Buffy Summers

"I'm Buffy. The Vampire Slayer. And you are...?"

- Buffy Summers

Buffy Anne Summers is a Slayer active in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Born in 1981, she was activated as the Slayer in 1996 at the age of fifteen. Initially based in Los Angeles, she later moved to Sunnydale where she acted as guardian of the Hellmouth for seven years before the town's destruction in 2003. Initially a reluctant hero who constantly wished for nothing more than a normal life, Buffy eventually grew to embrace her destiny. Buffy is unique as a Slayer in many ways; she refuses to sacrifice her ordinary life for her supernatural destiny, often operates as part of a team with her friends the "Scooby Gang", and has maintained several romantic relationships, two of which were with notorious vampires Angel and Spike. Buffy is one of the longest-lived Slayers, and has returned from the dead not once but twice, an event which disrupted the traditional Slayer line. She later abolished the line completely with her plan to activate all the world's Potential Slayers, and is now dedicated to training the young Slayers she was responsible for creating.

Buffy first appeared in the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, but the later television series marked her first canonical appearance in 1997. Since then, she has been featured in spin-off series Angel as well as various expanded universe material. In 2007, the character's history was continued in the comic book series Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight. Buffy was played by actress Kristy Swanson in the movie, but Sarah Michelle Gellar portrays her on television and is more closely associated with the role.

Los Angeles


Buffy was born to Hank and Joyce Summers in January 1981, in Los Angeles, California. At the age of eight, Buffy was close friends with her cousin Celia, and enjoyed playing superhero with her. Buffy looked on helplessly as Celia was murdered in her hosptial bed by Der Kindestod, a demon that killed sick children and was only visible to those who were ill, an experience which instilled in Buffy a fear of hospitals. Growing up, Buffy came to idolize Olympic ice skater Dorothy Hamill as she learned the sport herself. In fifth grade, she developed a crush on sixth grader Billy Fordham; although the two were friends, he never returned her feelings. Buffy started attending Hemery High School in 1995; during her time there she became a popular cheerleader and was elected both Prom Princess and Fiesta Queen.

"I've got a few things the other girls didn't have. For one thing, there's my keen fashion sense..."

- Buffy identifies her strengths as a Slayer.

At the age of fifteen, Buffy started having violent dreams about women from different periods of history slaying monsters. One day, she was approached by Merrick, a mysterious man who revealed her destiny as the Chosen One and became her first Watcher. Buffy initially did not get along with Merrick, who was sarcastic and intolerant of her valley girl nature, but the pair eventually gained a mutual fondness as he prepared her for battle against the vampire king Lothos. As Buffy's increasingly strange behaviour alienated from her peers, including her boyfriend Jeffrey, she befriended fellow social outcast Pike, relying on him for support after Merrick shot himself to protect her from Lothos. Despite little training, Buffy managed to defeat Lothos and his minions at her school dance, burning down the high school gym in the process, for which she was subsequently expelled. Shortly after her expulsion, Buffy and Pike ran away to Las Vegas looking for vampires. Upon her return, Buffy's parents found out about what had really happened at Hemery and about her destiny as the Slayer. Worried that she was losing her mind, they sent her to a mental institution. While there, Buffy realized that attempts to persuade others of the existence of demonic forces would be futile. She kept quiet and was released after a couple of weeks. Buffy and her parents never spoke of it again.

Sunnydale High


Buffy's parents, who had been experiencing marital troubles for years, finally divorced, and Buffy moved with her mother to 1630 Revello Drive in Sunnydale, a small town in California. Little did they know that the town was located on a Hellmouth, and that Buffy's presence there was predestined. Buffy enrolled at Sunnydale High, where she became friends with Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg, as well as her new Watcher, Rupert Giles. She also met Cordelia Chase, a superficial cheerleader reminiscient of Buffy before she became the Slayer, and Angel, a mysterious and handsome stranger who aided Buffy with cryptic advice. . After successfully stopping the vampire ritual known as the Harvest together, Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles formed the "core four" of the "Scooby Gang" and continued to investigate the various supernatural mysteries that occurred on the Hellmouth.

Buffy developed an attraction to Angel, and was horrified when he turned out to be a vampire. Though initially reluctant to slay him, she ultimately decided to do so when it appeared that Angel had attacked her mother, only to relent upon discovering that he had a human soul as a result of being cursed by a Gypsy clan as punishment for his various crimes, in addition to the fact that they had in fact been set up by Darla of the Order of Aurelius, Angel's sire and Joyce's true attacker. When people's nightmares began coming true in Sunnydale, Buffy's guilt over her parents' divorce manifested and she was briefly transformed into a vampire. Giles warned Buffy that she would eventually be forced to battle the thousand-year-old vampire leader known as the Master. Upon learning that the infallible Pergamum Codex prophecised her death at the hands of the Master, Buffy quit being the Slayer and contemplated leaving town, but accepted her fate after Willow discovered bodies of their classmates slaughtered inside the school. Buffy was overpowered and left to drown in a pool of water in the Master's dwellings, but Xander resuscitated her and she managed to defeat the Master and stop him from opening the Hellmouth.

"Giles, I'm sixteen years old. I don't want to die."

