Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Every Character Ranked Worst To Best

Though this list has refrained from mentioning the villains of the series, it would be unfair to exclude Angelus, the immeasurably evil, soulless alter ego of Angel who dominated the show's masterful second season.

Angelus and Angel are two sides of the same coin, one a monster without remorse and an unquenchable thirst for death and torture, the other a haunted, virtuous vampire desperate to atone for his past sins.

Psychopathic, sadistic and cruel, Angelus worked not only because of the second season's top-shelf writing and the wonderfully hammy performance of David Boreanaz, but because of how personal and heartbreaking a big bad he proved to be.

He wasn't around for long, but Angelus had the biggest impact of any villain on the show or its spin-off, and helped solidify the series as an all-time classic drama in which no character was ever truly safe from the evil around them.