Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Powers and abilities
what sort of powers did Drusilla have
What sort of powers did Drusilla have on Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities. She is immortal, regenerates damage, drains human blood to survive, and is stronger than most humans. Drusilla's technique in combat, although awkward-looking, has allowed her to briefly hold her own in a fight against Angel (in "Reunion") and Spike (in "Becoming, Part Two"), along with besting Kendra the Vampire Slayer (in "Becoming, Part One") before using the hypnosis technique and then killing her. It was also in this fight with Kendra that Drusilla showed that her fingernails are sharper than one would normally expect, as she uses them to slit Kendra's throat. Darla had demonstrated a similar technique when she sired Angel; whether this is due to vampiric abilities or physical manipulation of nails is unclear.  Drusilla is also a seer with minor psychic abilities. However, since she had these before becoming a vampire their source and cause are unknown. She receives vivid visions that contain possible glimpses of the future, and can also see into people's minds and project false imagery into them (e.g. in "Becoming, Part Two", when she convinces Giles that she is really Jenny Calendar). She is also capable of hypnotizing people, which she does by catching their gazes, pointing her fingers towards her victim's eyes and then to her own, whispering to them ("Be in my eyes, Be in me"). Drusilla uses this technique to murder Kendra in the episode "Becoming, Part One". The Master uses a similar skill to paralyze Buffy in "Prophecy Girl".  Like all vampires, she is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, can be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, and cannot enter the home of a living human without first being invited by someone who lives there. CANNOTANSWER
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities.
Drusilla, or Dru for short, is a fictional character on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, portrayed by Juliet Landau. Created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, she is introduced as a main antagonist alongside her lover Spike in the second season of Buffy. In addition to returning in subsequent seasons, the character is featured as a villain on the spin-off show Angel as well. Flashbacks in both series reveal Drusilla's past as a young psychic in Victorian London who was driven insane by Angel before he ultimately turned her into a vampire. Spike and Dru are notably more subversive compared to other "Big Bads" that have opposed Buffy Summers. The duo was conceived as a Sid and Nancy-inspired vampiric pair so Landau chose to portray Drusilla with a Cockney accent, while the character's physical appearance drew from sources such as supermodel Kate Moss and the 1990s heroin chic aesthetic.

Following the conclusion of both series, Drusilla continued to appear in Expanded Universe materials in other media. Landau went on to co-write a two-issue Drusilla story arc for IDW Publishing's Angel comic book series in 2009, which continued her character's storyline.

Character history
Drusilla's history unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; they are not presented in chronological order. In "Lie to Me", Angel explains that, in 1860 when he was still Angelus, he became obsessed with Drusilla, a beautiful young Catholic woman who lived with her parents and two sisters in London. Angelus's sire Darla first discovered Drusilla, and presented her to Angelus as a new possible victim to torment. Drusilla had psychic abilities, and was capable of occasionally foretelling the future, especially tragic situations. However, she believed this to be an evil affliction and wished to enter a nunnery to cleanse herself. Angelus sensed her purity and became obsessed with destroying her, as Drusilla had the potential for sainthood. Angelus first made contact with her by murdering Drusilla's priest, and impersonating him when she went to confession. When she confessed that she believed her abilities were evil, Angelus toyed with her by suggesting she embrace the evil instead of rejecting it. At some later point Angelus tortured and killed Drusilla's entire family, causing her to flee to a convent in Prague. On the day she was to take her holy vows, Angelus made her watch as he killed every person in the convent and engaged in sexual relations with Darla. The trauma of Angelus's atrocities drove Drusilla insane, and Angelus chose to turn her into a vampire, as he considered her a masterpiece, a testament to his talent. Believing death to be a mercy to her at this point, he chose to sire her to make her pain eternal as an immortal.

After being sired, Drusilla, now a predator, joined Angelus and Darla on their murderous travels. In 1880, Drusilla sired the young poet William, who joined the group. She and William, later known as "Spike", shared an intimate relationship, though Angelus continued to engage in sexual relations with Dru as well.

