Question Is it possible that older potential slayers or even sired potentials were activated?

[Napoleon]

When Willow used her spell on the scythe, and all potential slayers became slayers, could it be possible that much older women who were once potential slayers during their teenage years, also got activated? Example, some woman who had slayer dreams when she was in her teens but was never chosen because of a former slayer still being alive.... but gets activated, in 2003, when she was already 60 years old or something.

Or even a potential slayer that got sired by a vampire many years before the scythe activated everyone. Would she get activated too? Do you need a soul to be activated?

Or even a potential slayer that was transformed into a vengeance demon by D'Hoffryn, could she get activated too?

Was the Slayer line even just exclusive to humans, even before the collective activation in 2003?

 

[AndrewCrossett]

In the (canonical) season 8, 9 and 10 comics, we haven't seen any elderly or even middle-aged Slayers. I think it's safe to say that only young women are eligible to be called. The oldest we've seen is Anaheed, who would have been in her mid-20's when activated. But in "Chosen," Kennedy wasn't sure if she was too old at age 19.

I don't know about Potentials who have been sired as vampires. I don't think we've seen any such thing.

 

[white avenger]

The assumption has been, while never confirmed in canon, that a girl becomes a Potential at a certain age, about the time of puberty, and, if not Called, loses whatever essence makes her a Potential ay a certain age. Buffy said that no Slayer had ever lived past the age of 25, so somewhere before that, say, at age 21, the girl would no longer be a Potential, therefore could not be Called. As I said, there is no canon basis for that beyond what we have seen with the various Slayers we know about.

As for a Potential who has been turned, she is undead, not the same as living, so I would assume therefore ineligible to be Called.

 

[Napoleon]

Well, there was this woman that seemed like she was in her 30s. In that scene where Buffy was explaining that Willow will activate every potential slayer, there was a scene of a woman that was a victim of domestic abuse. She looked like in her 30s and safe to assume, was married to the guy abusing her. When she got activated, she blocked that abuser's hand from hitting her. Check the final episode. The scenes following Willow with the scythe and you'll see the woman I'm talking about. She doesn't look much older to be a teen.

This made me wonder, if middle aged potentials got activated.

 

[Robb Stark]

I always got the impression that the girl in the calling montage at the end of "Chosen" was a victim of domestic abuse by her father. I didn't think she looked anywhere near 30.

 

[Lyri]

Jenna Edwards - who played the Slayer in the trailer - was in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries in 2001, where she played the part of a 15-year-old missing girl during the reconstruction scenes, I'm assuming. I highly doubt she was older than 20 during that scene in 'Chosen'. I know that casting directors are often lenient with actors ages when casting fir High school students, but I don't think the girl was anywhere near 30.

I'm with [MENTION=11975]Robb Stark[/MENTION]. I always assumed she was a victim of her father's and she finAlly had the strength to stand up to him thanks to the spell.

 

[Napoleon]

Oh. She just looked old in my eyes I guess.

So the new slayers are all just teens and some in their early twenties then?

Where does it say that the potential stops being a potential after a certain age though? I just forgot about that info since it's been a while since I watched Buffy.

 

[Black Eye Guy]

It seems to be that potentials only have a certain window to be activated, the start date is ambiguous, it can happen at any age but seems to be when a women comes of age.

There's never been any mention of older slayers, so it seems that the same "force" that decides a girl is "of age" also decides a girl cant be a slayer any more.

But if they introduced a squad of OAP Slayers in the next issue, I could believe it as they've never said otherwise.

 

[Lyri]

The assumption has been, while never confirmed in canon, that a girl becomes a Potential at a certain age, about the time of puberty

Both Kendra and Kennedy have stated that they were in training to possibly become the Slayer as children, meaning they were Potentials. Kendra was so young she doesn't remember her birth parents, Kennedy says that she's been able to use a crossbow since she was eight.

There might be something that suggests that they can't become the actual Slayer until a certain age (Buffy, Kendra and Faith were all teenagers) and we've never seen a Slayer who was younger than thirteen (fanwank about the age of the Baseball!Slayer) but it seems that girls can be spotted as a Potential at any age.

I agree about the cut off being 21 - though where does that leave Anaheed? How old did she say she was when the Spell happened?

As for a Potential who has been turned, she is undead, not the same as living, so I would assume therefore ineligible to be Called.

Completely agree.

Though, it's interesting to note that Soledad didn't become a Slayer until her sixteenth birthday, if I remember rightly, which would mean she was somewhere around fourteen when the Spell was cast. It could mean that she hadn't reached puberty at the time of the spell and that that really does have something to do with when a Slayer can be called.

 

[white avenger]

Both Kendra and Kennedy have stated that they were in training to possibly become the Slayer as children, meaning they were Potentials. Kendra was so young she doesn't remember her birth parents, Kennedy says that she's been able to use a crossbow since she was eight.

There might be something that suggests that they can't become the actual Slayer until a certain age (Buffy, Kendra and Faith were all teenagers) and we've never seen a Slayer who was younger than thirteen (fanwank about the age of the Baseball!Slayer) but it seems that girls can be spotted as a Potential at any age.

