How is Ben Glory though?

[BlackWitchWicca]

Hey guys, doing my annual rewatch of Buffy and now on season 5 which I like a lot. Buffy goes through so much love the way the character has been written to appear a bit more emotionally drained and lost. Anyway so Ben is Glory....they're not really explaining exactly why this happened? Is he human? Is that his actual body? Is Ben a part of Glory that is the human side that she needs to have in order to be in human form? Still trying to understand and come to my own conclusions but would like to know the facts 🙂

~ Witxh ~ 🖤

 

[VampireSlayer07]

I believe Glory's essence was placed into Ben's when he was born (like Jasmine's was when Cordelia returned) but eventually became powerful enough to manifest herself and take over his body (unlike Jasmine)

 

[thrasherpix]

While I forget the details, I think the actual canon is the the other Hellgods could not destroy her, but COULD bind her to a mortal human, and she'd then die with the human.



After that, I have to go to headcanon. So many prophecies were coming to date around this year rather than business as usual, so I see it as a "high tide of magic." Maybe the stars or right. Or our planet slipped through an especially thick concentration of dark matter, if you prefer (science and magic get mixed a lot in the Buffyverse, quantum mechanics even brought up in Buffy season 1, the ep about Marcie going invisible), but whatever, the Mayor (after over a century) could finally turn into a True Demon while the Master almost escaped and more than one apocalypse cult became exceedingly aggressive and all that...and Glory began to manifest within Ben, but probably not able to hijack his form right away. Because now she could, which was not planned by those who bound her to the form of Ben.

(But also that Ben sensed her and she was a voice in HIS head before she became real...hmm, kind of like how Marcie felt invisible until she really was. Gods, the Hellmouth is more disturbing than I realized! But he'd been studying the occult at least for awhile, which I'd expect someone like him to do once he accepted this was happening.)

I presume he's a new arrival in Season 5, especially as he gets fired for not showing up too much (as he's Glory), and no real mention of his long experience there (I'll ignore his age, I mean look how young Xander was before put in charge of guys much older than him, or the barely more than kids Initiative, who were special forces rather than newly recruited grunts).

Maybe the minions (who feel compelled to have a god to protect them, lots of humans are obsessed with finding a "protector" that actually abuses them and are more miserable without one than with one, and that includes men as well as women wired that way). Or maybe Glory sent out a "distress call" that they picked up on and helped her to resume her form (alternately, she used a brief moment of escape to conjure and bind them to her service, maybe from her old dimension)...and of course get to a Hellmouth where the barriers are weaker (and probably help her manifest more and longer, whereas in Chicago she might only get a couple of minutes, and at greatly reduced power).

I'll spare you my headcanon for why Glory takes the form she does.

 

[BlackWitchWicca]

Hmmm interesting thanks to you both. Soooo....get that Ben was just a human, Glory is a god...where did her body come from? It's all so technical isn't it between them. And confusing when they leave you hanging on the show

 

[Plasma]

Anyway so Ben is Glory....they're not really explaining exactly why this happened? Is he human? Is that his actual body? Is Ben a part of Glory that is the human side that she needs to have in order to be in human form? Still trying to understand and come to my own conclusions but would like to know the facts 🙂

~ Witxh ~ 🖤

First of all, welcome to the Boards 🙂 we are happy to have you here.

Secondly, he was a human that she was put into. I believe it is explained later in the season that the other gods in her dimension got rid of her and stuffed her essence into Ben when he was born.

They also give some sort of reason as to why Ben and Glory “swap” more frequently than they used to. Beforehand, Ben and Glory were far less active. Something activates the transformation more…but I can’t remember what it is, though. If I remember right it has something to do with the timing of some event or confluence.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Glorificus was reincarnated into Ben. Under normal circumstances, he would just be a broken part of his subconscious. I don't know what happened next, but at some point, maybe G Was manipulating B To learn about the occult, maybe the Hobbits found him, but Glorificus learned about the Key, found some way to separate from men, and then used the strength of his will to warp Ben into his human Avatar, Glory. Clearly she also found some way to siphon off human mental energy to hold herself together. But that's the key thing, Glory is only possible because she has some hope of finding the key, and using it to get home. Without the Key, Glory has no reason to live. Apparently, her homeworld is warded against her.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

In this day and age you might just be missing the point, when the female (Glorificus) becomes a male (Ben) isn't he then some form of a transsexual?

To complicate matters further when that ball of green energy is transformed into Dawn does she become a transsexual being?

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Glorificus isn't life as we know it, neither is the Key. None of these entities can be assumed to reproduce through sexual means. If Glory is a woman, it is because the female form was either imposed on or elected by Glorificus as representative of something, not because it's his true form. Just like how the Key must incarnate as an living innocent. If Ben is a male, it's because he inherited a Y chromosome from his father, not because of symbolism.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

I think there's something to that. That the Beast was borrowing human notions of what a Fabolous God should look like. Or, something about her nature forces her to take that form, since higher powers being forced to incarnate when they appear on our plane seems to be one of the rules of the franchise. I doubt Glory is the Beast's native form, but who knows?

For definition of terms;
Glorificus The Beast: The Hellgod as worshipped in his or her true splendor.

Ben: Glorificus as reincarnated in human form.

Glory: The Beast's Avatar, a being cobbled together by sheer will, unknown mystical means, and the absorption of human minds. Only a pale reflection of the Beast's unspeakable true power and horror.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Wait, Ben is Glory?