Big Bad

"I hate to break it to you, O Impotent One, but you're not the 'Big Bad' anymore. You're not even the 'Kind of Naughty'."

- Xander Harris (to Spike)

Big Bad is a term applied to describe major villains on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Specifically, it is usually accepted to refer to the single villain that, in each season of Buffy, is the dominant and final one.

The Big Bad is typically not only dangerous, as most of them threaten some version of apocalypse, but also help articulate the major themes of the season. Some of the Big Bads are built up and present from the season's beginning (or earlier) - i.e., The Master - and others are sprung as a surprise near the end of the season - i.e., Angelus.

For some of the show, the seasons followed a pattern in which lesser villains, presumed to be the Big Bad, are introduced, only to later lead to the more powerful surprise Big Bad: near the beginning of the season, a villain would appear to be a Big Bad and absorbs much of the heroes' attention, until, suddenly, this "Little Bad" is rid of and replaced by the Big Bad, usually about halfway through the season.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Big Bads and Little Bads
Big Bad is a term originally used by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series to describe a major recurring adversary, usually the chief villain or antagonist in a particular broadcast season. It has since been used to describe annual villains in other television series, and has also been used in scholarly work discussing Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

This pattern in action:

The Movie/The Origin

 * Big Bad
 * Lothos
 * Little Bad
 * Benny Jacks
 * Amilyn

Season One

 * Big Bad
 * The Master
 * Little Bad
 * Darla
 * Order of Aurelius

Season Two

 * Big Bad
 * Angelus
 * Little Bad
 * Spike
 * Drusilla

Season Three

 * Big Bad
 * Mayor Richard Wilkins
 * Little Bad
 * Faith Lehane
 * Mr. Trick

Season Four

 * Big Bad
 * Adam
 * Little Bad
 * Dr. Maggie Walsh
 * The Initiative

Season Five

 * Big Bad
 * Glory
 * Little Bad
 * Glory's Minions
 * The Knights of Byzantium

Season Six

 * Big Bad
 * Dark Willow


 * Little Bad
 * Warren Mears
 * The Trio

Season Seven

 * Big Bad
 * The First Evil
 * Little Bad
 * Caleb

Season Eight

 * Big Bad
 * Twilight
 * Little Bad
 * Twilight Group

Season Nine

 * Big Bad
 * Simone Doffler
 * Severin
 * Little Bad
 * Maloker

Season Ten

 * Big Bad
 * D'Hoffryn
 * Little Bad
 * The Soul Glutton
 * The Mistress
 * The Sculptor

Season Eleven

 * Big Bad
 * Joanna Wise
 * Little Bad
 * Pandora Project

Angel: Big Bads and Little Bads
For Angel, the law firm Wolfram & Hart was the Big Bad present in the series; however, there were other major recurring threats that arose, those of which were either associates of Wolfram & Hart or a third party with its own agenda. While the format of the series didn't stick to an established Big Bad the way Buffy did, several characters and elements have represented significant season arcs, using the "Big Bad" term frequently. The pattern of this was as follows:

Season One

 * Big Bad
 * Holland Manners
 * Wolfram & Hart

Season Two

 * Big Bad
 * Darla
 * Little Bad
 * Drusilla
 * Holland Manners
 * Wolfram & Hart

Season Three

 * Big Bad
 * Daniel Holtz
 * Little Bad
 * Sahjhan

Season Four

 * Big Bad
 * Jasmine
 * Little Bad
 * The Beast
 * Angelus

Season Five

 * Big Bad
 * Circle of the Black Thorn
 * Little Bad
 * Lindsey McDonald
 * Marcus Hamilton

After the Fall

 * Big Bad
 * Vampire Gunn
 * Little Bad
 * Demon Lords
 * Senior Partners

Angel (IDW series)

 * Big Bad
 * Myresto Mor
 * Little Bad
 * Rowant Mor

Angel & Faith

 * Big Bad
 * Whistler
 * Little Bad
 * Pearl
 * Nash

Angel & Faith Season 10

 * Big Bad
 * Archaeus
 * Little Bad
 * Drusilla

Season 11

 * To be revealed

Spike: Big Bads and Little Bads
Spike received a lot of comic book series that have disputable canon, therefore creating official new Big Bads and treating it as some kind of a second spin-off.

Spike: Asylum

 * Big Bad
 * Mosaic Wellness Center

Spike: Shadow Puppets

 * Big Bad
 * Smile Time Japan

Spike: After the Fall

 * Big Bad
 * Non

Spike: The Devil You Know

 * Big Bad
 * Tansy Fry

Spike (IDW series)

 * Big Bad
 * Wolfram & Hart (Las Vegas)
 * Little Bad
 * John
 * Drusilla

Behind the Scenes

 * The term was based on the episode "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," in which Buffy Summers describes the newly soulless Angel as "the big bad thing in the dark." The phrase "big bad" by itself was first used on screen in the episode "Gingerbread," in which Buffy says that an occult symbol is harmless, "not a big bad."


 * "Big Bad" was then often used in relation to Spike: Xander told him "I hate to break it to you, O Impotent One, but you're not the Big Bad anymore." ("Doomed"), he refereed to himself while explaining "I just thought she'd be safer with Big Bad lookin' over her shoulder." ("Blood Ties"), Buffybot was programmed to say "Oh Spike, you're the big bad!" ("Intervention"), he explained "You can't feel it unless you're into the big bad - a witch or a vampire or-" ("Wrecked"), and he declared about himself "Big Bad's back and lookin' for a little death." ("Beneath You").


 * At the end of the Season 7 episode "Lessons," the First Evil appeared in the form of the previous six seasons' Big Bads (or significant "little bads"), in reverse chronological order: Warren Mears (season 6), Glorificus (season 5), Adam (season 4), Richard Wilkins (season 3), Drusilla (season 2), and The Master (season 1).


 * Darla was the only member of the Whirlwind to not play a significant antagonist role in the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.


 * The term big bad has been adopted by several other series:
 * Wikipedia lists several examples.
 * The Supernatural Wiki has a page on Big Bads, listing out their respective seasonal antagonists.
 * The TV Tropes Wiki lists many more examples.