Illyria's most notable words from the episodes she appeared in.

5.15 ~ A Hole in the World
5.16 ~ Shells
5.17 ~ Underneath
5.18 ~ Origin
5.19 ~ Time Bomb
5.20 ~ The Girl in Question
5.21 ~ Power Play
5.22 ~ Not Fade Away
 

5.15 ~ A Hole in the World

Illyria: This will do.

5.16 ~ Shells

Wesley: Illyria?
Illyria: My name ... You would presume to speak my name. Because I have returned in the body of a human, you think you can speak to me. It's disgusting.
Wesley: Who is Winifred Burkle?
Illyria: I thought the humans would have long died out by now. Instead, you've grown bold.
Wesley: So you don't know who Fred is.
Illyria: Nor care. Bleat at me no longer. We're done.

Illyria: Oh ... now I remember. Winifred Burkle is the shell I'm in.
Wesley: She's the woman you killed.
Illyria: This is grief. I'm watching human grief. It's like offal in my mouth.

Illyria: You seek to save what's rotted through. This carcass is bound to me. I could not change that if I cared to, but you have opened my eyes to truth. If the world is truly overrun by humans ... then I have work to do.

Knox: I knew you'd come for me. My life is yours. I—I worship you.
Illyria: Yes, I know. Worship.

Illyria: My last Qwa'ha Xahn was taller.

Illyria: This world ... it's not how I left it.

Angel: You've taken something of ours, something very precious. Stand down and I promise we won't destroy you taking it back. Your choice.
Illyria: I decline.

Knox: Guys, you should scan the headlines here. You can't win this.
Wesley: Then we all die trying.
Illyria: Why?
Angel: You want the short version? Let's start with you walking around looking like the woman you murdered.
Illyria: You think your actions will restore her?
Angel: No.
Illyria: Yet you seek a confrontation you cannot win.
Angel: What you're trying to do, raise your army, reclaim your world, innocent people would die. Like Fred. I can't let that happen.
Illyria: You are the protector of these creatures?
Angel: Yes.
Illyria: You'd fight for their lives?
Angel: Yes.

Illyria: You've destroyed my Qwa'ha Xahn.
Spike: Yeah, OK, but you gotta admit, he had it coming.
Illyria: It offends me that you think he matters.

Illyria: Unimpressive.

Illyria: You're too late. My army will rise. This world will be mine once again. (sees that her temple is in ruins and her army gone) No. It can't be. It's gone. My world is gone.

Illyria: You grieve still ... for a single life.
Wesley: Why are you here?
Illyria: I ... I'm uncertain. This place ... was part of the shell.
Wesley: Don't call her — The woman you killed had a name.
Illyria: This is important to you. Things have names. The shell ... Winifred Burkle ... She can't return to you.
Wesley: I know.
Illyria: Yet there are fragments. When her brain collapsed, electrical spasms channeled into my function system. Memories. (as Fred) Please ... Wesley, why can't I stay?
Wesley: No. Leave.
Illyria: I've nowhere to go. My kingdom is long dead. Long dead. There's so much I don't understand. I've become overwhelmed. I'm unsure of my place.
Wesley: Your place is with the rest of your people — dead and turned to ash.
Illyria: Perhaps ... but I exist here. I must learn to walk in this world. I'll need your help ... Wesley.
Wesley: If I were to help you find your way ... you have to learn to change. You mustn't kill.
Illyria: You killed the Qwa'ha Xahn in defiance of your leader.
Wesley: He murdered the woman I love.
Illyria: And that made it just.
Wesley: No. It wasn't just. I'm probably the last man in the world to teach you what's right.
Illyria: But you will. If I abide, you will help me.
Wesley: Yes.
Illyria: Because I look like her?
Wesley: Yes.
Illyria: We cling to what is gone. Is there anything in this life but grief?
Wesley: There's love. There's hope, for some. There's hope that you'll find something worthy ... that your life will lead you to some joy ... that after everything, you can still be surprised.
Illyria: Is that enough? Is that enough to live on?

