January 09 2014
BuzzFeed ranks 117 Buffyverse Characters from Worst to Best.
BuzzFeed has compiled this exhaustive list of the best and worst characters of the Buffyverse, from Buffy's Sunnydale to Angel's L.A. and every dimension in between.
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FiveByFive_Shiny | January 09, 12:10 CET
I positively like Kennedy, Riley, Connor and most of the other folks that people seem to hate.
Mr. Patient | January 09, 13:06 CET
witchlover | January 09, 13:33 CET
Dana5140 | January 09, 14:08 CET
(I make itneresting uses of her in my fics. In one, set at an interdimensional tavern, two Kennedys from two alternate histories take a room upstairs to fulfill a life-long fantasy.)
DaddyCatALSO | January 09, 14:09 CET
Rowan Hawthorn | January 09, 14:30 CET
Glory's minions are hilarious and should be higher. The more I flick through the last the more I realise how much I love so many of these characters, so I'm going to just stop with the 'should be higher'/'should be lower' stuff because there are just so many good characters that it must have been a difficult list to make.
Lilah would've made my top ten. That's a pretty good top ten though. Spike is the only one I don't love, but his inclusion is not unexpected either.
manbearpig | January 09, 14:37 CET
moley75 | January 09, 14:38 CET
Simon | January 09, 14:44 CET
Like With Pie | January 09, 15:22 CET
hann23 | January 09, 15:43 CET
Also don't agree with the comment in the beast ranking about that arc having no effect on Buffy. As they did call Sunnydale for Willow's assistance.
But I've seen worse lists. Definitely agree that Buffy should be top. Though I like Wesley being higher than Angel.
Jas | January 09, 16:27 CET
Destructo Girl | January 09, 16:41 CET
Mitrokhin | January 09, 16:51 CET
Jelly | January 09, 19:09 CET
| January 09, 20:35 CET
I always think Buffy should be #1 but I can't decide if I'm thinking with my head or my heart. Maybe it's both. Buffy is the character that started it all and is without a doubt the most iconic character from the show. I feel it's only right that such a monumental character should take first place. But she's also my favourite character and whilst I'd like to think I'd say the same thing if somebody else was my favourite, I can't say for sure.
But making lists like this must be exhausting! I'd be a mess trying to rank my Top 10 and I can't even imagine trying to rank 117 of them. So many of those other characters just come out in a wash for me that it'd pretty much just be random selection trying to slot a lot of them in.
vampmogs | January 09, 21:54 CET
-Kate's position on this list is absurd.
-I'm not a huge Riley fan, but to put him below Forrest and the one-note stereotype joke (Chao-ohn) is just offensive. Same deal with Connor. He's annoying, but a very important character.
-What is the big deal with Marcie Ross?!
-Justine is higher on the list than Holtz. List invalidated.
-Seriously, the Buffybot cracks the Top 40?
-Cassie Newton is higher than Lorne. No. Just no.
-Halfrek cracks the Top 30?
-Angel at 19 is also absurd.
-Xander doesn't make the top ten, but the Mayor does?
Final thought: this list is a joke.
bknick | January 09, 22:10 CET
WindTheFrog | January 09, 23:00 CET
NickSeng | January 09, 23:21 CET
There we go: the opinions of the article's writer and myself already couldn't be any more different.
Like with episodes, there are very few characters of which I'd say that they were truly bad - if any at all. Jonathan Woodward's Whedonverse characters (all three of them) tend to rub me the wrong way, I never took all that much to Kennedy either, nor Amy, but I didn't truly mind any of them.
Valentijn | January 10, 01:26 CET
Numfar PTB | January 10, 02:00 CET
Muffyn | January 10, 04:15 CET
Not that I was one of them.
Subjective lists are subjective.
redeem147 | January 10, 04:33 CET
Dana5140 | January 10, 04:41 CET
buffyfest | January 10, 05:00 CET
Unless you have some sort of objective criteria (which I don't know how you could), it's all subjective.
redeem147 | January 10, 06:58 CET
Even when I disagreed with the rankings, I had a warm smile on my face as I looked on all the characters I loved and loved to hate from eight years of Buffy and Angel. It's the best high school year book ever.
So thanks to the person who wrote the list, and thanks to the person who posted it here!
chrisobrien | January 10, 07:23 CET
KissingToast | January 10, 07:28 CET
bigmoneygrip | January 10, 07:41 CET
I would also put Percy higher because I thought he was hilarious. (There were TWO President Roosevelts!) And I really liked Graham.
And Chao-Ahn would be much lower on my list.
