Summary
- Buffy had a range of romantic interests, but some were more significant than others.
- Her attraction to the magical quarterback R.J. Brooks was short-lived and unnatural.
- Buffy's relationship with the vampire Spike was toxic, but it had a positive impact on his redemption.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer's eponymous heroine faces terrifying demons, villainous nerds, and deadly song and dance routines as she defends the town of Sunnydale from the forces of evil. She is supported in this battle by her loyal companions, the Scooby Gang, as she struggles to balance growing up with thwarting the apocalypse(s).
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While living on a Hellmouth breeds problems of the magical kind, many of Buffy's biggest issues concern her taste in men. The identity of Buffy's true love is still fiercely contested by fans decades after the show's finale, although all of her partners left a mark on her life. Buffy had several romantic interests throughout the course of the show, but some were far more important than others.
8 R.J. Brooks
The ancient Latin proverb that "the clothes maketh the man" certainly rings true in the case of R.J. Brooks (Thad Luckinbill), a Sunnydale High student whose magical quarterback jacket caused the women of the town to fall madly in love with him. The jacket transformed R.J. From a shy nerd into a popular and irresistible jock.
Although Buffy felt the effects of the enchanted jacket and appeared to fall in love with its wearer (and even considered committing murder in order to impress him), this attraction was both unnatural and short-lived. As soon as the jacket was destroyed, the spell was broken, ending the sham romance.
7 Owen Thurman
While Sunnydale High student Owen Thurman (Christopher Wiehl) holds the distinction of being Buffy's first kiss in the series, he is something of a footnote in the franchise's overall mythos. The sensitive Owen appears in only a single episode in the show's first season, during which Buffy must protect him from a vampiric uprising.
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The experience forces her to realize that dating and her Slayer duties are not entirely compatible, a lesson she will relearn time and time again throughout the show's seven seasons. Owen is a rare example of an entirely normal love interest for Buffy; he was just a regular human being rather than a demon, sleazebag, or secret agent, although his mundanity perhaps made him a poor match for the supernatural Slayer.
6 Scott Hope
Following the apparent death of her former boyfriend, Angel, Buffy rebounded with a surprisingly normal boyfriend, fellow Sunnydale High student Scott Hope (Fab Filippo). Buffy's friends approved of the relationship, reasoning that it gave her a break from the stress and drama of dating and/or slaying vampires.
However, Buffy's focus on her slaying and sense of guilt over Angel caused Scott to lose interest in the relationship, and he dumped her to go to the Homecoming dance with another girl. He later attributed the failure of their relationship to a belief that Buffy was secretly a lesbian; ironically, she later learned that he was gay, suggesting that their relationship was doomed from the start.
5 Dracula
That Buffy's vampire slaying activities brought her into contact with literature's most famous bloodsucker, Dracula (Rudolf Martin), makes sense. However, few fans probably expected her to become attracted to the dark lord. Buffy's counterintuitive craving for vampire romance was no doubt a contributing factor to this attraction, although it was enhanced by Dracula's hypnotic charisma.
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Buffy even allowed Dracula to bite her neck and drain some of her blood, suggesting an element of consummation absent from many of her other romances. Their relationship caused her actual boyfriend, Riley, to grow jealous. However, Buffy was able to overcome Dracula's charms.
4 Parker Abrams
Buffy had high hopes for Parker Abrams (Adam Kaufman), a college student and one of her notable post-Angel rebounds. Parker appeared to offer the full package. He was both attractive and apparently sensitive, as well as completely normal. This attracted Buffy to him, although she would soon learn that his own plans for her were far from romantic.
Parker was interested in Buffy for her body and, after a one-night stand, kicked her to the curb. However, she was able to somewhat get her own back. While suffering from the effects of enchanted beer that caused its consumers to act like cavemen, she struck Parker with a branch, knocking him out.
3 Riley Finn
Riley Finn (Marc Blucas) was introduced in Buffy the Vampire Slayer's fourth season as a stable, relatively normal love interest for Buffy following her tumultuous romance with the vampiric Angel. However, despite his apparent blandness, Riley in fact concealed a secret: he was a key figure in an elite military unit tasked with capturing demons.
Riley proved a divisive character, with a large portion of the fanbase branding him as boring compared to Buffy's usual bad-boy love interests. The show's writers leaned into this criticism in later Riley episodes; he began to feel inadequate compared to the supernaturally charged characters around him. Riley and Buffy's relationship was, broadly speaking, a positive one, although it also demonstrated that fans were more interested in seeing the titular Slayer suffer than in seeing her be happy.
2 Spike
To call the relationship between Buffy and the vampire Spike (James Marsters) a romance is perhaps inaccurate, as both characters openly recognize the exploitative and unsavory aspects of their connection. Nor can their relationship, marked by violence and manipulation, be described as healthy. However, despite its toxic nature, it loomed large in the Slayer's life.
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Spike's twisted love for Buffy did have a positive effect on his life. Indeed, it drove him to better himself by obtaining a soul and then to sacrifice himself to save the world from the First Evil. However, fans remain split over Spike and Buffy's relationship. Many consider the vampire to be beyond redemption as a result of his treatment of Buffy, while others believe that he embodies the franchise's core tenets of self-improvement and absolution.
1 Angel
Angel (David Boreanaz) was introduced in Buffy's first season as a mysterious, brooding love interest with a dark secret. As a vampire (albeit a good one, thanks to being cursed with a soul), he represented everything that Buffy had sworn to defeat. Nonetheless, the pair soon fell in love, with predictably messy consequences for all involved.
Both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series Angel made it clear on multiple occasions that the relationship was doomed to fail. From their consummation resulting in Angel turning evil to his admission that she deserved a normal life rather than an undead romance, the obstacles to happiness were insurmountable. However, despite these obstructions, the relationship came tantalizingly close to success on several occasions, such as when Angel briefly became human thanks to contact with demonic blood. Buffy and Angel's romance may be tragic, but it sits at the core of the entire Buffyverse and is arguably the best romance Buffy ever managed to experience.