Buffy's toughest fights per Season?

[thetopher]

So what, in your view, were Buffy's toughest fights Season by season.
Obviously we have to exclude all the Big Bads of those respective seasons- so no Master, Spike, Angelus, Snake-Mayor, Faith, Adam, Glory. Warren, Dark Willow, UberVamp, Caleb etc. We're strictly talking about the MotW, the cannon fodder, the one-offs, which ones gave Buffy a memorable encounter?

Season 1: The Three; seemed to have Buffy on the ropes until Angel helped out. Even Buffy herself referenced them a couple of seasons later.
I would've gone with Darla for the 'dueling pistols' variety but really she was just a big fat cheat. Buffy was more concerned with her feelings for Angel.

Season 2: Hmn, Der Kinderstod? A poorly Buffy having to fight an invisible demon with weird eye-stalk things was pretty harsh. Plus added mental badness due to early childhood trauma (cousin Celia) and not liking hospitals/feeling helpless/looking 'gross' made it a tough fight for the Buffster.

Season 3: Torn between Kralich and Kakistos, although this was the season for tough fights, what with Buffy being sent to Hell, sparing with Trick and getting hunted at Homecoming.

Season 4: Faith, no contest (now that she's not a mini BB anymore, she's just a slayer nursing a grudge). Although a couple of other females (Sunday and Kathy) made sure Buffy's college days got off to a bruising start.

Season 5: The nameless vamp that stuck her with her own stake was nasty (and smelled bad). But probably the Knights of Byzantium because they were so relentless and fanatical.

Season 6: Drawing a blank, this was not a year for big physical threats. Torn between the penis-demon that bit her at the Doublemeat Palace or the waxy demon that poked her and made her crazy.

Season 7: Um, Gnarl? Can't think of any other really.

Anyone else?

 

[vellavu]

S6: Sweet. It actually took the longest time. The fighting (dancing) against his lackeys and the fighting (singing) against himself were tough if you don't see it as a musical but a real fight scene.

S7: Anyanka.

 

[Klaus Kartoffel]

Pretty much agree with you with a view variations maybe:

S01: Amy's mother. If it weren't for Giles, Buffy would have died. It was pretty close.

S02: Agree with yours. Another candidate might be Spike in "School Hard" (his first appearance, therefore MotW?). Even though it was solved with comic relief via Joyce, Spike was superior.

S03: Pete in "Beauty & the Beast". It needed feral, animalistic Angel to kill him. Buffy didn't look that good in the fight.

S07: Anyanka was tougher than Gnarl due to the Xander/Buffy conflict.

 

[thetopher]

S6: Sweet. It actually took the longest time. The fighting (dancing) against his lackeys and the fighting (singing) against himself were tough if you don't see it as a musical but a real fight scene.

S7: Anyanka.

Both excellent suggestions!
Sweet and Anyanka both seemed to really test our heroine. It can be argued that Sweets actually won his fight, since he got clean away.

 

[vellavu]

S8: Mel.

S9: Andrew actually.

S10: The leftover zompires and Vicki's gang. It took the Scoobies literally hours. Had Faith not arrived they would have all been killed.

 

[Carrie Hopewell]

S1: The Trio and maybe what happened in Nightmares? It was a dire situation.
S2: Maybe the demon that took over Jenny's body, the one Giles and Ethan raised? If it hadn't jumped to Angel's body, "Jenny" would have killed Buffy. Oh, and the Order of Taraka. Took a lot of help to eliminate that threat, the first one would have chocked Buffy to death if Angel hadn't helped her.
S3: I'd say Kralich. It was a difficult fight on both an emotional and physical level.
S4: The Gentlemen and Faith
S5: Dracula?
S6: The one in Normal again.
S7: Anyanka and the Ubervamp. Or does the Ubervamp not count since he's part of the Big Bad's strategy?

I agree with the others mentioned too! Nice thread. I really had to think about it.

 

[YummySushiPJs]

Anya's kind of a badass fighter in Selfless. Why did we never see this before? Or was it only as Anyanka she had fighting skills?

I don't think Anya was really any match for Buffy, more that it was an emotionally difficult kill for her so she wasn't fully on form. I do wonder why Buffy took a sword when she knew it wouldn't kill Anya. Actually, how WOULD she have killed her? Beheaded maybe? That's a horrible thought.

 

[white avenger]

Let me begin by saying that I base my opinions on actual stand up fights, when Buffy is armed with nothing more that the weapons that she would normally carry with her on patrol. That would consist of things like a stake, sword, or crossbow. The rocket launcher, Faith's knife, Olaf's hammer, and the Scythe, on the other hand, are not part of her regular arsenal. Also, the question is about the toughest fight, which isn't necessarily the same thing as the most powerful opponent. At least, not always.

