly lacking in various ways), and partially to Faith in Season 8.
%%* ThePatriarch
* PoisonousFriend: Often does (and says, and thinks) what Buffy can't or won't.
* PutOnABus and CommutingOnABus: In Series 6 and 7, due to the actor finding all the travel between the UK and USA to be too difficult. He requested a reduced role in the series, leading to these tropes.
* TheSmartGuy: Giles knows something about everything, except synchronized swimming.
%%* SmartPeoplePlayChess
%%* SmartPeopleSpeakTheQueensEnglish
%%* TheObiWan
%%* TheSpock
%%* TeamDad
* SurpassedTheTeacher: One of his main concerns from season four onwards; not that he resents Buffy for it, he just feels superfluous.
* TeenGenius: After [[spoiler:he's killed in season 8]], Angel and Faith [[spoiler:resurrect him]], but due to other circumstances, [[spoiler:he comes back with his adult memories intact, but in the body of a 12-year-old. His behavior is also influenced by being a hormonal teenager, much to his chagrin.]]
* UptightLovesWild: With the lovely [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Romani granola girl techno-pagan Wicca hippie Ms. Calender]].
* WhatTheHellHero: Andrew has this reaction when he finds out that Giles knew that Buffy had gone to the future and killed an evil version of Willow, but didn't tell him or set up precautions in case Willow did turn evil again. Giles even acknowledges he is right, and they begin working on an emergency plan in case Willow does go evil again.
* {{Workaholic}}: Particularly evident in season four. Due to his not having a job at the time, and Buffy not really requiring a watcher in the same way as she once did, he struggles to fill his time. Whenever any opportunity to help the gang or investigate evil comes about, he leaps on it.
* YourDoorWasOpen: This [[RunningGag happens to Giles a lot]] in the fourth season, even when he's ''sure'' he locked the door.
[[/folder]]

!Later Additions

[[folder:Angel/Angelus]]
!!![[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/AngelInvestigations See Angel Investigations]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Cordelia]]
!!![[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/AngelInvestigations See Angel Investigations]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anya, née Aud]]
!!Anya, née Aud (Emma Caulfield)
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anya_caufield_728.jpg
->''" I was feared and worshipped across the mortal globe and now I'm stuck at Sunnydale High. A mortal! A child! And [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking I'm flunking math.]]"''

Originally a 1,120-year-old vengeance demon who lost her powers and eventually joined the Scooby Gang. She was a LoveInterest for Xander for three seasons before their relationship ended, and she went back to being a Vengeance Demon. Lost her powers and rejoined the Scoobies in early Season 7.
----
* ActionGirl: With hints of MagicKnight, being more than competent in magic as well.
* AmbiguousDisorder: "Selfless" reveals that her quirks are an inherent part of her personality, not just the result of living as a demon for a thousand years, and she was considered odd by her neighbors in Sjornjost too.
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Her relationship with Willow is meant to be like this; [[ImmortalImmaturity despite being thousands of years older than Willow, she's more naive and immature]], which Willow is frequently annoyed by.
* AscendedExtra: Originally intended as a one-shot villain for "The Wish."
* {{Badass}}: When a vengeance demon. However, she did kill a few demons and vampires as a normal human.
* BecomingTheMask: After she becomes stuck as a high school girl, she experiences a strange urge to have Xander invite her to the prom, despite claiming to loathe all men.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: According to one flashback, she was responsible for the Russian Revolution.
* BeingEvilSucks: The second time she becomes a vengeance demon, she gets no pleasure out of the work whatsoever.
%%* BreakTheCutie: From "Hell's Bells" on.
* BrutalHonesty: "I hate us! Everybody's so ''nice''. Nobody says what's on their mind."
** Her reputation for BrutalHonesty, being a DeadpanSnarker, and basically being an insensitive bitch lead to one of the most powerful and poignant TearJerker moments in the entire series: her emotional breakdown after the death of Joyce Summers in "The Body".
-->'''Anya:''' "Are they gonna cut the body open?"
-->'''Willow:''' "Oh my God! Would you just... stop talking? Just... shut your mouth. Please."
-->'''Anya:''' "What am I doing?"
-->'''Willow:''' "How can you act like that?"
-->'''Anya:''' "Am I supposed to be changing my clothes a lot? I mean, is that the helpful thing to do?"
-->'''Xander:''' "Guys..."
-->'''Willow:''' "The way you behave..."
-->'''Anya:''' "Nobody will tell me."
-->'''Willow:''' "Because it's not okay for you to be asking these things!"
-->'''Anya:''' "But I don't understand!" [begins to cry] "I don't understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I mean, I knew her, and then she's -- There's just a body! And I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead anymore! (begins crying ''heavily'') "It's stupid! It's mortal and stupid! "And-and Xander's crying and not talking, and -- and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, ''Well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch ever, and she'll never have eggs, or yawn or brush her hair, not ever,''" (completely loses it) "and no one will explain to me '''''why'''''."
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: She was able to infiltrate Cordelia's social circle in her first appearance, [[NoSocialSkills then she swung in the opposite direction]] once she started appearing regularly.
%%* TheComicallySerious
* CuteGhostGirl: [[spoiler:She may be this as of Season 10 or Xander may just be [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane going insane]]]].
%%* DeathIsDramatic:
%%* {{Depower}}: Twice.
* DyeingForYourArt: Originally a brunette (her hair color as a human), but later went blonde.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Completely freaked witnessing an EvilSorcerer become an EldritchAbomination and go on a rampage via performing a ritual similar to the one the Mayor planned on using.
* ForgottenPhlebotinum: Her power center necklace. When she turned demon again, it seemed she never needed it.
* GoodCostumeSwitch / EvilCostumeSwitch: When Anya is introduced, she has brunette hair. She colors it blond after becoming human, then goes back to brunette when she becomes a vengeance demon again. When she turns human for the second time, she goes back to blond.
%%* GoodHairEvilHair
* HappyDance: The Dance of Capitalist Superiority!
%%* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor
* HeroicComedicSociopath: She couldn't act on any of it (until mid-season six), but she openly missed the days when she could solve her problems by eviscerating people. Spike can relate.
-->'''Anya:''' I'd kill for [R.J]!
-->'''Willow:''' You'd kill for a chocolate bar.
* HumanityEnsues: Though it's eventually revealed she was human to begin with, a very long time ago.
* HumansAreBastards: It was easy for her to be a vengeance demon because humans do ''a lot'' of things that need avenging. Three years of fighting alongside the Scoobies allowed her to see the goodness in people and made it hard to go back to vengeance.
* InLoveWithTheMark: Originally appears with the intention of cursing Xander who cheated on Cordelia.
* JackOfAllStats: She's competent in both hand-to-hand combat ''and'' spellcasting, although she pales by comparison to Buffy and Spike in hand-to-hand combat, and to Willow, Tara, and Giles in magic.
* JackassGenie: She would take wishes that were ''already'' negative in nature and make them even worse, which is how she sparked the Russian Revolution.
%%* LiteralGenie
%%* LiteralMinded
* LoveableSexManiac: Whenever she'd get even slightly aroused, she would drag Xander away to have naughty time with him. [[TooMuchInformation She would often casually and innocently bring up how much sex she and Xander had]], much to the chagrin of the group at large.
%%* MagicalGirlfriend
* MeaningfulName:
** Anya's a little "Aud", isn't she?
** "Anyanka" is possibly derived from old Greek ἀνάγκη, "necessity". Just read the Other Wiki's entry and think of her RealityWarper powers.
* MoneyFetish: Another RunningGag.
* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: As a result of being both knowledgeable about demons and very, very blunt.
%%* NoSocialSkills
* OptOut: Anya got the hell out of Dodge before Graduation Day. Contrast with the fifth and seventh season finales.
* PaintItBlack: When she became a demon again.
* PatrioticFervor: "You know what else is un-American? ''[[FrenchJerk French people]]''". She's technically speaking [[ImmigrantPatriotism from Scandanavia]].
%%* PromotionToOpeningTitles
* PunnyName: Aud. (Yes, she is.)
%%* RealityWarper
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: 1,120 and she's still being carded.
%%* RedemptionEqualsDeath
* RevengeAgainstMen: Describes herself as a righteous sword for all WomanScorned (her behaviour as a demon belies this -- Anya essentially tricks women into inflicting DisproportionateRetribution on former loved ones, and took [[ForTheEvulz open pleasure]] in the CrapsackWorld she accidentally created in "The Wish").
* StartOfDarkness: Her back story of how she became a demon is shown in Season 7's "Selfless".
%%* SpockSpeak
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: For Cordelia. Greedy and high-maintenance? Check. Xander's love interest? Check. [[BrutalHonesty Brutally honest]] to a fault? Check.
* TooMuchInformation: A RunningGag is her eagerly telling the Scoobies details of her sex life with Xander that everyone (including Xander) would rather she kept private.
* {{Tsundere}}: "My feelings are changeable but intense."
* VitriolicBestBuds: Anya serving as a surrogate [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling annoying younger sister]] for Willow.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Bunnies. Though she was shown to be fine with them while alive, suggesting something (possibly a wish gone horribly awry) occured while she was demon, or they're a subconscious reminder of her human past.
* WomanScorned:Describes herself as a "righteous sword" for them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Oz]]
!!Daniel "Oz" Osbourne
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/osborne_daniel_4797.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Hey, I may be a cold-blooded jelly doughnut, but my timing is impeccable."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Creator/SethGreen

-->''"The wolf is inside me all the time, and I don't know where that line is anymore between me and it."''

