Best & Worst of Buffy and Angel Villains

[Nikkolas]

Perhaps it is just me being the weirdo that I am but I almost always prefer antagonists to protagonists. It just seems that the villain is often the real center of the story and the hero is just playing catch-up with them. They often have more interesting personalities as well in my opinion.

Buffy and Angel provided a great selection of bad guys and each excels in a different aspect. That's why I thought it be cool to have a little category-by-category discussion of bad guys and who did best at what.

Anyone is welcome to submit their opinion of course. ^^

I'm mainly looking for everyone's opinions on Big and Little Bads for this topic.

Now, for the categories...

Best Introduction - A good first impression is key to taking your villain seriously.

Best Appearance - this could be anything. If you wanted something big and intimidating, or deceivingly sexy and small, whatever you were more impressed by.

Best Dialogue - Simple enough. Which villain, whenever they opened their mouth, said something you just loved?

Most Threatening - Which antagonist posed the greatest threat to the Scooby/Fang Gang?

Best FIghts Which baddy was fortunate enough to have several awesome battles?


And while we're racking our brains thinking of the best, I'm sure the worst will also creep up. So, I figure I might as well provide the opposite list.

Wors Introduction - Oh dear, I'm so scared.

Worst Dialogue - SHUT UP!!!!!

Worst Appearance - Dear god, what were they thinking when they designed you?!

Least Threatening - Buffy Season 3 Wesley was scarier than you!

Worst Fights - *stirs, jerks head up* Oh, is the action over?

So yeah... Just really curious to see what everyone thinks. 🙂

 

[Zeppo]

Ooh, cool!

Best Introduction - The Mayor. We know he's a bit off because of things said in the past about him. Then he grills Allan about his fingernails ... eerie. (Honourable mention: the Beast. "Connor ...")

Best Appearance -Angelus in Jenny's classroom. Holy &^%$! Get OUT, Ms. Calendar!!

Best Dialogue - Glory, when Xander hits her over the head with ... something. "Hey!" Followed shortly by "Oh, sh-" Oh, and the First as Cassie to Willow: "This last year is going to seem like cake after what I put you and your friends through and I am not a fan of easy death."

Most Threatening - The Beast scared me. He was huge, firey, and nearly killed them all with a single swing.

Best Fights - Hmm Buffy and Angelus. Total passion, total stakes, complete tension. Oh, and Buffy and Faith. Man, those girls can punch! Harmony vs. Xander. Graduation class against the demons. Buffy, Angel, Spike fighting the vamp gang in Amends!

Worst Introduction - I want to say The Trio, only because every other intro seems really good, but even then when their's gives me a laugh. So I guess them.

Worst Dialogue - Does the Annointed One's annoying scream count?

Worst Appearance - Annointed One. Blech. Cool concept, but no.

Least Threatening - Jonathon.

Worst Fights - I really don't know!

 

[TheVoid68]

Best Introduction - "Home, sweet home..." Nothing beats Spike's entrance in School Hard.

Best Appearance - No idea.

Best Dialogue - Drusilla - I loved everything that came out of her mouth.

Most Threatening - Angelus, because of the psychological effects of him on the Scooby gang.

Best Fights - The Beast was pretty awesome in Apocalypse Nowish... and the Faith .vs. Buffy fights were amazing. All the Scooby's ganging up on Glory in The Gift was awesome... I'd say Faith.


Wors Introduction - Adam. "Hello, I have a floppy disc drive and I'm here to bore you all to death." Apart from stabbing Riley, which was pretty cool - lame.

Worst Dialogue - Dark Willow ("Uh-oh, Daddy's home.", "Get off, superbitch!" Oh God, she was ridiculously cartoonish).

Worst Appearance - Dark Willow and her Evilly Black Outfit of Black Death and Blackness.

Least Threatening - The First post-CwDP. The Big Bad could be effectively nullified by sticking your fingers in your ears and going "lalalalalalalala".

 

[BananaBuffy]

Best Introduction - Spike in School Hard. In fact, every one of his introductions is amazing. His second one, in Lovers Walk was amusing. But nothing can beat "Home, sweet, home"

Best Appearance - Hmmm...can I just say that I loved the evil little monster in Fear, Itself. I laughed myself silly over that but...no. Um...or maybe I'll just go for that. He's not really a Big Bad, more of a Little Bad 😛

Best Dialogue - Angelus and Drusilla I think. Angelus was just so...I loved Angel evil, I'll admitt. And everything that came out of Dru's mouth was hilarious.

