Glory (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) - Powers and Abilities

Powers and Abilities

In Season 5, Episode 13, "Blood Ties," the gang begins discussing the Watcher Council's research on Glory. Buffy asks since Glory is a god, shouldn't she be able to throw lightning bolts? Giles responds, "Normally, yes, but since she is in human form, her powers are severely limited." During season five the following were demonstrated:

• Near-invulnerability: Only a Troll God's hammer was able to do any lasting damage to Glory when used repeatedly. In "Tough Love," 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"; 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 was slowed down, but was unharmed. Similarly, she was 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, during which she easily outmatched the entire Scooby Gang.
• Superhuman strength: Glory possesses enormous 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, shown to be able to inflict massive damage on her opponents through pure brute force and physical strength alone. 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.
• Brain Sucking: The ability to drain the mental energy of humans. This was primarily to maintain her own mental strength, but would also prevent Ben's form from resuming control. Not only does the drain draw out all energy leaving the victims in an insane state, they are also able to visually see The Key's true energy and ultimately become psychically linked to Glory and The Key.
• Shroud of Illusion: 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 works on humans; vampires, demons, and other non-humans are immune. She loses this capability in the penultimate episode of Season Five.
• Creature Identification: The ability to differentiate between vampires and humans and also from any other creature from the Key, as seen in "Intervention", when her minions capture Spike under the mistaken impression that he is The Key. And also when they assume Tara is the Key and Glory quickly identifies she isn't.
• Omnilingualism: Able to speak and understand any human or demon language. This is known when humans and demons would talk to her in other languages and she would easily be able to interpret and understand.
• Magic In "Shadow", Glory cast an ancient spell that caused an ordinary snake to grow to a massive size and granted it the ability to see the true form of The Key, in addition to making it completely loyal to her. According to Giles, a spell such as that would need enormous levels of magic to perform, and Glory cast it rather easily.

The extent of Glory's true powers as a hell-god were never revealed or used, though according to Gregor in "Spiral", they were beyond what even her compatriot hell-gods could conceive. She later secures Ben's aid in recapturing Dawn by promising him immortality.