- Buffy upon learning of her prophecised death

First love


Buffy took months to recover emotionally from her clinical death, finally moving on after destroying the Master's remains herself. In her junior year of high school, she came into conflict with Spike and Drusilla, a vampire couple intent on wreaking havoc in Sunnydale, and former comrades of Angel. Buffy's relationship with Angel heated up and the pair began officially dating. Buffy also met and formed an awkward friendship with Kendra Young, a second Slayer who had been activated when Buffy drowned. Kendra helped Buffy appreciate that being a Slayer was part of who she was, and not just a burden. On the night of her seventeenth birthday, Buffy lost her virginity to Angel, and unknowingly lifted the curse placed on him a century earlier, causing him to lose his soul and revert to the evil Angelus, the most notoriously evil vampire in history.

Angelus became obsessed with destroying Buffy's life and joined Spike and Drusilla, who had reconstructed an invincible demon called the Judge. Buffy managed to defeat the Judge with a stolen rocket launcher, but Angelus' pathological abuse continued to take a heavy toll on Buffy and her friends over the months. When faced with Angelus's subsequent plan to destroy the world, Buffy reluctantly accepted an alliance with Spike, who had become tired of Angelus' presence and had no wish to see the world end. While strategizing with Spike, Buffy was forced to reveal her identity as the Slayer to her mother, who reacted badly to the news. Buffy confronted Angelus and tried to prevent him from opening a vortex to a hell dimension while Willow worked a spell to return Angel's soul. Though the spell was successful, Angelus had already begun to open the vortex, and Buffy was forced to drive a sword through the re-ensouled Angel's chest, sending him through the vortex to hell before he could even remember Angelus' siege against Sunnydale. Traumatized and alone, Buffy then left Sunnydale and escaped to Los Angeles.

"Do you think I chose to be like this? Do you have any idea how lonely it is? How dangerous? I would love to be upstairs watching TV or gossiping about boys or... God, even studying! But I have to save the world. Again."

- Buffy comes out to her mother about being the Slayer

The Chosen Two


In L.A., Buffy spent the summer waiting tables in a diner under a false identity (her middle name, Anne), trying to turn her back on her destiny. However, after rescuing a runaway from a hell dimension, Buffy returned to Sunnydale to face her own demons. She reunited with her loved ones and tried to find closure to her relationship with Angel. However, when he returned mysteriously from hell, Buffy found herself still drawn to him, much to the disgust and confusion of her friends. Meanwhile, a rebellious new Slayer, Faith Lehane, arrived in town, providing Buffy with a new ally. Shortly before her eighteenth birthday, Buffy was depowered in preparation for her Cruciamentum, a Slayer rite of passage organized by the Watchers' Council meant to test the Slayer's practical capabilities. Giles' reluctance to see Buffy hurt and subsequent interference in the test led to him being fired as her official Watcher and replaced with Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, though Buffy largely ignored him and refused to take him seriously due to his extreme cowardice and incompetence.

When Faith accidentally killed a human, her relationship with Buffy deteriorated rapidly. Increasingly alienated from the Scoobies, Faith found a friend in the affable yet sinister Mayor of Sunnydale, who was preparing to become a pure-blood demon on Sunnydale High Graduation Day. As the Mayor relied on Faith to help him prepare for his ascension, Buffy worked first to thwart his plans, then to organize a resistance. Faith impeded these efforts by poisoning Angel, leaving him on the verge of death; when the Watchers' Council refused to help, Buffy decided to stop following their orders altogether. When the Scoobies learned that only the blood of a Slayer could save Angel's life, Buffy attempted to sacrifice Faith to save him. Their battle left Faith in a coma, and Buffy ultimately saved Angel with her own blood. Buffy then led her classmates in a climactic battle against the transformed Mayor and his minions, which culminated in an explosion that destroyed the Mayor as well as Sunnydale High. After the smoke cleared, Angel left for Los Angeles so that Buffy could try to have a more normal life without him.

U.C. Sunnydale


Buffy initally experienced some difficulty adjusting to life as a college freshman, something made even harder with her Slayer duties and Angel's departure. After sharing what she believed to be a night of emotional intimacy with fellow student Parker Abrams, she became depressed when he neglected to contact her afterwards. At Thanksgiving, Buffy, while determined to have a safe and normal dinner, was forced to deal with Hus, a Native American vengeance spirit accidentally released by Xander's construction crew, and was secretly helped by Angel, who had returned to town to after one of his new friends had a vision that she was in danger, though he only made his presence known to the other Scoobies under the belief that he would only distract and endanger her even more. After Xander accidentally let it slip that Angel was in town, Buffy, hurt that he let everyone else know that he was back in Sunnydale, immediately traveled to Los Angeles and confronted Angel in his office, and the two agreed to just stay away from one another for the time being. Just as she was about to leave, however, the two were attacked by a Mohra Demon. Though the duo succeeded in wounding it, the Mohra escaped, and Buffy and Angel immediately tracked it down in the sewers. The two became separated, and Angel seemingly killed the demon itself, though its blood mixed with his own and turned him human again. The two reveled in finally being able to be happy together, but Angel soon discovered that the Powers That Be had not yet offered him forgiveness. When Angel was nearly killed by the regenerated Mohra, Buffy managed to slay it with his help. Upon discovering that Buffy would die much sooner if he was to remain human, Angel had the Oracles rewind time to reverse his transformation into a human, leaving no one but himself with any memory of the incident.

