Anya Jenkins
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 Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins |
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Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins (born 860 in Sjornjost, Sweden and died 2003 in Sunnydale, California), formerly Aud and Anyanka, Patron Saint of Scorned Women, is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television program Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Emma Caulfield.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Character history
Aud was born in a small Scandinavian village. She grew up raising rabbits and became an outsider in her community, who dismissed her as "odd." In 880, at the age of twenty, Aud fell in love with the boorish Olaf, a Viking warrior who enjoyed hunting trolls and drinking at the bar. One night, Olaf drunkenly slept with a barmaid named Rannveig. A furious Aud turned him into a troll. He was forced to flee from fellow villagers, who did not believe his story. This act of vengeance attracted the demon D'Hoffryn, who offered to transform her from a human to an immortal vengeance demon for scorned women. He renamed her Anyanka and gave her a silver necklace with the power to grant wishes. Anyanka's interpretation of the wish expressed was often rather loose and considerably more destructive than the wisher intended.
Bringing pain and suffering to men all over the world, Anyanka also developed a phobia of bunnies, a source of jokes from season four on ("Fear, Itself"). In "Once More, With Feeling" she sings, "Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes. They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses, and what's with all the carrots? What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?"
In 1199, Anyanka went to the Kastka valleys above the Urals to curse an unfaithful man. She witnessed a sorcerer's Ascension into pure demon form. The death and carnage — only a few people survived — shocked even her. In 1575, Anyanka met Dracula. She was in Salem, Massachusetts, during the witch trials in 1692.
In the 19th century, Anyanka became a close friend and fierce competitor of the vengeance demon Halfrek. They met during the Crimean War (1854-56). Anyanka impressed "Hallie" with a granted wish in Saint Petersburg, Russia, that sparked a revolution in 1905. In 1914, Anyanka traveled to Chicago, Illinois to exact vengeance on a Stewart Burns, making him a grotesque creature and sending him to a hell dimension to be tortured for all eternity. This came back to haunt her on her wedding day.
[edit] Sunnydale
Anyanka arrived at Sunnydale High in 1998 ("The Wish") as student Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins, supposedly born on July 4, 1980 in Indiana. She sought vengeance on Xander Harris for cheating on Cordelia Chase with his best friend Willow Rosenberg -- a fateful decision for her and Xander. After some difficulty, Anya tricked Cordelia into wishing that "Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale." In the grim alternate reality that resulted, The Master had risen and set up shop in The Bronze. Rupert Giles managed to discover Anya's power center, however, and broke the necklace, undoing Cordelia's wish and making Anya mortal again.
Anya duped Willow into assisting in a magical attempt to recover her power center ("Doppelgängland"), but it failed. Now with human feelings, she yearned to attend the school "Prom" in spite of her despisal of all men; her only hope for a date was the last man she was sent to punish. Anya developed feelings for Xander and asked him out again just before graduation. Her romantic plans were foiled when he told her of the Mayor's plan for another Ascension — at the graduation ceremony. Anya decided to flee Sunnydale and invited Xander to join her. He refused, citing his "friends on the line." She left without him.
Anya returned to Sunnydale early in season four, still infatuated with Xander. She persuaded him to sleep with her ("The Harsh Light of Day"), but her lack of tact soon put her at odds with other Scooby Gang members, especially Willow, who had little trust for the ex-demon. Although she had difficulty with only men in the previous season (she was one of the few who could "tell Prada from Payless," Cordelia remarked in "The Wish"), Anya would have trouble conversing with everyone from this season on.
Anya frequently reminisced about her life as a Vengeance Demon, describing often graphic punishments and murders she had inflicted in over a millennium, often for misdeeds that most people would not consider to warrant death. Oddly, no one on the series seemed to find this particularly distasteful, even though it placed Anya in the exact same position that Spike was in after receiving his microchip implant: She was a murderer who, although incapable of repeating her crimes, was thoroughly unrepentant for them.
Anya became a regular in the fifth season of the show. While playing The Game of Life, Anya discovered her love for money and capitalism (as opposed to her belief in Communism during the early twentieth century and her charitable attitude of her Aud years). Her budding retail skills encouraged Giles to hire her as a cashier at The Magic Box; when he later left Sunnydale he became a silent partner, leaving Anya to run the shop. During an apocalypse, Xander proposed to Anya and they were engaged for most of season six. Xander's doubts grew, however, and it was not difficult for Stewart Burns, escaped from hell and impersonating Xander's future self, to persuade him to leave Anya at the wedding ("Hell's Bells").
