3rd slayer

[Midnight Butterfly]

Okay I am confused. Is it official that both Buffy and Faith have the ability to activate a new slayer? Or is it just an idea?

Are you sure both have to die to activate a new slayer? Two could exist from here on out due to what happened.

And that was a great post Reika, karma for that.

[wenxina]

As of now, it's unofficial. The bit in one of the multiple drafts of the shooting script was never canonized, in that it didn't make it into an episode, so it's not official.
But, even if it were official, and Reika's (and I think Emmie may have proposed this waaaay back, but I can't be sure) theory was correct, it wouldn't change anything. There could be no third Slayer, simply because at the time of Buffy's second death, there would have been no disturbance in the Slayer line (i.e. Buffy's second death was inconsequential to the Slayer line) and no Slayer would have been called.

[Midnight Butterfly]

I knew that there would be no third slayer. I just wanted a poll to see if people wanted one.
I understand that one wasn't called because Buffy already died in the season one final and isn't tied to the slayer fabric and so on.

Thanks for clearing that up. Karma for you ;D

[Skytteflickan88]

Aug 24, 2009 14:41:15 GMT -5 wenxina said:

There could be no third Slayer, simply because at the time of Buffy's second death, there would have been no disturbance in the Slayer line (i.e. Buffy's second death was inconsequential to the Slayer line) and no Slayer would have been called.

Huh?

Why would a third slayer have to cause a disturbance?

Or is that not what you meant?

[wenxina]

That's not what I meant.
Reika's theory is that the disturbance in the Slayer line was caused by two Slayers simultaneously having the power to activate another girl if they died; i.e. BOTH Buffy AND Faith. A brief summary of her theory follows:
Two Slayers have existed before... Buffy/Kendra and Buffy/Faith. Something about the second resurrection was different in that it restored Buffy into the Slayer line, thus causing the imbalance. This is implicit (or explicit, I can't remember) in the whole Beljoxa's Eye explanation as to why the First chose to strike now. The disturbance in the Slayer line would have to been caused by Buffy's second resurrection. Otherwise, the First was really taking its own sweet time getting ready.

Thus, if this theory holds, then at the time of Buffy's second death, the disturbance in the Slayer line had not occurred yet, as it was the resurrection that caused the disturbance. Meaning that at that time, Buffy no longer carried the Slayer line, and her death wouldn't have Called another Slayer. Meaning, no third Slayer.

Though, I guess in a roundabout way, I guess if a third Slayer did pop up, it would have caused a disruption too, since it would have also meant two Slayers simultaneously carrying the Slayer line. But, as stated, couldn't happen. Assuming that Reika's theory holds that is.

[Miss. Rogueh]

The way I understand it, There can only be one "Active Slayer" when Buffy died in season 1 Kendra was Activated making her the "Active Slayer". When Kendra died, Faith was activated becoming the "Active Slayer." So when Buffy died at the end of season 5 it didn't matter because she wasn't the "Active Slayer" but if Faith were to die they would have to Activate another slayer. Then of course the whole Potentials "if you could be you will be..." thing happened and the Slayer line is forever changed...

[Jsebold87]

What I didn't like was that in season 7 Buffy mentioned that her death could make one of the potentials into the next slayer. But since Buffy had already died twice, and the second time a new slayer wasn't called, that meant that the next time she died a new slayer wouldn't be called either. Bit of a writer's error there.

Each slayer only has the possibility of calling one new slayer after they died. Let's say Buffy did die again, no new slayer would have been called, so Faith would be the only one again. But if Buffy were to live, and Faith die, then a new one would be called. The chosen line is through Faith, not Buffy anymore. Having said that, it would only work this way yet if Willow's scythe spell were to be undone, and all the potentials go back to being potentials.

[CowboyGuy]

Which is what Giles meant by saying, "It's not because Buffy died, it's because she lives! Again!"

She was not merely resurrected by Willow, she was "re-born" into this world as a slayer. So that meant that the slayer line was fragmented, that there would always be two. One stemming from Faith, and the other from newly alive Buffy [into the Slayer Lineage fold]. The balance of good an evil leaned far towards good, so it gave the First Evil an opportunity to strike back, and since it's well...evil, it went all crazy apocalypsy.

[wenxina]

Y'know, that whole imbalance thing... never quite made sense to me, in terms of raw numbers. One girl against legion, and suddenly because there are now two girls who are Slayers carrying the Slayer lineage within them, it's an imbalance? Did someone forget their math?
Not something that I totally care about, but just saying...

[CowboyGuy]

I know. But my brain likes to tell me that it somehow makes sense. I think it was simply an oops thing.

Really, The First could have enacted this plan at any point in history. I mean why not? It is evil afterall, does it truly care about balance? Doubtful at best. It would have been easier when there was only one active slayer too!

I think a big problem in Season 7 was the introduction of the term "Potential", it took something away from the legacy of the slayer for me personally. I don't like that only some girls could be a slayer. It was very excluding, something I found surprising for a show like Buffy to establish. It then makes the slayerhood seem like an elitist group where only some are let in while others are left in the cold.

