Ho Yay / Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Ho Yay/Les Yay in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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• Buffy and Faith have a ridiculous amount of Les Yay, even as enemies. This◊ (very small) GIF sums it up, including Buffy's recurring dreams about Faith in which they 'make a bed' together. Jane Espenson even suggested to Joss Whedon that there was lesbian subtext between them, and Joss agreed that he did write in lesbian subtext even though it was unintentional.
  • Despite Faith continually having trouble mingling with the rest of the group she loves to get Buffy to go slaying with her, and she makes no secret that slaying gets her horny. Talk about strange foreplay.
  • Their 'outing' in "Bad Girls" was pretty much a date, starting with Faith interrupting Buffy's class with a "hey girlfriend" and drawing a heart on the window, continuing to a bout of slaying, and ending with some very intense dancing.
    • The DVD Commentary of that episode told us that that scene was based on an experience the writer had in school, where he witnessed a girl climb up to the window and do exactly that (minus the "staking") sign, and another girl promptly climbed out of the window. One assumes that they didn't go out to slay vampires.
  • Faith is blatantly jealous of Angel, paralleling Xander's hatred towards him, and in general is both endlessly curious about Buffy's love life and insistent on convincing her that men are worthless and can't be trusted. Indeed Faith is almost desperate to get Buffy to agree with her on how she views the world, as if she's looking for validation.
  • Their relationship is almost a direct mirror of that between Buffy and Angelus. Faith's attempts to bring Buffy over to The Dark Side compared to Angelus' manipulations, and the Buffy/Faith fight in "Graduation Day" being just as tense and emotionally charged as the Buffy/Angelus fight in "Becoming, Part 2".
    Faith: Ready to cut loose?
    Buffy: Try me.
    Faith: Okay then. [smiles] Give us a kiss.
  • Buffy is also willing to be enormously forgiving and understanding of Faith after she kills a man, lies about it and tried to kill Xander, just like her forgiveness of Angel after he regains his soul.
  • The infamous "Take That!" Kiss Faith gives to Buffy, which was originally scripted to be on the lips instead of the forehead, and which Buffy returns when Faith's in her coma.
  • In "This Year's Girl", what starts out as Faith giving a Breaking Speech to Joyce fairly quickly ends up as Faith ranting about Buffy not liking her anymore.
    Faith: "[Buffy] was over us a long time ago. Too busy climbing onto her new boytoy to give a single thought to the people that matter..."
  • Earlier in that same episode there is a scene where Faith is leaving the hospital and we hear a voiceover of Buffy saying, "I never stop thinking about you" before the scene cuts to reveal she's talking to Riley.
  • When Buffy and Faith meet up for the first time since their Season 3 fight:
    Faith: What'd you think? I'd wake up and we'd go for tea? You tried to gut me, blondie.
    Buffy: You'd have done the same to me if you had the chance.
    Faith: So let's have another go at it. See who lands on top.
  • In "Who Are You?", the very first thing Faith does after switching bodies with Buffy is take a bath, which includes feeling herself. And that was just the stuff we saw.
  • What makes this better is that several times attempts were made to portray Faith as straight, from being disgusted at a drug addict hitting on her to saying she won't go downtown on another Slayer. She seemingly makes an exception for Buffy.
  • Faith was 100% Buffy's date to the Homecoming dance in "Homecoming".
• Buffy and Willow have their own share of les yay moments thanks to their very close friendship throughout the series.
  • In the comic book continuation, Buffy and Willow are about to rescue Satsu. Willow says this after catching Buffy in bed with Satsu.
    Willow: And just so you know... I never wanted to sleep with you either.
    Buffy: What are you talking about?
    Willow: I'm sayin' it's a good thing you didn't try your little experiment on me. 'Cause it wouldn't have worked, Summers. You're not even on my list.
  • In "Normal Again", Buffy is once again fed up with work.
    Buffy: I could wrestle naked in grease for a living and still be cleaner than after a shift at the Doublemeat.
    Willow: Plus, I'd visit you at work every single day.
• Anya also gets into the act with Willow a couple times. After doing a spell together:
  Anya: It did get a little bit sexy, didn't it?
  • In "Tough Love":
    Anya: You can sleep with me! ...That came out a lot more lesbian than it sounded in my head.
• Angel and Giles get really close on a peculiarly frequent basis given that they rarely interact, while Giles was shockingly quick to forgive Angel for killing Jenny.
• The final between Drusilla and Kendra in "Becoming Part 1" has been described as "almost sexualized" and "a G-rated lesbian interlude". This foreshadows the Les Yay between Drusilla and Darla in Angel.