Shortly after Angelus is cursed with a soul, Spike and Drusilla (unaware of the ensoulment) go their separate ways from Darla and Angel. At some point before their arrival in Sunnydale in late 1997, Drusilla is attacked and severely injured by an angry mob in Prague, leaving her in a weakened and frail condition. Spike cares for her, and the couple decide to travel to the Hellmouth in hopes that its energy will help to restore Drusilla's strength and health.

They arrive in Sunnydale in the episode "School Hard", and Spike plots the downfall of the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. When he discovers that Drusilla can be cured by the blood of her sire, Spike captures Angel and allows Drusilla to torture him until it is time to perform the ritual. Although Buffy and her friends save Angel, the ritual is successful. Drusilla, fully restored, now takes care of Spike, who has been temporarily paralyzed by Buffy's attack. When Angel reverts to Angelus, he re-joins the couple. Drusilla soon kills Kendra, another Slayer, by hypnotizing her and cutting her throat with a fingernail (which impresses Spike when he learns of it).

Drusilla is delighted by Angelus's determination to destroy the world and encourages his ongoing sexual attention; both dynamics strongly disturb Spike, who wants Drusilla to himself again and does not particularly want the world to end. Spike decides to help Buffy save the world in exchange for his and Drusilla's safe passage from Sunnydale. Drusilla resists Spike's betrayal of Angelus, and he attacks her, ultimately carrying her unconscious body from the fray.

Drusilla and Spike flee to Brazil, where Drusilla becomes disillusioned with their relationship. Spike's alliance with the Slayer, combined with Dru's skills of foresight and perception, prove to her that Spike is now tainted (not "demon enough" for her) and that he is developing feelings for Buffy. Drusilla breaks up with Spike, and he rejects her offer to remain friends.

Drusilla reappears on Angel in 2000, when Wolfram & Hart brings her to Los Angeles to re-sire Darla, who had been resurrected as a human dying of syphilis. Drusilla, who loves Darla like a "grandmum", and also more than that, over their 150-year-old complicated relationship, genuinely believes she is doing Darla a favor by siring her and is puzzled by Darla's brief rage before her renewed vampire nature kicks in. Reconciled, the two wreak havoc in the city until Angel sets them on fire. The two go underground to heal, but Drusilla leaves Darla, who is then protected by Lindsey McDonald.

Drusilla returns to Sunnydale in the episode "Crush" to persuade Spike to join Darla and herself in reforming their "family" unit, but instead, Spike seizes the opportunity to try to prove his love for Buffy by offering to stake Drusilla. Heartbroken by the actions of her former lover, Drusilla departs Sunnydale and remains at large. However, in Season Seven of Buffy, the First Evil impersonates Drusilla in an unsuccessful attempt to break Spike's spirit. Spike claims that the First Evil's impersonation is not crazy enough to be Drusilla.

In Angel comics by IDW Publishing set after the television series ended, Drusilla reappears, breaking out of a psychiatric institution, in the story arc Drusilla (2009). Still mentally ill, her whereabouts since her last appearance in Angel remain unexplained. After assault by a crowd, she awakens, still pallid-skinned, in what appears to be Georgian London, in broad daylight and enters what seems to be her parents’ home. She encounters a doll (which may or may not be "Miss Edith") and is called by a third party, possibly her parents. It is uncertain whether this is an elaborate hallucination, time travel to her personal past or an alternate universe where she was never turned by Angelus. It is strongly implied, however, that the story actually takes place before Drusilla is sired, and the parts of it set in the modern day are actually a premonition in the human, 19th-century Drusilla's mind. She later reappears in the Spike mini-series (2010–11) by IDW, where she encounters Spike in Las Vegas, having allied herself with a human who believes Spike stole his soul. Spike has Buffy's friend Willow magically transfer his soul to Drusilla to give her a shot at redemption, but they are forced to reverse the spell when it drives her even madder than she already is.

