



Katrina: “How could you say you loved me and do that to me?” Warren: “Because you deserved it, bitch!” — Katrina Silber and Warren Mears[src]

Warren Mears was a technological genius and a member of the Trio. He built several humanoid robots, including April,[2] the Buffybot,[3] and his own double.[4] He and his friends Jonathan Levinson and Andrew Wells formed the Trio as an evil league of supervillains who plotted to defeat Buffy Summers and take over Sunnydale.[5]

Although relatively harmless at first, Warren eventually showed his true colors as a misogynistic killer when he attacked his ex-girlfriend Katrina Silber.[6] After the accidentally fatal shooting of Tara Maclay during an attempt to murder Buffy,[7] Warren was flayed alive by Willow Rosenberg.[4] Seconds later, Amy Madison saved his life, using magic to preserve him in a skinless, undead state. Warren and Amy then aligned themselves with the U.S. military and the masked "Twilight" in order to get revenge on both Willow and Buffy. Warren met his final end when Buffy brought about the end of magic.[8]

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Biography Edit

Early life Edit

Willow: “I'm just saying, people get lonely, and maybe having someone around, even someone you made up... maybe it's easier.” Tara: “But it's so weird. I mean, everyone wants a nice normal person to share with, but this guy, if he couldn't find that, I guess it's... kinda sad.” — Willow and Tara empathize with Warren's creation of April.[src]

Warren grew up in Sunnydale, California. In school, he excelled in science and technology,[2] but was bullied by his peers, including a jock named Frankie.[7] As a teenager, he attended Sunnydale High School for a semester before moving on to a tech college in Dutton. Warren eventually built a robot girlfriend named April, who was programmed to love and obey him. He assumed that he would love her in return, but grew bored of how easy and predictable things were with her. Instead, he met and fell in love with Katrina Silber, a strong-minded girl in his engineering seminar, and the pair began dating. However, Warren was unable to bring himself to break up with April, so he went home for spring break without her, hoping that her batteries would run out.[2]

In 2001, April followed Warren and Katrina to Sunnydale, where she proceeded to question everyone she met about Warren's whereabouts. This caught the attention of the Scooby Gang, including the Slayer Buffy Summers. When April's behavior grew erratic and violent, Buffy tracked Warren down and confronted him. He explained that April must have been recharging her batteries somehow, and Buffy became concerned about the danger she posed. When Katrina told April that Warren was her boyfriend, the robot attacked her, but Buffy and Warren showed up just in time to save her life. Warren told April that he didn't love her and she reacted violently. As she and Buffy began to fight, Katrina realized that April was a robot and left Warren in disgust. He ran after her, leaving Buffy to deal with April, whose batteries finally ran out.[2]

Warren was later approached by the vampire Spike, who harbored a romantic obsession with Buffy.[2] He forced Warren to build a robotic version of the Slayer for him to have sex with before he supposedly skipped town.[3]

The Trio Edit

Warren resurfaced as part of the Trio, along with Jonathan and Andrew. The Trio was little more than a criminal group who strove to take over Sunnydale, though most of their plans revolved around neutralizing Buffy, who, as the Slayer, was the one thing standing in their way.[5] Warren was clearly the leader of the Trio, dominant over Jonathan and Andrew, as well as more willing than the other two nerds to take real risks and possibly do real harm to people.

Warren showed his true colors as a dangerous, misogynistic individual. When Katrina reappeared, Warren used the Cerebral Dampener device to make her obey his will, including serving and kissing him. When she resisted the device, Warren attacked and accidentally killed her.[6]

He then hatched a scheme using Rwasundi demons and their temporal disturbances to confuse Buffy into thinking she was responsible for Katrina's death. His plan nearly succeeded, but just as Buffy was about to turn herself into the Sunnydale Police Department, she overheard them identify Katrina's body and immediately realized the truth, subsequently vowing to bring Warren to justice.[6]

After Katrina's death, Jonathan became increasingly unhappy with Warren's lack of conscience. Warren plotted with Andrew, who was enamored with him, to ditch Jonathan.[9] Additionally, Warren began to dominate his teammates, reserving the usage of any scientific devices and mystical artifacts they created or acquired for himself.[6][7]

