Problem with Potentials...

[Dora]

Yeah, I also would have tossed out the potentials idea, as well as the First being the big bad. There are so many of them, and they take away so much screen time, that the major characters often take on completely secondary roles. On top of this is the issue that there are so many potentials that none of them can possibly be developed enough to make them relatable or likable. S7 is my least favorite season for these reasons.

I disagree I thought the potentials took little screen time apart from Kennedy , plenty of war films around where there are hundreds of extra's playing soldiers around yet the major characters still stand out . No for me S7 after CWDP became Spike centred , to promote Spuffy you have to keep the other major characters with little to do or have them acting totally out of Character , as with lies my mother told me I watched this morning ....
But I will say their acting and accents were poor.....another sign Whedon had given up on Buffy

 

[TriBel]

The First Slayer was constructed (literally) by men. Isn't the labelling of ONE woman as "special" in the least bit suspicious? Why should her characteristics - which are often those associated with masculinity be "special" and her other strengths - her capacity to love "the other" (whether that other is a vampire or an adopted sister) for instance - be denigrated? Isn't it a way of controlling her - and other women? In Sineya's case it was quite literally "divide and conquer" - she was made an outcast.

The idea that we can "know everything" is an illusion - an illusion fostered by patriarchal institutions such as The Watchers' Council. The Council has power because it controls history. Through its control of history it's able to license knowledge as truth and truth is power. It's a self-perpetuating system. The potentials are symbolic of the potential of females - female diversity. You don't have to relate to them or like them all (the idea of universalism is a naturalisation of Liberal Humanism) - just recognise their difference and recognise they can pull together if need be. 🙂As for knowing something of their background, I can understand the desire but why? What end would it serve except to satisfy our desire? Would what we know be the truth or simply one of many possible and partial truths? Do we know the truth about Hank and Joyce? Does Buffy know the truth? Narrative form is ideological - the fact that we have closure and are told everything implies closure is possible and full knowledge is possible. On the terms set by the text, it's identifying with the very ethos that oppresses women. Isn't this - in part - what Storyteller is about? That it's desires and misidentification that shape the telling? I seem to like season 7 for the very reason others don't. 🙁

It definately does make you wonder what the shadow men used as factors for deciding who would be predestined as a slayer or not. I’d also like to know whareasoning there is for which one is called at what time as well; or whether it was just chance.

Ahhh...but once they'd told you they'd have to kill you! 😉

 

[Priceless]

The idea that we can "know everything" is an illusion - an illusion fostered by patriarchal institutions such as The Watchers' Council. The Council has power because it controls history. Through its control of history it's able to license knowledge as truth and truth is power. It's a self-perpetuating system. The potentials are symbolic of the potential of females - female diversity. You don't have to relate to them or like them all (the idea of universalism is a naturalisation of Liberal Humanism) - just recognise their difference and recognise they can pull together if need be. 🙂As for knowing something of their background, I can understand the desire but why? What end would it serve except to satisfy our desire? Would what we know be the truth or simply one of many possible and partial truths? Do we know the truth about Hank and Joyce? Does Buffy know the truth? Narrative form is ideological - the fact that we have closure and are told everything implies closure is possible and full knowledge is possible. On the terms set by the text, it's identifying with the very ethos that oppresses women. Isn't this - in part - what Storyteller is about? That it's desires and misidentification that shape the telling? I seem to like season 7 for the very reason others don't. 🙁

This is exactly what the Potentials are, they are us and as such I feel we already 'know' them, we don't have to see their lives or history on screen, because it's meant to be our lives and history.

 

[TriBel]

This is exactly what the Potentials are, they are us and as such I feel we already 'know' them, we don't have to see their lives or history on screen, because it's meant to be our lives and history.

This is me!

 

[Priceless]

This is me!

View attachment 9687

Lol, I'd lose the hat but keep the vampire 🙂

 

[Ayko]

The First Slayer was constructed (literally) by men. Isn't the labelling of ONE woman as "special" in the least bit suspicious? Why should her characteristics - which are often those associated with masculinity be "special" and her other strengths - her capacity to love "the other" (whether that other is a vampire or an adopted sister) for instance - be denigrated? Isn't it a way of controlling her - and other women? In Sineya's case it was quite literally "divide and conquer" - she was made an outcast.

