D'Hoffryn


D'Hoffryn is a fictional character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, played by Andy Umberger. He is a powerful entity high in the demonic hierarchy. He's the master of the vengeance demons, a cabal which includes humans who are "elevated" to demonic status and endowed with mystical powers enabling them to invoke revenge at the behest of mortals who believe they have been wronged. D'Hoffryn rules over a hell dimension known as Arashmahaar.
D'Hoffryn also appears in the comic books during the ninth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and acts as the main antagonist of the tenth season.

Character History

Television

During the Dark Ages in Sweden a young woman named Aud comes to the attention of D'Hoffryn. Aud has recently used magic to turn her cheating boyfriend into a troll. Impressed by her imaginative revenge, D'Hoffryn offers her a position as a vengeance demon, and she becomes "Anyanka," an avenger of scorned women. When Anyanka, under the guise of Anya, is robbed of her powers by Giles while attempting to exact vengeance on behalf of Cordelia, D'Hoffryn refuses to help her, leaving Anya stuck in a teenage body. In season four, D'Hoffryn attempts to convince Willow to become a vengeance demon after Oz leaves her and a spell she casts goes awry, resulting in a series of disasters for her friends which D'Hoffryn assumes she's done on purpose. She declines, but D'Hoffryn leaves his talisman in case she changes her mind.
In season six, D'Hoffryn is a guest at the failed wedding of Anya and Xander. After Xander leaves Anya at the altar, D'Hoffryn reinstates her powers and the grief-stricken Anya once again becomes a vengeance demon.
Anya's second stint as a vengeance demon in season seven proves short-lived, and after wreaking a terrible vengeance on several college males using a spider-like Grimslaw demon, Buffy confronts and fights her. Willow uses the talisman D'Hoffryn had given her to summon him, asking him to help put a stop to the fighting. D'Hoffryn asks Anya what she wants, and she says that she wants to reverse the vengeance she had done. D'Hoffryn grants her wish, telling her that it'll require the sacrifice of a vengeance demon's body and soul. Believing she is about to die, Anya is resigned to her fate only to watch helplessly as D'Hoffryn summons her friend Halfrek - another vengeance demon whose specialty is granting the wishes of unhappy children - and incinerates her instead. D'Hoffryn then leaves, disgusted with Anya. Episodes later, D'Hoffryn sends at least two demons to kill Anya, but they are both thwarted.

Literature

D'Hoffryn returns in the Buffy Season Nine as a member of Illyria's magic council bent on protecting whatever remains of magic following the destruction of the Seed of Wonder last season.
D'Hoffryn returns in Season Ten as the season's Big Bad. He starts off working alongside the Scoobies to help facilitate the new rules of magic, but ends up double-crossing the other members of the magic council in favour of keeping the Slayer Handbook for himself to mould reality to his will. He also resurrects a duplicate of Anya, initially in the form of a ghost visible only to Xander, to convince her of Xander's deceit and ensure her loyalty to him. The Slayer Handbook's new laws of magic empower D'Hoffryn to annihilate the demon lords opposing Buffy, removing his rivals for conquest of the world, as well as the rest of the magic council. He is assisted by Jonathan Levinson, who was previously resurrected by Andrew Wells and the demon Sculptor but only temporarily due to Andrew's betrayal of the Sculptor, who was killed by Buffy. To ensure Jonathan's survival, D'Hoffryn turns him into a vengeance demon, before leading an attack on the Scooby Gang. However Anya betrays D'Hoffryn to save Xander, and is then killed by D'Hoffryn, at which point Jonathan and the other vengeance demons abandon him to be slain by Buffy.

Appearances

Television