Hurt and angry, Anya became a vengeance demon again thanks to D'Hoffryn. She was frustrated when she could not grant her own wishes against Xander. Despite wreaking bloody vengeance on several men, Anya did not enjoy her work. She spent a summer granting half-hearted wishes and gained a reputation among demons as "Soft Serve." Halfrek encouraged Anya to a darker path, but after her gruesome attack on a group of fraternity members, she lost her taste for the gore of vengeance. After a battle with Buffy, she begged D'Hoffryn to return the guys to life. D'Hoffryn agreed, but at the cost of the soul of a vengeance demon. Anya agreed, thinking it meant hers, but D'Hoffryn murdered Halfrek instead. He turned Anya human once more for her to live in pain, at least until the coming of the First Evil ("Selfless").
D'Hoffryn would periodically send his henchmen to assassinate Anya afterwards, for his, well, vengeance is not easily crushed. Anya decided that heretofore she had been dependent on others and resolved to find an independent purpose in life for herself. In practice, she returned to occasional intimacy with Xander. She did rejoin the Scooby Gang. In the season six finale, Dark Willow destroyed the Magic Box, leaving Anya jobless.
Xander and Anya still loved each other, although they never really got back together officially again. In the climatic battle against The First Evil ("Chosen"), Anya was brutally slain from behind, bisected by a Harbinger's sword. Her body lay in the school's remains as the entire, empty town of Sunnydale crumbled into the Hellmouth. Andrew comforted Xander by telling him that Anya had died saving his life, to which he replied, "That's my girl, always doing the stupid thing."
[edit] Powers & Abilities
With over a thousand years of experience as a former vengeance demon, Anya's knowledge of demonology was immense. Although Anya's native language is Swedish, she spoke fluent if sometimes stilted English as well as some French and Latin.
Thanks to her countless years of experience, Anya also exhibits some basic knowledge of magic. She is seen numerous times commenting on Willow's spellcasting and interest in magic with a reasonable degree of insight, and has occasionally participated in the casting of spells herself ("Doppelgängland")
Anyanka possessed the ability to grant wishes of vengeance and had a frightening demonic form in which her face appeared to be skinless with exposed veins. She was much stronger than a normal human, could teleport and heal quickly. She also had a psychic sense of a woman's desire for vengeance and could tell if a vampire has a soul. Anya could also manipulate some energies to invisibly knock over an opponent.
As a demon, she was strong and skilled when it came to fighting. When she was a human, her experience and practice of combat from her times as a demon allowed her to be an effective fighter, as seen in the series finale.
And, as a side note, she states in the "Selfless" flashback that she's "good with math" (although, in "Doppelgangland," she says she's failing math).
[edit] Trivia
- Joss Whedon joked at the Noctural convention in 2001 that Anya was originally supposed to die during the Season 5 finale, "The Gift." However, he had to keep her alive because Emma Caulfield kept moving as Xander was carrying Anya [1].
[edit] Romantic Relationships
- Olaf.
- Dracula.
- Torg (see "Showtime").
- Xander Harris.
- Spike: Hurt over Xander, Anya had sex with Spike in the Magic Box in the episode "Entropy". The action was caught on camera set up by the Trio and also seen by the Scooby Gang.
- Rupert Giles: When the Scooby Gang lost their memories to a spell cast by Willow ("Tabula Rasa"), Anya and Giles believed that they were engaged, based on the fact that she had an engagement ring (from Xander) and the papers showed they owned the shop together. They shared a kiss while under the effects of Willow's spell, just moments before the spell was broken, to both of their chagrin.
[edit] Appearances
Anya appeared in 82 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Season 3: 4 episodes; "The Wish", "Doppelgangland", "The Prom" and "Graduation Day, Part One".
- Season 4: 15 episodes; "The Harsh Light of Day", "Fear, Itself", "Pangs", "Something Blue", "Hush", "A New Man", "The I in Team", "Goodbye Iowa", "Who Are You", "Superstar", "Where the Wild Things Are", "New Moon Rising", "The Yoko Factor", "Primeval" and "Restless"
- She was a series regular for seasons 5-7, though she did not appear in "Normal Again" (6.17), "Conversations with Dead People" (7.7), or "Dirty Girls" (7.18).
- She also appeared in the video game Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, although she appears only in two levels briefly. However, you do fight her evil counterpart Anyanka at the end of level 7.
[edit] Products
In 2005, Diamond Select Toys (DST) produced several action figures in the likeness of Emma Caulfield for their "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" line. Each figure featured a "real-scan" likeness of Emma and episode/character specific outfit. Figures produced: "Season 5 Anya" in red top and black skirt, "Hell's Bells Anya" in wedding dress, "Once More, With Feeling Anya" in butterfly top and green skirt, "Anyanka" in demon dress, and "Bunny Suit Anya" in removable bunny suit. A repaint of "Bunny Suit Anya" was featured in the Vengeance Book boxset.
