(Untitled)

[bensanaz]

So I've been watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer through in order, having never seen more than an ep or two before starting this spree. It's pretty good. I just finished the season 3 episode "The Wish", and I had a bit of a thought in regard to it.

Comments

[eiviiaru]

This touches on one of the things that I've never quite understood about BtVS continuity:

Seriously, only one Slayer in the world at a time? Or is it, like, one per continent? How does this possibly work? Why are huge swathes of the world not taken over by creatures of the night?

[jchance]

...oh, God, this gives me speculation bunnies. Maybe the Slayer is a lightning rod for trouble; wherever she is, the worst threats happen. Or maybe, darker still, there's a game of great powers ultimately staging battles by proxy...

[eiviiaru]

Yeah, because that isn't every White Wolf game ever?

[kouaidou]

I think there's something having to do with that there's only one "true" Slayer at any time who is destined and crap, and then there are other Slayers who are just like apprentice Slayers or something, and fight lesser evils and train and prepare in case the One True Slayer doesn't fulfill her duties. I think some of this was kind of covered in the episode where Buffy died and that other Slayer took her place for a while, but I recall being confused about it even at the time.

Then of course there's the "Whedon kind of made up the world as he went along" theory, but that's...you know...cynical.

[bensanaz]

For Kendra it's pretty clearly indicated that she was in training and was slaying locally before she became The Slayer. Faith isn't as clear but it's the impression I strongly got.

This does in turn raise the question of why Buffy wasn't in training before she was "activated", but there are all kinds of plausible explanations for that.