Excellent analysis as always. I too wish they had done more with Anya but they definitely do enough for her to support your thesis.

The one character that I think really fails to is Amy. I find her to be a plot device and extremely inconsistent in all of her appearances. She starts out just the innocent daughter of a witch. It would make sense that she follows those footsteps and in her next appearance is doing some unethical things with magic. So far, so good.

In Gingerbread there’s really nothing unethical or dark about her use of magic outside some misdirection. Then in S6 we learn she was apparently visiting a magical drug dealer while in high school? And in S7 she’s complaining about how Willow was always more powerful than her, and surpassing all the other witches they knew (so like one other guy), and that just…did not happen. Amy turns herself and other people into rats! That’s not a thing Willow was capable of in high school. In fact I think Amy illuminates how consistent so many of the other side characters were in comparison.

R.I.P Anthony Head. All the actors in Buffy were so great and dedicated but especially him.

I had to blink a couple of times when you said Anne was in only five episodes... Wow. She's such a rich character. It's amazing what they managed to accomplish in such a short time. Great video.

"Anne" appearing in the Angel finale was such a 👩‍🍳 💋  moment.

Jonathan’s first appearance is in the original pilot episode. So’s Harmony’s, making her the only character to appear in both the first and last episodes of Buffy/Angel.

Justice for Harmony

R.I.P. Anthony Head

Spike and Anya were originally small characters that exploded into something so much bigger.  That is easy to forget.

God I need to rewatch Buffy.

This is why I miss old TV seasons. 20+ episodes allows for more natural character development rather than rushed arcs in just 6-8 episodes

"so ancient yet barely met herself." CHEFS KISS

also, R.I.P. Anthony Head, Buffy wouldn't have been Buffy without him.

"Consider Warren" sigh do i have to?

I never realized that Anne was in Angel, that's so amazing. I love that they just let her live on, and do kindness, and carry the torch quietly doing good.

I wish more current shows used side characters like this

If they did the Anne appearance today, especially on Netflix, you know they would flashback to all her previous appearances.   They can’t help themselves these days.

I always liked that they treated Sunnydale like a real place so all the people in the town were integrated into the plots.

A hill I will die on is that Jonathan should have been the one to join the Scoobies in Season 7, not Andrew.

Great vid! ❤

So many shows like to hit reset on character development. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and Angel) both really genuinely invest in character growth for their main characters and supporting characters. It’s something that makes rewatches so enjoyable.

I adore Anne. I've known so many people like her my entire life, it was amazing to see their personalities, their stories, their archetype, told in a way that didn't belittle or dismiss them, or deride them into a flatly tragic stereotype.

I've always felt that Warren was a kind of shadow self for both Xander and Spike. Warren is more obviously gifted than Xander in being a mad scientist but he's the kinda douche that Xander might have become had he not befriended Willow perhaps in some ways Xander saving Willow is him knowing that on some level. As for Spike well Spike is a souless demon and the quote that always comes to mind is from the film Insominia about the killer 'he crossed the line and didn't even blink' - both of the crossed a line or came close to it - Spike blinked,  pulled back and changed, Warren didn't, killed twice and literally got ripped apart for it.