I rather liked the idea that any girl in the world could be a slayer at any time. Not just a select group of young women who have supernatural "potential".

Furthermore, on the subject of "The First Evil"...I think that it's the worst villain the show had ever seen. Sure it was manipulative, but the Trio did more damage to Buffy's everyday life! Aside from Xander's injury to Caleb. I think Caleb would have been better as the Season's Big Bad, remove the First Evil completely. Caleb could have easily been a preacher gone bad, knew the Slayer lineage, knew about Sunnydale, but also one who could work dark mojo. That way he could seek out Potentials and try to open the Hellmouth without the help of this all-powerful, un-killable eternal being.

[wenxina]

But Potentials weren't something that were introduced in S7 per se. By name yes, but the implication has always been there. Certain girls were singled out, and then trained by a Watcher so that she would be prepared if she was ever Called. That was the case with Kendra. Buffy somehow slipped under the radar, and wasn't trained until she was called.
Ironically, the non-canon Pretty Maids in a Row featuring Spike and Dru handled the threat to the Slayer line a little better than S7 did. And the kicker... Spike's the bad guy. Go figure.
The problem with the First's plan is that it's really not built on anything more solid than what fans can fanwank into some semblance of sense. Given the number of filler eps in S7, a little more care could have been put into crafting a more cohesive story.

[gumgnome]

Aug 25, 2009 11:18:25 GMT -5 CowboyGuy said:

I think a big problem in Season 7 was the introduction of the term "Potential", it took something away from the legacy of the slayer for me personally. I don't like that only some girls could be a slayer. It was very excluding, something I found surprising for a show like Buffy to establish. It then makes the slayerhood seem like an elitist group where only some are let in while others are left in the cold.

I rather liked the idea that any girl in the world could be a slayer at any time. Not just a select group of young women who have supernatural "potential".

Furthermore, on the subject of "The First Evil"...I think that it's the worst villain the show had ever seen. Sure it was manipulative, but the Trio did more damage to Buffy's everyday life! Aside from Xander's injury to Caleb. I think Caleb would have been better as the Season's Big Bad, remove the First Evil completely. Caleb could have easily been a preacher gone bad, knew the Slayer lineage, knew about Sunnydale, but also one who could work dark mojo. That way he could seek out Potentials and try to open the Hellmouth without the help of this all-powerful, un-killable eternal being.

I agree with all of this. At the time, the idea of the potentials really irritated me. I too liked to think that any girl could be chosen at any time to be the Slayer. I understand that it was technically canon already with Kendra having been raised by a watcher since she was an infant, but in that case, how the hell did both Buffy and Faith slip under the radar so easily? You'd think the Council would be pretty good at finding these girls after however many millennia they're meant to have been around for, but the two slayers most relevant to our story were missed.

On the subject of The First, I'm sure this ground has been tread and re-tread time and time again, but yes, it was the worst villain ever. No personality, no form, can't touch anything. They really should have gone with something more tangible.

Although I think Nathan Fillion does a wonderful job as Caleb, I'm not sure I can see him holding up a whole season as the big bad. Hmmm....who could it have been?

[wenxina]

Aug 26, 2009 6:04:08 GMT -5 gumgnome said:

how the hell did both Buffy and Faith slip under the radar so easily? You'd think the Council would be pretty good at finding these girls after however many millennia they're meant to have been around for, but the two slayers most relevant to our story were missed.

I think the distinctive personality difference between the two girls the WC missed and the girl that they got pretty much justifies that itty bitty problem. Kendra was a textbook Slayer; Buffy and Faith were anything but.
As for the WC missing out on a lot of girls, well, "Chosen" makes that even more clear now doesn't it? I'd wager that all the girls coming to power in the montage (excluding the ones at the battle, since it's been established that quite a few of them had Watchers before) had not been singled out by the WC. In fact, it'd make sense that the First probably found the girls who already had Watchers the easiest, seeing as the WC would no doubt have extensive records on all the girls they had found so far.

[Dhampyr]

Ok, I'm not taking the time of reading all of the posts but here is my conclusion. My opinion is that Buffy's second death should activate a new slayer. It's pretty much laid out in season 7 that her death would activate a new slayer. All of the potentials are gathered in Sunnydale, not just so Buffy can protect them, but also because when Buffy dies, one of them will be called. I figured that for the battle plan and the reason for training the potentials. They were never like, "This is pointless unless Faith dies in prison." But then, they never mentioned the idea of a third slayer out there. To be fair, Kendra was sent to Sunnydale for temporary collaborations and Faith came because she wanted to. So, I guess there could be another slayer out there in Cleveland or something who just never came to SD. Anyway, that's what I think.

[Renée]

Sept 30, 2008 17:07:43 GMT -5 @tms said:

because the first time buffy was killed, she was legally dead long enough for another slayer to be called. After her ressurection, she was just /a/ slayer, while Kendra - and eventually faith - was /the/ slayer. So Buffy dying at the end of Season 5 wouldn't have brought forth another slayer; Faith would've have to die in order for another slayer to be called.

What he says