Best Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fight Scenes

One of the most unexpected additions to the canon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters was Caleb, a misogynistic preacher played by charismatic Firefly star Nathan Fillion. Caleb ended up being more than just tough talk, having the strength to fight the Slayer when he wasn’t busy tormenting her friends (RIP Xander’s eyeball).

All of this led up to their awesome fight near the end of the seventh season. There was plenty of kickass action and amazing choreography. And Caleb was so well-established as an intimidating baddie that seeing Buffy triumph over him in order to protect the potential Slayers was one of the biggest cheer-worthy moments of the entire series.

While Buffy the Vampire Slayer is often remembered for its more comedic moments, the series never forgot its horror roots when it came to showcasing the Slayer dispatching vampires, demons, and whatever else went bump in the night.

By the seventh season, she could stake the average vampire in her sleep, but the so-called “Ubervamp” ended up being the Doomsday to Buffy’s Superman.

She simply couldn’t beat this vampire in terms of sheer strength, so she instead used all of her resources and cunning combat skills to win the day, demonstrating once and for all that she really was paying attention to all those lectures from Giles over the years.

Compared to some of the fights on this list, the fight with The Master at the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s first season has far fewer acrobatics and death-defying stunts.

However, this is a battle that was symbolically more important than almost any other combat that Buffy was ever a part. Because she had to face someone who was basically the powerful personification of everything she was destined to fight.

Buffy literally died and returned to life (it certainly wouldn’t be the last time) in order to destroy this threat, and we were happy to no longer see his creepy Kool-Aid mouth after this outside of the occasional flashback.

More than most genre shows (and that’s saying something), Buffy the Vampire Slayer has always had legions of fans that ‘shipped the characters they would like to see hook up.

One of the most frequent ‘ships concerns Buffy and fellow Slayer Faith, and that has a lot to do with the fact that Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku had downright electric chemistry whenever they were onscreen together.

This was on full display when their characters teamed up to defeat ancient vampire (and Faith’s ancient foe) Kakistos in the third season, tragically showcasing amazing teamwork that simply wasn’t destined to last as Faith increasingly turned towards the dark side.

Even though the show is called Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it was always fun to see our favorite Chosen One fighting something other than the traditional bloodsuckers.

And in season 4, the standout bad guys were most definitely The Gentleman…floating, rictus-faced ghouls who love to steal everyone’s voices right before they start stealing hearts.

Buffy’s final fight with these monsters is truly unforgettable, and after a small assist from worst boy Riley, she gets her voice back and makes the monster’s heads explode by letting out the kind of scream you normally only hear from fans when they get to season 6.

In general, Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans were a bit mixed about the final season. Many noted that while it was better than the bleak misery of season 6, it was nowhere near the quality of season 3 or the ambition of season 5.

Still, one thing this season did very well was take everything we loved about the series to the absolute extreme. And this was on full display in the finale battle in which Buffy led an army of activated Slayers against a horde of fierce Turok-Han vampires.

Instead of the intimate combat the show was known for, we got to see a battle worthy of a Lord of the Rings film, and it was absolutely epic.

Over time, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer writers faced an issue very familiar to anyone who has ever written a Marvel comic or film: audiences expect their heroes to get stronger and more resourceful over time, but this makes it increasingly difficult to find an adequate threat for them to face.

In the show’s fifth season, the writers threw conventional wisdom out by having Buffy face Glory, a literal god walking the earth and ready to destroy it. Earlier episodes showed Buffy struggling against her divine adversary.

So seeing Buffy hand Glory her not-so-immortal ass in the season finale in order to save both her sister and the world was quite powerful. And Giles’ shocking contribution left us practically unable to breathe.

One of the reasons we love the finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s second season is that it helped to change the show and its characters in a powerful and permanent way. Once the curse on Angel turns him back into Angelus, he becomes the kind of once-in-a-lifetime evil capable of destroying all life as we know it.

This culminates in an unforgettable fight between Buffy and her ex-boyfriend that ends when Willow lifts Angel’s curse…but since his own evil spell can only be stopped with his blood, Buffy is forced to send the now-restored love of her life straight to Hell.