5.17 ~ Underneath

Illyria: You've been sitting for a long time.
Wesley: Yeah. Dozed off.
Illyria: You drank a great deal of that poison. You called me a lot of names meant to hurt feelings I no longer have, and then you sat there for hours making noise with your nose.
Wesley: I was dreaming, you twit.
Illyria: You said her name. Fred.
Wesley: It was a nightmare. I don't suppose you have nightmares, or sleep or any of that human crap.
Illyria: In my time, nightmares walked among us, walked and danced, skewering victims in plain sight, laying their fears and worst desires out for everyone to see. This to make us laugh.
Wesley: I'll bet you were jolly as frat boys.
Illyria: And now nightmares are trapped inside the heads of humans ... pitiful echoes of themselves. I wonder whom they angered so to merit such a fate.
Wesley: This world must be a terrible disappointment to you.
Illyria: Grievous.
Wesley: I'm not too impressed with it myself.
Illyria: Why don't you leave?

Wesley: Are you telling me the great Illyria, idol of millions, was limited to one small dimension?
Illyria: I traveled all of them as I pleased. I walked worlds of smoke and half-truths, intangible. Worlds of torment and of unnamable beauty. Opaline towers as high as small moons. Glaciers that rippled with insensate lust. And one world with nothing but shrimp. I tired of that one quickly.

Illyria: It's too small. It's too small. I can't breathe. I can't live with these walls. I can't breathe. There's no room for anything real.
Wesley: It's all right.
Illyria: I should gut you where you stand. You challenged me. There's not enough space to open my jaws. My face is not my face. I don't know what it will say.

Illyria: All I am is what I am. I lived 7 lives at once. I was power and the ecstasy of death. I was god to a god. Now ... I'm trapped ... on a roof. Just one roof, in this time and this place, with an unstable human who drinks too much whiskey and called me a Smurf. You don't worship me at all, do you?
Wesley: And you really can't leave.
Illyria: I ... don't know. And I fear in any other dimension in this form I'd be but prey to those I knew. I reek of humanity.
Wesley: Don't flatter yourself.
Illyria: Your world is so small. And yet you box yourselves in rooms even smaller. You shut yourselves inside ... in rooms, in routines.
Wesley: There are things worse than walls. Terrible ... and beautiful. If we look at them for too long they will burn right through us. Truths we couldn't bear. Not every day.
Illyria: We are so weak.
Wesley: Yes. Yes, we are.

5.18 ~ Origin

Illyria: You break so easily. Why do you bother getting back up?
Spike: Right. We need to set some ground rules. First off: no more punching me in the face. Secondly, when I punch you in the face, you tell me how you feel so I can write that down on my clipboard. Third: no touching my clipboard. Fourth —
Illyria: I enjoy hurting you.

Illyria: I've been hitting the half-breed. He makes noise.

Spike: Oh, old broody-pants got you wound up, eh? Keep in mind, he can't get laid without maybe going crazy. Makes it funny.
Illyria: In my time, a leader would punish your insolence with death.
Wesley: We're not being insolent, Illyria.
Spike: I am.
Wesley: It's just, I don't always understand Angel.
Illyria: Yet you follow him willingly. You're loyal to him.
Wesley: He's earned it. I ... trust he knows what he's doing.

Connor: What is she?
Angel: She's a ... to be honest, I really don't know. She's some sort of ancient demon.
Connor: She have any powers?
Spike: Glad you asked. So far, I've established that she can hit like a Mack truck, selectively alter the flow of time, and, uh ... possibly talk to plants.
Illyria: I would like to keep Spike as my pet.
Angel: Connor, this is Spike and Illyria. Guys, this is Connor.
Connor: Hi. Um ... I like your outfit.
Illyria: Your body warms. This one is lusting after me.

Illyria: You are so concerned with names, dates, times.
Wesley: Reality's being changed.
Illyria: Define change. The world is as it is.
Wesley: Not necessarily.
Illyria: You are a summation of recollections. Each change is simply a point of experience.
Wesley: We are more than just memories.
Illyria: And yet Fred changed the moment her memory did.
Wesley: Fred's memories were changed?
Illyria: In places.
Wesley: Can you see what they were before?
Illyria: No. They're gone. Does this change your view of Fred? Is she still the person you thought she was?
Wesley: No. None of us are.

