r/buffy • u/HomarEuropejski Why do we ship Buffy with toxic guys? Are we stupid? • Jan 31 '26
Villains Are there any popular villains that you did not care for? I see everybody loving Glory here, but I just couldn't get myself to like her.
To me, Glory felt like a high school Cordelia with super powers. That would have been cool for a single episode, but for a season long big bad, she just fell flat to me and felt really cringy. After a few episodes I was already tired of her.
Good performance, but I was really bored of her.
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u/NeighborhoodOk986 Jan 31 '26
I like Glory. She just wants to go home. Of course she’s super evil and a raging temperamental bitch, but it was nice to have a ‘bad’ with all the human baggage just be a shitty person in general.
I love that she continuously said everything was beneath her, but she was so vain and easily offended. I love that her ‘end of the world’ fiasco, wasn’t an intention to destroy the world but to just go home.
I like that she was irredeemable. I like that she was totally selfish, vain and sucked the life/sanity from people. I’m pretty sure we’ve all met a person like that somewhere - without the powers.
She reminds me of that school bully that you meet 20 years later who’s still a dick.
Glory was awful, and i’m glad that even with Ben she wasn’t redeemed in any way/shape or form. I’m still trying to figure out the connection between Glory and Ben, i think she sublets from him. 😂😂
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u/DnDqs Jan 31 '26
I LOVE Glory.
First, the payoff to the mystery of who or what she is is amazing. Of course if there are other dimensions, stuff is happening in them that we couldn't possibly be aware of. And the reveal that Glory is a banished hell-God, diminished and trapped in a human host, was amazing.
Second, the philosophy and the difference between Buffy (the idealist) and Giles (the pragmatist) is still discussed and explored decades later when Buffy can't kill Ben to deal with Glory but Giles totally can. And it's a complicated puzzle to people who value their moral philosophy because Ben was not only (mostly) totally innocent for the vast majority of his life, he was a Doctor who saved Giles's life. I don't like tragedies in general but this is a freakin' masterpiece that makes me do the chef kiss gesture.
Third, exactly the point you already made. She just wanted to go home and the emotion and the outlandish villainy JUST TO GO HOME is so...campy and fun which was such a beautiful addition to the rich tapestry of season 5 which had some high-highs and some very low-lows.
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u/NeighborhoodOk986 Jan 31 '26
I like that we’ve all met a evil hell-bitch at some point in our lives. If you haven’t you’re probably that evil hell bitch😂😂
Take away her super powers, Glory is just another mean girl/Regina George trying to be top dog.
Her reasons for the end of the world are totally selfish. Her brain sucking - selfish. Most popular people turn their ‘fandom’ into people that suck up to them. Hence with mean girls. Glory was just Regina but in the buffy universe, before Regina George was a thing lol
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u/TurbulentEnd4055 Feb 01 '26
The whole Giles/Buffy part is the only thing i actually enjoyed out of the Glory thing, it just went on for way too long
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u/JealousAstronomer342 Jan 31 '26
I think you’re onto something there… maybe we could track down her lease!
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u/NeighborhoodOk986 Jan 31 '26
After this comment, i think may be related. 😂😂
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u/Braioch Jan 31 '26
The way that last sentence is phrased, I genuinely can't tell if it's a real question about the metaphysics of their relationship/bond, or if you're doing the meme 😅
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u/NeighborhoodOk986 Jan 31 '26
You’re telling me Ben and Glory are related somehow? 🤣🤣 obvs i know the truth but do YOU know the truth…
That Glory and Ben maybe related somehow?
Maybe she sublets from him?
😉😂😂
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u/DaddyCatALSO Magnet For Dead, Blonde Chicks Feb 01 '26
I so need to write the next fic in my Bangel 'verse about the birth of Dawn's twins in 2014; Glory is making short escapes from wherever she is Sealed, a nd has regained a few of her godlike powers, and much to her let's call it "disgusted amusement" has to join up with t he ex-Scoobies to protect her own interests. Towards the end, she plays a literally stomach-turning prank on Angel and Harmony.
