Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Every Character Ranked Worst To Best

In the end, though, the best character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer has to be Spike, Angel's eternal rival, Buffy's on-and-off love interest, a vampire unable to harm any living thing and forced to confront his humanity.

Initially introduced as a one-off villain meant to be killed off to make way for Angelus, Spike was kept around simply because he was such a hit, and once Angel moved to his own show he actually took his place as the tortured vampire at the centre of Buffy's life.

Sew-sawing between being Sunnydale's most persistent big bad and a tortured romantic whose feelings of love for the Slayer conflicted with his soullessness, Spike was many things during his stay on the show, from bad guy to reluctant ally, lover to nuisance, hero to champion, and at every step he was unbeaten as the show's most compelling character.

Watching James Marsters bring Spike to life was a unrivalled joy, and seeing the vampire go from infamous, Slayer-killing big bad to fighting for his soul and giving his life to save the world was simply divine.

Spike was evil, hopeless, funny, charming, violent, cruel and ultimately heroic, and the best character Buffy the Vampire Slayer ever had.