Potential Slayers in History?

[CowboyGuy]

This may have a very good answer that I am just missing, but it's always been something I've wondered about.

Kendra trained as a potential her whole life. She explains how she was taken from her family to be raised as a potential slayer. When she became one, she was ready.

Other potentials, like Buffy, Amanda, and most of the other girls in S7 had no clue they were potentials whatsoever. Buffy didn't even know she was an official slayer until it was pointed out to her.

Some other girls knew that they were potentials as they had enough warning to escape the first's servants and flee to Sunnydale. Willow was able to do a spell to uncover other potentials, and as she didn't create this spell, ways of finding potentials would have been created a long time ago.

So how do some know and others not? What do you think might be the reason for this?

[Alyrenee]

Its a good question. In the Go Ask Malice book....which is of course non-canon...Faith begins her slayer training before she is called. Perhaps its a matter of family though...Faith was an orphan more or less and Kendra came from a culture where being a potential was an honor. Kennedy clearly had potential training....but she was also from a super-rich family....so that might have made a difference? Not sure. It would be a good question to ask Joss sometime.

[CowboyGuy]

True. I'm just wondering why some girls are flagged early on, while some slip under the radar completely.

It's a very interesting thing to me.

[northernstar82]

And I have another question : when Buffy died the first time (a few second), Kendra came. When Kendra died, Faith arrived. When Faith was in coma, no slayer came (maybe 'cos they consider she wasn't dead ?). But when Buffy died the second time, no slayer came. So ..why ?

[CowboyGuy]

That's cause the line of succession ran through Faith at that time.

But now due to Willow's spell, we do not know what the "rules" are for slayer succession. They changed everything.

I hope we get to read about it in the comic!!

[Mayor Of F♥ckville]

Wasnt the Watchers Council blown up before they started talking about potentials? Hmm maybe I'm wrong, I didnt watch Season 7 that much. Im guessing that if it was blown up before the potentials were mentioned, I think that maybe the watchers council couldnt get ahold of watchers in the areas where the potentials were. So the watchers had no idea who the potential slayers were....Im probably wrong haha

[spikeluv13]

I think it has to do with the culture. In Kendra's it was an honored tradition, while with Buffy, her mom didnt even believe her. maybe the ones that were thought to believe or understand were approached. I doubt it could be predicted perfectly. Maybe it was known who a few of the potentials were and the rest were a surprise!!

[colonelforbin]

northernstar82 said:

And I have another question : when Buffy died the first time (a few second), Kendra came. When Kendra died, Faith arrived. When Faith was in coma, no slayer came (maybe 'cos they consider she wasn't dead ?). But when Buffy died the second time, no slayer came. So ..why ?

The way I see it is that Buffy is THE Slayer. When she died in S1 and Kendra was activated she was THE Slayer, however when the PTB realized Buffy was not dead (maybe it's like an all or nothing thing and they couldn't remove Kendra's powers so she just became A Slayer, Buffy Still THE Slayer and then when Kendra dies the powers must be transfered to the next Slayer since this is "the way it is" so Faith became just A Slayer, Buffy is always THE Slayer.

[northernstar82]

Maybe you're right .. but it was never very well explained .. a bit confusing.

[sweetescape]

northernstar82 said:

Maybe you're right .. but it was never very well explained .. a bit confusing.

It was never meant to be explained. I think Joss liked to let people work things out for themselves rather than have everything spelled out.

The reason a slayer wasn't called when Faith was in a coma is because she had to die for her powers to pass on to the next slayer. An interesting question is why didn't the Watchers Council snuff her in the hospital? We get the impression from Giles that they are willing to go that far, so why didn't they just eradicate the problem while she was weak.

[taraswizard]

IMO, you're all over-complicating the situation. As a point of accuracy, a Potential is killed by Bringers in Lessons, episode 1 season 7, and the Council's not blown up until Never Leave Me, episode 9 (me no cry tears when that happens, that bunch of wankers were all better off blowed to bits). We're not lead to believe Kennedy's situation is unique (her Watcher being killed by Bringers and she surviving), so I'd never presume it was. Robson's not a Watcher, because he's not at their HQ, please explain why that's true.

The Slayer lineage passes to Kendra when B dies in PG; however, B does not turn back to a normal girl, losing her powers, because the Slayer power has become part of her essential being.

As to why the Council allows Faith to linger away in a coma, and make no attempt to have the Slayer line pass to the next girl through cold bloodily killing Faith, who knows why that bunch of ineffectual, incompentent, whanking losers do anything besides eat cumpets and scones, and punt in the Cottswolds. Not a big fan of the Council.

[xmadxscientistx]

There are way too many potentials at any given point to reach them all. If the council had gotten to a third of them it'd be a big showing of power, especially considering how protective parents are of their children.

[pesk]

I always thought once a slayer is called, the watchers council seek out a potential and start training her to be a new slayer. That's why after buffy was called, kendra was trained before she became the slayer, same with faith, same with kennedy etc.

But occasionally, after a slayer is called (ie gets her powers), sometimes she is killed before a new potential can be found and trained. That's why buffy wasn't trained before getting powers, because the slayer before her had only just been called and died straight away.

sweetescape said:

An interesting question is why didn't the Watchers Council snuff her in the hospital? We get the impression from Giles that they are willing to go that far, so why didn't they just eradicate the problem while she was weak.

I think the council were ok with killing a dangerous criminal, but not ok with killing someone when they are in a coma. The council are still the good guys remember, they couldn't bring themsleves to kill someone so defenceless.

[taraswizard]

Pesk wrote

always thought once a slayer is called, the watchers council seek out a potential and start training her to be a new slayer. That's why after buffy was called, kendra was trained before she became the slayer, same with faith, same with kennedy etc.

Two points, what you say has some expectation that Slayers might live a somewhat normalish lifespan... IMO, it would be not only possible but extremely probably a Slayer might be killed within hours or days of her being actually called. Additionally, IIRC Kendra says she began her training with Sam Zabuto around the time she was three years old, which is most likely years before Buffy was called. But maybe your saying Kendra began her training around the time the Slayer previous to Buffy was called?

FWIW, a good friend of mine in California, and BtVS, fan believes that having two Slayers (Kendra and Buffy) is when BtVS "Jumped the Shark".

Since I probably know nothing of which I'm talking abuot, one can feel free to ignore anything I'm saying.

[dane5by5]

admin said:

True. I'm just wondering why some girls are flagged early on, while some slip under the radar completely.

It's a very interesting thing to me.

I think that's the answer. Some of the girls are flagged early on and some slip under the radar until they are called. Willow mentioned seers in England trying to locate more potentials, so the Council obviously have ways of locating them, but now there are 1800 Slayers. Which means 1800 potentials, I don't think the Council had the resources to locate and train every one of them. So maybe they only located and trained the girls that exhibited the most "potential" to become Slayer?