Slayer (Buffyverse)

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A Slayer in the fictional Buffyverse established by Buffy and Angel, is a young female bestowed with mystical powers that originate from the heart of a pure-demon, which gives her superhuman senses, strength, speed, endurance, agility, healing and stamina in the fight against forces of darkness. She also receives prophetic dreams in the few hours that she sleeps.

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The Chosen One

In every generation, there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer. -- Opening narration of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Seasons 1 through 3.

The Slayer is a hunter of monsters, demons, the undead in general and vampires in particular.

The First Slayer was created in ancient Africa when three sorcerers, the Shadow Men, used powerful magic to bind a pure-demon heart into a young girl (as shown in the episode Get It Done). When a Slayer is killed, another potential Slayer is "called" and immediately receives her power. The Slayer is always female; Slayers have been shown as young as 12, and as old as 19.

When Buffy is killed by The Master (in Prophecy Girl), the power is transferred to Kendra (introduced in What's My Line); though when Buffy is resuscitated by Xander, she too retains in full the various Slayer powers. When Kendra is later killed by Drusilla (in Becoming), the power passes to Faith (introduced in Faith, Hope and Trick). However, when Buffy dies for the second time (in The Gift), no new Slayer is called, as now Buffy had been merely a Slayer, while Faith was the Slayer.

Some aspects of this process are called into question in season 7 with the introduction of the concept of the Potential Slayers. For example, it is mentioned several times by various characters that Buffy, not Faith, would have to die before one of them is called. However, this could be explained as either arrogance or a lack of understanding on the part of the characters rather than a continuity error.

All Slayers through the ages share a psychic link, manifested in dreams (described in Damage). A Slayer will frequently dream of herself as a Slayer in another time and place. Melaka Fray does not seem to share the Slayer dream-link; instead her twin brother has the dreams and visions. The Slayer often receives warnings and premonitions in her sleep (as seen in Welcome to the Hellmouth).

The average Slayer's lifespan is very short. Buffy once implied, though she may have been engaging in hyperbole, that no Slayer has lived beyond 25 (Doomed). An exception seems to be Nikki Wood (seen in Fool for Love, First Date and Lies My Parents Told Me), who was the only Slayer known to have a child (Robin Wood). In some of the tie-in books, specifically the Tales of the Slayer series of novels, it is stated that the average time between a Slayer's calling and her death is three years. It is noted that Buffy herself is particularly long-lived, having served seven years as a Slayer (though she has died twice in the process). By this standard, Faith is also unusually long-lived, having been a slayer for five years, although it is true that she spent most of one year in a coma and three more in prison. The Slayer usually works alone; Buffy is again unusual in this regard, having friends to help her. Spike and others theorize that this strengthens her, helping to keep her grounded.

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Known Slayers

(Note: As of the series finale of Buffy, all living "potential Slayers" have become full Slayers.)

Early advertisements for Buffy on the WB featured historical non-canon Slayers, including an unnamed one in Boston (1845), Lucy Hanover from Virginia in the mid 1860s, Florence Gilbert in Wyoming (1897), and another unnamed one in Chicago (May 1927).

Many Slayers are seen in the graphic novel spinoff, Tales of the Slayers, including the "Righteous," "Claudine," "Anni Sonnenblume," "Elizabeth 'Edward' Weston," and an Indian Princess.

It is implied in the comic book series Fray that Fray's Slayer powers are somehow divided between Fray and her brother Harth; Fray has the physical strength of a Slayer, and Harth has more mystical Slayer-associated powers like premonition.

In the Fray trade-paperback sketchbook, Karl Morline also mentions a Slayer, going by the name of Victoria "Tori" Paris, who was a character Morline was designing prior to getting his job for Dark Horse Comics. He mentions that many elements of Tori's, including her jacket and weapons, were the basis for that of Fray's. She is described as "strong, fast-healing, and intelligent."

