All about Glory
We knew a lot about Glory before a single word of her dialogue was written. Joss Whedon had a very clear mandate for what the character would be like.
In terms of her actual dialogue, I based it on the most narcissistic people I knew and it kind of flowered from there, which was a lot of fun. When she’s torturing a guy, one of the things she says is, "You know this is torture for me". You know it’s all about her. She calls the monk "Hairdo" at one point and says "It’s not always about you." These are people who are being tortured unto death and she just talks about how this is affecting her.
So, there was some leeway in terms of creating the character. Clare Kramer really knocked it out of the park and she looked great in her killer red dress. She had a great entrance - the double door smashing open - that opened the episode. You don’t see what smashed that door up and you think it must be a beast the size of The Thing, just some giant Ray Harryhausen monster.
The second time it happens, the door smashes open in a direct visual parallel of the first door smashing open and you see it’s this cute chick, this hottie in a red dress coming in. I still think ‘Burt Reynolds’ when I say cute chick, but that’s another issue.
The other thing that’s fun about Glory is not only is she kind of almost Cordeliaesque in her self involvement and fashion sense, but she can really kick Buffy’s arse. We’ve made it a very clear that when a god hits a Slayer, the Slayer goes flying about 25 feet and smashes into a wall.
It’s been a while since Buffy has really come up against someone who could give her a good physical fight like that, since a girl could give her a good physical fight like that.