Glory

Lore & Background

Glorificus (also known as "Glory") is a god from a hell dimension ruled by three hell gods. Fearful that Glorificus would seize total control of the dimension for herself, the two other gods aligned and banished her into the earthly dimension, where her essence is imprisoned in a human child named Ben, portrayed by Charlie Weber. Glory's strength is greater than that of any Slayer, vampire, or antagonist previously shown as a season villain of Buffy, but her powers are weak when compared to those she had in her home dimension.

Dark magicks prevent humans in the Buffy universe from learning that Glory and Ben are the same; even if she transforms right in front of someone, they have no memory of the incident. The spell does not affect supernatural characters like vampires and demons. This flaw becomes a recurring joke in the penultimate episode of season 5, where Spike finds himself repeatedly having to explain that Ben and Glory are the same person, only for people to either misunderstand him or forget about it instantly.

As Ben and Glory's personalities begin to merge more, the magic weakens until, in the finale, the whole gang sees through it. This human form is Glory's only weakness; if the human vessel containing her is killed, then Glory perishes with him.

Reader's Guide

Glory enters early on in season 5, but the Scooby Gang knows very little about her, only discovering her name from one of Glory's minions. Glory's god-like status, extreme power level, origins, and the Key's true nature and history are not known until later episodes. Glory comes to Sunnydale looking for "The Key," which will allow her to return to her own dimension. She begins the quest to locate the Key, aided by a race of pale, black-eyed demons who are loyal to her almost to a fault, though she does not care for them and viciously 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 to watch her do so. Glory is a god in a human body; the human mind can not control such power, which gradually turns Glory insane. To maintain her sanity and power, Glory feeds off humans' mental energies through 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 and can also see Dawn in her true form. One of her unfortunate victims is Willow's girlfriend, Tara, who later inadvertently betrays Dawn to Glory. The Scoobies try to run, but Glory still manages to kidnap Dawn shortly afterward.

The Key can only be used at a certain time, and as that time draws near, the power that separates Glory from Ben dissolves. Both characters still inhabit Ben's body separately, but their memories and personalities begin to blur together. After recovering from a mental breakdown caused by Glory's kidnapping of Dawn, Buffy decides to attack Glory with everything she has: Willow's magic spell to restore Tara's sanity, at the same time weakening Glory's mind; the Dagon Sphere (a weapon created by the monks that cause physical pain to Glory); Buffy's robot double (the "Buffybot"); Olaf, The Troll God's Hammer (with which Buffy can beat Glory in battle and severely weaken her albeit temporarily, due to the hammer being a weapon of the gods); and eventually a wrecking ball, commandeered by Xander.

Glory is left defeated and significantly weakened, losing her hold on this reality and returning to the form and mind of Ben. Buffy then tells Ben to tell Glory to leave Sunnydale and never return. As Buffy walks off, Giles knows that Glory will eventually regain her power and return to get her revenge on Buffy unless Ben is killed, so he smothers Ben to death with his bare hands, ensuring that Glory can never return. After Glory's defeat, 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.