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Oh. Hm. I don't remember that.

i'm too lazy to read all the pages so maybe this was mentioned but could the fact that buffy died a mystical death have anything to do with it? At first it was my understanding that the Watchers imbued a potential with the Slayer's power, as soon as they knew of the previous slayer's death. (also fueled from one of the first scenes in the Buffy movie from 1992) I disregarded this fact when buffy died and kendra was called, because there's no way the watcher's could have known so soon. Another reason that this isn't true is that they could've just given every single girl in the world the power of the slayer, even if the current slayer had not died. So that theory's out. (been out, lol) So. If and when buffy dies, we can safely say that a slayer calling will be activated. So what was wrong with season 5? again comes up the mystical death factor. Maybe that interupted the Slayer's calling process? only the writers know... oh well. Yes three slayers would have been too many (before 'Chosen', that is...)

Isn't it possible that we just weren't introduced to a third slayer? I mean, what are the odds that the slayer called when Buffy died the second time would also be American? I would think that it's likely that she would've been a slayer called in India, Africa, etc and they just never found out about her.

Ive heard that after her fisrt death thigs happend and she was suposed to be the "last slayer" thats refered to in season 7 especialy. i dun rember where i heard that, but i belive joss said sumthign along those lines.

I've lain awake thinking about this a lot and I've got absolutely no clue how to explain the Buffy/Faith/Kendra problem. But, I wanted to say a few things anyway.

@Ori: great theory. I never thought about Dawn that way. Buffy 2.0!, and of course she wouldn't have any powers, technically, since she's Buffy, she's already got 'em. mrgreen Kudos.

...As for whether Buffy is an active Slayer. I think she is. Faith practically said so in the final ep when she said the sword/stake thingy rightly belonged to Buffy.

...I think Dawn would be a great Watcher. But, now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I'd like it for her. For the first few seasons, Watchers seemed like bookish geniuses (geniui? genius's?) who spent too much time in the library, but later on (with Glory/Ben for Giles, Faith and Connor for Wes and even the back-stabbing stunt Andrew pulled in ATS) they seem like they've got to do a lot of shady stuff.

Ya know what I mean? Slayers do the honorable fighting-the-demons grunt work, but the Watchers are back in the shadows doing the morally ambiguious stuff that just has to be done. I'm not sure if Dawn's got the ability to do some of that harsher stuff.

...And I've in no way helped solve the Buffy/Faith/Kendra problem, but I'll get to sleep tonight knowing that there are good people working on it. biggrin

I usually go by the thing that it wasn't a meant to be death & Buffy was already out of the Slayer line because she's dead already and the line had carried on without her. Therefore a new slayer would be called only when Faith dies.
The only place where that fails is where everyone makes a big commotion about "But for me to become a slayer buffy has to....die!"ANGSTANGST. Mostly Dawn in Potential.