Eventually, Buffy attracted the sincere attention of teacher's assistant Riley Finn and began to wonder how she would balance her Slayer duties while dating a seemingly-normal guy. However, while fighting the Gentlemen, she discovered that Riley had a secret of his own; he was in fact a member of the Initiative, a U.S. government task force created to research mystical and demonic creatures led by Buffy's psychology professor Maggie Walsh. Buffy briefly joined forces with the Initiative, but her relentless questioning of the Initiative's plans and motivations, as well her relationship with Riley, began to unsettle Professor Walsh, who tried to dispose of her by having her killed in action. Afterwards, Walsh was murdered by her own creation, a monstrous bio-mechanical demonoid named Adam, who subsequently escaped and began his plan to create an army of similar super soldiers.

Meanwhile, Faith, having awakened from her coma, used a mystical device to switch bodies with Buffy. In Faith's body, Buffy was taken into custody by the Watchers Council Special Operations Team. She managed to escape and convince Giles of her true identity, and with the help of Willow and Tara Maclay, reversed the body swap. Upon discovering that Faith had traveled to Los Angeles and was attempting to kill Angel, Buffy traveled to L.A., determined to get revenge on Faith under the flimsy guise of protecting Angel from her, only to come into conflict with Angel, who insisted that Faith could be rehabilitated. Buffy had little choice but to protect Faith from the attacks of the Watchers' Council Special Ops team. Faith subsequently surrendered herself to the L.A.P.D., and Buffy got into a heated argument with Angel, climaxing when she used her relationship with Riley to verbally attack him and Angel lost his temper and harshly ordered her to go back to Sunnydale. However, Angel subsequently returned to Sunnydale to make amends and succeeded. Eventually Riley, who had been torn between the Scooby Gang and the Initiative for some time, turned his back on the corrupt organization to join Buffy. Despite having drifted apart over the last year, Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles finally reconciled and combined their essences by invoking the spirit of the First Slayer, allowing Buffy to physically destroy Adam. The four were later attacked in their dreams by the the First Slayer, who was offended by their use of the spell; Buffy promptly rejected her insistence that the Slayer work alone without friends.

Sisterhood
"I need to know more. About where I come from, about the other Slayers. I mean, maybe... maybe if I learn to control this thing, I could be stronger, I could be better."

- Buffy embraces her role as the Slayer.



Following her confrontation with the First Slayer, and an encounter with the famous vampire Dracula, Buffy began to fully accept her duty as the Slayer for the first time in her life. A younger sister, Dawn, mysteriously appeared in Buffy's household, her existence seamlessly integrated with the memories of Buffy, her friends, and her mother. Buffy discovered that Dawn wasn't her sister, but rather a ball of mystical energy known as the Key that could open interdimensional portals. A group of monks transformed the Key into human form to hide it from a hell-god known as Glory, choosing the Slayer to protect it because they knew she would protect her sister with her life. Initially regarding Dawn as little more than a burden forced on her against her will, Buffy eventually accepted her role as Dawn's protector. Buffy's relationship with Riley began to deteriorate as she failed to give him the emotional intimacy he craved. Riley began visiting vampire brothels where he would allow himself to be bitten, and when Buffy discovered this, they finally broke up and Riley returned to the military. As Buffy recovered from this, she was disgusted to learn that Spike, now unable to harm humans due to the Initiative's experiments on him, had fallen in love with her. Upon discovering the full extent of his obsession, she had Willow revoke Spike's invitation to her house and personally alienated him from the Scoobies.

Buffy was devastated when her mother, who had been experiencing health problems for months and only recently received surgery for a brain tumor, died unexpected from an aneurysm. Taking up the role of Dawn's legal guardian, Buffy was forced to drop out of college to look after her sister. As she struggled to fully understand what being the Slayer meant, Giles took Buffy on a vision quest, where the Guide told her that death was her gift, a message she found confusing and hurtful so soon after her mother's death. Upon her return, Buffy discovered that Spike had forced her former Sunnydale High classmate, Warren Mears, to build a sex-bot in her likeness, and it had resulted in him getting captured by Glory's minions, who believed him to be the Key. Despite her understandable rage and disgust over the robot, Buffy saved Spike and subsequently discovered that he had endured intense torture at the hands of Glory rather than reveal the identity of the Key, nearly choosing death to protect Dawn. Moved by this, Buffy rewarded Spike with a kiss and reconciled with him, welcoming him back to the fold.

When Glory finally discovered the Key and captured Dawn, Buffy retreated into her subconscious, where she battled with the guilt of failing to protect her sister. Willow successfully drew Buffy back out into consciousness, and the Scoobies attacked Glory's stronghold in full force. Despite everyone's efforts, Dawn's blood was used to open the interdimensional portal and chaos reigned on Earth. Buffy defeated Glory and, finally understanding the meaning of the message from the First Slayer, sacrificed her own life, using her own blood to close the portal so Dawn wouldn't have to. Afterwards, Buffy was buried on the outskirts of Sunnydale with the epitaph, "She saved the world. A lot." Finally able to rest, she ascended to heaven and found peace.