The character next appears in Angel & Faith by Dark Horse Comics in the story arc "Daddy Issues" (2012), in which Drusilla has become sane thanks to the Lorophage demon, popularly referred to as the Highgate vampire, which ate her trauma and pain. In her new role as "Mother Superior", she sought to perform similar treatments on the citizens of London, which Angel likened to lobotomies. When Angel killed the Lorophage, Drusilla becomes insane once more, and is free. Dark Horse intended to release the 5-issue miniseries Drusilla: Run and Catch, examining what happened next for her, but it was delayed until the conclusion of Season Nine. Later in the Angel & Faith series, it transpires she went on to kill one of the London Slayers affiliated with Faith. She returns in the second series, in which she helps the demon Archaeus (the Master's sire) build an army of vampires to take over Magic Town. However she flees in the finale when Angel, Faith and their allies defeat Archaeus and his army in a battle.

Powers and abilities
Drusilla has all the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, plus minor psychic abilities. She is immortal, regenerates damage, drains human blood to survive, and is stronger than most humans. Drusilla's technique in combat, although awkward-looking, has allowed her to briefly hold her own in a fight against Angel (in "Reunion") and Spike (in "Becoming, Part Two"), along with besting Kendra the Vampire Slayer (in "Becoming, Part One") before using the hypnosis technique and then killing her. It was also in this fight with Kendra that Drusilla showed that her fingernails are sharper than one would normally expect, as she uses them to slit Kendra's throat. Darla had demonstrated a similar technique when she sired Angel; whether this is due to vampiric abilities or physical manipulation of nails is unclear.

Drusilla is also a seer with minor psychic abilities. However, since she had these before becoming a vampire their source and cause are unknown. She receives vivid visions that contain possible glimpses of the future, and can also see into people's minds and project false imagery into them (e.g. in "Becoming, Part Two", when she convinces Giles that she is really Jenny Calendar). She is also capable of hypnotizing people, which she does by catching their gazes, pointing her fingers towards her victim's eyes and then to her own, whispering to them ("Be in my eyes, Be in me"). Drusilla uses this technique to murder Kendra in the episode "Becoming, Part One". The Master uses a similar skill to paralyze Buffy in "Prophecy Girl".

Like all vampires, she is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, can be killed by decapitation or a stake to the heart, and cannot enter the home of a living human without first being invited by someone who lives there.

Personality and appearance
Actress Juliet Landau said that when she first received the script, it indicated that Drusilla's accent could be British or American. Landau felt Drusilla "should really be Cockney, especially with the whole Sid and Nancy analogy." Though she never considered portraying Drusilla with a Southern American accent, as James Marsters had considered for Spike, she notes that invited comparisons with Blanche DuBois would also have been interesting.

Drusilla's madness is exhibited in her often-strange dialogue, which is peppered with non sequiturs like "Spike, do you love my insides? The parts you can't see?" Her behavior is girlish, accompanied by a dark, ironic twist. For instance, when she is happy, she will squeal and laugh like a young child, but she is happiest when committing torture, hunting humans, or witnessing mass destruction. She has a fondness for china dolls but keeps them blindfolded or gagged. She also loves flowers and cute animals, but is not sane enough to care for them; as she says, "Do you like daisies? I plant them but they always die. Everything I put in the ground withers and dies." She even goes so far as to own a Pekingese puppy. She speaks in a soft, mellow voice which contrasts with her dialogue.

Drusilla's costumes were initially intended to be a "cross between a Victorian period look and the Kate Moss heroin chic fashion look," says Landau.

Appearances
Drusilla had 49 canonical Buffyverse appearances.

 Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Drusilla appeared in 17 episodes.
 Season 2 (1997–98): "School Hard", "Halloween", "Lie to Me", "What's My Line, Part One", "What's My Line, Part Two", "Surprise", "Innocence", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "Passion", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Becoming, Part One", "Becoming, Part Two"
 Season 5 (2000–01): "Fool for Love", "Crush"
 Season 7 (2002–03): "Lessons", "Bring on the Night", "Lies My Parents Told Me"

Drusilla appeared in 3 canonical issues.
 Tales (2003): "The Problem with Vampires"
 Season Ten (2015): "Relationship Status: Complicated, Part 1"
 Season Twelve (2018): "Finale"