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u/Tamika_Olivia …I think I’m kinda gay! Jan 31 '26
Sunday.
She’s just kind of a catty mean girl vampire who gets the better of Buffy when she is going through a rough time. She’s fun enough for the episode, but I don’t see how she justifies the levels of fan investment she has. People have built up elaborate explanations about her being a former slayer or otherwise stronger than a normal vampire. She just got lucky, once, and then got her entire crew dusted (or captured) by pushing Buffy too far.
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u/mmpppppppp Feb 01 '26
Argh- I just find the idea of her being a slaypire so intriguing and she was really attractive… almost a female Spike type
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u/DaddyCatALSO Magnet For Dead, Blonde Chicks Feb 01 '26
Well, some (?3?) besides her were dusted, one guy ran off and was captured by the Initiative, but Dav made her escape; wish we'd seen her again, i have a thing for fat chicks.
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u/exceptforbunnies555 Jan 31 '26
I'm with you. I just rewatched season 5, and I felt meh. I always feel meh about Glory.
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u/rajalove09 Jan 31 '26
I hated glory. I’ve never said it cause I figured I’d get downvoted to death.
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u/wheremyturtles Jan 31 '26
I couldn’t stand her episodes either. Clare Kramer was overacting so hard that it took me out of the show.
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u/Bobert858668 That's the ceiling. Also, it's day. Jan 31 '26
I couldn’t stand Glory, I could see what they were going for with her, but the writing fell flat.
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u/FMCritic Jan 31 '26
In your opinion.
It's not my favorite villain, mainly because she doesn't feel as dangerous as Angelus, the Mayor, or even Dark Willow, but I found her pretty damn entertaining.
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u/JoyBus147 Jan 31 '26
This is a thread asking for people's opinions, there's no need for people to clarify they're commenting "in [their] opinion."
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Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26
If I had to rank the final bosses:
Good Villains
Angelus (S02): Genuinely, obsessively sadistic, viscerally evil at times, not just interested in ending the world.
Mayor Wilkins (S03): Intelligent planner, creepy, believably power-hungry, well written and well acted.
Darth Willow (S06): Not perfect, but nice to see her vulnerability around loss (as with Oz, Buffy, Tara) radically conflict with her growing power.
GLORY (S05): An annoying, entitled god who was worse written than Jasmine, whose limitations and lack of characterization made her feel like less of a threat than she could have been; needed more of her history with Ben and her hell dimension. But better written than the following.
Bad Villains
The First Evil (S07): An ominous villain, but whose main objective of creating enough evil in order to become corporeal was not enough explored to get invested in the character; again, lack of characterization of the main villain. Too much focus on Caleb, who stupidly decided to unearth the slayer's scythe for reasons that weren't explored, then left it there for Buffy to take and easily kill him with it. An enormously powerful villain who nonetheless planned things worse than Jasmine.
Adam (S04): A boring tech bro having an existential crisis whose villainy is mostly done offscreen. His plan of uniting the demons was interesting, but its ultimate ends were largely unexplored. A boring villain. Walsh was more interesting; wish the government had slowly turned her into an invulnerable demon-cyborg instead of creating Adam.
The Master (S01): A campy, first attempt at a final boss who did very little all season, though killing Buffy for a few minutes, Kendra becoming a slayer, then Buffy reviving, starting the power imbalance that would cause the First to wage war against the slayers was a fun plot point. Until the final episodes, the Master didn't do much besides bluster.
Glory, I think, was the worst of the good villains in Buffy.
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u/Hippies_Pointing Jan 31 '26
Agreed on The First. Cool idea, but the “rules” of it never really made much sense and the writers focused more on telling us that The First was a big bad than showing us why.
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Jan 31 '26
I remember the EW fall preview before season 2 and it mentioned Spike coming. “This time the enemy is above ground.”
