Chosen Two vs Slayer Army

[white avenger]

In Season 7, Faith tells Buffy that two Slayers were "never meant to be," which is why, ultimately, they could never really get along well for any significant length of time, something like having two pit bulldogs in the same pin. Blood's gonna fly eventually, the only question is, when.

So how come in Season 8, Buffy isn't just getting along with one other slayer, but whole army of girls who would eagerly follow her into the very pits of hell if she just said, "Saddle up, we've got some a** kicking to do"? Okay, granted, Satsu did refuse her order to "stand down" in Japan (I wonder if mention of a "second front that she needed Satsu to run for her" came up in the conversation?), but, other than that, the Slayers, at least Buffy's band of merry girls, seem to get along just fine.

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

Well I think the significatn difference is, that there's only meant to be one slayer. Let's say she's the queen of all the people. Then there comes another one along, makes the queen a whole lot special. Technically, there can only be one queen, but they both have the right to be the one. So, since both kind of feel like they are the one, they are bound to not get along. And one could only imagine that, the more slayers, the more chaotic this would get. But this doesn't have to be the case. In this analogy, see the other slayers rather as princesses. The queen made them out of 'ordinary' girls, but since she is still the queen with all her working experience, this doesn't create any mayhem, as the princesses still know where they come from. And althoug there can be only one queen, there can be more princesses. And since there can be more than just one and they are still all the same, power wise, there doesn't have to be any trouble between the princesses.

Hope this wasn't too confusing 😛

 

[CharmedSlayer85]

Well one that theory of slayers not being able to get along isn't written in any sort of mythology that's just something Buffy and Faith came up with as a reason they don't get along but that doesn't mean it's true. I mean you have to remember that Faith slept with Riley, tried to sleep with Angel, hurt her friends, went evil, tried to steal her identity, took her mother hostage, etc so Buffy has a lot of pent up anger and resentment toward Faith that's not just gonna go away. I mean look at Kendra and Buffy, they bumped heads at first but they eventually got along pretty well. But for the sake of the post let's say what Buffy said was true, it still stands. Buffy's not really getting along with the other slayers. I mean they even made mention of that in one of the issues, I believe it was the one she first met Twillight, "A Beautiful Sunrise," and Buffy was talking about not feeling connected to the girls. So what they said really does still stand.

 

[NightBird]

I'm sure that not all the girls get along, but I can't see any point in any tension being shown in the comics until its going to be used in a story.

There are only 22 pages in a comic and most of that space is needed for the main plot.

I'm certain that if/when Faith gets to the castle we will see and sudden outburst of not getting along from all the girls as it will reflect upon the main tension between Buffy and Faith.

Also in all the stories so far the slayers have been fighting someone and fending for there lives, I've never been in the military but i'm sure that people in the same squad don't always get along but when the bullets start flying, that they are bothers/sister and all the 'petty' things between the two people fade away and it becomes about survival.

Anyway my main point being, i'm sure we will see cat fights as soon as they are relevant.

 

[Pulse]

Well.... theoretically Faith was chosen and Buffy was chosen and I was always under the impression that buffy was better than many of the other slayers; that there is something definitely special about her.

Regardless there most be some sort of hierarchy because there are so many slayers the best one is chosen of all the potentials. So Faith was one of the best, and buffy was one of the best, and I think in theory the vast majority of the potentials are nowhere near as good, and will never be as good as buffy and faith (though there would be some other really good ones). So thus they don't have such conflict just because Buffy is in an entirely different league.

 

[bucky01403]

I've always thought since Buffy died she wasn't technically a slayer, like Giles, but they continue to play the part.

 

[Cohen]

Well one that theory of slayers not being able to get along isn't written in any sort of mythology that's just something Buffy and Faith came up with as a reason they don't get along but that doesn't mean it's true.

Plus, Buffy and Kendra got along. Well, after their initial meeting.

 

[white avenger]

Plus, Buffy and Kendra got along. Well, after their initial meeting.

