I think part of the selection process for slayers is that they tend not to use their power for evil. Faith did not start out as an evil slayer. (OK she was into vandalism and theft - See Want Take - though I get the feeling that even this only happened after the death of her watcher.)

That could be true, and sounds logical and probable, but we don't know.

But I don't think I needed it to counter this person's objections in the first place. Basically (although to be fair, I don't think this was his intent) his argument is akin to saying that you don't empower the oppressed, because some of them might misuse their power. At it's core, it shares the same premise with these: You don't free the slaves, because some of they are inferior people who will abuse their freedom to do wrong. You don't let women vote, because some of them are flighty, and will not choose wisely. You don't educate girls, because a lot of them are just going to stay home and have babies, anyhow.

I think part of the selection process for slayers is that they tend not to use their power for evil.

Well this is trusting that the powers that be have only benign intentions towards us.

And Cindy, I was totally coming at it from an interesting plot point perspective. People are a mystery - I don't get how some people can have watched this show on a regular basis and. still. not. get. it.

It never occurred to me that someone selected the next Slayer out of the pool of potentials. Hence the Council never knew of Buffy's existence until she was called.

I just realized that now that Anya died all of the core four have had a love die.

It never occurred to me that someone selected the next Slayer out of the pool of potentials. Hence the Council never knew of Buffy's existence until she was called.

That's definitely something they've retconned -- and it's one of the things in s7 that really sits wrong with me. As you point out, the Council never knew about Buffy, and the moment of her calling was shown as something mystical. When Kendra showed up, we got the idea of potentials being identified and trained assuming that the council knew about them, but the calling was still, well, a calling.

It's only this season that we have, rather out of the blue, the suggestion that there was a selection process on the part of the Watchers or anyone else human.

It's only this season that we have, rather out of the blue, the suggestion that there was a selection process on the part of the Watchers or anyone else human.

I missed this -- when did it get said?

It's only this season that we have, rather out of the blue, the suggestion that there was a selection process on the part of the Watchers or anyone else human.

Where did we have that suggestion, this season?

It's only this season that we have, rather out of the blue, the suggestion that there was a selection process on the part of the Watchers or anyone else human.

Huh - I didn't get that at all. I thought the watchers found potentials and trained them IN CASE they were called, but they didn't know one way or the other. And I don't remember anything this season that contradicted that.

Hmm... now that you mention it, I felt like it was being at least strongly implied, but I don't have a specific quote to point to. I'll have to do some script research this evening.

(I kinda hope I'm wrong, actually, because it really did bug me.)

I think my favorite insane LJ-ism so far is the person who claimed that Giles saying "Watch your elbow" in "Restless" was representative of the Watchers attempting to control Slayers (check), a male attempt to control female power (check), and therefore rhetorically equivalent to someone telling a girl not to wear a low-cut blouse because it invited abuse (lost me).