Guitarist for a local band who became a werewolf, as well as Willow's boyfriend. Left in early Season 4. Nigh-impossible to faze. In the comics, he married a fellow werewolf with whom he had a son. Together they teach other werewolves to conquer their demons. He later assisted the Slayer Organization during the Twilight crisis.
----
* AboveTheInfluence: The first time Willow tries to get him to kiss her, he thinks she is trying to get at Cordelia and Xander and instead he wants to be the gentleman and wait. The second time is after he caught Willow cheating on him, and she tries to seduce him. He lets her down and says she doesn't have to prove anything to him, and rejects her obvious sexual advances.
* BackForTheFinale: His final on-screen appearance is in Willow's dream in the season 4 finale, "Restless".
%%* Badass:
* BlackEyesOfEvil: One of the first things to change during a transformation.
* BreakoutCharacter: He was the one originally intended to be killed by Angelus in "Passion," but due to his popularity, he was spared, and Jenny Calendar was killed in his place.
%%* BrilliantButLazy
* CannotConveySarcasm: "That was my sarcastic voice."
-->'''Xander:''' You know, it sounds a lot like your regular voice.
-->'''Oz:''' I've been told that.
%%* CaptainObvious:
%%* TheComicallySerious
%%* DeadpanSnarker
* {{Dismotivation}}: He and Willow were both tracked by a leading software company in "What's My Line" - the difference is, he wasn't all that excited about it. "I sort of test well, which is cool. Except it leads to jobs."
* DullSurprise: The minute he sees Buffy stake a vampire, he brushes it off and says it "explains a lot."
* FakeBand: Oz is in a band called Dingoes Ate My Baby, after the famous case where Azaria Chamberlain was reportedly taken by a wild dog. [[FridgeBrilliance Dingoes are from Australia, or 'Oz.']]
%%* FantasticallyIndifferent
%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Phlegmatic (Shares this with Giles.)
* GoalInLife: To [[MundaneMadeAwesome perfect the diminished ninth]]! "You could lose a finger."
%%* HappilyMarried: In the Season 8 comic.
%%* HiddenDepths
* KaleidoscopeHair:
-->'''Willow:''' Your hair! ...is brown.\\
'''Oz:''' Oh, yeah. Sometimes.
%%* LeavingYouToFindMyself
* LookWhatICanDoNow: Oz gains near-total mastery over his werewolf side by the time he returns, able to stand directly under a full moon without transforming.
* TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: The closer it is to sunset on a full moon night, the harder it is to resist his most primal urges.
* NervesOfSteel: ''Not'' a man easily shaken by anything.
%%* TheNoseKnows
* NotAMorningPerson: He sleeps until 3PM.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: His real name is only mentioned once in the series, in "The Initiative"--which is incidentally the episode ''after'' he leaves.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent
** HulkingOut: When he learns of Willow and Tara's relationship.
** InvoluntaryShapeshifting: Before going to Tibet he is forced to transform during the full moon and the two nights surrounding it.
** PartialTransformation: [[ShapeshifterModeLock Mode locked]] during "[[WhatDoTheyFearEpisode Fear, Itself]]".
** PainfulTransformation: Although his later transformations transpire much more quietly. Nevertheless he agrees with [[EvilCounterpart Veruca]] when she describes the first few stages as blood boiling.
%%* PapaWolf
* PlayingAgainstType: So Creator/SethGreen isn't the PluckyComicRelief?
* PutOnABus: He leaves the series and is gone until "[[TheBusCameBack New Moon Rising]]".
* TheQuietOne: He's quite philosophical in his own head. Out loud, not so much.
-->'''Xander:''' I see how he is around me. You know, that steely gaze... that pointed silence.\\
'''Buffy:''' [[SarcasmMode Cause he's usually such a chatterbox.]]
* RetiredBadass: A point of contention between him and Willow in Season 8 is the fact that he stopped fighting evil and started a family.
* RomanticRunnerUp: To Tara for Willow in "New Moon Rising".
* SatelliteLoveInterest: His role on the show was entirely defined by being Willow's love interest. Proof that TropesAreNotBad in that he still managed to be a likable, entertaining character.
%%* SpikyHair
* SplitPersonalityTakeover: Comes very close to invoking this voluntarily after it appears his struggles against his werewolf self are futile.
* TheStoic: His reaction upon finding out that he's a werewolf? "Huh." He has the same reaction with a bemused grin when he's meditating in Tibet ''and a submarine is teleported outside the temple.''
* TerseTalker: Take this exchange while Xander is quizzing him on what makes him "cool"-
-->'''Xander:''' Is it about the talking? You know, the-the way you tend to express yourself in short, non-committal phrases?\\
'''Oz:''' Could be.
%%* WalkingTheEarth:
* WolfMan: In season 2, his werewolf form is portrayed as standing on two legs with a fully lupine head. In season 3 and 4 it's portrayed as a quadruped with a muzzle-less face.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Spike]]
!!Spike, neé William Pratt
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pratt_william_675.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Creator/JamesMarsters

