Glorificus

Glory
First appearance "No Place Like Home" Created by Joss Whedon, Douglas Petrie
Statistics Full name Glory, Glorificus Affiliation None Notable powers Periodically drains the sanity of human beings to maintain her own, presumably to temporarily prevent returning to Ben's form. Can speak and understand all languages, demonic and human. Superhuman strength, speed, and near-invulnerability. Capable of differentiating between vampires and humans. Has enormous power from which to cast extreme spells. Mystical "shroud" erases the memory of her transformation into Ben from humans. Portrayed by  Clare Kramer

Glory is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Also known as "Glorificus", "That Which Cannot Be Named" and "The Beast", (see name below), she appeared during the fifth season of the program and was portrayed by Clare Kramer.

Character biography

History

Glory is a god from a hell dimension, over which she ruled alongside two other deities, though she was the most powerful of the three. Afraid that Glory would take full control of their dimension, the other two began a war against her. Glory lost the war, albeit narrowly, and was banished into the earthly dimension where she was forced to share a body with a child named Ben, who was created solely to "contain" her.

Glory soon began to gain control over Ben for short periods of time, taking the form of a vain, self-centered human female who possessed superhuman strength but lacked many of her other powers. A magical "amnesia" spell keeps humans from learning that Glory and Ben are one and the same, even if she transforms right in front of them. However, the spell does not affect non-humans and Spike gained knowledge that Glory and Ben are the same entity. This becomes a recurring joke in the penultimate episode of Season Five, where Spike finds himself repeatedly having to explain to the Scooby Gang that Ben and Glory are the same person, only for them either to misunderstand him or to instantly forget. However, as Ben and Glory's personalities begin to merge more and more (see below), the magical ruse weakens until, in the finale, the whole gang is able to see through it.

Sunnydale

Glory comes to Sunnydale looking for "the Key," a mystical artifact that will break down the walls between all dimensions, allowing her to return to reign in her own dimension. Use of the Key will also cause the merging of all other dimensions, including the one Buffy and her friends inhabit, though Glory does not care about that. Glory is not aware of what form the Key has taken, though she knows that Buffy, the Slayer, protects it. She begins the quest to locate it, aided by a group of pale, black-eyed demons who are loyal to her almost to a fault (despite the fact that she physically and verbally abuses them). Glory quickly establishes herself as one of Buffy's most dangerous and determined enemies; at one point, she confronts Buffy in her own home, openly threatening to kill Buffy's friends and family and force Buffy herself to watch her do so.

In order to maintain her sanity and power, Glory feeds off humans by a process that Buffy and her friends refer to as "brain-sucking". She inserts her fingers into the victim's head, absorbing the energies that bind the victim's mind. The humans that she "devours" in this way become incoherent and mentally unstable; Glory's arrival in Sunnydale is followed by an inexplicable increase in the number of mental patients. One of her unfortunate victims is Willow's girlfriend, Tara. For her part, Buffy is not initially aware of the Key's nature either. It is eventually revealed that Buffy's "new sister", Dawn, is the Key, in human form. Glory soon discovers this fact, and manages to kidnap Dawn.

The Key can only be used at a certain time, and as that time draws near, the power that separates Glory from Ben dissolves. They still inhabit Ben's body separately, but their memories and personalities begin to blur together.

Buffy attacks Glory with everything she has: Willow's magic spell (that draws on Glory's stamina, giving sanity back to Tara at the same time), the Dagon Sphere (that lowers Glory's strength as well), her identical robot twin (the "Buffybot"), Olaf's Hammer (with which Buffy beats Glory to a pulp), and eventually a wrecking ball, commandeered by Xander. Meanwhile, Spike, Giles, and Anya attack her minions. However, the final spell that will open the dimensions has already been started by Glory's cohort Doc, unsuccessfully confronted by Spike, cutting Dawn with a knife and making her bleed (the act of which opens a portal to the other dimensions). Ultimately, after killing Doc and saying goodbye to her sister, Buffy jumps into the portal that is opening between dimensions, resulting in its closure and her own death.

Glory is left defeated and significantly weakened, losing her hold on this reality and returning to the form and mind of Ben. Giles knows that Glory will eventually return and get her revenge unless Ben is killed, so he smothers him to death with his bare hands. As Ben dies, so does Glory.

Glory is also referred to as "Glorificus" by her minions and in most textual references, and occasionally as "The Beast" by the monks who created Dawn (although she has nothing to do with The Beast who appeared in Angel, the spin-off series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

After this, her final appearance in the series is at the end of the episode "Lessons", as an avatar of the First Evil along with most of the other major villains from the series.

