How long does it take?

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Phantom Dennis

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I was just wondering how long it takes for a Slayer to be called after the previous dies? Are we ever told this? Is the call instant or does it take time?
 
For some reason I believe it is instant... Don't know whether it is because I have assumed this or heard it somewhere.
 
I think its instant too. It always bugged me why another one wasn't called after Buffy died the 2nd time.
 
I think the actual "activation" of the next Slayer is instant upon the previous Slayer's death. However, it probably does take time for the Council to convene, assign a Watcher, contact the new Slayer, and tell her about her new powers.
 
fly on the wall said:
I think the actual "activation" of the next Slayer is instant upon the previous Slayer's death. However, it probably does take time for the Council to convene, assign a Watcher, contact the new Slayer, and tell her about her new powers.
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Unless they already have her, like with Kendra. Anyway, I would think it would be instant, otherwise, Kendra would never really have been called. Buffy was only dead for a minute or two, and if the Active Slayer status hadn't moved on by then, she'd still have had it on her resusscitation.
 
I also think its instant but the new Slayer probably wouldnt feel any side effects until they start sleeping and start recieving visions.
 
There was never any explanation as to how or exactly when a Slayer is called. The Shadow Men created the first Slayer, but there was never any real explanation as to just what happened when she, or any of her successors died. We assume that a Slayer is automatically called upon the death of her predecessor, but we have no idea whatsoever just how the Watchers are able to find the new girls prior to their calling or even why a particular Potential is selected over the others. Age? Location? It certainly has nothing to do with degree of training, because Buffy was called before the Watchers' Council even sent Merrick to contact her. (Kendra, on the other hand, apparently had lived and trained under her Watcher's supervision for at least several years before her calling.) I don't know whether Joss never bothered to flesh out the details of the ordinary girt-to-Potential-to Slayer process simply because he never considered it that important, or because he just didn't think of it, but the real truth is, we don't really know precisely how the process works.
 
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I always was under the impression that it was (nearly) instant. After all, Buffy was only dead for a minute or two and yet Kendra was called. If it took more time than that there never could have been a second Slayer after Buffy died in The Gift.

I've always wondered how the Council finds the Potentials before they were called. Kendra was trained by her Watcher for several years and the Potentials from Season 7 must have had at least a little training. So, how did the Council know that these girls could be the next Slayer? They must have at least something extraordinary about them that the Council were able to contact them before they were called.
 
I got the impression that the council had some seers who could see the girls with potential to become slayers. The council would take and train these girls but some potentials would slip through their fingers. Buffy and Faith were two of the girls not found. Kendra and the season 7 potentials were found and put into the hands of watchers. The thing I've always wondered is what happens to a potential when they don't get called? Do they become watchers? To they just become demon hunters? Does anyone know or have any guesses?
 
Primal Slayer said:
I also think its instant but the new Slayer probably wouldnt feel any side effects until they start sleeping and start recieving visions.
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I'd have thought it's more like how it's described in The Chain. Some don't feel a thing, some get thrown across the room with it all. Plus, I'm sure you'd notice if you tore the door off your locker completely at random. :silly:
 
Lindsey McDonald said:
I'd have thought it's more like how it's described in The Chain. Some don't feel a thing, some get thrown across the room with it all. Plus, I'm sure you'd notice if you tore the door off your locker completely at random. :silly:
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lol that can work. I mean Buffy certainly didnt feel anything when she was called (that we know of) she just went on with her normal day when she was offically called as the Slayer.

And I always thought the Council used witches to seek out Potentials who probably omit different auras or something like that. Something makes them stand out from the crowd that noone notices.

Ofcourse they should have just gone with the Buffy movie calling process where potientials/slayers are born with a mole in a specific place and since Buffy had hers removed, they just passed her by.
 
Another question on the same topic, do we know why what potential actually turns into a slayer? I believe there was a discussion about it somewhere, but I just can't find it right now and I was wondering. And, like Girl with Sword said, what happens to those who aren't called? Do they *stay* potentials, with the possibility to be called in the next round, when the new one dies? Grmbl, the whole process is really fuzzy ^^
One thing I am quite sure about, that the very instant the slayer dies a new one is called. With Buffy only being dead for a minute or two, if there were a whole selection process still to start, Kendra would never have been called. So somehow it must have already been decided by the powers that be, or whoever, that she was to be the new Slayer, right? But how? And if they know in advance, why the whole thing with multiple potentials? (I don't know if this was already explained in the show, the question sounds rather familiar, but maybe I've just asked it before ^^)
 
Well Slayers are usually called before the age of 18, so if you have a group of potentials and one of them gets called as the Slayer, the others would still be potentials unless that Slayer stays alive long enough for all of them to pass the age limit to become a Slayer. So if they turn 18 and still havent been called, they will never be called or have a very slim to none chance of it happening.

And noone knows who the next Slayer will be since what if Kendra was destined to become the Slayer but something happens to her and she dies before being called? THen you would still need the potentials.

Its kind of like the lottery.
 
I believe the potential nearest to the biggest current threat is called. Buffy was in LA when she was, and so the Council knew to focus on the Sunnydale Hellmouth. The thing is, usually a slayer would be quickly killed, and the one nearest to the new biggest threat would be called. Buffy didn't die (for good), so that's why she stuck around Sunnydale when a Slayer like Kendra was jetted from one threat to another. Faith was probably called to deal with Kakistos.
 
I never thought about it like that. I just thought that it was the girl most fit for the job. That the power of the slayer itself decided who would best effect the world, what kind of person was needed for the upcoming crisis. The idea that their just called because they're closest to the danger seems a little.... anticlimatic. It takes away the grandeur of it if it's just about location.
 
Girl with Sword said:
I never thought about it like that. I just thought that it was the girl most fit for the job. That the power of the slayer itself decided who would best effect the world, what kind of person was needed for the upcoming crisis. The idea that their just called because they're closest to the danger seems a little.... anticlimatic. It takes away the grandeur of it if it's just about location.
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Well, I see it as the Potentials being that first part of the selection process. They aren't just random girls. There's no point in a fantastic Slayer being called in Outer Mongolia if they haven't been found by the Watcher's Council, and the Hellmouth is about to open in Sunnydale, CA. I think it makes sense it being a geographical thing - Hellmouthes and temples and such are described as being confluences of mystical energy, so I think it would fit to have the Potential with the most potential who is nearest to the danger called.

Again, Slayers do not last. They are mass produced - in a very singular way - and they weren't designed to be heroes. They were designed to stem the flow, then die. That's the anti-climactic underbelly we discover first from the Watchers' Council, and subsequently from the First Slayer and the Shadowmen. The grandeur is a lie - she is nothing more than a girl sent to die for the men. I think that makes Buffy's story all the more climactic and grand, to be honest.
 
Good point, slayers are not usually heroes but that's the councils doing is it not? The power itself is grand and I think if let run free, every slayer could have been a hero. It's sad they're not, that they ren't really remembered.
 
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