Warren made a bid for major villain status when he stole Orbs of Nezzla'Khan which gave him strength and invulnerability. He, Jonathan, and Andrew attempted to rob an armored car, but Buffy arrived and the two fought, during which it was clear that Warren's Orb-granted strength made him more than a match for the Slayer, even taking the time to gloat that he had finally defeated the Slayer, something that many had tried (and failed) to accomplish in the past. In the midst of the fight, Jonathan appeared to attack Buffy, but in fact surreptitiously told her how to defeat Warren. Just as Warren was apparently about to finish Buffy off, she saw the pouch containing the orbs and destroyed them. As a contemptuous Buffy advanced, an enraged and humiliated Warren escaped with a jet pack, vowing that he would take Buffy down, and left Jonathan and Andrew to take the fall with the police.[7]

The next day, Warren, furious that Buffy had foiled his plans again, appeared in Buffy's backyard with a gun. He fired several shots, hitting Buffy, who only survived because of Willow's intervention, and accidentally killing Tara with a stray bullet. This event pushed Willow deeper into dark magics as she sought vengeance. Upon discovering that Buffy had survived his assassination attempt and that Willow was after him, Warren immediately traveled to the hideout of sorcery dealer Rack, who supplied him with protection spells.[4]

These were not enough to stop Willow, who eventually had Warren at her mercy. Although Warren attempted to reason with Willow, his pleas fell upon deaf ears when she exposed that he was indeed responsible for Katrina's death. Willow tied him up with various tree branches and tortured him with the bullet she had extracted from Buffy's body, slowly forcing it into his chest before growing bored with him. She telekinetically flayed him alive in front of her friends, then went on a rampage to kill Andrew and Jonathan, despite them not being directly involved.[4]

Warren's family buried his skin, the only remains they could find, in a cemetery in Sunnydale.[10]

Legacy Edit

The First Evil appeared as Warren, using his appearance mainly as a means of bending Andrew to its will.[11] Using this method, the First Evil manipulated Andrew into murdering Jonathan, in order to open the Seal of Danzalthar in the basement of the new Sunnydale High.[12]

A Penance Malediction spell, cast by Amy, caused Willow, feeling guilty over moving on after Tara's death, to manifest her feelings by making her outwardly assume the appearance of her former victim. Additionally, Warren's personality began to overtake Willow's, causing her to slap Amy across the face while calling her a "dumb bitch" and buy a handgun with the intent to kill Buffy in her backyard. However, with Kennedy's help, Willow was able to work through her grief and guilt and break the spell.[13]

Skinless Edit

The real Warren, however, returned months after the destruction of Sunnydale. Seconds after he was killed by Willow, Amy had used her magic to resurrect Warren and keep him surviving despite his lack of skin. He was the one who gave Amy the idea of cursing Willow in order to become him, and he bore a considerable grudge against both Willow (for flaying him) and Buffy (for ruining all of his schemes).[14]

Amy and Warren remained in the remnants of Sunnydale after the massive exodus and were present during the town's destruction. They remained for months in the crater, feeding on whatever edible substance they could find, until they were found by General Voll's team at Drextalcorp Recycling Technologies. In exchange for their aid against Buffy and the Slayers, Warren asked for a chance to exact revenge on Willow.[15] He revealed the means of his survival as he lobotomized a captive Willow. When Buffy and Satsu arrived on a rescue mission, Amy teleported away, taking Warren with her. Willow healed instantaneously.[14]

Twilight was seen with Warren and Amy in some sort of military base, where Warren showed him something that would help get Twilight's job done: a missile. It targeted and destroyed the Slayer Organization command center in Scotland, with Xander looking on nearby, helplessly.[16]

While on the run from demons with his Italy squad, Andrew discovered a bleeding and skinless Warren underground who claimed to have been abandoned by Amy to die slowly as his magical skin wore off. Warren pleaded and seemed to take responsibility for some of the First's claims while under his guise, such as the instruction to kill Jonathan. However, this turned out to be a ruse as the goatmen demons descended and Andrew and his Slayers were forced to fight back and retreat to the new Slayer Organization headquarters. Amy interrupted his ruse on purpose, believing it doomed to failure because it was the First who tempted Andrew before and Warren was "not the First."[17]

After being discarded by Twilight and discovering his identity, Amy, Warren, and the General sought a temporary alliance with the Scoobies.[18] Warren joined them in the fight for the Seed of Wonder in Sunnydale,[19] before he and Amy were abandoned the General.[20] After traveling to Venice, Amy pondered over going back to help the Scoobies, but Warren adamantly refused, reminding Amy that Buffy and Willow were "the enemy." After Buffy destroyed the Seed and all magic, Warren, without Amy's magic to keep him alive, collapsed into a puddle of blood and bones.[8]