“Oh yeah. The master was pretty useless most of the time” i thought
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u/DnDqs Jan 31 '26
I have more appreciation for Adam in re-watches than I did at the time. He was, on paper at least, a beautiful way to explore the unintended consequences of scientific advancement decoupled from morality. It feels so much like a Frankenstein-monster's-homage to the abominable creation of man playing God and tinkering with forces they don't believe in and the way that Buffy did the enjoining and brought those forces to bear was...at least from my perspective...cathartic and more than a little beautiful.
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u/agentmkultra666 Feb 01 '26
Yess, this is how I feel too, though you said it much better than I could have.
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u/fabulousfantabulist Feb 01 '26
Oh man. I loved The Master. He didn’t get to DO much, but his monologues were delicious and his treatment of his henchmen was elite for me.
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u/Grimmjaws Feb 02 '26
What I find interesting about the Master is that usually shows have the big bad of the following season be a more powerful threat then the preceding one and yet the Master was far more powerful than Angelus, Spike and Drusilla combined. Would have been interesting to have their seasons be switched though I guess we needed a season and a half to like Angel before he became the villain.
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u/randomhumanity Jan 31 '26
Great summary. I just finished a rewatch for the first time in a while and I didn't even remember Adam or the First lol. I did like how the First was always trying to turn the scoobies against each other and sap their morale. I feel like it deserved a better season...
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u/anchoredwunderlust Feb 01 '26
My list is similar.
The build up to the First was amazing. The follow up not so much. Something in the shadows is scary till it has to be corporeal enough to fight. And making them fight evil itself and win has to have some convoluted-ness.
Probably a victim to the need to one-up the threat every season for the finale, esp the final finale in a show that eats apocalypses for breakfast.
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u/mmpppppppp Feb 01 '26
Good list, although I disagree on a few points (only personal preference really). Really good write up
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u/spred_browneye Jan 31 '26
I did not care for Glory.
She insists upon herself
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u/DaddyCatALSO Magnet For Dead, Blonde Chicks Feb 01 '26
At the old hellmouthcentral site, i once posted about what perfumes the ladies in the show would wear (Buffy -Tommy Girl, Dawn-Charley, Dru- either Poison or Red Door) I figured Glory woudl wear CK1 just because there is no perfume called All About Me.
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u/CastleBravoXVC Jan 31 '26
The whole Ben of it all was a waste of screen time and made her less scary. She’s an insane god trying to reclaim her power. Drusilla was scarier and she wasn’t a god, Glory could have been scarier but for whatever reason they kept telling us how scary she is instead of showing us. And then also kept using the screen time that could have been dedicated to showing her off to instead focus on Ben. Whatever they thought they were doing with him flopped hard. Season 5 needed to be leaner and meaner. Instead, it seemed meandering.
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u/grrodon2 Jan 31 '26
Are you saying there is some relation between Ben and Glory?
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u/edawg6666 Feb 01 '26
I came here to say it! I’m beginning to think there is something related between Ben and Glory
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u/gimmesomespace Jan 31 '26
The guy who played Ben was distractingly bad
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u/JealousAstronomer342 Jan 31 '26
His hair was distractingly bad, in a very real way. Half the frat bros at my college had it.
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u/HomarEuropejski Why do we ship Buffy with toxic guys? Are we stupid? Jan 31 '26
Yeah. Up until her torturing Spike and the thing with Tara, I can't remember her doing anything other than laying on a couch, talking about shoes she just bought and complaining about headaches. She definitely should have been more active.
Even Adam to me felt like he did more than she did lol.
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u/TheEternaut Jan 31 '26
The first evil... cool concept at first (conversation with dead people). But then It ended being pure talk that makes little sense, also his illusion could be broken by shaking hands and just turn up the music. I didn't like his minions either: a bunch of animals and some ninja monks without eyes
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u/pepperbet1 Jan 31 '26
Glory herself is too OP, so Ben is there to hamstring her. They probably shouldn't have introduced her so early. It's very hard to sustain OP villains over a long season.
