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).

Nah - he was telling her not to throw like a girl (which shows he still retained vestiges of the bias inherent in the CoW, but I don't want to get all preachy, so I'll shut up).

No - I never got the feeling that anyone selected the slayers. My read is:

Way back a two part spell was cast.

Part1) - tapped into the power of dark magic to given superpowers to certain girls to fight vampires other demons.

Part 2) limited that power to 1 girl at a time - otherwise every girl with those characteristics would have gotten the power.

My feeling is that part of the selection process for part I was that they would tend to use that power for fighting demons - that most of them would not use it selfishly. Because of the whole "free will" deal there was not guarantee - but that they loaded the dice that way as much as possilbe.

And so when Willow the White got involved - she either just cast part I, but not part II, or since the actual word "recast" was use, recast Part I while repealing part II. (Part I was still Black magic though - so her becoming Willow the White is an argument for her simply repealing part II.)

And I realize that this has absolutely nothing to do with Cindy's point, which is quite correct. It is just a side-note her post sparked that interests me.

That's all right, Gar. My point killed the thread. Besides, I think it's likely that your theory is right.

sj, good point about the core four. don't forget about giles, too. he was the first to lose a love.

"Watch your elbow" in "Restless".... and therefore rhetorically equivalent to someone telling a girl not to wear a low-cut blouse because it invited abuse (lost me).

Left elbow. Well known erogenous zone.

er... or just well known in my circles, perhaps!?

edited 'cause... errogenous zone? whole other thing :)

don't forget about giles, too. he was the first to lose a love.

He was one of the four: Giles, Willow, Xander, and Buffy.

Xander was the first one to lose a love. ijs.