Reanimation was the power to raise the dead into an undead being. Some forms of reanimation include through possession[1] and zombie creation.[2]
Reanimation was a lesser form of resurrection,[3] which restored the being to life with their previous living functions.[4]
Examples[]
Chris Epps and Eric Gittleson reanimated Chris's brother Daryl after he had died in a rock-climbing accident through an unspecified scientific process. This procedure left Daryl heavily scarred even if he possessed sufficient strength to engage Buffy in a fight. Attempts to replicate this process were hampered by the need to acquire a freshly-killed head due to the rapid decay rate of brain tissue.[5]
Eyghon the Sleepwalker was capable of possessing the corpse of whoever branded his mark, reanimating them into zombies.[1][6]
The demon Ovu Mobani had the power to raise all the dead within a certain radius. He attracted the zombies and made them kill all livings things in their path until one of them would wear his mask, which allowed Ovu Mobani to take over the zombie's body. When Buffy defeated him, all those Ovu Mobani had reanimated disappeared.[7]
Jack O'Toole was raised from the dead by his grandfather, then he brought back his friends Bob, Dickie and Parker using the same spell. They were all ultimately killed, mostly by Xander with one being devoured by Oz in werewolf form.[2]
The demon Gachnar's presence caused the body of Josh to reanimate as a zombie. This was undone when Buffy killed Gachnar by stepping on him.[8]
Using the Idol of Granath, Captain Atkinson reanimated all the bodies of the dead policemen in his precinct and used them to harshly punish people guilty of any crime. Angel broke the spell by smashing the idol.[9]
Dawn attempted to revive her recently dead mother Joyce, though Spike informed her that her knowledge of magic would only bring Joyce back as a zombie. Doc instructed her on a proper resurrection spell, but he warned her that her mother could come back different. Dawn gathered the ingredients for the ritual and brought Joyce back, but she ended the spell before anyone could see the result.[3]
Wolfram & Hart used zombies as a security protocol, reanimating any deceased member of the law firm.[10] Likewise, the Standard Perpetuity Clause allowed the Senior Partners to keep valuable employees in a state of perpetual undeath, in which they kept their memories and personalities. The reanimated employees generally appeared as they were when alive apart from the remnants of the wounds that killed them, such as Lilah Morgan possessing a distinctive scar on her neck where she was decapitated[11] and Holland Manners retaining Darla's bite marks.[12]
Amy rose an army of zombies to attack the Slayer Organization command center.[13]
Warren Mears was briefly dead after Willow flayed him. However, using her magic, Amy Madison was able to teleport him away from Willow — creating the appearance that Willow had destroyed his body — and restore him to life, albeit in a skinless state.[14] With the end of magic, Warren died instantaneously, as the spell that was holding him together in the absence of his skin ceased.[15]
Behind the scenes[]
- Non-canon examples include the necromancer Matereani, who in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Xbox game had the power to instantly create zombies; and the alternate reality version of Kakistos, who in Chaos Bleeds cast a reanimation spell in the Sunnydale Cemetery to distract Buffy and cast three reanimation spells in his final battle with Faith to restore his health and repeatedly summoned zombies to aid him.