Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 12 Best Cult Heroes

Despite its title, Buffy The Vampire Slayer is really an ensemble series.

While Sarah Michelle Gellar’s terrific performance as the high school demon hunter should not be overlooked, a large part of the show’s success comes from Buffy’s interactions with her large group of friends, otherwise known as the Scooby Gang.

Over the seven seasons of the series, many supporting characters came and went (often tragically) but nearly all of them were well-rounded characters you could not only care for but who sometimes stole the show from the Slayer.

And things on Buffy spin-off Angel were no different. Vampire detective Angel may be the champion of humanity but he still has the limelight stolen from him sometimes by his ever-growing bunch of loyal allies at Angel Investigations.

As such, both shows have a boatload of cult heroes. As Lemony Snicket might say, 'cult heroes' is a term that here means 'characters we love although they don't appear in every episode.' As such, the likes of regular characters Willow and Xander and of course series stars Buffy and Angel are exempt from this list.

But let's see what supporting stars got us right through the heart.

After three seasons of Buffy we had already got a taste of creator Joss Whedon's now infamous knack for killing off his characters so we really shouldn't have got attached to Doyle when he joined crossover characters Angel and Cordelia for the first season of Angel. Yet we did and were repaid by Doyle dying a heart-breaking death after only nine episodes.

Despite his short tenure on the show, he certainly left a big shadow over the series. His status as half-demon set up the question of whether demons are always evil that ran through Angel.

More than that though, he was just a great character; a cheeky and charming rogue with enjoyable chemistry with both boss Angel and unrequited crush Cordelia. If he had to go so soon, at least he got a heroic end - saving his friends and a bunch of peaceful demons from a bomb.