• Xander has made innumerable homoerotic comments and been in almost as many unintentionally romantic/sexual situations with other men. Coupled with his frequent frantic denials and mild homophobia, this makes it very easy to read him as a closeted bisexual. Joss Whedon has gone on record saying that, in the early seasons, he knew he wanted either Xander or Willow to experiment with their sexuality but didn't yet know which one, so both of them got a lot of... moments.
  • Xander explained why Willow would find Oz attractive. Later, he explained why Buffy would find Spike attractive, which led to the immortal line "I am not having sex with Spike - but I'm starting to think that you might be."
  • The first time he sees the Initiative's Elaborate Underground Base in "Goodbye, Iowa": "Can I sleep with Riley too?" He sounds at least as sincere as he did when he half-jokingly suggested a "pre-birthday spanking" for Buffy in "Surprise".
    • Xander seems way more into Riley than Buffy is, in general. His speech to convince her not to break up with him in "Into the Woods" was surprisingly impassioned.
  • "Beneath You", where the intertwined sexual history of Buffy, Spike, Xander and Anya is explained to a girl Xander likes. In response, she asks if any of them haven't slept together, and Xander and Spike share an awkward look.
    • Spike sarcastically calling Xander a 'nummy treat' in "Hush" when Xander claims that Spike would definitely bite him.
  • The scene in "Phases" where Xander confronts Jerk Jock Larry about him being a werewolf and says he's gone through the same thing himself (because he was possessed by hyenas), only for it to turn out that Larry's just gay. And not only did Xander give him the courage to come out of the closet, but now he thinks Xander's gay as well.
  • In "First Date" Xander actually says he wants to be gay, although it's because he's sick of falling for female demons.
  • In the season 10 comics, Spike and Xander end up enthralled by sirens, who make them pillow fight in their undies for their mistress's enjoyment. Once the spell wears off, Xander observes that Spike has very soft skin and hard muscles, while straddling him.
• It's blatantly obvious that Giles and Ethan were involved in one way or another pre-series. Jane Espenson has said that she thought the two of them had a past involvement romantically.
  • It certainly helps that nearly their every encounter comes across not as "Why did you turn away from the dark side, Ripper?" so much as "What happened to us, Ripper?" Either that, or it's a noticeably more serious case of Go-Karting with Bowser considering how often Ethan's visits get people killed.
    Ethan: Oh, we go back — we go way back.
  • Parodied in "A New Man" when Giles thinks Ethan is drunkenly hitting on him when he's really hitting on the waitress.
  • Also in "A New Man", Ethan describes them as "a couple of old sorcerers" in about the same tone of voice he'd use to call them "a couple of old queens" (maybe more of a British thing), and after Ethan tells him that "the night is still [their] time, the time of magic", the scene immediately cuts to Willow and Tara sharing one of their most obvious 'MAGIC IS HOMOSEXUALITY' moments.
• The comics bring us Satsu, a Japanese Slayer who wakes Buffy with a True Love's Kiss. Buffy is touched but tries to invoke It's Not You, It's My Enemies to break up with her. Then they sleep together, twice, the first time Buffy saying it was one of the best nights of her life. Satsu, for her part, is upset when Angel returns because she sees him as a threat to her love interest.
• Plenty of Les Yay of the uber-creepy kind in the episode "Doppelgangland" between Willow and her vampire counterpart from a parallel universe, culminating in VampWillow licking Willow's neck.
• It's heavily implied that there was something, even if we're not sure exactly what, between Warren and Andrew during season 6. Andrew was pretty obviously in love with him.
  Andrew: (Crying) He left me. He flew away and left me. How could he do this to me? He promised we'd be together, but he was just using me. He never really loved... hanging out with us.
• Glory induced this way too much, to almost Depraved Bisexual levels. Particularly with Dawn: changing in front of the girl, playing with her hair, accusing her of "trying to get a peek at [my] unmentionables?" and spanking her on the chest to punish her. In 'Checkpoint' Glory refers to Dawn as the "Darlingest thing" and considers the picture of the Summers girls together as "So cute", referring to Dawn as a "fox" in 'Blood Ties". Just the start.
  • Dawn/Glory goes both ways:
    Dawn: All of a sudden Glory's standing right there in front of us, all skanky and blonde and thinkin' she's all that just 'cause some bumpy heads kiss her stinky feet ... (pauses, very quietly) She does have nice feet.
  • Dawn also observes in 'Family' that she considers Glory prettier than Buffy (which Buffy denies).
  • Glory talks about having "girl time" with and says to her "Let's have big girl fun" when she has Dawn as her prisoner in bondage in 'The Gift'. Later in the episode Dawn states that she prefers being with Glory than with her alter ego Ben and apologises that she hurt Glory's feelings.
