This LA pom-pom shaker, Prom Princess and Fiesta Queen was born in 1981 to Hank and Joyce Summers. Growing up, the young Slayer-to-be was said to be as close as blood sisters with Celia, her cousin. Unfortunately, Celia died and Buffy decided to pledge her allegiance to her childhood hero, bladestress Dorothy Hamil. In 1996, the Buffster was introduced to Merrick, a peculiar man who informed her that she was the latest entry into a legacy of chosen individuals-Vampire Slayers. He was a Watcher, a keeper if you will, of the chosen Slayer. Who could ever have imagined a high maintenance mall rat could move on to eventually save the world on several occasions? Well, no one at her City of Angels high school could, because she torched the gym in her first major victory against the bloodsuckers. Thank goodness that our heroine somehow managed to avoid juvy or any kind of lengthy court case.

Unfortunately for Buff, her parents decided to divorce after the horrible chain of events. An entirely new chapter in the Slayer's life opened when her mom decided to make a move to beautiful Sunnydale, CA. To her surprise, her slaying days had just begun in 1997 when she found out, from her new Watcher Giles, that Sunnydale was actually located on top of Hellmouth, a portal to an evil dimension. Who would have thought that your duties of being a Chosen One wouldn't just go away when you moved? Don't parking tickets just go away?

Buffy has had quite a traumatic five years. As if it's not bad enough being a high school kid and now a college kid, she has been killed before by a vampire named The Master, she has lost the love of her life, Angel, found out that she had a sister that didn't exist before and most recently, lost her mother to a brain tumor.

With the help of Giles, her friends Willow, Xander, Spike, Tara, Anya and her sister Dawn, Buffy hopes to continue to defeat vampires, demons and just about every atrocity that you can imagine. That is of course, if she can find a way not to be so·well·dead.

Sunnydale's high school love-struck computer dork, turned coed lesbian witch, Willow has had quite an interesting life. For someone who was such an introvert the first time she met Buffy and joined the Scooby Gang, Willow seems to be putting a spell on everyone lately. The daughter of Ira and Shelia Rosenberg, Willow has always been very detached from her parents. So detached, in fact, that her mother tried to set her on fire, paying homage to those brave souls in Salem, Massachusetts circa 1692.

Willow's skills go far beyond her strengths and weaknesses as a witch; she is also a mad computer hacker, a superb tutor and Buffy's best friend for the past 5 years.

Not necessarily dependent on Buffy, Willow is often hurt by how people perceive her. As a matter of fact, she tends to hide behind her need for companionship. She was always somewhat secretly attracted to Xander and she latched onto Buffy in sidekick capacity as soon as the Slayer moved to Sunnydale. Then, Willow fell madly in love with the werewolf Oz, who was considered by most to be the coolest kid at Sunnydale High because of his affiliation with a popular band named Dingoes Ate My Baby. Their relationship, like most of Willow's, ended up in misery when Oz could no longer control his primal instincts. Most recently, Willow has spent her time with lesbian lover and fellow witch, Tara.

During a crucial decision in her life when Oz returned for her, Willow decided that things had changed between her and the wolfman and pledged her love to Tara. Hopefully with Tara's knowledge of the occult and spells, Willow's strength will grow with her lover and help fight evil in a Buffy-less world.

Born a Watcher prodigy, Rupert Giles took over Buffy's Slayer training and mentoring when Buffy moved to Sunnydale after her former Watcher, Merrick, had been killed. After attending Oxford University, Giles dreamed of being a fighter pilot or a grocer. Unfortunately, he was forced into the family business of Slayer nurturing. Even after he tried to radically break away from his destiny by becoming the demon summoning Ripper, his intelligence (and the Watchers Council) eventually sent him down the straight road.