"Dawn, the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me."

- Buffy's dying message to her sister.

Back from the grave
"Everything here is... hard, and bright, and violent. Everything I feel, everything I touch.... this is hell. Just getting through the next moment, and the one after that... knowing what I've lost..."

- Buffy after being pulled out of heaven.

Months later, Buffy was resurrected by her friends, who feared that her spirit may have been trapped in a hellish dimension due to the mystical circumstances of her death.

Buffy's transition back to her life was difficult; she experienced an overwhelming sense of loss after being ripped from heaven, as well as the added everyday responsibilities of raising Dawn and paying bills. She attempted to keep her problems secret from her friends, not wanting them to share in her grief, and confided only to Spike that she had in fact been at peace while dead, though the truth ultimately came out. Buffy's depression worsened when Giles left Sunnydale and returned to England when she became overly dependent on him. Struggling to feel alive and seeking someone who understood her, she began a violent sexual relationship with Spike which left neither of them satisfied. At the same time, she was forced to both fight Sunnydale's demon population and become somewhat of a vigilante crime-fighter when faced with the ongoing efforts of the Trio, a group of nerds she went to high school with who had decided to take over Sunnydale, though taking down Buffy, the Slayer, was their top priority. In order to deal with her increasing financial problems, Buffy started working at local burger bar the Doublemeat Palace, a job she found degrading and disturbingly mundane. With all of these problems, Buffy sank into severe depression and self-loathing.

Meanwhile, Willow, proceeding Buffy's resurrection, developed an addiction to magic and began to use it excessively, which Buffy failed to notice and largely ignored at first, even when confronted with evidence by Anya and Xander. This climaxed when a spell cast by Willow went awry and erased all of the memories of the Scooby Gang, which resulted in Tara dumping Willow when the spell was broken, which immediately caused Willow's addiction to spiral out of control. Buffy finally became fully aware of the full extent of Willow's addiction when she and Amy Madison, having been transformed into a rat for three years only to be finally changed back, began making regular visits to the home of Rack, a shady sorcery dealer, who only worsened Willow's condition. When Willow made another trip to Rack's place with Dawn in tow, the two were attacked by a demon that Willow unwittingly summoned during her high, and Willow's carelessness caused a car accident that left Dawn severely injured. Buffy and Spike arrived in time to save them and, despite being understandably furious with Willow, relented slightly when Willow desperately begged her for help. With Buffy's help, Willow renounced the usage of her magic altogether and was put on the road to recovery.

A brief reunion with Riley shocked Buffy into finally breaking up with Spike, admitting to him that she was just using him and it was killing her. Confused and angry, Spike later cornered her in the bathroom and tried to rape her; Buffy fought him off, and Spike fled Sunnydale, horrified by his own actions. When Warren Mears, the leader of the Trio, accidentally killed Willow's girlfriend Tara in an attempt to kill Buffy, Willow, enraged and grief-stricken, suffered a relapse and exacted bloody revenge against him, flaying him alive before the eyes of her horrified friends. Unable to condone Willow's actions, Buffy battled her best friend to stop her from committing more murders, but was promptly defeated before Giles came to her rescue. Willow then tried to destroy the whole world to end everybody's pain, leaving Buffy and Dawn trapped underground. Xander eventually came through for Willow in the end and Buffy promised to change her self-destructive behavior in order to be there for her sister. With this battle over, Buffy was finally ready to truly live again.

Leader to the Potentials


As Dawn enrolled in the recently rebuilt Sunnydale High, Buffy was offered a job as guidance counselor by Principal Robin Wood, which she gratefully accepted. Spike returned to Sunnydale after regaining his soul in an attempt to prove himself to Buffy. Buffy recognized the difference in him, and even when it seemed he may revert to a dangerous killer, she assured him that she believed in him. When agents of the First Evil, the Bringers, began tracking down and killing Potential Slayers in an attempt to wipe out the entire Slayer line, Buffy's home quickly filled up with teenage Potentials who came to Sunnydale for protection. Buffy stepped into a leadership role to the girls and worked to train them into an army that could stand against the First and it's army of ancient Turok-Han vampires. She later contacted the Shadow Men for assistance, who offered to increase her strength via the essence of a demon. Buffy refused, unwilling to sacrifice her humanity in exchange for power.

Meanwhile, a reformed Faith, having escaped from prison to help Angel, travelled to Sunnydale to aid the Scoobies in the battle. Upon learning that the First's minion Caleb had something of hers, Buffy led the Potentials into battle to retrieve it, which resulted in the loss of several girls as well as Xander's eye. With this, the Scoobies and Potentials, having been losing trust in Buffy's leadership skills and methods for quite some time, held a mutiny, appointing a reluctant Faith their leader and forcing Buffy out of the house. Only Spike remained loyal to her, and through him, Buffy, depressed and about to give up, found the strength that she needed to keep fighting. Buffy found the object Caleb was keeping from her—an ancient Slayer Scythe—and saved the Potentials and Faith after the latter led them into a trap,, earning back the gang's trust, respect, and loyalty, and finally making peace with Faith before revealing her plan to share her power with the other Potentials. Also, with the help of Angel, Buffy finally defeated Caleb and killed him by cutting him in half, killing the First's leading enforcer and one of her greatest foes. Willow used the Scythe to perform a spell which activated Slayers all around the world, and a huge battle was waged in Sunnydale between the Slayers and the Turok-Han. During the fight, Spike sacrificed himself to close the Hellmouth once and for all. Before he crumbled to dust, Buffy admitted to his disbelief that she loved him, before escaping the ruins of Sunnydale with the other survivors.

