MISC:Watcher's Council:Beneficial/Harmful? 4/25/03

[Dalton]

The Watchers’ Council has existed for approximately a dozen centuries. Throughout this course of time, the Council has had one goal, one motivation, in mind: rid the world of demons, vampires and other creatures that go bump in the night. The Council’s choice of weapon to achieve their goal? The Slayer, the one girl in all the world with the power to “stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness.” The Council, in the form of a Watcher, trains, guides and hones the young Slayer into an effective fighting “machine.” The methods they may use may be unconventional and could be construed as “cruel.” Yet, these “cruel” methods have done precisely what the Council has always aimed to do: rid the world of the forces of darkness. Slowly but surely, the Council is achieving their goals, albeit through controversial means. Is this a case of ends justifying the means?

The Council has existed as a means of support for the Slayer- it is the body that guides and trains the young women when they are called. The Council provides information on whatever demon the Slayer faces. With their inexhaustible financial and informational sources the Watchers’ Council is the Slayer’s greatest weapon.

The Council, in turn, asks for obedience and respect from the Slayer. After all, she is, essentially, their creation, in that, they provide training and guidance for the Slayer and transform her into the powerful woman she becomes. The Slayer is expected to listen to the Council and follow their orders. When they say “jump”, the Slayer is expected to ask “how high?”. Essentially, the Council is her boss. The Council, with only the Slayer’s well-being in mind, tests her when she turns 18. Her Watcher is ordered to drug her and leave her in a room with a vampire, knowing that the Slayer’s weakened state forces her to rely on her intelligence, her cunning and herself. This is a test of character that the Council imparts on every Slayer. For what good is a Slayer who has only incredible strength but lacks the intelligence necessary to defeat evil?

The Watchers’ Council has only the well-being of the Slayer in mind - after all, she is the tool they use to keep the forces of darkness at bay. They provide with any aid, be it financial, informational, physical, deemed necessary. The Watchers’ Council, although, physically far removed from the Slayer, is always with her, guiding her, teaching her.

Edited By Lee Hollins

[Dalton]

The Watcher’s Council is a dinosaur.
The Raison ‘d Etre for the Watcher’s Council has been, since its inception, to rid the world of demons, vampires and other emissaries of evil. The Council chooses to use any and all means to this end, regardless of individual suffering and sacrifice.
Millennia ago the wise looked out upon a world infested by demons, vampires and other emissaries of evil. Humanity, few in number, were primitive and possessed little in the way of defense. There were actions one could take against animals, but little one could do against unnatural monsters that were faster, stronger, more cunning and longer lived. The wise ones, the Shamen, pooled their knowledge and, calling upon dark power, created the Slayer.
The Slayer alone could fight the evil because she was created partly from that evil. But the Slayer was always a very young girl. She had no one to guide and teach her. There were no records whereby she could learn the hard-won lessons of experience. Somewhere lost in time came the idea that someone should watch the Slayer and advise her. Thus was born the Watchers and from the Watchers came The Watcher’s Council.
The problem with having a young girl as a Slayer was that young girls are often impulsive and rebellious. To crown one so young with so much power meant the real threat of that power being misused. The Watchers learned that to leave a Slayer untrained was to run the risk of their monster-killer turning into yet another monster. So the Watchers began to do more than watch and advise. They began to interfere and they kept meticulous records of their interference.

Over the centuries, as the Council’s sphere of influence grew and their operations took on a global reach, they began to see patterns. One pattern that emerged was that Slayers had families. Parents took an active interest in the welfare of their children and most parents did not want their daughters to be involved in such dangerous (and unladylike) matters as slaying vampires. Parents represented rival authority, an authority more interested in the welfare of the child (Slayer, or in most cases, Potential Slayer) than in the agenda of the Council. In many cultures The Council countered this pattern by raising its own image to that of a benevolent authoritarian figure. Through the use of propaganda or threat they were able to convince parents that their children had a higher calling and that it was a great honor to bestow upon the Council the care and teaching of the gifted young progeny. Kendra came from such a culture.
Another pattern emerged to threaten the Council’s supreme control over all the Slayer’s activities. This pattern was maturity. By the age of 18 a Slayer began to do more than question authority, she began to flout it. The Watchers saw that there had to be a fine line drawn between a Slayer who was cunning and resourceful and one who was rebellious. A Slayer who lacked the resources for survival, quickly died. A Slayer who was too intelligent might begin to think for herself, and a Slayer who could think might not need a Watcher. One means of curbing this behavior was to keep the Slayer in a state of absolute dependency upon the Council for all her needs from the basics of food and shelter to the tools of her trade. Maintaining the Slayer in a state that was, at best, Spartan simplicity and at worst, abject poverty further reinforced discipline. Such a lifestyle, argued the Council members, was the best way to keep her in top form for killing. Isolating the Slayer from friends or members of the opposite sex tightened the noose further.
A third pattern that began to emerge was that a bond formed between Slayer and Watcher. Cast into the role of teacher, mentor and surrogate parent to an impressionable and necessarily lonely child, Watchers grew fond of their charges. Slayers, who despite their power remained little more than love-starved children, usually returned the Watcher’s affection. When the time came for a Slayer to face a dangerous situation, many Watchers were loath to let them go. When a Slayer was killed, some Watchers, through grief and guilt became useless to the Council. Giles mentions this when Buffy asks why there are no records of how Slayers died.
Thus was born the test that all Slayers had to undergo upon reaching their 18th birthdays, those that survived that long. A Slayer, unaware of what was happening to her, was stripped of most of her powers by the one person she trusted most, her Watcher. She was then cast alone into a closed environment against a vampire. The Council made sure that only the most cunning and resourceful Slayers survived while simultaneously destroying the bond of trust between Slayer and Watcher and weeding out the rebels. Although it is never spoken aloud, one gets the impression during “Helpless” that Quentin Travers never intended for Buffy to survive her test.
The Council justifies the cruel nature of their treatment of the Slayer by saying that the mission is all. Only through relentless discipline can the power of the Slayer be controlled. There is no room for human weaknesses such as love, trust or compassion. The individual is expendable. There is no need to invest resources in making the child comfortable since she isn’t going to be around for long. The Slayer is taught that her only value lies in the number of monsters she can slay. As such, she is a tool, nothing more. Friends and family are a burden to her. Kendra parrots this teaching, but Kendra is so much the Council’s creature that she doesn’t question why she must travel in the cargo hold of an airplane and she is completely lacking in social skills. She can’t even accept a goodbye hug from Buffy, although she is clearly moved by the affection her sister-slayer feels for her.
Upon the death of a Slayer a new Slayer is called, therefore Council could be sure that a difficult Slayer did not pose a problem for long. The resource would renew itself indefinitely. It was a quasi-militaristic line of thinking and training. And it was effective.

