A lot of issues were never dealt with in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Quietly papered over and ignored because no one wanted to face them. It's a way to quick and easy peace. Unfortunately, that approach leaves gaps. Chinks in the armor. When the fallen angel Belial, the greatest of tempters, comes in from the Outer Dark, the Scooby Gang and especially Buffy are vulnerable to his blandishments.
The Devil's Truth series tells the story of what happens when a Big Bad with enough knowledge and power forces the Scoobies to face their secrets - all of their secrets - and what comes after.
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The Devil's Truth series contains examples of:
- 0% Approval Rating: The Scourge, amongst the demon population, not that they're popular amongst the rest of the supernatural community.
- Accidental Marriage: Angel gave Buffy a ring that's commonly used as a wedding ring, she accepted it, they exchanged their own peculiar vows, and made love. Bada-boom.
- Accidental Proposal: Of a sort. Tara doesn't realize that by submitting to Oz to avoid attack, She was inadvertently offering to form a pack.
- Alpha and Beta Wolves: Invoked when Tara submits to Oz and shows her underbelly in order to avoid attack. Becomes even more important later when Oz reveals that by doing so, they have inadvertently formed a pack. This makes the Marry Them All resolution to their love triangle with Willow possible.
- Author Avatar: Belial is basically this for the author, who is displeased about the fact that the many sins of the Scoobies and Angel Investigations teams go unanswered for.
- Armor-Piercing Question: While tempting Buffy, Belial asks Buffy if she knows how many girls were raped in UC Sunnydale.
- Bargain with Heaven: Cordelia goes into a trance to contact the Powers, whom for once give precise, non-vague instructions. Cordelia even lampshades it.
- Cassandra Truth: When Kate is captured by Angelus, he tells her the full truth about the changes he has just experienced (involving Angelus being extracted from Angel), but Kate assumes that Angel’s just had a psychotic breakdown and he’s basically delusional until Angel and his allies arrive to save her.
- Continuity Nod: Belial points all the little sins of the Scoobies:
- Such as when the Scoobies confronted Buffy after she ran away and when they found out about Angel being back;
- The Scoobies not noticing that Buffy was possessed, and that the only person who noticed something was wrong with her was Tara, who never met Buffy before;
- The one time that Angel asked The Oracles to unmake the day he was human;
- When Joyce convinced Angel to leave Buffy;
- Eldritch Abomination: Angelus in his form as a "true vampire demon". The angels probably count, too. They're just prettier.
- Enemy Without: Angelus is separated from Angel by Belial in the first part.
- Everyone Has Standards: At one point, Angelus hires an Asclepian demon- a race known for their healing abilities- to help him keep a captive Kate alive so he can torture her. While this Asclepian is less choosy about who it heals than others of its kind, the Asclepian has enough principles that it refuses to heal Kate’s injuries in a manner that will leave her actually crippled.
- Fantasy Contraception: Cernunnos promises Buffy that none of the sex the group had at the May Day ritual will result in pregnancy, which is within his divine jurisdiction. What the heck, have the rest of the day free on him...
- A Form You Are Comfortable With:
- When he's still trying to tempt Buffy, Belial takes human form. The Metatron takes the form of Alan Rickman.
- While a twenty-foot tall giant with antlers and hooves is hardly "comfortable", at least it's within the parameters of what the Scoobies are prepared to deal with, and in any case much more comfortable than the true form of a god of life and death.
- Friends with Benefits: Cordelia and Wesley have no one else to have sex with at the May Day ritual (everyone else being in a relationship of some kind), so they have sex with each other, find it satisfactory, and decide to continue the arrangement afterward.
- Functional Magic: The Scoobies and Angel Investigations teams make use of all sort of magics for their fight against Angelus
- Force Magic: Usually when Willow and Tara combine their collective mana to cast stronger spells.
- Ritual Magic: They did this twice, first to cast a hate-bond to track Angelus and later to rein in Oz' werewolf curse.
- Theurgy: Invoking the power of gods through seven religious symbolsnote to allow Cordelia to contact the Powers That Be.
- Gag Penis: Cernunnos is twenty feet tall, but since he's a fertility god, he has one of these even in proportion to his size.
- The Gods Must Be Lazy: Averted, the Powers That Be don't intervene because doing so would destroy the Earth.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: The Scoobies and Angel Investigations have a plan to defeat Angelus, but they can't hope to overcome the full power of The Scourge. So they rally the demon community of Los Angeles and Gunn's old gang.
- Heaven: Faith goes here for a few minutes after she's wounded in battle to receive instructions on how to defeat Belial. Cordelia later visits it too during an induced trance.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Faith does this to stop Belial. She gets better.
- Holier Than Thou: Buffy calls out both Xander and Joyce for acting like this, constantly acting like they're the righteous ones and rubbing her mistakes and screw-ups in her face when they themselves have also screwed up majorly.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Belial uses this argument during his temptation of Buffy by pointing out that the world is filled with horrible people.