British vampire who served as the villain for early Season 2. Was planned to die, but his popularity saved him. He showed up in one episode in Season 3 before returning for good in Season 4. Had a chip in his head that prevented him from hurting humans, so he joined up with the Scoobies for survival and so he could get his kicks by fighting demons. Eventually fell in love with Buffy, and had a twisted relationship with her in Season 6. Got a soul at the end of Season 6 and made a HeroicSacrifice in the finale. Reappeared on ''Series/{{Angel}}''.
----
* AlwaysSecondBest: To Angel/Angelus, as both a hero and a villain. In "Just Rewards," Wesley and Angel outright state that Spike's reputation for evil and bloodshed is second only to Angelus's.
* AmazonChaser: Drusilla, Slayers in general and Buffy in particular - it's not a stretch to say he's only interested in women who can ([[CombatSadomasochist and do]]) kick his ass. Outright stated in the ''After the Fall'' comics.
* AmbiguousDisorder: He managed to improve his social skills over the course of a century, but he has a mixed bag of vaguely bipolar, obsessive, borderline and schizoidal tendencies which come and go with the story. Whenever he's bored, he'll do something ridiculously suicidal just for the hell of it, he stalked Buffy for over a year, and once had a full-blown psychotic episode.
* AntiHero: Was a NominalHero but plowed his way up to becoming an UnscrupulousHero.
* AntiVillain: Before becoming an AntiHero, he was this for his single appearance in Season 3. He was just too heartbroken to go all-out with the evil.
* AtLeastIAdmitIt: See the above quote.
* AuthorAppeal: Marti Noxon has an affinity for Naked!Spike.
* {{Badass}}: His fight against Nikki Wood squarely places him in this territory - the man fought and killed a Slayer not because of dumb luck, but just plain skill. Even Buffy at one point calls him the best warrior they had against The First's army. During Season Five, Buffy admitted that he was the only person besides her with a chance of winning in a physical fight against Glory. Bear in mind that Glory is a PhysicalGod.
* BadassLongcoat: Even before [[spoiler:killing Nikki Wood]], Spike was a fan of leather trench coats as a certain dead SS officer can certainly attest to. Didn't really bother removing the swastika armband though (in that regard, Angel mistook ''him'' for a Nazi).
* BadBoss: In Season 2 Spike sacrifices a vampire mook on two separate occasions ("School Hard" and "Halloween") just to get an idea of how the Slayer fights.
* BareHandedBladeBlock: In Season 5's "Spiral," he stops a Knight of Byzantium's sword from stabbing through the roof of their Winnebago and impaling Buffy through the skull, managing to hold it in place long enough for Buffy to get out through the roof hatch and take the fight to the Knights. It's played realistically: his hands are gashed and bandaged for the remainder of the episode.
* BasementDweller: Spends parts of season 4 and 7 hiding out in basements.
* BattleTrophy: His BadassLongcoat is one: he stripped it off the body of the second Slayer he killed.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: He bonded with Joyce and Dawn Summers for this reason, and he shows his better side when Buffy treats him respectfully.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: He was involved in the Boxer Rebellion; it was when he killed his first Slayer.
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: He didn't steal BillyIdol's [[{{Expy}} look]]. Billy Idol stole ''his''!
* BigFancyHouse: In ''After the Fall'', Spike takes over the [[{{Playboy}} Playboy Mansion]] and uses it as his residence after dusting a vampirized Hef.
* BiTheWay / DepravedBisexual: [[ImpliedTrope Implied]] once in a off-hand comment; "Me and Angel have never been intimate... Well, except that one time--" [[ButNotTooBi Apart from this one-off gag, theres no other evidence to suggest he's sexually or romantically attracted to men]], and lots to suggest he's attracted to women.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Season 4 and part of Season 5.
-->'''Glory''' ''(about Spike)'': What the hell is that, and ''why'' is its hair that color?
* BloodKnight: Fighting isn't all he lives for, but it's a good portion of it. He especially likes it when he really can't tell who's going to win, which Angelus found unsophisticated.
* BondBreaker: In the season four finale. He didn't create the problems the Scooby Gang were facing, but made them likelier to anger and alienate each other. He calls it the [[YokoOhNo Yoko Factor]].
* BookEnds: In his earliest canonical appearance, Spike (under his human identity, William) recites a bad poem to his crush and gets shot down ("Fool For Love", ''Buffy'' S5). Spike delivers the same performance at a poetry slam in the SeriesFinale; this time, the whole audience applauds and cheers.
* ButtMonkey: When he was wheelchair bound, Angelus persistently kept making fun of him and taunting him. Later it was later revealed that he [[ThrowingOffTheDisability was not as wheelchair-bound as he seemed.]] When he was chipped, absolutely ''everyone'' took great satisfaction and pleasure in humiliating him. This was justified, given that he spent the majority of it insulting everybody back and telling them that he was going to kill them all as soon as he got the chip out.
* BreakoutCharacter[=/=]BreakoutVillain: Joss originally intended for him to be killed off midway through the second season, but Spike ended up so popular with audiences that he changed his mind.
* BreakTheHaughty: For a guy that cocky, his face sure does seem to be a fist-magnet.
%%* BruiserWithASoftCenter
* BrutalHonesty
* ClosetGeek: While the Scoobies are holding him hostage in Season 4, his biggest concern is missing the next episode of ''{{Passions}}''.
* ClosetSublet: With Anya gone, Spike ignominiously moves into a 'spare room' in Xander's apartment.
-->"I know it looks like a closet but [[ImplausibleDeniability it's a room now.]]"
* ClothesMakeTheLegend[=/=]IconicItem: His original trenchcoat gets burned to tatters but Wolfram & Hart immediately supplies him with eleven exact duplicates of the coat.
* CombatSadomasochist: Lampshaded on several occasions, most notably when Spike makes his AnguishedDeclarationOfLove.
-->'''Joyce:''' Honey, did you somehow, unintentionally, lead him on in any way? Send him signals?
-->'''Buffy:''' Well, I do beat him up a lot. For Spike, that's like third base.
* TheConfidant: For Buffy in the first half of Season 6.
* CoolAirship: We don't know where he got it, but it is awesome.
* CoolBike: That he stole from a demon biker in Season 6.
* CulturedBadass: Can quote ''HenryV'' with the best of them. "We band of buggered."
* DeadpanSnarker: His parody of a conversation between Angel and a DistressedDamsel in "In the Dark" is ''awesomely hilarious''.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Spike's level of evilness after being chipped seems to depend on who's writing him. Borders on HeelFaceRevolvingDoor.
** Also how smart he is.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: In the final episodes of Season 4, he schemes to break up the Scoobies by exploiting the existing tensions between the group, and then planting evidence to lure Buffy into a trap as part of Adam's plan. However, after all is said and done, Adam points out that Spike gave Willow said evidence, and Willow won't be speaking to Buffy now; Spike quickly goes out to rectify it.
* DontYouDarePityMe: In Season 4, Willow and Xander take him along with them while going to prevent an apocalypse to prevent him from [[DrivenToSuicide staking himself]]. Spike thanks them by taunting and insulting them, blatantly stating that he doesn't want pity from people who he perceives to be even more useless than he is.
%%* DropInCharacter: In Season 4 and 5 after he's chipped.
* EmbarrassingNickname: "William the Bloody" actually refers to his bloody awful poems, not blood drinking.
* EnvironmentalSymbolism: A sign saying BEWARE OF DOG is shown behind Spike on [[RunningGag several occasions]].
* EntitledBastard: After being [[RestrainingBolt chipped]] and pursued by the Initiative, he fully expects Buffy and the Scoobies to help him despite being one of their worst enemies at the time.
* EternalLove: What he hoped he had with Drusilla. Then they had a falling out.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: William's hope was to live in blissful trinity with his vampirized mum and Drusilla (to Dru's consternation). ThePlan went sour when [[IncestIsRelative his mum promptly tried to molest him]].
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Spike has a low tolerance for "poseur" vampires who act above their station, believing they give the undead a bad name. Contrary to his love of brawling, he's also adverse to wanton destruction; Spike enjoys the good life and isn't going to let Angelus destroy the world if he can help it.
** He genuinely liked Buffy's mother, and is upset at her death.
* EvilBrit: At first. Now he's more of an anti-heroic Brit.
%%* EvilCounterpart:
* EvilIsPetty: He nonchalantly grabs Xander's radio when packing up to leave Xander's apartment. When Xander calls him on this, Spike replies, "And you're what, shocked and disappointed? I'm '' evil!''"
* EvilerThanThou: At the very end of his debut episode, he personally kills the Anointed One and takes command of the remnants of the Order of Aurelius.
-->'''Spike''': From now on, we're gonna have a little less ''ritual'' and a little more ''fun'' around here!
* ExpansionPackPast: It comes as a surprise to learn his entire persona is a lie. "Spike" is really William Pratt, a wimpy poet who was considered the runt of his original pack.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Before getting [[RestrainingBolt chipped]]. Comparing him to Mayor Wilkins is a good lesson in the difference between AffablyEvil and FauxAffablyEvil.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Sanguine (In Angelus' old vampire gang.)
* FreudianExcuse: Two of them.
** The first was Spike siring his mother, who he adored, only for her to try and seduce him as a vampire, leading to him being forced to stake her. Naturally this would be very traumatic and likely sent him off the rails.
** The second is Angelus. It's been discussed in the show that Angelus made Spike evil and Spike hated that Angelus did so in order for there to be someone as disgusting as he was before as Liam and after as a vampire.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Much like Liam, "William the Bloody" was a pretty unremarkable human being.
* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: TropeNamer, though it was on ''Series/{{Angel}}'' and he was being sarcastic. Unlike Angel, he gets roped into saving people by a fork-tongued Lindsey [=McDonald=], attorney at law.
* FullyEmbracedFiend: To better contrast with Angel. The soul leads to insane ranting, self-mutilation and at least one SuicideByCop attempt, but he never particularly angsts about being in a vampire body.
* GeniusBruiser: He might not know all that science stuff and whatnot, but he's as smart and as analytical as he is strong.
* TheGlassesGotToGo: Needed them while alive, but tossed them afterward. His appearance gradually became more unkempt as he worked to build his reputation as a real killer - a street-fighting vampire.
* GoOutWithASmile: In the final episode of season 7. Even as his flesh and muscle is being toasted off and the Hellmouth is crumbling around him, Spike still smirks and laughs as he crumbles to dust.
* GoodIsNotNice: Saves a woman from a vampire in a dark alley in "Soul Purpose", and then chews her out for being dumb enough to walk through an alley alone at night.
* GuiltyPleasures: DawsonsCreek and {{Passions}}.
* HannibalHasAPoint: Spike's legendary "Love's Bitch" speech in Season 3:
--> '''Spike:''' You're not "friends." You'll ''never'' be friends. You'll be in love 'til it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag and you'll hate each other 'til it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Love isn't brains, children, it's blood. Blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least [[AtLeastIAdmitIt I'm man enough to admit it]].
** Buffy even acknowledges this later:
--> '''Buffy''': I can fool my friends. I can even fool Giles. But I can't fool myself... or Spike, for some reason.
* HeartbrokenBadass: In season 3, when Drusilla breaks up with him.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[CharacterDevelopment Slowly over the course of four seasons]].
* HeelRealization: Oddly occurs well after his HeelFaceDoorSlam. A deranged Slayer kidnaps and tortures him, mistaking Spike for a man who tormented her during her childhood. [[spoiler: At the end, Spike realizes it didn't matter that he never laid a finger on the girl, because he'd done plenty worse to other people.]]
* HeroKiller: He's killed ''two'' past Slayers, a fact he takes much pride in.
%%* HeroicComedicSociopath
* HeroicSacrifice:[[spoiler: In the ''Buffy'' GrandFinale he dies keeping the Hellmouth closed.]] [[Series/{{Angel}} He gets]] [[UnexplainedRecovery better]].
* HeroWithAnFInGood: In seasons 5 and 6, he frequently falls into this trope, often doing things not because it's right but because it's what Buffy would want.
-->'''Spike''': I'm not sampling, I'll have you know. Just look at all these lovely blood-covered people. I could, but not a taste for Spike, not a lick. Knew you wouldn't like it.
-->'''Buffy''': [[WantsAPrizeForBasicDecency You want credit for not feeding off bleeding disaster victims?]]
-->'''Spike''': Well, yeah.
-->'''Buffy''': You're disgusting.
-->'''Spike''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint What's it take?]]
** It starts back in season 4, when he's ''"forced"'' by his condition (he only could hurt monsters, but not humans) to fight alongside the good guys.
-->'''Spike''': What's this? Sitting around watching the telly while there's evil still afoot? It's not very industrious of you. I say, we go out there, and kick a little demon ass. What, can't go without your Buffy? Is that it? Too chicken? Let's find her. She is the Chosen One, after all. Come on! Vampires! Grrr! Nasty. Let's annihilate them. For justice, and for the safety of puppies, and Christmas, right? Let's fight that evil. Let's kill something. Oh, come on!
* HesBack: Spike gets more than one.
** When he discovers he can hurt demons, he promptly cuts loose and beats the shit out of one.
-->'''Spike:''' That's right! I'm back, and I'm a BLOODY ANIMAL! ''YEAH!!''
** In "Get It Done," he has a pretty epic one, complete with the return of the BadassLongcoat.
* HiddenDepths: He's surprisingly good at predicting Willow's behavior.
%%* IAmVeryBritish
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: In Season 9, he wants Buffy to have as normal a life as possible and is avoiding any romantic entanglement with her because of it. He even says he would be thrilled if Detective Dowling wanted to date her. Both Dowling and Eldre Koh can tell that he's still carrying a torch.
* IronButtMonkey: There's an [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YWV_Ta-304 entire video here]] detailing how often Spike gets his ass handed to him by just about everyone in the cast.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: After his HeelFaceTurn, he's still an asshole but he's heroic now.
* KnightOfCerebus: When Spike comes crashing through the Sunnydale welcome sign, gets out of his car and says "Home sweet home", it marks the beginning of a storyline that takes the entire series in a darker direction.
%%* KnightInSourArmor: After his HeelFaceTurn.
* TheLancer: To Buffy in season 7. He's her lieutenant in all but name, is frequently seen at her shoulder, and always lets her know when he disagrees [[UndyingLoyalty before supporting her anyway]].
* LaughablyEvil: "In the Dark." When he we next see him four seasons later, he's reformed his ways.
-->'''Cordelia:''' Heard you weren't evil anymore. Which kinda makes the hair silly.
* LaymansTerms: This became his gimmick during the gang's expository speeches (on both shows).
* LeeroyJenkins: On more than one occasion, his lack of patience has resulted in him heedlessly screwing up his own [[EvilPlan evil plans]].
-->'''Spike:''' I had ''a plan''!\\
'''Angel:''' You? A plan?\\
'''Spike:''' A good plan! Smart plan! Carefully laid out! ...But I got bored.
* LimitedWardrobe: He's rarely seen without his duster.
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: This sums up the differences between him and Angel in a nutshell; he doesn't regret becoming immortal, he revels in it.
* LivingLieDetector: Combined with BrutalHonesty. Mocks Buffy and Angel's attempts at being "JustFriends", points out that Willow is "hanging on by a thread" after breaking up with Oz, and accuses Buffy (and, by extension, all Slayers) of having a secret death wish in season five.
%%* LovableRogue
%%* LovableTraitor
* LoveHurts: As he says, love likes to make him its bitch.
* LoveMartyr: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] it with both his character quote and the page quote.
-->'''Spike''': I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.
* LoveRedeems: Unlike Angel, whose soul was forced on him, he sought out someone to return his soul so he would be more deserving of Buffy.
* ManchurianAgent: In the seventh season, the First forces him to kill again whenever he hears "Early One Morning."
* ManipulativeBastard: When he puts his mind to it, Spike is quite adept at using others' feelings against them, such as when he drove a wedge between the Scoobies with just a few insightful comments.
* MayflyDecemberRomance: With Buffy, the mortal human.
%%* MenacingStroll
* MommasBoy: He turned his mother into a vamp so they can be together forever. It's also the root of his attraction to Drusilla, his sire.
%%* MrFanservice: Moreso than even Mr. Boreanaz.
* MusicalTrigger: The First takes control of Spike with the folk song "Early One Morning," which Spike's mother often sang to him when he was human.
%%* NerdInEvilsHelmet
* NoExceptYes: In ''Angel'' season 5, he [[ShootTheHostage stabs through Angel]] to kill a demon behind him. Angel accuses him of just wanting to stab him. Spike is offended- he prefers bashing Angel with blunt objects.
* TheNicknamer:
** Spike's names for Illyria include "The Leather Queen", "[[Comicbook/RedSonja Fred Sonja]]", "Little [[HinduMythology Shiva]]", "[[PaulBunyan Babe the Blue Ox]]", and "[[WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine Blue Meanie]]".
** Angel is "Ol' Broody-pants" and "Captain Forehead".
** Riley is "Captain Cardboard".
%%* NobleDemon: After the start of his HeelFaceTurn.
* NotEvenBotheringWithAnExcuse: In "Triangle," he brushes off Xander's request that he try to fight Olaf the Troll because he's "paralyzed by not caring very much."
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Near the end of Season 4. The Scoobies are firmly convinced that Spike, due to his RestrainingBolt, is no longer a threat... until he proves them wrong by manipulating the existing tensions within the group and turning them against one another.
* NotWorthKilling: In season 4's "Doomed," Xander, during his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, remarks that, though he knows that he could easily kick Spike's ass as a result of his being [[RestrainingBolt chipped]], he's so pathetic right now that he's not worth the effort.
* OddFriendship: With Joyce. The two shared several [[VillainOverForDinner hot chocolate moments]] together and talk about ''Series/Passions''.
* OnlySaneMan: Quickly assumes he's this when Glory's spell makes everyone forget Glory is Ben every time he explains it to them.
* OpenMouthInsertFoot: Does this often when he's trying to court Buffy.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Temporarily turned incorporeal after he burns up in the Hellmouth. Angel's amulet brings him back as a ghost, though one that is radiating heat.
%%* PoisonousCaptive: In season four, Spike was often this to the Scoobies.
%%* PopularityPower
%%* PromotionToOpeningTitles
%%* PropheticName: "Pratt" = "idiot" in English parlance.
* QuizzicalTilt: His CharacterTic is this.
* RealMenWearPink: He knows that he's man enough to admit that he's love's bitch. He's not just saying it too. He's one bad vampire.
* RebelRelaxation: When you're a ghost, there's not much else to do but kick back and annoy the hell out of Angel.
* RedBaron: When Hell-A is split up between various demon "Lords", Spike crowns himself Lord of Beverly Hills. (''After the Fall'')
* ReformedButRejected: Even after his attempts at redemption, he is almost never really trusted by the Scoobies, who continually hound him with abuse and scorn. On the other hand, 120 years of him killing for fun. Plus, when he was originally forced to beg for their help, he spent a lot of time telling them how much he hated them and how he was going to kill them all, first chance he got. The abuse and scorn wasn't exactly one-sided. Even when he started trying to be what Buffy wanted, some of his attempts were... off, and the gang knew quite well that he was motivated by feelings for Buffy rather than a genuine desire for redemption. There's a difference. Even if he was planning not to repeat his past evil actions, he didn't actually feel remorse for them. Speaking pre-Season Seven.
* ReminiscingAboutYourVictims: Is fond of recalling the Slayers he has killed.
* RestrainingBolt: Once the Initiative puts a chip in his head, he was unable to kill the living.
* {{Retcon}}: Angel being his sire and that he respected him. Flashbacks show Drusilla sired him and that he and Angel were always at each other's throats. WordOfGod expains this by saying that vamps refer to anyone in their bloodline before them as their sire, so Spike would refer to Darla and The Master as his sires too.
* TheRival:
** To Angel, as revenge for all those times Angelus humiliated him and stole his girlfriend. Then the Shanshu prophecy mentions a vampire with a soul, not Angel specifically.
** He butted heads with Riley on frequent occasions.
* SayingTooMuch: After his Yoko Factor plan successfully splits up the Scoobies during season 4, Spike has a subsequent encounter with Buffy and mentions her falling out with her friends; as he wasn't actually there when the Scoobies had their big fight, Buffy puts two-and-two together and realizes that Spike set them up.
* SirSwearsALot: Some of this is due to DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch, but it's also a character trait.
* SmokingIsCool: Smokes Morley cigarettes and looks badass doing it.
* SourSupporter: After being chipped, he helps but he hates it. He becomes a more enthusiastic Scoobie after falling in love with Buffy.
* SpotlightStealingSquad: Like it or not, Spike eventually became the center of gravity for the entire cast. This started out gradually, kicking into overdrive once Marti Noxon took the helm. There's a reason it's just him and Buffy on the Season 7 box.
* StalkerWithACrush: How he acts initially after falling in love with Buffy.
* TheStarscream: First to the Anointed One, then to Angelus, both successfully.
* StartOfDarkness: "Fool for Love" talks about Drusilla siring him back when he was "William Pratt".
%%* StreetSmart
* StylisticSuck: Spike's bloody awful poetry.
-->"''Effulgent''"?
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Spike was initially brought into the group as a way of filling the gap left by Cordelia. Joss felt the absence of both Cordy ''and'' Oz left the heroes without a dissenting voice.
* ThereIsAnother: Spike gradually takes on the 'Angel' mantle in Seasons 5-7, whereupon he gets treated to guilt, hallucinations, [[ReducedToRatburgers eating rats]] -- the works.
-->'''Robin Wood:''' Because [[EntertaininglyWrong the military gave him a soul]]?
* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: After he gets chipped, he ends up playing "annoying house-guest" to both Xander and Giles. Among other failings, he eats Giles's entire supply of weetabix.
-->"I thought vampires were supposed to eat blood?"
-->"Yeah, well, sometimes [[TooMuchInformation I like to crumble up the weetabix in the blood.]] Gives it a little texture."
* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: What's he [[StalkerWithACrush doing outside Buffy's house]]? Five words or less. He's "Out. For. A. Walk." *{{Beat}}* "Bitch."
* ThrowingOffTheDisability: Ends up in a wheelchair after a [[PianoDrop church organ falls on him]], but he gets better in a few episodes' time.
%%* TokenEvilTeammate: Season 4 and part of Season 5.
* TookALevelInBadass: Heralded by adopting the name Spike. After being kicked around a bit in the main series, he also took one in ''Angel'', in which he fought Angel and ''won''. Bear in mind this is the Angel who, after getting his own spin-off, also TookALevelInBadass.
* TookALevelInKindness: While it started as a [[StalkerWithACrush creepy obsession]] about Buffy, he genuinely became a nicer guy around after the time Glory tortured him, and it ''more or less'' continued upwards. [[HeadbuttingHeroes Except towards Angel. He'll always be a dick to Angel.]]
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Aside from blood, obviously, he fancies those onion blossoms and buffalo wings served at The Bronze, even though he can't digest them. He also likes to sprinkle Wheatabix into his blood bags for "texture."
%%* TrenchcoatBrigade
%%* TroubledButCute
* {{Tsundere}}:
** After he develops a crush on Buffy. "[[MusicalEpisode First he'll kill her, then I'll save her... No, I'll save her]], ''[[IfWeSurviveThis then]]'' [[MusicalEpisode I'll kill her...]]"
-->Spike to Buffy, after he's caught [[StalkerWithACrush lurking outside her house]]: "And I never really liked you anyway, and [[LameComeback and you have stupid hair]] (''{{beat}}'') [''Leaves'']."
** Played shallowly in his fling with Harmony, where the Deredere is mostly an act, partly a rebound crush, and the Tsuntsun is because she's [[MotorMouth that annoying]].
* UndyingLoyalty: After the Scoobies kick Buffy out of the house in favor of Faith, Spike is the only one of them to remain by her side; his support helps Buffy get back her self-confidence and win back the Scoobies' loyalty.
* UnexplainedRecovery: Lampshaded by Spike himself. "Flash-fried in a pillar of fire saving the world. I got better."
%%* UpperClassTwit: Before he met Drusilla.
%%* WallGlower
* WarriorPoet: Literally as he was a poet before he was transformed into a kickass vampire. ''Angel'' shows that he still writes them.
* WhamLine: Several.
** '''Season 2:''' "Oh, I will. [[ThrowingOffTheDisability Sooner than you think.]]"
** '''Season 5:''' "Buffy, [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove I love you]]. God, I love you so much. [[AllJustADream ...]][[CatapultNightmare Oh, God, no]]. [[LoveEpiphany Please, no]]."
** '''Season 6:''' Not by him, but about him.
--> '''Spike:''' "So you'll give me what I want. Make me what I was. So Buffy can get what she deserves."
--> '''Demon:''' "Very well. We will return...[[spoiler:your soul]]."
* WildCard: Spike has a natural ability to upset the expected order of things, especially with Buffy and Angel/us.
* TheWorfEffect: If someone's ass is gonna get kicked to show how powerful the BigBad, odds are that it'll be Spike drawing the short straw.
* YouAreNumberSix: The Initiative brands him "Hostile 17".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Riley]]
!!Riley Finn
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/finn_riley_1497.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Turns out I suddenly find myself needing to know the plural of "apocalypse"."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Marc Blucas
->''"So, what have you got going on tonight?"''
->''"Patrolling."''
->''"Patrolling?"''
->''"...[[LastSecondWordSwap Petroleum]]."''
->--Riley and Buffy

