Snyder

"A lot of educators tell students, "Think of your principal as your pal." I say, "Think of me as your judge, jury and executioner"

- Principal Snyder

Principal R. Snyder was the conservative, paranoid ,and authoritarian Principal of Sunnydale High from 1997 to 1999.

Early Life
Not much is known about Snyder's past, but it can be assumed he wasn't very popular due to his cheerful yet unappealing disposition shown under the influence of the cursed candy bars. During high school, he never dated once, which Snyder himself admitted without shame.

Sunnydale High
After Robert Flutie was devoured alive by the Pack in 1997, Snyder replaced him as the principal of Sunnydale High School shortly after. He forced librarian Rupert Giles to host the Sunnydale Talent Show, along with forcing Buffy Summers, Xander Harris, and Willow Rosenberg to participate after hearing their desire to "to watch and mock and laugh at" at the performances, forcing them to be treated with the same courtesy. By this time, Snyder was fully aware of the school's reputation of supernatural occurrences (including how his predecessor died) and by extension the fact Sunnydale itself was located on a Hellmouth and was one of the front men the Mayor, Richard Wilkins, had put in place to cover up supernatural activities in Sunnydale.

Principal Snyder connected the mysterious events to lack of discipline and claimed to change things from now on. After he caught Buffy breaking into Morgan Shay's locker, Snyder became suspicious of her and then on became a constant source of conflict for Buffy and her friends.

He later was on the scene when an invisible girl went around attacking students, acting on his own behalf.

A year later, Snyder forced Buffy and Sheila Martini to organize parent-teacher night, both girls having a history of violence. When the vampire Spike and his lackeys attacked the school, Snyder came into a disagreement with Buffy&mdash;a Vampire Slayer&mdash;on how to react. After the danger was over, Snyder consulted with Police Chief Bob Munroe, also a proponent in the cover-up of Sunnydale's bizarre events, where he decided the main excuse of the event was gang-related PCP. During Halloween he coerced students into serving as chaperones for young children.

When a poltergeist set upon a plague of snakes in the school cafeteria, Snyder once again had to consult with the police chief and this time blamed the problem on sewer maintenance. After the death of computer teacher Jenny Calendar, Snyder appointed Willow to act as temporary replacement. Even though impressed with her teaching, he disapproved with her rightfully failing Gage Petronzi, as he was an active swim team member during the upcoming state championship and Snyder asked that Willow up his results to a passing grade. When Angelus' minions attacked Buffy's friends at the school library, Snyder alerted the police, who arrived right after the death of Kendra Young, and, despite full knowledge of Buffy's innocence, told the police that whenever there was trouble, Buffy was behind it. Buffy escaped police custody and returned to the library, which was now a crime scene, to retrieve a sword. She encountered Snyder who, seeing this as an appropriate time, expelled her, much to his delight, boasting that the police would never discover that she didn't do what she was accused of because they were "deeply stupid." As Buffy left, he called the Mayor and informed him of what just happened.

Despite his assessment of the police, they did eventually discover that Buffy was not responsible for either Kendra's death or the associated attack on the others; nonetheless, when Buffy returned to regain admission, Principal Snyder refused to allow her back, citing her spotty attendance record, poor grades and a "tingling pleasure" that he was finally rid of her. However, after being overruled by the School Board and being physically and professionally threatened by Giles, Snyder was forced to allow Buffy back, though he nonetheless made it difficult for her by adding a number of terms.

He later forced the student body to sell candy bars for the marching band. Unbeknownst to him, the candy bars where cursed to make any adult who ate them regress into their teenage selves. This was so the Mayor could partake in the tribute sacrifice to the demon Lurconis. Despite Snyder being associated with Wilkins' schemes, he ate the candy and became a teenager who accompanied Buffy on her mission to prevent the sacrifice.

Months later, Snyder, after going through a paranoid search for drugs, intervened during a trade between Buffy and the Mayor, bringing with him armed police. He diverted his interruption when seeing his boss. Then he witnessed the inhabitants of the Box of Gavrok escape and kill one of his policemen, and bemoaned that they couldn't simply be doing a drug deal like "other people".

Death
During the preparation for the graduation of the class of '99, Principal Snyder was praised for his contributions by the Mayor who was also a guest speaker, promising to reward him. At the event itself, Snyder was shocked to see the Mayor's Ascension into the demon Olvikan. Snyder opposed the disorder he was causing and stood up to the giant snake. In response, Wilkins swallowed him whole.

One year later, Snyder appeared in Xander's Apocalypse Now-themed nightmare brought about by the First Slayer.

Personality
"There are things I will not tolerate. Students loitering on campus after school. Horrible murders with hearts being removed. And also smoking."

- Principal Snyder

Principal Snyder was a strict disciplinarian with an avowed hatred towards teenagers. He once compared them to locusts, and when questioned on why he chose to be a high school principal, he claimed he had to keep an eye on them as they were "a bunch of hormonal time bombs" that he tried to guide, especially when it came to discipline, respect and punctuality - which were, essentially, what he viewed as important in life..

