=-Kathy->

I'm not sure if this would qualify as a flaw but it is an ommission.

I've been watching S2 and saw how the activation of a second slayer took Buffy and the Scoobies by surprise.

Why was there no third slayer activated at the beginning of S6? Or if one was activated and she just did not come to Sunnydale why was there no speculation by Giles and the Scoobies about her?

Once I got to thinking about this it started to bug me.

WildAtHeart

do you mean why there was no Slayer after Buffy's second death? It was because Buffy wasn't the active Slayer anymore. When Buffy drowned in S1, Kendra was called as the Slayer..so she was the active one..then when she died, Faith became the active one. So if Faith would've died, a new Slayer would've been called. When Buffy was revived by Xander, she still had her Slayer powers cause they were a part of her but she wasn't seen by The Powers That Be as the active Slayer. So her second death didn't activate a new Slayer

i think i'm explaining this right..i'm afraid i'm sounding confusing haha. but i tried my best..sorry if i made it more confusing lol

=-Kathy->

No that explains it. I just didn't realize about the "active slayer" thing.

It also explains why Buffy being alive was such a "disturbance in the force" that caused the First to have an opportunity to cause problems in S7.

I guess I always thought of Buffy as being "the slayer" because the show was about her.

=-Kathy->

I just watched parts of season 7 last night and I have changed my mind.

I don't buy the "Faith is the activated slayer" theory. Through out season 7 Buffy is "The" slayer. Faith is the other slayer, the spare. Faith mentions this in Dirty Girls when she wonders why no one warned her about the Bringers

In "Showtime" when the potentials are in Buffy's basement :

Rona says "... just so I understand, if a slayer dies—"

Eve/The First says "Well, when the slayer dies. I mean, nobody lives forever, right?"

Rona says "Then one of us—"

Eve/The First says "Gets activated. Uh-huh."

Now here they are talking about Buffy because a few lines later

Vi says "..Slayer. There's another one somewhere."

So if Buffy's death in S7 activates a new slayer then her death at the end of S5 must have activated a third slayer.

Where is she? Why did no one mention her.

Maybe there should be a new series called the "Forgotten Slayer" that starts off at the end of S5. Maybe she's in Cleveland.

m&m fkan

It's not a theory that Faith is the "activated slayer". when Buffy died, Kendra was activated. when Kendra died, Faith was activated. It's fact. (well...in the buffyverse, anyway). The other one somewhere...is FAITH.

If Faith were killed, then another slayer would have been activated.

sum1

Season 1 was one of the best seasons. You can't really understand the show if you don't understand season 1. I think a lot of people don't understand the show because they don't use that season as the foundation for how they look at the show. Season 1 sets out what the show is. It's the most purely parody and light-hearted of the seasons and it's BTVS before the show started to take itself too seriously.

Callace

I have gotten to see it now, and you are right that it is parody and lighthearted. a little too light, in my book. i like the seriousness. (and then I think the mythology got better in the later seasons. they stoppet just saying "we're on a Hellmouth, so that can make anything happen" (that grew boring and unrealistic in a while. I mean, how many qualities can one hellmouth have?

sum1

The show wasn't supposed to be serious. The show eventually got too serious and got big ideas of itself. It got solemn and pretentious. Too much of later seasons is people standing around spouting bullcrap trying to be "serious". The show wasn't made for that. It shouldn't have forgotten its roots.

I don't see any problem with using the hellmouth as an excuse. That worked fine. Unrealistic? BTVS isn't supposed to be realistic.

Callace

for me, the lighthearted early seasons was a fun ride, but superficial. it wasnt untill they got into deeper issues, and more complex relationships that the show really owned me.

using one "plobotonum" for everything does to me bear witness of poor imagination, and gets boring. All things must have only a limited amount of properties to make me buy it

sum1

There's plenty room for depth in the more lighthearted style. The show didn't need to abandon its lighthearted nature to do depth. There's a lot of stuff in the earlier seasons that feels like it has more depth than a lot of the stuff in later seasons. They were pushing too much in later seasons, too much "look we're being SERIOUS" and that doesn't come off so real. What they had in earlier seasons was more real than a lot of what there was in later seasons. The later seasons had some things that were very real (such as spuffy) but overall things feel more real in the earlier seasons despite conspicuous attempts to make things more realistic later on. It helps that the show believed in itself a lot more in the earlier seasons. The earlier seasons were true BTVS, the later seasons are the show losing its way but still having some good stuff.

BTVS isn't meant to be realistic. It's meant to be over the top parody. A rule like "all things must have only a limited amount of properties" doesn't fit there. It's not poor imagination at all. It fits perfectly with the parody nature of the show. And I don't see how it's boring.

BTVS isn't something you can hold up to standards of realism or logic. If you try that the whole thing falls apart because there's no real attempt to make it make sense (despite pretenses that way in later seasons). For example, look how vampires get beheaded or staked so easily. You can make excuses for that ("vampires have soft breast bones" or such nonsense) but really it's just the show not making any attempt to be realistic a or logical or make sense. BTVS doesn't need to be realistic or make sense, it's not that kind of show. (Of course there are ways in which even BTVS should make sense or be realistic, but not that kind of way, the magic and the beheadings certainly don't need a lot of sense.) I think you're looking for BTVS to be a more straight serious kind of show than it actually is.

Callace

I suppose we will never agree on this. the straight, serious style in the later seasons, with more logic and sense, is a big reason why i loved those seasons way more than the earlier ones. I see that you prefer the earlier, and I think, that is as far as we can get in this discussion

Lazy Cat

sum1, I totally agree with everything you said here.
S1 was so... raw and pure! I like that. You can see the essence of things, without too many layers on it.

I think that after S3 the show just got worse and worse, cause it got away from it's essence. Sure, we had some good eps, but... =|


The other day I was thinking, being a vampire (in BTVS) is a really crappy thing to be. Have you notice how many weaknesses they have? They can't came out in the sunlight. They have to be extremely careful with fire. Can't get near crosses. Holy water hurts like hell, it can be quite incapacitating. They can get in anyone's home unless they're invited (and, they can still be uninvited!). And beware of sharpy wooden doom! Even a pencil can kill them! Come on, being a vamp sucks!
(I left out the decapitation cause, well, that can kill pretty much anything)

Callace

I consided that too simple. I love the layers. thats what makes it really interesting!


good point! but then, it is a half-life

but why fire? I dont think that is something that hurts them?

Lazy Cat

Ok, forget the fire lol I'm sure it hurts and kills them just like it hurts and kill humans, so it doesn't really count =P

Callace

"being a vampire sucks" That is the conclusion Harmony comes to, after having tried it for only a few months