Most Threatening - Well, it wasn't the Master, I'll tell you that much. Angelus maybe. I'm not sure.

Best FIghts - Faith. Mostly because she's a Slayer also and so the Buffy vs. Faith fights were always pretty damn epic. Especially in Grad. Day.

Worst Introduction - The Master and Adam. Adam's was pretty damn pathetic. I laughed.

Worst Dialogue - Warren. I just found him really, really annoying. I couldn't stand him.

Worst Appearance - The Anointed One and The Master. Which pretty much go hand in hand. Oh, and Adam. Hate them all.

Least Threatening - Adam. I keep sayin' him a lot but I never found him all that threaterning. He was too...meh.

Worst Fights - Um....Not sure. I had a couple fo these moments but I can't remember them so well.

 

[caitaintdead]

I want to see all Drogyn members doing this! We are the best villains after all!

Best Introduction - Glory We hear talk of this monstrous villain, we see the door shaking, the door ripped off its hinges, and then bam! Glory in all her, well... glory! On rewatches it might not seem as cool, but the first time I saw that, I was definitely excited!

Best Appearance - The Gentlemen and to a lesser extent, their terrifying straight jacket friends. They were scary and the image of them gliding through the streets of Sunnydale is one that will never leave my mind!

Best Dialogue - Spike and The Mayor These two always cracked me up.

Most Threatening - Turok Han. The first time I saw the turok han beat the crap out of Buffy I was terrified, I thought for sure that they would be the toughest competition.

Worst Introduction - The Trio. It just seemed a little... mundane.

Worst Dialogue - Adam. They could have had so much fun with Adam. He had a couple of good lines. 'I like helter skelter' remains one of my favourite Season 4 quotes, but they just wasted the opportunity.

Worst Appearance - The demon eating baby in Band Candy. Such a brilliant episode, but such a lamely designed bad guy.

Least Threatening - The Fear Itself demon of course!

Worst Fights - *stirs, jerks head up* Oh, is the action over?

 

[Anya2012]

Best Introduction - Glory

Best Appearance - The Gentlemen. They were so creepy.

Best Dialogue - Angelus: " This isn't about you...and you fall for it every single time!" when Buffy realisis angelus set the trap for her friends and the Mayor to Buffy about her future with Angel.

Most Threatening - Angelus and Glory.

Least Threatening: The Fear Itself demon.

Best Fights - Buffy and Angelus and Xander VS Harmony. That fight is hilarious.

Worst Introduction - The Trio.

Worst Dialogue - Everything the Annoying One said.

Worst Appearance - Adam

Least Threatening - Adam.

Worst Fights - Don't know about this one.

 

[Tome]

I agree that in some stories the villains are even more interesting than the heroes, but I'm not sure I'd agree when it comes to BtVS & Angel, except for a few of them, maybe.

Best Introduction - Spike. His introduction is one of my favorite scene from the shows. When I first watched BtVS, I actually wasn't really into it. I was like 12 and thought all the vampires had been lame in the first season. Then this bad ass looking vamp appear and give us his 'Home sweet home' line, and I immediately knew I'd love him.

Best Appearance - Skip Oh my god, Skip looked awesome. So many of the demons on both shows looked cliché and fake, but his appearance was great. Skippy sure had style!

Best Dialogue - Angelus, The Mayor, Spike, Skip, Caleb. I loved all of them because they always had great lines, most of them hilarious, but also some really witty ones... I could probably have put Glory on there too, but(and I know I'll receive more tomatoes) I thought she was too cheesy.

Most Threatening - Glory & The Beast. Glory just seemed invincible. On the first watch, it was the first villain I really thought Buff had no chance against in a fair fight. She just kept getting pummeled over and over again. Glory could have easily killed them all here and then, but huh... it's a tv show. 😛 Also I still don't understand exactly why Buffy had an easier time against her in 'The Gift'. As for on Angel, it's The Beast without a doubt. He kicked their ass in 'Apocalypse Nowish' with ease, and if not for a lame plot twist, it would have been very difficult to get rid of him.