 Angel
Drusilla appeared in 7 episodes.
 Season 2 (2000–01): "Dear Boy", "Darla", "The Trial", "Reunion", "Redefinition"
 Season 5 (2003–04): "Destiny", "The Girl in Question"

Drusilla appeared in 22 canonical issues.
 Spike (2010–11): "Alone Together Now", "Everybody Loves Spike", "You Haven't Changed a Bit", "Bedknobs and Boomsticks", "Something Borrowed", "Give and Take", "Stranger Things"
 Angel & Faith (2012): "Daddy Issues, Parts 1–4", "A Dark Place, Part 3", "Death and Consequences, Part 1"
 Angel & Faith: Season Ten (2015–16): "Those Who Can't Teach, Teach Gym, Parts 2 & 3", "A Little More than Kin, Parts 1 & 2", "A Tale of Two Families, Parts 1–5"

Drusilla appears in a number of non-canonical comics and novels, notably in her own mini-series: Spike & Dru.

References

External links

 Drusilla on IMDb
 Drusilla Comic at FEARnet

Angel (1999 TV series) characters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters
Buffyverse vampires
Female characters in television
Female villains
Fictional characters with neurological or psychological disorders
Fictional characters with precognition
Fictional hypnotists and indoctrinators
Fictional immigrants to the United States
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional people from London
Television characters introduced in 1997
Julia Drusilla (Classical Latin: IVLIA•DRVSILLA; middle of AD 39 – 24 January 41), known as Drusilla the Younger (Classical Latin: DRVSILLA•MINOR; transcribed as Drusilla Minor) during her lifetime, was the only child and daughter of Roman Emperor Gaius (Caligula) and his fourth and last wife Milonia Caesonia. The one-year-old Julia Drusilla was assassinated along with her parents on 24 January 41.

Life 
Named after her late aunt and her father's favorite sister, Julia Drusilla, Julia was born not long after Caligula married Caesonia (some sources have her being born on the same day as the marriage). The date of her parents' marriage has not been determined for certain, but it is known that it was sometime in the summer of AD 39. When Drusilla, as the child was called, was born, Caligula took her to a temple that housed statues of goddesses and placed her on the lap of Minerva, instructing the goddess to nurse and train his new daughter. 

Caligula's marriage to Caesonia as relates to Julia Drusilla, their daughter, is subject to dispute by historians. Suetonius states that Caligula loved Caesonia sincerely, passionately and faithfully even before the two were married and until the day Caligula died, even though Suetonius is otherwise heavily critical of Caligula's romantic and sexual activity. Wood, however, states that the reason for Caligula's hasty marriage with the neither young nor beautiful Caesonia was the purported illegitimacy of his daughter: should Caligula marry Julia's mother, the child would become his heir. Winterling and Schneider state that the order of events suggests that Caligula did not want to marry until a child of his had already been born, a child who would be the purpose of the union.

Soon after his daughter's birth, Caligula set up donation boxes around Rome marked "Julia's Drink" or "Julia's Food". According to Suetonius, Caligula believed that Minerva would supervise his daughter's growth and education. Suetonius further states that "[Caligula] considered [Drusilla] as his own child for no better reason than her savage temper, which was such even in her infancy, that she would attack with her nails the face and eyes of the children that play with her."

Murder 
On 24 January 41, Julia Drusilla and her parents were at the imperial palace complex on the Palatine Hill in Rome. A conspiracy to assassinate Caligula and replace him with his uncle Claudius had been in discussion for some time and that day had been decided for the event. While Caligula was addressing an acting troupe of young men during a series of games and dramatics held for the Divine Augustus, the Praetorian Guard, led by Cassius Chaerea, stormed the imperial complex.

The cryptoporticus (underground corridor) where this event would have taken place was discovered beneath the imperial palaces on the Palatine Hill. By the time Caligula's loyal Germanic guard responded, the emperor was already dead. A few hours later, the Empress Caesonia was fatally stabbed by Lupus, a tribune especially sent by Chaerea to murder the two remaining family members. Drusilla was murdered by "having her brains knocked out against a wall."

