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Date Posted: 13:12:02 08/26/02 Mon
Author: UHC *spoilers contained*
Subject: Time for more insightful debate about the show of Buffy....I hope

Once again an essay not involved deeply with Xander. Rather I am tackling this season, Buffy, the Council, The Watchers, and the Slayer Essense.

Here is some spoilage from KC.

Everythings Coming Up Slayers
In the first few eps at least. As Giles helps Willow recover in England we will get a chance to glimpse The Watchers Council and their techniques regarding the preperation of up and coming Slayers. And we may just see a few of them.


This is the first little bit that sparked my memory. For some time now I've had a theory that the Big Bad for season and the whole show will be The Council itself. Not only the council but the entity Buffy has been fighting since day one. The Slayer Essence, the thing that keeps her from living what she might call the good life, the normal life. (Now before any one shouts BX, this isn't specifically aimed at pointing Buffy to Xander so don't go in that direction.) Now I'm sure you don't follow my process of thought of how I got from that spoiler to Buffy fighting the Coucil...well I'll try to explain. I think.

First I'd like to point out that The whole retreat to England for Willow and actually doing filming over there is very unnecessary. I feel like they have done this for more reason than just to throw money away on pretty filming locations. I speculate that they intend to do more with the whole England scene, possibly just filming with Giles and those involved with the Council for a while. As a way of including giles in the show while still allowing him to live in England. But why did they need to go to England in the first place. Why not have Willow go feel bad in LA or Ohaha or something like that. Yeah I know they needed the power of the council to help her contain things. Yeah ok I understand that. But still there is more there. Now I heard this spoiler, that says we will get to see some of the workings of the Council. In other words they are introducing some new characters. It has been said that Giles never gives a character speaking lines without intending for them to be intriquitely involved with the storyline (this of course does not include back ground noise). My theory is that Joss has us seeing more of the Council in their natural habitat because well we will need to know more about them. Because just like we got to see the Master in his lair the Mayor in his Office, we need to see the Council in their Chambers. We need a setting for them. This is just the first step of familiarizing the audience with the Big Bad's headquarters.

Ok so now some are going... Huh? Why would they make the Council the Big Bad, and where the hell did you come up with this from? Well ok its possibly somewhat farfetched and I may have some difficulty puttng this down in logical understandable sentences.

First I would like to go back and try to figure out the origins of the slayer and the Council. If I make errors here please bring them to my attention. In the beginning there was only one Demon left on this world, he mixed his blood with a human and this created the vampire. All that jazz from episode one. And then at some point down the line the vampires became very powerful. They grew and grew in numbers and became a threat to humanity. Of course according to the Jossverse, there are other forms of magic and supernatural powers in this world other than the vampire. And so somewhere along the line a group of "Elders" Someone concerned about the danger presented by the vampires and other forms of evil decided they needed a weapon to fight back with. They were not strong enough to fight on their own. So they searched for something or someone that could give them an advantage. And in their searches of the darkest tomes and most sinister of histories they found the magic that would make their champion. Their Champion of Good, Fighter of the Light. But with all great power there comes a cost. Nothing is free. Though this power was going to be used for good, the spells and magics it is drawn from deepest darkest of evils. And to accomplish this spell a sacrifice was needed. A somewhat cliche sacrifice. A Young Girl. "A virgin". But instead of killing her they transform her. Changing her physically. Creating the slayer. Taking away all she was before, stealing her life from her and turing her into their own tool to be used however they chose. They justified this sacrifice as being for the good of man kind. One life is a small price to pay. Well actually not one life but one life in a generation. So this group of Elders has become the Council and the "Tool" They created has become the slayer. But immediately the Council sees there is a danger. This Slayer, is rooted in the darkest of evils. She is filled with a magic, that while powerful also has hidden and sinister connotations. They immediately see a need. they are going to need to monitor their creation very closely. The will need someone to "Watch" the Slayer. They go a step farther and have the "Watcher" also be there to provide guidance to the slayer. To push her in the correct direction. He is sort of a fail safe for their little monster. Like a lion trainer and the lion. But he is also in contact with the Council and if he sees the Slayer is breaking away from the council's wishes, he calls in their own clean up team. Who are their as a precautionary. (we were witness to this when Faith broke from the wishes of the council.)

