Richard Wilkinsedit
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- "I've made certain deals to get where I am today. This demon requires his tribute. You see, that's what separates me from other politicians, Mr. Trick... I keep my campaign promises."
- ―Richard Wilkins III[src]
Richard Wilkins III was the Mayor of Sunnydale. A sorcerer bent on becoming a pure-breed demon, Wilkins had made a number of pacts with demons to obtain immortality as well as his power-base, though his public persona was that of a charismatic, conservative and pleasant family man.
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Biography
Background
Richard Wilkins arrived in California in the 1800s. He went on to found the town of Sunnydale, California in 1841[1] on the location of Boca del Infierno after the last Slayer, Naayéé'neizgháni, died there. Wilkins found the Hellmouth infested with demons, with whom he made a pact to avoid being killed himself.
He agreed to found a town on the Hellmouth where demons could freely feed on the inhabitants of the town. In his deals with demons (including Lurconis), he sold his soul and gained immortality. In 1899, he began planning his Ascension into the form of a pure demon called Olvikan that would take place in one hundred years.
Wilkins married Edna May in 1903. In time, she grew senile and cursed him for his youth until dying of old age. It was not a happy time for the couple and Wilkins learned from experience what an immortal's relationship with a mortal would become.
Richard Wilkins III also happened to be Richard Wilkins Sr. and Jr.; he pretended to be his own son in each subsequent generation in order to conceal his longevity.
Events Leading to the Ascension
After he achieves Ascension into the gigantic demon known as Olvikan during Sunnydale High's graduation ceremony in 1999, Buffy exploits his love for Faith by taunting him with the knife he had given to Faith and with which Buffy put Faith in a coma. Buffy lures Wilkins into the empty library, now filled with bags of dynamite. Rupert Giles then presses the trigger that obliterates the Mayor and the school building. True to his avoidance of foul language, Wilkins' last words are "Well, gosh."
Mayor Wilkins became a father figure to Faith; he even furnished her room, complete with a PlayStation, because he did not like to see her at the seedy motel where she was staying. When he discovered that Buffy had badly injured Faith, Wilkins tried to kill Buffy while she was in the hospital, but he is stopped by Angel. His affection for Faith even carried on to his demonic form.
Wilkins is seen again in Season 4 on a videotape he had left for Faith in case she ever woke up from her coma. His corpse is also briefly seen in "Doomed"; when Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Spike go to the ruins of the high school to prevent the Hellmouth from opening, Xander steps on it and remarks, "Mayor meat, extra crispy". He is seen again in Season 7 as one of the many incarnations of The First Evil.
Spirit
In the Haunted comic, Mayor Wilkins is shown to live on as a ghost for a while, possessing the bodies of dead animals and demons (as well as vampires). In the process, he is also responsible for the creation of Adam, when he possesses the corpse of a powerful demon (his earlier vampire body having been captured by the Initiative) and badly injures the then-human Adam. After a battle with Buffy in the clock tower, where Buffy finally learns of his inhuman nature after decapitating his current body to no effect, Willow, with the assistance of Xander and Buffy, sends him to the next realm. There is no evidence that they ever discover it was the Mayor who had been attacking him, although Faith later tells Angel in prison that she recalls the Mayor's ghost visiting her using the body of a dead bird while she was in her coma.
Powers and abilities
- "You see, I'm what you might call "impervious." Can't be killed, or harmed, in any way."
- ―Mayor Wilkins to Angel[src]
Before transforming into a demon, Wilkins was a powerful sorcerer who specialized in the dark arts. He had a cabinet full of shrunken heads, bones and supernatural paraphernalia. He became immortal and gained eternal youth thanks to demonic benefactors. After performing the dedication, he could not be harmed in any way for 100 days until the Ascension, and was able to heal from massive injuries immediately.
As the embodiment of the demon Olvikan, he possesses inhuman strength, endurance, and size, endowed with a thick, bone-armored hide, sharp teeth and mandibles, and a spiked tail-club.
Personality
- "- Thanks, sugar daddy.
- Oh! Faith. I don't find that sort of thing amusing. I'm a family man. Now, let's kill your little friend." - ―Faith and Richard Wilkins[src]
Unlike many Buffy villains, Mayor Wilkins had quite a pleasant demeanor. A polite man with an aversion to swearing and bawdy humor, he nearly always wore a smile on his face. He calls himself a "family man" though he claims that he never had any children (No Future For You) and his wife Edna Mae Wilkins died resenting him for his youth. He loves The Family Circus, Tollhouse Cookies and miniature golf. Despite his status as a demon, he is quite friendly. He had a close father-daughter relationship with Faith and seemed genuinely distraught when she went into a coma. Mayor Wilkins' most notable trait is his obsessive hygiene which became a recurring gag.
However it was this same parental love for Faith that allowed his darker side to be shown. When Buffy managed to critically hurt her Wilkins in rage almost smothered Buffy to death in hospital. Buffy was able to bait Wilkins after Ascension into following her by taunting him with the custom knife he had given to Faith as a present which Buffy had taken.
Trivia
- True to his avoidance of foul language, Mayor Wilkins's last words were "Well, gosh."
- Mayor Wilkins loves the Family Circus cartoon strip, amused that P.J. is such a handful (Bad Girls), but dislikes Marmaduke, whose always sitting on the couch seem unsanitary to him. He does not like Cathy, either.
- In a deleted scene of the series premiere of Firefly, it is learned that the Alliance troops who advanced on the Independents in Serenity Valley were led by General Richard Wilkins. The characters are not related, as Firefly is not part of Whedon's Buffyverse.
Appearances
- Tales of the Slayers: The Glittering World
- I Only Have Eyes for You (First mentioned)
- Homecoming (1st Appearance)
- Band Candy
- Lovers Walk
- Gingerbread
- Bad Girls
- Consequences
- Doppelgangland
- Enemies
- Choices
- Graduation Day, Part 1
- Graduation Day, Part 2 (Killed)
- Haunted
- This Year's Girl (in dreams) (in video tape)
- Lessons (as a disguise of The First Evil)
- Touched (as a disguise of The First Evil)
- No Future for You (Only in flashbacks)