Initiative soldier and Buffy's LoveInterest in Season 4 (and early Season 5). PutOnABus, but came back for an episode in Season 6, and later on a recurring basis in the comics.
----
* AmazonChaser: DoubleSubverted. He likes Buffy's strength and skill, but after a while the fact that she's stronger than him chips away at his self confidence. Then he marries a BadassNormal action girl instead of one with SuperStrength.
* {{Badass}}: Professional soldier who can keep up with slayers and vampires.
* BattleCouple: Riley is eager to form one with Buffy, but she finds his lack of superpowers cramps her style. When Riley returns for one episode ("[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E15AsYouWere As You Were]]") in Season 6, he's married a BadassNormal ActionGirl, forming a new Battle Couple.
* DefectorFromDecadence: He was initially [[UndyingLoyalty completely loyal]] to the Initiative, but as he uncovered more and more of its corruption, particularly after Professor Walsh attempted to kill Buffy in a DeathTrap, he began to desire to leave. When the Initiative captured Oz, a werewolf, and conducted inhumane experiments on him even after he reverted to human form, that was the straw that broke the camel's back; he promptly turned his back on them in favor of the Scoobies and helped Buffy and co. break Oz out.
* DownOnTheFarm: Lampshaded by Riley Finn when he describes to Buffy the farm he grew up on, and admits he's making it sound like a [[AmericanGothicCouple Grant Wood painting]]. Later when Buffy finds out Riley is a secret agent, she naturally assumes this is all a front. Riley says that no, he really did grow up on a small farm in Iowa.
* TheEasyWayOrTheHardWay: "We can do this the hard way, or the fatal way."
* FantasticDrug: Became addicted to having his blood sucked by vampire prostitutes. No, that is not an UnusualEuphemism.
* FantasticRacism: At first he blasts the Scoobies and Willy the Snitch for harboring Spike and serving demons at his bar respectively, and later made negative comments on Willow's relationship with Oz, a werewolf. He grows out of it.
%%* FarmBoy
* FeelNoPain: An eventual side-effect of Professor Walsh's experiments, though the strain it put on his body led to a HollywoodHeartAttack.
* ForScience: As a psychology major, his more ''curious interests'' occasionally pop up, like [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E3TheReplacement when Xander was accidentally doubled.]]
-->'''Riley:''' Psychologically, this is fascinating! Doesn't it make everyone wanna [[StrappedToAnOperatingTable lock them in separate rooms and do experiments on them?]]
-->'''Giles:''' ({{Beat}})
-->'''Riley:''' ...Just me, then.
* TheGenericGuy: Compared to Buffy's other bad-boy love interests (Angel, Spike, and Parker), at the core Riley's just a normal, squeaky-clean, church-going guy from the midwestern US. This is one of the factors in [[TheScrappy the fandom's dislike of him]]; he's just not as interesting as the other characters.
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Accidentally sleeping with Faith (in Buffy guise). His tenderness is so alien to her that she [[FreakOut freaks out]].
* HappilyMarried: He returns in season 6 with a wife. Their happiness together is a 180 contrast to the self-destructive Spuffy going on at the time.
* HilariousInHindsight: His many similarities to Captain America after Joss Whedon's involvement with the MarvelCinematicUniverse. Whedon himself wrote the script for Cap's movie.
* LoveInterest: For Buffy.
* NiceGuy: In Season 6 when he returns to find Buffy working in a dead-end job and sleeping with Spike, Riley refuses to condemn her for it, instead giving Buffy the encouragement to start pulling her life back together.
* OneHeadTaller: Marc Blucas' height made scenes where he had to kiss the diminutive Sarah Michelle Gellar a bit awkward.
%%*ReverseMole: [[spoiler: In the comic.]]
* RomanticRunnerUp: He has a successful relationship with Buffy for some time, but it's made plain that she doesn't love him the way she loved Angel.
* RuggedScar: After [[TheBusCameBack coming back in season 6]], he is shown to be much more proficient and gained a really cool scar over an eye.
* ScarsAreForever: When he comes back in Season 6, he has your standard Awesome [=McCool=] scar across his left eye. He also has one from when he cut out Adam's mind control chip, and probably has [[CoveredWithScars another]] from when Adam stabbed him.
* SuperSoldier: On the mild side of "super", but he and the other Initiative troops are chemically augmented.
* VanHelsingHateCrimes: He makes negative comments about Oz being a werewolf, leading to Buffy angrily [[WhatTheHellHero calling him a bigot]]. However, when the Initiative capture and torture a human Oz despite his objections, he snaps out of it.
* WhamLine: "But she doesn't love me."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Dawn]]
!!Dawn Summers
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/summers_dawn_2085.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"We destroyed TheMall? ...I fought on the wrong side."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Creator/MichelleTrachtenberg

-->''"Destroyer of the universe. Guess cutting school doesn't seem so bad now, huh."''

