Master (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
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 Mark Metcalf as The Master |
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The Master is a fictional character from the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and in the spin-off series Angel, played by Mark Metcalf. His appearance is similar to Count Orlok from Nosferatu. In addition, Kurt Barlow, the vampire from Salem's Lot (1979), who also resembles Count Orlock was addressed as "the Master".
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[edit] Biography
The Master is the ruler of the Order of Aurelius, a vampire cult which has included the likes of Darla, Luke, and the Three, amongst many other ancient vampires. The Master is known to be very old. He sired Darla, who is the sire of Angel. Unlike other vampires, the Master does not assume human appearance. In one Angel episode flashback, Darla tells Angelus (Angel) that "the Master has grown past the curse of human features." Joss Whedon's script for the pilot ("Welcome to the Hellmouth"; the first episode of Buffy) indicates that the character's actual name is Heinrich Joseph Nest and is over 600 years old.
The Master was Buffy's first "Big Bad". He came to Sunnydale seeking to open the town's infamous Hellmouth. Unfortunately for him, opening dimensional portals is difficult, and he instead triggered an earthquake that leveled the town and buried him along with the Hellmouth. Adding to his problems, the failed attempt also sealed the Master in a space-time force field . He is mystically trapped and seeks to escape, hoping to allow demons to flood back into the human realm to claim dominion over the world.
Unlike ordinary vampires, the Master can exercise hypnotic control over Buffy. The only other vampires that later prove able to do so are Dracula and Drusilla). As a result of his old age and extensive feeding, the Master possesses strength and fighting experience far superior to that of most vampires.
Angel, a powerful vampire, could never muster the courage to face the Master in a one-on-one duel. When Xander asks Angel to lead him to the Master's location, the world-weary vampire chides him for his naivety. "You're way out of your league, kid. The Master would kill you before you could even breathe.....if you're lucky," he sneers. When Darla introduced Angelus to the Master for the first time, a cocky Angelus insulted the Master's looks. When his patience ran out, the Master effortlessly beat him to the ground. During this beating, Angelus still showed no respect for the Master's superiority. Unhindered by the Master's devastating blows, he coaxes Darla to leave the Master's side and join him on an adventure of carnage and mayhem. Years later, the Master describes Angelus as being the most savage creature he had ever known, and believes he is destined to become his right-hand man.
The Master is somehow connected with a three-headed demon commonly referred as the Hellmouth Spawn. During the Master's escape from the Hellmouth (in episode "Prophecy Girl,"), this demon fights Giles, Willow, Cordelia, Jenny, and Xander inside the Sunnydale High School library, while Buffy fights the Master on the rooftop of Sunnydale High School, above the library. During the fight with the three-headed demon, a library table is turned over and a leg broken, so that it resembles a long, pointed stake. As a result of trapped in the Hellmouth for years without feeding, the Master was unable to fight Buffy at the peak of his powers. Buffy manages to throw the Master through a skylight in the roof and impales him on a broken table leg. All the flesh on his bones streams off, leaving only his skeleton behind (unlike most vampires). The Anointed One, his right-hand child, later tries to use these bones in a ritual to return the Master to life, but Buffy interrupts the ritual and crushes the skeleton with a sledgehammer. The Anointed One is later killed by Spike.
Despite his death, the Master appears several more times on both Buffy and its spin-off, Angel, usually in flashbacks involving specific vampires. A notable circumstance occurred in the Buffy episode "The Wish" in which Cordelia inadvertently wishes in front of Anyanka that Buffy never came to Sunnydale, thus throwing her into an alternate reality in which the Master rules the town with an iron fist. Just before this reality is negated, the Master kills Buffy with startling ease when she attempts to assassinate him.
In the first Buffy the Vampire Slayer video game, the Master returns as a phantom and temporarily possesses Angel with the help of a trio of demons known as the Dreamers.
[edit] Bloodline
The Master
(????-1997)
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Darla
(1609-1997) and (2000-2001)
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Liam/Angelus/Angel
(1753-2004+)
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+---------------+-----+---------+-------------+-------------+
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| | | | Sarah Holtz
Penn | | | (1764)
(1786-1999) | | |
(according to script) | | |
Drusilla | |
(1860-2001+) | |
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+------+--------------------+ | |
| | William/Spike | |
| | (1880-2004+) | |
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| | +--------+------+ | |
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| | | Anne | | |
| | | (1880) | | |
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| | | | Sam Lawson |
| | | | (1943-2004) |
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| Sheila | | Theresa
| Mercer | | Klusmeyer
| (1997) | | (1998)
Darla | |
(2000-2001) | |
Holden Charlotte & others
Webster (2002)
(2002)
- Darla was the one that is seen drinking from Sarah, Daniel Holtz's daughter, in the flashbacks of "Quickening." However, Darla also states that Angel was the only vampire she has ever sired, so it is likely that they both feasted on her, then Angelus sired her.
- Penn's siring year comes from the shooting script of the Angel episode "Somnambulist."
- Besides Holden Webster, Spike sired a number of vampires while under the First Evil's influence. The vampire that Spike stakes in "Sleeper" is called "Charlotte" in the shooting script.
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Canonical Appearances
The Master appeared in 11 canonical Buffyverse episodes:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Season 1 - "Welcome to the Hellmouth", "The Harvest", "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date", "Angel", "Nightmares", "Prophecy Girl"
- Season 2 - "When She Was Bad" (cameo; portrayed by David Boreanaz)
- Season 3 - "The Wish","Doppelgangland" (in flashbacks to "The Wish")
- Season 7 - "Lessons" (manifestation of the First Evil)
[edit] References
[edit] See also
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