"So I say we change the rule. I say my power... should be our power."

- Buffy chooses to share her power with the Potentials.

A new world
"The thing about changing the world... once you do it, the world's all different. Everybody calls me "ma'am" these days."

- Buffy reflects on her new role.



Following the destruction of Sunnydale, the Scooby Gang scattered around the world to locate and train newly-activated Slayers. When Angel and his crew took over the L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart, Buffy and the Scoobies began to lose trust in them ; when Angel contacted them for help to contain the insane Slayer Dana, Buffy sent Andrew to help apprehend her, but refused to leave Dana in Angel's care, sending a large squadron of Slayers with him and personally ordering Andrew to bring Dana back with him by any means necessary. When Xander once again fell under the thrall of Dracula and went to live with him as his manservant, Buffy was forced to break into the vampire's castle and convince Dracula to let Xander go. Encompassing mystics and a wide technological armory, the Scoobies expanded to keep on top of demonic threats on a more global level. Buffy funded this organization by going on a bank heist with other Slayers, which she reasoned was a "victimless crime" due to the bank's insurance. As the Scoobies and the Slayers have been declared terrorists in the wake of Sunnydale's destruction, decoy Slayers were set up to divert enemy attention for Buffy's protection, one in Rome, who was supposedly dating the Immortal, and the other underground; not even former allies like Angel were aware of her true location. Buffy, Dawn, and Xander eventually set their base in a Scottish castle, with Buffy training a squad of new Slayers, including Satsu, Rowena, and Leah. However, she failed to experience the feelings of connection that the other Slayers did, and began to employ ruthlessly aggressive tactics against the Slayers' enemies, demon and human alike.

Over a year after Sunnydale's destruction, Buffy investigated signs of an attack from a new enemy known as Twilight and her team came under fire from the United States military, who had employed her old enemies Amy Madison and Warren Mears. Questioning General Voll as to his motive for attacking them, Buffy learned that he was part of a cabal which considered all Slayers to be a threat, should they start to think of themselves as above the law. Soon afterwards, Buffy discovered that Giles and Faith had set up a "Slayer social worker" program in an attempt to prevent Slayers from going rogue, and had assassinated the rogue British socialite Slayer Genevieve Savidge and her warlock mentor Roden, all without her consent, causing Buffy and Giles to fall out of speaking terms with one another. While searching for information about upcoming dangers, Buffy discovered that Twilight planned to eradicate all magic from the Earth and that Buffy would suffer a betrayal; "The closest. The most unexpected." In her first encounter with Twilight, she was warned that her decision to activate the Slayers had been a mistake, and she began to question her own actions. Feeling lonely, Buffy shared a one-night-stand with Satsu, but her inability to return Satsu's feelings caused the other Slayer to leave the squad. On a mission to New York, Buffy was transported several centuries into the future, where she discovered that the thousands of Slayers had been reduced to one individual, Melaka Fray. Fray and a future version of Willow tried to prevent her from returning home, prompting Buffy to kill future Willow just as present Willow brought her back to her own time. When Buffy told her that she killed her future self, Willow was unaffected and informed her that the future is not set in stone.

When a Slayer tried and failed to kill Harmony Kendall—Buffy's old classmate-turned-vampire celebrity—on live television, this, combined with the criminal activities of the rogue Slayer Simone Doffler and her gang, the destruction of Sunnydale, and the machinations of the Twilight Group, ushered in a pro-vampire, anti-Slayer world order. With Twilight tracking them through their use of magic, Buffy led the Scoobies and Slayers to Tibet, where she hoped old friend and werewolf Oz could teach them to suppress their magical powers, by channelling them into the Earth. When Twilight found the Slayers, Buffy and Willow were desperate to retrieve their powers. They deduced what was understood as the "Earth" absorbing their powers was actually three wrathful goddesses, Vajrayogini, Ekajati and Remati; the concept of the Earth gods and the Earth had become conflated over time. Using their anger, Buffy and Willow were able to summon the goddesses to the battlefield, but the goddesses were unable to distinguish friend from foe and casualties were incurred on both sides. Buffy saved a dying Riley from the battlefield, and revealed he has been a double agent spying on Twilight. When a goddess flung Buffy, she appeared to die. When she awoke, some of her friends had been captured by Twilight's forces. To her surprise, Buffy shot straight up into the air and hovered there, evidently flying. Due to spells in play by Twilight, Buffy was initially unaware that Giles, Andrew and Faith had been captured. She confessed to Xander's surprise that she had developed feelings for him, acknowledging that she was "too late", having seen him and Dawn kiss. She reluctantly showed her friends her new ability to fly and her enormously improved strength, with which she and Willow were able to bury the goddesses underground once again.

