Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the TV show (and comic; including the canon season 8) is unique in that the main character(s) are not as popular as the meant-to-be-one-off character's that Wheadon kept on as regulars due to mass appeal. Buffy is one of the most annoying, infuriating, weak-willed (when it comes to the men in her life), selfish characters on the show. If one were to rank the characters in order of those least-annoying to the audience, you really see how the main characters (if you include the Angel spin-off) tend to be more annoying than the supporting cast:
Characters (in order of being least annoying/least wanting to stab with a pointy object):
1. Tie between Spike, Anya, Faith, Gun, Lorne, Fred and Doyle
The first two have been around eons longer than the rest of them, and despite their
handicaps -one having no soul for much of the show and one having been a vengeance demon
and seeing the worst of humanity for the past thousand plus years- yet despite this, and
despite the fact that they continuously put themselves in harm/torture/death's way to
protect our "protagonists" are treated like unworthy dirt.
Faith is the rightful slayer. The line went from Buffy (after her death), to Kendra, to
Faith. Faith, unlike Buffy, has come from a horrible home life, has watched her watcher be
brutally murdered, and has tried to come to Sunnydale to be friends with and find a place
with Buffy (who proceeds to treat her horribly and exclude her from everything for most
of the season, as does Giles, who is meant to be her watcher too yet doesn't
train/guide/help her or seem to care that she is living alone in a dingy motel). Faith is
looking for a parental figure in her life (something Buffy has in both her mother and in
Giles). If Giles would have been said figure then she may not have ended up the way she
did. As it stands, the only people who took an interest in her were her faux-watcher and
the Mayor (both evil). She submitted to them both because she was a teenage girl with no
one to love her. She had to fight through Buffy (on Angel) to seek out redemption. And
even after she helped Buffy avert the apocalypse in Buffy season 7 and helped Angel be
free of Angelus in Angel season 5; Buffy still treated her like she was evil and out to
get her (when she wasn't) in Buffy season 8.
The last four are just innocent beyond belief. There is no being annoyed by them. Gunn
does what he believes is right, despite being human. Fred is the kindest soul on the show
and Lorne comes in at a close second. And Doyle is a loveable dolt who only wants to do
good and sacrifices himself in the process.
2. Giles
He is just not as annoying as some of the other characters. He doesn't have particular
redeeming qualities... just no bad ones really.
3. Cordi on Angel
On Buffy (and on Angel when possesed, but that's hardly her fault), she is horrible, but
despite going from riches to rags, she grows as a person and puts the needs of others
above her own.
4. Oz
He is just a good guy who became a werewolf. He is only so low on the list because of his
"cheating heart"
5. Tara
Again, she is a good girl, not annoying per say, just not particularly interesting.
6. Willow (in season 1,2 and 6 - otherwise she is still annoying) & Xander (in season 6 and 7 -
otherwise he is still annoying)
7. Darla and Dru
Now... finally, some of the main characters...
8. Angel
9. Buffy (except for in seasons 1, part of 2 and 6: in those you see some of her humanity, in all the other's she is an insufferable, selfish bitch).
10. Wesley, Connor and Dawn: the only character's more annoying than the main character's for self-explanatory reasons.