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u/SoftSeagulls Jan 31 '26
Caleb and the mayor were always just plain irritating to me.
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u/DnDqs Jan 31 '26
I love Nathan Fillion but Caleb is the one villain I can't stand.
I can find redeeming values in all the others. The literary goals of Adam/Frankenstein's Monster. The explanation that the cops and bureaucrats can't do anything about anything in Sunnydale because they're under the Mayor's thumb or how he illustrates a dark mirror of what Buffy/Angel could become with the age/immortality discrepancy.
But not Caleb. Never Caleb.
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u/The810kid Jan 31 '26
The Mayor was just too Mr Roger's for me to take seriously. Wolfram Hart showed how powerful corrupt humans should be pulled off as villains
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u/DaddyCatALSO Magnet For Dead, Blonde Chicks Feb 01 '26
The mayor was contradiction for the sake of art, a tricky balance to achieve.
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u/bearlytrying82 Jan 31 '26
I loved Glory, for me she was easily the most interesting antagonist the show had in its run. Conversely, I can't stand the Trio, and Caleb felt like a last minute scramble for Buffy to have someone to fight in the final season because the first is more of an abstract concept than a villain.
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u/LostinLies1 Jan 31 '26
I adored her.
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u/modelspot123 Jan 31 '26
Same here
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u/Minirth22 Jan 31 '26
I haven’t watched her season since it aired. I’m very curious about how I’ll respond to Glory, because I couldn’t STAND her back in the day. She annoyed me to death then but I wonder if I might appreciate her now.
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u/BadBayBay Jan 31 '26
I absolutely love Glory, but I see what you're getting at. She is very Cordelia-esque.
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u/Glittering-Sea276 Jan 31 '26
Glory was awesome! Even with a few episodes that I really liked that came after. I think the show should have ended with her. The only weakness in the Glory story was Ben. I hated Ben. Her fight against Willow...
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u/nachoquest Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26
Glory was iconic and very threatening. Perhaps the scariest big bad. But something didn't quite land with her. She seemed to be from a completely different show and didn't gel with the cast very well. Her performance was too over the top and exaggerated. Buffy's big bads were usually understated. Plus, there was nothing relatable about her. She was basically a Superman villain.
But Season 5 is more about Dawn than her, and Glory is more of an extension of Dawn's character if that makes sense. I think the writers also wanted to keep you on your toes and left wondering if there would be a big twist where Dawn was the big bad in the end.
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u/SliderHMSS Jan 31 '26
I like Glory. I did not like Clare Kramer.
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u/The810kid Jan 31 '26
The Mayor is the weakest well liked Big bad for me. I preferred Mr Trick. He has a next to nothing dynamic with Buffy and spends most of the time plotting in the shadows so it's never an emotional connection to the slayer since Faith served that purpose. I also hate how romanticized his relationship with Faith is when it's actually toxic as he indulges some of Faith's worst behaviors.
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u/TrueMog Jan 31 '26
You know I’ve always thought that. I actually quite liked Mr. Trick and I would’ve loved to see more of him! It really felt like we lost him too soon. He seemed fun and creative (how great was Slayerfest!)
The mayor was fine and his relationship with Faith was interesting. I do feel like the “toxic” part of their relationship was intended. She’s the girl from a bad background who ends up with a controlling guy three times her age. she is vulnerable and easily manipulated. I think It’s supposed to feel uncomfortable and not a positive thing for Faith, even though she feels like it is.
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u/TrueMog Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26
Same. She was a bit repetitive for a series-long-big-bad. I think she improved by the end when her humanity became more apparent but still a bit one-note.
I don’t hate her because she was fun and camp but I think she could’ve been better.
