Buffy's Biography

Buffy arrived in Sunnydale hoping to put the whole vampire-slaying gig behind her, but was sorely disappointed to discover that her new hometown -- indeed, her new school -- lay directly atop "the Hellmouth," a gateway to hell, which draws demon activity like a magnet. (Except that magnets don't attract demons. But you know what I meant.) Anyway, Xander and Willow befriended Buffy immediately, and soon afterward learned that she's the Slayer and that vampires are real. They were somewhat nonplussed, but they got over it.

Buffy's first real challenge in Sunnydale came from a very old (and very ugly) vampire called simply "The Master," who begat Darla who begat Angel who begat Drusilla who begat Spike (it's all very begatty and biblical). In the end, as prophesied, The Master killed Buffy and escaped from his underground prison ... but Xander gave her CPR and she revived in time to kill The Master good and proper.

Unfortunately, some vampires later tried to resurrect The Master, but Buffy and Co. put a stop to that plan right quick. No sooner had the Scoobs heaved their collective sigh of relief, however, than a powerful, Slayer-killing vampire -- Spike -- arrived in town and began a series of odd-ball schemes aimed at killing Buffy. However, when Buffy's boyfriend Angel (for more about him, see description above) turned evil and stole Spike's girlfriend Drusilla, Spike and Buffy joined forces to defeat him and his nefarious plan to destroy the entire world.

Buffy was so broken-hearted about having had to kill Angel that she skipped town for a while. Not long after she got back, a new Slayer (it's a long story) named Faith arrived. Faith was more than a little wild, and she got Buffy to loosen up a bit (thank goodness!). Eventually, though, Faith got fed up with the goody-two-shoes Scooby Gang, and joined forces with the evil Mayor of Sunnydale, who was busily planning to "ascend" and become a giant snake demon. The Mayor succeeded with his ascension on Sunnydale High's graduation day, but Buffy and her entire graduating class joined forces to kill him off ... and they blew up Sunnydale High in the process. (Isn't that every graduating high school senior's dream?) Afterward, the returned Angel blew Buffy a kiss and walked off into the sunset. (Well, not literally, because he would have burst into flames ... but, again, you know what I mean.)

So then it was off to college, where Buffy met Riley (more about him above) and the Initiative, who performed all sorts of fun experiments on demons. The ultimate result of these experiments was a huge cyborgy-type guy named Adam, whom the Scoobies eventually defeated by magically joining together into a sort of Uber-Scoob.

Now Adam was out of the way, but Buffy had a new problem ... a kid sister named Dawn. Turned out Dawn was actually a mystical "Key," and a god named Glory wanted to find her and use her to open a dimensional portal, so Buffy had to protect the annoying brat. (Dawn improved upon acquaintance, in my opinion. In her first couple of episodes, I found her almost painfully annoying.) Then their mother, Joyce got sick and died. Everyone was very bummed. In the meantime, Spike discovered, much to his horror, that he had fallen in love with Buffy. Despite her disgust at learning this, she allowed him to effectively become one of the Scoobies and help her to protect Dawn. In the end, Buffy, Spike, and the Scoobs were unable to prevent Glory from opening the portal, but Buffy committed suicide to save Dawn's life and close the portal. Everyone was even more bummed.

So bummed, in fact, that Willow and a few of the others performed a powerful spell to bring Buffy back from the dead. It turns out they yanked her out of heaven. Oops! Buffy became closer to Spike (for more about this, see above) while she struggled with the mundane trials of everyday life. At the end of Season 6, Buffy was closer to Dawn and Xander, but considerably distanced from Willow and Spike. It will be interesting to see what happens in Season 7.