  • She also talks about having "girl time" with Tara and licks her hand in a sensual way.
  • Glory seems genuinely hurt when learning that Buffy broke off a date with her male alter-ego: "She turned us down?" She describes Buffy as cute in 'Family', compliments her shoes in 'No Place Like Home' and refers to her as "Sweet cheeks" in 'The Gift'.
• "Dead Things" had Buffy break down crying in Tara's lap over Coming Back Wrong, begging Tara to not forgive her. They seem especially close in the following episode 'Older and Far Away' and talk about the "Big secret" they share together.
  • Tara, of all people, is Buffy's dream guide in "Restless". This makes more sense when you realise that her role was meant to be Angel.
• Xander is very complimentary of Dracula after being hypnotised by him in "Buffy vs. Dracula", and in the comics Dracula is blatantly affectionate towards Xander. At least one writer has said he believes Dracula has romantic feelings for Xander.
• In the season 1 finale "Prophecy Girl", while walking in the sewers together, Xander yells at Angel for staring at his neck.
  • Xander's first reaction to seeing Angel in "Teacher's Pet" is "He's a very attractive man."
• Andrew and Jonathan in "Storyteller". You might half-expect them to snuggle in the bed together.
• Spike's victims in Season Seven were mostly women, but there was Holden Webster in "Conversations With Dead People". Who Spike told his name to before siring him. Is the implication that he picked him up too? (Although Spike was under the First Evil's control at the time, it arguably could be considered More than Mind Control.)
• Spike quite obviously adores Angelus almost as much as Drusilla, and is ecstatic when he briefly returns in season 2, Angelus even kissing him on the forehead to his delight (at least until he starts seducing Dru). He loathes Angel, but less in a "betrayed the cause" kind of way and more of a "jilted boyfriend" way. Flashback scenes in Angel include some obvious Homoerotic Subtext, and a casual remark toward the end of the series confirms they were 'intimate' on at least one occasion.
  Angelus: Don't get me wrong, I love the ladies, but lately I've been wondering what it would be like, to share the slaughter of innocents wth another man. You don't think that makes me some kind of a deviant do ya?
  Spike: Angelus and I were never intimate. [Beat] Well, except that once...
  • The Angelus/Drusilla/Spike s2◊ promos◊ get a lot of giggles for how Angelus and Dru look like a married couple while Spike is posing like Angel's subby brat.
  • Fed up with her vampire exes' mutual jealousy, Buffy suggests in season 7 that Angel and Spike wrestle naked so she can watch. Spike states that's okay with him and Buffy enthusiastically suggests there could be oil of some kind involved.
  • In the season 10 comics, Harmony notes that the best way to resolve the Angel/Buffy/Spike Love Triangle would be a polyamorous marriage and that the 3 of them are just too dumb to see it. Her visualization of the scenario makes it explicitly clear that it's not a Marry Them All situation, and that Angel and Spike would be in fact just as involved with each other as they would be with Buffy.
• In "Once More, With Feeling" the demon Sweet plans to take Dawn (who he incorrectly assumes summoned him) back to the underworld to make her his queen. When Xander is revealed as the one who actually summoned Sweet, he asks if that means that he has to become Sweet's 'queen'. Sweet eyes him and says, "It's tempting".
• In "Crush", Harmony tells Spike:
  Harmony: No threesomes unless it's boy-boy-girl. Or Charlize Theron.''
• Andrew seems to have a bit of a crush on Xander in Season 7. In "Storyteller", he's watching a video recording of Xander and ex-girlfriend Anya having an emotional exchange about their still-present feelings for each other, and he mouths along to Anya's side of the conversation.
• Riley's second-in-command Forrest seemed awfully possessive of him. He expressed jealousy when Riley picked Buffy as his second, complained along the lines of "it's our thing". He insisted he be the one to take care of Riley when he was injured and his dialogue with Buffy sounded awful lot like a jealous ex. Marc Blucas even supports this theory.
• Cordelia, usually vain and judgmental about other people's appearances, is genuinely impressed by Joyce's beauty when she first meets her in "School Hard."
  Cordelia: That's Buffy's mom? That woman knows how to moisturize.
• Buffy and Tara, after Buffy breaks down to her about her affair with Spike the pair become very close, in 'Older and Far Away' Tara calls her "Sweetie" and they talk about Buffy revealing their "big secret" and Buffy being able to "come out" about her affair.
• Despite their antagonism Willow and Cordelia have a few moments, Cordelia congratulating Willow when she finally comes out, being stuck "in the closet" together in 'School Hard', feeling like giving up on the guys in their lives in 'Phases'. When Amy selects a girl for Willow at The Bronze she looks remarkably like Cordelia.

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