Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 10 Worst Characters Who Appeared After Season One

The characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer are key to the show's success. The core members of the gang are nuanced and varied, and all of them have terrific character arcs.

Despite how loveable they are, the first season of the show is pretty rough around the edges. Some of the characters, particularly the villains, don't hold up too well, but this thankfully becomes less of an issue as the show goes on. The writers really hit their stride from Season 2 onwards, and most of the new characters are worthy additions to the Buffyverse.

However, the show still has its low moments. Not all of the new characters are memorable for the right reasons; some of them are bland, irritating, one-dimensional, or even a combination of all three. This wouldn't be a problem if they were only featured in one episode, but too many of them become regular additions to the gang's misadventures in Sunnydale.

Of course, fans of the show will always argue about which characters are the weakest. But when it comes to the final entries on this list, it's tough to find anything commendable.

Introduced in Season 4, Riley is Buffy's main love interest until he leaves Sunnydale midway through Season 5. Though he's far from terrible, Riley is rather mundane when compared with Buffy's other romantic partners.

His forgettable personality is the central issue. Despite his firm moral compass and combat abilities, there's not much depth to his character at all – he's just the nice guy who falls for the Slayer.

Granted, the writers try to give him more substance with the vampire-brothel subplot in Season 5, but this doesn't really work. Rather than making Riley more interesting, this subplot is devoid of believability – the explanation for his behaviour is almost laughable.

This lack of relatability makes his Season 5 exit pretty noneventful. Few Buffy fans were genuinely sorry to see him go, and his brief appearance in Season 6 didn't help matters.