- If It's You, It's Okay:
- The bonds formed when Oz, Willow, and Tara form a pack are what allow Willow to Marry Them All. Although it is strongly implied that Oz and Tara will not be having sex with each other, since Tara is not bi, it's clear that both have a respect and affection for each other (and an appreciation for how well the other took care of Willow) that makes them okay with the situation in a way they wouldn't be with anyone else.
- A platonic example. Cordelia has never shown any signs of being bi and probably wouldn't be okay with just any woman handling her breasts and getting...flustered...while doing it (see Skinship Grope), but in Willow's case she shows a bit of amused understanding, takes it as a compliment, and lets it go.
- Ignored Epiphany: Played with and narrowly subverted. Belial brings up all of the past mistakes that the Scoobies never owned up to towards Buffy and most everyone realizes what a bunch of jackasses they have been towards Buffy in general. The main exceptions are Joyce and Xander, towards the end, when Belial is defeated and the shock wears off and they're back to justifying their actions...until Buffy threatens them with a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown and make it clear they can no longer act unaccountable for their actions ever again or pretend that they can act like they can judge Buffy without sin. Both are left shaken and near tears after this and Angel gives his own "The Reason You Suck" Speech to cement the subversion.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Faith does this in her Heroic Sacrifice.
- Kill It with Fire: Willow and Tara combine their mana to cast a fireball spell, killing half of the Scourge forces and wounding Angelus.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Belial's goal.
- Listing the Forms of Degenerates: During his rant about how human evil, he lists that amongst the human evils includes murders, rapists, torturers, abusers, racists, homophobes, liars and thieves.
- Marry Them All: The solution to not one but two love triangles.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Willow is in tears when Belial brings up her sins towards Buffy and she immediately attempts to apologize to Buffy.
- Joyce is left sobbing at the end of the first story and into the second after it finally cements that she has been an awful mother to Buffy throughout the show and believes that her only daughter hates her now.
- An interesting case with Giles when Belial brings up him poisoning Buffy back in Season 3 in which he still feels guilty about what he did and mentally wonders how long his actions towards his surrogate daughter will continue to haunt him.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Buffy delivers one to Angel. They're usually better matched, but he's talking instead of fighting in the hopes of getting through to her.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Belial's plans ultimate turn out to be this. In his effort to break Buffy and cause her to fall, he gets the Scoobies and the Fang Gang to have a collective Jerkass Realization about their mistakes and sins they committed but were never held accountable for, brings Oz back into the fray, which results in him getting control over his wolf side, resolves two Love Triangles, frees Faith from prison, separates Angel and Angelus the latter being Killed Off for Real in the sequel, and even forces Joyce and Xander to take responsibility for some of their harsher actions towards Buffy that they have never apologized for. Also, Buffy gets complete closure from the Scoobies getting called out and is able to completely forgive everyone, and she stops being an Extreme Doormat towards everyone afterwards.
- Noble Wolf: Oz's werewolf form is treated like this even before the Ritual Magic that allows him to change at will and keep his intelligence. The Wolf accepts Tara's submission and doesn't harm her, then acts like an affectionate dog toward Willow.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Angelus was always one of these, but it gets much worse when he becomes a pure vampire demon.
- Our Angels Are Different:
- Belial is too metaphysically "big" to enter our universe, and requires a large natural crystal to use as a "bridgestone". Fortunately, the Hellmouth is happy to provide. When he takes angelic form, he looks like he's made of crystal and his "halo" looks like orbiting stars.
- The Metatron looks like a giant (as in, one eye takes up most of the sky when he opens it) figure made out of night sky and he speaks with a voice like a chorus of people of all ages and sexes speaking in perfect unison.
- Our Demons Are Different: Belial is a fallen angel variant, and once Angelus is pulled out of Angel and becomes a "pure vampire demon", he goes full-bore Eldritch Abomination in short order
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Oz's wolf-form is susceptible to an Alpha and Beta Wolves-based appeal for mercy, and becomes fully bonded with Oz's conscious mind, allowing him to change at will and keep his intelligence after the application of some Ritual Magic.
- Pet the Dog: When Angelus kills Caroline ‘Carrie’ Ramsey, an intern at Wolfram & Hart, along with five other interns, Lindsey is content to let the other five be dumped at random as they meant nothing to him, but arranges a proper funeral for Carrie as he genuinely liked her. Lindsey muses that he admired her as much as anyone at W&H can admire someone else, and reflects that she could have been a good lawyer anywhere else but would have ultimately been too ethical for the Partners.
- Powers That Be: Here the Trope Namer|s are composed of angels and pagan gods, instead of being merely powerful Eldritch Abomination|s like in canon.
