THE WHITE HATS

Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar)
When she was still just a flighty cheerleader at her high school in Los Angeles, Buffy Summers received a hefty reality check in the form of her calling: she's the Vampire Slayer, one girl in all the world who can stand against the forces of darkness. Needless to say this news did not come in a session with her guidance counselor, and things only went downhill from there. After a nasty school-gym-burning incident, Buffy and her mother Joyce picked up and moved to Sunnydale, where Buffy met her new Watcher, Giles, and made some new friends. She continued in her slaying ways, and since arriving at the Hellmouth has not only kicked the asses of all the big town threats, but all the little ones as well. Unfortunately the local evils are the least of Buffy's problems, and her true miseries stem from a common problem in her age group: gut-wrenching teen angst. Poor Buffy fell for Angel, who just happens to be one of the undead she's supposed to kill, and theirs was a love made to end in pain.
Current status: Still fighting evil on the Hellmouth, attending the University of California Sunnydale, and dating Riley Finn.

Angel (David Boreanaz)
If brooding gloom and skulking about were an Olympic sport, our man -- er, vamp -- Angel would be takin' home the gold. Once one of the most evil vampires to ever walk the Earth (or so they tell us, but it's a shakey story with that nancy boy haircut), Angelus was cursed with a soul -- something your average vampire is lacking -- some hundred years ago. Since then, he's been walking around with the weight of countless bloody deaths on his shoulders. When a demon (good demon, mind you) named Whistler guided Angel toward a girl named Buffy, who at the time was just being called to her role as the Slayer, the poor vamp fell head over heels. He spent some time slinking around in the shadows, offering Buffy the occasional tip, and then ended up getting more than he bargained for with a growing attraction between himself and Buffy. Though she soon found out he was a vampire, she just couldn't keep her hands off that loveable undead hunk, and eventually the vampire and the Slayer got a little pelvic. Unfortunately for everyone concerned, that moment of true happiness was the trigger that would lose Angel his soul; he spent some time as the very evil Angelus again before being sent to Hell by his girlfriend. Deciding that their doomed love was too painful to endure, Mr. Broody shipped himself off to remove the temptation to shag the Slayer rotten.
Current status: Playing Angel, Vamp Detective in Los Angeles as the lead of Angel, his very own spin-off series.

Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan)
Willow's life was strangely uneventful before Buffy Summers arrived in town. Sure, sometimes her friends would be found dead and mysteriously lacking in blood, but that's a common teenage experience, right? In any case, it didn't take long for Willow to flourish as a part of the vampire slaying team; though she was considered the Queen Geek among her classmates, Willow had just the skills it took to become a Slayerette, offering lots of book-readin' skills, more than a little hacking fun, and lots of best-friend bonding with Buffy. Eventually she found herself more immersed in the freaky-deaky supernatural world than ever before: she was dating a werewolf named Oz, developing her magical talents, and even putting the smack down on the occasional vamp. But like all Sunnydale students -- and all people everywhere -- Willow's life couldn't remain blissful for long. The crush she'd always had on her childhood friend, Xander, soon developed into an illicit affair, which was later found out and broken off. She got back with Oz but lost him again when he had to blow town, and found herself very, very lost in her life before making things right with her friends again and rediscovering her place in the world.
Current status: Practicing the old white magic, attending UC Sunnydale, and setting off on a journey of sexual reawakening with fellow Wicca Tara. Viva la revolution!

Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon)
Xander has always stood for the good things in the world: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of Twinkies. When Buffy Summers, fellow freedom crusader (who could probably stand to eat a few Twinkies) came to town, poor Xander didn't have a chance. He fell hard for the Slayer, who mostly failed to notice, and he didn't pay any attention to his best friend since childhood, Willow, who had an even bigger crush on him. When he finally accepted that he wasn't going to get Buffy, his attention turned to even longer odds: Cordelia Chase, local rich girl and his arch enemy since grade school. Surprisingly, he and Cordelia immediately struck up a physical side to their love/hate relationship, leading to much smooching in dark places, but Xand managed to mess that one up by suddenly realizing that he was attracted to Willow. His chances with Cordelia blown, Xander eventually hooked up with former demon Anya. Sure, it all sounds like some sort of soap opera, but it's really just an accurate portrayal of the teenage libido. Xander doesn't have any special powers to make him a chick magnet; while his friends are witches, werewolves, slayers and vampires, he's just a regular joe. Still, he manages to get by without superpowers, and get girls without any sort of hypno-ray, so he must be doing something right.
Current status: Unlike his friends, Xander isn't attending college; instead, he's working odd jobs, living in his parents' basement, and having a lot of wild monkey sex with his girlfriend, Anya.

Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head)
Though it'd be easy to categorize Giles as "snooty Englishman", it just wouldn't be a fair characterization. Being Buffy's Watcher -- the guy responsible for her training as the slayer -- and the Sunnydale High School librarian were pretty stuffy-guy jobs, but don't be fooled. Underneath all those layers of tweed beats the heart of a courageous fellow, even if his idea of fighting evil often involves getting knocked on the head. In his youth, Giles rebelled against the Watcher role and became a truly bad boy called "Ripper", and while his past sometimes comes back to haunt him and kick his ass, it also makes him quite the complex father figure. After he failed a test imposed on him by his bosses at the Watcher's Council, he was fired as Buffy's Watcher, then found himself out of a job when the Slayer and her Slayerettes blew up the high school. Since then, he's ditched the tweed in favor of more snuggly attire and hangs around quite a bit, demonstrating his formidable singing talents while apparently not looking for work or worrying that he'll be deported.
Current status: There doesn't seem to be a lot of work in California for unemployed Watchers/librarians; Giles is mostly sitting around being bored, occasionally spending some quality nookie time with his old friend Olivia, and belting out a tune now and then for our listening enjoyment.