In the aftermath of this, Xander forced Buffy to test all of her newfound powers, which she eventually tired off. Soon afterwards, Willow reveals to Buffy that her new powers are not a reward for defeating the goddesses: she had, in fact, been absorbing the collective powers of all of the Slayers who had died since the Slayer Organization began, a revelation that both horrified and saddened Buffy.

During a second confrontation with Twilight, he unmasked himself, and Buffy was shocked to discover that Twilight was none other than Angel. Buffy attacked him in a rage for all that he had done, but Angel explained his true motives. Due to increasing fear and hatred among both the human and demon communities with the expanded ranks of Slayers, Angel created the Twilight persona and amalgamated all of the factions of the anti-Slayer movement most likely to strike at them, using a "master plan" to keep them distracted and thus limit the destruction that would be caused if these factions struck independently, while also trying to keep the deaths of the Slayers to a minimum. He also explained that Buffy's new powers, much like his own, are in fact a reward for all that she has done and what she was about to face. Moved by all of this, Buffy grabbed Angel and gave him a passionate kiss. After a passionate airborne reunion, the two found themselves in a pocket dimension while Giles explained to the others that the current events tie into a prophecy of a supernatural upheaval where the world shall be recreated after a Slayer changes everything in the world, with Buffy and Angel having been selected to serve as the catalysts of that change. However, upon witnessing her friends and family fighting the resulting demonic hoards, Buffy rejected Angel's plan to go along with the proposed "evolution" to go back and help her friends, Angel agreeing to join her, only for the fight to be interrupted when Spike appeared, claiming to have the answer to the current crisis.

Personality and traits
Before becoming the Slayer, Buffy's personality was that of a superficial blonde valley girl; she herself claimed that even Cordelia "looked like a classical philosopher next to me". Initially snobby towards people of a lower social class such as Pike, the isolation she experienced from her popular friends at Hemery gave her new-found empathy towards outcasts like Willow and Xander. Nevertheless, Buffy was something of a rebel who did not conform to traditional Slayer conventions; Giles once admitted that "some flexibility is required" when it came to being Buffy's Watcher. Buffy also tended to venture out of the Slayer's typically supernatural jurisdiction, often fighting crazed robots and even human criminals. Buffy is unique as a Slayer in that she refuses to give up her "normal" life for her destiny and works with a group of close friends who know her identity. The spirit of the First Slayer once insisted to Buffy that the Slayer must work alone, a belief which Buffy promptly rejected. Kendra, who had been trained as a Slayer from early childhood, told Buffy that a Slayer did not have the luxury of emotions. Buffy responded by claiming that her emotions gave her power and she considered them "total assets". Spike once stated that Buffy's improvisational fighting style was much like that of Nikki Wood, the second Slayer he killed.

While Buffy acknowledged that humans can be just as bad as demons, if not even worse, she refused to kill humans under any circumstances, insisting that the Slayer did not have a license to kill, which occasionally put her into conflict with her less-merciful teammates. For example, she refused to kill Ben after Glory was defeated despite full knowledge that Glory would eventually resurface and get revenge on her, which resulted in Giles doing so instead, and refused to consider killing Dawn to save the world ("The Gift"). Additionally, she flatly refused to kill Warren Mears despite his vicious crimes, preferring to let him face human justice, whereas Xander and Dawn were so disgusted and furious with him that they fully supported Willow's plans to kill him until the moment she actually did so ("Villains"). However, she had made exceptions to that rule on numerous occasions: she was perfectly willing to kill Faith to save Angel's life ("Graduation Day"), killed several members of the Knights of Byzantium to protect Dawn ("Spiral"), and also bisected Caleb with the Scythe ("Chosen"). Nonetheless, she has made it a rule in the Slayer Organization to "go for the wound" with their human enemies ("The Long Way Home").

Though she was normally quite aware socially, Buffy had proven to have a few lapses in judgment that cost her and others as well. Her destructive relationship with Spike, for example, was attributed to her own feelings of vulnerability and unworthiness after the death of her mother as well as her abrupt descent from heaven. When her intelligence or abilities have been put into question, as when she was under investigation by the Watchers' Council ("Checkpoint"), Buffy responded poorly to authority and was mostly unable to complete any of the tasks given. She would almost appear as the "dumb blonde" stereotype, but in her confrontation with the Council, when things were on her terms, Buffy appeared to have a relatively advanced sense of awareness that wasn't accessed through many traditional methods. The strength in her personality sometimes made it hard for her to relinquish control.

One of Buffy's most defining personality traits was her tendency to keep things secret from the rest of the Scooby Gang, which came back to bite her more than once. Such secrets included Angel's resurrection ("Revelations"), Dawn's identity as the Key ("Blood Ties"), her relationship with Spike ("Entropy"), and her sighting of Spike in the basement of the new Sunnydale High ("Beneath You"). Additionally, she also showed a lighthearted, sarcastic streak, clearly inherited from her mother.

