10 Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fates Worse Than Death
If Sunnydale was a real place, you definitely wouldn't want to go there...
Death is a regular occurrence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Heroes and villains meet their demise in every season, and the threat of death adds a considerable degree of tension to the show. Regardless of who the gang are facing (whether it’s a witch, a werewolf, a ghost, or a robot), there’s no guarantee they’ll make it out alive.
Given the show is heavily inspired by the horror genre, the stories also include plenty of creepy premises and gruesome visuals. Episodes such as ‘Hush’, ‘Fear Itself’, ‘Helpless’, ‘Same Time, Same Place’, and ‘Conversations with Dead People’ stick in the mind long after you’ve finished watching them.
Indeed, the writers weren’t afraid to make the show dark when they wanted to. And whilst there are a number of grim deaths throughout the show, some characters suffer even worse fates. Such fates often involve nightmarish scenarios, such as being trapped or undergoing some kind of hideous transformation.
And to make matters worse, these fates weren’t exclusive to the villains either. The heroes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer also found themselves in some truly horrifying situations...
10. Turning Into A Troll And Being Trapped In A Crystal Ball (Season 5, Episode 11/Season 7, Episode 5)
Back in the ninth century, Anya (who was then known as Aud) was in a relationship with a large Viking named Olaf. Though they were very fond of each other at one stage, their time together didn’t end well.
After Olaf cheated on Anya with a bar matron called Rannveig, she performed a spell which turned him into an ugly-looking troll. He was then set upon by the people of his village and forced to live his life as an outcast. (He also developed a repulsive habit of eating babies.)
To make matters worse, he managed to get himself stuck inside a crystal ball after running into some witches and he was only set free due to a wrongly-performed spell by Willow and Anya.
He doesn’t even receive a happy ending. His conflict with the Scoobies is resolved when Willow sends him to an alternative dimension. And though she tries to send him to the ‘Land of the Trolls’, she admits he might have ended up anywhere.