Slayer

"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."

- The opening narration in seasons 1 and 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

A Slayer is a young female human bestowed with mystical powers that originate from the heart of a demon, which gives her superhuman senses, strength, speed, endurance, agility, and healing in the fight against forces of darkness. While known primarily as the Vampire Slayer, the Slayer may act as a hunter of evil mystical forces in general (demons, bad witches, etc.). She also receives occasional prophetic dreams during her sleep.

The First Slayer
In ancient Africa, a group of tribal elders known as the Shadow Men use powerful magic to infuse a captive girl with the heart, soul and spirit of a demon. This process grants the girl great strength, speed, agility, endurance and healing powers: she becomes the First Slayer, called to fight the vampires and other demons that populate the earth. The Shadow Men's descendants go on to form the Watchers' Council, an organization dedicated to finding, training, and supporting Slayers.

The Slayer line
Due to the violent nature of the life of a Slayer, their average lifespan is quite short after being called. Consequently, the Shadow Men's spell also created a large number of Potential Slayers - normal girls around the world who may one day be called. When a Slayer dies, one of the Potentials - seemingly chosen at random - gains the powers and abilities of a Slayer. The Watcher's Council tries to identify and train these "Potentials" before they are called, locating some as babies, but are not always able to do so, with some girls only being found after they have been activated as the Slayer.

This process continues through the generations until 1997, when one Slayer - Buffy Summers - is killed in battle, only to be revived via CPR. Buffy retains her Slayer powers, but her clinical death is enough for the next Slayer to be called. For the next several years, two Slayers co-exist: first Buffy and Kendra, who was called on Buffy's death, and then Buffy and Faith, who was called when Kendra died, approximately one year later. Nonetheless, Buffy is still referred to as the Slayer and not just a Slayer.

Whether or not Buffy's second death called another Slayer is not known, but what is clear is that her second resurrection for some reason caused an imbalance in the Slayer line. Following her first death, Mayor Wilkins says that he doesn't want Buffy killed, because that will cause a new Slayer to be called, and, when Giles told her that she was back from her second death because she had a calling, Buffy objected, "But it was my time, Giles. Someone would've taken my place." . Following her second death, Buffy herself, addressing a group of Potential Slayers, says: "My death could make you the next Slayer." However, the shooting script for the final episode on the show originally included a much longer speech by Buffy to the potential Slayers, including the line "It's true none of you has the power Faith and I have. I think both of us would have to die for a new Slayer to be called, and we can't even be sure that girl is in this room. That's the rule. So here's the part where you make a choice."

The mystical "rules" governing the Calling of Slayers change again in 2003, when Buffy discovers a Scythe forged for the Slayer to wield. In order to defeat the forces of the First Evil, which would have hunted down all the Potential Slayers and ended the world, Willow Rosenberg uses magic to tap into the Scythe's essence at Buffy's request, and performs a spell that calls every living Potential Slayer at once, thus ending the legacy of "one girl in all the world". Buffy declares, ""From now on, every girl in the world who might be a Slayer will be a Slayer".

After taking the time to find and count them, Buffy states that there are at least 1800 Slayers in the world, 500 of which have joined the Slayer organization. Potentials now awaken as Slayers following when they reach suitable maturation; Soledad, for instance, was awakened on her sixteenth birthday some time after Willow's spell.

At some point in the 21st century, a Slayer faces an army of demons. As a result of this battle, all demons and magicks are banished from Earth's dimension. At this point, the Slayer line becomes dormant - while Potential Slayers still exist, none are called for two hundred years.

In the far future, demons eventually find a way to return to Earth's dimension, and the next Slayer is finally called - a girl named Melaka Fray. The continuity of the Slayer line is still unclear since Melaka had a twin brother Harth who was given the dreams and visions typically possessed by the Slayer, while Melaka received the physical attributes (strength, reflexes, stamina, accelerated healing). On top of that, Melaka's brother has died and become a vampire.

