#watcher's council

[sparklyfaerie]

This may be a bit of a hot take, and I accept that I may be in the minority here—but the more I think about it, the less I like the in-universe implications of Buffy deciding to awaken all the potentials as slayers at the end of the series.

I want to preface this by saying that I absolutely understand what the writers were going for, and in terms of a metaphor for female empowerment, it totally works.

But you kinda… have to consider what the practical repercussions of this decision are in-universe.

Buffy was a child soldier. One of a long line of child soldiers, in fact, who all lead short, bloody, violent lives. Lives cut off from everything that makes life worth living (friends, family, hobbies, interests, passions) and, as such, ended up in positions where they had no will to live. These children were disposable to the men in power, who viewed them as nothing more than tools to wage their war at best, and cannon fodder at worst.

Buffy’s initial conflict is that she wants a normal life. She actively attempts to pursue one, going against every established convention of the Slayer role; she has family, she goes to school, she has friends, she tries out for the cheerleading squad, she dates. But she is never truly free; her responsibilities as the Slayer often intrude into and completely derail her attempts at normality, until she finally throws in the towel and admits defeat.

But she clings to that illusion of normalcy until Season 5. That’s what Riley really was—her attempts at normalcy giving one last, dying gasp. Maybe she really loved him, maybe she didn’t; she never says (on her own show; I refuse to accept what she says in AtS, because AtS treats her very poorly) and so we the audience can’t say for certain. But once he leaves her, she loses that illusion of normality to the supernatural yet again. She embraces her Slayerness—and where does that lead her?

To her death. Again.

Both times Buffy accepted, even for a moment, her role as The Slayer, she died. It’s her job to give her life so that others may live, blissfully unaware of the war being fought under their feet and on their streets at night. So, she gives her life for Dawn’s, fulfilling her duty as The Slayer.

Except that her friends—the same ones that enabled her to live as long as she did—can’t handle her responsibilities, so they bring her back. Oh, sure, they dress it up like they’re helping her; they genuinely believe that she’s trapped in a hell dimension (why, though? Her body was right there!) and that they’re rescuing her.

But they’re not. It just creates more problems for her down the line. And she’s thrown back into a life she never wanted, with responsibilities that crush her. And this is on top of all the mundane concerns that everyday people have to live with, as well—bills, guardianship of a minor, having to find a job, etc. Even her antagonists for most of the season are nothing but three misogynistic jerks. She can have all the responsibilities and pitfalls of a mundane life, but none of its joys.

And in Season 7, she’s given more responsibility by Giles. The one who first wanted her to conform completely to the slayer template—secretive, obedient, a silent weapon in the Council’s war on the supernatural. Sure, he’s come to accept that she’s… unconventional, over time. He even cares for her. But she is, ultimately, The Slayer, and as long as she is alive, she is fighting this war whether she wants to or not.

They present it like Buffy is giving the girls a choice when she makes the decision to awaken all the potentials—and she sort of is… for the ones in the house at that moment. These little girls who have already been drafted before their time, who have already watched friends and family-figures die before their eyes. If you’re already in the war, of course you’re going to accept the power to fight it.

But what about the others? The ones all over the world who have no idea what they are or what this sudden influx of strength means?

We see one instance of where this can go wrong in AtS Season 5, with Dana. She is actively a danger to herself and others. Statistically speaking, she is highly unlikely to be the only new slayer who is psychologically unwell. How many Danas are out in the world, hurting people because they’re in the grips of mental illness and don’t know their own strength?

Or how many out there are like Faith, who come from abusive backgrounds and decide that this strength is to do whatever the heck they want with? How many are traumatised and violent? How many will refuse to take orders from whatever new governing body that Buffy and the scoobies establish?

We all saw how Faith spiralled out of control because of the lack of support she was shown. Imagine dozens of her, all at once, deciding that they can do whatever the heck they want, now that they’re strong.

How many girls, following the new instinct to hunt the supernatural threat, will get themselves killed before the scoobies find them? How many more children will die in this War on Evil? Even if they’re found, and trained, it’s still condemning them to short, violent lives. It’s only a matter of time, after all, before something gets a lucky shot in and a slayer is killed.

Buffy was a child, drafted into a war she never knew existed and didn’t want to participate in. And now she’s decided to do the same for every other potential slayer in the world.

