Illyria (Angel)

Template:Infobox Buffyverse CharacterIllyria is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Angel. The character is portrayed by Amy Acker. She is a regular during the second half of Season Five, while she possesses Fred Burkle's body.

Biography

Character History

Illyria is one of the legendary Old Ones, an original pure demon from the Primordium Age who ruled territory that included modern-day California. She was one of the most feared of all the Old Ones and ruled from her citadel, Vahla ha'nesh, which corresponds to modern-day Los Angeles. However, Illyria was defeated and murdered by her many rivals.

As depicted in an illustration of a statue of her in Vahla ha'nesh, Illyria was a sight to behold in her original form. Illyria had five tentacles on either side of her torso that she used like arms, which were flexible and dexterous to the point that she could clutch and operate weapons with them. She had two claw-like feet that allowed her to perch, much like an eagle. The rest of Illyria's form is obscured by armor, but her humanoid shape suggests that her head and torso are in much the same configuration as a human's.

Illyria in her true form, standing before her demon army.

Illyria was loved and feared as few of the Old Ones were, so much so that she still had followers and acolytes in the modern day arguably millions of years after her reign. When the Old Ones lost their claim over this world, Illyria's essence was placed in a stone sarcophagus, her powers drained and placed in jewels embedded on her coffin. Her sarcophagus was placed in a mystical graveyard known as The Deeper Well along with the coffins of other Old Ones. A warrior of good and his army were assigned to guard the Deeper Well to prevent anyone from extracting one of the coffins, as Old Ones are capable of resurrection. In the 20th century, the Keeper of the Deeper Well was Drogyn the Battlebrand.

Before falling, Illyria planned her resurrection. She hid her temple in a different time plane, rendering it completely intangible, until she could return to open the gateway and enter it. Illyria's army was placed there as well, waiting to be raised once again by its leader. However, sometime in the passing centuries, the army was destroyed, leaving only dust in its place.

Resurrection

As pre-ordained, Illyria's sarcophagus is teleported to the general area of Los Angeles, but due to continental shifting, it ends up outside of the United States of America. Somehow, it is delivered to American soil, but is held up in Customs on its way to Wolfram & Hart. Dr. Sparrow manipulates Charles Gunn into releasing the sarcophagus in exchange for fixing his brain enhancements. Knox, Illyria's self-fashioned Qwa'ha Xahn (high priest) and the mastermind behind her resurrection, has the sarcophagus delivered to Fred Burkle at Wolfram & Hart's science lab. Curiosity draws Fred to the sarcophagus, and when she touches one of the coffin's embedded crystals, Illyria's essence is released into her body. Illyria's spirit acts as an infection that liquefies Fred's organs, hardens her skin, and allegedly consumes her soul. After hours of agony, and despite Angel and Spike traveling to Illyria's former prison in an attempt to find a way to draw her out of Fred, Fred's body is completely taken over by Illyria, who also absorbs her memories (which she later likens to "sparks").

With the aid of Knox, Illyria attempts to bring about the destruction of humankind by resurrecting her ancient army. Despite the best efforts of Angel, Spike, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, she manages to fight off all three of them and open the portal to where her army is waiting, but soon she discovers that it was destroyed long ago. Lost and without purpose, Illyria agrees to learn how to adjust to the modern world with Wesley's help, who is drawn to the ancient being that now occupies the body of his love. She spends her nights with the oft-drunk Wesley and her days wandering the corridors of Wolfram & Hart.

When Wesley mentions to her that Gunn is trapped in a Wolfram & Hart-imposed pseudo-Hell, Illyria opens a portal and rescues Gunn without hesitation, later noting the great debt that the group owes to her. In the process of finding Gunn, she destroys eleven torture units, two troop carriers, an ice cream truck, eight "beautifully maintained" lawns, and "rendered useless" dozens of Wolfram & Hart employees, according to Marcus Hamilton. At this point, her pastimes include talking to plants and training with Spike (or, more accurately, beating him up while he tries to ask her how she feels when he hits her and record the details on a clipboard). Although she criticizes Spike's adaptability, declaring adaptation to be a compromise, Illyria enjoys beating him up; at one point, she expresses her desire to keep him as a pet.

Eventually, Illyria's power becomes extremely unstable. To others, the Old One appears to be going mad. In truth, Illyria is being thrown out of linear progression of the timeline, altering her perspective as her power seeks a way to escape its shell. Initially, she kills Spike, Wesley, Lorne, and Angel in a confrontation, interpreting their actions as an attempt to kill her, but, during her time jumps, she drags an earlier version of Angel into the present, revealing what just took place before she detonates, potentially causing enough destruction to wipe out the continent. Fortunately, the explosion sends Angel backwards in time to shortly before Illyria killed the others, allowing Angel to use his new foreknowledge of their deaths to save his friends and calm Illyria down. Before Illyria can detonate again, Wesley uses a Mutari generator to extract a large portion of her power, effectively ending the threat.

