Questions about the Council

[GothicBuffy]

I think we can all agree that the Council is generally insidious and doesn't do much to actually support slayers, and that they are more insterd in controlling them/using them as a tool.

But how did they come to exist in the first place? From what we have seen of the council, they are a panel of white British people who pride themselves on their elitism. Why are they all British? How did the international power of the slayer come to be regulated by this powerful, exclusive group? The slayers have existed across countries for centuries. How did the Council originally form and amass power? It can’t be too far back a development, because the original creators of the first slayer were from an unspecified location in Africa. What happened to them? Do you think that the council’s control of slayers stems from British colonialism/imperialism at all? It seems likely to me.

We never quite got a clear outline on what the Council was and it’s been bugging me.

 

[Antho]

Aren’t the shadow men, the ones in « get it done » like the precursor of the Concil ?

 

[Priceless]

I could definitely see a line between the Shadow men and British colonisation. I expect the Shadow Men were the first shaman who turned into the first Council and held the power for millennia. I would also assume they were very much like the council in that they were completely patriarchal. I suspect other forms of Council grew in other areas, once Slayers began to appear. I originally thought that the colonists who invaded Africa took over the Council, but now I think the African shaman who morphed into the Council, travelled the world searching for slayers, educating (male) leaders in other places about the slayers and they set up their own councils in their own areas.

The Council of the modern era has it's headquarters in the UK because England was historically powerful for so long that it simply became accepted that they were the natural leaders of the Watchers Council. Prior to that, perhaps Rome, Portugal or Spain housed the headquarters.

 

[TriBel]

Do you think that the council’s control of slayers stems from British colonialism/imperialism at all?

Is the Pope Catholic...and do bears do what they do in the wood?

How did the international power of the slayer come to be regulated by this powerful, exclusive group?

That's anachronistic. As far as I can tell the word "nation" isn't in common usage until the 12th century (can't have "international" without national...and the modern nation's a relatively recent concept). I'm not being pedantic. The history of the Slayers is given to us as a "continuity"- which is only possible with a teleological model of history. Take a look at the opening of Lessons. Istanbul (figured as Asian...not European)...England...America. The Ancient World; the Old World and the New World. There are three different forms of patriarchal control figured - I'll tentatively call them Patriarchal, Paternal and Fraternal (the rule of the severe father; the kindly father and the Brother). That's the continuity...Patriarchy. As @Priceless suggests - it's a network rather than a lineage and it reinvents itself in line with current social practice/formations (if it didn't it wouldn't seem natural). It's not really centralized...it just "follows" centres of power (bit like passing the baton in a relay?).

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

I would assume that in antiquity, the fight against evil was less covert. If you had trouble with vampires, you contacted either the local priest or the local lord, or the local variation. I suppose the local priest or mystic would receive a dream upon the calling of a Slayer, seek them out, provide her with an education in Supernatural matters, then send her off to the local Lord to be trained. I assume the once in a generation thing came from Slayers being called for short term crises, not day to day demon fighting.

The Watchers Council, well, I would speculate that, as with so much in Britian, the Church would have handled the Praternatural until the reformation, at which point the inquistion was expelled, the land erupted in wars of religion, and the remaining exorcists started meeting in secret, intermarried with the families of Lords Temporal and Spiritual, and became part of His Majesty's Supernatural Service.

As for why they are British? My guess is ASH was, so the season 3 watchers were too. But, I think the Watchers Council, as opposed to being a side gig for a priest or shaman or medicine man, resulted in the average watcher being better trained and better supported. Whereas Merrick, an American Watcher, claimed to have been to trained by father, and to have watched five girls die. Only in Britian did the watchers become well trained, well networked and well organized. Everywhere else, they are like Agent Mulder or the Winchesters. Well meaning, but hopelessly outgunned. Much like the Roman Church of the 3rd Century, it wasn't their age or antiquity that made them powerful, but their money and influence.

 

[gwenogjones]

One thing we do know about the council is actually how old it is - thanks to a line from Quentin Travers about the crucia ... I never know how to spell it, but you know what we mean. He says 'it's been done this way for a dozen centuries' - which is 1200 years - which is, as of the time of filming, about 799 AD.

So the watcher's council has existed in a version of it's current form since the saxon age of Britain (which does actually rule out British imperialism and colonialism in Africa) BUT ... of course Britain's is neither the only - nor the first empire.

And who else had an empire that ranged across the world including both Britain and parts of Africa and predated Quentin Travers' estimated 'a dozen centuries'????
Yes I'm talking about the Romans. Who went into Africa and could easily have encountered the descendants of the shadow men - and took over; the new version of people in charge of the slayer are now part of the structure of Rome. And then in the 4th century Rome collapses, the empire divides and various European triibes sack the capital ... and a new version of the council is created among merovingians or visigoths or Carolingians ... Carolingians of course being Frankish - where the French are and then Biff Bam Boom 1066, and a whole load of Frenchmen rock up to Britain, take over - still own land in France, become a European power and before you know it the watcher's council is settled in England and there it remains.

In a time of the crusades and the spice road, it would not be beyond the realm of possibility that they were able to spread the tentacles across vast swathes of the world. Even in the modern era they don't find every potential - maybe they used to miss a whole load more.

So I don't think the sequence of events was shadow men --> watchers. I think there have been several iterations of them, depending on who invaded whom and who held the power at the time. The early version of the watcher's council as it stands developed some time after the fall of Rome in mainland Europe and then transferred across to England when the Normans came.

If it was a British empire thing then the watcher's council would only go back as far as the late 1500s at the earliest - and it would have been shadow men from the dawn of time until the reign of the Tudors and that doesn't really fit in with what we know. 400 years is not a long time.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Giles is threatened by the fact that the Council could get his American visa revoked and they hold a great deal of power. I don`t see the Council as a political group in the usual sense, it is presented more as the Illuminati, a group of people with tremendous power who fly under the radar except when they need to get something done via other political means but they exercise a lot of power over mere politicians. The Illuminati work hand in glove with each other to ensure the enterprises of each individual member succeed.

 

[TriBel]

they are a panel of white British people who pride themselves on their elitism.

I'm resisting the urge to say "bet they're all called Rees-Mogg".

If it was a British empire thing then the watcher's council would only go back as far as the late 1500s at the earliest - and it would have been shadow men from the dawn of time until the reign of the Tudors and that doesn't really fit in with what we know. 400 years is not a long time.

No one said it was solely a BE thing but that it had an iteration as a BE thing. It makes sense that it follows empires and is symbiotic with power (in Lessons Giles is wearing a Stockman coat - a symbol of colonialism). As it is, the latest iteration (S12) is American.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Re; Connections; Well, 99% of things Giles did focused on being well connected. Find a professor who knew about weird pre-Germanic languages? Know a Warlock in a Turban who owes him a favor? Have a connection at the Ministry of Magic that calls him when Willow tries to destroy the world? Get a phone call from some guy about a girl fighting homeless people? The larger institution should have friends in high places.

I also think a lot of this subject makes more sense when you think of the council as a Watchers' Union, rather than Slayer support. Which I suppose is mission creep, but kind of explains a lot of their shadier decisions.