Illyria: You betrayed Angel. You stole his son. He tried to kill you.
Wesley: Yes.
Illyria: Are these the memories you needed back? Does this now make you Wesley?
Wesley: At least I know what happened.
Illyria: Do you? There are 2 sets of memories: those that happened and those that are fabricated. It's hard to tell which is which.
Wesley: Try to push reality out of your mind. Focus on the other memories. They were created for a reason.
Illyria: To hide from the truth?
Wesley: To endure it.

5.19 ~ Time Bomb

Wesley: You're talking of the debt, aren't you ... of what we owe you?
Illyria: Of what you owe me.
Angel: Go team.

Illyria: This shell ... you had affection for it. For Fred.
Spike: Tons. Loved the bird.
Illyria: Yet you strike at her form without sentiment.
Spike: You ain't her. I can see it. Lord knows I can smell it. And I got no problem hitting it.
Illyria: You're adapting.
Spike: We do that.
Illyria: Adaptation is compromise.
Spike: It's called learning. But then I guess you know everything there is to know.
Illyria: When the world met me, it shuddered, groaned. It knelt at my feet.
Spike: "Dear Penthouse, I don't normally write letters like this, but —"
Illyria: Illyria was all they needed to know.
Spike: Then came the Internet.
Illyria: You have nothing. Your kind has pulled this domain apart. Each of you has snatched a tiny piece of it. Even those with the mightiest hoards are paupers.
Spike: The one who dies with the most toys wins, eh?
Illyria: To never die ... and to conquer all, that is winning.

Illyria: You may go.
Spike: Yeah, great. Thanks so much.

Illyria: This day. What name is it given in your cycle of days?
Wesley: I give it ... Monday.
Illyria: And this conversation. We've had it before.
Wesley: Well, yes, we've ... discussed our system of temporal measurement and our technology, weights and measures, local customs, world history ...
Illyria: You are my guide.
Wesley: Apparently.
Illyria: You're more than that.
Wesley: Really?
Illyria: You are my betrayer. When you shattered the Window of Orlon, you meant to change the past, to rewrite your history and the history of this body.
Wesley: And instead I brought back more painful memories.
Illyria: It was a failure.
Wesley: I've come to understand how irreversible the works of time are.
Illyria: But you intended to alter them.
Wesley: I wanted to bring back Fred.
Illyria: And destroy me!
Wesley: As an unavoidable consequence. Does it sting you, my betrayal?
Illyria: Betrayal was a neutral word in my day, as unjudged a word as water or breeze. No. Or perhaps ... I am only bothered because I am bothered.
Wesley: That sounds very close to human.
Illyria: Motes of dust. Mayflies who die so soon after they're born they might as well not live at all.
Wesley: Now, now. Manners.

Illyria: Odd. It doesn't exist until it cracks apart.
Wesley: What's that?
Illyria: Time.
Wesley: You don't look altogether well.
Illyria: Your opinion of me weighs less than sunlight.

Illyria: You will speak to me.
Angel: In the middle of something.
Illyria: Then I will end it.

Illyria: What is it? Poison? Magicks? It impresses me, the power of it. Whatever you've done, it can't save you. To do anything but bow to my will is absurd, yet you conspire —
Angel: We haven't done anything to you.
Illyria: Jealous. Plankton envying the ocean that holds them.
Angel: Yeah, that's great. Listen, I got things —
Illyria: Ridiculous apes. My death won't prevent your dying.

Illyria: Do you know what you were when I was young? You were the muck at our feet. We called you "the ooze that eats itself." You were pretty at night. You sparkled, and you stank. You still stink of it!
Angel: Will you just shut up for once?!
Illyria: What?
Angel: My God, the speechifying. Has it ever occurred to you that now might not be the best time for when-we-were-muck stories?
Illyria: You dare to speak to me in this —
Angel: Yes, I dare. And, yes, we are looking for a way of controlling you any way that we can. I can't have an x-factor like you bouncing around unchecked.
Illyria: "Bouncing around"!
Angel: Yes, and I know you would do the same thing. I know that for a fact. But this is my kingdom, lady, not yours!
Illyria: Your kingdom! I am Illyria, god-king of the primordium, shaper of things!

