- “"Diana, goddess of love and the hunt. I pray to thee. Let my cries bind the heart of Xander's beloved. May she neither rest nor sleep…" until she submits to his will only. Diana! Bring about this love and bless it!"”
- ―Amy Madison[src]
Amy Madison was a witch. Although initially starting off as Willow Rosenberg's friend and a seemingly good-natured individual, Amy gradually grew to misuse her magic, eventually ending up as an enemy to the Scooby Gang and becoming a bona fide villain during the Twilight Crisis.
Biography
Amy was a chilhood friend of Willow Rosenberg. According to Willow, they were friends in junior high. Whenever her mom would go on a 'broth kick' (a time during which she would padlock the fridge and eat only broth) Amy would come over to Willow's and they would stuff themselves with brownies.
Sunnydale High
Amy in her mother's body.
Amy was a classmate of Buffy Summers' at Sunnydale High School. She and Buffy met when both tried out for the cheerleading team.[1] Amy performed poorly in the tryouts, but a series of strange injuries to other candidates moved her up in the standings. Buffy suspected that Amy was a witch who was using her powers to harm the other girls so that she could be a cheerleader. Investigation revealed that Amy's mother, Catherine, a very powerful witch, had switched bodies with her because she wanted to relive her youth. Buffy and the Scoobies succeeded in restoring Amy to her own body and (unbeknownst to them) trapping her mother in an old cheerleading trophy.
The next year, Xander Harris realized that Amy had inherited her mother's powers, becoming a potent, if sometimes ineffective, witch, and blackmailed her into casting a love spell for him.[2] Although it was intended to make Cordelia Chase fall in love with him, the spell backfired instead, causing every woman in Sunnydale except Cordelia to fall for him -- including Amy. In a jealous rage, she invoked the Goddess Hecate to turn Buffy into a rat. She was eventually forced by Rupert Giles to undo both of her spells.
Rodent Years
Amy as a rat.
Amy, along with Willow and Buffy, were the focus of the witch hunt that swept Sunnydale, and were nearly burned at the stake.[3] Amy escaped by transforming herself into a rat, which became a problem because no one was able to turn her back. She lived as a rat for the next few years, cared for by Willow.
Willow cast a "I will it so" spell which allowed her to change things just by saying it. Willow talked to Buffy about how she was not a real witch and unknowingly turned Amy, who was on the bed behind the two of them at that time, back into a human by saying the words "first she's a perfectly normal girl," but before Amy could say anything, Willow said "then poof, shes a rat", turning her back into a rodent.[4]
Human Again
Amy is (briefly) de-ratted.
Willow had become an extremely powerful witch and permanently "de-ratted" Amy by simply conjuring up an incantation. The two became friends again, though Amy seemed to be drastically different than she was before. She had been involved with the warlock Rack and got Willow involved as well, leading Willow to become addicted to black magic. Later, when Willow decided to give up magic, Amy cast a spell on her, causing her to magically manipulate everything she touched for a while. Willow complained to Amy that this made her attempts to give up magic even harder. Amy responded by mocking her, implying that she did it as revenge for being trapped as a rat for years. As a result, Willow cut Amy out of her life entirely and made it clear to her that she was no longer welcome in the Summers household.
Having transformed aesthetically into Warren Mears, whom she tortured and flayed in a rage over the murder of her girlfriend Tara Maclay, Willow sought help from the UC Sunnydale Wicca Group and discovered that Amy was a member. Amy explained that she had hit "rock bottom", but was doing much better. However, Amy was in fact responsible for Willow's transformation, the result of a hex placed on her. This seemingly random event was actually part of a larger plan orchestrated by Warren, after Amy rescued him from death.[5]
Acolyte of Twilight
Amy battles Willow.
Amy was discovered by the United States Army during an expedition to be living sixty feet under the Hellmouth after its collapse with her "boyfriend", a still-skinless Warren Mears. Her first words to an exploratory member were "I'm gonna help you kill her." Amy requested unlimited access to all the government's magical hardware as well as a weapons lab for Warren in exchange for their cooperation. If they succeeded in taking Buffy down, Amy wanted full immunity and release for the both of them.
