Over the course of seven seasons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer introduced the world to a number of extremely powerful people and beings. Some of them were on the side of good, helping Buffy rid the world of evil. Others served as Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s best villains, whether they were Big Bads or secondary antagonists. A few flipped back and forth.
Despite the series having no shortage of power, some characters were clearly stronger than others. While rare, a few characters were sometimes even capable of besting Buffy herself, which made for some of Buffy‘s most intriguing episodes. Of course, Buffy and the Scooby Gang always proved most powerful in the end, no matter who or what they were up against.
Anya
Anya, aka Anyanka, might have been terrified of bunnies, but she was one of the more powerful characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer — at least when she was in her vengeance demon form. First introduced in the season 3 episode “The Wish,” Anya — who was over 1000 old — was originally a human who cursed her unfaithful paramour. That led D’Hoffryn, the master of vengeance demons, to transform her, granting her powers including teleportation and wish-granting.
As a vengeance demon, Anya could turn men into giant worms or completely alter reality, as shown in “The Wish,” when she created a world where The Master had taken over Sunnydale and Willow and Xander were vampires. Unfortunately, her powers were somewhat limited, as she had to wait for someone to make a wish voluntarily. She also proved quite physically strong when she was Anyanka; when Buffy confronted her after the frat boy massacre, Anya was able to hold her own, with not even a sword through the chest stopping her.
However, because Anya spent so much time as a human on the show, she wasn’t quite as powerful as some of the baddies. Luckily, her fish-out-of-water schtick gave Anya some of Buffy‘s best lines (plus, that monologue from “The Body” that made everyone cry).
Spike
Spike, aka William the Bloody, aka the world’s worst poet, was obviously powerful considering he was a vampire. He also had a bit of an edge because he was part of The Master’s bloodline. When he first showed up in Sunnydale, he certainly gave Buffy and her friends a run for their money, with Buffy eventually defeating him, but not killing him.
Perhaps most indicative of how powerful a vampire he was, though, was that he killed two Slayers when he was in his prime — Nikki Wood and Xin Rong. Killing one Slayer would have been impressive enough, but by killing two, Spike proved he was capable of battling the best and coming out on top. He ended up being one of Buffy’s more powerful allies (or at least an on-and-off ally, as well as one of Buffy‘s more toxic relationships) and was crucial to the final battle in Sunnydale.
Angel
Angel was one of the strongest vampires on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, partly because of his age and experience and partly because he was part of The Master’s bloodline. He had no trouble helping Buffy take down all manner of monsters while he was on the show, and he did fairly well on his own spinoff, too. However, it was when Angel became Angelus that he was at his most powerful.
Souls are a nasty thing for a vampire to have, and without his, Angel became far more ruthless. In fact, The Watchers’ Diaries described Angelus as “one of the most sadistic vampires in all of history.” Though he possessed plenty of brute strength, it was Angelus’s cruelty and ruthlessness that made him such a formidable antagonist, and Buffy’s complicated feelings and grief over their relationship gave him even more power.
Buffy
Buffy was the Slayer, making her one of the most powerful characters in the series — at least, when it came to strength, endurance, and other similar Slayer skills. She might have been far smaller than most of the monsters she fought, but her increased strength let her take on almost anything that came her way.
The Scooby Gang’s support made her more powerful, as they handled duties like research, leaving her free to hunt and fight. Without them in her corner, she might have had a more difficult time as the Slayer, though she would still have been near the top of the power hierarchy. Few things proved capable of overwhelming her (and sometimes when they did, it was due to her own feelings or personal problems getting in the way).
Buffy proved most powerful, though, when she shared the power of the Slayer in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series finale. It was a risky move, but it worked beautifully.
Willow
Willow was always powerful, even when she didn’t recognize it. In the earlier seasons, her intelligence was her biggest superpower, and her quick thinking helped save the day more than once. However, it was when she discovered magic that her power really took off.
