A classic show and one relevant to how a lot of teen-focused shows are designed today, Buffy The Vampire Slayer was iconic for many reasons. The titular teenager managed to balance vampire and monster hunting with her schoolwork, and later with holding down a job, as she and her various friends, later dubbed the Scooby Gang, worked against some of the greatest threats the world can face.

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Balancing love interests and school with being a teenager is hard enough, but Buffy also had to contend with a variety of apocalyptic events and even dying, twice. Fortunately, she's always had friends to help her through, even if she was closer with some of them than others throughout the series.

10 Cordelia

Episode Count: 57

Though they were social enemies initially, that never stopped Buffy from becoming friends with someone, and high school bully Cordelia became a major member of the group throughout the third season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Despite her vapid ways early in the show, Cordelia managed to have a lot of character development throughout high school. This even included dating Xander, who she initially thought was repugnant.

Cordelia and Buffy didn’t have the opportunity to continue growing and maturing together as friends for long. Cordelia left the show and joined the spin-off series Angel after Cordelia moved to Los Angeles in her attempt to become famous. It is unfortunate since she and Buffy garnered a much better relationship and could have been strong friends later on.

9 Anya

Episode Count: 85

One of the longest-running characters in the series despite not being a core member of the original cast, Anya is another character that started as an antagonist but later reformed, somewhat forcefully, because she lost her demonic powers and was forced to live a human life. This led her to become close with Xander, eventually dating and even becoming engaged to him, in addition to becoming a key member of the Scooby Gang.

Anya was a character that, like Xander, didn’t have any powers but helped in battle against many creatures anyway. Buffy initially didn’t seem to have much love for her, but they grew much closer over the course of series due to the real love she and Xander shareed, and due to Buffy seeing how much Anya was truly willing to help them deal with new threats.

8 Joyce

Episode Count: 58

They say that a girl’s best friend is her mother, and despite Buffy spending most of the show hiding things and circumventing her only parent, Joyce Summers was still a significant figure who guarded her child whenever she could. Joyce was also there for Buffy in the hard times, whenever she could be, for a huge amount of the show.

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Despite Joyce's eventual death, and from natural causes shockingly, she remained a huge influence on Buffy’s life and was truly more than just a mother figure to her at times. There was a lot of comedy and intrigue in Joyce finally realizing the truth and seeing Buffy as the Slayer after remaining oblivious for so long, and it enabled a new kind of bond between them once that had occurred.

7 Tara

Episode Count: 47

A character whose stay in the show feels fairly short, Tara was actually in quite a lot of Buffy. She first appeared in the fourth season, initially as a friend and confidant to Willow, as well as somewhat of an instructor in magic. Willow was still fairly new to spellcasting and Tara had been practicing all her life, meaning there was a lot that she was able to teach the new witch.

However, as their relationship blossomed, and they found love with each other, Tara also became a good friend of other characters, including Buffy. Tara and Buffy initially became friends through Willow, but Tara was the first person Buffy went to with the information she had been secretly sleeping with Spike, and the two remained close until Tara’s shocking death in the sixth season.

6 Dawn

Episode Count: 66

Despite not appearing (or existing) in the show until the fifth season, Dawn and Buffy were sisters in every way that mattered, and it remained real to both of them for the rest of their lives. Dawn was actually transformed from the mystical energy known as the Key into a sister for Buffy, so the Slayer would protect the Key with her life.

Dawn remained long after any danger to the Key was eliminated because she had become a part of the Scooby Gang and Buffy’s life. Having a younger sister was trying at times for Buffy, but Dawn was a good friend to her, and the only family she had left by the end of the show.

5 Spike

Episode Count: 97

Spike and Buffy had a complicated relationship. Spike, being a vampire, and having been evil for hundreds of years, was initially an obvious threat to Buffy, one of the stronger villains on the show. Spike had already killed two Slayers by the time he met Buffy, meaning that he was a huge threat during the second season of the show.

Spike would later return to Sunnydale and be captured by the Initiative, leading to a chip being implanted in his head that forced him to be good. Spike did change though, eventually gaining a soul and becoming a lover and true friend to Buffy. She would trust him with knowledge and important missions because she knew he understood the darkness that had begun to envelop her own life.

4 Angel

Episode Count: 58

Angel was one of the primary characters of the Buffy-verse, being a huge part of Buffy’s show for three seasons and then taking over the leading role in the self-titled spin-off series Angel. Angel and Buffy have always remained close, despite the impossibility of their being together, as he was a powerful vampire whose soul was retained via a curse.

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Buffy was greatly affected and disturbed after accidentally turning Angel into a powerful evil villain, and subsequently being forced to kill him. When he returned, she helped him but couldn’t be with him, causing him to leave for Los Angeles because it was too painful to be around her. What these two had was true love, making Angel a hugely important love interest to Buffy, and when that could not be, they stayed close friends, even from afar.

3 Xander

Episode Count: 145

One of the earliest friends Buffy made when she came to Sunnydale, Xander is one of the few members of the Scooby Gang to never really gain any sort of power for himself. Despite this, Xander grew wise in his own way nearer the end of the show, and the beautiful and mature friendship he had with Buffy was a highlight of the later seasons.

Xander gained a lot of perspective from constantly getting knocked down during battles between the Scooby Gang and the forces of evil. His childhood infatuation with Buffy later became a true and wonderful friendship, which really helped her in dark times.

2 Giles

Episode Count: 123

Giles was another of the first people Buffy met in Sunnydale. He was assigned to be her Watcher, but proved early on that he cared more about her than he did about that position. Even after being dismissed by the Watcher Council, he stayed in Sunnydale to provide whatever help he could.

Giles was always a wonderful character in the show, proving to be the best father figure that Buffy would ever have, and using his wisdom to guide her both as a parental figure and as a friend, steering her moral compass on many occasions toward the light and away from the darkness.

1 Willow

Episode Count: 144

Buffy’s best friend has always been Willow Rosenberg. This character appeared at the beginning of the series and was as permanent a fixture as Buffy herself, going on a journey of self-discovery throughout the show as she blossomed and began to learn magic, trifled with a world-ending dark power, and finally maturing through grief and loss into a powerful witch.

Willow and Buffy clashed on occasion, but they were almost always together, and they became a hugely powerful force to be reckoned with. Willow began as a brainy researcher for Buffy and grew into her own over the course of the show as her friendship with Buffy helped show her she could be a badass herself.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Action

Horror

Drama

Comedy

Release Date

March 10, 1997

Cast

Sarah Michelle Gellar , Alyson Hannigan , Charisma Carpenter , Seth Green , David Boreanaz , James Marsters , nicholas brendon , Anthony Stewart Head

Seasons

7