When he first moved to Sunnydale, Giles was the Sunnydale High Librarian whose sole purpose was to train and guide the recently relocated Buffy in the Slayer ways. His relationship with Buff eventually became a lot deeper then the typical teacher/student relationship between a Watcher and a Slayer. As a matter of fact, it could be insinuated that Giles is actually Buffy's stand-in father figure. You see, her real father lives in LA and she rarely sees him any more.

Regrettably, the Watchers Council canned Giles because he informed Buffy that he had to revoke her powers temporarily so that she could participate in her 18th birthday ritual. The Council, not amused, sent in a new Watcher named Wesley Wyndam-Price to take active Watcher duty for Buffy. However, Giles remains in Sunnydale and continues to aid our hero with his vast knowledge.

Not a man of many peers, Giles has dated only a few women in Sunnydale including Sunnydale High's computer teacher Jenny Calendar and his former girlfriend from England, Olivia.

After quite a long period of being unemployed, Giles took up singing at the Expresso Pump and then bought the Magic Box.

It seems as if the loss of Buffy has affected Giles in a way that it would if she was his real daughter. Shocking everyone in the gang, he is returning to England to work things out and handing over the Magic Box to Anya.

Loyal wiseass of the Scooby Gang, Alexander LaVelle Harris tries to keep good spirits within the gang despite his questionable home life. Born and raised in Sunnydale, Xander was never much of a student because he lacked academic discipline. On that note, he decided to forgo entering UC Sunnydale with the rest of the crew. Instead, he has taken jobs that range from washing dishes at a strip club, to bartending, to working in construction. Despite his poor schoolwork, he has proven on many occasions to be an irreplaceable addition to the team. Xander often shows his deep loyalty to the mission. For instance, he took on the role of "Nighthawk," and tried to keep things sane in Sunnydale while Buffy was missing at the beginning of his senior year in high school.

A best friend with Willow since his youth, Xander has found himself pursuing the wrong women. He got the Heisman from Buffy early on in their relationship, he nearly became a late night snack to a she-mantis teacher, he fell for an Inca mummy and by kissing Willow, he ended up cheating on the one solid love interest that he had in high school, Cordelia. At one point he even had a quickie with unstable and bloodthirsty Slayer Faith.

Although Xander is currently dating one-time demon Anya, their relationship didn't exactly start on what many would consider to be a stable partnership. Even though Xander and Anya went to prom together, when Anya returned to Sunnydale her intentions were to seduce Xander so that she could get him out of her mind. To her disappointment, the two fell for each other and have continued-despite their lack of understanding towards each other on occasion-to have a lasting and interesting relationship.

It is difficult to say how Xander will react to Buffy's death. When she disappeared at the beginning of his senior year, Xander was hurt and Buffy's lack of caring nearly resulted in a fistfight between the two. Knowing Xander though, what he lacks in discipline, he makes up for with heart.

Formally the vengeance demon-also known as the Patron Saint of Scorned Women-Anya (or Anyanka) has recently seen a lot of life changes in her 1124 years. She was first cursed by the demon D'Hoffryn for practicing vengeance spells on men. As the story goes, Anya first entered Sunnydale to grant a wish with her magic necklace to Cordelia. Rather than wish something bad to happen to Xander, Cordy wished that Buffy had never moved to Sunnydale and a horrible alternate reality was created. Luckily, Giles destroyed the powerful amulet and Anya was transformed into a regular kid at Sunnydale High. The evil D'Hoffryn refused to change her back and she was left not old enough to buy beer and not bright enough to pass math.

During college, Anya returned to seduce Xander so that she could get him out of her mind. However, she ended up falling for him and the two have been extremely sexually active ever since. Anya has been accepted as a primary member of the Slayerettes and it seems as if everyone is letting bygones be bygones.

Although Anya has gotten in touch with her human side, she stills shows her arrogance and demon-nature by butting into conversations and biting into Xander (literally). With Giles returning to England to cope with the death of Buffy, Anya officially becomes the top dog at the Magic Box.