Daniel "Oz" Osbourne (Seth Green)
There are many words to describe Oz, and you'll find most of them in the thesaurus under "calm": tranquil, laconic, imperturbable, and so on and so on and scooby dooby doo. The gist of it is that he's not easily disturbed, and whether that stems from a strangely serene world view or an overstuffed bong, no one is sure. The reigning king of cool takes a break from the throne every full moon, though; thanks to a bite on the finger from his little cousin, he's also a werewolf. But the occasional furriness wasn't an obstacle in his relationship with fellow Sunnydale denizen Willow, and the two of them made a nauseatingly cute couple. Unfortunately, good things tend not to last; when he was unable to deny his attraction to Veruca, a new werewolf in town, Oz couldn't help but answer the call of the wild. He was then forced to kill Veruca in order to save Willow, and fearing that he'd hurt Willow next time, the wolfman fled town. He later returned with a bit more control, able to keep himself in human form through the full moon, but his love for Willow was his undoing, and unable to keep his control around her, he took off again for parts unknown.
Current status: After discovering that his control over his werewolf aspect wasn't as firm as he would've liked, Oz left town again to keep himself away from Willow and keep up the search for new and improved ways to not turn furry. He's currently god-knows-where doing god-knows-what, much to our chagrin.

Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter)
Every high school has them: those rich bitchy chicks who torment the geeky just because they can. In Sunnydale's snobbery set, Cordelia was their queen, and her sharp fashion sense and sharper tongue made her the bane of the geeks of Sunnydale High, Willow and Xander most especially. But even Cordelia couldn't escape the reality of her hometown, and when she was drawn time after time into danger and evil-fighting with the Scooby Gang, she eventually surrendered to the inevitable and became a fighter of things that go squish in the night. It didn't take long for her to surrender to lust, too, and she found herself sharing many a broom closet with Xander Harris. Not long after things fell apart with Xander, the rest of her life crumbled as well; the IRS nailed her very wealthy father for tax evasion, and Cordelia was soon penniless and alone, left only with dreams of reclaiming her wealth by becoming a famous actress.
Current status: Left with no money, no prospects, and nothing much to keep her in Sunnydale, Cordelia moved to Los Angeles -- and to Angel -- in an attempt to launch an acting career. A complete lack of talent in that area forced her into another line of work she had no skills with: she became Angel's secretary at his detective agency.

Riley Finn (Marc Blucas)
Like many of Sunnydale's residents, Riley Finn is more than meets the eye. Though on the surface he appears to be little more than an earnest college student and psychology teacher's aide, Riley was actually a member of a military organization called "The Initiative", set up in Sunnydale to kill, capture, and run horrible experiments on the local demon types. But even being a macho military guy couldn't help Riley in the fighting-evil department; he got a little help from his superiors the Initiative, who secretly had him on a strength-enhancing drug cocktail and put some wacky mind-control implants in his body. But all covert military operations seem to meet some sort of end, and when Riley fell for Buffy Summers, that was the beginning of his fall from grace. Eventually he began questioning the Initiative, broke a bunch of rules, and ended up fleeing from impending court-martial. But that doesn't mean he doesn't keep himself busy; even though a lack of Superman-pills left him something less of a man, he still manages to help with the anti-evil operations of the Scooby Gang.
Current status: The organization he devoted himself to was destroyed and dismantled, but Riley's still hangin' in Sunnydale for now, and probably having a good time of it with nothing else to do but have lots and lots (and lots) of sex with Buffy.

Anya (Emma Caulfield)
Anya first appeared in Sunnydale to avenge a woman scorned; Cordelia's very ugly breakup with Xander had prompted Anyanka the vengeance demon to grant Cordelia one wish. When Cordelia, not knowing that her wish would be granted, declared that she wished Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale, Anyanka granted her wish. Cordy was thrown into an alternate universe, one where Buffy had stayed far away and vampires ruled the town. Unfortunately for Anya, good ol' Giles was still around, and he crushed the demon's power center, setting the world back to rights and leaving the ancient vengeance demon as a powerless high school senior. Though Anya pleaded with her demonic superiors to restore her powers, and even tried a spell (which went horribly wrong) to get her power center back, she remains a puny human. On the up side in Anya's life, she spends most of her time hanging with her boyfriend, Xander Harris, and helping the Scoobies in the battling-darkness department. But where does she live?
Current status: Clinging to Xander like some sort of demonic squid. She's got little else to do, and hey -- who wouldn't want to cling to that boy?

Wesley Wyndham-Price (Alexis Denisof)
Unfortunately for Wesley, he entered the Sunnydale scene at a bad time: Giles had just been fired, Buffy wasn't feeling very cooperative, and nobody seemed to want the new Watcher there. In addition to those already formidable troubles, he was also a big ninny (leading to fun fan nicknames like "Wussly") and didn't seem to have much experience in his field. For a long time he mostly puttered around giving orders that were ignored and making a nuisance of himself. Making his life just that much more complicated with his crush on Cordelia Chase, and he lost all control over the Sunnydale situation when one of his charges started killing people and the other emancipated herself from the control of the Watcher's Council. Eventually he left Sunnydale in disgrace, headed back to England to answer to the Council.
Current status: After being fired from the Watcher's Council, he popped up as a rogue demon hunter -- on the Buffy spinoff Angel -- and when that didn't work out, he ended up with a gig at Angel Investigations in L.A.