Illyria: These are the fruits of your attempt to murder me. Your kingdom turned to ash and stale wind. I slew the white-haired one first.
Angel: This can't be.
Illyria: And then Wesley, as he raised his weapon ... and your demon clown as he wilted in terror.
Angel: And I'm next.
Illyria: No, vampire. You were last.

Angel: We attacked you.
Illyria: I didn't give you the chance. That you learn when you become a king. You learn to destroy everything that's not utterly yours. All that matters is victory. That's how your reign persists. You're a slave to an insane construct. You are moral. A true ruler is as moral as a hurricane, empty but for the force of his gale. But you ... trapped in the web of the Wolf, the Ram, the Hart. So much power here, and you quibble at its price. If you want to win a war, you must serve no master but your ambition.

Illyria: Change is constant. Yet things remain the same.

Illyria: You want to take my power ... to let me live. But I am my power. And I would rather be a titanic crater than be like unto you. I kill you. That's how this ends.

Angel: Illyria, the future can change here. You can choose a different path.
Illyria: And be nothing.
Angel: And be what you are. Fighting to hold on to what you were ... it's destroying you.
Illyria: You would do this to me.
Wesley: I'd try anyway. Every time.
Illyria: I possess so much grace, more grace than this bag of sticks could express. I was the immaculate embodiment of rule. I blame this on the weakness of your species.

Illyria: Touch me and die, vermin.

5.20 ~ The Girl in Question

Illyria: I can no longer hear the song of the green.
Lorne: You think that includes me?
Wesley: Her powers have been greatly reduced. She still has an unusual level of strength, but is no longer invulnerable or able to alter time.
Illyria: You revel in my defeat.
Wesley: Is that how you view it — you've been defeated?
Illyria: My world gone. My power stripped. How would you define it?
Lorne: Uh, I don't know, how about lucky we didn't kill you when you went nuclear?
Illyria: This fate is worse than death. Condemned to live out existence in a vessel incapable of sustaining my true glory. How am I to function with such limitation?
Lorne: Well, ever tried a Sea Breeze?
Illyria: You attempt amusement at the expense of your better.
Wesley: Illyria. Perhaps you should return to the lab.
Illyria: I do not bend to your wishes.
Wesley: I'm not asking you to. Merely suggesting that more tests might lead to knowledge of how to help you function.
Illyria: I go because it suits me.

Wesley: What the hell are you doing?
Illyria (as Fred): Visiting with my folks.
Wesley: Illyria —
Illyria: Your grief hangs off of you like rotted flesh. I couldn't tolerate it from them as well. I thought this would be more convenient.
Wesley: How's it possible?
Illyria: It's a simple modulation of my form. I appear as I choose. Do you wish me to stop?
Trish Burkle: Sweetie, you have got to do a better job decorating. This office is as bare as a bone. Is everything OK?
Wesley: Everything's fine.
Illyria (as Fred): Absatively.

Trish Burkle: You sure you're OK? You seem different somehow.
Roger Burkle: Oh, she's just growin' up, mother. Let her go. You're gonna embarrass her in front of her employees.
Illyria (as Fred): Stop it, daddy, and come here. Give me a hug. I love you guys so much.
Trish Burkle: Oh, we love you, too.
Roger Burkle: We'll talk soon. OK?
Illyria (as Fred): Countin' on it. (The Burkles leave.)
Wesley: Did you get what you needed from that experience?
Illyria: Yes. It was most informative.
Wesley: Good. Don't ever do it again.

Illyria (as Fred): Wes? Are you, like ... mad at me or something?
Wesley: Stop it.
Illyria: Isn't it what you desire? (as Fred) I mean ... you love me, I love you. What's the big deal?
Wesley: I loved her.
Illyria: You loved this. And part of you still does. I can feel it in you. I ... wish to explore it further.
Wesley: Never. You ... like this. It sickens me.
Illyria (as Fred): Oh, lord. We both know that ain't true.
Wesley: Stop it! Change back. Be blue. Be anything. Don't be her. Don't ever be her.
Illyria: As you wish.