Running gags
Throughout the series, Buffy had two running gags about her:
 * A tendency to mangle the names of vampires and demon species, much to Giles' constant irritation. For example, "Bezoar" became "Bozo", "Kakistos" became "Kissing Toast", "Taquitos", and "Khaki Trousers", "Acathla" became "Alfalfa" and "Al Franken", "Beljoxa's Eye" becomes "Botox's Eye", and "Turok-Han" became "Chaka Khan".
 * Her poor driving skills. She repeatedly asked her mother if she could take lessons, to little avail. When she finally did get her hands on the wheel, she didn't know what the hand brake was for ("Band Candy"). She later admitted that "cars and Buffy are unmixy things" ("Something Blue"). She also drove while in Faith's body, again badly (although this could be because she was being chased by assassins at the time and was trying to get away) ("Who Are You"). Still later, she was shown to still have possession of Joyce's SUV, but was still characteristically terrible at driving and parking it ("Him"). Strangely, however, she was shown driving at one point and did so perfectly ("Gone").

Appearance
"The part that gets me, though, is where Buffy is the Vampire Slayer. She's so little."

- Jenny Calendar

Early in the television series, make-up supervisor Todd McIntosh was instructed to make Buffy "a soft and sort of earthy character." He gave Gellar a soft, muted green make-up and kept her look very natural. However, it was later decided that this was inappropriate for the character, and that Buffy needed to look more like a valley girl. McIntosh switched her make-up around, giving her frosted eyeshadow and lip colors, bright turquoise and aqua marines, bubblegum colored nails, and bleach-blonde hair, causing the character to "blossom."

In attempts to preserve the seriousness of her character, Buffy's clothing became increasingly less frilly and started to give off the appearance of a tougher, feminine, mature character. Since the very beginning of the series she shows a fondness for leather coats, an aspect of her character played up in the episode "Prophecy Girl" where she wears a prom dress with a leather coat while wielding a crossbow, this idea of femininity mixed with militaristic undertones is frequently used in later seasons. By season 3 Buffy is rarely seen wearing short skirts (partially at Sarah Michelle Gellar's request) and is instead seen wearing either longer skirts or pants while still maintaining a youthful sexiness that usually comes out in her choice of tops and the fit of her jeans. Buffy also was shown to have abandoned the bleach blonde look sometime during seasons 5 and 6 where she was shown to have darker highlights mixed in with a honey blonde color. In season 6 she even cuts her hair relatively short in a fit of anxiety and is shown to have almost a reddish tint to her hair color. Though in both seasons she eventually is seen as having gone blonde again, possibly just to reinforce her recognizable and iconic blonde image.

Buffy's distinguishing features include a bite-mark scar on the right side of her neck. She originally received this scar from the Master, but has been bitten by other vampires: Angel ("Graduation Day, Part Two") and Dracula ("Buffy vs. Dracula"). In "The Dark Age", Buffy received a tattoo of the Mark of Eyghon from Ethan Rayne, but later spent her allowance to have it removed.

Slayer powers

 * See Slayer

Buffy is a Slayer and has the normal powers that other Slayers do, including superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, durability, accelerated healing, and a limited ability to sense the presence of demons. She possesses the collective memories of all past Slayers, and has some degree of precognition that allows her to see upcoming events in her dreams, such as her temporary death at the hands of the Master, Angel's transformation into Angelus, and the arrival of the Gentlemen. Although she is sometimes considered a dumb blonde by herself and others, Buffy frequently shows herself to be quite intelligent, possessing strong leadership skills in battle and having a natural flair for tactical planning. Prominent examples of Buffy's intelligence include her near-perfect S.A.T. score ("Lovers Walk"), her defeat of Zachary Kralik by using his dependency on anti-psychotic medication against him ("Helpless"), her quick deduction of the Buffybot's true nature when the other Scoobies are completely oblivious ("Intervention"), and her immediate realization of Katrina Silber's true murderer upon hearing her name at the police station ("Dead Things").

After the events of Retreat, Buffy has gained new special powers. Her strength, speed, stamina, and reflexes have been enhanced to vastly superior levels. Her new powers include flight, superhuman hearing, telescopic vision and a level of near-invulnerability. Willow claims that the source of these new powers is that Buffy has been absorbing the collective powers of all the Slayers that died while they had suppressed their powers, though Angel claims that they are in fact a reward.

Other powers
In addition to the common Slayer powers, Buffy has gained other abilities through spells:
 * Mystical protection — After becoming leader to the activated Slayers, Xander comments that Buffy has some degree of mystical protection over her now, at least while she sleeps. To that end, her protection means even daggers split apart so as not to pierce her skin.
 * Mystical link with Willow — Buffy's connection to Willow is now so strong, that even when unconscious, Willow's consciousness can at will channel an amount of her power through Buffy.

