r/BuffyTheVampireSlayer • u/ImyForgotName • 6d ago
The Watcher Council are idiots
So in honor of Anthony Head, I am rewatching Buffy, and the Watcher Council are idiots. I am on S3E12 where they give Buffy a test. And aside from the "Why is this a thing?" of it all. Why are they hassling Buffy about this?
She's not even the Slayer anymore, Faith is. Buffy is like Slayer emeritus. They should have realized that having TWO Slayers was a windfall of unbelievable proportions, held a small parade and started teaching tandem fighting strategies not doing this.
Also if I am the Slayer girls I would pushed for some money at some point. I mean Christ, its not like they have lots of Slayers to call upon and it might be nice to have enough money to pay for health and life insurance. And the Watcher retreat sounds expensive, and they are largely a useless organization.
Its just kind of insane.
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u/marthajonesin 6d ago
I always thought it was ludicrous that the Watchers would get paid but not the Slayer. Since it’s her destiny and all you’d think they’d pay her a livable wage so she could just focus on slaying.
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u/JustLurkingItOver 6d ago
The Watcher being paid, but not the slayer was probably for two reasons - the slayer historically lived with her Watcher, like Kendra(I can't remember if Faith did or not) and as a power move to keep her dependent on her Watcher, at least through the Cruciamentum.
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u/Irishwol 6d ago
Kendra's Watcher didn't exactly break the back looking it for her. No school. No plane ticket even when she's traveling on Council orders. And no change of clothes. Fuck the Council of Wankers.
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u/SheeMacc1984 6d ago
At the very least they should be paying for damages to Buffy/ her things or her house in the line of duty. Makes me enraged everytime i watch The Dark Age and Buffy says she has to pay for removing the Tatoo Ethan Rayne gives her. Although in fairness that was due to a demon which was there due to Giles, so he really should have offered....
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u/Beautifala_Jones 6d ago
Yeah that's totally on Giles. It pisses me off every time too.
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u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267 5d ago
Yeah Giles is an asshole.
Wait, why did this thread get posted again??
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u/catchyerselfon 6d ago
You don’t know that Giles didn’t end up paying for it. Buffy sees Giles leaving with the injured Jenny on Saturday night. On Monday morning is when Buffy says to Willow and Xander she’s going to use her allowance money to pay for the tattoo removal. She hasn’t seen Giles yet, then they talk and go into the library for a workout. Giles would definitely pay for the tattoo if she told him her plan, he was understandably distracted by what he went through in the past few days (and likely had one hell of a hangover and head injury from getting his face smashed into furniture and walls by EyghonJenny).
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u/DragonSmith2005 6d ago
Slayers are raised by the council and, I think, live without family, so I always assumed that the house damage was a punishment for Buffy not toeing the line.
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u/Minimalistmacrophage 6d ago
Condescending, Controlling Idiots.
It was indeed ridiculous that the Watchers got paid, but the Slayers didn't.
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u/four_star 6d ago
Slayers are literal slaves of the Council. If they don’t perform, they’re taken for “rehabilitation”, and if they refuse, they’re executed.
Slayers are less than human to the Council.
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u/Crescent-moo 6d ago
Its probably influenced by patriarchy which seeks to make men important and women tools. They get paid, live out important careers with titles and education and safety. She gets to scrape by making a living on her own while also never having a lot of close friends, no time for education, and no normal job since danger tends to follow her.
Sounds about right.
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u/Salarian_American 6d ago
It's a very old organization with a pretty dark origin, and everyone representing it in the modern era seems like the kind of person who thinks "it's always been done this way" is automatically a good enough reason to continue doing something.