Season 1-Probably Luke ("You're strong. I'm stronger.") Buffy was young, relatively inexperienced, and not at the peak of her powers yet, plus, technically, she didn't actually beat him in a stand up fight. (Probably would have, though. She's the star of the show, after all.) If not him, then, the Master, though they never actually fought.

Season 2- Spike in "School Hard," probably because she totally underestimated just how dangerous he was. If not for Joyce and her fire axe, the show would have had to be renamed, "Kendra, The Vampire Slayer," after that episode.

Season 3- Faith. At that point, she was every bit Buffy's equal in fighting skills, and more ruthless. Without Buffy cheating by using the knife, she might quite likely have lost the fight.

Season 4- Adam, certainly. She never could have beaten him without the assist of Willow's spell.

Season 5- Glory. Once more, without the assist of her friends and Olaf's hammer, Buffy would never have been able to beat her.

Season 6- Dark Willow. Buffy never managed to defeat her at all. It too Xander and his yellow crayon story to get the job done.

Season 7- Caleb. If it weren't for the Scythe, she would never have beaten him (At least that was my impression. From the way that he seemed to actually fear the Scythe, I got the idea that the First Evil's power made him somehow highly resistant to most physical injuries, if not actually invulnerable, as illustrated by Buffy having to more or less kill him twice, the second time in a most graphic and extreme way). The Scythe, being a mystical weapon, was stronger that any protection that the First Evil could give him.
 
Carrie Hopewell: The Big Bads of the season don't count 🙂

Then excluding Adam in Season 4 and Glory in Season 5 (I missed the part about not counting the Big Bads) my list stands.

Season 4- April, who, lie Spike in Season 2, Buffy basically underestimated, with similar near fatal results.

Season 5- Collectively, the Knights of Byzantium, well meaning would be heroes who inadvertantly put Dawn into Glory's hands.
 
Carrie Hopewell: The Big Bads of the season don't count 🙂

(I skipped Season 7)

Season 7- Assuming that you see Caleb as the primary Big Bad in Season 7, and not the First Evil, thin I would say that the toughest fight Buffy had in Season 7 would be against the collective force of her "friends" who betrayed her, whether for the right reasons or not, and in so doing damn near allowed the First Evil to win the prize.

 

[Priceless]

Can I give Ted in S2 a special mention. It's a fight that always stays with me, it seemed so violent and have overtones of child abuse.

 

[Puppet]

S1: Nightmares. Buffy, while a vampire, has to fight her natural urges to win the battle and restore the town to its rightful state. Both memorable and emotional, my favorite kind of fight 🙂

S2: As far as memorable for the fight itself, I'd go with the Order of Taraka, but for emotionally memorable, it's a tie between When She Was Bad and Killed by Death. Both tie in to her personally, with the threat of the Master being brought back and avenging the death of her cousin, something she'd witnessed as a child.

S3: Helpless, hands down, no doubt. Self-explanatory 😀

S4: Who Are You? is, again, both memorable and emotional, plus Buffy is fighting in a body she isn't familiar with.

S5: As always, the one that sticks in my mind is the RV battle against the Knights in Spiral.

S6: Normal Again, fighting her inner demons 😀 but if not that, then Tabula Rasa where she is fighting without memories of how to do it right.

S7: Selfless. Again, pretty self-explanatory.

 

[Fool for Buffy]

S1: Prophecy Girl- how can you possibly go to a fight that is destined to kill you. Even if the actual fight wasn't much, the stakes no pun intended were so high.
S2: Innocence- Just having the strength to show her face to Angel and protect herself but not kill him while simultaneously preparing yourself to be able to kill him is so impressive.
S3: Helpless- I mean she had no powers. So yeah that one is pretty obvious.
S4: Who Are You- she was fighting her own body and also fighting someone equal to her in strength.
S5: The Gift- She went one on one with a God. Anybody else do that recently? Thought so.
S6: Bargaining part 2- I'm going to count having to bust out of your own coffin so you don't suffocate even though you would rather be dead a battle.
S7: Showtime- She had already gotten her ass kicked by this creature and she still was losing pretty badly but she came out on top with an audience under pressure. Also, she used a wire. Spike was right in season 2. She's great with resourcefulness.

 

[Fool for Buffy]

Oops, I broke the rules. I'll edit
Season 1: The Puppet Show
Season 2: Killed by Death
Season 5: The Body, when she had to fight off that vampire right by her mother's dead body and a distraught Dawn.