10 Buffy Moments That Hit You Hard

It says something that the titular character's own death isn't higher on a list of Buffy's hardest hitting moments, but so much happens on the show. Still, Buffy's death obviously hits hard. 

How hard? Consider the character of Buffy herself. Up until the fifth season she's a very likeable protagonist, and her sacrifice to save the world is the epitome of what fans love about her. She allows herself to die for the greater good, and for the love of the sister she never really had.

Then there is the reaction of her friends, gathered around her lifeless body at the end of the episode.

This particular outing, in the season's final episode, The Gift, was a turning point for the series. It was after this that the show switched networks, from the WB to UPN, and day-to-day show-running duties transferred to Marti Noxon. Buffy herself was never the same, and you can argue that it was a result of having died (though obviously brought back, via supernatural means, she never quite felt the same), but regardless, this was perhaps the climax of Buffy's personal story: a bildungsroman that ends in tragedy, for as Buffy comes of age, she realizes that her duty to the world must come before her own life, a life that, at the end of season five, looks like it will be cut short.