Buffy's younger sister who was {{Cosmic Retcon}}ned into existence in Season 5. She's actually a [[MacGuffin Key]] that could open dimensional barriers.
----
* AffectionateGestureToTheHead - Buffy stroking Dawn's hair.
* AgeAppropriateAngst: Joss thought so which is why he "scratched his head" when viewer response wasn't ideal. He later admitted the writers were "hitting the same note" with Dawn in Seasons 5-6.
* AgeIsRelative: Depending on how you look at her, when she first is seen in Buffy's bedroom, Dawn is either 14 billion years old, 14 years old, or mere minutes old.
* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Buffy thinks of Dawn as a burden to be endured quite often, and not only because of the usual younger sister nonsense.
* ApocalypseMaiden: Spilling her blood creates an interdimensional tear that brings down the walls separating the various worlds, thus destroying the entire multi-verse.
* ArtificialHuman: She only ''looks'' human. Her existence is supernatural.
* BadassAdorable: By the end of the series she's a fairly skilled hand-to-hand fighter, for a normal human, has a base level of competency when it comes to magic, speaks a dozen languages, and is generally Giles' number one backup when it comes to research.
* BarrierMaiden: She's the key to opening dimensional barriers.
* BewareTheNiceOnes:
-->'''Dawn:''' You sleep, right? Because if you hurt my sister, you'll wake up on fire.
-->'''Spike:''' [later, to Buffy] Also, when did your sister become unbelievably scary?
* BigSisterWorship: Dawn both resents and idolizes her superhero sister.
* BrattyHalfPint: [[spoiler: Dark Willow]] threatens to kill her just to put an end to her constant whining.
* BreakTheCutie: Most of the Fifth Season is one long trauma-line for Dawn. She is targeted by a PhysicalGod for murder, her mother dies abruptly, and then her sister commits suicide in order to save her life. Its safe to say that it really was a bad year for Dawn. No wonder she starts acting out...
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: She was originally conceived as a pre-teen, and when Trachtenberg was cast instead there wasn't enough time to rewrite the season's first few episodes to reflect her being a teenager. Around Glory's introduction, this got better.
%%* TheChick
%%* CousinOliver
* CosmicRetcon: When the Monks of Dagon changed the all-powerful orb of glowing green energy she used to be into a 14 year old girl, they also inserted an entire life history for her into the memories of everyone who could possibly have met her.
* CursedWithAwesome: While being a giant and centaurette were annoying to her, she at least acknowledged they had some good points. Being turned into a doll wasn't funny.
** According to JossWhedon's script notes, Dawn Summers, being technically a clone of her older sister Buffy, should have been a potential Slayer, were it not for the fact that the Key, a force that was infinitely more powerful than the Slayer spirit, was already in residence in her body. Thus, her "potential" to be a potential Slayer was erased.
* DamselInDistress: The fact that Dawn is put in danger so often is even lamp-shaded.
-->'''Buffy:''' "Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday."
* DawsonCasting: Considering how much the show made use of it, Dawn was a pleasant aversion; Michelle Trachtenberg started playing the 14-year-old Dawn when she was 14. It was done to ensure that she would look younger than her sister. Ironically, she became taller than her by Season 7.
* FascinatingEyebrow: Though more because she's being sardonic.
* FreakOut: Learning that her existence as a person was the creation of the Monks of Dagon shocked her so much that she sliced her own arm open just to see if she would really bleed.
%%* GenreSavvy: In Season 8.
* HasTwoMommies: As part of the CosmicRetcon, it's stated that she spends the night at Willow and Tara's place whenever she gets upset. Later they semi-adopt her [[spoiler:when Buffy dies]] and move into her mom's old bedroom. When Willow and Tara separate early Season 6, Tara goes out of her way to assure Dawn, "This has nothing to do with you. You know we both still love you." Also, in Season 8, she directly says that Willow is like her mother.
%%* IJustWantToBeSpecial
* IncestSubtext: She wants Willow and Tara to teach her the stuff they do together, [[LesYay and is promptly told to go to her room]]. In another episode, Willow is perving on a girl dancing, to discover it was Dawn. Dawn also curls up in bed with the Buffybot as a way of mourning Buffy after her (temporary) death.
%%* IncorruptiblePurePureness: The Key.
* KleptomaniacHero: After her mother's death and Buffy's return, she gets increasingly sticky-fingered as a way to act out due to the trauma she'd endured.
* TheLoad: {{Lampshaded}} in Season 6.
--> "Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday."
%%* MinoredInAsskicking
%%* MissedTheCall
%%* TheNotLoveInterest
%%* RapunzelHair
* RememberTheNewGuy: A deconstruction. When people, including Dawn, discover her sudden appearance in reality was only recent and their memories of her are fake, they have obviously mixed reactions to both the information and towards her.
%%* ScreamingWoman
* ShipperOnDeck: ''Hardcore'' Willow / Tara fangirl because they're sort-of her parents.
* TheSmartGuy: By the last season of the show, Dawn had become an efficient researcher and a master linguist.
* StickyFingers: Suffers from kleptomania.
%%* TheTeamWannabe
%%* TookALevelInBadass: In Season 7 (technically starting in the season 6 finale).
* {{Wangst}}: See AgeAppropriateAngst above though it's worth noting there are times she can fall into this even in Season 7 (though not as much as in previous seasons).
* WhamLine: Dawn has a couple, inadvertently or otherwise. Like when talking to Riley about Buffy's relationship with Angel:
--> "Everyday was like the end of the world. She doesn't get worked up like that over you."
** Or to her sister:
--> "Buffy, Spike's completely in love with you."
* WrongGenreSavvy: In a lot of Season 7, she seems to think she's in ''Series/{{CSI}}''.
* YoungerThanSheLooks: A 14-year old girl who is more than ReallySevenHundredYearsOld and is technically no more than a few hours old when first introduced.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tara]]
!!Tara Maclay
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maclay_tara_3205.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Um, that-that was funny if you, um, studied Taglarin mythic rites…and are a complete dork."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Creator/AmberBenson

Willow's love interest in Seasons 4-6. A capable witch, and a lot wiser about her powers than Willow. [[spoiler:She's killed in Season 6]]. She and Willow are the longest-lasting lesbian couple in network television history, and one of the best known.
----
* AbilityOverAppearance: Producers were reluctant to cast Amber Benson as Tara in because they wanted someone with the same slender build as Creator/AlysonHannigan. Specifically, they needed someone to take Willow's place as TheWoobie, since Willow was becoming too powerful to convincingly put in any real danger. However, Benson quickly won them over with her ability to play awkward and vulnerable.
* AbusiveParents: More like Abusive ''Family''. As part of her family's misogynistic tyranny of the women of the clan, they told her she was half-demon her entire life and that if she ever left them for too long, she'd turn into a monster. Her own brother explicitly threatens to beat her up if she doesn't come with them.
* AllWitchesHaveCats: Miss Kitty Fantastico, again! Though Tara was more interested in having a CuteKitten than a witch's familiar.
* BadLiar: In "Intervention," Spike makes a Buffybot to have sex with, and Tara tells Dawn that he made it to play checkers with ("It sounded convincing when I thought it"). Dawn, of course, doesn't buy it for a second.
%%* BloodSplatteredInnocents:
%%* BringOutYourGayDead
* ClosetKey: Willow didn't know she was into girls until she met Tara.
* ClothingReflectsPersonality: See RedOniBlueOni. Tara also wears brighter and more attractive clothes in later seasons as she gains in confidence.
* TheConfidant: The only Scoobie that Buffy risks confessing to about her SecretRelationship with Spike. Tara is so sympathetic that a self-loathing Buffy breaks down in tears, begging Tara not to forgive her.
* CureYourGays: Parodied in "Once More, With Feeling."
-->"Oh my God, I'm cured! I want the boys!" (pretends to run off, only to collapse giggling into Willow's arms)
* TheConscience: Tries to end Willow's abuse of magic, and ends their relationship when she won't listen.
* [[spoiler:DeadStarWalking: In "Seeing Red"]]
* FakeGuestStar: Despite appearing in almost fifty episodes, she's still billed a guest star.
* FamousLastWords: [[TearJerker "Your shirt..."]]
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Her love song to Willow in "Once More, With Feeling" is extremely touching, and also extremely sexy if you listen closely to what she's singing: "Willow, you make me ''com''plete." Whedon said after the fact that it was the dirtiest thing he'd ever written.
-->''Joss:'' Yeah... this is porn.
* HotWitch: Lampshaded in "Once More With Feeling"; having gained in confidence thanks to her relationship with Willow, she's dressing a lot more attractively.
* InstantDeathBullet: Says two words, then dies.
* MindRape: What Glory did in "Tough Love," and what Willow did in "All The Way."
%%* NiceGirl: The closest this series has to one.
* NWordPrivileges: In this cut scene from "Dead Things".
--> "Sweetie, I'm a fag. I've been there."
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: For one episode.
* RedOniBlueOni: When Willow and Tara first meet in Season 4, Tara wears blue and Willow wears red -- Tara is shy, cautious yet with longer experience in magic use, while Willow is more powerful, impulsive and (by that stage) outgoing in personality.
%%* RelationshipReveal: With Willow.
%%* ShrinkingViolet: In early seasons.
* SpeechImpediment: Clearly an artifact of her abusive childhood, as it gets worse when her family comes to town, but [[StutterStop almost disappears]] once she gains more confidence in herself.
%%* StuffedIntoTheFridge:
* TeamMom: Evolves into this during Seasons 5 and 6, thanks to her maturity [[spoiler: and needed after Joyce's death.]]
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth
* WhamLine: If you thought Willow and Tara were "just friends"...
-->'''Tara''': I am, you know.
-->'''Willow''': What?
-->'''Tara''': Yours.
%%* WhiteSheep
* WiseBeyondHerYears: Despite being the most innocent of the Scoobies, Tara takes the revelation of [[spoiler:Joyce's death]] much more like an adult than any other member of the gang. We later learn it's because [[spoiler:her own mother died when she was 17, so she's been through this before]].
[[/folder]]
----

[[foldercontrol]]

!!Angel, né Liam (Creator/DavidBoreanaz)
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/angel_boreanaz_977.jpg
->''"For a hundred years, I offered an ugly death to everyone I met, and I did it with a song in my heart."''

A vampire, one of the worst recorded. Sired in {{Oireland}} circa 1753 by Darla and, adopting the name "Angelus," wreaked havoc across Europe for almost 150 years until he angered a Gypsy clan by killing one of their beloved daughters. The Gypsies cursed him by returning his soul, filling him with remorse for his crimes.

After a century of living in squalor and feeding off rats, Angel is recruited by the PowersThatBe and sent to watch over Buffy Summers, the newly-called Slayer. He serves as a Scoobies' contact in the demon world and Buffy's first LoveInterest, but loses his soul in Season 2, becoming a formidable BigBad with a love of torture (both physical and [[MindRape psychological]]).

Even re-ensouled, the threat isn't over. Should Angel achieve even a moment of pure happiness, the gypsy curse is automatically lifted; their code of vengeance holds that it's better for him to become evil again than to do anything to ease his suffering. Realizing that he's a danger as long as he's around Buffy, he packs up and Sunnydale for Los Angeles, where he gets his own show. He continues to fight demons as a form of penance for his crimes.

He returned to Buffy in the Season 8 comics, and co-stars with Faith in the comic series called ''Angel and Faith''.