[libraryogre]

This ties into something I said when I started this blog:

If the Watchers paid the Slayer a salary, they would have fewer problems with them going rogue.

"Hello, high schooler. An ancient power has chosen you to fight demons. We are going to pay you 60,000$ a year to do so. Oh, you're American? Here's a health insurance stipend. Meet this British nerd. He's your boss. You're not obliged to have a complex psychosexual semi-parental relationship with him, but it is common."

You know every show that the premise is like “people find out ghosts/monsters/demons are real and are charged with stopping them” appeal to me way more now as a post-graduate not because I believe in ghosts more or whatever but because can you IMAGINE just being handed a job that you don’t even need to apply for? Like just being told “basically there’s this bad thing and all you do is make sure it doesn’t do what it wants” that’s just customer service baby and I worked that for 6 goddamn years! Just TRY getting past “I have a job to offer you” before I can jump down your throat agreeing.

[lightdancer1]

A note on my take on the Watchers' Council and Quentin Travers in my fics:

It might seem that next to some, or the actual show, that I make the Council a bit better and more heroic than it was in the original canon or make arguments on its behalf. As I see it, in the canon the Council kept humanity around for at minimum tens of thousands of years with its crude and brutal system that kept itself intact until Buffy Summers and company took a great big whack at it and brought the entire edifice crumbling down.

That means that portraying them as entirely incompetent doesn't work. I should also note that the Council when written in its POVs is written from itself, because the bits where it *isn't* a lot of times match 1:1 with the aspects and vibes of it in the actual show.

Quentin Travers I do write as an 'I could reform this but there's only so much you can do' guy where this contrasts with the kind of sweeping power he has in other contexts, because it is always a self-serving lie and is always meant to be. Nobody sheds a tear when the First Evil wipes out the Council, except for all the books.

I do also have them taking the appropriate reactions to my use of Dark Willow as a very early potential theme and reacting like the heroes of a 'prevent the apocalypse even if it's a person' series who rely on moral ambiguity would. Namely that they actually repeatedly try to prevent the prospect of Willow reaching her full power by having her assassinated. Their efforts fail and end up spurring the very thing they hate, and give her a permanent grudge against the Council.

The Council also sees long before any of Willow's friends do that she has enormous power, is unstable in wielding it, and are ultimately entirely right in that this makes her an extremely dangerous and unstable person who can make that everyone's problem, not just hers.

And at least a part of their dislike of and distrust of Buffy and her friends is realizing belatedly that they might be the architects of the demise of their own order and reacting like all conservatives, trying to stand atop history and yell 'Stop' only to realize too late they're Judge Doom hit by their own creation.

Just as I make a careful point never to validate Tara's family under any circumstances in their views of her or their treatment of her, so is it also clear that whatever the Council's rhetoric that it both lies and operates in the real world as a vanguardist security-state cult, with very deliberate parallels to the all-encompassing power of the Initiative (whose infrastructure didn't spontaneously materialize and who have a messier path to getting there because evil vs. evil is always a fun thing to write) or the Pandora Project of Season 11.

That the supposed leaders of the forces of good are functionally very similar to the two iterations of fascism built on demonizing literal demons and witch hunts for literal 'fire from heaven and turn you into a frog' witches is 100% intentional and by design.

[loisfreakinglane]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER // 6.22 “Grave”

[prophecygirly]

one thing I love about Buffy is that usually when the protagonist is the chosen one they are so annoyingly humble about it. as if constantly being told you are chosen and special would not fundamentally impact who you are as a person. Buffy is constantly aware that she is special and the responsibility that comes with it and at times it crushes her but at other times she revels in the power and agency it gives her. thats why I would have loved to see how Buffy adjusts after the whole „every potential is now a slayer“-plotline. I think you can already see the beginning of this with Kendra and later (eventhough to a lesser extent) with Faith.

[libraryogre]

Orthogonal to this, I started this blog partially to argue that the Watcher's Council should have paid the Slayer a wage.

You know how we all joke that writers should stop writing kids in the Chosen One roles because they’re kids and have no experience, etc., and how older people would actually kick ass in that kind of role?