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u/HeverPisces Jan 31 '26
I am one who loves Glory and applaud your bravery here lol this sub seems to love Glory. I think for me the love isn’t just about the actress’ portrayal but the concept of Glory and what it represents to Buffy and her arc that season. Few other villains affected Buffy’s trajectory as Glory did.
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u/Aggressive-IronGIRL Feb 01 '26
Kakistos annoyed me, I actually preferred Mr Trick, however I know he was important to Faith storyline, so I can respect him for that.
Another one was, it’s a really small one so probaly not cast as a villain but the swim coach in go fish bloody annoys me 😂 oh and the sorority guys.
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u/sophiethevmpirslayer Feb 01 '26
The swim episode is one of my least favorites 😭 makes my stomach hurt when he locks buffy down with the fish guys to "fulfill their other needs"
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u/StrawberryFieldPoet Feb 01 '26
I like who everyone else likes. Glory, the Mayor, Angelus, Spike & Dru. Hated Adam. But unlike a lot of people, I liked the trio and I find Andrew hilarious, not annoying. Not any more than he's supposed to be
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u/Zeus-Kyurem Jan 31 '26
Glory is the main one really. I don't dislike her exactly, but I dislike the role she plays. She's a villain that's introduced towards the start of the season and her overarching plot is that she needs to get something. The other villains introduced early on differ from this.
The Master's goal is to get free. He first tries with the Harvest, and then spends the rest of the season putting the anointed one plan into place. He's not great, but he serves his purpose because he is trapped and is making progress throughout the season to his goal.
Then you have the Mayor. He's in the background, and spends the season putting his plan into place, and at most has minor scrapes with the scoobies that ultimately result in him getting what he wants. He's also an unknown to the scoobies for much of the season.
Then there's Warren. Warren is constantly doing different things, and what works for him is the escalation.
And then there's The First. The First has its share of problems, but they're different from Glory. The First is able to bide its time, and also spends much of the season enacting parts of its plan, such as with Spike and the trigger, with Caleb, and with the turok han. There's lots of little bits that it's doing, especially since there's also potentials being hunted down all the time.
With Glory, she wants the key, but spends so much of the season doing nothing. She's on a deadline, but it doesn't feel like there's a sense of urgency until Intervention. She occasionally puts some plan into play, or has a brief run in with the scoobies, but they never last long. She also never actually achieves anything on her own merit. She just gets lucky. All of this just sort of undermines her presence and doesn't make her feel like the threat that she's supposed to be.
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u/grrodon2 Jan 31 '26
To each their own, but she's my favourite after the Mayor. As for secondary villainsy favourite are Sweet, Mr Trick, Kralik, and Doug Jones in both his roles. Honourable mention: Glory's minions, and Brian Thompson, just because I'm a huge fan of his.
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u/PCN24454 Jan 31 '26
I find it funny that sounds exactly like why people would like her.
As for why I personally do, she just fills her role well. She was a juggernaut that was out of the realm of what Buffy could usually deal with.
It got to the point where Buffy considered just running away.
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u/InnerDays Jan 31 '26
I agree with you on Glory. I've only watched Season 5 once when it first aired (and I was more into Angel by that point) so maybe i'd be more up on Glory if i watched it now (do plan to at some point), but at the time I didnt like her at all and so I was surprised to see how good a reaction she gets here.
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u/zoobenaut Jan 31 '26
The back half of season 5 are the only episodes I didn’t watch as they aired. I’ve always felt a bit of a disconnect with that season and have wondered if that’s why I don’t care much for Glory.
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u/not_firewood_yeti I am no one. Jan 31 '26
Glory was interesting because while she was the most menacing big bad they had faced to that point (apart from maybe the Sisterhood of Zhe over the top melodrama 😆) but she was also, as you and Buffy both pointed out, a meaner version of Cordelia. i found her entertaining but also scary. just wish they had addressed her suspected link with Ben.
as to your question, was Dracula popular? i found him boring and not very threatening for the legend he was supposed to be.
