Passed Over Potentials

white avenger

white avenger

white avenger
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Okay, in Season 7, it was established that there were at least a small number of Potentials who had been located and were being trained by assigned Watchers, and Kennedy made the statement that she was beginning to think that she was too old to be Called. My question is this: prior to the activation of all of the Potentials in the world, what became of those Potentials over the years and centuries who were never Called? Slayers or not, they were still trained to be demon fighters, so did they join independent groups like Gunn's street gang, stay with the Watchers' Council in some capacity or other, or simply walk away from the whole business?
 
All of the above. In each generation there would be thousands. Some would probably work at banks and stuff, but some probably did their own thing, fought alongside the Watchers, became Watchers tehmselves, joined another group like Gunn's, became powerful sorceresses in their own right, etc, etc, etc.
 
Thats a great question to which i have no clue, cause right, in a way it seems like wasted effort. Not only have they trained for this but they also have knowledge of this crazy world with monsters and demons that most aren't privy to and then they're just left with nothing to do and this secret to keep. Cause they do know why they're training right? If I trained and knew all this was going on I'd want to fight. But it also brings up another question. Why are there these potential slayers that have been training to one day maybe be called, yet Buffy was just called out of the blue with never having trained? Cause we know Kendra was taken away from her family to train for this since a kid. What about Faith?
 
Airam said:
Thats a great question to which i have no clue, cause right, in a way it seems like wasted effort. Not only have they trained for this but they also have knowledge of this crazy world with monsters and demons that most aren't privy to and then they're just left with nothing to do and this secret to keep. Cause they do know why they're training right? If I trained and knew all this was going on I'd want to fight. But it also brings up another question. Why are there these potential slayers that have been training to one day maybe be called, yet Buffy was just called out of the blue with never having trained? Cause we know Kendra was taken away from her family to train for this since a kid. What about Faith?
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Some slayers are found by the council before they are called, some aren't, the Watchers aren't omniscient, in fact they are far more limited than they would like us to believe. Buffy wasn't. But they all have the dreams, so yes, they all needlessly have a secret to keep. Unless they do the men-in-black flashy thing to 'em.
 
I always figured that they were given an option of going back to their lives or pursuing a career as a researcher or Watcher etc. But I imagine having to keep quiet about all this stuff they probably chose out of the latter options. But then again would really wanna train someone with all the potential you could have had? Bit of a salt-in-the-wound moment.
 
^

The Watchers always seem to see themselves as superior to their Slayers who are only their instruments. I'd think that if a Potential were to be trained to be a Watcher they would start out looking down on her because she wasn't even good enough to be Called, if you get my drift.
Though they'd only have been a Potential for a relatively short amount of time compared to their lifetime as a Watcher (given that Watchers usually grow way older than Slayers) so they'd have enough to become as stuffy as the Watchers themselves 😀
Though becoming a Watcher really is the only way this makes sense, they all have this training, they'd be pretty stupid to pass that opportunity over. Maybe it's offered to all of them and just a few accept, some become rogue demon hunters while the others go on to lead normal 9-5 day job lives.
 
I dunno why, but Mumrik's suggestion that Watcher's look down on the Potentials feels right, like that's what they think. I think it would take a certain kind of Watcher, and a certain kind of Potential, for them to decide that she would be good enough to train as a Watcher. No way would Gwen Post or Quinten Travers have ever suggested their girls join the fold.

From the Operatives we've seen on the shows, none of them have been girls, so the idea that they went out and joined crew's like Gunn's makes more sense to me.

But, the Watcher's Council is a huge building, right? They're gonna need cooks, and cleaners, and maids, and girls to answer the phone. That to me seems more like something the Watcher's, excluding Giles and maybe Wesley, would suggest doing with the older girls.
 
What little that we have seen of the Watchers, especially the upper echelon group, suggests that, though not exclusively male, women would have to try twice as hard to get half the recognition that their male counterparts did, and I could not ever see the Council being run by a woman, regardless of how qualified that she might be. Travers dis mention, just before going "BOOM!" that the Watchers had tactical teams, and, even though the wet team who came to get Faith was all male, I could see the Watchers looking on their trained but passed over Potentials as useful cannon fodder, just as long as the men were always in command.
 
Most of the theories seem possible, but I think also a lot of them will have been killed. They were trained to hunt and kill demons, but they didn't have the slayers enhanced abilities (As is shown a few times in season seven...); if any vamps or demons knew they were potentials, all the more reason to kill them. Although a lot of them may have become watchers, etc; I think a lot of them would have also been killed.
 
Theory: Vampires and demons are worldwide and not just confined to Sunnydale's Hellmouth. So, could they have been fighting all the other big bads on the planet. It would appear to be a waste of power, all these slayers, watchers and the council. The Slayer is still important, probably the strongest, fastest and could be considered the Queen of the Slayers?
 
I would say they go on with their lives. I can't imagine they went onto be Watchers as then their would be loads of watchers, and seeing as how not all potentials get a watcher it seems like they don't have enough.

I would say they are trained up till a certain age and then when it's less likely they will be called, their watcher moves on to someone younger, cuz Kennedy does say it's probably to late for her but then the First corrects her and says thats not how it works (If im remembering correctly!)

Like in Buffys case she didn't get the training before being activated, so her training had to be at the same time. Whereas someone like Kendra got training before being activated and her watcher sent her on missions without him, like I couldn't imagine Giles doing the same thing, he totally would have gone along!
 
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