Aftermath 
After their murder, all images of Empress Caesonia and young Drusilla Minor were destroyed in hopes of making people forget they ever existed, as a sort of damnatio memoriae. Although these once did exist, no sculptures of Caesonia and Drusilla survive. Although other, more powerful motives caused the deaths of her parents, Drusilla's murder was only justified by her paternity: as Caligula's only legitimate child, she could have claimed the throne for her descendants or even for herself. The only surviving image of Drusilla is a coin issued by Herod Agrippa the Great, King of the Jews, that represents Drusilla as a small child sitting next to Victory. The coin reads "to Drusilla, daughter of Augustus."

Impact on economy 
Julia Drusilla's birth gave Caligula an additional excuse to impose heavier taxes on the empire for the burden of parenthood. Suetonius quotes him to have complained, "In addition to the burden of sovereignty, I must now shoulder that of fatherhood." He promptly took up a collection for her education and dowry. Suetonius said that "after the birth of his daughter, complaining of his poverty, and the burdens to which he was subjected, not only as an emperor, but a father, he made a general collection for her maintenance and fortune. He likewise gave public notice, that he would receive new-year's gifts on the calends of January following; and accordingly stood in the vestibule of his house, to clutch the presents which people of all ranks threw down before him by handfuls and lapfuls. At last, being seized with an invincible desire of feeling money, taking off his slippers, he repeatedly walked over great heaps of gold coin spread upon the spacious floor, and then laying himself down, rolled his whole body in gold over and over again."

Cultural depictions
She was portrayed by uncredited child actors in the 1976 miniseries I, Claudius, the 1979 film Caligula, and the third season (2019) of Netflix's anthology series Roman Empire.

Ancestry

References

Citations

Bibliography 
 
 
 
 
 
 

39 births
41 deaths
1st-century Roman women
Caesar, Drusilla
Ancient Roman murder victims
Female murder victims
Murdered Italian children
Murdered royalty
Children of Caligula
Daughters of Roman emperors Drusilla is an English female given name coming from the Roman Drusus which itself derived from the Greek drosos (dew).  It has the meaning "fruitful" or "dewy-eyed".  As a name appearing in the Bible it was adopted by English speakers in the 17th century. The name has never been very popular in the United States where, according to Social Security Administration records, from 1880 to 1914 its highest ranking of girls' names was 612 out of 1,000 in 1886.

Variations are Drucilla and Druscilla.
Diminutive forms are Dru and Cilla (also more usually the diminutive of Priscilla)

People 
Drusilla (daughter of Herod Agrippa) (38-79)
Drusilla of Mauretania the Elder (8BC?-?), possibly the granddaughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony
Drusilla of Mauretania (born 38), possibly the great-granddaughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony
Drusilla Modjeska (born 1946), Australian writer and editor
Drusilla Wills (1884–1951), British stage and film actress
Drusilla or Julia Drusilla, sister of Caligula

Fictional characters 
 Drusilla (DC Comics), an Amazon who works with Wonder Woman
 Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), in the TV series and its spin-off Angel
 Drusilla Paddock, in The Worst Witch children's novel series
 Drusilla Blackthorn, from Cassandra Clare's trilogy The Dark Artifices
 Drusilla, a succubus in the webcomic Pibgorn
 Drusilla Clack, a hypocritical Evangelist in Wilkie Collins's novel The Moonstone
 Drusilla Sartoris, in William Faulkner's novel The Unvanquished
 Drusilla Arbuckle (The Garfield Show), Jon Arbuckle's cousin.

See also 
 , a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1918
 Julia Drusilla, sister of Caligula
 Julia Drusilla (daughter of Caligula)
 Livia Drusilla (58BC-29AD), third wife of Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar
 "Drusilla", a 1935 story by William Faulkner, later merged into The Unvanquished
 Drizella Tremaine, a character in Disney's 1950 film Cinderella
 Drusilla (beetle), a genus of beetles

Notes

English feminine given names