As time passes the roles of Watcher and slayer are needed to be filled and they decide on a procedure to fill them. simple really they choose. We aren't privy to their system of critera yet but I'm sure its become rather outdated and what might even seem unfair to the girl who is chosen. or perhaps its along the lines of the Colonial Lottery, which is another story for another time.


But with all the set up we have been given from Dracula and other parts of season 5 and then alot of spike's rhetoric in season 6 about Buffy being from the darkness. They have been showing us Buffy has a choice, though she doesn't know it. All along she has shown a desire to fight against this destiny that has been dumped on her. Now if she truthfully finds out that her origins are very dark and evil, she will be given the power to fight back against the Slayer within. Her other choice will be to simply accept what she has been fighting all these seasons. To go along with the and continue in the ways of the darkness. She may be fighting the good fight but something else is there too. Something is slowly pulling her darker and farther away from the light. Not to mention the Council has bee corrupt and uncaring. They enjoy the power that has come with the slayer. And they have begun to abuse it. So this will need to be corrected.

And we also get to see Xander's storyline come to completion (this is some other speculation of mine that could possibly happen.) Xander is there to show that in the end the fight against evil doesn't require the dark magics and super powers that corrupt those who use them. But instead Humans can fight against the forces of evil on their own. *this I admit is a little iffy but I'd like to see it.*

This of course is not all of what I had hoped to say but, I have difficulty in showing everything that I"m thinking.

One thing I'd like to make plain, Giles is a watcher who broke out of the mold, he became more than what the council wanted. So don't think I include Giles in the corruption.

But I think the final enemy will be Buffy fighting the Slayer essense itself. And this is how and why we will be learning more about the first slayer and its origins.

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Replies:

[> Willow, Buffy and the Demon Inside, and the Council.......(SpoilerTalk) -- Lijdrec, 19:42:13 08/26/02 Mon [1]


Uh, I am not sure if the reason that Willow went to England has anything to do with the Council of Watchers. The spoilers have it that she went to England to meet witht he Coven that imbued Giles with his power. They were to attempt to remove Willow's Magick.

Though this power was going to be used for good, the spells and magics it is drawn from deepest darkest of evils. And to accomplish this spell a sacrifice was needed. A somewhat cliche sacrifice. A Young Girl. "A virgin". But instead of killing her they transform her. Changing her physically. Creating the slayer. Taking away all she was before, stealing her life from her and turing her into their own tool to be used however they chose.

Uh... yeah, she was a virgin alright, she was born with the demon inside. So wrote Joss in the graphic novel (comic) version of Tales of the Slayer. Joss wrote these words spoken by the young village girl to the First Slayer: They say the Shadowmen made you born with demon inside and that is how you are able to fight the vampires.

So while all Slayers who came after her were indeed imbued with the Essence at an age that would forever steal their youth and futures from them, the First Slayer was born and grew up with her Powers. It would have been all she knew and was necessary to prepare her for the task ahead because she had no Watcher. At the end of Joss' story it should be noted that the First Slayer was rather gratified to discover that she would live on in other young women.

I'm sorry, but this whole battling the evil within deal continuing into S7 just doesn't make sense to me. And I blame the writers, because I think the end of S6 was supposed to put an end to all of that thinking. The whole point being that it is not the 'Slayer Essence' in control or coming into control but the Human. It was Buffy the Human that was in conflict, afterall she dutifully kept to her patrols as a Slayer. A Human in emotional conflict doesn't need a Demon inside for that.

The appearance of the First Slayer in Restless was a beginning to that conflict (and also a victory in battle for Buffy). Season 5 showed a Buffy so forthright in her purpose and strong, yet also vulnerable, everything that a human would hope to be in times of stress. Season 6 could only follow that with her succumbing to that same stress not due to the Demon or the darkness, but because she is Human. Faith's story was not one of succumbing to the Demon within, but was a story of the failings of the young Human woman giving into those fears and desires that her young life had spawned long before she became the Slayer.