Temporary powers
Buffy has had possession of other abilities for brief periods of time:
 * Telepathy — In high school, Buffy received an aspect of a demon that she killed, and gained the ability to hear the thoughts of others (although not vampires, which leave no reflection in the mind). She became unable to control all of the thoughts in her head, so Angel killed a second demon of this type and fed her a potion containing the demon's heart, stopping the ability altogether.
 * Enjoining spell — In order to defeat Adam, Buffy became the focus of a complex spell that drew on the pure source of the Slayer's power and briefly gave her the combined abilities of Xander, Willow, and Giles. She became faster, stronger and had magical abilities. For example, she telekinetically stopped Adam's bullets in the air and turned a missile into a dove. She was able to punch through Adam's armored hide and rip out his radioactive uranium power core without ill effects. Immediately after Buffy defeated the nearly invincible Adam, the spell faded.
 * Invisibility — Shortly after her resurrection, Buffy was accidentally rendered invisible by the Trio. At first, she enjoyed her new ability, before she learned that her life was in danger. Willow reverses the effects when she gets a hold of the Trio's gun.

Deaths


"Hey, I've died twice."

- Buffy Summers

Buffy died at the age of sixteen after being bitten and drowned by the Master. This was a clinical death, in which the heart stops beating, but there is still brain activity. People who experience clinical deaths have often been revived. This death activated Kendra Young as the Slayer.

Buffy's second death occurred when she was twenty years old, when she sacrificed herself to save Dawn and the world by hurling herself off a tower and using her own body to close a mystical portal. She was buried in a Sunnydale cemetery, where her body rested for 147 days until Willow, Xander, Tara, and Anya resurrected her.

When Buffy was shot by Warren Mears, she briefly flatlined in the hospital before being saved by Willow, who removed the bullet via telekinesis. It is never acknowledged by Buffy or anyone else whether this constituted a third death. Buffy's nightmare came true when she was turned into a vampire by the Master because a comatose Billy Palmer was inadvertently merging the line between reality and dreams; this death was quickly reversed when Billy woke up. An alternate version of Buffy also died at the hands of the Master, who snapped her neck, but this timeline was erased by Giles.

Relationships

 * See Buffy Summers/Relationships

Buffy's most significant romances in her life were with the vampires Angel and Spike. Angel was her high school sweetheart and first love, but he eventually left her because his immortality and vampiric nature meant their relationship was doomed. Spike was initially her enemy, but he fell in love with her and the pair eventually formed a meaningful connection. Buffy continued to dream about both men, often together, long after the respective relationships ended. In one of these dreams, Spike commented that she could no longer tell them apart.

Other important relationships of Buffy's have included Pike,Parker, Riley Finn, and Satsu. Pike was her friend and love interest when she first began her journey as the Slayer, but the pair broke up before she came to Sunnydale. In college, she dated Riley in the hopes of having a "normal" relationship, only to discover he was an Initiative soldier. Satsu was Buffy's fellow Slayer, as well as her first and only homosexual relationship.

Gallery

 * See Buffy Summers/Gallery

Canonical
The following appearances are considered canonical and form Buffy's official biography.
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer
 * Buffy is a regular character for all seven seasons of the televsion series (1997-2003). Buffy and Willow are the only two characters who appear in all of the series' 144 episodes.


 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Origin
 * A 1999 comic book adaptation of the non-canonical Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie.


 * Angel
 * Season One


 * "City of" (1999) (Footage from various Buffy episodes) ; "The Bachelor Party" (1999) (Footage from "Pangs") ; "I Will Remember You" (1999); "Sanctuary" (2000)


 * Season Five


 * "Conviction" (2003) (Footage from "Chosen") ; "Soul Purpose" (2004) (Seen only from back of head, audio clips taken from "The Prom")


 * Tales of the Slayers
 * "Broken Bottle of Djinn" (2002); "Tales" (2002)


 * Tales of the Vampires
 * "Antique" (2004)


 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
 * Buffy is a regular character and appears in all issues so far, with the exception of "The Chain" and "Safe".

Other
As the main character in the franchise, Buffy has also appeared in the majority of Buffy expanded universe material.


 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer film
 * Buffy's first ever appearance, in 1992. The Origin replaces its role in Buffy canon.


 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books, novels, and video games
 * Tie-in material not written or plotted by Joss Whedon are of unknown canonicity.

Behind the scenes

 * Joss Whedon chose the name Buffy because, "It was the name that I could think of that I took the least seriously. There is no way you could hear the name Buffy and think, "This is an important person." To juxtapose that with Vampire Slayer, just felt like that kind of thing – a B movie. But a B movie that had something more going on. That was my dream." Whendon went on to say that, "The network begged me to change the title. I was like, "You don't understand. It has to be this. This is what it is." To this day, everyone says, "Oh, the title kept it from being taken seriously." I'm like, "Well, f*** them. It's a B movie, and if you don't love B movies, then I won't let you play in my clubhouse."


 * Buffy, as a character, is based off of two members of the X-Men. Her last name is taken from Cyclops, and her personality is largely based on Kitty Pryde.


 * Buffy was originally going to appear in the Angel fifth season episode "You're Welcome" as the one who reminded Angel of his purpose and helped him get back on track. Though Sarah Michelle Gellar was willing to appear, she was forced to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts and family problems; thus, the episode was rewritten to center around Cordelia.
 * Others who auditioned for Buffy and got other roles include Julie Benz (Darla), Elizabeth Anne Allen (Amy Madison), Julia Lee (Anne) and Mercedes McNab (Harmony Kendall).
 * Katie Holmes and Selma Blair were originally in the running for the role of Buffy back in 1996.