- This is my favourite characters, not the best
- I will be including characters that are both prominent in the shows and ones that are not
- I will not be including the leads of either show, so Buffy and Angel don't get to be rated.
20.
Here's the thing about the Buffyverse that I may or may not have mentioned before: due to the admittedly ridiculous research I do on television shows before i watch them I felt pretty confident that i knew what would happen in the 'verse. I was a foolish and unprepared mortal. That said though, despite knowing a fair amount of major plot points I had no idea that these shows would take the time to give recurring - and seemingly one off - characters real development, so when Chanterelle of 'Lie to Me' showed up in Buffy's season 3 premiere I was pleasantly surprised. But i thought that would be the end of it, she's learned to take care of herself after being inspired by Buffy (and takes her middle name, Anne, as a sort of tribute) but then she showed up on Angel and I just sat back and said: "well played." She goes from a vampire worshipping cultist, to a homeless youth to a helper of the helpless on the streets of LA. And she teaches the kids to never invite anyone in, you go Anne.
I really liked Gunn, but the writers never gave him a clear enough direction as a character which means that he got overshadowed a lot by his co-stars. Sure, give Richards an emotional scene and he will sell it but unfortunately he was never quite given enough development for me to rank him higher. He was however a wonderfully down to earth comrade to Angel and he never failed to bring a good laugh.
18. Daniel 'Oz' Osbourne (Seth Green)
Oh Oz, you were a pretty awesome guy. He played guitar in a band named Dingoes ate My Baby, he was a werewolf, he was actually pretty reasonable as a person and, perhaps best of all, he was so cool he could see the coolness of Willow while everyone else looked through her. Plus, who doesn't love his "we fight the mayor with hommus" line? People with no souls that's who.
17. Drusilla (Juliet Landau)
Speaking of no souls - let's talk about the most bat shit insane vampire to ever grace the screen. Literally everything about Drusilla was purely entertaining, hilarious and creepy. Landau's eyes could slice you in half were she to look at you just so, and the funny thing is - you would never look away. That's how she got Kendra. Too soon?
16. Allan Francis Doyle (Glenn Quinn)
He may have only given us nine episodes but Doyle's impact can be felt even in the shows final year, who doesn't well up in "You're Welcome" when they watch that tape? Doyle had a short but signifcant arc in Angel's early days and despite knowing where this character ends you'll never not be interested in this half-demon looking for redemption.
15. Lilah Morgan (Stephanie Romanov)
Lilah Morgan was sassy, funny, damn near evil and pretty damn tragic. There's a moment in season four finale that sums up all you need to know about Lilah - she's got a contract that extends far beyond her death but it genuinely means something to her that Wesley tried to free her of it. Anyone got a tissue? No? I'll just sit here and gulp awkwardly then.