As a result of the Mutari generator, Illyria is stripped of much of her super-strength, as well as her abilities to alter time and talk to plants. She grows bitter and withdrawn after the loss of her powers, which she considers a significant defeat. Her primary emotional connection is with Wesley, who continues to help her adjust to the world. After recognizing Wesley's feelings for the "shell" (Fred), Illyria wishes to explore her relationship with Wesley in a more sexual or romantic direction; however, he rejects any possibility of accepting her in Fred's form. She also develops a connection with Spike, who can relate to her newfound situation and treats her with acceptance and dignity, communicating easily with her and helping her venture into the world.

Illyria is brutally beaten and humiliated by Hamilton, which fuels the Old One's extreme anger and motivates her to join the final battle against the Senior Partners. In the Angel series finale, "Not Fade Away," Illyria, Spike, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Lindsey McDonald, and Angel each fight separate groups of demons from the Circle of the Black Thorn. After killing her demon victims, promising to "make trophies from their spines," Illyria seeks out Wesley and finds him dying. Perceiving his imminent death, she comforts Wesley in Fred's form. Filled with unexpected and uncontrollable grief, Illyria violently dispatches his murderer, Cyvus Vail, shattering his head with a single punch -- an action that does not begin to assuage her grief and leaves her with a strong desire to "do more violence." Her wish is granted when the Senior Partners send their army against the surviving members of Angel's team; Illyria joins Angel, Gunn, and Spike in the final battle against the Senior Partners.

Despite Fred's soul supposedly shattering in the process of Illyria taking over her body, Joss Whedon originally intended for Fred and Illyria to be split in two had Angel gotten a sixth season, as revealed by Amy Acker in an interview: "As I’m playing this new character now, it was just some stuff that he was going to do with her and bringing Fred back and getting to work with both characters."

In the canonical comic Angel: After the Fall, it is confirmed that Illyria survived the final battle against the Senior Partners.

After the Fall

Illyria appears in the last few pages of the 2nd issue of Angel: After the Fall, the official continuation of Angel, as well as the spin-off miniseries Spike: After the Fall, taking place between "Not Fade Away" and Angel: After the Fall.

She defends Spike, whom she refers to as her pet, when Angel attempts to attack him. She later battles Angel and his trained dragon. She is assisting in the rescue of innocent humans from the hell-infested city of Los Angeles. While Spike said he is the Lord of the area, it is Illyria who acts as the Lord of Beverly Hills, ensuring protection to the city, from the fact that the other Lords are too scared to attack her. She appears to have regained some of her former powers, as time became erratic during her fight with Angel in issue #3 and when Spider and Spike were talking in issue #4. In issue #5, Spike informs Angel that something is "wrong" with Illyria and hoped that he could help her. What exactly is wrong with her is revealed at the end of the issue, with Illyria transforming into Fred when she sees Wesley. In issue #6, it is revealed that Fred and Illyria have both been active in the same body since the advent of L.A. being sent to hell; it is later explained that seeing a face she cared about causes the Fred persona to become dominant, while dangerous situations will cause her to revert to Illyria. When the group returns to the Hyperion, Illyria reveals to the others that Angel is no longer a vampire.

Restrained by Nina at the Hyperion in the Fred persona, bearing witness to the rooftop battle between Angel's dragon and Gwen, she assumed the Illyria form and makes her way to the scene of the fight. Arriving after the fray, she finds Gunn (now a vampire working under the direction of visions from the Senior Partners) whose expression of desperate sadness having become a vampire is sufficient to see her revert back to Fred. Capitalizing on this moment, Gunn ceases to feign crying and shoots Fred with a crossbow, killing her. The cover for the next issue depicts Illyria in her true primordial form, crushing Angel in her tentacles.

Powers and abilities

The full scope of Illyria's power is unknown. When Illyria takes over her new "shell," Illyria possesses tremendous physical strength. Spike likens a blow from Illyria to being hit by a Mack Truck. Her strength, reflexes, and agility make her a formidable hand-to-hand combatant. Illyria uses an ancient fighting style that Spike compares to Tae Kwon Do and Brazilian Ninjitsu (possibly a mispronounciation of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu). Although Spike's adaptability gives him an occasional advantage, Illyria dominates their sparring sessions. Her skin is a hardened shell, providing her body with a heavy armor capable of withstanding blows from forged weapons, such as swords or axes.

Illyria is aided in combat by her ability to selectively alter time, which allows her to easily dodge both attacks and bullets; she can accomplish a goal and leave an area before her opponent even realizes she has moved. She has only been shown altering the flow of time to produce a slow motion effect, though it is possible that she can alter time in other ways. She can also open interdimensional portals. In the episode "Underneath," Wesley Wyndam-Pryce comments on her not needing to sleep.