Kendra and Buffy weren't really together long enough to have very much personal time. They were almost constantly going about their Slayer duties, plus, Kendra didn't seem to have anywhere near as aggressive a personality as Faith. She pretty much accepted that Buffy was the senior Slayer. Faith saw herself as Buffy's equal, if not her superior.

 

[T.I.P]

The thing with the potentials is, most people are followers, but i bet theres a couple of slayers amongst them that wouldnt mind taking Buffys crown.

 

[Cohen]

The thing with the potentials is, most people are followers, but i bet theres a couple of slayers amongst them that wouldnt mind taking Buffys crown.

As we see with Lady Genevieve in NFFY.

So did Buffy and Faith initially. In fact, it looked to me as if they were actually becominc close friends, not in any romantic way, but more as sisters in arms. That fell apart only after the assistant mayor was killed.

And even after that they still had a bond. They were just at odds. I don't think Faith ever was truly evil. I think she thought of herself that way, and was like "well, I killed a guy, that makes me evil, so I might as well go ahead and do that". Plus, the mayor didn't help any, what with his whole "father figure" thing going on.

 

[Tranquillity]

Buffy and Faith couldn't get along because for Buffy, Faith was in her territory, trying to do the same job (i always think that Buffy tolerated Kendra because Buffy knew she would be going back to the West Indies, or wherever she came from, eventually - to her own territory). Faith resented Buffy because she finally had something that made her special and then she discovers that the oh-so-perfect Miss Summers is also a slayer, THE slayer and she (Faith) is just the secondary slayer - it's a very personal thing between them.

Buffy gets on better with her new slayers because it's not personal - at the end of the day she is still number one - she is above them, she is their leader and they don't seem to be after her job. They are her territory. She (and Willow) created them so she is responsible for them but she is also above them. So while her position as THE slayer is safe, she'll get on with the newbs.

 

[The Arcane]

In Season 7, Faith tells Buffy that two Slayers were "never meant to be," which is why, ultimately, they could never really get along well for any significant length of time, something like having two pit bulldogs in the same pin. Blood's gonna fly eventually, the only question is, when.

So how come in Season 8, Buffy isn't just getting along with one other slayer, but whole army of girls who would eagerly follow her into the very pits of hell if she just said, "Saddle up, we've got some a** kicking to do"? Okay, granted, Satsu did refuse her order to "stand down" in Japan (I wonder if mention of a "second front that she needed Satsu to run for her" came up in the conversation?), but, other than that, the Slayers, at least Buffy's band of merry girls, seem to get along just fine.

I don't think the conversation that Buffy had with Faith is exactly meant to be taken as slayer lore fact. At most it was Buffy theorising about why she and Faith had trouble connecting. Nothing official, just her opinion which was clearly proven wrong with the activation of the rest of the slayer a few episodes later.

It's like how Giles described vampires as nothing more than demons wearing the bodies of the people they had killed. When he said that to Xander back in The Harvest he may well have even believed it to be true but that was proven not to be the case the more we came to understand the true nature of the vampire through the likes of Angel, Spike and Darla. Just because a character says something in passing doesn't mean it's entirely true.

 

[hyperballadbrad]

Well, I think the big difference is that Buffy/Faith's existence together was not meant to be. Faith was right... but Buff died and called Faith, then Buff got revived!

With the matter of the slayer army, the fabric of how the one slayer being called was destroyed, calling all potentials at once. With the Buffy/Faith matter, the way that slayers were called wasn't destroyed, it was just an overlap.

And I agree with Rockmanic.... Faith wasn't saying that they didn't get along because that's the lore of slayers. There wouldn't have been instruction on that anyway as only one was supposed to exist at a time anyway. They just totally clashed with each other.... they had this core element which matched but everything about the two of them repelled. It wasn't the fact that they were slayers, it was the fact that they were thrown in together and just happened to tbe the same thing.

If they had happened to both go to Sunnydale and not have slayer abilities, they still would never have got on.