14. Tara Maclay (Amber Benson)
Let's all bow down to Tara Maclay, one of the most resilient, kindest and loyal people to ever appear on Buffy. Here is a girl that came from an emotionally abusive household at best, could barely bring her voice above a whisper in Hush (what a coincidence), forms a true connection with Willow and essentially caused one of the most important stories in the Buffyverse - Willow and Tara are totally gay and it's not a big deal! I love that the show treated them like any other relationship, it wasn't sensationalised, nor was it objectified (except for Xander's dream which, to be fair, makes sense). Let's all talk about how she realised that Willow was manipulating her and abusing her magic and told her to get her shit together - that's a brave thing to do when you're in a relationship like that. And can i just cap this off with one thing? Amber Benson refused to return in season 7 as The First impersonating Tara because she didn't want the fans' final impression of the character to be negative. Personally I like to think Tara was just too good to be imitated by pure evil.13. Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon)
If you had asked 12/13 year old me (back when i first saw the series) who my favourite character was I'd have said Xander because I had a rather unreasonable and now completely unbelievable crush on him. Xander was cute but nowadays I'm more of a Giles gal. Still, the X-man was the heart of the gang, 'the one who sees' as it was put in season 7, he was the everyman who watched while his friends gradually became more powerful than him and he still struggled to find his place in the world. Yet in spite of all this Xander fought, Xander lost his eye fighting the battle against evil, Xander lost the woman he loved and you know what else? Xander saved the whole damn world because he loved his best friend enough to be able to reach her. He wasn't always in the right (I'm sure the "kick his ass" line will forever be debated) but he was there til the end and that counts for something.12. Harmony Kendall (Mercedes McNab)
I have a rather shocking amount of Harmony feelings. The strange thing is that there's really no need for me to do so, it's not like she's deep as person/vampire and she certainly never showed true remorse for anything. But Harmony also desperately craved acceptance, which actually puts her decision to fight the Mayor in season 3 into perspective - she probably only did it because everyone else was. When she was vamped at her own graduation she didn't become a vampire that just wanted to maim and murder for all eternity - she was just Harmony but with bloodlust. She had no idea how to be a vampire and what's more is that most of the time she didn't seem that happy as one. You constantly see her acting like she just plain isn't a vampire. Harmony was a hilarious, dim, valley girl that got saddled with vampirism and it was sort of sad but very genius and rather funny.
11. Lorne (Andy Hallett)
Can Lorne be my best friend? Seriously, Lorne is the best. Not only will he bring the roof down with 'Lady Marmalade' but he'll give adorable nick names to you and do it while lending a sympathetic ear and dry wit to the proceedings. I always felt awful for Lorne was put through in Angel's fifth season, he had so much of his happiness and gusto stripped away until finally he simply couldn't take it any more. But we'll always have Lorne and the Lornettes right?
10. Joyce Summers (Kristine Sutherland)
Oh, dear... How to explain the fact that originally Joyce Summers wasn't even intended to be a character? She was meant to be some vague presence in the show that we rarely if ever saw. I can't say how much it would have impacted the show except that without Joyce Summers we wouldn't have The Body. And that's a pretty big loss. Joyce was a good hearted, good natured and very sweet person who had sex with Giles on the hood of a police car, trolled Principal Snyder and snarked Faith while she was being held hostage by her. Joyce, you were a delight.9. Darla (Julie Benz)
From getting dusted in the first season to being part of one of the most emotionally exhausting stories in Angel Darla never failed to captivate an audience, to make them laugh, make them nervous or indeed make them sad. That moment in Angel's third season where she talks about how she doesn't want to lose the ability to love her son will forever be etched into my psyche, Julie Benz - where are you Emmys?
8. Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head)
Of all the characters so far, bar Harmony and maybe Joyce, Giles is the character who changed the least. That's not to say he had no development, of course he did, but he was also a very consistent character who came into the show with a clear focus - guide Buffy. The fact that he ended up a surrogate father to her, Willow and Xander was never part of the plan and yet he took it all in his stride. He had to deal with a lot of stuff through the shows run, but Giles remained such a strong fixture of the show that his absence was always felt. And damn, he really was a beautiful singer.
7. Faith Lehane (Eliza Dushku)
Buffy had gone to dark places before (Angelus) but we'd never been shown how far a person can be pushed into darkness by circumstance. Faith was edgy to begin with, she had a pretty awful life even before she became a slayer, but as season 3 progressed and after she accidentally killed Allan Finch she seemed to have fallen straight into the other side of the fight. Of course, it didn't help that the Scoobies never seemed to offer her the support she so sorely needed while Mayor Wilkins was... well that was a rather sweet father/daughter relationship. It was a shame about how evil he was. But Faith got her act together and stood proudly at the fall of Sunnydale.6. Spike (James Marsters)
I am going to freely admit that the first time I saw Spike I wondered if he'd been hyped too much, that maybe people's love for him was almost entirely based on him being really freakin' good looking. But James Marsters also turned out to be one hell of an actor . His is first scene in Buffy season 2 portrayed him as a deviously fun antagonist, while in his final appearance (on both shows) he was a bonafide hero. Spike had a big journey, and I loved every second of it. His coat was also awesome.
