wolfram and hart
POSTED BY: est120
UPDATED: Friday, April 15, 2005 07:45
VIEWED: 7671
PAGE 3 of 3
I'll add my opinion to this one:
The Wolf, The Ram, and The Hart ARE the senior partners. All 3. They do not dwell on this plane. They don't dwell in Pylea either. But they very much want to CONTROL these planes along with others.
Lets go way back to buffy season 1. At the opening to one of the very earliest episodes Giles tells the tale of how long before humanity came to be on Earth, Demons ruled over all. In other tales (non-buffyverse) such creatures have been refered to as the pre-dead, or those that came before and are no longer. Giles tells us that as time passed humanity came into greater power until the age of the demons came to an end. Those demons that weren't destroyed by humans left for other planes. The last demon to leave fed on a human and when their blood mingled that human became part demon. When that human bit another and another, vampires came to be. These events are refered to many times such as in the graphic novel "Tales of the Slayers" in the navajo creation tale, in Giles season 1 BtVS tale, or in Lindsey's AtS season 5 comment about "drop kicking the demons out of this plane" refering to what had gone before. In any case, the demons left, at least the true form demons. Leaving the demons of non true form to be encountered today, as stated by Anya in BtVS season 3 in reference to the fact the mayor was assending into true form.
Now back to the subject at hand. Illyria is(was) a pre-dead. Her true form was that strange creature depected in Wesley's book but she's stuck in Fred's body. Illyria desperately wants to assend back into her true form, raise her army of doom, and take the earth by force. She cannot do this. She cannot because her time is gone. She should be dust along with the rest of her kind.
The Wolf, The Ram, and The Hart are also pre-dead. They, however, are not demons who were destroyed by humanity. They belong to some of those that fled. They too know their time is done. However, they still want to control this plane and others. Illyria recognizes them from Wesley's comment. She stated that they were the lowliest of her kind, just above the level of vampire half-breeds. But that was millions of years ago. They may have been lowly compared to Illyria, but they are godlike to mortal man. And in the present day they may well be the most influential source of evil active in the multiverse. I have read rumors that the 3 are some sort of a triad, being(s) of a 3-in-one nature, much like the furies. (rumor only, I have no buffyverse proof of it) Some realms, like Pylea, are utterly under their thumb. Others like earth, aren't.
The 3 senior partners, The Wolf, The Ram, and The Hart, represent the dark side of humanity. Holland Manners showed this to Angel in the elevator ride to the "Home Office" Lindsey reinforced it with his comments in season 5. Satellite offices of Wolfram & Hart represent the connection they have with this plane. They are surely connected to others as well, most likely in strange alien forms that would not be understandable by us.
This question still exists of course: Why don't the senior partners just manifest themselves in this plane and take it? The answer is never formally given in any buffyverse tale, but non-buffyverse lore in the realm of vertigo comics would hold that one of the universal "rules" is that the time of the pre-dead is over. Another "rule" that DOES apply to the buffyverse is "all magic has a price". There are other rules as well. I believe that Joss was eventually going to end up with all these facts revealed but time ran out on his show. It explains why Illyria's army wasn't waiting for her return. She had passed on before all the pre-dead had been expelled from the earth so she simply didn't know. When she sees that nothing is as she left it she's utterly shocked into silence. As realization hits her she knows that she is stuck in the non true form human shell formerly known as Winefred Burkel. The senior partners on the other hand know full well what the rules are. They existed
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The season two ep Reprise made some references to the nature of the Senior Partners, going so far as to have one of them manifest. I haven't watched it in a while so I can't remember all the pertinent quotes.
Oh and it's Holland Manners ;)
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Holland Manners. I was just looking that up to verify correct spelling. Spelling edited. thanks.
I just noticed that in the episode about #5, when he's brooding in the bar in the late 50's about his dead brothers it's Holland that hands him card and offers him a job as a mail clerk. That's how I just verified the spelling but you caught me to quick.
The senior partner that manifested in season 2 was in a non-true form and was also bound to the ring that kept it manifested. When angel pulled the ring off it was undone. A true form would not be bound by requirements. Wes also named the demon in that episode too, so I'm not sure if it really was a senior partner or more of an avatar of sorts. In either case it was bound to summoning rules and was only staying a short while. I viewed this like a CEO or VP taking a limo ride to a regional office to "keep morale up", which in the case of Wolfram & Hart, surely involved imposing fear and intimidation.
Do not fear me. Ours is a peaceful race, and we must live in harmony.
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Wow thiefjehat, that was some good stuff.
I always just sort of put the senior partners out in the ether somewhere floating around. I never really got any good feel for what they were or their motivations. That helped put all the very tiny hints about them all together a bit. While there is still plenty Joss never got around to telling us...at least it's a better picture in my mind.
Didn't it seem weird to anyone that early in Season 1 it sure seemed like Wolfram and Hart wanted Angel very dead. Then it changed to wanting him alive because of his role in the apocalypse. Then it was like the senior partners had been focused on him for his whole existance. If the last part is true you'd think they would have known all about him day 1 of Season 1. Just seemed like the idea only came to the writers later.
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The way i figure it, was that the Wolfram and Hart employees didn't realise at the time that Angel was important. Maybe the Senior Partners thought they'd test the employees, to see how they handle the situation, rather than let them know straight away not to harm Angel.
Also, why did they try to bring the books home from Pylea? The books didn't come through the portal, as the gang should have known they wouldn't. If the book they used to come to Pylea couldn't exist in Pylea, then they should have known that the same rules apply. Or was the fact that the gang didn't have the books on Earth a mistake? Or am I completely off par with this question?
No Power In The 'Verse Can Stop Me
XOXOX-FREDIKAYLLOW-XOXOX
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