For a bigger list of canon Slayers: Buffyverse Slayer timeline

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The legend

Before Buffy's first death, the Vampire Slayer was alone. She was the latest in the long line of mystical Slayers. Legend speaks of large pure demons known as "The Old Ones" who walked the Earth. Some of these monstrosities were as tall as skyscrapers and were ferociously powerful. Around the time that mortal animals evolved, the Old Ones left; they found more hospitable dimensions, and left the Earth. Others were driven out by mages and Loranites. The Old Ones did not completely leave this world; so powerful were these beings that they could survive after death--their bodies entombed in the Deeper Well, waiting for the time when they could rise again. Beyond their entombed essences, they left behind other vestiges such as magic, their servitors, and sometimes, their descendants. The last Old One to leave was a creature that fed off the blood of humans. By mixing its blood with that of humans, a new demonic breed was born: vampires. Vampires, though not the strongest of the half-breed progeny or other servitors, spread far quicker than possibly any other half-breed or pure-breed demon and lost none of their potency. The head elders of several early villages decided to take action: to create a power to stop the creatures from spreading. They took the power, essence, and might of a demon and channeled it into a young girl, chained to the earth so she would not escape. The girl had no choice. This became her sacred duty and responsibility, for only she had the power to stand against the forces of darkness. She became the first Vampire Slayer. However, being only slightly superior to Vampires and other half-breeds, the Slayer's life was often brutal and short-lived. The Shadowmen, as they were called (whose descendants went on to become the Watchers), had foreseen this and imbued this power with a hidden clause to guarantee that it would live on. Like the First Slayer, there were hundreds of girls in each generation that had the potential to carry this power within their bodies. When the First Slayer died in battle, the power was transferred to one of the potential girls. Over the course of millennia, in each generation, there was always one girl, in all the world, who had the power, and when she died, another was called, and another, and another, eventually leading to Buffy Summers becoming the Slayer... and she changed all of that.

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The future

During the 21st century, a Slayer (possibly Buffy) and a group of mystical allies faced an apocalyptic army of demons. When the war ended, all demons and magics were banished from this dimension. This Slayer was the last to be called because all the demons were gone. The line did continue, there were potential slayers, but they were never called, never trained. The Watchers' Council became a group of crazed fanatics believing the demons would return. For centuries, these Watchers waited and observed uselessly. This slowly turned them insane.

For 200 years, nobody was called to duty as the Slayer as there was no need. However, there was a new threat to the demons and humans arising. A new vampire with ancient knowledge was organizing the vampires of the world and planned to open a portal to a demon dimension. The Ancient Ones and the Watchers' Council found Melaka Fray. The Ancient Ones wanted to prevent Melaka's Watcher from meeting up with her so that they could implement a plan to their own ends. So they sent one of their loyal demons, Urkonn, to find her, train her as to her calling and to manipulate her to stop the new Vampire leader.

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Powers and abilities

The powers that are bestowed upon the Slayer are mostly physical enhancements. Through careful studying of her feats of strength over the 7 years the show spanned, it has been deduced that Buffy, Faith and other Slayers have great strength.

There are two schools of thought as to the nature of the strength. Some state that the limit for a Slayer's abilities is 10 tons of dead lifting strength. The second school of thought limits the ability to 2 tons at most. The difference in opinion is largely a result of the use of different methodologies: the first camp relies on proportional representation and literary analysis, whilst the second camp relies on the scientific method and objective analysis. At this point, no conclusion has been reached. The evidence for each is the same, so below are presented just those proofs, allowing the reader to decide for themselves.

