S8 question about the # of slayers

[MergedLoki]

Alright so I haven't read any S8 comics yet.

having just watched S7 with my gf (got her into buffy last year hurrah!).

I'm wondering as the sythe gives 'every girl who COULD be a slayer' a slayers power, are there not just like... thousands of slayers out there now?

I mean yes some will die of course but ok.. say 5 'new' slayers die.. ther'es what? 50 more waiting to take their places?


This is what ALWAYS bugged me about S7's ending and before I pick up any S8 comics i'm wondering how/if they ever work around this little loophole or does Joss just dodge it and hope nobody will notice?

 

[Tsquared]

I'm half-way through S8 (trying to catch up before issue #36), and it's estimated that there is about 1800 slayers in the world. About 500 of them are in crew with the Scoobies. I don't think it's like the "chain reaction" you've explained. Willow's spell activated ALL the potential slayers, but they weren't all the same age. I think it was said or mentioned that after a certain age the spell automatically bestows them with their slayer powers. So, no. When one of them dies it doesn't call a new one because she would have already have been called once she reached the right age. 🙂

 

[AndrewCrossett]

And new Slayers are being activated all the time, though it's not clear exactly what the criteria is for when they're activated. It may be at a random point during adolescence, on their 16th birthdays, or when they actually first have need for their Slayer powers. In "Harmonic Divergence" Soledad gets her powers on her 16th birthday, but she was also fighting for her life at the time, so it's not clear which caused it.

 

[Tsquared]

And new Slayers are being activated all the time, though it's not clear exactly what the criteria is for when they're activated. It may be at a random point during adolescence, on their 16th birthdays, or when they actually first have need for their Slayer powers. In "Harmonic Divergence" Soledad gets her powers on her 16th birthday, but she was also fighting for her life at the time, so it's not clear which caused it.

I hope it gets cleared up soon. I'm still leaning towards a certain age. I don't imagine they'd bestow themselves on children even if the situation called for it, because of their mindset. Although, there was that one girl in "Chosen" who looked really young...

 

[AndrewCrossett]

I've always assumed Potentials became "eligible" for Slayerhood upon reaching puberty... probably first menstruation, which can be anywhere between the ages of 11 to 16 or thereabouts. The baseball girl in "Chosen" was the youngest one we saw, and the oldest was probably Kennedy, who at 19 was afraid she might be too old to be activated.

I have a feeling this won't be an issue for much longer. I think by the end of season 8 we'll be back to "one girl at a time," though I don't know what will happen to the existing Slayers. They might be depowered, or killed, or sent to another world (which is my guess).

 

[Adam]

I have a feeling this won't be an issue for much longer. I think by the end of season 8 we'll be back to "one girl at a time," though I don't know what will happen to the existing Slayers. They might be depowered, or killed, or sent to another world (which is my guess).

I also have a very strong feeling that things will get back to "normal" during/after Joss' final arc. Although I have been known to be very wrong about these things...

 

[Skytteflickan88]

I wonder how many there's left now (issue 35). Is it mentioned if the slayers that are in Tibet now, if that's all or most of them?

 

[AndrewCrossett]

I wonder how many there's left now (issue 35). Is it mentioned if the slayers that are in Tibet now, if that's all or most of them?

Spoiler

Well, Buffy said 200 had been killed, right? Presumably that's out of the 500 that were in her army. So that leaves 300 in her group, plus the other 1,300 or so that were not working for her (some of whom have undoubtedly been killed as well.)

 

[Taake]

Please remember not to post spoilers without warning guys 🙂

 

[Skytteflickan88]

I'm unsure on the rules regarding spoilers. I assumed we were allowed to speak about published comics, but not spoilers about un-published comics. For example, issue 35 of Season 8 is okay, but not 36.

 

[Taake]

I'm unsure on the rules regarding spoilers. I assumed we were allowed to speak about published comics, but not spoilers about un-published comics. For example, issue 35 of Season 8 is okay, but not 36.

since the thread-starter has not yet read the comics and the post was not a direct response to the question put forth, I considered it spoilers.

 

[Cohen]

You're generally supposed to tag anything that could spoil someone who hasn't yet read/watched the show, unless the thread is about specific plots/points in the show because new people come on to the boards all the time who are just starting to watch the show. (Which I find crazy cool, cause I've been with it since 1998. lol.)

 

[white avenger]

I don't know for sure, but I would be willing to bet that, if Joss had seriously considered the implications of just what he was doing in Season 7 on ant future Slayer stories, he wouldn't have created "thousands" of Slayers throughout the world. It effectively changed Buffy and her friends from a team of highly motivated and experienced commandos into a general and her staff, with so many new Slayers that they have taken on an almost "cannon fodder" existence. Sacrifice fifty or even a hundred young Slayers, and there's a thousand or more ready to take their places, plus, there are just too many anonymous faces in Season 8. Maybe it's just my personal preference, but I would fervently hope that the Slayer Army gets pared down considerably by Season 9.