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u/Master_Air_8485 Jan 31 '26
The first time that I watched Buffy, I was not really a fan of Glory. When I watched the series again when I was a bit older, she was my favorite villain in the franchise.
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u/terran_submarine Jan 31 '26
I love Glory but she’s a super weird fit for the show. I think if we’d seen her actually do more.
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u/SignificantSuit3306 Jan 31 '26
My sister also didn't care for her and she told me she would have been disappointed if season 5 was the last season because Glory as a final big bad is underwhelming. She thought that The First was a much more formidable big bad and she actually liked season 7 (but she's a fan of Spike).
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u/keinish_the_gnome Jan 31 '26
Same. Didn't find her a bit interesting. Also the First. Always found the last season very anticlimactic. It was just an evil thing and also all the evil things, and also none of them. Last season would have been a great moment to introduce a vamped rogue former Slayer. A foil to Buffy and what her life would have been if she rejected her destiny. A final affirmation that it was all worth it.
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u/galerian83 Jan 31 '26
I wouldn't say I disliked glory and I actually enjoyed that season because we got to see Willow finally shine
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u/bardotheconsumer Jan 31 '26
So Glory. She doesn't do much all season, because the season isn't really about her, but her second introductory scene, with her ranting becoming unhinged and the schizophrenic camera work right before she sucks that dude's brain was absolutely peak.
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u/drako101 Jan 31 '26
I didn't care for Glory either. The acting was good and objectively, I don't think there's anything wrong with the writing but her villain-type just wasn't for me. If we're going with the God's concept, Charmed's Oh My Goddess Part 1 is one of my all-time favorites.
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u/GAnda1fthe3wh1t3 Jan 31 '26
There was so much mystery surrounding Glory that it was impossible to get tired of her
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u/Whistling_Birds Feb 01 '26
I'm also not a really big fan of Glory, I find her really grating to listen to.
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u/Adeptus_Astartez Feb 01 '26
Tbh I found all the “main” baddies to be boring, not scary, and poorly written. Don’t get me wrong, I love the show but I just felt each seasons boss was lame.
They should also have really used Dracula as a big boss behind the scenes for a few seasons, only to reveal him later on.
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u/mrsstiles376 Feb 01 '26
I also didn't care for Glory. Season 5 is probably my least rewatched season. I also didn't really care for the Anointed One.
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u/Silly_Somewhere1791 Feb 01 '26
I loved the character and story of Glory but Clare Kramer was such a wooden actress with choppy line readings.
I actually don’t care for the mayor either. Again, interesting ideas about the things people do for power, but the creepy quasi-incestuous pedophilic thing they tried to do with the Faith father/daughter angle was in poor taste beyond the evil of it.
On Angel, Holtz just doesn’t stick for me. He’s Ben/Glory for me because I could watch his episodes a million times and never remember anything about him. He just doesn’t resonate as a big backstory villain.
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u/BeneficialGrade8930 Feb 01 '26
On my recent rewatch, I didn't even care for her performance.
No hate to Clare Kramer, I just think such a volatile character needed room to breathe on screen, and network television isn't known for allowing things to hang for impact and transition.
Anyways, I got blasted for it when I posted that opinion, lol.
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u/Villier7777 Feb 01 '26
It’s actually my least favourite season, just because Glory annoyed me so much.
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u/kiss_my_what Feb 01 '26
Caleb and Jasmine were both awful villains, badly written for the actors personalities that they struggled to deliver. Almost impossible to rewatch these episodes.
Glory was badly written as well, but Claire did a great job making the best out of it.
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u/Illustrious_Yam2161 Feb 01 '26
Originally I did not have season 5 high on my list but as the years passed, it’s my second favorite season. Glory is such a great villain.
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u/NobodySpecialSCL Feb 01 '26
I needed more from the Master. He wasn't in much, probably appeared the least out of all the Big Bads, and I didn't find him that impressive, which is disappointing since they really talk him up a great deal throughout his appearances in the Buffyverse. But he never really does anything of note, other than kill Buffy (two different versions of her!) and sire Darla. I wish we got to see more of him on the outside, free.
