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in: Citations needed, Scooby Gang enemies, Vampire Breeds
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Turok-Han

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“As Neanderthals are to human beings, the Turok-Han are to vampires. They're primordial, ferociously powerful killing machines, as single-minded as animals. They are the vampires that vampires fear. An ancient and entirely different race. And until this morning, I thought they were a myth.”
―Rupert Giles[src]

Turok-Han, largely referred to as "ubervamp" by the Scooby Gang, was an ancient demon species preceding the vampire.[1]

History[]

Background[]

The Turok-Han was a race of ancient powerful vampires, comparable to what Neanderthals are to humans. According to Rupert Giles, they were feared amongst vampires.[1]

Sunnydale[]

Buffys1 ubervamp

The first Turok-Han rises.

The First Evil, via its Harbingers of Death, initially used the combined blood of Jonathan Levinson and Spike to open the Seal of Danzalthar, thus releasing the first Turok-Han.[2]

Buffy Summers's first encounter with the Turok-Han nearly killed her as she was caught off-guard, tired from two days lack of sleep and worried about the fate of her friends. Their second encounter happened after the Turok-Han killed one of the first Potential Slayers, Annabelle, sent to Sunnydale for protection. Buffy spent most of this time avoiding the vampire rather than fighting it, but it nevertheless beat her, causing her to flee.[1]

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The Turok-Han faces Buffy.

In between its fights with Buffy, the Turok-Han spent most of its time torturing a captive Spike. After Buffy discovered the First's infiltration of the Potential Slayers, he told them that he would have the Turok-Han go after them. The Turok-Han broke into the Summers residence and fought through a force field created by Willow Rosenberg. Buffy, her friends and Potential Slayers then fled to the streets.[3]

As the Turok-Han caught up with them, Buffy tried to hold it off, though the Turok-Han directed its attention to the Potentials after a brief struggle. Following them to the construction site, the Turok-Han was pursued by Buffy who, after a long battle, managed to the kill the vampire in front of the Potential Slayers.[3]

Several weeks after, Lissa attempted to release a Turok-Han using Alexander Harris' blood. She was only successful in opening the seal long enough for a Turok-Han to stick its arm out before the ritual was disrupted.[4]

The Shadowmen later showed Buffy a vision of thousands of Turok-Han living below the seal. The First Evil apparently planned to open the Hellmouth and release them all, allowing them to conquer the world. The First would have taken physical form when its forces outnumbered humanity in this world.[5]

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The Turok-Han army.

Eventually, a few more Turok-Han were released.[6]

Extinction[]

Buffy and the other Slayers went into the Hellmouth itself to fight the Turok-Han. In the end, all of them were apparently killed, including thousands by the mystical amulet that entrapped Spike.[7] Spike would later remark that the Turok-Han was part of a list of "things that just [didn't] exist anymore."[8]

Physiology and powers[]

The Turok-Han resembled pale, bald humanoid beings with the pronounced brow ridges. Their eyes were clear save for black slit pupils. They had flat bat-like noses, sharpened teeth, pointed ears, and long nails. Each Turok-Han was clad in a black, leathery outfit. Just like vampires, the Turok-Hans' bodies and clothes turn to dust upon death.[3][7]

Abilities[]

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The Turok-Han overpowers Buffy.

The Turok-Han possessed the conventional abilities of vampires, though to a considerably superior to regular vampires. The first Turok-Han released was able to easily overpower Buffy and nearly kill her. However, it should be noted that Buffy had been caught unprepared, and was also weakened and exhausted from two days' lack of sleep.[1]

Differently from vampires, Turok-Hans were unaffected by crosses and were able to enter human residences without an invitation.[3] Anya described the greater effort to stake a Turok-Han, in comparison to vampires, to trying to pierce steel with wood.[9]

A Turok-Han was able to push an entire wheelbarrow filled with timbers and tools out of its way by a mere shove of its hand, and punch a cinder block into dust to no ill effect.[citation needed] The Turok-Hans were also notably resilient; the first one immediately recovered after having a whole mess of steel beams dropped on it,[1] and continued to fight after Buffy impaled it through the eye with a crossbow bolt.[citation needed] Similarly to vampires, Turok-Hans possessed great speed that mimicked teleportation; in Buffy's first encounter with one, it suddenly appeared right next to her even though it was nowhere to be seen seconds before.[1]

The Turok-Han could also leap long distances without aid, doing the same distance as the one Buffy pole vaulted to.[citation needed] Also, according to Anya, a Turok-Han's claws could shred flesh.[9]

Despite being seemingly mindless animals, the Turok-Han were intelligent enough to follow orders from the First and forge their own weapons.[7]

Vulnerabilities[]

Turokhan

Turok-Han vampires disintegrating under the sunlight.

Despite their great power, even the Turok-Han possessed some of the common weaknesses of vampires, like staking, sunlight,[7] decapitation,[3][7] and holy water.[3]

Additionally, although their strength was superior to regular vampires, towards the confrontation with the First Evil, even regular humans like Robin, Giles, Dawn and Xander, given proper training, could match and defeat Turok-Hans in combat.[7]

Behind the scenes[]

  • The Turok-Han army's performance in the final battle of the series is noticeably worse than the performance of the first Turok-Han. While the first Turok-Han was able to nearly kill Buffy, forcing her to use every possible resource to defeat it the second time around, the later Turok-Han seem evenly matched against the newly activated Slayers and even normal humans such as Xander and Dawn. In the audio commentary for "Chosen," Joss Whedon explains he is aware of the continuity issue with the Turok-Han's powers. He acknowledges that early in the season the demon was nearly unstoppable, yet in the final episode the Slayers can defeat the Turok-Han much more easily. Whedon explains that the story behind the season/episode he wanted to get across to viewers was more important than the continuity.
  • In the original shooting script for "Get It Done," Buffy's vision was originally supposed to be a ravaged, post-apocalyptic Sunnydale overrun with Turok-Han.[10]

Appearances[]

Canonical[]

Other[]

References[]

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