History Headscratchers / BuffyverseSlayers

** [[YouKeepUsingThatWord That's not what agnosticism means]]. Agnosticism is the acknowledgement of the possibility of a higher power, without being able to define what that higher power is. It's not "We can't know", it's "There may or may not be a higher power, but there isn't enough information ''to explicitly define what that power is''." With all the gods, demons, and higher powers running around the Buffyverse, agnosticism is actually the most defensible stance; there's SO MUCH out there that it's impossible to say what's real. How would you know if you should be worshipping Jehova, Allah, Zeus, Glory, the Powers That Be, or Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain? A Buffyverse agnostic is effectively the same as it is in the real world: someone who elects not to pick a god or faith, only instead of it being an absence of proof of any given one as it is in the real world, it's because of the abundance of proof of EVERYTHING.

*** Also to some degree they didn’t really stopped so many apocalypses as the series claims. I think Giles sometimes exaggerated the degree of the menace in order to motivate Buffy. We learn from the Wishverse that The Master’s liberation wasn’t really an Apocalypses or a real global treat, The Mayor turning into a giant snake, although something nasty and probably would take a lot of lives, hardly would mean the end of the world, Adam’s plan in season four would have taken many decades to impact the world and I doubt Dark Willow would really destroy the planet. So, in reality they stopped the end of the world four times; season two when they stopped Achatla, mid season three during "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E13TheZeppo The Zeppo]]", season five with Glory and season seven when they stopped the Uber-Vamps from getting loose (I’m not counting comics because I haven’t read them, but I guess after season seven every treat is no longer in Sunnydale).

** The way I understand it, it's not so much that the power ''transfers'' as much as it ''awakens''. Basically, the Potentials are all supposed to have that power dormant somewhere inside them already, and all Willow's spell did was awaken them all at once.

*** Except they aren't stupid. Between Snyder talking to the Cheif of Police in School Hard (Season 2 Episode 4 I think) and the Mayor I think it's much safer to assume that at least until Season 3 the Police are on the payroll. It honestly begs the question of why they didn't find some BS reason to immediately let Buffy free to save the world from Angelus.

*** Also to some degree they didn’t really stopped so many apocalypses as the series claims. I think Giles sometimes exaggerated the degree of the menace in order to motivate Buffy. We learn from the Wishverse that The Master’s liberation wasn’t really an Apocalypses or a real global treat, The Mayor turning into a giant snake, although something nasty and probably would take a lot of lives, hardly would mean the end of the world, Adam’s plan in season four would have taken many decades to impact the world and I doubt Dark Willow would really destroy the planet. So, in reality they stopped the end of the world four times; season two when they stopped Achatla, mid season three during The Zeppo, season five with Glory and season seven when they stopped the Uber-Vamps from getting loose (I’m not counting comics because I haven’t read them, but I guess after season seven every treat is no longer in Sunnydale).

*** Background checks indeed. What with the "death" of Ted in Season 1. Kendra's in Season two, and the Deputy Mayor's in Season 3; she was implicated in/questioned on three murders before she even finished school. I'm pretty sure that's not the type of person the police look for.

### When Riley visited and she helped his organization, she completely failed to ask how much it pays... and it's beyond reason that a group like that wouldn't pay its help anything (especially fairly unique help like a Slayer).

*** Why not? I'm sure if she acted pouty she'd get it from him. (Side note, Buffy knows Angel has a son. At least Willow did in Orpheus so we must assume Buffy does as well.)

** One of the episodes in Season 7 talks in detail about how the First Slayer got her powers: in a ritual that is essentially mystical demon rape. The Shadow Men took this young woman from her village against her will, chained her to the ground and unleashed the demon on her. My thought is that a young man of that age probably would have fought back and wouldn't have let himself be infused with the demon's power. As you can tell, the Shadow Men didn't care much for the girl and it was probably a domination/power thing. Perhaps a male Slayer wouldn't have been as easy to control as a female Slayer. Other than that, perhaps the flimsy excuse is the whole Girl Empowerment thing.

** It is Joss Whedon's unashamed AuthorAppeal.

Okay I've only see through season 2 so forgive me if I've missed some later revelation, but why did Kendra act like she had been training to be the slayer all her life when she would have only gotten The Call a few months before? Is there some way of knowing who's going to be called?

Giles gets paid as Buffy's Watcher - and paid somewhat well. What does Buffy get out of it? Sure, Giles does the work to train, teach, and 'watch'... but because of The Watcher's and her calling, Buffy doesn't have the kind of time to do her education to prepare for a productive career, and any job she gets would come at the expense of her training or actual Slayer missions. This isn't a problem until Buffy has to support Dawn. They negotiated backpay for Giles, why not money to help keep Buffy and Dawn under a roof and fed? She's to do a 24/7 life and death job and not get paid - or any sort of living expense stipend? And Giles does? (I'm sure the woman who wrote her thesis on William The Bloody has a nice flat.)

