This one has been bothering me for a while, and I am surprised I forgot to bring it up.
When Buffy died the first time, Faith was spawned, and there were now two slayers. Why was another slayer spawned when Buffy died again, making it three. Because Faith still existed?
norbizness
Kristy Swanson died?
Jermaine
Each Slayer only gets one “chance” to call another. Buffy’s already spawned her one Slayer.
Actually Buffy spawned Kendra, who’s death spawned Faith.
Gary Farber
“When Buffy died the first time, Faith was spawned, and there were now two slayers.”
Presumably you meant “Kendra,” not “Faith.”
Frankly, I don’t think it pays to try to look anything but cross-eyed at the logic of the Buffyverse mythology; Whedon is terrific at dialogue and characterization and building on fine detail and has a variety of other strengths. Doing “hard fantasy,” however, is of no more interest to him than doing “hard sf.” He’s interested in using the stories to get to certain places, not in building fine logical details of a coherent universe.
I mean, the amount of loose ends, or dopey aspects of how vampires vampires do/do not work, or contradictions in the metaphysical nature of evil and demons, in the Buffyverse, is very large, in case you hadn’t noticed.
Chris Galdieri
Gary Farber is absolutely right about how logically tenuous the Buffyverse mythology is — which is why it was such a damn shame that most of the final season took that mythology as its foundation, especially after its incredibly strong first seven or eight episodes.
Kimmitt
That’s the difference between Whedon and Noxon right there — for Noxon, it’s all got to Hold Together, whether or not there’s joy to be found in it. For Whedon, the fantasy is a way of bypassing the mundane details that get in the way of the ideas he’s trying to work with.
Barry
IIRC, a new Slayer is called when a Slayer dies, not because there. If a Slayer can ‘die’ non-permanentlike, then there’s a potential for multiple Slayers.
Veeshir
It was in the script.
Don
The whole question of Slayers and what makes them, etc, gets coverage in season seven. If you haven’t gotten to it you will soon.
I presume others have commented that if you enjoy the tight writing on Buffy (particularly in the earlier seasons) you should definately pick up Firefly. I’d say it ranks up there with the second season of Buffy.
John Cole
Already seen firefly. And I just finished season 7- working on Angel, now.
Gary Farber
“Gary Farber is absolutely right….”
Wise words, of course. ;-)
“…about how logically tenuous the Buffyverse mythology is — which is why it was such a damn shame that most of the final season took that mythology as its foundation, especially after its incredibly strong first seven or eight episodes.”
Myself, however, I loved the last few episodes of the last season, insofar as I loved Nathan Fillion as Caleb (although he could have been a more strongly integrated plot device, to be sure), and particularly loved the final two episodes. I agree that some of the earlier wanderings in the season were somewhat wobbly. But the use of Willow to make all the Potentials Slayers was Very Fine, I thought. (And you’ll find a couple of interesting repercussions in the final seasons of Angel, John, although my knowledge of the Buffyverse falls down a bit in that my ability to track the last seasons of Angel were limited at the time.)
But don’t, I re-emphasize, spend too much time trying to make the “theology” work, because it doesn’t. Are demons inherently evil or not? Apparently not, but then what is the nature of Evil in the Buffyverse? Well, the answer is more or less that Whedon didn’t find this a very interesting question, and didn’t care that he left inherent contradictions.
I can live with that. Whedon pays off in more than enough other areas for me. See, there actually are limits to my nit-picking! Okay, it can be fun to play with these questions, but I’m just saying that there’s no, so far as I’m aware, planned reward or One True Intended Answer.
Notice also the early minor emphasis on use of the cross (Buffy prominently wears one in the first couple of seasons), but Willow’s being Jewish, and the fairly rapid dropping of that whole traditional motif, for example.
LoGan
I’m glad you’re taking a look at Angel. As the series progressed the storylines getting more and more layered. The way the various characters evolved was great.
Chris Galdieri
Gary,
I actually have a pretty big thematic problem with the Making of the Potential Slayers into Slayers. Compare it to the similar showdown at the end of Season 3, where Buffy marshalled a force of ordinary people to face down the Mayor and his minions. There, the members of the Class of ’99 were given the information and tools and leadership they needed to defend themselves regardless of who they were. But in the Season 7 finale, the regular folks had already removed themselves from the playing field and the only people who were given the means to defend themselves were those who were mystically or genetically chosen to have the potential to be slayers (or who were regular/recurring cast members) — which is far less empowering and subversive than was the Class of ’99 rising up against the mayor and, implicitly, their high school. I keep threatening to write a paper about this…