Illyria (Angel)
|
|
Illyria is a fictional deity portrayed by Amy Acker in the fifth and final season of the US television series Angel, written by Joss Whedon. "God-King of the Primordium", Illyria is one of the Old Ones, demonic entities that ruled the Earth millenia ago.
Illyria, released from a sarcophagus that turned up in the Wolfram and Hart (W&H) labs out of the blue, took over the body of Fred, killing her mortal body and supposedly consuming her soul in the process. Illyria soon revealed that in this process, she had absorbed the memories of Fred, likening them to sparks.
Although Illyria first tried to destroy the world by raising her ancient army, it soon becomes clear that her ancient army and power had been destroyed long ago. As this realization sinks in, Illyria agrees to learn from Wesley how she can walk in the mortal world.
Despite his grief and having been Fred's love interest at the time, Wesley became obsessed with Illyria and helped her adjust to the world because she had the same face as the woman he loved. Night after night he would get drunk, and the two would berate one another.
Gunn also took Fred's strange death hard, especially when he realized he and Angel were partly to blame. Gunn himself had, by approving the delivery of the vessel, effectively signed Fred's death warrant.
Illyria spent her nights with the oft-drunk Wesley and her days wandering about W&H's corridors. During those times her pass-times were talking to plants and training with Spike) (or more accurately, beating him up). Illyria began to learn the ways of people on Earth.
Illyria started losing her mind, and her sense of linear time, when her powers became too hard to control and began threatening to tear apart time and space. Angel had to take steps to curtail her, which Wesley did through using a device to extract a lot of her power. This curbed her madness but also weakened her. She lost her ability to alter time, her ability to talk to plants, and her strength was reduced. She began to feel bitter and was often sulky and withdrawn.
Although in the beginning, Illyria seemed nearly unstoppable, once her powers were weakened by Wesley, she seemed quite vulnerable. In fact, the conduit to the Senior Partners, Hamilton, actually was much stronger than Illyria in this form and bested her in combat in order to take Drogyn as a sacrifice for the Circle of the Black Thorn.
In the very last episode, Not Fade Away, when Wesley was dying, Illyria comforted him with Fred's form. It is easily seen that she, even as Illyria, loved him, because she started to cry when he died, and then proceeded to dispatch his murderer with excessive force and gore.