Just How Many Potentials?

[white avenger]

When Giles first mentions the Potentials, he says something like, "There were once many more, but now there are just a few..." then, at the end of Chosen, Willow says that she can feel "thousands" of them, all over the world. Does anyone else feel "thousands" is just a little bit in excess? Especialy after the Bringers have been doing such a great job of slaughtering them (and just possibly still are. Remember, the First Evil, whatever it really is, was only "swatted down" to use its on words, not killed. Nothing said or even implied that the war was over, just the first skirmish.) Even if Willow were referring to all of the POTENTIAL Potentials (???), those girls who WILL become Potentials upon reaching some predetermined age, thousands just seems like too many.

 

[Buffy Summers]

Agreed - because wasn't the idea to bring ALL of the potentials to Sunnydale?

 

[Black Eye Guy]

Did Willow actually say thousands? Cuz I think she said she could feel slayers awankening everywhere, which could still be a few slayers just spread out over the world.

But I don't think the no of slayers would now be in the thousands!

 

[white avenger]

Excuse me, Black Eyed Guy, you're right. The exact quote is, "I can feel them, Buffy. All over. There are Slayers awakening everywhere." No exact, or even aproximate, number was mentioned, but "awakening everywhere" gives me the impression of a rather large number. I could be wrong, though, it's happened at least two or three times before in my life.

 

[Wicked]

Well to be fair, a few potentials died in the big fight. Since technically they were slayers now maybe they activated yet more?

I used to have an idea about this but for the life of me, I cant remember what it was.

 

[eponinethen]

We don't think that the scythe-activated slayers active other slayers when they die, do we? 'Cause obviously those slayers would already be activated unless they were born liek a second ago..

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

We saw potentials of a certain age group, but we never actually find out of potentials older and/or younger exist.
55% of the 7 billion people on this planet are women. Even at 1,000,000th of 1 percent of the rough number of women you are still left with 3850 give or take, so thousands wouldn't be far fetched, especially if both sides themselves set an age limit.
We don't know that much about what makes a potential a potential, we don't know if the chance to be called has some limit either.
All we do know is that we saw only young girls fight in Chosen.

Granted it doesn't say 'thousands' but its very real chance that it could be.

 

[Lyri]

i always thought that it was the 'known' Potentials who were brought to Sunnydale, those already known by the Council, like Kennedy, Molly and Annabel, plus the ones found by Willow's coven, like Amanda. but there might still have been hundreds of girls in the world that no one knew about. Caleb and 'his boys' killed the Potenials they knew about, which may or may not have already been known by the Council. it's obvious that Nora was a Potenial 'in training' 'cause she had a Watcher, but the pink haired girl might have had no idea why these creey no-eyed guys were chasing her.
At the time Willow cast her spell, there was at least 5 girls who we saw receive their power, so BOTM may well be correct and there maybe thousands of Slayers now, not just hundreds.

 

[Wicked]

Thats a good point actually. The council knew about the ones sent to Sunnydale. Maybe thats how the First knew who they were. After all was it not the bringers that blew up the Watchers Council? Maybe they found out who the potentials were first.

All the other ones in Chosen hadnt been discovered yet.

 

[Lyri]

BOTM?...what have you got on your mind

you wanna know whaty i've got on my mind...?
Blend challenges!! i spend WAY too much time working on my new site! LOL

 

[Spirit_Of_Fred]

We don't think that the scythe-activated slayers active other slayers when they die, do we? 'Cause obviously those slayers would already be activated unless they were born liek a second ago..

does that mean that those slayers which were not born were not activated? if so, then wouldnt it create a problem when all the scythe-activated slayers eventually died? if their deaths didnt activate more slayers, there wouldnt be anymore at all. does that make any sense?

 

[Lyri]

does that mean that those slayers which were not born were not activated? if so, then wouldnt it create a problem when all the scythe-activated slayers eventually died? if their deaths didnt activate more slayers, there wouldnt be anymore at all. does that make any sense?

that's a good point. does that mean that, now, instead of girls being born as Potentials, they are born as pure Slayers?
or are the babies born after 'Chosen' still Potentials, and the death of one of the recently activated Slayers will activate them?

 

[Black Eye Guy]

My own personal theory for this is that every potential born is immediately activated, Because Buffy says:

From now on, every girl in the world who might be a slayer...will be a slayer.

