~MelBelle~

Season 2 and Season 7 are tied for me. I mean come on, Three villianous evil Vampire's team up together in season two, you can't help but to be creeped out. and Season 7, The first, it seemed to be everywhere. :?

tootyfnfrooty

Angelus was my fav big bad

buffsthebest321

Just wanted to say that in S6 the Big Bad seemed to be Buffy, herself. Buffy learns adult lessons in S6 and many other things that don't involve vampires. As you can tell, vampires and demons didn't seem to be so much of an enemy in S6 as in other seasons. Warren, Jonathan, and Andrew were human, and Willow was also (even though she is considered a witch).

Rogue

Interesting point, buffsthebest321. Instead of battling many mythical demons, she had to overcome her own. She managed to do this by the season's completion, just as she was overcoming the actual 'big bad'...the apocolyptic kind; Willow.

In terms of actually getting to 'know' a big bad, I'd have to say Angelus wins hands down for me. Cunning, cruel...and he hit closer to home for Buffy than any other character.

...and he was really pretty sexy, too.

But running in second place would definitely be 'The First', just based on the fact it was the hardest evil Buffy ever had to overcome.

buffsthebest321

Haha

It would be very hard to believe that sentence before watching Season 6.

Anyways, the only thing that didn't make The First scary or challenging was the fact that it really couldn't be fought like a demon or vampire (though that's what The First had Caleb and the uber vamps for). For that reason, I personally thought Glory was the best evil, due to the fact she was actually a very good match as far as strength goes; she was a Goddess. Unlike Faith, Angelus, Adam, and Caleb; Glory needed something from Buffy: Dawn.

Glory also had an appearence that really didn't match her capabilities, similiar to Jasmine (from Angel) which brought a lot of irony to the show. Not only that, but she was the first villian to actually make the Scooby Gang leave town altogether.

Callace

that is the thing I love the most about the show. Its ability to change a character completely, and still make it believable. Evil Willow would have been impossible to accept for a Willow-the-Wallflower watcher from the earlier seasons. But still, she is clearly Willow, taken there by a route we can fully understand and relate to,

The same thing - in an even more brilliant way, is done with Spike, going very slowly, and in a jigsawed progress, from Big Bad to semi-good, to Champion. But the Angel\Angelus deal didnt satisfy me in that way. it was far to cheap and fast, done by mythology rather than real character progression.

superscar

My favorite Big Bad is Spike.

My favorite *everything* is Spike.

Rogue

at your sig, superscar

sum1

The First was the lamest Big Bad of all. All it could do was stand around being annoying.

Rogue

But who was your favourite 'Big Bad'?

Michelle

Well, I'm going to say Evil Willow or Spike. But, that's probably because I'm watching S6 DVDs right now. I really need to rewatch some of the earlier seasons too since its been a long while.

Rogue

The earlier seasons are great

davide

No doubts...Glory is the best big bad for me... Perfectly written... I loved her

buffsthebest321

Yeah, I wish Glory hadn't died so easily. I mean, she's a goddess for pete's sake, how did she die from just a hammer???


And just like with the Uber Vamps in season 7, it took nearly all the strength of Buffy to just kill one (even that she had a struggle with), and then suddenly near the last episodes or so -Buffy, Faith, and all the other potential slayers killed them even easier than regular vampires. Huh??! I understand maybe it was a bit easier due to the fact she had Hope's Dagger, but that doesn't even explain half.

And, then, one more thing that bugs me- is when in S4 with Adam, the Scooby Gang used this certain spell to conjur the primevil forces to give Buffy the power in order to defeat Adam. Why couldn't she just simply use that spell to kill Glory, Caleb, etc in the future??

These are just some of the things that seemed confusing about some of these big bads. But then again, you've got to remember that it's just a television show.

Night Nymph

I say that it is because Glory wasn't the only "Bad" of that season. There was also Ben, who in his own way had some evil in him. His was a more "human" evil and a bit more excuseable than say Warren's human evil, because Ben just wanted control of his own destiny, but when it came to the point that he was really going to sell out humanity to save himself and become a god, that was when his evil showed.

Unfortunately for Glory, for the most part, Ben's wants and humanity were at odds with Glory's powers. Ben wanted to become a god, but once that chance had past, he was once again faced with a future that was not entirely his own (he would forever be stuck with Glory). That unfortunately likely sapped his will a bit. He and Glory were no longer together in their purpose, and unfortunately for Glory, that meant she was vulnerable because of Ben. 'Twas actually Ben that helped kill the beast Glory - a bit of a twist on the "'twas beauty that killed the beast."

With that said, it is probably obvious that my favorite Big Bad was Glory and Ben. I enjoyed not only the characterization of the self-absorbed Glory, but I loved the comparisons and contrasts between Glory and Ben and Buffy and her destiny as the Slayer. Both Ben and Buffy had a destiny they didn't want forced upon them, but Ben fought it for all he was worth, including sacrificing innocents to his cause (the crazy people Glory had infected, his wanting to stay in Sunnydale despite the danger to everyone that would cause, and his final decision to let Dawn die and the world end). Interestingly, Buffy was willing to do the same thing - let the world end, but in her case it was because she refused to kill Dawn.

Despite the similarities of the outcome, it was interesting for me to see how much more I sympathised with Buffy, though thinking about it, the result would've been the same. And of course, in the end, Buffy sacrificed herself. But had she not and chose instead to protect Dawn until the end, would her decision have been any more good than Ben's? I think so, but it was a very fine line, and I thought that it was so cool that the show dared to go there and give us that parallel between Ben and Glory and Buffy and her destiny/duty that would've meant her killing Dawn if she had to.

Glory/Ben also fit in well with the minor "family" theme of the season and the good and bad that can come from family ties. For those reasons, I think that Glory/Ben fit the best within the arc of the season. They fit in well with the minor theme, they paralleled Buffy's own story, and the villans' motivations made sense to me (Both Glory's and Ben's).

A villain's motivations are important to me, which is why Faith, The Mayor, and The First fell short for me. Though some were great characters - The Mayor especially - I didn't get why he did what he did, so the storyline wasn't what it could have been for me. Though I do sometimes enjoy the James Bond, evil-for- evil's-sake villain, a show like BtVS, where we get to know the characters over many episodes, is not one of those instances.

In contrast, though I got Evil Willow's motivations, too much was blamed on the "dark magic" and not on Willow (where I thought more blame belonged), so that storyline, too, fell short for me, because it didn't go there when it should have. In that case it was the ending storyline itself that failed to be satisfying for me rather than the motivations.



My second favorite villian(s) were a tie between Angelus (deliciously evil and obsessed) and Maggie Walsh/Adam (wonderful egomaniacs you loved to hate - one who thought she could play god and better the world with her supposedly superior intellect and the other who thought he could play god and recreate a better world in his own image).