Best Fights - Glory, Caleb, The Beast, Illyria(if she's considered a villain). I appreciate fights the most when most of the Scoobies or Fang gang are included. Glory had one of these in 'Blood Ties', she also had a few good fights against Buff, even though it was mostly her kicking Buffy's ass. 😉 I know it was kinda short and one sided, but the fight against Caleb in 'Dirty Girls' was great. He also fought Buffy one on one couple times, those were good. The Beast... Do I even have to remind everyone of 'Apocalypse Nowish'?! And I put Illyria up there simply because I love the scene where she kills Spike, Wesley, Lorne and Angel in not even a minute, hahaha! Amazing.

----------------------------


Worst Introduction - The Master. To this day I still think his introduction(at least for the *big* bads) was the worst. O em gee, a fruit-punch mouthed cross between a hundred years old bat and a deformed human comes out from a pool of... fruit punch! Yeesh.

Worst Dialogue - The Beast. He pretty much growled and said a few words... Oh and he gave Fake!Cordy some smoochies. 😉 At least he kicked ass, I guess.

Worst Appearance - Adam I do like Adam every time I watch S4 again, but god damnit did he look fake!

Least Threatening - The First Oh yea... The less threatening villain on both shows. What the hell is it gonna do? Smack us down with it's incorporeal fists? Hahahah, such a lame excuse of a big bad.

Worst Fights - The Master A few punches between him and Buffy and that's it? Ugh. Come on bat-face, even Warren did better than that! 🙄

 

[xfivebyfive]

Best Introduction - The First. I really like how they introduced The First (but I'm talking in season 7 not in Amends) in the first episode of the season. All the big bads. I thought it was really cool.

Best Appearance - Dark Willow. I love how Alyson looks really scary.

Best Dialogue - Glory again lol. Glory was hilarious I love all her lines.

Most Threatening - Again I would say Glory. Or Wolfram and Hart.

Best FIghts The Beast had some really kick-ass fight scenes. Some of the best in the entire series.

Worst Introduction - The Trio. Lame. They just sit around saying so want to take over sunnydale.

Worst Dialogue - Jasmine. UGH I hate her!!

Worst Appearance - Adam!! Ugh I hate him.

Least Threatening - Adam. He's the lamest of the lame lol.

Worst Fights - I dont know.

 

[Sunnydale Siren]

Best Introduction: Spike and Caleb


Best Appearance: The Gentleman, those dudes creeped my out.

Best Dialogue: Angelus on BTVS and Angel

Most Threatening: Have to say Angelus, he knew how to also go for the jugular on a Psychological level. He's the only big bad that reduced Buffy to fetal position on her bed. Plus there's the whole kelling Jenny Calender situation.


Best Fights: Buffy vs. Faith, Buffy vs. Angelus, Faith vs. Angelus, The Beast vs. Eveyone.

Worst Introduction: Jasmine, The Three Bed wetters and Adam.

Worst Appearance: Adam and Dracula

Least Threatening: The Annoying One

Worst Fight: Caleb vs. Buffy, Faith, The Scoobies and the Potentials.

Not much of a fight IMHO.


Honorary Mention...

Biggest waste of A Villian: Sunday and Ted

I really liked them both, they should've stayed around for a few episodes.

 

[Thursday]

Best Introduction - The First in "Lessons."

Best Appearance - Darla.

Best Dialogue - Spike.

Most Threatening - Wolfram and Hart, hands down.

Best Fights - S3 Faith!

Worst Introduction - Adam because the writers introduced Adam by having him kill Walsh, and Walsh would have made a better villain.

Worst Dialogue - Willow. I didn't know whether to spend the entire Dark Willow arc cringing or laughing it was so bad.

Worst Appearance - Adam.

Least Threatening - The First.

Worst Fights - The First.

 

[Icarium]

Best Introduction - depends on what we define as introduction. If it's the initial reveal that X is a bad guy then I would say Anyanka. If its their first episode in which they are evil, I would say Angel. His dismissive speech to Buffy whiel she still thought he was a nice fellow was one of the cruellest things he has ever done, despite his long history of murder.

Best Dialogue - The Master. From the lesser villains Gwendolyn Post and Ethan Rayne. I love British wit.

Most Threatening - Glory.

Best Fights - The Beast.

Worst Introduction - Dull Willow

Worst Dialogue - Willow, Caleb and The First.

Least Threatening - let me quote what TheVoid 68 said:

The First post-CwDP. The Big Bad could be effectively nullified by sticking your fingers in your ears and going "lalalalalalalala".