The idea that we can "know everything" is an illusion - an illusion fostered by patriarchal institutions such as The Watchers' Council. The Council has power because it controls history. Through its control of history it's able to license knowledge as truth and truth is power. It's a self-perpetuating system. The potentials are symbolic of the potential of females - female diversity. You don't have to relate to them or like them all (the idea of universalism is a naturalisation of Liberal Humanism) - just recognise their difference and recognise they can pull together if need be. 🙂As for knowing something of their background, I can understand the desire but why? What end would it serve except to satisfy our desire? Would what we know be the truth or simply one of many possible and partial truths? Do we know the truth about Hank and Joyce? Does Buffy know the truth? Narrative form is ideological - the fact that we have closure and are told everything implies closure is possible and full knowledge is possible. On the terms set by the text, it's identifying with the very ethos that oppresses women. Isn't this - in part - what Storyteller is about? That it's desires and misidentification that shape the telling? I seem to like season 7 for the very reason others don't. 🙁

Ahhh...but once they'd told you they'd have to kill you! 😉

That having been said, it is still not an excuse for the contradictions to the Slayer Legend in the storytelling/writing. Those (and other) underlying statements can be made without the premise and details on the surface, as much a part of the art as the rest, being compromised. For example, instead of each Watcher having a (Potential) Slayer that just stays at home and sends their potential from home to certain doom all alone, have each Watcher watching over a collection of (international) specially gifted persons and artifacts of magic and power such as a shaman, wizard, voodoo priest, divas, etc. Something along those lines would keep the messages you note intact while also holding true to the tradition without ambiguity or contradictions to the storyline. In that way, it really was lazy and/or lousy writing (albeit that could have been worse).

 

[brittles]

Okay so rewatching S7 this time around, I keep asking myself...where are these people's families??

I mean, we know that a lot of potential slayers are told early on that they have the potential to be the next called, and they are trained by watchers, but there are still quite a handful that have no idea.

It's hard for me to ignore in S7 that all these teenage girls arrive in Sunnydale to stay with Buffy and no one bats an eye. I understand for girls like Kennedy who had a watcher and know about the line, but what about girls like Amanda? She was just a regular high school student. Did she tell her parents what was going on, or did she just go "oh hey I'm gonna stay at my counselors house for an extended time." I can't imagine that happening to a little Buffy with Joyce.

Also, do you think their families are notified when the potentials die? Does Buffy have to make some terrible phone calls to deliver the news? I don't know why but I keep thinking about all these girls and where they come from! I feel like that's part of the larger problem with S7 in that the potentials didn't get enough development time.

Woah. How did this NEVER even cross my mind? It's such a good point. Especially when pretty much all of Sunnydale starts leaving town are they're parents just like byyye good luck with whatever you've been doing at your counselor's house...?? There's really no explanation offered for this. hmmm

 

[DeadlyDuo]

The scene in Chosen where Slayers all over the globe are activated contradicts the whole premise of the potentials turning up at Buffy's house in the first place. They were sent to Buffy's house for protection because the First and it's forces were killing them off in order to end the slayer line, yet in Chosen there were still tons of potentials out in the world. Unless the plan was for every single potential in the world to wind up at Buffy's house, the First's plan was incredibly flawed and is a big gaping plot hole in the entire season.

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

The scene in Chosen where Slayers all over the globe are activated contradicts the whole premise of the potentials turning up at Buffy's house in the first place. They were sent to Buffy's house for protection because the First and it's forces were killing them off in order to end the slayer line, yet in Chosen there were still tons of potentials out in the world. Unless the plan was for every single potential in the world to wind up at Buffy's house, the First's plan was incredibly flawed and is a big gaping plot hole in the entire season.

I just assumed that the potentials being hunted were on the Watcher Council's census. The baseball playing potential in Chosen is unregistered, so the First's minions never found her.

 

[DeadlyDuo]

I just assumed that the potentials being hunted were on the Watcher Council's census. The baseball playing potential in Chosen is unregistered, so the First's minions never found her.

