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The Council fights evil. The Slayer is the instrument with which we fight. The Council remains. The Slayers... change. It's been that way from the beginning.
Quentin Travers[src]

The Watchers Council was the governing institution of the Watchers,[1] Potential Slayers,[2] and, until 1999, Slayers as well.[3] The Council maintained operatives throughout the world in their fight against demons and vampires.[4]

History[]

The Watchers Council was descended from the Shadowmen, the creators of the First Slayer in prehistoric Africa.[5] At some point, the Watchers made Great Britain their center of operations.[6] Other operations were located in Munich, Switzerland, Rome, and Melbourne.[4]

Following the destruction of the Council's headquarters[4] at the hands of Caleb,[7] some items and information fell into the hands of Wolfram & Hart,[8] as well as a mysterious organization of cyborg cells.[9]

Following the destruction of Sunnydale, the Scooby Gang subsequently merged the Council's structure of Watchers and Slayers with the newly established Slayer Organization, a global organization dedicated to the training of Slayers.[10] However, Rupert Giles claimed that, for all intents and purposes, he was the Watchers Council.[11] According to Duncan Fillworthe before his death, he and Giles were the last members of the Council.[12] The Slayer Organization, in turn, disbanded following the destruction of the Seed of Wonder and Giles' death.[13] After his resurrection, Giles declared himself the last of the Watchers Council.[14]

By the 23rd century, whatever remnants of the Council that survived had reduced into a few insane zealots,[5] one of whom set himself on fire in front of the new Slayer, Melaka Fray, to inform her of her calling.[15] After briefly traveling to that time period during the Reckoning,[16] Giles resolved to rebuild it with help from Andrew Wells to prevent the future he saw.[17].

Methods[]

There were cases in which Watchers would lead teams to hunt vampires, as Roger Wyndam-Pryce did so in a Vietnamese orphanage against Spike.[9] Although, despite their status as assisting the Slayer, the Council believed themselves to be the supreme authority while the Slayers were just their tools.[6] Former Watcher member Gwendolyn Post, in her short self appointed role as Faith's Watcher, told Faith that, while she may dislike her and her methodology, it was more important to train the Slayer to be long lived and well trained than it was to build a friendly relationship.[18]

The Watchers Council had been known to use ethically questionable methods to accomplish its goals. The Council employs a trio of operatives known as the Special Operations Team.[19] This team was responsible for some of the more unsavory aspects of the Council's work, such as interrogations, smuggling, and assassinations. When Faith staked and killed a human, the Special Ops Team was dispatched to retrieve the rogue Slayer, circumventing local and international authorities.[20]

The Council was also known for placing its principles and perceived goals ahead of the well-being of the Slayer. A test known as the Tento di 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 Giles defied the rules of the test and interfered in the Cruciamentum of his Slayer, Buffy Summers, he was dismissed from his position immediately.[21] Later, when Angel was poisoned with the Killer of the Dead by Faith, and the cure was identified to be the blood of a Slayer, the Council refused to allow Wesley Wyndam-Pryce to disclose the cure to Buffy. The Council justified this as being against their policy of assisting vampires, despite Angel's soul. As a result, Buffy severed ties with the Council[3] for over a year.[6]

In 2001, representatives of the Council visited Sunnydale to discuss Glory. Using the information as both pretense and leverage, the Council conducted an extensive review of Buffy and the Scooby Gang. Eventually, Buffy realized that the review was a pretense to the Council inquiring as to whether she would be willing to work "for" them again. Buffy declared that the Council needed her to validate their existence more than she needed their help and defended the frequent assistance of her friends, as Slayers typically operate alone. Rupert Giles was reinstated as her Watcher, repairing the relationship until the destruction of the Council's headquarters two years later.[6]

Just prior to their destruction, the members of the Council finally conceded that their duty was to provide the Slayer with support rather than to command from afar with no regard for personal safety, though they were destroyed by Caleb before they could travel to Sunnydale to do so.[4]

Known members[]

Assigned Watchers[]

Watchers assigned to Slayers and Potential Slayers.

Operatives[]

The following were not necessarily full Watchers, but were merely operatives on payroll:

Behind the scenes[]

  • Most often referred simply as "the Council," the complete title of the organization has been written in official material in a number of ways: "Watchers Council," "Watchers' Council," "Watcher's Council," "Watcher Council," and "Council of Watchers." While it never appeared written in-world, there's also no consistency among episode scripts, canonical stories, or licensed publications.
  • In the non-canon Angel novel Solitary Man, Angel Investigations encounter members of the Scholars, members of a branch of the Watchers Council that separated from the main body long before to take on a more active approach to fighting evil.

Appearances[]

Canonical[]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel

Other[]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels
Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics
Angel comics

References[]

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