 

[Natasha1988]

Best Introduction - Glory, Smashing through the wall lol

Best Appearance - Der Kindestodd in Killed by Death! That little fecker gave me Nightmares lol

Best Dialogue - Glory: "Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind, 'cause at least I admit the world makes me nuts." She made sense sometimes lol

Most Threatening - I know Im using a lot of Glory here but she seriously was the one who gave them the most trouble, she was scary because there seemed to be no way to stop her.

Best Fights: I liked the Gentlemans final fight mainly because of the way they were defeated, I loved the whole fairytale way to kill them and the heads exploding lol

Worst Introduction - Adam, I just hated Adam!

Worst Dialogue - Anything spouted by Dark Willow, so cheesy

Worst Appearance - The annointed one! Boring!

Least Threatening - The Mayor

Worst Fights - The final fight with Buffy and Adam, the whole crouching tiger pull out my core thing made me cringe!

 

[Mindfiend]

Least Threatening - The First post-CwDP. The Big Bad could be effectively nullified by sticking your fingers in your ears and going "lalalalalalalala".

Now that is both witty and funny. Great line.

Best Introduction: Glory. The fear the monks show followed by those fricken huge metal doors being smashed inward, all built up incredible anticipation. What could be so bad? What could be so strong? And then there she was - a hot babe in high fashion. Instantly you knew here was a woman bound to give Buffy a big problem.

Worst Introduction: The master rising up from the pool of blood. You can see it would have been cool and scary when thought up, but it failed when brought to the screen.

Best Appearance: The Gentlemen. They were not just fabulous, they were iconic.

Worst Appearance: Adam, although he only just beats "the Annoying one." Sorry, Annointed one.

Best Fights: For sheer knockout passion it's gotta be Buffy vs Faith. For best action set piece it would have to be Angel inc versus the Beast. (Yay for slow mo Wesley with his twin guns!)

Worst Fights: Buffy versus Adam. He was so immobile in that costume that it was the only time his acting wasn't the most wooden thing on screen.

Most Threatening: Glory. Against her Buffy was totally powerless, getting mashed every time. There was tangible fear from her about Glory, and it was shocking to see Buffy run away so often.

Least Threatening: The Annointed one. Zeppo said it best: "Cool concept, but no." (The First would be second choice for this title)

Best Dialogue. If taken as sheer number of fantastically written lines then it has to be Spike. (Anya deserves an honourable mention, though.)

Worst Dialogue. Adam is this category incarnated. Rare for him to say anything that didn't make me yawn.

 

[Justme]

Best Introduction: The First, by this I mean the speech he gave to Spike when he Morphs through previous big-bads. It's so funky.

Worst Introduction: The Anointed , I never really got the point to be honest.

Best Appearance: Olaf, I like.

Worst Appearance: That big fat thing in hot tub.

Best Fights: I am going to say Angel Vs Buffy end of S2 although Faith Vs Buffy s3 is close second.

Worst Fights: Buffy Ys Adam *yawn*

Most Threatening: Glory I suppose.

Least Threatening: The Anointed one.

Best Dialogue. Drusilla, although more of a monologue really.

Worst Dialogue. I am going to say Caleb, mainly for cliche.

Honourable mention -I thought Warren was the most sinister villain, his misogyny being much more subtle than Caleb and I just thought he was very well written and developed.

 

[Nikkolas]

Ya know I'm rewatching some episodes of Angel (mainly the ones with Lindsey) and I never fathomed how amazing Holland Manners is.

I think I'm going to give him the nod for Best Dialogue

Lindsey: I-I didn't want to lie to you. I didn't - want to betray you. I just wanted out.
Holland: Hm. Well, then you're in a crisis, son - crisis of faith. Do you believe in love? I'm not speaking romantically. I'm talking about that sharp, clear sense of self a man gains once he's truly found his place in the world. It's no mean feat, since most men are cowards and just move with the crowd. Very few make their own destinies. They have the courage of their convictions, and they know how to behave in a crisis.
Lindsey: Like now?
Holland: Like now. You have everything it takes to go all the way here - drive, ambition, - excellence - but you don't know where you belong. And until you do - I guess we both have some important questions to answer. - Now, my first one is - do I nod - to my friend behind me? No, I don't. Because I know you, and I know a little something about character. I think what you actually need is a few days off to think about it. And I'm sure once you have - you're gonna do the right thing.
Lindsey: I can - I can go.
Holland: You can go. (Lindsey slowly gets up) Lindsey - I believe in you. - Look deep enough inside yourself - you'll find that love.