The top of the list is much too hard for me, but I'd put both Lorne and Wesley above Faith.
jcs | January 10, 08:51 CET
Brett | January 10, 09:29 CET
And I obviously don't have the same taste than this person. So this list will be as quickly forgotten as read.
7lovelyangel | January 10, 11:51 CET
But this line about Lilah '...she becomes a woman tragically trapped within her own villainy..' seems wrong to me. I loved Lilah because she was so consistently unrepentant in her villainy.
katsadako | January 10, 17:21 CET
eddy | January 10, 19:32 CET
If I make a list of my favorite Buffy episodes, "The Body" won't make my top 10, but if I'm making a list of the best Buffy episodes, it's got to be top 5. Unlike my favorite episodes, The Body is not one I want to rewatch over and over again, but, for a "best of" list, I have to acknowledge the strength of the writing and acting contained within it.
Similarly, if I was putting together a list of my favorite characters, it'd go 1.) Anya 2.) Illyria 3.) Wesley... But if I'm putting together a "best character" list, I couldn't put Anya and Illyria at 1 and 2. There roles weren't large enough in the history of the Buffyverse to warrant that placement.
So while the Buzzfeed article ranking all of the Buffy episodes (which was written by a different author) was very well thought out and well argued, this one reads like a guy just saying "these are the characters I love" and "these are the characters I hate" with little more thought put into it than that.
One other thing, the inclusion of characters like Sunday and Cassie over, say, Vampire Willow or Jesse (from 2-part series premiere) is utterly baffling. I just can't wrap my head around what standards the author used when choosing which one-off/two-off characters to include.
[ edited by WindTheFrog on 2014-01-11 08:58 ]
WindTheFrog | January 10, 23:56 CET
| January 11, 07:54 CET
Dana5140 | January 11, 11:53 CET
I guess I just wish the grading made sense to me. The writer is obviously primarily a Buffy fan. Not a bad thing, but I do feel some of the Angel characters are woefully downgraded on this list.
azzers | January 11, 18:45 CET
Yes, a list like this is subjective, but that doesn't mean it can't be wrong. We're about a month from the Winter Olympics now and there are many sports within those games that having a subjective scoring system. When a judge gives a suspiciously low score in figure skating, no one says, "hey that judge really put himself out there! We have no right to criticize him! Just think of all the time he must put in, having to watch all these routines!"
I realize a list like this is more subjective than that kind of judging, but there are plenty of other examples, like reality competition shows (Project Runway, Top Chef, etc.) or combat sports, that work equally as well. Now let me just show one example of why this article is titled incorrectly:
107 (of 117). Knox
"Stupid, flirtatious Knox and his stupid plan to use the stupid sarcophagus to release Illyria into Fred’s body and consume her soul. BOOOOOOOOOO."
That is not someone ranking a character on a scale of Worst to Best. That is a fan of Fred hating on a character because Fred's death brought them so much pain. If anything, the fact that he despises Knox because of the character's actions (and not because of poor writing or acting) means Knox should 20 or 30 spots higher!
As for the author's standard for character included in the list: Yes, I'm not the author, but can you really argue that Sunday should be included on that list over Vampire Willow? No Buffy fan could make that argument. Angelus and Angel receive separate spots on the list, so, by those rules, obviously Willow and Vampire Willow should as well. And given he's clearly a huge Willow fan, so much so he ranked Willow first (and Kennedy last), it's an even more baffling oversight.
Now the one thing I will agree with you on is I don't think it's right to call someone out as not being a real fan. I have no doubt this guy is a huge Buffy fan, but he put together a terrible list.
[ edited by WindTheFrog on 2014-01-12 10:21 ]
WindTheFrog | January 12, 01:19 CET
the Groosalugg | January 12, 05:16 CET
Just hearing that Forrest is ranked above Riley (?!) alone (even without Angel barely cracking the top 20, Faith above Buffy, and other ...odd choices I'm hearing about here) is enough to tell me that I would probably just be irritated by this list and don't want to spend my too-short free time reading it.
LKW | January 12, 09:41 CET
I couldn't disagree more, but I'll be respectful and just accept that this isn't my own personal list, it's someone else's. I suppose I am biased too as the top 3 are too Buffy centric for me and I'm more of an Angel show fan. My top 10 would consist entirely of Angel characters, or characters who I think got to shine more on Angel (Cordy, Wesley, Faith)
I do like Kennedy in the last spot though. I hated her. She's a lot like the annoying character Kat from Battlestar Galactica, who I also hated. And I dug seeing Faith one spot over Buffy. That's my girl
Angel&Faith | January 12, 11:23 CET
Willowy | January 12, 12:34 CET
deborahmm | January 13, 01:57 CET