5. Anya Jenkins (Emma Caulfield)
She was strangely literal, she had a fear of bunnies, she was a savvy business woman and she probably caused the Russian Revolution. And yet underneath her literal mindedness and brutal honesty there was a woman trying to understand a world she felt out of place in, that she thought was stupid and that humans were stupid for fighting for. But she respected and embraced it in ways that no one would have ever expected from a character that was originally only meant to make a couple of guest appearances in the third season. Anya lame-ass-made-up-maiden-name gave her life for the world but not before she slayed a bunch of vamps and pretended they were fluffy, hoppy bunnies.
4. Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter)
Cordelia Chase is a legend. She began life as a self absorbed grade-A bitch and ended it a benevolent sass-machine. Before his death Doyle kissed her and gave her visions she neither asked for nor wanted, they caused her such tremendous pain that she kissed Wesley as soon as she saw him to try to get rid of them. But then she saw how much pain was in the world and she sums up exactly what she thinks about it: "we have to help them." Perhaps the best example of how Cordy grew is "Birthday," in which she is close to death and her spirit is outside of her body, yet you know what she does? She tries to tell Angel how to help the girl in her vision. In that same episode she's given the opportunity to have the life she always wanted but then gave it up to help her friends. But the visions were still killing her, so when she's told she can tolerate the visions if she becomes half demon she looks at Skip and tells him to demonize her already. Basically "Birthday" is one big Cordy-pride parade.
The opening scene of "A Hole In The World" sees Fred assure her parents that she was going to be a safe, boring grad student - smash cut to her brandishing a flame thrower. I laughed but then I felt something else that I don't think I ever felt so clearly for a TV character before: it was pride. I felt proud of Fred. She went from a half way to crazy town slave in Pylea to a valuable member of Angel Investigations, to a strong willed revenge seeker (and technically is the hero of season 4), the head of Wolfram & Hart's science division and then she's cut down by an ancient Goddess and it just isn't fair. And then there is Illyria. I think there is a legitimate argument to be made that Acker is even better as Illyria than she is as Fred, though such an argument could be seen as practically moot when you see her switch between a pseudo-Fred and Leery (hey, that's Lorne's nickname and it's just so cute I had to use it). It would be easy for either, or both, of these characters to be gimmicky or unlikeable but they just aren't, there's a great amount of nuance to be found here, especially in Illyria, who can feel so threatening and so sympathetic from moment to moment. I want to watch A Hole In The World/Shells again. Is there something wrong with me?2. Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan)
I was close to putting her at number 1, but no cigar. No one can say that Willow didn't end up being the most powerful character in Buffy. Over the course of the show she became so confident and in control, she became a powerful witch, she came out as gay, she brought Buffy back from the dead, struggled with her own dark side (understatement) and ended on the side of pure good. Sure, Willow began and ended on the same side, but she grew and matured as she progressed until finally she saved the world. Which I'd say is a nice way to make up for trying destroy it last time.1. Wesley Wyndham-Price (Alexis Denisof)
No character in the Buffyverse goes through the kind of development that Wesley does. Anyone who first laid eyes on him would say that he was definitely vampire fodder, yet it was only in Angel's final episode that he was laid to rest. A goofy goody two shoes watcher to a morally complex man with nothing left to live for - Denisof made us believe in Wesley's journey every step of the way.
Wesley is not just my favourite Buffyverse character be he's also, in my opinion, the most well-written, well-developed and, possibly, outright best character. Oh and this guy also ended up marrying Alyson Hannigan. So apparently he's the best at life too.
So that's it. Maybe i issed a few, and i know that i struggled with the lack of The Master and The Mayor but I think i've made a solid list here.
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