It should be noted that the Slayer line is not a genetic one. Slayers do not inherit the calling from their parents and do not pass it on to their children. The nature of the power that chooses girls to be Potential Slayers is unknown.

Powers and abilities
The powers that are bestowed upon the Slayer are mostly physical enhancements.

Strength
Slayers are endowed with strength greater than that of humans, some demons and most, if not all, vampires. Buffy Summers, for instance, has been shown to lift, with great effort, a metal portcullis which an entire group of men were unable to budge. She is also capable of bending a steel rifle barrel with little apparent effort and bending open prison cell bars, both with her bare hands. Buffy has been recorded throwing human-sized subjects sizable distances and effortlessly bench-pressing steel girders used in construction.

Faith Lehane is able to pick up the vampire Angel with one hand and easily throw him short distances, lift him over her head, and slam him into the ceiling. Once, while fighting Buffy, she punched her fist into a wall. She is also seen picking up a bar bell with one hand and hitting a woman in the face with it (the woman was trying to kill Faith at the time).

Much like vampires, the Slayer's strength seems to be largely metaphysical, as it does not add to their body mass and they remain buoyant enough to swim. Buffy and Faith has also shown great feats of physical strength without any apparent added muscle mass.

One example of a Slayer being stronger than most vampires is in "The Gift", when Buffy easily lifts Olaf's hammer with one hand when Spike was barely able to do so with both hands in "Blood Ties", and also when she defeats the demon Doc effortlessly whereas Spike was defeated by him with minimal effort. Angel remarked in "Sanctuary" that Buffy is "a little bit stronger" than he is.

Melaka Fray is able to pick up an overweight vampire several times her own size and body mass, lift him up over her head with both hands and throw him over a distance of presumably over 20-25 feet, with no downward arc to his trajectory (which was only interrupted due to his hitting a metal grate, which was extensively deformed on impact).

The psychotic Slayer Dana is able to, through several violent shoves, knock down a metal door as well as deform the edges of a metal gate as she tore it from its hinges.

Buffy and Angel often shows inconsistencies in their characters' physical strength; for example, in "Lie to Me", Buffy was unable to kick in a bomb shelter door despite repeated tries, but has shown to be able to casually kick down solid steel doors in "Once More, with Feeling" and "End of Days". This has been acknowledged frequently in commentaries and interviews by writers and creators of the shows. According to Riley, Buffy gets stronger every day.

Speed, agility, and reflexes
Slayers are able to move faster and react more quickly than humans and most vampires. Buffy has been shown snatching a crossbow bolt in mid-flight, dodging gunfire from multiple ranges and setting off a bear trap, but not getting caught in it. At one point Buffy was fast enough to outrun a raiding motorcyclist on his bike shortly after her resurrection. Faith has been shown to dodge shotgun blasts at point-blank range and Dana was able to dodge a tranquilizer dart also fired at point-blank range. A Slayer is capable of superhuman feats of agility. She can leap to great heights; though the maximum is unknown, Buffy was shown to be capable of reaching the roof of the original Sunnydale High in a very short period of time, after running up a sloping wall then flipping onto the roof.

The Slayer's running speed is also quite impressive. Buffy, for example, was able to run fast enough to keep up with a school bus going at full speed ("Chosen") and able to reach the police station to save Andrew Wells and Jonathan Levinson on foot shortly after Willow Rosenberg reached there via teleportation ("Two to Go").

