Anya Jenkins

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Character
Name: Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins,
Anyanka, Aud
Occupation: Vengeance Demon, Highschool student, Cashier
Relationships: Xander (ex-fiance)
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Other:
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Anya is introduced in season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She is a more than one thousand years old vengeance demon and used to go by the name of Anyanka, but was born as Aud in the ninth century. Anya first poses as student at Sunnydale High and tries to get Cordelia to wish for something bad to happen to Xander for cheating on her. Cordelia wishes that Buffy had never existed, causing an alternate reality in which Willow destroys Anya's powers.

Anya returns to Sunnydale as a student and begins a relationship with Xander in season 4 and becomes a regular character on the series in season 5. She begins working as a cashier for Giles and later takes over his shop when he goes back to England. Xander proposes to her in season 5, but breaks off the engagement in season 6, on the day they were supposed to be married. Hurt by this, Anya becomes a vengeance demon again. However, after a particularly bloody 'job', she begs to become human again and gets her wish granted, killing one of her old friends in the process.

In the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Anya is killed fighting vampires.

Anya in Fandom

Anya is often found as a supporting character in fics, or in an established relationship with Xander. Anya/Xander fanfiction includes a lot of domestic fics given their canon relationship, as well as future fics and kid fics despite their break up in season 6. A number of Post-Chosen fics are AUs where Everybody Lives, allowing Anya to survive the apocalypse and rekindle her romance with Xander.

She is also regularly paired with Giles, her employer, or Spike, her one time lover, in het. She's a popular partner in femslash, with Buffy being a common partner.

There are also a few gen fics focusing on Anya. These often focus on her life as a vengeance demon pre-canon or Anya adjusting to her new human life as a student, and later as a businesswoman. Anya's canon fear of bunnies also appears in fanworks.

Meta sometimes explores why she is not taken to task in canon for the crimes of her vengeance demon history, often by comparison with Spike.

Death

Before the end of season 7, many fans believed that Anya could be one of the main characters to die in the finale. Fan theories were informed a lot by the fact that Emma Caulfield was the only actor not to sign on for a possible season 8.[1] Other fans believed Anya's death could serve a narrative process, ending the arc she began in season 4.

Anya's a likely candidate for death too. Her whole storyline has been about becoming human, and the ultimate pinnacle of that would be to sacrifice herself in order to save someone else - Xander perhaps?[2]

Post-Chosen, many fans were unhappy with Anya's death in the finale. They believed her quick death had little emotional weight and wasn't the death scene a main character deserved.[3]

Example Works

Fanfiction

Fanvids

Meta

Archives

Mailing Lists

References