Where the problem with this comes in is that we actually have no idea how or when the Watchers are able to identify the Potentials in the first place. Maybe they are able to identify the girls at birth or soon after who are most likely to become Potentials when they reach a certain age (potential Potentials?) and are able to take steps to make sure that a Watcher is in some kind of position to buy/adopt/mentor/coach or even kidnap the girls in question so that they can be prepared when the time comes. From what we've seen of the Watchers, nothing would stop them from getting influence over any girl who they thought might someday be a Slayer. Even at that, their method is not perfect, as Buffy herself can attest. Merrick, her original Watcher, never met her until after she had been Called, and, as we saw at the end of Season 7 and in Season 8, there were literally hundreds if girls who were Potentials who had never been identified or approached by either the Watchers or the Bringers.

Another question that I've always had is, before Willow's spell, what happened to all those girls who had been trained for all those years, but were never called?

 

[Lyri]

Maybe they are able to identify the girls at birth or soon after who are most likely to become Potentials when they reach a certain age (potential Potentials?) and are able to take steps to make sure that a Watcher is in some kind of position to buy/adopt/mentor/coach or even kidnap the girls in question so that they can be prepared when the time comes.

So...Potentials, then? Whatever age, there is something that is identifiable that makes them Potential Slayers. Potentials have inherent skills, but no real Slayer strength or powers, nothing that they need to be a certain age in order to inherit - they just have something in them, something that can be seen and located to a certain extent, that makes them capable of handling the power and abilities of the Slayer. Age doesn't matter for that. If it can be seen when Kendra was a baby, then she was a Potential from the time it was noticed. Same with Kennedy.

Another question that I've always had is, before Willow's spell, what happened to all those girls who had been trained for all those years, but were never called?

I think it comes down to age again. Anaheed is, possibly, the oldest Slayer we've seen so far, though I don't know how old she actually is. If a Potential was deemed too old to be Called and cast out, if they're still around the same age as Anaheed, it's possible they were still Called. If they were older, I'd say it's likely that they weren't Called.

I imagine they would just go on about their lives, if they were too old to be activated by the spell. I don't think the fact that they were in training should make any difference.

 

[Black Eye Guy]

Where the problem with this comes in is that we actually have no idea how or when the Watchers are able to identify the Potentials in the first place.

Well thats not entirely true, Kendra mentions she doesn't know her parents at all, so she was given up very early, well before her early teens.
Presumably the watchers had a spell similar to the one Willow used to find a potential, but they were capable of finding potentials before they could be activated.

Another question that I've always had is, before Willow's spell, what happened to all those girls who had been trained for all those years, but were never called?

I would think they were the ones that have been killed first, they'd have been easiest to track since there were Watchers records for them, which Caleb got.
It would also make sense how the Watchers became aware of the problem, if potentials that they didn't know about were dying they wouldn't know.


The show has always suggested girls are born potentials, but they can only become active when they reach "of age", which isn't necessarily puberty. I would have thought Willows spell could have found Soledad as she was a potential, but just wasn't ready to be activated yet.
Willows spell seemed limited, it was only designed to find 1 potential over a limited area, and thats the only potential-tracker we saw, maybe there isn't another, which explains why so many potentials went unchecked.
Even Althena couldn't give them exact information, she only knew a girl had arrived in town, she didn't even know she was already dead. So if the Watchers were using seers to track them, they wouldn't have a lot to go on.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Was it Merrick or Giles who said about the slayer using her stomache cramps to help her to hone into the where abouts of a vampire. That being so a slayer mey lose that advantage at menopause, if nothing is said about the maximum age of a slayer that would seem a likely age.
If a vampire slayer was to become a vampire, given that she is meant to kill vampires wouldn't the vampire vampire slayer kill herself?

 

[Napoleon]

This had already happened, a slayer that became a vampire... a slaypire.

On that note, do you think a slayer will retain her strength and etc. if she were to accept to be transformed into a vengeance demon, by D'Hoffryn? Imagine that, a slayer that's a vengeance demon.

On topic though, yeah, that's what I'm wondering.... if you're a potential, are you "marked" as a potential forever, even if you never get called... even if you were trained but a watcher but was never called... or just get dreams and never got a watcher but was never called... all of which could have theoretically been all activated by Willow's scythe spell?

 

[white avenger]

Was it Merrick or Giles who said about the slayer using her stomache cramps to help her to hone into the where abouts of a vampire. That being so a slayer mey lose that advantage at menopause, if nothing is said about the maximum age of a slayer that would seem a likely age.
If a vampire slayer was to become a vampire, given that she is meant to kill vampires wouldn't the vampire vampire slayer kill herself?

That was Merrick in the movie version. I don't think that it was carried onto the show. The first vampire that Buffy spots is in the Bronze, and she recognizes him because of the outdated style of his clothes.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

I agree about the cut off being 21 - though where does that leave Anaheed? How old did she say she was when the Spell happened?

Anaheed says in season 9 issue #1 that she is 30 years old, and no more than 5 years has passed at that point since "Chosen."

Also, in the Angel episode "Damage," Dana is said to have been put in the hospital at age 10, and been there for 15 years. So she would have been about 25 at the time of the episode and 24 at the time of "Chosen."