Master (Buffyverse)
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 Mark Metcalf as The Master |
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The Master (real name Heinrich Joseph Nest, according to the shooting script for "Welcome to the Hellmouth") is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, played by Mark Metcalf. He also made two cameo appearances in the spin-off series Angel.
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[edit] Biography
The Master first appears in "Welcome to the Hellmouth", the first episode of Buffy, as Buffy's first Big Bad. He 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 came to Sunnydale seeking to open the town's infamous Hellmouth. Unfortunately for him, opening dimensional portals is tricky, and he instead caused an earthquake that leveled the town and buried him along with the Hellmouth. Adding to his problems, the failed attempt also trapped The Master in a space-time bubble from which he cannot leave. He is mystically trapped and seeks to escape, hoping to allow demons to flood back into our dimension so he may claim dominion over the world.
The Master is unlike other vampires, and appears similar to Count Orlok from Nosferatu; in one Angel episode flashback, Darla tells Angelus that "The Master has grown past the curse of human features." When The Master is staked by Buffy in the episode "Prophecy Girl," he leaves bones, unlike most vampires. He is supposed to be revived by his right-hand child, the Anointed One, but his plans are thwarted by Buffy, and the Anointed One is later killed by Spike.
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, who hypnotizes and kills the Slayer known as Kendra.
The Master is also somehow connected with a three-headed demon commonly referred as the Hellmouth Spawn. During The Master's escape from the Hellmouth, 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. Buffy throws The Master through a skylight in the roof, and he is impaled upon the broken table leg. All the flesh on his bones streams off, leaving only his skeleton behind. The Anointed One 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 Master is known to be very old. He sired Darla, who is the sire of Angel.
To truly understand the scale of The Master's reputation and power, we look to when Buffy challenges Angel to fight The Master himself. Angel, an otherwise very brave and heroic character, refuses to, his excuse being "'Cause I'm afraid." 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, despite Angelus being a great and powerful vampire in his own right. However, during this beating, Angelus still showed virtually no fear, no respect, and no acknowledgement to the Master's superiority. He demonstrates this by persuading Darla, who was sired by The Master, to operate outside of The Master's chain of command while he was right in front of them both. 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.
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 vampiric versions of Willow and Xander at his side, Angel as a tortured pet of sorts, and most everyone else cowering in fear once the sun goes down. Just before this reality is negated, The Master kills Buffy, thus fulfilling the same prophecy he carried out in "Prophecy Girl."
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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| | +--------+------+ | |
| | | | | | |
| | | 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 (2003)
(2003)
- 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 African-American vampire that Spike stakes in "Sleeper" is called "Charlotte" in the shooting script.
[edit] Trivia
- Joss Whedon's script for the pilot indicates that The Master's actual name is Heinrich Joseph Nest, and his age is 600 years. However, the flashback to 1609 in the episode "Darla" shows The Master already with his bat-like demonic visage, implying he was far older than just 600 years by 1997, as this would have made The Master just 200 by 1609.
- The Master was originally supposed to have a beard and long hair. Actor Mark Metcalf came up with the bald, more demonic look as an homage to Nosferatu.[citation needed]
[edit] Appearances
The Master appeared in 10 episodes all together.
- 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" (uncredited)
- Season 3 - "The Wish"
- Season 7 - "Lessons" (manifestation of the First Evil)
