While every season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer introduced a slew of new villains, a lot of the show’s most formidable antagonists became major players throughout the series. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a hugely influential hit. Without the classic '90s paranormal drama show, viewers would never have gotten Supernatural, Charmed, or The Vampire Diaries and its many spinoffs. However, not all of Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s many monster-of-the-week villains were as memorable as the show’s central Scooby gang. Viewers returned to Buffy The Vampire Slayer for its superb character drama, but this allowed the show to get away with some silly villains from time to time.
For every great storyline like Buffy’s relationship with Angel, there was usually a sillier, more light-hearted standalone outing with less substance. Perhaps the most infamous of these was Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 4, episode 5, “Beer Bad,” an unsubtle anti-alcohol tract that felt blatantly phoned in. Fortunately, Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s more major villains could usually make up for the shortcomings of individual episodes. While some of the show’s one-off antagonists were disappointing, villains like Spike, Mayor Wilkins, and Angel ended up shaping the series and becoming some of the most memorable characters in Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
10 The First Evil
The First Evil was one of Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s most powerful villains but, ironically, it was also one of the show’s most nebulous foes. Nathan Fillion’s Bible-bashing preacher Caleb may have done much of The First Evil’s bidding, but the entity’s shape-shifting abilities and powers of manipulation shouldn’t be underestimated. The big bad of Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 7, The First Evil was a being that predated demons, vampires, and humanity itself. As its title implied, The First Evil was an ageless entity and a pretty powerful one, too.
9 The Gentlemen
While The First Evil’s origins predated writing, the Gentlemen were first mentioned in folk tales. These terrifying voice-stealing demons only appeared in one episode, the critically acclaimed season 4, episode 10, “Hush.” Although they were eventually defeated by Buffy, their abilities left her powerless for most of their one-episode appearance and effectively disarmed the rest of the Scooby gang. Although viewers never got to see more of them, The Gentlemen were arguably better Buffy villains than many of the show’s vampires thanks to their unique powers.
8 Drusilla
Buffy The Vampire Slayer introduced more lethal villains after season 2’s Drusilla, but she was one of the only antagonists to canonically kill a Slayer. Not only did Dru kill Kendra after beating her in a fight, but she also managed to hold her own against both Spike and Angel. Angel was the one who turned Dru years before the series began, but he didn’t boast her ability to hypnotize her victims. Drusilla’s psychic powers, which she had since before her vampire transformation, rounded out her impressive set of unique abilities.
7 Spike
Spike was so popular with Buffy The Vampire Slayer fans that it is almost difficult to how lethal a villain he once was. While Spike did redeem himself, the fact that he killed not one, but two Slayers, proves that he was one of the show’s most dangerous villains. Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Spike role vacillated between uneasy attempts at heroism and occasional slides back into villainy, but viewers only saw a fraction of his evil potential during the series. When Spike did display his dark side, it was clear that the character was capable of truly heinous actions.
6 Angelus
Angel was softened so much by Buffy The Vampire Slayer that he eventually became the relatively heroic lead character of his own spinoff series. However, when Angel lost his humanity thanks to his moment of bliss with Buffy, he reverted to Angelus and became a more intimate, smarter, and cunning sort of cruel villain than she had faced before. Even viewers who were rooting for Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Angel would have to it that his evil incarnation was an almost unstoppable monster.
5 The Master
ittedly, The Master made his biggest impact in Buffy The Vampire Slayer season 1 and was outdone by later villains. However, it is worth noting that he was canonically capable of kicking Angel around, and he established the Order of Aurelius. This means he must be one of the show’s strongest villains. However, much like The First Evil, the Master didn’t always do his own dirty work. This makes it a challenge to work out just how dangerous he really was.
4 Faith
Faith eventually redeemed herself like so many of Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s villains. However, from her first civilian kill to her alliance with Mayor Wilkins, she was a lethally effective slayer. Faith’s arrival in Buffy The Vampire Slayer saw her immediately contrasted with the show’s more conscientious heroine and Eliza Dushku’s amoral character proved just how dangerous a Slayer with no qualms about killing could be.
3 The Mayor
Mayor Wilkins was a major threat throughout the first three seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and was one of the only villains in the series to pull double duty as a human and supernatural villain. While his serpent demon form was impressively threatening, the fact that he combined this with a position of authority in the human world made him doubly dangerous. Mayor Wilkins could operate with impunity in broad daylight, unlike the show’s vampires. This made him a uniquely tough foe for Buffy and the Scooby gang.
2 Glory
Glory broke with Buffy The Vampire Slayer tradition when the season 5 villain was revealed not to be a vampire or a demon, but rather a god. Fittingly, she was far more powerful than most of her predecessors in the series, with Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Glory almost breaking the show’s logic thanks to her limitless abilities. While she was eventually defeated by the end of season 5, Glory’s powers were rarely matched by any other characters in the show’s universe.
1 Dark Willow
Dark Willow might have been an unlikely Buffy The Vampire Slayer villain, but she was the only one who could have ended the entire universe if she wanted to. As such, she was technically the show’s most dangerous villain. Borne out of Willow’s bottomless grief and her addiction to dark magic, Dark Willow was genuinely unstoppable and could only be defeated by appealing to her underlying humanity. Thus, she was Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s strongest and most powerful villain despite her humble origins.