Prophecies?

[Abby27]

Anyone notice how season 1 was more focused on Buffy's prophetic dreams and prophecies about her? Why did they stay clear of that more throughout the rest of the seasons? I mean, Buffy still has some prophetic dreams throughout the rest of the series but Giles was so stoked to get that copy of the Pergamum Codex and he never needed to use it again after Prophecy Girl?

 

[brinkster130]

I always figured that once they learned that prophecies didn't always tell you everything they didn't focus on them as much.

 

[Lyri]

I always figured that once they learned that prophecies didn't always tell you everything they didn't focus on them as much.

I agree. The prophecy about Buffy and the Master left out one huge thing - that Buffy would survive. Giles invested so much into that book and the knowledge that Buffy would die if she faced the Master affected him so much that I think he felt a little hurt and cheated to know that he wasn't getting the full picture from that book.

I think he thought that, if the prophecies didn't mention something huge like that, what else where they leaving out? He stopped believing, I think.

And Buffy's dreams weren't just forgotten, she had dreams all through the seasons, most notably Amends, This Year's Girl/Who Are You and...that one in S7 with Chloe and the Primative.

 

[fly on the wall]

I think that it's also that prophecies are easy to misinterpret and hard to decipher. It seems like someone would have to spend nearly all of their time reading, translating, and studying prophecies just on the off-chance they'd find one relevant.

 

[Abby27]

I agree. The prophecy about Buffy and the Master left out one huge thing - that Buffy would survive. Giles invested so much into that book and the knowledge that Buffy would die if she faced the Master affected him so much that I think he felt a little hurt and cheated to know that he wasn't getting the full picture from that book.

That makes sense. I know if I spent all my time trying to decipher such a difficult message that ends up being thwarted anyway, I'd be pissed.

I always took it as suprising though. Remember how stoked Giles got when he realized Angel could get him a copy of the codex? The last one hadn't been seen since like, the 15th century or something. I just thought it was weird that they had access to this amazing book at prophecies that had been lost for centuries and then they never really went back to it after season 2.

I took it that the prophecy was for Buffy to die - which she did. It was fulfilled, but then the big moment for Buffy is when she came back to life. So really, she should have been dead and so maybe the reason they didn't use the codex after that was because it didn't have anymore prophecies about slayers. They predicted Buffy would die which would have meant the Master would have taken over and so there really wouldn't be slayers and watchers around anymore; the Master would have ruled he earth. So maybe Buffy's victory in sort of one-uping the prophecy wasn't in the resurrection itself (because she still died, fulfilling the prophecy), maybe it was in killing the Master, an event the prophets didn't foresee as she was supposed to be dead.

 

[Lyri]

They predicted Buffy would die which would have meant the Master would have taken over and so there really wouldn't be slayers and watchers around anymore; the Master would have ruled he earth.

But the Master's rising wouldn't have stopped other Slayers from being Called. Kendra was Called by Buffy's death, whether she was brought back to life or. Buffy's death was the reason the Master ascended, but that didn't affect the Slayer line. The Master might have taken over the world, or at least a huge part of it, yes, but that wouldn't have stopped a Slayer's death Calling the next girl to power. And all Slayers need Watchers.

It's been a while since I watched S1, so forgive me if I've got this wrong, but didn't Giles say that the Codex held prophecies that were directly linked to the Slayer?

Now, obviously, we don't know which Slayers. Some could be Buffy, some Faith, Kendra, Kennedy, Lucy Hanover, maybe even Fray. If Giles really thought that much about it, maybe he gave it back to the Council after the events of Prophecy Girl.

Someone, I think it was Angel, said at one point 'Don't believe everything you're foretold'. Prophecies are supposed to be these huge and powerful things, but they can often be misinterpreted, as was proven on AtS with 'The Father Will Kill The Son' and 'There Will Be No Birth', so I still think Giles figured that prophecies, especially ones written thousands of years ago by men who had no idea what they were talking about, were a little too hit-or-miss for him to put much stock in.

 

[VisionGirl]

Someone, I think it was Angel, said at one point 'Don't believe everything you're foretold'. Prophecies are supposed to be these huge and powerful things, but they can often be misinterpreted, as was proven on AtS with 'The Father Will Kill The Son' and 'There Will Be No Birth', so I still think Giles figured that prophecies, especially ones written thousands of years ago by men who had no idea what they were talking about, were a little too hit-or-miss for him to put much stock in.

And I really wish the gang would've remembered this more in ATS!!

 

[Abby27]

But the Master's rising wouldn't have stopped other Slayers from being Called. Kendra was Called by Buffy's death, whether she was brought back to life or. Buffy's death was the reason the Master ascended, but that didn't affect the Slayer line. The Master might have taken over the world, or at least a huge part of it, yes, but that wouldn't have stopped a Slayer's death Calling the next girl to power. And all Slayers need Watchers.

I figured if the Master ascended onto Earth, he was going to unleash Hell and so there would still be slayers and watchers, but it wouldn't really matter anymore: the whole world would be hell. Which after thinking about it, I have to read up on that and see if I'm not just wrong. Evidence from "The Wish" would suggest that if the Master did ascend and was in control, it wouldn't really unleash hell, he would just be a vampire king kind of deal. Hmm.

Now, obviously, we don't know which Slayers. Some could be Buffy, some Faith, Kendra, Kennedy, Lucy Hanover, maybe even Fray. If Giles really thought that much about it, maybe he gave it back to the Council after the events of Prophecy Girl.

Right, which is why it's totally possible that Giles sent it to Kendra's watcher as soon as he found out she existed. Maybe since the prophecy for Buffy was for her die it didn't have any relevance to her anymore.

I don't know, Giles just seem so stoked to get a copy, you think we'd at least hear about it again.

 

[Ojuice5001]

If the Season One prophecy left out the fact that Buffy would come back to life after her battle with the Master, then really, there's a very good reason why the prophecies wouldn't be useful for finding information about her post-Season One life. After all, this situation seems most compatible with the following theory: Those who write and interpret the prophecies expected that Buffy's life would have ended after her fight with the Master. If they didn't even know that she would be alive, they won't be writing any useful prophecies about her life. At most, the prophecies might foretell something about the mythic future of the world, like the calling of multiple Slayers. It actually makes a lot of sense. 😎