In which case it's the Watchers' fault that the potentials were being murdered. Did they have a list of their names and addresses?

It does beg the question of how they found Buffy when she was activated as a slayer. She wasn't "registered".

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

In which case it's the Watchers' fault that the potentials were being murdered. Did they have a list of their names and addresses?

It does beg the question of how they found Buffy when she was activated as a slayer. She wasn't "registered".

All we know is that the Watcher's Council is able to locate the slayer and at least some of the potentials. Unlike Kendra & Kennedy, Buffy was not contacted until after she became the slayer, which means the Council either did not know about her or did not bother with her when she was simply a potential.

 

[DeadlyDuo]

All we know is that the Watcher's Council is able to locate the slayer and at least some of the potentials. Unlike Kendra & Kennedy, Buffy was not contacted until after she became the slayer, which means the Council either did not know about her or did not bother with her when she was simply a potential.

If the Watchers didn't bother with her when she was just a potential, then why did they bother bothering with any of the others?

Season 7 starts to fall apart when you beginning picking out the flaws and plot inconsistencies.

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

If the Watchers didn't bother with her when she was just a potential, then why did they bother bothering with any of the others?

Season 7 starts to fall apart when you beginning picking out the flaws and plot inconsistencies.

Well, that particular plot hole isn't new. It has been around since Kendra.

 

[DeadlyDuo]

Well, that particular plot hole isn't new. It has been around since Kendra.

It was only minor with Kendra, it was glaring with the potentials

 

[Ethan Reigns]

I think the Watchers' Council did know about some potentials by the efforts of the Coven that Giles took Willow to England to meet. They had found some but not all of the potentials. It was like the visions on Angel - it would show one specific circumstance at a time but there were lots of others. Willow could finally feel them as the spell to enable all potentials to become slayers took effect.

 

[Cangel1987]

It's the same with Amanda, she was the whole time in SunnyD and she was found by Willow's spell - because of Dawn 🙂

 

[peaceofmind18]

If the Watchers didn't bother with her when she was just a potential, then why did they bother bothering with any of the others?

Season 7 starts to fall apart when you beginning picking out the flaws and plot inconsistencies.

It really does and blows the whole - "Into every generation a slayer is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number. She is the Slayer." THING to hell... lol

But then the one girl thing was kind of a Watcher construct - So maybe not set in stone and part of the magic of the Guardians and the scythe was always meant to be the sharing of power... - they were just waiting for the right time... - Or it could just be plot holes 😉

 

[Buffy Summers]

Unlike Kendra & Kennedy, Buffy was not contacted until after she became the slayer, which means the Council either did not know about her or did not bother with her when she was simply a potential.

It always appeared to me as if they had not been able to find her before she became a Slayer.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I think one of the problems is that the Potentials as a group weren't given the necessary story to really make a big impact and they just went about it the wrong way. All of them already should've known that they were Potentials and should've been in training by the Watchers Council. We should've seen them earlier in the season at the council training then flashfoward to later on when the council gets blown up which causes the potentials and watchers being forced to flee to Sunnydale.

 

[Stanger406]

I always understood the ability to find potentials to not always be something as simple as doing a locator spell. In some cases maybe the "potential" was less, so it was more difficult to find those Potentials.

The "into every generation" I've just accepted as a throw away line now, a tagline to add prestige to the Slayer calling in a way.

I did read in the original Buffy movie script (before the studio messed with it) that the next Slayer is chosen based on where the need is the greatest at the time of the previous Slayer's death. While the movie isn't tied to the show, I'm sure Joss had this in mind for the show as well. So, it always made sense that there were Potentials all over the place. Though Sunnydale should have been loaded.

Also non-canon, Spike & Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row novel, is very similar to season 7. Spike and Dru are trying to take out the Slayer line by killing all the Potentials. So in a sense, this storyline didn't come out of nowhere. Not sure if the author had any sort of discussion with Joss or writers on the show (high doubt it, but maybe). Without spoiling too much(small spoiler warning...), there is a point where the potentials are gathered together, and the Slayer keeps getting killed, and the next Slayer is chosen from the potentials in that group, because that is where the greatest need for a slayer seemed to be at that time.