Snyder seemed to value the school's reputation over the welfare of the students. When Mitch Fargo was nearly beaten to death, Xander and Willow distracted Snyder, claiming Mitch's dad was a powerful lawyer, allowing Buffy to investigate the area of the attack. Later on when Harmony Kendall was pushed down a flight of stairs on school grounds by the same attacker, Snyder demanded that she not sue.

He favoured the sustainability of the grades of students involved in athletics solely because of their participation in competitions. He requested that lazy swimmer Gage be unfairly marked due to his importance to the school's victory of the state championship. He, however, seemed to cared for them for that reason only, as shown when hearing of the apparent deaths of the best swimmers.

When transformed into a teenager, Snyder showed a huge contrast to his adult self. He was a fun-loving dork who treated Buffy and her friends kindly, even positively commenting on Oz's hair.

Relationships

 * Buffy Summers — Principal Snyder developed an early antagonism towards Buffy because of her history with violence and involvement in strange occurrences. He viewed her as a delinquent and openly expressed an interest in having her not only expelled but also locked in jail. After catching Buffy attack an armed and possessed student, Snyder showed his personal agenda against her: "I'm a truth seeker. I've got a missing gun and two confused kids on my hands&mdash;pieces of the puzzle. And I'm gonna look at all the pieces carefully and rationally, and I'm gonna keep looking until I know exactly how this is all your fault". Even though Buffy might have not been guilty of Kendra's murder, Snyder still acted against her, knowing the police would not find out the truth as they were "deeply stupid" (according to him). Expelling her was a moment he wanted to savor and live for over again and again. Keeping her out of school was not only what he thought was his right but gave him physical pleasure, though he was ultimately forced to let her back in. Buffy, likewise, cared little for him, took every opportunity to mock him and showed no signs of remorse at seeing his death at hands of Mayor Wilkins.
 * Xander Harris  — Principal Snyder considered Xander to be worth nothing and claimed that whatever came out of his mouth was "a meaningless waste of breath. An airbourne toxic event".
 * Willow Rosenberg  — Unlike most students, Willow was actually in good terms with Principal Snyder due to her high academic performance, representing the pinnacle of academic achievement despite her "unsavory" associations. Snyder himself said Willow was a team player when she agreed to continue teaching Jenny Calendar's computer class, something he liked. However, did however bully Willow into doing things that she wouldn't like but would benefit the school's reputation such as making her unfairly pass a failing Gage Petronzi and tutor the lazy, held back Percy West. Even though Snyder never said anything that could be interpreted as a threat, Willow knew he meant something due to the look of his eyes and nostrils.

Behind the Scenes

 * He was portrayed by Armin Shimerman.
 * In every episode he appears in, Armin Shimerman is always credited with "as Principal Snyder".


 * Principal Snyder is named in honor of George Snyder, Joss Whedon's personal assistant at the time.


 * On several occasions in the series, you can clearly see on the name-tag on his desk that the first letter of his first name is 'R', although his full name is never revealed in the series. The noncanon novel One Thing Or Your Mother, which explores Snyder's abusive childhood at the hands of his mother, reveals his first name to be "Cecil". This contradicts the initial "R" seen in the television show.


 * Armin Shimerman originally auditioned for the role of Principal Flutie, but lost that role to Ken Lerner. He was the longest running principal on the show. When he was hired to play Snyder, Shimerman was told that each principal would get killed after a handful of episodes as a running gag. But it turned out that the creators liked Snyder enough to keep him through the remainder of the high school episodes.


 * Shimerman also played Quark, a major character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, at the same time he was performing Snyder on Buffy. He noted his dual roles made his accountant very happy. Line producers on Star Trek and Buffy would try to schedule his scenes so he could tape his Deep Space Nine scenes in the morning, then get out of makeup and drive across town to film his Buffy scenes in the afternoon. There were a couple of Deep Space Nine episodes where Quark was heavily featured and it wasn't possible for him to do the Buffy episode that week so Snyder's lines were rewritten as off-camera asides. Shimerman noted that he got fired from both jobs on the same day.


 * In the beginning of "First Date", a large tombstone can be seen bearing the name "SNYDER". While not confirmed, it is likely to be his.


 * Armin Shimerman later guest-starred with Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), Brian Thompson (Luke/The Judge), Christopher Wiehl (Owen Thurman), Greg Vaughan (Richard Anderson), Julia Lee (Anne Steele), Lorna Scott (Ms. Beakman), Jeremy Roberts (Kakistos), Harry Groener (Richard Wilkins), Mariah O'Brien (Nancy), Jeff Kober (Zachary Kralik/Rack), Channon Roe (Jack O'Toole), Eric Matheny (Colm), Bailey Chase (Graham Miller), Alastair Duncan (Collins), Jeff Ricketts (Weatherby), Charlie Weber (Ben Wilkinson), Amy Adams (Beth Maclay), Brigid Brannagh (Virginia Bryce), Kevin Weisman (Dreg), Daniel Dae Kim (Gavin Park), Leland Crooke (Lillian/Sebassis), Keith Szarabajka (Daniel Holtz), Ron Melendez (James), David J.Miller (Rat-faced Demon), Andrew Reville (Timothy Blane), Ivana Milicevic (Samantha Finn), Alex Breckenridge (Kit Holburn) on Charmed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

 * After These Messages ... We'll Be Right Back!