* {{Adorkable}}: In the comic books. ''The reading glasses.''
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Buffy and Cordelia, his two major love interests, are former cheerleaders.
* AndYourLittleDogToo:
** He meant ''real'' dogs.
-->'''Buffy:''' Skip it. I don't have a puppy, so skip it.
** Giles' profile on Angelus suggests that he will lash out at everything that made him feel human. Buffy tops the list.
* TheAntiChrist[=/=]AntiAntiChrist: The Shanshu Prophecy was not explicit on which side Angel would be fighting on during the end times. At the start of ''Angel'', the idea of Angel willingly cooperating with the Senor Partners seems unthinkable. By the end of Season Four, Angel has darkned enough and his circumstances have gotten hazy to the point where he joins them. According to the comics, the jury's still out on whether the Shanshu prophecy spells doom for mankind in general. Wesley's father, Roger Wyndam-Pryce (or at least [[spoiler:a close facsimile thereof]]) warned that Angel is "more dangerous than you realize."
* AntiHero: Default state is Type II, but spends time as Type III on occasion. The presence of Darla can cause a change to Type IV, although that is very temporary.
* TheAntiNihilist:
-->"If nothing we do matters... then [[{{Koan}} all that matters is what we do]]."
* AppropriatedAppellation: Liam took his vampire name from his sister, who mistook her resurrected older brother for an angel.
* TheAtoner:
** Angel plays MysteriousProtector to Slayers to make up for the evil he's done as a vampire.
** Angel Investigations is about him switching to AtonementDetective for the same reason.
* BackForTheFinale: Delivering a HeyYouHaymaker to Caleb in "End of Days." Unfortunately for Angel, he's back on the ''Buffy'' set now, which means Caleb lunges right back up and knocks him flat in "Chosen." Tradition, y'know.
* {{Badass}}: While he has all of the strengths of a vampire, his true power lies in his intimate understanding of evil.
* BadassBoast: Gives one to Lindsey in Season Five. As he had also regained his self-confidence as a hero and champion, it also counts as a HesBack moment:
-->"All those tattoos, all those new tricks you've learned just don't matter. Doesn't matter what you try. Doesn't matter where I am or how badass you think you've become. 'Cause you know what? I'm Angel. [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin I beat the bad guys]]."
* BadassInDistress: Frequently. Kendra nearly incinerated him in the cellar of Willie's bar, and he later spent an entire season hiatus in this state. ("Deep Down").
-->"So... how was ''[[LeaningOnTheFourthWall your]]'' summer? Mine was fun. Saw some fish. [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Went mad with hunger]]. Hallucinated a whole bunch."
%%* BadassLongcoat: [[JossWhedon Joss]] likes this one.
* BadDreams: With such regularity, one wonders how he catches ''any'' winks without valium. Yet another downside to being undead: vampires share a PsychicLink with their kin. When a vampire he sired 100 years ago starts killing people locally, Angel feels it. In ''Angel'' Season Two, Angel starts having... erm, '[[NocturnalEmission dreams]]' about his maker. It is later revealed that Darla is dosing him with occult herbs to drive him into a frenzy.
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: Near the end of ''After the Fall'', Angel, realizing that the Senior Partners [[IWantThemAlive need him alive]] for their plans, provokes Gunn into killing him, forcing the Partners to hit the ResetButton so that the Fall of Los Angeles never happened and bringing back everyone who died since then in the process, which is exactly what Angel expected them to do.]]
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Liam always wanted to get out of Galway and see the world so naturally, he jumped at Darla's offer to see it together. Then he was vampirized but still didn't regret it until the gypsies forced his soul back inside him.
* BeastAndBeauty: With Buffy and Cordelia, in that order, because he's a vampire and they are cute human girls.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: He was in China during the Boxer Rebellion, and apparently knew Elvis and TheRatPack personally.
* BeingGoodSucks: Atonement's a bitch.
* BerserkButton:
** Do ''not'' mention coffins -- or vampires sleeping in said coffins. It is an [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad offensive stereotype]] popularized by [[YourVampiresSuck hack writers and ignorant media]].
** Being called a eunuch is also a big one for him.
* [[RedOniBlueOni Blue Oni]]: To Spike's red. Spike's embrace of punk music, as opposed to quieter, more emotive music (Angel is a closet Fanilow as well as an ex-[=RatPack=] groupie) is indicative of his distaste for brooding intellectual types like Angel.
* BigBad: For Season 2 of Buffy. Also took over the role for a short while in Angel's fourth season after [[KlingonPromotion killing The Beast]], until he was re-ensouled again by Willow.
* BigFancyHouse: A creepy, art deco mansion on the edge of town. Angelus moves into the abandoned residence along with Drusilla and Spike. When he comes back from hell in Season 3, Angel stays there until the end of the season.
* BlasphemousBoast: Part of Angelus's M.O. at one point was to carve the image of a crucifix into his victims' left cheek so as to spite God.
* BroughtDownToBadass: Is turned human by the Senior Partners in the ''After the Fall'' comics in order to hinder him. Using various charms and spells, he's still in the game and kicking ass.
* BruiserWithASoftCenter: Ah, Angel. Brooding, angsty vampire trying to fight the good fight, within LA and himself. Who'd ever think that he dug ''Mandy'' and Barry Manilow, or had a fear of dancing (yet a secret desire to, despite how awful he is at it) or go on about how much he loves [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]] when pretending to be drunk?
%%* ByronicHero
* CelibateHero: "I'm ''not'' a eunuch!"
* CantHaveSexEver: With any woman he loves, or else he'll try to destroy the world again. Realistically, any sex would be a gamble because it would reveal his vampire nature. His love life is about as checkered as everyone else's in the series.
-->'''Connor:''' Do you spend all your time making out with other vampires, like in {{Anne Rice}} novels?\\
'''Angel:''' Uh, no. I used to, but...\\
'''Connor:''' You have a girlfriend at least?\\
'''Angel:''' Can't afford to.\\
'''Connor:''' Must be lonely.\\
'''Angel:''' ''(defensively)'' I keep busy!
** He manages to share intimacy with a werewolf, Nina Ash, near the conclusion of Angel. The trick is, their relationship is premature -- to say nothing of Angel's mounting gloom at having to send her away in the series finale.
* TheChampion: He appointed himself as Buffy's guardian shortly after she was called as a Slayer.
* ChronicallyCrashedCar: The Plymouth got totaled in the pilot, and later wound up in Lorne's basement club (via a wormhole), making it somewhat resemble a [[Film/PulpFiction Jackrabbit Slim's]]. (They never do explain how they removed the car.)
* ClosetGeek: ''Angel & Faith'' teaches us that Angel is a die-hard fan of Creator/DouglasAdams. It helped him through a [[NoodleIncident difficult period]] in TheEighties...
* CluelessDetective: A RunningGag is that he's better at fighting demons than he is at genuine detective work. On one occasion, he had to hire another detective agency with a FriendOnTheForce for help on a case.
* TheComicallySerious: The fact that he's periodically-evil while his companions are all Happy Meals with legs might have something to do with all the jokes at his expense, to keep him grounded.
* ColdBloodedTorture: Angelus' M.O because he's an evil prick.
* CoolCar:
** A black Plymouth convertible, mirroring Spike's muscle car. The only difference is, Angel's roof is detachable... in sunny LA. (He purchased it on the cheap.)
-->"Why not a [[VanityPlate personalized license plate]] that says "IRONY"?"
** A whole fleet of luxury cars (with necrotempered windows™) after he becomes Wolfram & Hart's CEO. [[spoiler:Also, a helicopter]].
%%* TheCorrupter:
* TheCowl: At one point, he leapt heroically into the wrong car. ("City Of...")
* CulturedBadass: A skilled artist, voracious reader, fluent in multiple languages (including demonic ones), and [[RealMenWearPink a ballet enthusiast]] -- even from his days as the evil Angelus.
--->[[RealMenWearPink "I cried like a baby]]. And I was '''evil'''!"
* CurseEscapeClause: Angel is cursed with a soul [[CantHaveSexEver until he has a moment of perfect happiness]]. Buffy unwittingly helps break the curse (though the gypsies believe this was fated it happen), and then needs to find a way to repair it.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Just very, very broody.
%%* DeadpanSnarker: At times.
* DeusAngstMachina: Mr. Whedon, don't make him happy. You wouldn't like him when he's happy.
* DeterminedDefeatist: Though there is the occasional reprieve, at heart, Angel suspects that he will [[DeusAngstMachina never stop paying]] for his crimes. He and Spike share a grumpy exchange about how they're both going to Hell, and thus will never be rid of each other.
* DoNotGoGentle: In the ''Angel'' TV finale, his plan is to take out the Circle of the Black Thorn, the Senior Partners' main instruments of evil on Earth, and go out in a blaze of glory.
* DoWithHimAsYouWill:
** In season 2's "Reunion," Holland Manners, having had Drusilla re-sire a resurrected Darla, gives them full backing for whatever massacre they intend to carry out and organizes a wine tasting at his house for Wolfram & Hart employees to celebrate his success, only for Drusilla and Darla to crash the party, intending to kill Holland and the W&H employees there as revenge for being used as pawns. Angel shows up, apparently planning to SaveTheVillain... but instead, Angel also wants them dead and locks them all in the wine cellar with Darla and Drusilla before leaving them to die.
** In season 3's "Double or Nothing," Jenoff, a paranormal crime boss/casino owner, comes to collect Gunn's soul in accordance with a DealWithTheDevil Gunn made years ago. In the climax, Angel chops off the head of said crime boss. It quickly becomes apparent that this will only temporarily incapacitate him, so Angel asks who else in the casino owes the man, and leaves as the mob descends on Jenoff.
* TheDreaded: Everyone's scared of Angelus.
%%* {{Deuteragonist}}
* DyingAsYourself: His death in the ''Buffy'' season 2 finale. Willow has successfully re-ensouled Angelus... but unfortunately, Acathla has already begun to awaken, and Buffy has no choice but to kill Angel, not Angelus, to save the world.
* EnemyWithin: Angelus is the vampire-without-a-soul aspect of his personality.
* EpiphanyTherapy: Having exhausted his resolve fighting Wolfram and Hart, Angel attempts to shed his soul by having sex with Darla, but instead of a moment of perfect happiness, he found perfect despair. An epiphany follows, and Angel realized that his purpose was still to do all the good he could, even if he couldn't do all the good he wanted to.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Doyle confesses that "maybe [he's] a little attracted" to Angel, much to his embarassment.
* EveryoneLovesBlondes: If you look at Angel's history, he has a taste for for [[HugeGuyTinyGirl petite]] blondes - Darla in the Victorian era, Buffy throughout the show's run, and Nina Ash in the show's last season. This is lampshaded when Fred testifies she saw Angel having sex on his desk with Lilah Morgan, a sworn enemy.
-->'''Fred:''' Brunette. She was a cheap brunette.\\
'''Cordy:''' ''(alarmed)'' You're right. [[NotHimself This isn't like him]].
* EverythingButTheGirl:
** The Immortal called dibs.
-->'''Angel:''' [[ItMakesSenseInContext But she's not finished baking yet!]] I gotta wait till she's done baking! [[MotorMouth You know, till she finds herself, 'cause that's the drill, fine, I'm waitin' patiently and meanwhile]], '''THE IMMORTAL'S EATING COOKIE DOUGH'''!\\
'''Andrew''': Uhhh, Spike, is Angel crying?\\
'''Spike:''' No! ''(in the same defiant tone)'' [[OnSecondThought Not yet!]]
** He was slow on the draw with Cordelia. She packed off and left with the Groolalugg, another superhuman warrior who ''isn't'' allergic to sunlight.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Angelus is completely unable to understand why Angel does what he does or the "human condition," firmly believing that humans only exist to suffer and die.
* EvilGloating: Angelus' FatalFlaw is this; he's constantly prone to bragging and excessive talking, often letting his opponents use the opportunity to either escape or fight back. Lampshaded:
-->'''Spike''': You bloody well talk them to death before you kill them!
* EvilIsHammy: Angelus, particularly in his second appearance. Good lord, man, switch to decaf.
-->''"[[IncomingHam Uh-ohhh!]] [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Vampire with a gun!]]"''
* EvilIsPetty: Angelus' primary motivation in ''Buffy'' season 2 is just to cause Buffy and her friends as much grief as possible because he's disgusted that Buffy made him feel human ("That's not the kinda thing you just forgive.").
* ExpansionPackPast: Two hundred years leaves gaps to fill in. Angelus grumbles that it was mostly puppy rescues and Manilow concerts.
* FaceHeelTurn: Causes special problems during his tenure as BigBad, considering his intimate knowledge of all the Scoobies, not to mention [[ParanoiaFuel standing invitations to most of their homes]].
* FauxAffablyEvil: Angelus can occasionally be shown with a seemingly friendly and understanding approach (much like as Angel). The fact that most of it isn't really genuine at all, not to mention that later on it could also be a reminiscence of how he is when he has a soul which he might be deceptively using to his advantage makes it all the more terrifying.
* FoeYay: With Spike. Joss himself has joked [-(sort of)-] that they're his [[OneTruePairing One True Bromance]]. [[invoked]]