This says to me that they changed the rule completely, and made it so baby slayers were born!
I think it was this way until the big apocalyptic battle mentioned in Fray, in which all magick and demons were banished from the earth, and so the spell that activates the potentials when they are born was destroyed at that point. But that the line still continued, as it says in Fray:

Urkon: There were girls with the power, but they were never called, never trained....

and I think the power of the slayer wasn't banished because it exists in a separate dimension, the one from "Get it Done", so the line retured to normal 🙂

 

[white avenger]

that's
or are the babies born after 'Chosen' still Potentials, and the death of one of the recently activated Slayers will activate them?

That's another thing that struck me as odd. Activating ALL of the Potentials all over the world would have to include some girls who were just plain not prepared to or capable of handling that kind of power (think of Dand here, or a child so young she has no idea how to control suddenly enhansed strength, agility, and whatnot. Then, what about the girls who were never pocked, and are now older. Imagine the uproar in the rest home when someone's eighty nine year old grandmother starts tossing attendants all over the place because she wants scrambled eggs instead of oatmeal today.

Maybe Buffy & Co should rethink this piecemeal activation thing...

 

[Lyri]

there's been a lot of discussuion on the age limit thing around the boards. some people have a different take on it, but here's my theory.
as far as we can tell, there's never been a Slayer called before she reached puberty. Buffy was 15 when she became the Slayer, Faith was somewhere between 16 and 18 when she was called (according to me that is. i'm convinced that the battle that killed her Watcher was her Crucimentium) and Kendra was at least 18. so i believe that a girl can't actually 'become' a Slayer until she reaches that age, her early teens. this would mean that all the baby Slayers that were created by Willow's spell wouldn't actaully receive their powers until they reached this age. makes a certain kinda sense, am i right?
as for the upper age limit, that's a little less clear. there's the crucimentium, which EVERY Slayer had to go through when she reached her 18th birthday, which suggests that it was impossible for a Slayer to be called after her 18th birthday, at least, that's what i've always figured. but does that mean that whatever power she had that makes her a Potential goes away once she reaced 18, or is it just that whoever chooses the Slayer knows when a particular girl is over that age, and just passes by her?

 

[Anonymous416]

According to Buffy season 8, there are 1800 slayers activated thanks to Willow.

Edit:

and I think the power of the slayer wasn't banished because it exists in a separate dimension, the one from "Get it Done", so the line retured to normal 🙂

I don't understand what you're saying here.

Edit:

there's been a lot of discussuion on the age limit thing around the boards. some people have a different take on it, but here's my theory.
as far as we can tell, there's never been a Slayer called before she reached puberty. Buffy was 15 when she became the Slayer, Faith was somewhere between 16 and 18 when she was called (according to me that is. i'm convinced that the battle that killed her Watcher was her Crucimentium) and Kendra was at least 18. so i believe that a girl can't actually 'become' a Slayer until she reaches that age, her early teens. this would mean that all the baby Slayers that were created by Willow's spell wouldn't actaully receive their powers until they reached this age. makes a certain kinda sense, am i right?
as for the upper age limit, that's a little less clear. there's the crucimentium, which EVERY Slayer had to go through when she reached her 18th birthday, which suggests that it was impossible for a Slayer to be called after her 18th birthday, at least, that's what i've always figured. but does that mean that whatever power she had that makes her a Potential goes away once she reaced 18, or is it just that whoever chooses the Slayer knows when a particular girl is over that age, and just passes by her?

What's a crucimentium?? Nothing is certain about the age standards, but it has been said that slayers live short lives.

 

[Spirit_Of_Fred]

What's a crucimentium??

crucimentium is that test buffy had to do in 'helpless' in s3, on her 18th birthday, as all slayers have to do. giles was told by quintin (sp?) travers to give her shots which took away her slayer strength and power temporarily, leaving her defenseless. then, she was meant to be locked up with the mentally ill vampire kralik, leaving her to defeat him/survive without her powers. this didnt work out completely in the episode. ...and if you remembered what it was after the first sentence, then i just spent all this time babbling on about it for nothing :silly:.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Lyri.
Wasn't there a scene of a young girl playing baseball or something ?. I'm pretty sure that she wasn't too near the age of puberty.
also
Are you referring to Faith's watcher being killed in the battle of the crucimentium, 'cos I thought it was Kakistos that tortured and killed Faith's watcher.