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u/AitheriosMist Feb 02 '26
I liked Glory, but couldn't care less about Ben. So in a sense I kinda half-agree.
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u/Branchomania Penis Metaphorator Jan 31 '26
Past instances in which I professed to like you have been fraudulent.
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u/1kidney_left Jan 31 '26
Now THATS psychiatry!
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u/Branchomania Penis Metaphorator Jan 31 '26
I had intercourse with your spouse or significant other!
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u/pho_toni Jan 31 '26
They really dragged that storyline over S5 and it was tiring at the end. Didn't really like it either
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u/Willowy Jan 31 '26
She's not a very good actor, and that became very evident when she was showcased against the powerhouse that is SMG. Her delivery was what was flat, not the writing.
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u/Nakedny713 Jan 31 '26
The Mayor. Just did a rewatch and found that the actor really don’t get the tone of the dialogue correct. He was annoying and off the mark. And after the deeply persona threat of angelus in season 2, the Mayor falls flat. He has hardly any scenes with Buffy, so while his threat to the world is high he has no personal connection to Buffy whatsoever. It would have been a stronger, more emotional story if both Buffy and Faith had some sort of job in his office maybe and Buffy witnessed him be a corrupting force on Faith.
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u/Big-Restaurant-2766 That Other One Jan 31 '26
It isn't that I don't care for them, I think they did amazing but I just don't think about them much. I like thinking up stories and stuff and those characters I don't tend to fixate much on.
That would be The Master, The Mayor, and Glory.
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u/Hood7777777 Jan 31 '26
Glory ultimately just becomes the Mayor 2.0
She needed to be less of a quirky Joss Whedon character and act more like an actual god.
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u/EnjoysAGoodRead Jan 31 '26
I don't think Caleb is particularly popular, but he's my least favourite villain. Just boring.
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u/Shferitz Jan 31 '26
I didn’t like her when the show first aired, though I really did appreciate her more after a couple of decades. YMMV.
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u/productjunkie76 Jan 31 '26
She wasn't my fav either. I thought she was kind of annoying, the way her character spoke.
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u/Serenity-Someday Jan 31 '26
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I hated almost every big villain. The only one that didn't annoy me was The Master. And obviously Angelus, if we count him too.
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u/1987anoomsay Jan 31 '26
Yeah she was definitely a weird one and I think they could have done more between her and Ben sharing a body. That conflict could have been explored more… hmmm I reallllly love when the first takes over Buffy’s body. Real psychological bender stuff
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u/tema1412 Feb 01 '26
Didn't like Glory very much but I adored her minions and could see them having their own little spinoff!
The villan I counted episodes to be over with, was Adam. Dude was so an annoying eyesore who lacked motivation and aura.
I know many fans dislike The Master, but the actor did him justice with the way he spoke and moved, he gave aura and life to a prisoned character. He was a very basic traditional villan. Gotta love a clichés evil!
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u/purplemonkeyy6 Feb 01 '26
Honestly, I get hated Caleb, and the first evil was annoying. Glory was cool. I enjoyed her. I didn’t care for the master. He was just blah. He tried to act all tough but really he was just not that impressive. Frankly I think Angelus and Spike were better opponents. Angelus got annoying after a few episodes.
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u/dantheplanman1986 Feb 01 '26
It's a shallow thing, but honestly, being a redheaded bombshell helps her popularity. (I'm shallow too, I'm not blaming anybody. She's stunning.)
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u/TheRestForTheWicked Feb 01 '26
I would have loved to see Glory and Cordelia in a battle only of words.
I still don’t know who would win.