* TheFogOfAges: By the time of "Not Fade Away", Angel has forgotten what it's like to be human.
* ForTheEvulz: Everything Angelus does is just for the sheer cruelty of it all. In a way, he's the purest character in all of the Buffyverse - both the Master and the First Evil have acknowledged how purely evil and vicious he is/was. A perfect example: near the end of Season 2 of Buffy, he captures Giles for information on how to awaken the demon Acathla and destroy the world, and openly admits that he hopes that Giles ''won't'' tell him what he needs to know willingly because he doesn't want to be deprived of the opportunity to torture someone.
* ForcedToWatch: After putting himself through hell to redeem Darla's soul in season 2, Lindsey [=McDonald=] shows up with Drusilla and an army of thugs, tasers Angel, and makes him watch as Drusilla turns Darla into a vampire again. This pushes Angel into complete HeWhoFightsMonsters territory for the next few episodes.
%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Choleric, at least as a part of The Whirlwind.
* FreudianExcuse: Wesley, of all people, chastises Angel for hiding behind his gyspy curse so he doesn't have to face having serious relationships with women. Angel acknowledges he is ''completely right''.
* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: TropeCodifier. Spike's the trope namer
* FromNobodyToNightmare: He was just a [[LazyBum jobless, drunken, 18th-century Eurotrash lout]] before Darla sired him. It turns out that he had a huge capacity for depravity which surprises even his maker.
* GoMadFromTheIsolation[=/=]WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Season three's "Birthday" depicts an alternate reality in which Cordelia never joined Angel Investigations. Doyle passed his visions on to Angel prior to his HeroicSacrifice, and Angel retreated into himself in his grief, with the visions only making things worse. Before long, Angel went completely insane from his own loneliness and his visions, to the extent that he would have visions of his victims. The worst of it all is that what Cordelia sees of that version of Angel, a babbling, incoherent mess who starts pounding his head on the wall while talking to her, is, according to that world's Wesley and Gunn, him on a good day.
* GoalInLife: To protect Buffy as she assumes the Slayer mantle and, later, to fulfill the Shanshu Prophecy and become human. Angel sometimes [[ZigZaggingTrope deviates from this]], for various reasons, among them a belief that his mission is being clouded by self-interest. By the fifth season, his faith wavers to the point of dismissing the Prophecy entirely. In the Series Finale, [[spoiler:Angel is forced to literally sign away his chances in the human sweepstakes, nullifying the prophecy]] with a signature in blood. In the comic continuation, the Senior Partners finally give him a glimpse of the Shanshu Prophecy: Himself [[BadFuture standing in an apocalyptic wasteland]], [[FutureMeScaresMe grinning like a maniac]]. Now, Angel's goal is to keep improving the world ''in spite'' of the Prophecy; with luck, the future can be altered. (Unless the Partners were just dicking with him again.)
* GollumMadeMeDoIt: On ''Angel'', Angelus is shown as a distinct personality, self-image, and memories of his own. This is a slight departure from ''Buffy'', in which Angelus was just Angel with his RestrainingBolt removed.
* GoodIsNotSoft: He ''is'' a nice guy most of the time, but he can switch to ruthless at the drop of a hat and he has a hundred years of doing extremely horrible things to people for giggles to draw on. It is also not a good idea to go after people he cares about.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Smokes cigarettes as Angelus, as well as during his KnightTemplar phase in ''Angel'' season 2.
* GypsyCurse: Gypsies are responsible for returning his soul so he would be overwhelmed by 200 years of guilt. It's also the reason he can never be perfectly happy because he would lose his soul.
* HellBentForLeather: Famous for his Leather Pants of Evil, which he never lived down.
* HeroWithBadPublicity: After the end of magic. Due in part to the various atrocities he committed as Twilight, he's even more loathed and feared by the magical community than Buffy, the one who ''caused'' the end of magic.
* HeroesLoveDogs: Lampshaded by Angelus, who offers to send Angel "to that big puppy pound in the sky" as revenge for all those puppies he's saved. PlayedForLaughs when Gunn assures him that he'll get along fine with The Conduit -- as long as he likes cats. Whoops.
* HeroicBSOD: Sometimes caused by remorse over his own actions, other times brought on by a century-long stay in Hell which leaves him [[ThousandYardStare a trembling mute]]. Lampshaded on ''Angel'', when Spike joins the cast.
-->"I spent ''a hundred years'' trying to come to terms with infinite remorse! You spent three weeks [[BasementDweller moaning in a basement]], '''AND THEN YOU WERE FINE'''! What's fair about that?!"
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In every sense of the word. Buffy [[spoiler:runs him through with a replica of his own blessed sword, which in turns sucks him through his own hell portal]]. Putting a damper on this irony is the knowledge that [[spoiler:Angel suffers the fate reserved for Angelus, because he regained his soul moments beforehand and that brief vulnerability may well have been what allowed Buffy's victory]].
* HollywoodToneDeaf: On his own show, which displays his more private foibles in a way the original show doesn't. Wang Chung will never recover.
* HopelessWithTech: Never really gets the hang of cell phones.
--> "They talk about me in the chatty rooms?"
* {{Hunk}}: By 2004, he was essentially [[Series/{{Bones}} Seeley Booth]] in ''[[TheMatrix Matrix]]''-wear. (Because he ''is'' [[ActorAllusion Seeley Booth!]]) His attractiveness is how he got his nickname: A monster with "the face of an angel".
* HunterOfHisOwnKind: The vampire community still can't believe their most revered hero is now gutting them in the shadows, for ''money''.
* IAmAMonster: Shouted in Romanian while being dragged off into an alley to be beaten. This was in 1898, shortly after Angel was cursed.
* ICantDance: He proved quite adept at slow dancing in Sunnydale. But when invited to a party for hip twentysomethings, he [[ImagineSpot imagines]] himself [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8fcH8I4bp0 flailing about like a spaz]].
* IHateYouVampireDad: Inverted with Darla; Angel definitely holds some animosity toward her, yet maintains an almost filial devotion. Inverted again with Connor, who is, ironically, human. (Mostly.) Spike has a cathartic moment when he confronts Angel for fashioning him into the monster he is; Drusilla was his sire but Angelus was his ''[[EvilMentor Yoda]]''.
* IWasQuiteAFashionVictim: Angel in the [[TheSeventies '70s]]. There's a positive side to not being able to see your reflection sometimes.
* ImmortalImmaturity
-->'''Angel''': You know, ''I'' started it. The whole "having a soul". Before it was all the cool new thing.\\
'''Buffy:''' Oh, my God. Are you ''twelve''?
* ImmortalLifeIsCheap: Spike doesn't bother aiming ''around'' Angel to hit a target; Spike just [[ShootTheHostage stabs right through him]]. In all fairness, that ''was'' Spike...
-->'''Spike:''' [[BlatantLies Heat of battle. Wasn't time]].
-->'''Angel:''' You just like stabbing me.
-->'''Spike:''' I'm shocked that you'd say that! [[NoExceptYes I much prefer hitting you with blunt instruments.]]
* ImmortalityHurts: Try spending it at the bottom of the Pacific. Gives you some perspective. Kind of an M. C. Escher perspective.
%%* InASingleBound
* InstantFanClub: Angelus' groupies, Karl and Paco.
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Whether as Angel or Angelus, he's quite fond of this.
* JekyllAndHyde: Angel (Good guy) Angelus (bad guy)
* KindRestraints: Voluntarily chained up or thrown behind bars whenever he feels the bad side coming on, similar to Oz. Although Cordelia seemed to enjoy it a little too much.
* KnightOfCerebus: The previous villains certainly weren't harmless, but ''[[Series/{{BuffyTheVampireSlayer}} Buffy]]'' became much darker once Angelus was unleashed.
* KnightTemplar: Turns against his friends for a few months as he goes on a crusade of punishing the guilty (Wolfram & Hart), rather than helping the helpless.
-->"Let them fight 'the good fight'. Someone's gotta fight the war."
* KnightInSourArmor: Even if the world sucks and the fight will never end in his favor, someone has to keep it going. He even states at least once that he doesn't really believe that he'll ''ever'' be redeemed for his crimes, but keeps trying anyway.
* LargeAndInCharge: Angel's a pretty big guy and TheLeader of Angel Investigations.
* LateArrivalSpoiler: In Season 1 the revelation that Angel is a vampire was suppose to be a twist back in the day. If you were to tell that to someone with even a tiny amount of knowledge about the series now they would probably laugh at you. This is also the case with his first HeelFaceTurn.
* {{Leitmotif}}: A heroic sounding anthem, later phased out in the third season. Brought back intentionally for a moment in Season 5 when Angel is in desperate need to rediscover his original mission statement of helping the helpless.
* LikeABadassOutOfHell: Not only did he get paroled from Hell, he was willing to travel ''back'' into it and take out the Senior Partners.
* LimitedWardrobe: Even after becoming incredibly wealthy and having access to a limitless wardrobe, he still wears black all the time.
* LoveInterest: To Buffy.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: Literally; "perfect happiness" turns him into Angelus.
* MadArtist: Angelus was very protective of his 'work', considering it art. Drusilla was what you might call an extended performance piece.
* ManOfWealthAndTaste: Angelus was always coiffed in the old days.
* ManipulativeBastard: Angelus's talent for (often sadistic) mind games and deception are legendary. Though he rarely makes use of it, Angel is still dangerously capable in this regard.
* MartyrWithoutACause: If there's no evil around to throw himself in front of protecting innocents, he will either run out and find some more or he will wind up defending ''lesser'' evils while tormenting himself for doing so. It's a complex.
* MayflyDecemberRomance: Part of the reason he leaves Buffy, the other, of course, being his CurseEscapeClause.
* MisplacedRetribution: The gypsies didn't really think that through. ''Angel'' has to spend all of eternity suffering for the crimes of ''Angelus''? Liam was a womanising jerk at worst, but Darla murdered him and a demon spent two centuries murdering and marauding with his face.
* TheMovieBuff: A fan of Charlton Heston movies, particularly ''{{Film/The Omega Man}}''. What a surprise. He's also seen enough vampire flicks to formulate opinions on which ones are more accurate. [[spoiler:(Frank Langella nailed it.)]]
* MrFanservice: Shirtless often. The man likes his tai chi. He really is something to look at, and he's often chained up and tortured. He's even been bound by a vampire dominatrix more than once.
* MysteriousProtector: [[BuffySpeak Cryptic Guy]] -- in the first season he'd turn up, warn Buffy of some danger, then vanish. It takes a while for Angel to evolve into the BadAss Hero he is now.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Creating the Twilight dimension by screwing Buffy, which let thousands of demons invade Earth, which resulted in the destruction of the Seed of Wonder and removed all magic from the world]].
* TheNoseKnows: Vampiric super-senses, particularly centred around blood.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Angelus' Irish accent tends to come and go in flashbacks. Furthermore, having lived in America for the past hundred years, Angel speaks with a flawless American accent, though he states that he ''could'' speak with an Irish accent again if he wanted to.
* NotGoodWithPeople:
-->"I have two modes: Bite and avoid."
** Ironically, as is seen in later episodes, Angel [[GoMadFromTheIsolation does not cope well under solitude]].
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Angel is fond of playing this role, often as a HawaiianShirtedTourist. On set, the shorthand for this became "Herb Saunders" (Angel's alias in "Sense & Sensitivity").
* OfCorpseHesAlive: Any idiot can eat somebody. Angelus likes to make artistic statements with the bodies afterward. He infamously posed Jenny Calender like a doll in Giles' bed (staging the scene to resemble a romantic interlude), and tricked a man into thinking his slain sons were still "asleep".
* OffingTheOffspring: An ancient scroll prophesied that Angel is doomed to do this. [[spoiler:It's half-correct; Angel slays Connor in one timeline, but he survives in another reality.]]
* OmnicidalManiac:
-->"My friends, we're about to make history. End."
* {{Omniglot}}: He's had a lot of time to practice, and after a while places run out of people to murder, so you move to the next one and learn another language there.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: He is rarely called Liam. Lilah once called it a "wussy name".
* OnlyOneName: Fred had to lie and say "Angel" is Connor's last name, with Angel using the alias "Geraldo Angel."
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Usually it's a sign of Angelus returning. [[spoiler: It can also be a sign of TranquilFury, as Wesley finds out.]]
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: It's hard for Boreanaz to maintain Angelus' Irish accent for more than half a minute.
* OpenHeartDentistry: Angel has shown himself able to dig bullets out of his own body when pressed for time.
* OpenSaysMe: Angel fights the good fight -- against doors.
* OpportunisticBastard: Angelus in Season 2 has no real plan beyond "screw with Buffy". It isn't until the last few episodes that Acathla arrives and gives him an actual goal to work towards, and even that falls into his general attitude of "[[ForTheEvulz I will be as big a dick as I can]]."
