Plot Hole? Buffy not getting paid to be a slayer...

[Dazza]

One thing I noticed was Giles was employed as a Watcher. They even had a story arc where he re-negotiated his terms of employment (which one would have imagined also applied to Buffy).

Yet Buffy had to work as a fast food chick to make a buck.

What's the deal? Seems like a big plot hole to me...

 

[Lyri]

To the Watcher's Council, the Slayers weren't people. They didn't 'work' for the Council, they were instruments to be used in the fight against evil. Does a police officer pay his gun for doing its job? No, so the Council didn't think to pay the Slayers.

They also kept them cowed and subservient, like Kendra, so that they wouldn't rebel when they realized that they had all the power and, without them, the Council had nothing - like Buffy did.

Plus, for the majority of the time, Slayers were children. It was rare that a Slayer made it past eighteen. They'd been in the care of their Watchers for most of their lives - if they were Potentials - and they were raised to know that the only thing they were needed for was to fight the bad guys. The Watchers took care of them, raised them, fed them, clothed them, and trained them. I suppose they felt like that was payment enough.

And when they died, there was always another one to takes her place.

 

[EVIL UU]

Buffy doesn't want to get paid. In her mind, if she's paid for slaying she's not an ever-suffering martyr, sacrificing her life and personal happiness for the sake of others. That would make her feel bad about herself. If Buffy wanted money all she had to do was to ask. Seriously, it's that simple. It would look like this:

Buffy, monsters to kill, apocalypse blah blah blah
OK. Pay up.
B-but your calling...
<Buffy rolls her eyes. Shrugs and proceeds to walk away.>
All right, how much do you want?

Done. She could ask for a million dollars/year and they would pay. The goal of the council is to prolong its existence and fear of imminent doom is great motivator.

 

[Dazza]

Well the Council was clearly loaded, so that is shameful of them IMO.

 

[Yosso]

In "Checkpoint", Buffy could easily have demanded payment for herself as well as reinstating Giles' salary retroactively. It wouldn't even be a blip in for the Watcher's Council financially. But, she didn't ask. I agree and think that she doesn't want to get paid.

 

[Robb Stark]

I find it to be a bit of a plot hole used to service other arcs. [MENTION=6332]Lyri[/MENTION] outlined storyline reasons for why Slayers aren't paid quite eloquently, but I think [MENTION=11194]EVIL UU[/MENTION] hit it a bit closer to home. The Slayer has the hammer, as we see in S5, at the end of the day. They hold the power.

Joss wanted to make S6 about the "tough things in life" without actually stopping to think that if Buffy can't find a practical, financially fulfilling application for her powers, then she's not very bright. I know that the plot required her to work a crap job but when you really stop and think about it, there's no reason whatsoever for that to have happened. I'm not saying she should turn to a life of crime or anything silly like that, but Buffy should have been smart enough to realize that really, at the end of the day, she didn't have to be working fast food if she didn't want to.

But Joss wanted it to fit his metaphor, so that plot hole was just skated over.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Bad Boy Dazza
You are meant see that, you are meant to know that, but you are not meant to comment on it.
Odd isn't it, that a character who, it has been said is a leader, a feminist, was herself the victim of a male dominated way of life.
That three men, those shadowy men created a girl to be the hunter of the vampires and other demonic creatures. Of her being one of many girls who fought the 'things that go bump in the night'.
Yet that male dominated entity, the watchers council, didn't pay the slayers one cent, not a sausage, bugger all.
So how many girls here will maintain that Giles or Wesley were fantastic, even though they were part of a sexist organisation. Did they pay the slayers in their charge, no.
If they had paid, would Faith have gone to work for the mayor?
I wonder if a vampire (Angel) paid those who worked with him.

Makes you wonder if Joss was having a go at the big brother MSP's concept.

 

[Dazza]

Bad Boy Dazza
You are meant see that, you are meant to know that, but you are not meant to comment on it.
Odd isn't it, that a character who, it has been said is a leader, a feminist, was herself the victim of a male dominated way of life.
That three men, those shadowy men created a girl to be the hunter of the vampires and other demonic creatures. Of her being one of many girls who fought the 'things that go bump in the night'.
Yet that male dominated entity, the watchers council, didn't pay the slayers one cent, not a sausage, bugger all.
So how many girls here will maintain that Giles or Wesley were fantastic, even though they were part of a sexist organisation. Did they pay the slayers in their charge, no.
If they had paid, would Faith have gone to work for the mayor?
I wonder if a vampire (Angel) paid those who worked with him.

Makes you wonder if Joss was having a go at the big brother MSP's concept.

Great points, and yes Angel paid his team in LA. Maybe that is why Giles went back to England.... 'cos he felt guilty once Buffy left school 😀.

And also factor in Willow and Xander..... an essential part of the team.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Buffy being a professional vampire slayer would make her like a professional soldier or a mercenary. There was an episode (Flooded, 6ABB04) where Buffy, at Anya's suggestion, tried to demand payment for attempting to foil a robbery at her bank while she was trying to get a loan (that was ultimately denied).

Would we feel the same about a slayer who was drawing a salary as opposed to a slayer who does the job for the love of it? Would she be able to select assignments or take days off if she was paid? The Council would have her even more hamstrung than she was already if she was under contract to fight whatever came up. And Checkpoint 5ABB12, which was one of the better episodes, would never have come up.

I think this follows the pattern laid down for decades for superheroes - they can be rich (like Adam West = Batman), employed in some other capacity (like reporter Clark Kent = Superman) or poor, but they do not get paid for their heroics. It makes them seem more dedicated to the cause than just collecting a cheque.

 

[Robb Stark]

I think this follows the pattern laid down for decades for superheroes - they can be rich (like Adam West = Batman), employed in some other capacity (like reporter Clark Kent = Superman) or poor, but they do not get paid for their heroics. It makes them seem more dedicated to the cause than just collecting a cheque.

Completely agreed. I think it would have been pretty lame for Buffy to start charging people, but I just didn't think that it was overly realistic or believable that Buffy, with all her powers, has to resort to working double shifts at a fast food place in order to make ends meet. She has superpowers. She could, almost literally, do anything. I'm not talking about charging the people she saves and I do realize that Slaying gets in the way, but come on.

It's the same plot hole that Peter Parker has been running into for 40 some years now. There's no logical reason that he, or Buffy, should be just scraping by living pay cheque to pay cheque unless they're pretty dim.

 

[CSIgirl86]

To be honest, even if the Watcher's Council did pay her she'd probably still have to take a second job to cover the cost of always fixing the damages to her house.