A cocky vamp from 19th century England, Spike got his former (pre-bloodsucker) name, William the Bloody, because of his bloody awful poetry. However, in 1880, the sensitive lyricist was sired by his immortal lover Drusilla and got the name "Spike" because of his love for torturing victims with railroad spikes. Not exactly a Victorian poet a la William Wordsworth, Spike has killed two Slayers. The first of these was a Slayer during the Boxer Rebellion and the second was a punker kid in New York-whose trench coat has become synonymous with Spikes predatory attitude.

One of the most interesting members of Sunnydale's night stalkers, Spike found himself off and on with Drusilla who finally ended up leaving our favorite baddie the first time for the Chaos Demon and the second time for the Fungus Demon. According to Dru, the Victorian poet turned psychotic Slayer killer just wasn't evil enough for her. A traveler, the killer returned to Sunnydale one year trying to find the Gem of Amarra that would make him invincible. Eventually, Spike began dating former Sunnydale High snob turned fang face, Harmony. That didn't work out and Spike has taken a vested interest in our heroine Buffy. To his chagrin however, the Initiative implanted a chip in Spike's head to make him harmless to humans. More recently, Buffy told Spike that she found him disgusting, saying, "The only chance you had with me was when I was unconscious."

During the final battle with Glory that lead to the Buffster's death, the inherently vicious Spike kept his word to protect Dawn. Don't expect Spike to take on all of the values of the Scooby Gang·but expect his love for the fallen Slayer to drive his bloodlust in a more acceptable direction.

The sometimes stammering and unsure Tara met Willow at a school Wicca meeting. Since Oz had just recently left UC Sunnydale, Willow was free game and ready to explore some new interests. The two immediately hit it off due to their common interest in witchcraft and casting spells. Apparently, Tara is the daughter of a very powerful witch who died when she was a child. Unbeknownst to Willow, Tara was also said (due to a family myth) to transform into a demon while developing into a full-fledged woman. Thankfully, for both parties, that was just a lie told by the male members of Tara's family to keep the little witches in check.

As their relationship started to blossom, they fought against the voice-stealing Gentlemen and their combined effort of spells saved Sunnydale. However, it did take quite a long time for Willow to admit to her friends that she had found this gay partner. The result, Tara got a little angry and then they finally outted themselves to the Slayerettes. Tara was immediately welcomed into the gang.

The only other real relationship rift that Tara was confronted with was Oz's return to profess his love for Willow. Fortunately, Willow explained to her former hairy boyfriend that she was in love with Tara.

Dawn Summers isn't really anyone's love child. Sometimes siblings just appear out of nowhere and come pre-packaged with bogus memories. When the youngest Summers arrived in Sunnydale, she was your typical female teen-an obnoxious little monster who spent more time getting under Buffy's skin then actually helping out at all.

As Dawn matured in Sunnydale and was assimilated into Buffy's family, it was a formidable time. Actually, it was literally a formidable time because before she showed up, she didn't have any form at all. You see, Dawn is The Key, which is an epically powerful energy force that a Hellgod named Glory wants to exploit to open up a portal that will release hell on Earth. Fortunately, a group of monks transformed The Key to the flesh and then added her to Sunnydale's memories and past. The monks' plan was to have the Slayer protect The Key from evil.

It wasn't for several months until Buffy and the Scooby Gang found out Dawn's true identity. While fighting to save the life of one of the aforementioned monks, Buffy was told the truth and then passed on the information to her mother Joyce, who was unfortunately struggling with a brain tumor that she didn't end up beating. Like any average bratty teen, Dawn didn't much like finding out that she was a cosmic force in the universe. As a matter of fact, she ran away from home. With little family left to speak of, Buffy decided to treat Dawn and the memories that came with her as authentic.

Sadly, last spring, Glory kidnapped Dawn after learning that she was The Key. During a bloodletting ceremony that almost brought complete anarchy to Sunnydale and earth, Buffy gave her life to save her sister, The Key. As it read on Buffy Summers' gravestone: "Beloved Sister. Devoted Friend."