Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 10 Memes That Perfectly Sum Up Anya As A Character

Emma Caulfield Ford isn’t letting Joss Whedon taint her experience on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where her character Anya Jenkins helped The Slayer defeat monsters of the week with signature sarcasm and practicality, ensuring that the former vengeance demon stands apart as a pop culture icon amidst the controversy. With one foot in the supernatural realm and one foot in the human world, Anya’s struggle to find her humanity was both touching and hilarious, and fans have gravitated towards her relatable candor for decades.

Whether she was ranting about how terrifying bunnies were, trying to find love with a human, or just speaking her mind (to the visible confusion of the Scoobies and those around her), Anya’s quirks are summed up in these memes that perfectly capture her character.

Anya Is A Bit Of A Rogue

Due to the moral ambiguity of being a vengeance demon, Anya was always skeptical when it came to participating in heroics that didn’t require someone receiving their comeuppance. In her world, a noble quest translated to inflicting pain and suffering based on the desires of a wronged party, done out of a need for punishment and not for a lofty personal purpose.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t be counted on to join in the fight when the Scoobies needed a powerful demon on their side, but she was always a bit of a rogue. She weighed her decisions with all the pragmatism of the scales of justice.

Anya Has Questionable Moral Judgment

As this meme suggests, Anya wasn’t overly fond of children, but she became increasingly fond of money especially after working at the Magic Box. Once she discovered the many ways to create capital, she found it even more fulfilling than granting vengeance wishes.

After being a vengeance demon for so long and watching the deplorable things people did in the name of love, Anya didn’t see anything wrong with viewing children as transactional tokens. To her, money was more valuable than human life because humans themselves cared very little for it, especially given how often they killed each other.

Anya Loves Money

Much of the humor around Anya’s love for money came from the fact that society frowns on any discussion of money. It might operate more easily using it, but it’s considered in bad taste to bring it up so casually, making Anya seem out of place whenever she does it.

Anya spoke about money in a way that made other characters uncomfortable. When Xander encouraged her to say, “Have a nice day,” to the Magic Box customers, she dismissed the sentiment entirely. After all, why should she care about the sort of day they had when she had their money and the transaction was concluded?

Anya Has Her Own Way Of Expressing Herself Verbally

Anya’s known for being considered inappropriate, often saying exactly what’s on her mind even if it’s considered offensive. Some of the funniest episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer involve her saying aloud what’s on everyone else’s mind, especially with characters who won’t often share their trepidations.

There aren’t too many characters that break social contracts like that except for maybe Spike and other creatures like her, effectively making demons and vampires represent going against the grain of society.

Anya Could Always Be Counted On For Support

Anya might have seemed to have a prickly exterior that could rub people the wrong way, but when it came to her friends, she was a constant source of support. While it started out born from a love for Xander, she learned to respect the inherent power of The Slayer and the Scoobies based on their commitment to each other.

This meme specifically focuses on Buffy singing about returning from heaven in the musical episode “Once More With Feeling” with Anya and Tara performing backup dancing, but it represents the amount of support she’s willing to give her friends when they need it most.

Anya Hates Bunnies

Anya could always be counted on to be contrarian, as evidenced by her fear of bunnies, almost universally perceived as cute and harmless. Her trust issues around bunnies were never fully explained, except that she is skeptical of their “beady eyes” and need for carrots.

This meme, which depicts Caulfield and a box of Annie’s macaroni bunnies, spoofs Anya’s fear of bunnies in a way that she might actually appreciate. At least she’d get to eat them in a way that isn’t socially frowned upon. It’s surprising that this wasn’t a joke that wound up in the series.

Anya Sometimes Worried About The Wrong Things

Being a vengeance demon for hundreds of years meant Anya’s priorities were different once she put all that behind her and settled down with Xander. Suddenly finding herself fighting for the good guys rather than being considered “lawful evil” was quite the adjustment.

Even when she was about to be married, she was worried about whether Xander would still find her attractive, when she didn’t realize that he had his own myriad insecurities. When he left her at the altar she was understandably devastated, internalizing the pain of whatever she thought she did to drive him away. Ultimately, the storyline detracted from Anya’s agency and development as a character and was something fans would have changed if they could.

Anya Only Wanted One Thing From Xander

A running gag in Buffy the Vampire Slayer was Anya’s fondness for Xander, specifically without his clothes on. The nerd finally getting the girl (and an attractive one at that) was seen as a major win for the Xan Man, especially given his faulty relationship with Cordelia and unrequited love for Buffy.

As it turned out, Xander had a lot of demons interested in his sexy bits, though for reasons much less enjoyable than Anya. Having a vengeance demon on his side definitely put a stop to that, and Anya became a protector of sorts, even though it challenged Xander’s ego.

Anya Is Very Straight Forward

Aside from letting her thoughts come out of her mouth in an uninterrupted stream, Anya has a way of getting to the point that’s refreshingly liberating. She doesn’t have any compunction to sugar-coat things like Willow and is as straightforward as possible when she likes or dislikes something.

By knowing Anya, Xander became more confident in himself and was able to speak his mind without worrying about coming across as stupid. He often second-guessed himself, but he didn’t have to worry about that with Anya because she would always be straight with him, whether the outcome was good or bad.

Anya Manifests Her Own Destiny

Anya went from being a demon who had power over the Wish for over a thousand years to become a mortal human, and given how challenging it was to have to adjust (and flunk basic Math), she managed to do it with resourcefulness and dignity as this tarot card suggests.

Anya struggled with her darker impulses that made her manipulative and power-hungry but being welcomed into the Scoobies let her know that ultimately she was accepted for who she was, no matter how she acted (except in the case of slaughtering frat boys).