And so it went for a thousand years as experience became policy and policy became tradition.

What can we say about these methods? They are efficient. Similar methods have been used time and again throughout history, and their efficiency has been proven. Toughen up the soldier; teach the idealism of duty above all else, train the fighter to be willing to die for the cause. Germany once used these methods, so did Japan, so did England and Spain, and hundreds of other countries and empires.
But do the ends justify the means? The Watcher’s Council has been in existence for a thousand years or more. It has learned much about the evil it fights, but little about the evil within its organization. Indeed, it may be argued that the Watcher’s Council has lost sight of its primary purpose. What was intended to be a way train a girl to fight the monsters that threaten humanity has become instead an all-out attempt to maintain control over the girl, herself.

That is what has become of the once-noble Council. The mission is now solely about control. Control of the Slayer. Control of her Watcher. Use of threat, use of intimidation, drugs, assassination or, if necessary, stoop to ridicule. Use any method, no matter how unjust or dirty, but above all, maintain control. Quentin Travers has no qualms about intimidating Buffy by threatening to have Giles deported. The Council is now as ruthless as the monsters they battle.

As such things often go, the tighter the Council pulls in the reins of control, the more the girls fight back. The end result is, instead of having a docile killing machine that can be wheeled out to fight on command, the Watchers now have to deal with the likes of Buffy and Faith. Buffy has been raised by a loving mother. Faith, although deprived of family, had to become a street-smart survivor. Neither one was raised and trained in Council traditions.
Quentin Travers, as representative of Council, only know how to exert control by force. He does not know how to compromise and adapt.
Bound by tradition, the men and women who run the Watcher’s Council are unable to see that new methods are needed to train modern Slayers to function in a modern world. In its attempts to exert mastery over the two most effective weapons ever called to the duties of the Slayer, the Watcher’s Council is attempting to nullify the very power it needs, just when it’s needed most.

Alas, there are no records or traditions to deal with girls who think for themselves. It’s too bad, really.

Dinosaurs.

[Dalton]

The mission is what matters, the mission is what has always mattered, the mission is what will always matter. This simple phrase seems to be the Watchers’ Council’s motto. Is it an appropriate motto? Yes. Does this motto mean the Slayer’s human needs (i.e. love, compassion, etc.) are often ignored? Yes. Does the all-consuming control of the Slayer by the Watchers’ Council negate their good intentions? No.

Yes, the WC is all about control - it has to be in order to be effective, in order to survive. The WC never promises the Slayer her life will be all puppy dogs and ice cream. The Slayer faces the toughest challenges that would kill a normal human every day. Her job is a never-ending struggle against the forces of darkness. She must be hard in order to deal with these constant struggles and, in turn, the WC must impart this hardness the only way they know how: by being hard on the Slayer, physically and emotionally, by controlling her.

We have a prime example of a Slayer out of control - Faith. Faith, admittedly, had a hard life before being called - she was used, abused and generally not cared about by anyone or anything. Her descent into darkness that was in her was not a result of the WC but, rather, a result of her own upbringing. The WC tried to help Faith through her Watchers (granted, Gwendolyn Post was evil). Wesley Wyndam-Price may have been a “nancy-boy” but he tried. He tried to help Faith many, many times. Faith’s own personal demons would not allow this help, would not allow anyone’s help. The WC, the ones who cared the most for her well-being, were spat upon by Faith. The WC could not control Faith, not because of lack of trying, but because of Faith’s internal struggle with herself. Faith the Vampire Slayer is the prime reason the WC must control the Slayer. Without this control, the Slayer would give into the darkness that permeates her very existence.
The WC’s control of the Slayer is a necessary evil - yes, it may not be the best for the Slayer but in the end, the mission is what matters. The ends do justify the means in the case of the Slayer. We all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that there is someone out there who is protecting us from the things that go bump in the night. Yes, we may not approve of the means used by the WC to ensure this protection. Yes, it may be distasteful but it’s what works. It has worked for a dozen centuries and will continue to work.
The WC has been called to help and protect the Slayer by whatever means necessary. By whatever means necessary.