Buffy the Vampire Slayer stars Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy, a teenager who is chosen to defeat vampires, demons, and other monsters. Over seven seasons, she and her friends Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander (Nicholas Brendon), plus Watcher Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) take on everything from insect women to Dracula himself. The show’s foundation consists of monster-of-the-week episodes, similar to The X-Files. Sometime in the season’s first half, we get a glimpse of the “Big Bad,” who serves as that season’s main villain. The audience learns about them as the characters do, with interspersed conflicts that eventually lead to a final confrontation – a format today seen in numerous superhero TV shows. Buffy faces many memorable villains throughout the show. Here’s our list of every main villain, ranked.

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8 The First Evil

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The final season of the show brings its most ambitious villain: the embodiment of the very first evil, which can assume the forms of the dead and reborn. While a fitting opponent for Buffy after her years of villains, the First Evil is almost too ambitious. The factor of possessing people’s bodies creates fear and uncertainty over whom to trust - it even takes Buffy’s own form - but the downside is that there is nothing concrete for Buffy to take on; there’s no face to put to the Evil. Smaller opponents throughout the season, like the preacher Caleb or the vampire army that the First raises, are better villains.

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7 Adam

Season four introduces the Initiative, a secret military organization in Sunnydale that captures and studies monsters. According to ScreenRant, the show originally intended to have Maggie Walsh (Lindsay Crouse), leader of the organization, be the main villain. When Crouse had to leave the show, a Frankenstein-like creature named Adam (George Hertzberg) that she created became the new antagonist. As a result, Adam is introduced as the big threat late in the season, and has little narrative build-up or interaction with Buffy. His goal – to create a race of creatures like himself – also doesn’t bring the same stakes or tension as other villains.

6 Warren

Season six focuses on Warren (Adam Busch), along with his sidekicks, Andrew (Tom Lenk) and Jonathan (Danny Strong). They’re three human nerds who have had small conflicts with Buffy in the past, and team up to take her on – a weak backstory that doesn’t give a lot of weight to their actions. Without powers, most of their villainy comes from technology, like gadgets that make Buffy invisible, or make her relive the same hour of work. They’re more annoying than a threat, until Warren shows up at Buffy’s house with a gun, wounding her and killing Tara (Amber Benson). Tara’s death turns Willow into Dark Willow, who embraces the dark sides of her magic and does more in three episodes than Warren does all season.

5 Spike and Drusilla

Season two introduces the vampire couple of Spike (James Marsters), who has killed two vampire slayers, and Drusilla (Juliet Landau), who is weakened in both mind and body after nearly being killed. Their main goal is to capture Angel (David Boreanaz), who made Drusilla a vampire, and is the key to restoring her to health. Once this is accomplished, the two don’t have a strong motivation as villains. In addition, after Angelus emerges and teams up with Drusilla, Spike forms an alliance with Buffy to stop Angelus and get Drusilla back. Spike and Drusilla are great fun to watch, but not as strong in terms of pure villainy.

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4 The Master

The Master, played by Mark Metcalf, is the first major villain that Buffy takes on. Their upcoming conflict develops slowly, until a prophecy reveals that she’s fated to die by his hands. This creates great tension and drama between them, especially when Buffy confesses that she doesn’t want to die. In the final fight, he does kill her, though she only stays dead for a minute, and it makes her defeat of him that much more satisfying. He shows how far she has come through the first season, while also serving as a warning to keep fighting, because she’ll have much more to face.

3 The Mayor

Rather than a vampire villain, season three takes a new approach: a smooth-talking politician in the form of Mayor Wilkins (Harry Groener), who also happens to be a demon. His power works on two fronts: he’s strong as a demon and as a mayor, with a social power that Buffy has never seen, and can never have herself. It’s a fresh take that works well for the show. For most of the season, he attacks her through others, sending monsters and using fellow slayer Faith to do his bidding. After hiding behind his Mayor persona, he ascends into his full form at graduation, where Buffy leads everyone in an epic battle to save the world.

2 Glory

After years of facing various vampires and demons, change appears in the form of Glory (Clare Kramer), who is a genuine god. Banished from her Hell dimension, she seeks the “Key,” which destroys barriers between dimensions and brings Hell to earth. Her power is seemingly limitless, and she poses the biggest danger of anyone Buffy has faced. Her only weakness is that she shares a body with Ben, a human nurse who helps Buffy during her mother’s illness. Glory is purely evil; she has no dramatic origin story, and no human moments where she appeals to the audience. She simply does what she does because she wants to, and has the power to do so, like torturing Spike, destroying Tara’s mind, and kidnapping Dawn. It makes her a complete and terrifying villain.

1 Angelus

Spike and Drusilla might start out as the Big Bads of season two, but a bold midseason twist makes Angel the new villain. After Angel experiences true happiness, his soul is taken away, turning him back into Angelus: a vicious, bloodthirsty monster with no remorse. He remains one of the most terrifying villains, torturing Giles and causing the show’s first major death by killing Jenny Calendar. His acts are even more heartbreaking because the real Angel is someone Buffy loves, with his transformation reflecting how love and intimacy can turn people into monsters afterwards. He has history and intimacy with her that other villains don’t, and it adds so much more to their conflict – especially when Buffy must kill Angelus, just moments before his soul is restored.