What does the Watchers' Council do?

[nwhyte]

We're currently working our way through Season 3 of Buffy, and were in the middle of "Faith, Hope and Trick" this evening, when suddenly we wondered:

If there's only one Slayer alive at a time (or in extreme circumstances, two), what do the rest of the Watchers actually do all day

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Everything you wanted to know about Council of Watchers...

[h0pal0ng]

even the stuff you didn't want to...

While there is a lack of specific evidence in the show, the most popular theory is:

Most of the Council have many hats/jobs under which they operate:
1) Firstly they train the potentials, the girls who have the possibility of becoming a slayer. The selection of watchers to potentials or even slayers does not seem to be made on the basis of senority (otherwise Wesley would not have been considered when he first showed up.)
2) Secondly they handle the other trouble spots in the world - the places where the Slayer isn't. -hence in bizarro sunnydale (The wish) Giles who is in Sunnydale and slayerless is still fighting vampires, etc. Part of this is the existence of the wetworks squads - the forces used to carry out necessary violence
3)Thirdly they have influential jobs and positions to a) ensure that there is support for the Council and slayer and b) to keep appraised of events that may impact the two. (Hence Giles being British Musuem curator before Sunnnydale) It would also seem logical that their tasks include the collation and sending to HQ of any magical artifacts or knowledge that they become aware of.
4)fourthly given the evidence that watcherhood is heritary given wesley and Giles' families, I would imagine that given the Council's oldfashioned ideas, that bredding the next generation would almost be a "job" to them - a responsibility to ensure that their bloodlines don't end.

Finally there is a very large bureauractic element to the council and there be the associated tasks with this - filing, storage, collation, etc.