| “ | Funny. 'Cause I look around at this world you're so eager to be a part of, and all I see is six-billion lunatics looking for the fastest ride out. Who's not crazy? Look around. Everyone's drinking, smoking, shooting up, shooting each other, or just plain screwing their brains out 'cause they don't want 'em anymore. I'm crazy? Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind. 'Cause at least I admit the world makes me nuts. | „ |
| ~ Glory |
Glory, also known as Glorificus or The Beast is the main antagonist in Season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
She is a deity from a hell-dimension who after being banished and imprisoned into the body of Ben Wilkinson plans to return to her dimension using a mystical Key, uncaring of the fact that in doing so she would ultimately cause all realities to cave in on themselves in an apocalyptic fashion. She is the archenemy of Dawn Summers, the physical form of The Key.
She was portrayed by Clare Kramer.
Biography[]
Glory originally ruled the hell dimension along with two other hell gods, however her power grew beyond even what they could conceive of. Fearful, the two gods struck first and went into battle against Glory. In the end they stood victorious (only barely), however Glory could not be killed so instead she was banished to Earth inside the body of a male, created as a mortal prison. However, Glory was too powerful to be completely contained and emerged as a beautiful woman, taking over Ben's body for brief periods of time. It was revealed that the Key was in fact a living being in the form of Dawn Summers - Buffy's "sister" (who was actually never born but was paired with Buffy in order to protect her). This resulted in Glory going after the slayer. Despite being in human form (which resulted in her losing most of her original power), she was still one of the Scooby Gang's most dangerous enemies and was the first villain that proved to be far more than a physical match for Buffy or any of the Scoobies.
Glory was ultimately defeated by Buffy after being weakened by the Dagon Sphere, disorientated by reverse-drain by Willow, struck many times with Olaf's Hammer (one of the only weapons that can deal any sort of damage to a her) and being smashed by a wrecking ball. The break down of the mystical shroud that prevented people from learning that Glory and Ben were the same person as well as them merging together also hampered with her strength and speed, allowing Buffy to fight with her more evenly. She was killed by Giles after he smothered Ben to death, as he died, so did Glory.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
Although the full scope of Glory's power is unknown, (she was significantly depowered when she was banished into human form) she is considered by many fans to be the most powerful villain Buffy had ever faced (and along with Illyria, one of the most powerful entities in either show). Some of the powers she has displayed include;
- Retroactive Immortality: As long as Glory is the dominant conscious in the body she shares with Ben, she cannot die by any known means. This only lasts as long as she is the dominant consciousness, and can be killed if her other half, Ben is killed.
- Near-Invulnerability: Glory was stated to be invulnerable by the Watchers Council themselves. Neither speeding glass, knives or crossbow shots could pierce her skin. She was also unphased after being smashed head on by a speeding Mac Truck and falling from terminal velocity in a ball of fire. Only weapons with the essence of a god and to a smaller degree magic had any sort of effect on her.
- Magic Resistance: Although powerful magic can slow Glory down and disorient her, she is still highly resistant to it. This was shown when she able to shrug off Willow's TP power and withstand magical bolts of electricity. Magic was only shown to be able to cause her pain or disorient her, not cause her any injuries.
- Superhuman Strength: Glory possessed a tremendous amount of physical strength that dwarfed that of any slayer, vampire or demon on Earth, capable of collapsing buildings in a temper tantrum and smashing through steel walls. She also overpowered Buffy and Spike with ease due to her strength alone.
- Superhuman Speed: Glory is considered to be the fastest character in either show, with her speed being much faster than that of any slayer, vampire or demon. She slaughtered hundreds of men and was completely gone from the battlefield in only a matter of seconds with Dawn in tow. She was also able to speed blitz Buffy with ease (without Buffy even realizing she had moved), Buffy herself can dodge bullets at point blank range, demonstrating that Glory can move beyond bullet-like speeds.
- Superhuman hearing: Glory's super-hearing appeared when she visited Buffy to threaten her, she knew instinctively that Dawn was behind her, despite Dawn making barely any noise. She later heard her minions talking about packing her stuff up to take it to her home dimension. During this event, Glory claimed she had "God-like ears".
- Magic Manipulation: Glory is highly proficient in casting powerful magic. She cast a powerful transmogrification spell to transform a cobra into a giant snake-like demon, making it completely submissive and loyal to her, Giles himself said that this spell would take "enormous power" to perform, yet Glory cast it with ease. It is possible that Glory could also use magic in other ways, but this wasn't shown.
- Cloaking Shroud: A mystical shroud cast to prevent people from realizing that she and Ben were the same person. However, it only worked on humans, and towards the season finale this shroud lost its effect completely, enabling the entire Scooby Gang to remember that Ben and Glory were one and the same.
- Insanity Inducement: Glory could drain the sanity of humans, she did this to maintain her own mental state (being a god from a higher plane, living on Earth slowly drove her insane.) This ability however does not work on vampires or demons.
- Species Differentiation: The ability to psychically differentiate between demons, vampires, and humans. When her minions captured Spike under the mistaken impression that he was the Key, she knew he was a vampire on sight
- Omnilingualism: Glory was able to speak and understand all human and demon languages - she was shown to speak Czech and the language of the Lei-Ach Demons.
Weaknesses[]
- Ben's Mortality: When her human side, Ben, takes over, she loses her immortality and thus becomes a vulnerable as a human being. Giles used this to his advantage and smothered Ben to death, thus sending Glory into oblivion.
- Limited Time: Due to the tremendous amount of power required, Glory's transformations are only short lived and she eventually reverts to Ben. She then has to wait to recharge her power before transforming into herself again.
- Declining Sanity: For unexplained reasons, she was prone to fits of declining mental strength. This required her to periodically absorb the sanity of other humans so thaw she doesn't slowly become catatonic.
- Ben's Influence: As she stated with her fights with Buffy, Ben's memories have a great humanizing influence on her, even when she is the dominant consciousness. Because of this, she cannot simply bring herself to simply kill Buffy outright and instead has to resort to trading blows with her instead.
- Divine Weapons: As a hell deity, she is vulnerable to divine weapons. Olaf's hammer was able to force her to retreat to suspension and revert back into Ben until she her drained powers had regenerated.
- Low Intelligence: Perhaps due to her lack of concern for realities beyond her home dimension and being an alien intellect forced into a human form, Glory is naive and somewhat spacey, though capable of tactical thought and low cunning. As a result, she does not have particularly subtle schemes and is easy to fool, once even sincerely believing Buffy was a robot after destroying her robotic duplicate.