5.21 ~ Power Play

Spike: Like you're not even there. World trembled before your feet once. Now ... padding around a place you don't want to be in, and the rabble don't even give you so much as a polite yawn.
Illyria: Do not presume I require any creature's attention.
Spike: Wouldn't dream of it, Blue. Still ... you can't enjoy haunting this place. Less than what you were, not knowing what to do with yourself. Believe me, I've been there.
Illyria: And what do you know of it?
Spike: Long and fascinating tale. Ghost story, in fact. Short of it is ... take my advice. Get out once in a while. Before you go bats.
Illyria: Out?
Spike: Out. Outside. That place just on the other side of the window.
Illyria: I've grown wary of this world since my powers were depleted. Strange ... though I've been made more human, this place remains disconcerting.
Spike: Yeah, well, I'm afraid that never goes away. Anyhow, I thought Wesley was giving you a primer on all things human.
Illyria: He and I are no longer having intercourse.
Spike: Y-You wh-what?
Illyria: He has ceased communication with me.
Spike: Oh! Oh. Communi—
Illyria: My recent reversion to the Burkle persona disturbed him. And he will not tell me why.
Spike: You don't know? You may not think you're as powerful as you were, Highness, but looking like Fred, for some of us ... it's the most devastating power you have.

Illyria: (of Wesley) He showed no regard for my presence.
Spike: Not that you require any creature's attention.

Illyria: Angel does not think the casualties of this creature are important enough to avenge.
Spike: Yeah. I think corporate living's made him lose his love for the hunt. No worries. More for me then.
Illyria: It does not serve his interest.
Spike: What are you on about?
Illyria: I've seen this before with many rulers. Your leader has been corrupted.
Spike: Hey, hang on. In the first place, Angel's not my leader. In the second, what the bloody hell do you mean corrupted?
Illyria: It always begins the same. A ruler turns a blind eye to the dealings of battles from which he cannot gain and a deaf ear to the counsel of those closest to him. As his strength increases, so does the separation between he and his follow —
Spike: Shh. You smell that?
Illyria: The odors of everything in this world of men are equally repugnant to me.
Spike: Bloody helpful. You're wrong about Angel. Not that I don't think the sod could end up being a megalomaniacal bastard. It's just that if he did ... I'd know it. I'd feel it.
Illyria: You'll have proof soon enough. A corrupted ruler on such a path sees treachery and betrayal all around him. He cannot suffer intimates and will eventually turn against them.
Spike: Guess I don't have to worry about that, cause Angel and me have never been intimate. Except that one ...
Illyria: Mark me. He will murder one of you.

Illyria: The intricacies of your fates are meaningless.

Illyria: Crash Bandicoot?

Drogyn: It is a test, a task of some sort. You must collect those crystals. And the fruit.
Illyria: Why?
Drogyn: Old one ... you have no right to walk this Earth. Your time is past. You belong to the well.
Illyria: Truly. I wish now I had never been brought out of it.
Drogyn: Do you?
Illyria: I don't know. I play this game ... it's pointless and annoys me ... and yet, I'm compelled to play on.

5.22 ~ Not Fade Away

Illyria: I will fight. I've been broken and humiliated. I will return in kind every blow, every sting. I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces.
Wesley: You're a very inspirational person. Have I mentioned that?

Illyria: You want to be with Fred.
Wesley: Yes. Yes, that's where I'd be if I could.
Illyria: I could assume her shape, make her come alive again this once for you. But you would never ask me to.

Illyria: I'll make trophies of their spines.
Angel: Good to have you on the team.

Illyria: Try not to die. You are not unpleasant to my eyes.
Gunn: Uh, thanks. You ... try not to die, too.

Illyria: Wesley. This wound is mortal.
Wesley: Aren't we all? It was good ... that you came.
Illyria: I killed all mine, and I was ...
Wesley: Concerned?
Illyria: I think so. But I can't help. You'll be dead within moments.
Wesley: I know.
Illyria: Would you like me to lie to you now?
Wesley: Yes. Thank you. Yes.

Illyria: Wesley's dead. I'm feeling grief for him. I can't seem to control it. I wish to do more violence.