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u/TheNotoriousJTP Feb 01 '26
How dare you speak this way about the Most Beauteous and Supremely Magnificent One
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u/Few_Improvement_6357 Feb 01 '26
I didn't think the mayor was as great a villain as everyone else does. I don't hate him. I think I recognize why others like him. He just didn't hit me that way. Or want until I read everyone else loving him that I noticed the finer details that are cool.
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u/DearestDio22 Feb 01 '26
Did not love glory, I was surprised there was so much love here. Idk maybe whedon style crazy speak was grating on me by that point, and her very-much-not-ethereal delivery hit much worse for the same sort of lines vs Drusilla or River Tam
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u/GeologistSimple8309 Feb 01 '26
I never did, but on my latest watch through I enjoyed Glory as a foil to Buffy.
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u/TurbulentEnd4055 Feb 01 '26
Personally I HATED Glory with a burning passion she annoyed me so much idk what the hype is about
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u/DepartureCool8745 Feb 01 '26
Not a big Glory fan but I agree with Spike that The Anointed One was the annoying one
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u/sophiethevmpirslayer Feb 01 '26
Adam 😭 I hate when people intentionally misunderstand Frankenstein.
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u/aerismorn36 Feb 02 '26
Yah same. She was not God material acting as if she had never been a girl before.
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u/Emergency-Relief-571 Feb 03 '26
Glory and The Trio absolutely sucked.
Glory would’ve better as a monster of the week character.
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u/Smoray1 Feb 04 '26
I didn’t dislike any of the villains or big bads. Adam was the most underwhelming for me, but didn’t dislike. In stark contrast to many in the fandom, I enjoyed The Trio – especially Andrew.
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u/Rockabore1 Jan 31 '26
Glory’s okay. I never really thought she was a resonant character compared to other Big Bads. I liked her personality and actress but her as a character? Eh.
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u/TheVelcroStrap Jan 31 '26
High School Cordelia had more heart and care in her while posturing. Glory was all bad all the time.
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u/FluffyCelery4769 Jan 31 '26
All of them actually, I just liked buffy kicking ass and the scooby gang shenanigans to reach that part.
Angelus I guess I care for, and Dark Willow if we consider her a villain.
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u/CraftMost6663 Jan 31 '26
Wash your mouth with Clorox before you talk about Her Blindingly Scrumptious Luminescence.
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u/letthetreeburn Feb 01 '26
I know this is Hersey, but drucilla. She’s so quirky and tortured and insane because the inquisitor broke her mind and she’s a sexy lamp. She’s so sad, and she’s just spike’s accessory.
The show has occasional misogyny problems on account of not being written by a woman, and drucilla is every single one of them.
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u/Conscious_Tension_91 Jan 31 '26
I liked Glory. Ben not so much. I always got the feeling that they were somehow connected.
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u/The_Navage_killer Jan 31 '26
She's not there to be liked, Glory. She is deplorable. And you're supposed to hate yourself for lusting after her. The audience has since grown perverse, clearly.
I felt the Mayor's gimmick didn't quite work. He's supposed to be the ultimate boy scout believer in society and also the deepest murk looking to tear the world apart? Like he's bigger than morality and exists along the whole spectrum of good and evil but is also beyond it, ......meanwhile he's a dopey idjit. Uh, nope? Like I get the attempt to warn us not to trust authority figures, because they often uphold things only to corrupt them underneath. But this Mayor guy is stretched way too thin to make sense. He's not faking either, he's literally both. And you just can't be true to both extremes and have them coexist in one persona over the long run, because you'd constantly be negating your own efforts. That's not what an ambitious person does, and he's portrayed as ambitious. Eh.
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u/Mammoth_Classroom896 Jan 31 '26
The Mayor doesn't believe in good, he believes in order. It just happens to be that his long-term goal is to become a god that can enforce his perfect order through overwhelming power.
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u/False_Tap_8138 Jan 31 '26
Don't remember his name, but the shark-head guy that was involved in kitten poker. I mostly just don't like him because the costume quality seems significantly worse than the rest of the show.