Try telling someone 30-60 years old that they need to put down all of their commitments because they need to save the universe. If it were a book trilogy, the first book would just be the messenger trying to convince the Chosen One that saving the universe is more important than them losing their job for not showing up, their pets home alone, or the risk that their insurance won’t cover whatever injuries they may sustain.

[joe-spookyy]

buffy the vampire slayer au where giles has a thick new york accent instead of a british one and he just says “ey im watchin here” all the time

[mallgothchloe97]

The Scoobies: WE NEED BUFFY! SHE WILL SAVE US ALL! WE NEED HER!

Buffy: I have a plan!

Also The Scoobies: OH NO SHES MENTALLY UNSTABLE!

[cantstandlosingyou]

ughh buffy and cordelia work so well as narrative foils. i love them.

i mean we know that before becoming "the chosen one" and moving to sunnydale buffy was cordelia. she's talked about it time and time again. but both of them have admitted how that vapid-superficial-kind-of-mean-girl lifestyle was very unfulfilling. and that's because at their core both of them are genuinely good people.

then, because of external forces, they gain access to some kind of power. which sounds good on paper, but it takes a toll on each on them. buffy has to deal with the weight of the world on her shoulders from such a young age, and she also has to juggle keeping her secret and trying to carry out a somewhat normal life. and cordelia's visions affect her both mentally and phisycally, she can feel people's desperation and helplessness and her human body is not built to handle all the stress and power cordelia now holds.

and all of this makes it impossible for them to keep up their shallow-prom-queen mask, and it strips them down to their bare selfs: caring, adoring, empathetic.

we also know that this is their true authentic selves because they don't want to give up this powers, because they know how much good they can do with them. cordelia's visions were literally killing her, yet she was willing to become half demon as not to lose them, and that's a lot from a character that claimed to hate demons at the very beggining of the show. and buffy is a slayer, throughout the show she grew to truly, fully, love that part of herself. maybe at the beggining she focused too much on the cons (which is totally valid) but even then it was part of her identity, which is why she was so against both kendra and faith when she first met each of them.

maybe buffy's change is not that noticeable for us viewers because we don't really see her life pre-slay, but cordelia's character development throughout angel the series is just sooo good.

[rhapsoddity]

An impromptu meeting with Empire's Watcher council, surely Cuteguy can bring The Sheriff in right?

[blush-and-books]

so i haven't read the comics but the watchers council being england-based although the actual origin of the slayer appears to come from africa is definitely like. y'know. colonizing and the attempted elimination of non-western/european culture

[willowaddison]

[duckwnoeyes]

I sometimes believe that Buffy's cruciamentum went exactly as Travers and the council wanted it to. Travers so half-heartedly fires Giles that it's almost comical. s5 proves that if he wanted Giles away from Buffy, he could easily just deport him. Instead, he let's buffy and giles believe they've won a battle. Because what's really just happened is although Giles bailed at the last moment, he also went through with drugging a teenager and making it very clear to said teenager that he does not view her as a person. Giles might be beginning to disobey the council, but when push comes to shove Travers knows what he would do for the cause. Giles is still a watcher, and Giles is the only person who can control the slayer. Travers firing Giles, and his comment about having a father's love, is a very neat way to ensure Buffy stays loyal to the man who will point The Slayer in the right direction when necessary.

[officialrapunzelfitzherbert]

wait hold on this is so random but did wesley actually have a job at sunnydale high. like he was a chaperone at the prom was he just. Another librarian or something. was he a faculty member or did snyder just let this random british man hang out in the library for no reason. i fully never paid attention to this but now it is haunting me

[eldritch-ambrosia]

Modern BBC Merlin AU where instead of sorcerers they're vampires and Arthur is just as oblivious that his roommate Merlin is hiding anything from him. Bonus points if the Pendragons are vampire hunters.

Leon: Why does Merlin never have lunch with us? Arthur: He usually sleeps in because he stays up way too late. We'll see him around dinner time.

Gwaine: Are you sure you don't want to head to the beach with us? Arthur, answering for Merlin: Look at how pale he is, he'll burn right up. Not to mention the sun hurts his "sensitive" eyes. Lancelot: *sweats*

Uther: Arthur, why did you remove the crosses and other protections on your apartment? Arthur: Oh, religion makes my roommate uncomfortable.

[summersblood]

This Barbie is a Slayer!