What criteria is used to choose the Chosen One?

[ticonderouga]

So I saw the thread about the how Watchers are chosen, but what about the Slayers? We know from the show and comics that they are selected by the spell that created the first slayer from the potentials, but what is it that causes one potential to be chosen over the others? I guess specifically what do Buffy, Kendra and Faith have in common?

My first thought is that they have a much greater capacity for violence and being completely ruthless, balanced by an enormous capacity for empathy and compassion.

 

[arabella]

I'm going to say, with no supporting evidence, I think it is russian roulette. You have a pool of potential chosen ones and I believe the spell randomly selects among the potentials.

 

[Icarium]

Yes, I see no reason to suggest it's anything but completely random. The Potential selection seems completely random too, apart from them all being young women. Faith, Buffy and Kendra have almost nothing in common. Heck, Faith's main role in the show is to be the opposite of what Buffy is and Kendra was Buffy's foil too.

 

[sisterofmercy]

I think part of the slayer power is being resourceful, ruthless and smart but the actual process of picking the slayer is random.

 

[Skytteflickan88]

My bet is that it's random.

My first thought is that they have a much greater capacity for violence and being completely ruthless, balanced by an enormous capacity for empathy and compassion.

Why do you think that?

We only ever got to know Faith & Buffy well, and I'm not sure they're more ruthless or violent than other slayers(probably less than Simone and Lady G), and I think Faith is just below average on the empathy on the compassion scale(this might have changed).

 

[Ripper666]

She has to have empathetic and courageous and brave, an enormous psychological and physical strength.

 

[dexeded]

In "Potential", Buffy says that the Potentials have some inborn instincts that help them fight, the potential to be strong. So I'm saying reflexes, and probably inner mental strength. And as a wild guess, maybe they're all descendants of the first Slayer? C'mon, it's possible.

 

[Skytteflickan88]

In "Potential", Buffy says that the Potentials have some inborn instincts that help them fight, the potential to be strong. So I'm saying reflexes, and probably inner mental strength. And as a wild guess, maybe they're all descendants of the first Slayer? C'mon, it's possible.

I wonder if she just made that up. I mean, she also "forgot" that no one seems to have been chosen last time she died and that Faith seemed to be the "main slayer" now.

Or if it's true, is it a): They were chosen to be potentials in the womb or later, so they were regular people, but then changed by whatever makes people into potentials or slayers or b)they were simply special people from the beginning that had a certain instinct(like, some people are born leaders, some are smarter etc etc) or c)they are related to the first slayer like [MENTION=11500]drizzlydaze[/MENTION] said

I mean, did "potentials" exist before The First Slayer or are they also made? I've wondered that for a while. Somehow I doubt it's alternative c, since I doubt the first slayer ever had children. Seems impractical, to have to wait for her children to grow up before being chosen, so I think the shadowmen thought of that.

 

[ticonderouga]

First off I think that Buffy, Faith and Kendra are far more similar then most seem to think. I think that the differences between those three are due mostly to background and upbringing. After all those three seem to me to be a continuum of the possibilities, Kendra is strictly by the book and follows all of the rules of being the Slayer, and only does what her watcher and the council tell her to do. Faith on the other hand is almost completely independent, she follows almost no rules, and she rarely trains. Buffy is the balance between the three. Neither Faith nor Kendra have any family to speak of, and prior to season 5, Buffy pretty much only has her mother. All of them tend to be loners, Buffy has two good friends outside of her watcher, yet only three (five if you include Angel and Spike) times does she really connect with someone outside of this circle, and only once does this work out well (Riley).

 

[arabella]

The things that make them similar seem to be things that happen as a result of being Chosen, for the most part. From what Kendra said, she was sent away to train by her family because she was a potential slayer. I do think that all of the potentials had some things in common that might have made them good potential slayers...but this question was how is the slayer chosen from the potentials. I still, after reading this thread, believe it's fully random. When all of the potentials were made slayers, they all then possessed the needed skills and if trained and guided by their own watcher, may have been good as The Slayer...but they all had their own personalities (good or bad) and different capacities for empathy. To me that seems to point to the selection of previous slayers being perfectly random among potentials.

 

[SlayerFest]

It's completely random...which is a scary thought haha, I mean Dana demonstrates the worst case scenario of what can happen with the randomness of slayer picking...if that makes sense. Technically, she only became a slayer because of the spell. Maybe the PTB does sort of try to avoid psychopathic killers from becoming slayers.