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The Senior Partners (also known as The Wolf, The Ram, and The Hart) are the secondary antagonists of the Buffyverse, appearing as the overarching antagonists of the supernatural crime drama Angel.

History[]

Origins[]

In the early ages, when the Old Ones ruled over Earth, The Wolf, The Ram and the Hart were a trio of demons described as being barely stronger than vampires. When the Old Ones were banished to another dimension and the human species began to thrive, the three demons realized that they could gain power through the corruption of human society, and so they began creating institutions to encourage said corruption, among which The Inquisition and later the Khmer Rouge.

As time went on, the corruption brought upon the world granted them more and more power, to the point that they had to leave the main plane of existence and ascend as they had become too powerful to exist on Earth.

Modern Times[]

During the eighteenth century, they founded the Wolfram & Hart law firm so as to both strengthen their hold over Earth and to ensure their Apocalypse went as they plan, as well as a powerful society the Senior Partners had influence over, the elite demon-society known as the Circle Of The Black Thorn, tasked with the job of ensuring "man's inhumanity to man" steadily increased and thus keep the gears of Armageddon rolling. Wolfram & Hart would go on to count countless branches over the world, with the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart as their .

At some point they learned of the Shanshu prophecy, which told of a "vampire with a soul" who would play an important part in their Apocalypse, although the prophecy didn't specify which side the vampire would fight on, leaving his role as a hero or destroyer ambiguous. However, it was also written, hidden behind a cryptic phrasing, that the vampire, having once accomplished his role, would become human again. Due to his nature as the only ensouled vampire in existence, the heroic Angel was suspected by the Partners to be the vampire from the Shanshu prophecy.

Season 1[]

In 1999, Angel, having set up a private investigation office in Los Angeles, would begin to clash with agents and clients of Wolfram & Hart over the course of a year, and eventually became aware of the prophecy himself, becoming determined to accomplish the prophecy so as to be forgiven for his crimes as the sadistic Angelus and to become human once again.

Seeking to corrupt Angel so as to make him side with them during the Apocalypse, the Senior Partners ordered their agents to resurrect the vampire Darla, Angel's former lover who was also the one who sired him as a vampire, in a human body.

Season 2[]

While Darla herself failed to seduce Angel back to the side of evil, her return and transformation into a vampire by Drusilla, led Angel to adopt a more ruthless approach to his fight against Wolfram & Hart, isolating himself from his team and using reprehensible measures, such as locking high-tier management lawyers of Wolfram & Hart in a cellar, to be massacred by Darla and Drusilla.

Angel would eventually confront one of the Senior Partners in the episode "Reprise", incarnated in the body of a lesser demon, during the "performance review" of Wolfram & Hart, which took place every 75 years. Angel successfully killed the host of the Partner, and rode an elevator that was supposed to take him to the "Home Office", the place the Partners draw power from, Hell, aiming to kill them. He was accompanied by Holland Manners, one of the high-tier lawyers of the firm, killed by Darla but kept in the service of the Partners, who revealed to Angel the true nature of the firm and its purpose. Exiting the elevator, Angel was shocked to discover that the "Home Office" was actually Earth, confirming Manners' claims that "Hell" was Earth. Shattered by the revelation that he could never truly win, Angel temporarily lost his will to fight and wandered off in Los Angeles. Soon after however Angel came to another realization, that the act of fighting itself was just as, if not more, important than actually winning, thus resuming his battle against the firm.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7[]

Learning of the First Evil's plan to unleash Hell on Earth, which ran counter to their own schemes as the First's victory would mean the definitive victory of evil, thereby robbing them of their power over Earth, the Senior Partners gifted Angel with a pendant that, given to an ensouled vampire, would help defeat the First's army. Angel traveled to Sunnydale and gave it to Buffy who in turn gave it to Spike, another ensouled vampire, who would use it to destroy the army of Turok-Hans, albeit killing him in the process.

Season 5[]

After preventing the fallen Power Jasmine from taking over the world, Angel and his team would be offered the job of managing the LA branch of Wolfram & Hart, both as a reward for stopping Jasmine's utopia, and to once again attempt to corrupt Angel. Seeing an opportunity to change the system from the inside, Angel accepted and began his effort to turn the branch into a tool for good.

Angel's efforts would prove fruitless however, as the system set up by the Partners meant that the outcome would always do harm to the people Angel aimed to defend. This prompted Angel to launch an assault against the Circle Of The Black Thorn, killing their members as well as killing the current "Child" of the Senior Partners known as Marcus Hamilton.