Resilience and healing
A Slayer's body is substantially more durable and resistant to blunt force trauma than an ordinary human's. Slayers also have ten times the endurance of a common human, so it is difficult, though not impossible, to bruise them, break their bones or strain their joints. Buffy has suffered from a sprained arm as a consequence of fighting vampires. Melaka Fray is hit with a steel girder thrown at her from a demon and recovers within minutes ; she is also shown to fall from a height of over five stories to land face-first on a cement sidewalk and be only dazed before fully recovering in moments, and at a later time, to fall four stories down, crash through the cement roof of an adjacent building and fall down the height of one more story, and recover instantly. Buffy can leap from a two-story window with a man in her arms, landing on the ground and letting her body take the brunt of the fall. Buffy has been hit by a moving truck, got up and run off. Faith has fallen from a height of three stories on top of a closed dumpster, rolled off it to hit the ground and got up immediately with no signs of damage; she also was able to hold her own in a fight with Buffy less than 24 hours after waking from a nine-month coma - a coma which she entered after surviving a deep stab wound to the abdomen immediately followed by a fall from the top of a multi-story building into a moving truck. Also, in an attempt by the Watcher's Council to capture Faith without killing her in "Sanctuary", they prepare a tranquilizer that is capable of knocking out a man twice her size, which is more than enough to subdue an ordinary young woman her size. They also seem to recover quickly from blood loss: in "Graduation Day", Buffy was almost completely drained of blood by Angel, but recovered in time to be able to lead the fight against the Mayor.

Despite these feats, the Slayer is far from invulnerable. For instance, Buffy has been knocked out by blunt force trauma, such as being hit over the head with a lead pipe by a possessed Cordelia Chase in "Bad Eggs" and with a detached mannequin arm by Ethan Rayne in "The Dark Age", and rendered unconscious when Drusilla jabbed her with a cattle prod in "Crush". In addition, the Slayer can be injured by conventional bullets, bladed weapons, and more advanced weaponry (such as the energy weapons commonly used by the Initiative) just as easily as an ordinary human can, but they can recover from even very severe injuries in remarkably short periods of time. Usually, Buffy is completely healed within 24 hours of being injured, though more serious injuries have been shown to take at least a few days; in "Crush", Buffy suffered from a severe stab wound to the belly that required at least a few days to heal, and, according to Vi in "Showtime" was heavily bruised for several days after her second encounter with the Turok-Han. Also, the Slayer can receive scars; Buffy has a scar left from the Master's bite on her neck, though Angel and Dracula have also bitten her in the exact same spot. Buffy has survived contact with a live electrical wire; the normally lethal jolt simply melts her shoe soles.

Buffy is noted as almost never getting sick, but did contract the flu during a period of great emotional stress. This indicates that the Slayer also has a heightened immune system.

Senses
Slayers possess a heightened awareness of their surroundings. This heightened awareness can, with experience, allow the Slayer 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.

A Slayer also has the limited ability to detect the presence of vampires (and presumably other demons). This power must be honed as with the heightened awareness, and the Slayer must focus to achieve the full effect. This does not prevent Buffy (and other Slayers) from being ambushed by vampires. Buffy is unusually deficient in this sense: Although she initially distrusts Angel when first meeting him and seems to sense that he is following her for a period of time, she doesn't realize until he shows her his vampiric face for the first time that he is a vampire. Kendra also displays this ability in inconsistent terms; she knows Angel is a vampire after seeing his vampiric face at the skating rink. But she does not know that Buffy is actually the Slayer; she merely assumes that Buffy is a vampire, because at the time Buffy and Angel were kissing. Additionally, in "Dirty Girls", Faith attacks Spike under the belief that he is chasing an innocent girl, failing to realize that he was in fact chasing a vampire until said vampire attacks her from behind.

In the 1992 film, the ability to detect vampires manifested itself in the form of feminine cramps. (Merrick describes this as a "natural reaction to their unnatural presence.") This ability was inconsistent, as Buffy was unaware that a vampire was hiding in a photo booth right next to her. The movie, however, is not considered canon, and this aspect of her powers was not carried over to the series.

Dreams
All Slayers through the ages share a psychic link, manifested in dreams. A Slayer will frequently dream of herself as a Slayer in another time and place. They can also experience prophetic dreams related to upcoming crises. Dreams exist in their own mystic plane or "dream space" where, for a Slayer, precognitive sense and the inherited memories of other Slayers can manifest themselves. One consequence of this power is that a Slayer has essentially fought all the battles of the Slayers before her. Also, Slayers have been shown to appear in each other's dreams, and Buffy and Faith shared several dreams while Faith was in a coma. Faith provided the first cryptic reference to Dawn Summers's arrival.