- Rage Breaking Point: Buffy is slowly pushed to this by Belial, who reminds her of the different sins the Scoobies and Angel's crew committed against her and never actually apologized for. The final straw is when he reveals that Xander lied to her about Willow's message to ensure Buffy would kill Angel. Buffy has a massive Freak Out, has to be physically restrained by Angel and Riley from tearing Xander apart, and ends up giving Angel a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Buffy dishes out one to both Xander and Joyce after defeating Belial, chewing them out for their treatment of her:
Buffy: Now listen to me carefully. 'Cause I'm only going to say this once. I know I'm not perfect. I've screwed up majorly, and it has always come out, and I've apologized, and we've dealt. I have some major apologies to make for tonight. The way I see it, that's how it always works with this group. We must be the biggest bunch of screw-ups on this planet, 'cause we just do it over and over again: we hurt each other, it comes out, we apologize, and we deal. But you two? It never came out for you, did it? You just keep acting righteous and grinding my face into my mistakes until it bled! [to Xander] Get me turned into a rat? I never say one angry word to you. [to Joyce] Try to burn me at the stake? I let go 'cause I don't want you to feel bad. But you both keep acting like the Justified, telling me what an untrustworthy screwup I was at every turn. Well, guess what? As far as I'm concerned, neither of you is going to be the Justified again. No matter what I do, you have no right to act like you have any kind of moral authority at all. Ever.- Angel gets in on it was well, calling out the Scoobies, especially Xander, for their behavior:
Angel: I should kill you. Not for me. If you'd told Buffy, maybe she could have kept me away from Acathla long enough so that I wouldn't have had to go to Hell. Maybe I wouldn't have been tortured for more than six thousand years. We'll never know, will we? But that's a maybe. And maybe she would have let her guard down just far enough for Angelus to kill her. He was ready to, you know. So who knows? Maybe you even did the right thing, wrong reasons and all. And I don't care if you hate me, either. You're a petty, spiteful little boy who can't deal with someone intruding on what you perceive to be your territory. I think Oz will agree with me on that. No, the reason I want pry your ribcage open and eat your heart right now is how you treated Buffy. Angelus returns, and what do you do? Gloat and browbeat her to kill me—him. You'd always wanted me dead, and you finally had an excuse. No sympathy for what she's feeling. Your hatred for me crowded that out. When she finally does kill me, she runs away. Weaker souls have been driven to suicide by what she went through, but do you care? No. All you cared about was how she "ruined your life" by leaving for a summer that she would have spent with her father anyway. Who would she have talked with about her grief if she'd stayed, huh? Giles or Willow, who I—Angelus—hurt? Or you, who would have been gloating? Maybe you- [points to Joyce] after you let her back in the house? Or maybe the nice police who interrogated her for murder? She gets back, and you know she had to kill the man she loves, you don't care, because that man was me. You never stopped berating her and rubbing her face in all the harm that I—he—did, until you found out what it was like to not be forgiven. Congratulations, Xander. Angelus would have admired your cruelty. - Shameless Fanservice Girl: Cordelia is mildly annoyed when she learns that she'll need to be nude for the ritual that will allow her to contact the Powers That Be, but she shows no shame or embarrassment whatsoever during the ritual itself, when she's standing naked in front of half the Scoobies.
- Shown Their Work: Played with. Belial talks about how the Claddagh rings are actually wedding ringsnote which means that when Angel gave them to Buffy, shared vows and then made love for the first time, that's basically a matrimony.
- Skinship Grope: With the usual poles of boldness and shyness reversed. Willow is applying some ritual paints to Cordelia for a spell, and Cordelia is nude for the purpose. Cordelia thinks nothing of it until she notices that Willow's hands are trembling as she applies the paints to Cordelia's breasts, and she realizes that Willow, being bisexual, is probably attracted to her (after all, who wouldn't be?). She quietly acknowledges Willow's attraction and lets her know it's okay, after which Willow is able to continue much more calmly.
- Status Quo Is God: Invoked. Belial points out that, for all of Buffy's efforts, there are never any fewer vampires and demons in the world.
- Taking the Bullet: After Belial reveals the truth about Xander's lie before Buffy's final confrontation with Angelus, Buffy is so enraged she tries to attack Xander, but Angel steps in to take the beating in Xander's place, giving Buffy a rundown of what that assault would have done to a human if Buffy was attacking Xander.
- Those Wacky Nazis / A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Scourge
- Tuck and Cover: When Belial explodes into a storm of crystalline shards, the warriors try to protect the more vulnerable members of the Gang. In a demonstration of how much love there is among the group as a whole, each protects whoever may happen to be nearest instead of protecting "their people" in particular. Buffy, being as tiny as she is, has to make do with curling herself around Wesley's vital areas.
- You Cannot Grasp the True Form: All over the place. The Scoobies are dealing with gods, archdevils, archangels and other greater forces of the universe in this one, and their sanity is tested. Belial weaponizes it, Metatron's presence drives Cordelia to her knees before he can take a more comfortable form, and simply looking in Cernunnos's eyes burns away Spike's demon and restores his soul.
- You Remind Me of X: After Carrie Ramsey’s death, Lindsey reflects that Carrie reminded him of himself at her age, as she dragged herself up from poverty to reach her current position.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Cordelia when Belial tells that her 'this conversation is restricted to people who actually have a future' comment was so cold and cruel that it even impressed a devil.
- Angel invokes this in his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Xander, telling him that Angelus would have found his cruelty towards Buffy admirable. Xander's immediate reaction is not shown, but he is left shaken and suffering a Heroic BSoD in the early parts of the sequel afterwards.