A major problem with analyzing the series rises up in its general inconsistency in displayed abilities. For instance, Buffy's greatest feat of strength is the bending of prison bars to assist in a jail break in Season 6's "Two to Go". This is several orders of magnitude stronger than anything else she performed through the course of the entire series, so the second camp considers it to be an anomaly (possibly brought on by adrenaline). However, the first camp believes it to coincide with the fact that she has calmly bent a steel rifle barrel in her bare hands in a stressful situation, ignoring the fact that a rifle barrel is hollow and a prison bar is solid. Another inconsistency involves doors: psychotic Slayer Dana was able to, through several violent shoves, knock down a metal door in Angel Season 5's "Damage". However, Buffy was unable to kick down a bomb shelter door in Season 2's "Lie to Me" despite multiple attempts. Later in Season 7's "End of Days", however, she is shown to casually kick down a metal door. This could either be seen as a natural progression of her strength, an inconsistancy or a flimsily connected/rusted door (as it was less than an inch thick and had no visible hinges).

In short, the first camp seeks the average estimates, whilst the second camp seeks the high end estimates.

Buffy, for instance, has, with great effort, been shown to lift a metal portcullis 6ft off the ground and hold it for 3 seconds, achieving maximum height in 12 seconds. The portcullis is of unknown weight (research shows the weakest portcullis to be at least 2 tons) which many teenagers were unable to budge. She also bent a steel rifle barrel to a 35 degree angle with little apparent effort (through it took her 3 seconds to accomplish). Buffy has been recorded throwing human-sized subjects up to 30ft (Season 4, "Where the Wild Things Are"). Faith, a Slayer with abilities similar to Buffy's, was able to punch through approximately an inch of concrete with her bare hand (without any noticeable damage), to pick up the vampire Angel with one hand and easily throw him over 5ft as well as lift him over her head and slam him into the ceiling several times, and finally to pick up a 200 lb. barbell with one hand and use it as a weapon. We also saw her break out of handcuffs that she was bound in by a single wrist in "Graduation Day, Part One".

Though they usually move at human speeds, Slayers have been noted to move much faster than a human being on many occasions. For instance, Buffy has been shown snatching a crossbow bolt in mid-flight (Season 7, "Help") and setting off a bear trap, but not getting caught in it (Season 3, "Homecoming"). She has also shown great feats of agility, and has been documented to leap great distances. In "Buffy vs. Dracula" she reached a height of approximately 20 feet and a distance of 15 feet with the aid of a running start. In the original shooting script for "Welcome to the Hellmouth", Joss had Buffy leap up to the roof of the school gymnasium (a height of 30 feet), but she has never demonstrated a leap of that distance on screen. Buffy has also been documented to have dodged gunmen by out-maneuvering the shooter's aim. However when Adam fired his built-in, scaled-down mini-gun at her at point-blank range, she was able to out-maneuver it, running ahead of the bullet fire for about 7 feet before leaping over a console for cover. It can now be documented that a Slayer could possibly dodge bullets as Faith was seen to dodge multiple shotgun blasts at close range in the Angel Season 4 episode "Release". Dana, the psychotic Slayer was also seen to dodge a tranquilizer dart at point-blank range standing in place, immediately after dealing out a blow to Spike. Other incidents generally occur where Buffy is approximately 50 feet away from the shooters in question. A clear example of this can be seen in Season 3's "Homecoming" when she dodges the M-16 fire from the German terrorists Frederick and Hans Gruenstahler. A Slayer's running speed is also rather extraordinary. Some sources list a running speed approaching 35 m.p.h. However, the only clearly documented evidence of this occurs in Season 5's "Shadow" where Buffy catches up to a Sobekian Snake Monster moving (when calculable) between 28 and 55 m.p.h. Buffy is able to catch up with the monster with some minor assistance from Giles' new car. This would suggest that, along with the feats of superhuman agility, the speed of the Slayer comes in bursts.