All along she has shown a desire to fight against this destiny that has been dumped on her. Now if she truthfully finds out that her origins are very dark and evil, she will be given the power to fight back against the Slayer within. Her other choice will be to simply accept what she has been fighting all these seasons. To go along with the and continue in the ways of the darkness. She may be fighting the good fight but something else is there too. Something is slowly pulling her darker and farther away from the light. Not to mention the Council has been corrupt and uncaring. They enjoy the power that has come with the slayer. And they have begun to abuse it. So this will need to be corrected.

My take on Buffy is that she had come to accept her calling as the Slayer, but she would not let get in the way of the young woman she hoped to become (of course, dying while in the role of Slayer certainly would preclude her 'normal life'.). I do not see that Acceptance as giving into 'the Dark'. It is similar to a choice any Human might make to accept a whatever challenges might be put before them. The challenge could come out of some evil, but the acceptance of such a challenge comes from one's inner personal strength. That is what Buffy has done, it is what she affirmed when she said to the First Slayer, "You are not the source of me."

The Slayer Essence has never become in any past time over thousands of years, a problem. Remember that a great part of that Essence is imbued with the very Human memories of hundreds if not thousands of young women, most of whom fought the good fight and lived lives in acceptance of the challenge offered by the power of the Slayer. That some did choose paths such as Faith's is evident, but the overall effect of that Heritage must certainly be one of the good fight against the everpresent foe, the Vampire.

Lastly this idea of the Council of Watchers as a Big Bad. And where is the corruption? This is just plain LAME! The CoW simply is an Institution set in its ways. That does not make it corrupt, it makes it cold, uncaring, and unchanging. Neither does training young perhaps-to-be Slayers or any of their other practices. The Cruciamentum as a test is just the institutionalization of a form of control, the control that the leaders of CoW feel they must exert over the Slayer-Watcher team. Besides, the CoW no longer has any power over this Slayer, they work for Buffy. Now yes, this situation could change but I for one do not think that it will. If it all ends this season then the fight Buffy must face should be of a super-natural origin.

I like UHC have become talked and idea'ed out....


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[> I also heard -- Seril Erdrick, 20:46:36 08/26/02 Mon [1]

Yeah, these are all good points, but from what I have been reading, they are planning something that no one will expect. If you remember that one episode with that vampire, he said that he wanted to kill Buffy. Now, they haven't been able to do it by themseleves, so logically they will have to call in some help. From what I have been reading, it will need to be someone powerful. Now, I'm pretty sure that what they are talking about is pretty obvious. Now Dracula is a well known vampire and a fairly powerful one. Now him being a vampire means hes very susceptable to getting killed in the standard vampire fashon. What could he do to prevent himself from getting killed? Well if he were armored that would help. But the armor would prevent him from being as mobile and as fast, so what if he were to put his ghost into something large and metal? Like a bus? Hmm? The bus of the undead? Now this would allow him to be very durable and mobile and be able to capture people and make them ride. This is pretty much the ultimate weapon, Dracula-bus. The only well to tell which bus is dravula is by the wheels. See those are the markings. This would make it difficult to track him down, and he could surprise attack. Mid-season they figure out the markings on the wheels and attack while he is resting in a parking lot. But he could see it coming in the rear view mirrors. They will have to call something else that is large and metal to help them fight the Bus of the Undead. Probably someone like Optimus Prime. This is the only logical course of action since the is a Semi truck which is larger than a bus. Plus being a robot he can't turn into a vampire. And being like 50 feet tall with a large cannon that is several feet long would help alot. He could also just pick up the bus and hurl it into the sun, because vampires can't live on the sun. Now there is the small possibility that dracula's ghost could try and possess Optumus Prime, but I doubt that would happen. Besides he's got like 50 other Autobots on Earth with him, so he's got a large army. Now this is just speculation mind you. I got most of these tips from various places around the internet, you can check them out for yourself.

BTW, I found this interesting.
Optimus Prime


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[> [> Re: I also heard -- Seril Erdrick, 20:48:23 08/26/02 Mon [1]

I mean this link..

">http://www.botcollector.com/ComShowCase.htm"


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[> [> Re: I also heard -- Seril Erdrick, 20:49:26 08/26/02 Mon [1]

I mean this link..

This link


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