Amy's worst nightmare: her mother
Amy attacked Buffy at the Slayer's base in Scotland, putting her under a mystical sleep which only a kiss of true love could undo. Raising an army of kilted zombies to battle the Slayers, Amy battled Willow mid-air before being stepped on by Buffy's sister Dawn Summers who at the time had been turned into a giant. As Willow magically probed Amy's whereabouts, she suddenly sensed a trap and was pulled through a portal, only to be "greeted" by a saw-wielding Warren. As Warren tortured Willow, Amy faced off against Satsu and an awakened Buffy, who managed to channel enough of Willow's magic to defeat a demon which Amy conjured. Having seen her dreamspace while asleep, Buffy took the form of Amy's worst nightmare: her mother. Distracted, Amy failed to notice a grenade thrown at her feet by Satsu, and as Buffy and Satsu charged into the room containing Willow, they saw Amy appear and teleport away with Warren in her arms.
Amy tries to kill Buffy, but fails
Later, she and Warren were working under direct orders from Twilight, under whom General Voll served. Together they constructed a missile, covered in mystical runes and candles, and targeted it at the Scottish citadel where the Slayers resided. Some time after, Warren and Amy argued over the failed attack on the castle (with Warren threatening to make a robot Amy "with no mouth").
She was involved in the attack on the Slayers in Rome, summoning goat men to fight them while Amy herself was scrying from far away. This interrupted Warren's attempt to trick Andrew back to the dark side, an attempt Amy did not think would be successful. Amy magically tracked down the Slayers for Twilight after they fled to Tibet and spied on them for a time in the form of a cat.
When Twilight betrayed her and Warren, they formed a truce with Buffy and the rest and helped fight against his forces. Amy survived the battle, but the destruction of the Seed caused her magic to dissipate, resulting in Warren's death.
Magic Town
Following Whistler's release of a magic plague that restored a form of magic to London (as well as the Scooby Gang restoring magic itself in the Deeper Well) Amy was seen gathering bottled magic in the London ghetto of Magic Town as part of a plan involving Angel, who had taken it upon himself to guard the residents of London from the transformations caused by Whistler's plague and becoming the new boss of Corky Smallwood's minions after his capture by Angel.
Amy later approached Angel to ask how he had managed to resurrect Rupert Giles, wanting to resurrect Warren Mears, whose remains she kept in a jar. Although Angel was willing to accept responsibility for Warren's death and at least consider going along with Amy's request so that she doesn't attempt something dangerous herself, Amy was actually attempting to provoke him into bringing Willow to confront her so that she could get her revenge. However, her strategy backfired when Angel instead recruited Nadira as an ally, Nadira's innate 'sympathy' with the magic of London allowing her to turn Amy's borrowed magic back on her, resulting in Amy being transformed back into her rat state.
Powers and Abilities
Amy was a powerful natural-born witch whose abilities were inherited from her mother, and they evolve with time. While she was initially more powerful than Willow (for instance, she cast a transmogrification spell on herself that Willow initially could not reverse), Amy later acknowledged that Willow had surpassed her.
However, she was still a potent witch in her own right, and even appeared to have mastered a high level of resurrection spells and necromancy, given how she was able to resurrect Warren seconds after he was killed by Willow, and even sustain his life force to ensure his continual survival despite his lack of skin.
After her resurfacing after the destruction of Sunnydale, Amy claimed that she had been growing consistently stronger in witchcraft while stranded in the ruins of Sunnydale, and proved this by being able to hold her own against Willow in a duel and even fly by force of will. She was capable of teleportation, summoning demons to do her bidding, and placed Buffy under a sleeping spell that only a kiss of true love could break. Willow herself also commented that Amy's new-found powers were technologically augmented to some degree.
Following the restoration of magic, Amy showed the ability to transform to and from her old rat form at will, using it to spy to Angel. She also used her magic to ward off a demon that attacked two London residents. In a later confrontation with Angel, she effortlessly attacked with enormous amounts of magic, and boasted that with all the power Magic Town has to offer, Willow probably would not be a match for her.
In reality, it seems also that Amy was corrupted by her own magic since her debut. In contrast with Willow, who developed her magic with Giles as a mentor to guide her talents to help save the world, she developed magic only by herself and her own gain or personal grudges, without considering any potential consequences or with any real interest in helping the good forces, resulting in such accidents as the love spell incident where she initially "helped" Xander to humiliate Cordelia Chase, partially because she was one of her nemesis.
