Watcher (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
The Watchers' Council has been known to use ethically questionable methods to accomplish its goals. The Council employs a trio of operatives known as the Special Operations Team.[8] This team is responsible for some of the more unsavory aspects of the Council's work, such as interrogations, smuggling, and, if necessary, assassinations. When Faith Lehane stakes and kills a human, the Special Ops Team was dispatched to retrieve the rogue Slayer, circumventing local and international authorities.[9]
The Council is also known for placing its principles and perceived goals ahead of the well-being of the Slayer. A test known as the Cruciamentum involves suppressing the Slayer's natural abilities with a drug and pitting her against a particularly dangerous vampire on the Slayer's eighteenth birthday. When one particular Watcher, Rupert Giles, defies the rules of the test and interferes in the Cruciamentum of his Slayer - Buffy Summers - he is dismissed from his position immediately.[10]
In 2001, representatives of the Council visit Sunnydale, California to deliver vital information on the seemingly unstoppable Glory to the Slayer, Buffy Summers. However, the Council refuses to turn over the information until an extensive review of Buffy's abilities is completed. This assessment includes a review of Buffy's combat skills, as well as interviews with many of her closest friends. Eventually, the Slayer turns the tables on the Watchers, declaring that they need her to validate their existence more than she needs their help. She defends the frequent assistance of her friends (Slayers typically operate alone) and demands that Rupert Giles be reinstated as her Watcher, with retroactive pay to the time of his dismissal. The Council agrees to this, changing the nature of the Council/Slayer relationship until the Council's destruction two years later.[11]
[
Guardians
The Guardians are an organization of long-lived women who developed parallel to the Shadow Men and Watchers. They forge a weapon, the Scythe, for the Slayer to use. They are apparently mistrustful of the Shadow Men and Watchers who followed, as they keep this weapon, along with their very existence, a secret. They allow the Watchers to observe and manage the Slayer for centuries, but all the while the Guardians are watching the Watchers. They remain in hiding until Buffy Summers discovers the Scythe and tracks its origin to an Egyptian-style tomb, where the last Guardian waits. Immediately after explaining herself to Buffy, the Guardian is killed by Caleb, putting an end to the organization.[1]
[
List of Watchers
Note: Some Slayers have had more than one Watcher in the course of their careers.
| Watcher | Slayer(s) | First Appearance (as a Watcher) |
|---|---|---|
| Giles, Rupert | Buffy Summers Faith Lehane |
"Welcome to the Hellmouth" |
| Wyndam-Pryce, Wesley | Faith Lehane Buffy Summers |
"Bad Girls" |
| Merrick | Buffy Summers | Buffy the Vampire Slayer (non-canon), "Becoming, Part One" |
| Zabuto, Roger "Sam" | Kendra Young | Mentioned in "What's My Line, Part One" |
| Crowley, Bernard | Nikki Wood | Mentioned in "First Date" |
| Travers, Quentin | Unknown | "Helpless" |
| Post, Gwendolyn | Faith Lehane* | "Revelations" |
| Sirk, Rutherford | Unknown | "Home" |
| Wyndam-Pryce, Roger | Unknown | Mentioned in "Lineage" |
| Wells, Andrew | Many | "Damage" |
* Watcher fraudulently "assigned" self to Slayer after being expelled from Council.
The following have featured with no significant details known about them. Not all of these are true Watchers, some of them are merely operatives on payroll.
- Blair
- Hobson
- Lydia—Wrote a Thesis on William the Bloody
- Nigel
- Phillip
- Robson
- Faith's first Watcher
- Giles' father
- Giles' paternal grandmother (named Edna in a Tales of the Vampires comic by Joss Whedon)
- Collins, Weatherby and Smith—The Council Special Ops Team
- Faith's nurse
- Wesley's thugs
- The (non-canon) novels and comics, specially those focusing on previous Slayers, show or mention other Watchers including: Michaela Tomassi (The Gatekeeper trilogy), Archibald Lassiter (Giles), Harold and John Travers ( Pretty Maids All in a Row), Yanna Narvik (watched over the Slayer, Sophie Carstensen in Pretty Maids All in a Row), Marie-Christine Fontaine ( watched Slayer, Eleanor Boudreau in Pretty Maids All in a Row), Diana Dormer (the name given to Faith's first Watcher in Go Ask Malice).
[
References
- ^ a b "End of Days". Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 2003-05-13. No. 21, season 7.
- ^ "Get It Done". Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 2003-02-18. No. 15, season 7.
- ^ "Never Leave Me". Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 2002-11-26. No. 9, season 7.
- ^ "Chosen". Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 2003-05-20. No. 22, season 7.
- ^ "Damage". Angel. 2004-01-28. No. 11, season 57.
- ^ Whedon, Joss (w), Moline, Karl (p), Owens, Andy (i). "Big City Girl" Fray vol. 1, #1 (2001) Dark Horse Comics
- ^ Whedon, Joss (w), Moline, Karl (p), Owens, Andy (i). "Ready, Steady..." Fray vol. 1, #3 (2001) Dark Horse Comics
- ^ "Who Are You". Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 2000-02-29. No. 16, season 4.
- ^ "Sanctuary". Angel. 2000-05-02. No. 19, season 1.
- ^ "Helpless". Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 1999-01-19. No. 12, season 3.
- ^ "Checkpoint". Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 2001-01-21. No. 12, season 5.
[
See also
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
For more information review our copyright contact and privacy policy.