When Buffy the Vampire Slayer began, it featured Buffy Summers learning she was the Chosen One from her Watcher, Giles, meeting her best friends in the Scooby Gang, and learning about Angel, the vampire with a soul. That was the start, and it led to seven great seasons of monster-hunting action. However, while that first season featured some of the key players who would lead the show through all seven seasons, there were also some great characters who were introduced after that first season ended. Some of these new characters ended up almost as important as those originals, and remain some of the most beloved in the television show’s history.
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From one of the show’s most popular vampires to a Slayer who was even more deadly than Buffy herself, here is a look at the four best Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters who joined the show after Season 1.
4) Faith
Buffy was the Chosen One and the one Slayer called to battle the undead and protect the world. However, when a Slayer dies, a new one is called, and that happened more than once on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. When Buffy died at the hands of The Master, Kendra was activated and showed up in Season 2 to come into conflict with a resurrected Buffy. This created a problem because there were two Slayers. When Drusilla killed Kendra, it activated her replacement, even though Buffy was still active as well. This was Faith.
While Faith was the third Slayer introduced on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she remains one of the most beloved thanks to her more antagonistic and rebellious streak. She and Buffy could never get along, and that dynamic made Faith a great character, even when she turned into a villain for a short time by siding with The Mayor. She even made the jump to Angel when Wolfram & Hart hired her to kill Angel, but she soon turned good and found her redemption.
3) Anya
Anya became a quick fan favorite thanks to the humor in which she was written and to Emma Caulfield’s outstanding performance in the role. Anya was a vengeance demon who appeared for the first time in the Season 3 episode “The Wish.” It was in this episode that Anya became trapped in human form and had to start to learn what it meant to be human again after centuries of existence as a demon.
Things got even better when Anya fell in love with Xander, and they built what was one of the best relationships on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her confusion about what it meant to be human was hilarious, with a highlight coming in the final Buffy Halloween episode, where Anya revealed her irrational fear of bunnies. Anya became such a beloved character that when Joss Whedon killed her off without any fanfare in the series finale, many fans rebelled.
2) Tara
Tara was a great Buffy the Vampire Slayer character, and she was part of one of the most heartbreaking moments on the fantasy series. Played by Amber Benson, Tara made her debut on one of the all-time best episodes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s history, Season 4’s “Hush.” This episode saw the ghouls called The Gentlemen arrive and take away everyone’s voices. Seeing Tara and Willow get to know each other at the Wicca meeting, without being allowed to speak, was great.
Tara was supposed to come and go after a few episodes, but she became a fan favorite and stuck around. Tara and Willow entered into their romantic relationship, and it was one of the best on the show. However, it also led to tragedy when Tara, one of the only characters on the show never seduced by evil, is gunned down by The Trio, which leads to Willow’s dark turn to evil, seeking revenge. Tara is one of the only main Buffy characters who was never resurrected.
1) Spike
Easily, the most important character introduced on Buffy the Vampire Slayer after Season 1 was Spike. The vampire made his debut in “School Hard,” the third episode in Season 2. He wasn’t supposed to be a significant character, but the fans loved him so much that the network demanded that he be made a recurring character. This led to Joss Whedon making him a recurring villain and, eventually, an ally to the Scooby Gang.
Spike was also one of the main Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters to make the jump to Angel, despite dying in the Buffy series finale. He was involved in many of the show’s most significant moments and was easily the most popular character on the series after Buffy and possibly Willow. Of all the characters who weren’t in the first season, Spike is the best of the best.
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Courtesy of Netflix