* PapaWolf: Towards Connor. It took an entire episode before anybody was allowed to even ''approach'' him. As of Season 4, you would do well to avoid even implying his existence.
* PatrickStewartSpeech:
** Often lampooned. Jasmine keeps turning his own ultimatums against him (like ''you've'' never eaten people!), and Lindsey confesses he just zones out when the yapping starts.
** In season 5, while he's in full flow of preaching to Illyria about the sanctity of all human life, including her flunky Knox despite the fact that Knox was the one who brought Illyria back and killed Fred, Wesley promptly cuts him short by gunning Knox down right then and there. Angel's response?
-->'''Angel''': Were you ''even'' listening?
* PsychoticSmirk: Angelus always wears one because he's basically Psycho!Angel.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:
** Angelus and his constant jibes at the wheelchair-bound Spike. He's got a million of 'em, ladies and gentlemen.
** When Angelus appears in season 4 of Series/{{Angel}}, he uses the word "retarded" often.
* PowerLossMakesYouStrong: The Senior Partners, upon sending L.A. to Hell (''After the Fall''), simultaneously [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor turn Angel human at the least convenient time possible]].
* PowerPerversionPotential: Angelus mentions his superhearing picking up on Fred and Gunn having sex in an adjacent hotel room, and indulging in {{A Date with Rosie Palms}}.
* ThePunishment: Two hundred years of guilt and a prohibition against perfect happiness...Man can those gypsies hold a grudge.
* RealMenWearPink: He's fond of ballet, [[{{Music/BarryManilow}} Barry Manilow]], and [[spoiler: Spike's poetry.]]
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Just as he casts off the Angelus persona, Buffy runs him through with a sword and he gets pulled into {{Hell}} by Acathla. He comes back later.]]
* ReducedToRatburgers: By the time Whistler found him, Angel was homeless and scrounging off of rat blood. (To add insult to injury, he has difficulty catching one.)
%%* RescueRomance: Strikes one up with Buffy, in Season One.
* RichesToRags: Angelus never had trouble maintaining a nice pad, expensive clothes, or box theater seats. ("I just ate the people who had 'em.") Once cursed and jilted by Darla, he spent years as a homeless bum living on [[ReducedToRatburgers rats]].
* RunningGag: His hair, his lousy singing, his "caveman brow", the leather pants he wore [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer when he was evil]] and his occasional pettiness despite his advanced age.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: An exhaustive display in ''Angel'' season 2, in reaction to Darla being resurrected, tormented and then re-vamped by Wolfram and Hart suits. This culminated with Angel tossing the firm's entire senior staff to the wolves in the form of Drusilla and Darla.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Not only can Angel [[TheNoseKnows sniff the air]] and tell if the soil beneath him has been disturbed, he can glance at a spot of blood and immediately determine ''who and what it belongs to''. This sort of blood hyper-analysis appears to be common to vamps. Spike mentions that you can tell if someone's evil by [[SniffSniffNom tasting their blood]] (it tastes like pennies).
* SelfMadeOrphan: "My parents were great. [[BaitAndSwitchComment Tasted a lot like chicken]]."
* ShooOutTheClowns: Poor Spike is left to rot in a wheelchair while the significantly less cuddly Angelus steals the spotlight.
%%* SidekickGraduationsStick
* SpikyHair: Lampshaded on more than one occasion. Angel seems shocked when he views his reflection for the first time in Pylea, implying that his hairstyle is some sort of tragic accident.
-->(''examining head'') "Why didn't anyone tell me about this?"
* SplitPersonalityTakeover: Whenever Angelus is unleashed.
* TheSociopath: All normal vampires lack a soul and thus the ability to feel things like empathy and remorse, thus Angelus is one of these, though an exceptionally sadistic one.
* {{Sadist}}: Angelus is renowned for being ''incredibly'' sadistic in his killings.
* StagesOfMonsterGrief: ''Buffy'' previously flashed back to Angelus getting re-ensouled; ''Angel'' covers everything that happened before and after. It should be noted that this is [[InvertedTrope an inversion]] of the trope as well, since Angel identifies more with Angelus than with with his original self, Liam - who, by the end of the show, he barely remembers being. It could be said that his grief was more over losing his freedom as a vampire by regaining his humanity than having been a human who was turned into a vampire. With his stages being:
** Denial: His attempts to continue his life as a vampire despite his re-ensoulment.
** Defiance: Angel never got to properly experience this stage, since Darla killed all the gypsies who re-ensouled him. He instead took it out on himself during his self-imposed 100 year exile from humanity and vampirekind. Angelus, however, did get to kill Jenny Calendar and an older male relative, both descendants of the gypsies who re-ensouled him.
** Acceptance: After he met Whistler and Buffy.
** Betrayal: Either after making love to Buffy and losing his soul, or....well, [[FutureMeScaresMe stay tuned]]...
* StalkingIsLove: Angel in both his evil and not-evil incarnations. He met and fell in love with Buffy when she was 15. He then stalked her for a year before revealing himself and he's still up it on the fifth season of ''Angel'', despite being burdened with a desk job! (He has "a source" keeping tabs on her in Italy.) Spike thinks it's pathetic.
* StarCrossedLovers: Angel, vampire. Buffy, slayer thereof. Add that to his curse and its consequences if broken, and we have two crazy kids who aren't ever sorting it out.
** Also with Cordelia. The Powers themselves seem to enjoy interfering (literally, in one case) and stopping them from having a relationship.
* StealthHiBye: Lampshaded repeatedly.
-->'''Xander:''' Okay, that's ''it''. I'm putting a collar with a little bell around that guy.
* SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat: PhotographicMemory, SuperReflexes, ultra-sensitive hearing and sense of smell in the later seasons. When you re-watch the earlier seasons, you can't help but notice countless situations where, in retrospect, they inexplicably fail to help him. Angel mentioned that he can't control his photographic memory; it just [[HandWave "kicks in on instinct"]].
* SuicideBySunlight: Attempted in "Amends", but he gets saved by a ChristmasMiracle.
* TeamDad: Lampshaded early on, in which Angel addresses to a bickering Cordelia and Wesley as "children."
* TheTeetotaler: After a fashion. WordOfGod states that Angel's abstinence from human blood is a metaphor for this.
* TranquilFury: Uses it quite a bit. When he [[UnstoppableRage drops]] the "Tranquil" part, [[PunctuatedForEmphasis run. For. Your. Life.]]
* VampireDetective: Once he starts up Angel Investigations, he is a vampire taking cases.
* VegetarianVampire: Exclusively drinks [[MessyPig pig's blood]], which turns off some people. [[note]]Especially if you do the whole kosher thing.[[/note]] As Wolfram and Hart's CEO, he can afford to keep himself in otter blood.
* TermsOfEndangerment: Angelus calls Buffy "lover" and "Buff" numerous times, just to remind her how it happened.
* ThickerThanWater: Like it or not, Darla is the closest thing to family he has. Even his team comes second. In the Season Four finale, Angel agrees to [[LaserGuidedAmnesia mind wipe]] his team (and, in fact, the world) [[spoiler:in exchange for saving Connor's life]]. Wesley is rightly steamed when he uncovers this.
* ThinkNothingOfIt: Much-ridiculed by Spike, who sees it as a cheap act to impress women.
* TokenHeroicOrc: For a long time he was the only heroic vampire around.
* TortureTechnician: He has some experience in this area. The mere threat is enough make people talk.
%%* TragicMonster
%%* TroubledButCute
* UnholyMatrimony: With Darla. Cordelia compares them to an undead Bonnie and Clyde.
* UptightLovesWild: His blossoming feelings toward Cordy.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Wolfram & Hart's stated mission of bringing Angel to their side. Sound pretty far-fetched? The road to Hell is paved with good intentions...
* VampiresAreSexGods: "[[FinishDialogueInUnison Mmm, Angel!]] ♥" Though [[SexGod the Immortal]] ended up out-performing in this regard, as usual.
* VillainCred: Even the Master held Angelus in high regard, intending to appoint him [[TheDragon Dragon]]. The Mayor was keen to have Angelus on his team, as well.
-->'''Nostoyev''': Used to be quite the terror back in the day. Haven't heard much of you lately, though.\\
'''Angel:''' Haven't heard much of you, ''ever''.
* VillainousBSOD: Angel's curse was designed to invoked this by returning his soul and crushing him with guilt.
%%* WarriorPoet
* WeCanRuleTogether: The protracted war between Angel Investigations and Wolfram & Hart LLC comes to an apparent close in [=A4=], when the firm suffers huge losses at the hands of Jasmine and her pet Beast. The firm magically rematerialized with a new office building, but with a worker shortage: Impressed by Angel's ingenuity and ideas, they offer him an ever-increasing suitcase of money -- essentially corporate head-hunting -- until he finally caves and unilaterally merges his agency into the firm (admittedly to save his son). This leads us into [=S5=] where most of Angel's ideas for reform end up in the conference room wastebasket.
* WeakButSkilled: As far as credible villains go, Angelus is not on the same scale as the ascended Mayor but he's a Master Vampire who has been in the game for over two hundred years and is powerful enough to stalemate Buffy, an unusually strong Slayer. His greatest asset, however, (aside from a meticulous brand of viciousness that would make SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker proud) is his inside knowledge of the Scoobies, which he uses to full effect.
* WellDoneSonGuy: As a human, Liam was held in contempt by his father, who believed that his son would never amount to anything but being a lazy, promiscuous drunk. When he became Angelus, he sat out to prove his father wrong by making a name for himself, namely by becoming the most flamboyantly sadistic vampire ever recorded in human history.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Everything he did as Twilight was apparently to prevent anything like the Fall of Los Angeles from ever happening again.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Unlike Buffy, who flatly refuses to kill humans as she believes they're out of the Slayer's jurisdiction except in the most dire of circumstances, Angel is perfectly capable of and willing to take a human life if he feels the need arises. Case in point: he kills Vanessa Brewer, an AxCrazy PsychoForHire with a DisabilitySuperpower who, thanks to Wolfram & Hart, constantly got off [[KarmaHoudini totally scot-free]] before then.
* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler:After he gets exposed as Twilight, everybody has this reaction to him, especially after it is revealed he was an UnwittingPawn to a evil dimension trying to end the world. After he gets possessed by the real Twilight and kills Giles and Buffy is forced to destroy the Seed of Wonder to stop the destruction of the world, the only ones willing to associate with Angel and not try to kill him are Buffy and Faith, and Buffy can't even ''look'' at him. Willow, however, has grown past this somewhat, but she still states that she hasn't forgiven him for his actions yet.]]
* WhenHeSmiles: [[{{Firefly}} He makes everything]] [[http://angelinvestigations.tumblr.com/post/41658583679 shiny.]]
* WhereIWasBornAndRazed: "I thought I'd take the village."
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Angel would rather be mortal again.
* TheWorfEffect: If someone's going to get punched across the room by the latest big nasty, it will be the immortal, super-powered vampire.
* YouNeedToGetLaid: Constantly told to do so while constantly reminded that he can't, or rather, ''shouldn't. He's not an eunch, but it would have worse results.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Cordelia]]
!!![[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/AngelInvestigations See Angel Investigations]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anya, née Aud]]
!!Anya, née Aud (Emma Caulfield)
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anya_caufield_728.jpg
->''" I was feared and worshipped across the mortal globe and now I'm stuck at Sunnydale High. A mortal! A child! And [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking I'm flunking math.]]"''

Originally a 1,120-year-old vengeance demon who lost her powers and eventually joined the Scooby Gang. She was a LoveInterest for Xander for three seasons before their relationship ended, and she went back to being a Vengeance Demon. Lost her powers and rejoined the Scoobies in early Season 7.
----

* TheLancer: To Buffy in season 7. He's her lieutenant in all but name, is frequently seen at her shoulder, and always lets her know when he disagrees [[UndyingLoyaly before supporting her anyway]].

StarCrossedLovers: With Angel, the ensouled vampire that kills other vampires. Somewhat with Spike--destiny doesn't keep them apart, their own insecurities and fears do.

%%* ShutUpHannibal:
* StarCrossedLovers: With Angel, the ensouled vampire that kills other vampires.

%%* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend

%%* BrutalHonesty

%%* TheLancer:

%%* LoveHurts
%%* LoveInterest

%%* ManipulativeBastard

%%* QuizzicalTilt:

** '''Season 5:''' "[[spoiler: Buffy]], [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove I love you]]. God, I love you so much. [[AllJustADream ...]][[CatapultNightmare Oh, God, no]]. [[LoveEpiphany Please, no]]."