Regular Willow with magic could do a lot; Dark Willow, fueled by rage and focused only on vengeance, could destroy the world. Even before Tara’s death, Willow was engaging with some powerful dark arts that were hurting her and those around her, foreshadowing how powerful she could be. Even more powerful than Dark Willow, though, was the Willow of the final season, who activated all the Potential Slayers around the world and turned the unwinnable battle into one they triumphed.
The Turok-Han
The Turok-Han (or ubervamps, as the Scooby Gang called them) were an ancient vampire species so terrifying that other vampires feared them. They were also believed to be mostly a myth until the First Evil came along with an army of thousands in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s final season. While this species was incredibly tough and strong — making the final battle seem more like a race to death at first — the very first Turok-Han proved the most powerful.
Appearing in a handful of episodes as a secondary antagonist, the first Turok-Han showed it was stronger and more durable than Buffy herself by giving her one of the worst beatings she’d ever taken. Staking this ubervamp did nothing, so killing the Turok-Han presented a challenging problem. Buffy eventually prevailed by securing it to a post with a piece of wire, which she used to decapitate the wire with ll her might, but her difficulty handling a single one of these monsters demonstrated just how powerful the Turok-Han were.
Adam
Adam may have a reputation as the worst Buffy the Vampire Slayer Big Bad villain ever, but he was fairly powerful. The Frankenstein-like creation of Professor Maggie Walsh, Adam was made up of numerous human, demon, and technological parts. This allowed him to have high intelligence, superior strength, and an emotional detachment that led him to kill and dissect everyone from a child to various demons.
Thanks to his blended anatomy, he could also convince demons and vampires to fight together against Buffy and the gang, and link himself to computers to lay traps for his enemies. Adam was so powerful that it took the combined strength of Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles to take him down, an impressive feat for such a dull villain.
Sineya, The First Slayer
Sineya, the First Slayer, first appeared in the season 4 finale “Restless,” in a series of dreams. Long ago, as a young girl, a band of Shadowmen took her against her will to create a weapon that would fight the forces of evil emerging in the world. The men used dark magic to infuse Sineya with the essence of a demon, which gave her the powers of the Slayer.
As the very first in the line of Slayers, Sineya is by far the most powerful. All the Slayers who came after her received the powers she had, but since she was directly infused with a demon’s essence, she had an edge that wasn’t passed on. Sineya even managed to kill one of the purest-blooded demons, an Old One, proving how powerful a warrior she really was.
Glory
Glory, aka Glorificus, was one of the most powerful villains to appear on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. From the start, it was clear that she possessed incredible abilities and strength. However, it wasn’t until season 5, episode 12, that Buffy and the gang learned that Glory isn’t a demon, but a god — specifically, a ruler of a hell dimension, who was kicked out by other gods who feared she would take control of their own dimensions.
As a god, Glory had powers unlike any other villain from previous seasons, and she was seemingly impervious to most magic sent her way. She sucked out people’s life essences in order to survive, had near-invulnerability (only a Troll God’s hammer did any lasting damage), and superhuman strength and speed (among other powers). To finally get rid of her, Buffy had to beat her with the hammer before Giles suffocated Glory’s alter ego, Ben.
The First Evil
It’s debatable whether the First Evil was an actual “character,” since it was more of a concept than anything. However, there’s no denying it was the most powerful Big Bad that Buffy and her friends faced; in fact, it was the ultimate Big Bad of the series. As an ancient malevolent force, the First Evil’s origin and powers are immense, and it is non-corporeal, for the most part. One of its most damaging tactics is its ability to take on the form of anyone who has died, which allows it to create psychological havoc by manipulating its prey.
Additionally, as seen with Spike, it can place brainwashing triggers, creating even more psychological damage. Since it has no physical form, it must use others to do its dirty work, like Caleb, an acolyte and religious devotee to whom the First Evil gave overpowered strength and endurance. On top of all that, the First Evil can control the Turok-Han and can’t actually be fully defeated, making it by far the most powerful “character” on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Release Date
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1997 – 2003-00-00
- Network
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The WB