Melaka Fray, the Slayer of the far future, lacks these abilities. Her twin brother received these visions instead. To best of her temporary mentor Urkonn's knowledge, it was unheard of for a Slayer to have a twin before.

Other abilities
A Slayer naturally has formidable fighting skills. Buffy is shown to easily fend off multiple vampires at the same time while under a memory loss spell, with no memory of her combat training - relying entirely on her natural Slayer instincts. (Although this could be attributed to muscle memory. The body will often remember things that the mind does not.) Dana is seen holding her own against Spike without having any previous combat training. It is also shown that Potential Slayers have innate skills in combat, even before being called, as Amanda was able to defeat a vampire without any previous combat training in "Potential". The Slayer's 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. To test a Slayer's natural ingenuity and capability, the Watcher's Council administers a test known as "the Cruciamentum" if/when they turn eighteen, which strips the Slayer of her powers and forces her to fight a powerful vampire without them ("Helpless"). It should be noted that the compound used to weaken the Slayer makes her typically weaker than most normal humans. This renders a Slayer who would still normally be physically fit without her powers remarkably feeble even for a human. This forces the Slayer to rely solely on her intellect and wit.

Overall, the Slayer's abilities seem to be enhancements of normal human attributes, rather than extra abilities garnered from a magical source; Buffy trains constantly and works out to enhance and maintain her abilities, suggesting that they would atrophy otherwise. A "normal" workout routine that would enhance a regular human's strength and speed increases her abilities much faster and at greater magnitude. Also, the concoction created in the Season Three episode "Helpless" (which Giles says includes muscle relaxants and adrenal inhibitors) would have the same effects on a normal human as they did on Buffy; the effects are simply more pronounced. Also, regular illnesses such as the flu were shown to have effects on the Slayer not greatly different from its effects on humans; once again the handicap is more noticeable given the Slayer's usually enhanced abilities, though this nearly cost Buffy her life while fighting Angelus.

Recently in Season Eight, Buffy has gained a multitude of new powers: her strength, speed, agility, and reflexes have been greatly enhanced, and she has also developed telescopic vision, superhuman hearing, flight, and a level of invulnerability. Willow initially theorizes that these powers are a result of Buffy unwittingly absorbing the collective powers of all of the Slayers who have died since their organization began, but Angel later claims that they are in fact a reward for all that she has done and what she is about to face.

Weapons and equipment
Slayers typically use weapons to fight vampires and other demons. Simple wooden stakes, crucifixes, and holy water are commonly used due to their effectiveness against vampires. Swords, axes, and knives are the most common implements used for dispatching demons, though other melee weapons (generally of medieval European design) are also used. Ranged weaponry is usually confined to crossbows. On occasion, more sophisticated weaponry is used; Buffy Summers has used a military-issue rocket launcher to defeat a particularly tough demon. Buffy has a strong distaste for guns, and one of the rules of her Slayer organization is that no Slayer uses them. Rogue Slayer Simone Doffler and her group, on the other hand, are enamoured of guns.

The Slayer Melaka Fray uses weaponry native to her time period, such as rayguns, as well as traditional Slayer weapons.

Scythe
Main article: Scythe

"Slayer Emergency Kit"
Main article: Slayer Emergency Kit

Notable Slayers
''For a chronological list of past Slayers, please see Slayer timeline. For a list arranged alphabetically, please see list of Slayers''


 * First Slayer


 * Gish, Arabelle


 * Artemia


 * Fray, Melaka


 * Lehane, Faith


 * Makimura, Yuki


 * Neizghani, Naayee


 * Xin Rong


 * Summers, Buffy Anne


 * Wood, Nikki


 * Young, Kendra