Lindsey: Not being at war with Wolfram and Hart - having my own life.
Holland: Lindsey, - haven't you learned anything? No one has their own life. We're all part of something larger.
Lindsey: Like Wolfram and Hart.
Holland: I handpicked you when you were a sophomore at Hastings - not because you were smart - not because you were a poor kid who had to do better than anyone else - but because you had potential - potential for seeing things as they are. It's not about good or evil - it's about who wields the most power. And we wield a lot of it here, and you know what? I think the world is better for it.

 

[SlayerOfVampyrs]

Ohhhh, I like this idea. How fun! (Sidenote, though, and I'm not trying to be mean or start anything, I just have to point this out: Spike's "Home sweet home" entrance was in season 3 with Lovers Walk, it wasn't his initial entrance. Maybe I'm reading those replies wrong, if I am, I'm very sorry and carry on.)

Best Introduction - Angelus' introduction was fairly brutal and unexpected. So chilling and just so perfect.

Best Appearance - The Mayor. He just looked the part of the doting father, and that just made his intentions all the more creepy.

Best Dialogue - A tie between Spike and the Mayor. Spike had some of the best lines of anyone in the entire series, villain or not.

Most Threatening - Angelus. Buffy had so much trouble killing him, he wrecked so much havoc on all of their lives. Or Faith, depending on if you count her as a villain or not.

Best Fight - Faith/Buffy's fight in her apartment was amazing. Honestly, there were just so many great fights throughout the series, this was a tough pick.

Worst Introduction - The Annoying One

Worst Dialogue - Once again, the Annoying One takes the cake here. He didn't say much, but my...Wow...I just..yikes.

Worst Appearance - Adam. Loved him. His appearance was most certainly lacking, however. Unfortunate.

Least Threatening - The Annoying One (Do we see a pattern developing here? 😛) OR The Turok-Han in CHOSEN. ACK. Talk about fail.

Worst Fights - Okay, blah blah, inspirational; Blah blah, series full circle; Blah blah Idontcarealready! What is with the OBVIOUSLY weakened Turok-Han's in the final battle? Worst battle of the entire series. I mean, these vampires are supposed to be the BIG bads, and they were...Until Chosen got here. They turned them into normal vampires, and, in some cases, they were weaker than normal vampires. I would have rather them scrapped the idea of the army of Turok Han entirely than to have seen this insult.

 

[The Ferg]

Best Introduction - Spike. Obviously.

Best Appearance - Dark Willow! jk, The Master. He really looked liked the alpha male. The vampire of all vampires.

Best Dialogue - Does Lindsay count? I want to say Wolfram Hart in Angel S1,2,5. If not then Spike/Dru.

Most Threatening - Wolfram and Hart. With Buffy's villians it always seemed like she just going to defeat evil, even if it was going to be a helluva journey there. I always felt like, "it's all gonna be ok, cause she's Buffy. But W&H is a different story. No matter what, they were ALWAYS a thorn in Angel's side. It was impossible to get rid of them. I mean, just read After the Fall. (Damn, this is making me want to watch a W&H-centric episode. 🙂

Best Fights - Faith. Every encounter was intense!

I really don't have any least favorite villians in Buffy... :/ Sorry.

 

[Nikkolas]

This is kind of on-topic as it's about Best Fights sort of and it's not really worthy of a whole new thread.

Is it just me or did they put a lot more effort into the fight scenes on Angel? I don't mean the choreography was bad on Buffy or anything but I'm watching the fights with The Beast right now and Faith is dowing slow mo backflips to avoid his punches, he's doing big mega gut punch that launches her several feet...

And this is all pretty standard for Angel as far as I can remember. Buffy, not so much. In Buffy the fight scenes are considerably more bare bones.

 

[Thursday]

And this is all pretty standard for Angel as far as I can remember. Buffy, not so much. In Buffy the fight scenes are considerably more bare bones.

I think both shows have decent fights. But, maybe it's the style? In the first four seasons of Buffy the fights were more kung-fu, but in S5 they kind of changed it.

 

[Nikkolas]

Oh, don't get me wrong. The fight scenes in Buffy were good too. It's just Angel employs a more more..dramatic style. Like I said earlier there's Faith doing slow mo fackflips and then there's also Guns Akimbo Wesley and the little blur effects they used to show Angel and some others using superspeed.