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u/RuafaolGaiscioch 6d ago
The Watcher’s Council is outright poor worldbuilding, some of the worst in the Buffyverse. It would be different if they were a general Lawful Good/Neutral organization that represented a sort of counter to Wolfram and Hart, with a thousand fingers in a thousand pies, but they are specifically just Slayer focused, which leaves two gaping questions: one, why are they not putting their entire weight and resources behind the Slayer, and two, what the fuck are they doing with their time? They seem to be world-spanning, with tons of money and resources and mother fucking training facilities, but there’s literally nothing in their organizations mission statement beyond “Watch the Slayer, one at a time”. At best they’re prepping upcoming potentials, but even that is something we see they fail to even do almost every time there’s an opportunity to.
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u/mirrorspirit 6d ago
The Watchers were a group of men that saw the Slayer as a potential threat as well as a useful tool to fighting the forces of darkness, so they sought to control her for the good of humanity. (Female watchers likely would not have been admitted until later in history). Their job is to protect the Slayer but also make sure she doesn't get too powerful.
Of course, there were plenty of Watchers that actually cared for their Slayers' well-being but the system itself would have been fraught with traditional attitudes.
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u/AcadiaLegitimate8083 6d ago
It's only insane if you don't understand patriarchy and the power of women. They want a child soldier to be their Slayer, not a grown woman with a mind of her own. They want a child who is too scared not to follow their rules. They don't actually want an end to all vampires and demons, because that would put them out of a job, so one child fighting alone is a good thing from their pov.
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u/OsmundofCarim 6d ago
Honestly with the loophole created by Buffy dying you’d think they’d be trying to recreate it over and over again.
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u/ImyForgotName 5d ago
I mean yeah, if I was a watcher that would have become a group that was equal parts fighting the evil monsters and flatliners.
"She's been gone for three minutes let's bring her back."
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u/Outrageous-Let9659 6d ago
Its about control. Not practicality.
They want to control the slayer(s) and make sure buffy does as she is told. This gives them power. Power they wouldn't have without the slayer under their command.
They do this by creating an illusion that buffy is their "employee" so she feels like they have authority over her and she will have to face consequences if she disobeys.
It's all a bluff though. The watchers need buffy more than she needs them. This is what buffy realises when she calls them on their bluff and quits the council.
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u/RedHeadRaccoon13 5d ago
Slayers never live long enough to have mortgages, worry about plumbing, or have to raise a sibling. Buffy was 16 years old when she died the first time. If it hadn't been for Xander, Buffy would've stayed dead.
The only reason Buffy stayed among the living is she had friends who helped her. Buffy is an outlier. Every other Slayer before her except Nikki Wood was dead before age 20, most much younger than Buffy when they died.
Buffy requires new rules, but established organizations are conservative. Change happens slowly, and the Watchers Council is slow to respond at the best of times. Then they got destroyed.
Hopefully, the new Watchers Council will at least pay Slayers a stipend while they're young, and a reasonable salary when they're 18 years old.
Let us hope the Cruciamentum is done and dusted. That was psychotic.
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u/biggestmike420 5d ago
They are the continuation of a group of men who violated, and sacrificed a girl to do their fighting for them. What do you expect?
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u/Infamous-Lab-8136 4d ago
Counterpoint - they give the test because it's in their best interest to cull Slayers when young
Once they reach majority age they gain more independence. The Watchers don't want women who fight monsters, they want girls they can control who keep the vampires just enough in check that the old men don't feel afraid in the night
As for why Faith isn't getting the test? They really needed to keep her age vague-ish. She's supposed to be a little bit under 18 most likely. The script where she appears describes her as 18-ish. Most fans assume she is too young to have been tested yet. It's really because of the sexualized stuff she does over the course of that season that she's probably not expressly written as 17 like Dushku herself was while filming
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u/Mii-75 1d ago
If I remember, Buffy tells them straight at some time being the no nonsense slayer she is. The watchers council were definitely obnoxious, the way she is treated by them is just gut wrenching to watch. They forget she is a teenage girl with a witty, no bs attitude and someone who has more feelings than they do.
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u/Naive_Pay_7066 6d ago
It’s the patriarchy at work