*** We're explicitly told that she's not supposed to have any ties to the world. Giles tells Buffy outright in the first season that she must put slaying above all else in her life, it's a source of friction in the early days of their relationship. Wesley strongly discourages the existence of the Scooby Gang and permits it only because he's firmly outvoted and lacks any real power over Buffy. Kendra is played up as the ideal Slayer, being taken from her family and raised by her Watcher, and outright tells Buffy that the Slayer is not to have friends or family. The Watchers' Council, when they return in Season Five, openly objects to the existence of the Scooby Gang, berating Buffy for involving "civilians". Spike tells Buffy to her face in Fool For Love that she's special because she has ties to the world that Slayers never have, and that's why she's lived as long as she has. Where do you get the idea that the Council discouraging Slayers from having outside interests is Fan Wank? We see it all the time. As to the Council's opinions on the disposable nature of Slayers, one word: Cruciamentum.

*** That's a fairly radical conclusion to agnosticism. Agnostics in the real world claim you we can't know if there is a higher power. In Buffy higher powers are more or less confirmed (Willow's power levels in Season 6 and the Comics at least leave the possibility open that God may be a title or rank. Certainly the number of being who would or could argue with Dark Willow if she declared herself a Goddess are fairly limited. I would certainly bet on Dark Willow (Season 6 who is magnitudes more powerful than Season 5) vs Glory. Think of religion like government (which in a place with REAL dieties is rather apt) the difference between Judaism, Christianity and Islam is similar to the differences between Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians. An agnostic is telling you there isn't sufficient evidence in "politicians" to justify joining a Party. Here we have made contact with plenty of politicians. Cessing out if you should vote Republican or Democrat is different from not believing in Congress. Agnostics in this case should be closer to Independents who want to keep their options open because they don't know who's best. They have a lot of choices of things that are REAL.

*** Maybe most teens would be fine identifying as Christian if they were asked. But that doesn't mean every teen from a Christian background ever took the time to think about it and actually believes in it. Willow identifies as Jewish, but that label also carries a cultural and ethnic association. Lots of Jewish people are secular. In "Conversation with dead people" of season 7, Buffy says there's "nothing solid" as to the existence of God. If she was a believer before, she certainly isn't at that point. But since we never saw her showing any particular belief previously, we could just as well assume she never had one. If a character never profess any belief even when put in all the situations where one would, that's evidence of absence for me.

* Buffy dies at the end of season 5 but somehow a new slayer doesn't show up. And I know it would be reasonable to assume that maybe she just never came to Sunnydale, but with the call to arms of all potential slayers and the destruction of the council in season 7, shouldn't we have heard about a third slayer?

*** And Giles didn't correct Buffy, even in private, when she said her death would activate one of the Potentials because? Replacing a plot hole with a plot hole is silly even for WordofGod. The right way to handle it would be as a story hook—"Who was the Third Slayer, what (dark!) forces kept her secret from the Council, and what is she doing now that all Potentials were activated?"

* If Willow's spell activated every potential slayer in the world, where were they getting their power from? The First Slayer was created using the essence of one demon, which would then pass on to another slayer when she died. Theoretically, that power should have completely transferred to Kendra upon Buffy's death, or at least be shared between the two slayers. Willow's spell should have divided the power of one demon among thousands of girls, theoretically resulting in much weaker slayers. [[/folder]]

* If Willow's spell activated every potential slayer in the world, where were they getting their power from? The First Slayer was created using the essence of one demon, which would then pass on to another slayer when she died. Theoretically, that power should have completely transferred to Kendra upon Buffy's death, or at least be shared between the two slayers. Willow's spell should have divided the power of one demon among thousands of girls, theoretically resulting in much weaker slayers.

** Good point on guns. I guess tradition and taste are to blame there. There are mentions of covens of good witches and warlocks in the show. They imbue Giles with the power necessary to fight Willow. But dark magic seems to be more powerful than "light" magic, although it's also more dangerous and difficult to control without becoming evil. The shadow men wanted a tool to fight the forces of darkness. Apparently they didn't have the power necessary to fight them off alone, but they didn't want to create a threat to their own position of power. Having a girl that is strong and agile enough to fight demons for a while but not enough so that they couldn't control her was a good enough compromise. Also, this was just a few tribesmen in the early ages of humanity. They probably didn't expect to have to protect the whole planet, just themselves. Maybe for some reason, evil forces weren't too keen on apocalypses at the time.
As far as Buffy hanging out in Sunnydale, it seems most apocalypses happen there. She fights off a lot more than your average vampire, though. There's about an apocalypse a year and dozens of new demons and various supernatural and technological threats to humanity and the good people of Sunnydale appear there each month. She kills vampires because she is the vampire slayer, and vampires do kill people and try to bring about an apocalypse every so often(when they're not busy falling in love with her, that is). She handles whatever menace comes her way when it does. I assume the Watcher's council and other organizations have resources deployed at other hellmouths as well, but apparently they decided Sunnydale was in particular need of a slayer.

*** Maybe most teens would be fine identifying as Christian if they were asked. But that doesn't mean every teen from a Christian background ever took the time to think about it and actually believes in it. Willow identifies as Jewish, but that label also carries a cultural and ethnic association. Lots of Jewish people are secular. In "Conversation with dead people" of season 7, Buffy says there's "nothing solid" as to the existent of God. If she was a believer before, she certainly isn't at that point. But since we never saw her showing any particular belief previously, we could just as well assume she never had one. If a character never profess any belief even when put in all the situations where one would, that's evidence of absence for me.