Illyria can alter her physical appearance on a basic level, and she is capable of recreating Fred's persona accurately enough to fool Fred's parents. She tells Knox that she can take any form she chooses. Illyria has empathic abilities that allow her to perceive the emotional states of others. She was, for instance, capable of sensing Connor's lust for her and Wesley's frustration with Angel as well as his grief over Fred's death. Illyria communicates with flora, often spending hours at a time communing with a plant. She is also capable of distinguishing humans (or "primitives") from demons, vampires, and other half-breeds (as most demons with human-like DNA structures are called in the Buffyverse).

Illyria retains the insights from her experiences as an Old One, which enable her to effectively analyze the power dynamics, personal motivations, and emotions that influence those around her. She is stronger than Spike and Angel combined (having proven at one point to be able to engage both in battle simultaneously and come out victorious).

Powers diminished

After being drained by the Mutari generator, Illyria's abilities are significantly diminished. Her physical strength is decreased (although retaining a high level of strength, well above that of vampires and the vast majority of demons shown in the series), and she no longer has the ability to open portals or commune with plants. Wesley perceives that Illyria is no longer invulnerable as she once was (cf. "The Girl in Question"), and she is later beaten unconscious by Marcus Hamilton in "Power Play". However, she was shown to hold herself unarmed against a grown dragon at full strength, enduring a blast of fire from its mouth and being swallowed by it without visibly losing her taste for the fight - all this while sporting a stab wound to the torso which seemed to only offend and irritate as opposed to hurt her (a wound she received during a fight with human Angel, which she won with practically no effort, although Angel was able to go toe-to-toe with her and do some damage).

In addition to this, she successfully kills several members of the Circle of the Black Thorn with minimal difficulty. She retains her ability to morph her physical appearance.

Her ability to alter time, while removed by the Mutari generator, seems to have at least partially returned as a result of the aftermath of L.A.'s relocation to hell. To what extent this ability can now be used has yet to be seen; during her fight with Angel, he reverted briefly to his former human self (Liam), his puppet self ("Smile Time") and a baby due to her manipulation of time, but the erratic nature of these shifts seems to indicate that she lacks any real control of her powers. Whether or not any of her other powers (plant communication, interdimensional travel, etc.) have also returned remains to be seen.

Nicknames

Illyria is referred to as "Little Shiva", "Babe the Blue Ox", and "Blue Meanie" by Spike. While in a drunken and irritable state, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce calls her a "Smurf". Both Smurfs and the Hindu god Shiva have blue skin. In the final episode "Not Fade Away", Gunn refers to her as "Blue Thunder". In Angel: After the Fall #3, Spike also refers to Illyria as Fred Sonja while she was battling Angel's dragon.

Relationships

• Spike – After her resurrection, Illyria shares an emerging bond with Spike. Each is on a path from demon to hero, and they share a love of violence. Their sparring sessions are mutually satisfactory; Spike hones his fighting techniques and Illyria is able to regularly inflict pain and dominate Spike in combat. She, at one point, expresses a desire to keep Spike as a pet. After Illyria's powers are diminished, Spike helps her regain confidence and venture into the world again. Their relationship remains non-romantic, but develops into mutual respect. In After the Fall, Illyria apparently considers Spike a pet and comes to his defense when Angel attacks him.
• Wesley Wyndam-Pryce – Though their "relationship" is not a true romantic one, the undertones of attraction being based mostly on Fred and Wesley's relationship, Wesley wanted to be around the one part of his deceased love and Illyria was influenced by Fred's memories. When Wesley dies at the hands of Cyvus Vail, Illyria takes revenge on Cyvus by putting her fist through his skull, killing him instantly. Afterwards, Illyria is the one who informs the team about Wesley's death and says that she feels grief and wishes "to do more violence" in the series finale's final battle. In After the Fall issue #9, Illyria takes possession of Wesley's corpse, repeating "You're staying with me."

Appearances

Illyria has appeared in 12 canonical Angel appearances so far.

Angel

Illyria was a regular towards the end of the Angel's fifth season in 2004, first appearing in "A Hole in the World," replacing Fred. Technically, since she is played by the same actress as Fred, it could be said that she was credited as a regular from her first appearance, but the first instance of the opening sequence showing Amy Acker specifically as Illyria and not Fred is in "Underneath". Illyria appears in 8 episodes in total.

Angel: After the Fall

Illyria has appeared in seven issues: all but the first issue and the First Night stories of issues #7-8.

• Angel: After the Fall #2
• Angel: After the Fall #3
• Angel: After the Fall #4
• Angel: After the Fall #5
• Angel: After the Fall #6
• Angel: After the Fall #9
• Angel: After the Fall #10

Illyria has also appeared in Angel expanded universe material such as comics, most notably her own one-shot comic Illyria: Spotlight in 2006.

See Also

• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture