In a typical Buffy subversion, Season Five's Big Bad, the all-powerful Goddess Glorificus, as played by Clare Kramer, is portrayed as a spoilt high school cheerleader - but one with the power to end the world if she doesn't get her own way. Trapped in human form, Glorificus, more commonly known as Glory, spends the season in search of the Key, a mystical device which will free her from her Earthbound bonds so she can return to her own hell dimension. Unfortunately for her, the Key has been placed in the care of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the form of her younger sister Dawn, and she won't let Glory take her without a fight. Compared to the other Big Bads, Glory has one of the most complex stories of Buffy villains; as well as her quest for the Key, it is revealed that Glory feeds off the minds of others, leaving them mentally-handicapped, she shares a body with seemingly-ordinary human Ben Wilkinson and she is near-invincible - apart from having a weakness for a handy macguffin called the Dagon Sphere. Phew! Even if things do get a little complicated, though, Glory is certainly one of the conceptually-strongest and most powerful villains Buffy and the Scoobies ever faced. Glory to Glory!