In retaliation to these actions the Senior Partners destroyed the LA department of Wolfram & Hart before dragging the city into a living hell in an apocalyptic event known as the Fall Of Los Angeles - during this time Angel and his crew fought to free LA from many Demon Lords but never engaged the Senior Partners directly: indeed it is heavily suggested throughout the series that the Senior Partners simply can NOT be faced directly - such is there immense power.

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

The Senior Partners were minor demons during the time of the Old Ones and Powers that Be, but they eventually stepped up their abilities and developed a legal firm so as to subtly control all the worlds by weaponizing the world's laws. So far the Senior Partners have shown...

  • Immortality: The Senior Partners are ageless beings, having survived since the age of the Old Ones and Powers that Be to modern times. They immense power also mean that they are almost impossible to kill.
  • Time Manipulation: The Senior Partners were able to rewind time to undo the Fall of Los Angeles and restore everything back to normal, once they realized they had nothing to gain from it.
  • Reality-Warping: due to their immense power, the Senior Partners can easily alter the fabric of reality such as when they resurrected Connor.
  • Inter-Dimensional Travel: The Senior Partners can open up portals to various dimensions.
  • Power Bestowal: The Senior Partners can imbue certain "valued" employees with certain supernatural perks and benefits, provided they all sign all the required legal contracts. They even imbued their children with superhuman abilities.
  • Lifeform Creation: The Senior Partners have created beings with an aesthetic human appearance, referring to them as their children. The liaison children are only granted an extended lifespan and a psychic link with the Senior Partners. However, Senior Partners also create enforcer children, with not only the extended lifespan and the psychic link of a liaison, but also possess superhuman strength and endurance to fulfill their role as an enforcer.

Abilities[]

  • Legal Knowledge: The Senior Partners were aware that they did not possess even half the power required to conquer any world. They instead weaponized the very judicial systems created by the residents of various dimensions and used it against them to win over power and influence.
  • Immense Resources: The Senior Partners represent the most amoral wealthy beings in various dimensions. These amoral clients provide the Senior Partner's business, Wolfram and Hart large sums of income on a regular basis, effectively causing the Senior Partners to have a nearly inexhaustible stash of wealth and funding at their disposal.

Trivia[]

  • The Partners are similar to and contrasted with the First Evil who appear in Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
    • Both of them are metaphors of the very idea of evil and corruption that can never be truly defeated. While the First is the literal personification of the concept of evil, the Senior Partners are entities that have nudged man's tendency towards evil, and are essentially responsible for much of the evil in the world.
    • Both of them are incredibly old and powerful entities which have existed since before the existence of man. But while the First has always existed and always will, the Partners came to existence a the same time as demons and their power is directly tied with the existence of the human race, unlike the First who exist independently from them.
    • While they are both powerful, the First's powers are limited by his nature as incorporeal entity while the Partners have no such limitations.
    • Both can't interact with the normal world but their reasons are different: the First is unable to because he is incorporeal while the Senior Partners are simply too powerful.
    • While the First has a true form seen in the show and can appear as whoever person that has died, the Partners true form isn't shown on the show and they never directly appear (although they do reveal themselves in the continuation of the show).
    • The First, as the incarnation of evil, has the goal of accomplishing victory over good itself and overcoming the balance of good and evil. This ran counter to the Partners who needs the existence of good to corrupt it and feed on said corruption, hence why the Partners lend a hand in stopping the First.

Gallery[]

Navigation[]

          Buffy the vampire slayerAngel - TV Series Logo Villains

Protagonists
Spike | Faith Lehane | Anyanka | Harmony Kendall | Connor | Andrew Wells | Illyria

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Big Bads
Lothos | The Master | Drusilla | Angelus | Richard Wilkins | Maggie Walsh | Adam | Glorificus | Warren Mears | Dark Willow Rosenberg | The First Evil | Turok-Han | Caleb | Twilight | Simone Doffler | Severin | D'Hoffryn

Angel Big Bads
Holland Manners | Lindsey McDonald | Darla | Daniel Holtz | The Beast | Angelus | Jasmine | Marcus Hamilton | Charles Gunn (Vampire) | Myresto Mor | Whistler | Archaeus

Wolfram and Hart
Senior Partners | Lilah Morgan

Circle of the Black Thorn
Helen Brucker

Supporting Villains
Amilyn | Amy Madison | Mr. Trick | Ben Wilkinson | Justine Cooper

One-Shot Buffy villains
Kiddy League Coach | Der Kindestod | Willow Rosenberg (Wishverse) | Xander Harris (Wishverse) | Pete Clarner | Lunch Lady | The Gentlemen | Sweet | Wig Lady | Gnarl | Ted Buchanan

One-Shot Angel villains
Marcus | Darin MacNamara | Matthias Pavayne | Billy Blim | Ryan Anderson

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