Every Buffy the Vampire Slayer Love Interest, Ranked from Worst to Best

The best Buffy the Vampire Slayer love interests were almost as essential to the show’s popularity as the monsters, demons, and vampires that Buffy Summers had to defeat. The young adult urban fantasy series followed a teenage slayer named Buffy, who was the Chosen One as the official active Slayer, and her life in Sunnydale as she gets through high school and then college while saving the world from demonic creatures. As a young adult fantasy series, it also has plenty of time for friendships, betrayals, and, yes, some great love stories between the young cast members. However, not all these love interests were popular with the fans.

From Buffy and her love interests to those for Willow, Xander, and even Giles, here is a look at the best love interests on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

10) Buffy and Riley

In season four, the most important Buffy the Vampire Slayer love interest was Riley Finn, a young man whom Buffy met when she left for college. She met Riley on her first day at UC Sunnydale, and it took a little while for them to fall in love. However, there was a massive problem. Riley was actually a special agent of the Initiative, a group that set out to capture monsters and experiment on them. He never realized his agency was doing some immoral things, and that put a strain on his relationship with Buffy. It didn’t matter, though, because fans never liked the two of them together anyway and were happy when Riley left Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

9) Willow and Xander

Willow and Xander were never meant to be together. However, for at least the first two seasons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer tried to tease that they could be together. They were best friends, and that was where their relationship was always the best. That said, there was one episode where it showed how great they could be if they ended up in a romantic relationship. However, they were vampires in this Buffy episode, which was a play on It’s a Wonderful Life, and at the time, Willow and Xander were never better. Eventually, Willow came out and went with Tara, and Xander went from Cordelia to Anya, and those were much better pairings.

8) Buffy and Spike

It seems that most Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans wanted to see Buffy end up with one of two people, and both of them were vampires. Some fans wanted her with Angel, since that seemed to be the endgame. However, after Angel left, many fans wanted to see her end up with Spike, who had received his soul back as well. However, this was a toxic and very problematic relationship, especially after Spike sexually assaulted Buffy, an event that should have ended things right there, even though it didn’t. Luckily, Buffy didn’t end up with a vampire at all since she didn’t need a man to make her life complete.

7) Willow and Oz

While Willow and Xander didn’t seem like a good match outside of being friends, for many fans, her best boyfriend was Oz, and no one else even came close. Of course, this all changed when Willow came out and fell in love with Tara, but before that happened, she and Oz had an almost perfect relationship. It was almost perfect because Oz is a werewolf, and that got in the way of their love story, especially since he hid it from her for so long. When a past love, who was also a werewolf, returned, it made things tough, and Oz finally chose to leave Sunnydale, ending any chance they had for a future together.

6) Spike and Drusilla

Not every great love interest was for the heroes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In fact, one of the best pairings was the love connection between two villains on the show. When Spike showed up in Season 2, he was an instant star. Joss Whedon wasn’t even planning on keeping him around, but the fan reaction caused the network to demand he remain on the show, and Spike became a recurring character and eventual co-star. He was never better than when he was with Drusilla, who was his lover for many years, and who was even more evil than Spike was when all was said and done.

5) Xander and Cordelia

Xander was always the geek of the Scooby Gang, which was part of the reason many people wanted to see him with Willow, another outsider in the group. However, Joss Whedon subverted expectations when he had Xander hook up with Cordelia, who was the first Mean Girl on the show, but who slowly transformed into an ally for Buffy and her friends. Having Xander get the beautiful Cordelia was shocking, but it somehow worked as opposites attract on shows like this. However, Cordy left, and Xander eventually found his perfect partner.

4) Giles and Jenny

Not enough people talk about how great Jenny Calendar was on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At first, she was simply a computer teacher at Sunnydale High School, but soon it was revealed she was so much more than that. She was actually a technopagan who had skills in the dark arts, although she was not a witch. Jenny was also part of the Kalderash, the Romani people who cursed Angel to live on with a soul. She was sent to Sunnydale to watch over Angel and eventually fell in love with Giles. Jenny helped give Giles more depth, and when Angel ended up killing Jenny, it was a tragic moment that changed Giles forever.

3) Xander and Anya

Xander has one of the best love interests on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and almost no one could touch it. That is because Xander fell in love with Anya, a former vengeance demon who was over 1,000 years old and was attempting to remember what it was like to be human again while she was with Xander. They had some incredible moments together, which were made all the more humorous thanks to Xander’s awkwardness. When she showed up for a Halloween party as a bunny since Xander told her to dress up as something scary, it said everything fans needed to know about the relationship. The worst moment in the Buffy series finale was when Anya died, and no one seemed to care.

2) Buffy and Angel

Many people would rank Buffy Summers and Angel as the best love interests on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Having Buffy fall in love with an actual vampire was something no one could have expected, although over the years, it seems almost natural in the urban fantasy genre. The fact that Angel had a soul and would do anything to protect Buffy, who didn’t need protection and did as much to protect Angel, made them a perfect couple. After Angel departed the show after the third season, no one else came close to being an ideal match for Buffy Summers.

1) Willow and Tara

The best love interest on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was Tara for Willow, and it isn’t even close. For the first few seasons, fans wondered if Willow would get with Xander, and many loved seeing her with Oz. However, Willow was never right for either of them, and she didn’t become her true self until she came out and began dating Tara. This was a groundbreaking moment on television, with a significant cast member of a popular show getting into a same-sex relationship, and it never once seemed exploitative. They were just allowed to fall in love, and it was beautiful. When Tara was murdered, it destroyed Willow and traumatized Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans in ways that no other death did.

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