Name

"That Which Cannot Be Named" came into existence before written word, and therefore (as its title implies) has no name. When the hell-god came to this dimension, she was dubbed "Glorificus" (Latin: "glorified") or sometimes "Glorifius," names which she shortened to "Glory." She was also known as "the Glorious One" (among many other amusing, groveling titles such as "Her Splendiferousness," "Her Sparkling Luminescence" and "Oh Sweaty-Naughty-Feelings-Causing One") by her demon minions, and as "the Beast" or "the Abomination" by the human priesthood and the Knights of Byzantium. Ben refers to her as "the Most Unstable One", while the Scoobies at one time refer to her as "Hell-Bitch." But they mostly refer to her as Glory.

Powers and abilities

It is revealed that Glory's powers were reduced when she was imprisoned in human form. However, the powers that remained were:

• Near-invulnerability: Only a troll god's hammer was able to do any lasting damage to Glory when used repeatedly. In her original form, she is immortal. Willow's lightning bolts caused her pain, but caused no visible damage as the hammer did, though she comments that Willow's assault slowed her down slightly; by the time of the season finale, Buffy mentions that Willow was the only one of the Scoobies who was ever successful in actually hurting Glory up to that point. When a building collapses on top of her (see below), she is slowed down, but unharmed. Similarly, she is unharmed after being hit by a truck. Presumably, she was either unharmed or left with minor injuries after Willow's teleportation spell during the hospital attack.
• Superhuman strength: Glory possesses physical strength far beyond that of most, if not all, vampires, demons, or Slayers; in fact, she is considered to be the most physically powerful Big Bad in the series. At one point, a building collapses on her after she repeatedly stomps her foot in a temper tantrum over a broken shoe. In "Intervention", she kicked Spike clear across her living room, through a solid wooden door, and to the other end of the room behind said door after losing her patience with him. In "Spiral", she punches a hole through the barrier that Willow had previously generated.
• Superhuman speed: Glory's super-speed is depicted as a fast-moving blur that is apparently invisible to the naked eye. This is seen when she pursues Buffy and Dawn immediately after Tara, in her insane state, accidentally reveals that Dawn is the Key.
• The ability to drain the mental energy of humans to maintain her own mental strength, presumably to also temporarily keep from reverting to Ben's form. Victims were left in an insane state and appeared to be psychically linked to Glory from that point on.
• A mystical shroud cast to prevent people from learning that she and Ben were the same person, the origins of which are unclear. It only worked on humans; vampires, demons, and other non-humans were immune. She loses this capability in the penultimate episode of Season Five.
• The ability to differentiate between vampires and humans, apparently through smelling them, as seen in "Intervention", when her minions capture Spike under the mistaken impression that he is the Key.
• Apparent omnilingualism: able to speak and understand any human or demon language.

The extent of Glory's true powers as a hell god were never revealed, though according to Gregor in "Spiral", they were beyond what even her compatriot hell gods could conceive. In the finale, she gained Ben's aid in recapturing Dawn by offering him immortality should her powers be restored. Although she could have just been bluffing to manipulate him into helping her, by that time they had merged to the point that they each remembered everything the other said and thought; if she had been bluffing, it is likely that Ben would have known.

Personality

Clare Kramer, in an interview with the BBC, says Glory's strength was her lack of self-doubt: "She was completely secure in herself, focused on what she wanted and dedicated to her cause." However, her strength was also her downfall; Kramer notes that Glory was unable "to look at more than just herself."^[1]

• The picture in the living room of Glory's mansion is a copy of Tamara de Lempicka's Irene and her sisters a.k.a. Four nudes. The Polish art déco/futurist artist is renowned for being strongly feminist and openly bisexual/lesbian.

Servants

• Dreg
• Jinx
• Murk
• Slook
• Gronx
• The High Priest Minion
• Doc

Art links

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (January 2008)

• The picture in the living room of Glory's mansion is a copy of Tamara de Lempicka's Irene and her sisters a.k.a. Four nudes. The Polish art déco/futurist artist is renowned for being strongly feminist and openly bisexual/lesbian.
• In Buffy & Angel: Official Yearbook 2006, Glory was voted number one by fans as "Best Buffyverse Villain", followed by Angelus and the Mayor respectively.

Appearances

Canonical appearances

Glory has appeared in 13 canonical Buffyverse episodes:

Season 5 (2000–2001) - "No Place Like Home"; "Family"; "Shadow"; "Checkpoint"; "Blood Ties"; "I Was Made to Love You"; "Forever"; "Intervention"; "Tough Love"; "Spiral; "The Weight of the World"; "The Gift"

Season 7 (2002-2003) - "Lessons" (as an incarnation of The First Evil)

Merchandise

The character's popularity prompted Diamond Select Toys to release two unique Glory action figures in 2006 and 2007: one figure is modeled on the character wearing her trademark red dress, and the other features the character dressed in black, as seen in "The Gift" (episode 5.22). The latter action figure was released as part of a set, the other figure being Dawn from the same episode.

In mid-2009, a maquette of Glory will be released as part of Electric Tiki's "Tooned-Up Television" line^[2].

See also

• List of Buffyverse Villains and Supernatural Beings
• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture

References