A Slayer's body is substantially more durable and resistant to blunt force trauma than an ordinary human's. They are difficult, though not impossible, to bruise and have only once been seen to suffer a broken bone, namely, Nikki Wood's neck at the hands of Spike. Buffy suffered from a sprained arm in Season 4's "The Freshman". In Season 4's "Pangs", the Native American Vengeance spirit Hus transforms into a Black Bear and takes a swipe at Buffy, sending her backwards, but leaving no visible injury. We have seen Melaka Fray get a steel girder thrown at her from a demon and recover within minutes, and she was able to survive falling face first from an extreme height (partly thanks to her acrobatic skills in slowing the fall), though she survived a straight fall of over 3 stories, and was only dazed by it. An incident similar to that has been shown twice by both Buffy and Faith. In "No Place Like Home" Buffy takes a monk in her arms and leaps out a window, landing on the ground and letting her body take the brunt of the fall. Also, Faith grabbed Wesley and fell few stories with him before landing on a car, using her body to take the impact, resulting in the hood of the car being completely smashed in. Both incidents show Buffy and Faith getting up and fleeing the scene immediately without the slightest daze. Also, Buffy has been hit by a truck moving at at least 25 m.p.h. (though it was beginning to brake when it struck her), got up and ran off. Her skin can be punctured by ordinary weapons such as knives or bullets, but she recovers from even very severe injuries in remarkably short periods of time. Usually, she is completely healed within 24 hours, though more serious injuries have been shown to take at least a few days (Season 5, "Fool for Love"). Buffy has also shown a resistance to electricity, taking a blast from an Initiative tazer rifle (approximately 12,000 volts according to unscientific dialogue) without any long term effects (though it did knock her back several feet). She also survived contact with a live electrical wire in Season 1's "I, Robot... You, Jane" -- the normally lethal jolt rendered her unconscious. However, an 18 second jolt from a Cattle Prod in Season 5's "Crush" knocked her unconscious. Conversely, she has also been knocked out and injured by humans wielding blunt metal objects. In Season 2's "Bad Eggs" the Bezoar-possessed Cordelia knocks out Buffy with a metal pipe to the head--leaving a large welt which peaks in 5 minutes, then begins to rapidly heal. In the Season 2 episode "The Dark Age", Ethan Rayne knocks Buffy out with a mannequin arm to the back of the head.

A Slayer does possess heightened senses, but they are not as pronounced as her other special skills. The notable one is a "sixth sense" of sorts, which allows her, with experience, to know the position of an attacker and fight them blindfolded or in the dark. This is not a constant ability, however. This skill must be honed through practice and the Slayer usually must focus to achieve the full benefit. Furthermore, Slayers also receive prescient dreams as well as dreams of Slayers past. This occurs throughout a Slayer's life, even before she is called.

A Slayer naturally has general fighting skills. Her Watcher trains her to hone these talents, and to teach her specific fighting skills, such as various martial arts. The training helps her to battle the occasional demon whose physical strength outclasses her own. For most situations, however, her strength suffices.

Finally, a Slayer has the limited ability to detect the presence of vampires. Again, as with the other heightened senses, this power must be honed and the Slayer must focus to achieve the full effect. Because of this, Buffy (and other Slayers) have been ambushed by Vampires on several occasions. It should be noted that Buffy is unusually deficient in this sense, at least in the first season; for example, she knew Angel for a considerable time before realizing that he was a vampire.

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Potential Slayers

(Main article: Potential and new Slayers)

Potential Slayers or Slayers-in-training are adolescent girls who have the potential to be the next Slayer. By the end of the series, this concept was anachronistic, as Willow's spell in "Chosen" gave the power of the Slayer to all girls who had the potential for it.

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Non-canon Slayers

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Slayers-turned-vampires

  • Marsilka, Cassia
  • Kessler, Britta
  • Zoe
  • Summers, Buffy Anne ((during Season One's "Nightmares", Buffy's fear of vampirism becomes true, she however returns her personality, implying her soul is still intact, and her Slayer strength))
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See also

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References

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Seasons 1 through 7
  • Angel — Seasons 1, 4 and 5
  • Fray. Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 1569717516
  • Tales of the Vampires. Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 1569717494
  • Tales of the Slayers. Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 1569716056

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