Remains Edit

Amy collected Warren's remains and put them in a glass jar. After Angel successfully resurrected Rupert Giles, Amy approached the vampire in London to ask how he managed so she could resurrect Warren.[21] Angel agreed to at least consider the possibility due to his role in Warren's death and to limit the risk of Amy doing something particularly dangerous if she tried to do something that complex on her own.[22] Although, Angel then refused to help her[23] and, with the assistance of Nadira and the Magic Town, foiled Amy's plans transforming her into a rat. Warren's remains were trusted to be guarded by Alasdair Coames.[24]

When Andrew returned to Sunnydale with the intent to resurrect Jonathan and Tara, it was revealed that the Trio made copies of their DNA and consciousness and saved them on USB flash drives.[10] Andrew destroyed Warren's backup to ensure he would never return.[25]

Personality and traits Edit

Willow: “You never felt you had the power with her. Not until you killed her.” Warren: “Women. You know, you're just like the rest of them. Mind games.” — Willow and Warren[src]

Warren was a flat misogynist and killer.[6][7] Though previously passive and helpful towards Buffy and the Scoobies,[2] that soon changed when he formed the Trio with Andrew and Jonathan. From the very beginning, he was the one most willing to take real risks and cause people actual harm; for example, he willingly gave a M'Fashnik demon they hired to work for them Buffy's address and phone number and let him try to kill her,[5] and was completely indifferent to Buffy's impending death as a result of the invisibility ray's radiation, even attempting to speed up the process during a confrontation.[26] However, he showed his true colors after killing Katrina and attempting to frame Buffy,[6] and later shooting Buffy and nearly killing her after she foiled his plans once again.[7] After being saved from death by Amy, he developed a full-blown hatred of both Buffy and Willow for everything they had done to him,[14] to the extent that he flatly refused to go back and help them in the battle for the Seed of Wonder in Sunnydale despite the world itself being at risk.[8]

Powers and abilities Edit

Although Warren displayed no independent supernatural powers, he did possess a genius-level intellect, especially in the fields of technology and robotics. He was capable of building highly advanced robots which can easily pass for ordinary humans. Even vampires, with their enhanced senses are incapable of differentiating the robots that Warren made from actual people, though their mannerisms and speech patterns were stilted and imperfect by human standards.[2] The Buffybot he built successfully masqueraded as Buffy Summers for several weeks,[27] after fooling even Buffy's friends and family.[3]

Some of his other creations, which fuse magic and technology, included an invisibility ray,[26] a freeze ray,[28] a microchip capable of slowing time,[29] the Cerebral Dampener,[6] and at least two jet packs.[7] He also displayed enough knowledge of biology to perform a lobotomy.[14]

Warren gained the power of the Orbs of Nezzla'khan, he was granted superhuman strength and invulnerability, respectively. In this state, he was a physical match for Buffy enough to overpower her, until the orbs were destroyed. During this time, he merely fought with sheer brute force, as opposed to the advanced martial arts skills that Buffy commonly employed.[7]

Gallery Edit

Behind the scenes Edit

He was portrayed by Adam Busch and voice acted by Marcus Ashley in Season Eight Motion Comic .

. In the Slay the Critics featured in No Future for You, Part One , a mail pointed out the contradiction of Warren's reveal that he didn't die in "Villains," while he was still impersonated by the First Evil in the following season. About this, Joss Whedon answered: "He was legally dead for like a second. Amy didn't tell him 'cause she didn't want to upset him. I forgot, okay?!" In the letters page for Retreat, Part One , Scott Allie reiterated that Warren was technically dead for a moment before Amy's magic kicked in, allowing the First to use his form.

featured in , a mail pointed out the contradiction of Warren's reveal that he didn't die in "Villains," while he was still impersonated by the First Evil in the following season. About this, Joss Whedon answered: "He was legally dead for like a second. Amy didn't tell him 'cause she didn't want to upset him. I forgot, okay?!" In the letters page for , Scott Allie reiterated that Warren was technically dead for a moment before Amy's magic kicked in, allowing the First to use his form. In "The Story of Season Five" DVD featurette, Adam Busch claims that he doesn't see Warren as simply a villain or a purely evil person: "He's always given that moment where he can do the right thing that he never ever does, because he is flawed and he does have a lot of issues and an inability to communicate or talk to anyone, or really explain what it is that he wants." Writer Jane Espenson draws comparisons between the characters of Buffy and Warren, claiming: "When Buffy's talking with Warren about his break-up with April, she's actually identifying with him, because she did a lot of the same stuff with Riley that he did with April."

Appearances Edit

Canonical Edit

Other Edit