Romantic Interests
Amy
- Xander Harris - After the spell Amy cast that was supposed to make Cordelia love Xander went wrong, she, along with every other woman in Sunnydale except Cordelia, fell in love with Xander. She fell in love with him to the extent of turning Buffy into a rat. (Ironically, Amy later turned herself into a rat.) This attraction ended after Giles got Amy to reverse the spell.
- Larry Blaisdell - Amy stated that she thought Larry was considering asking her to the prom, unaware he was gay and the fact that the graduation of her class occurred three years before, when Larry died.
- Warren Mears - Warren and Amy had been in a relationship since before Warren killed Tara. When Willow flayed Warren alive in revenge, Amy saved his life. She referred to Warren as "sweetie", while he claimed that "her magic is my skin." Amy constantly referred to Warren as her boyfriend as well.
Behind the Scenes
- She was portrayed by Elizabeth Anne Allen.
- Elizabeth Anne Allen appears at least once in every season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer except Season Five. Additionally, out of those seasons (with the exception of Season Six) she only appears once.
- Elizabeth Anne Allen originally auditioned for the role of Buffy.
- After being turned into a rat, Amy-Rat is shown at random times through out the rest of Season Three as well as seasons Four, Five, and Six before finally being changed back.
- Amy as a rat was in the room in her cage in during "Graduation Day, Part 1" when Willow lost her virginity to Oz.
- Elizabeth Anne Allen is allergic to cheese, yet Amy is mentioned to have a craving for cheese in The Long Way Home, Part One.
- In the novel Colony, Amy is hoisted up the Sunnydale High flag pole by students under the spell of an ant demon, before being rescued by Buffy.
- Amy is also very similar to Regina Mills, the Evil Queen in Once Upon A Time. The two women are initially good characters, emotionnally abused by their mothers, Catherine Madison/Cora, the future Queen of Hearts, themselves evil witches. Initially, Amy and Regina don't want anything to do with magic, but they ironically become power hungry evil witches after acting to neutralize their mothers. Interestly, when she becomes the new boss of the pixies, Amy had many movements, poses and postures similar to Zelena, the half-sister of Regina and who is also the Wicked Witch from Oz. Also, her pixies army is a reference to the flying monkeys.
Appearances
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
| Season Two: | ||||||||||
| When She Was Bad | Some Assembly Required | School Hard | Inca Mummy Girl | Reptile Boy | Halloween | Lie to Me | The Dark Age | What's My Line, Part One | What's My Line, Part Two | Ted |
| Bad Eggs | Surprise | Innocence | Phases | Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
Appears |
Passion | Killed by Death | I Only Have Eyes for You | Go Fish | Becoming, Part One | Becoming, Part Two |
| Season Three: | ||||||||||
| Anne | Dead Man's Party | Faith, Hope & Trick | Beauty and the Beasts | Homecoming | Band Candy | Revelations | Lovers Walk | The Wish
(mentioned) |
Amends | Gingerbread
Appears |
| Helpless
(mentioned) |
The Zeppo | Bad Girls | Consequences
(mentioned) |
Doppelgängland | Enemies | Earshot | Choices | The Prom | Graduation Day, Part One
(as a rat) |
Graduation Day, Part Two |
| Season Four: | ||||||||||
| The Freshman | Living Conditions | The Harsh Light of Day | Fear, Itself | Beer Bad | Wild at Heart | The Initiative | Pangs | Something Blue
Appears |
Hush | Doomed
(as a rat) |
| A New Man | The I in Team | Goodbye Iowa | This Year's Girl | Who Are You | Superstar | Where the Wild Things Are | New Moon Rising | The Yoko Factor | Primeval | Restless |
Buffy Season Eight
- The Long Way Home Parts 1-4
- Time of Your Life Parts 1 and 4
- Retreat Parts 2, 3, and 5
- Twilight Parts 1-4
- Last Gleaming Parts 1-4
Angel & Faith Season Ten
- Where The River Meets The Sea, Part One (as a rat)
- Where The River Meets The Sea, Part Four
- Lost and Found, Part One
- Lost and Found, Part Two
- Lost and Found, Part Three
- Lost and Found, Part Four
- Lost and Found, Part Five