# Your daughter is the Slayer. What do you do about the Watcher training her withour your consent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 3, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-daughter-is-the-slayer-what-do-you-do-about-the-watcher-training-her-withour-your-consent/562856 "2010-12-03T20:34:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-daughter-is-the-slayer-what-do-you-do-about-the-watcher-training-her-withour-your-consent/562856/41 "2010-12-06T21:05:16Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > I wouldn’t consider her an adult until after her mother died. I don’t really remember any specifics right now but I have the impression of her doing immature things over and over again throughout the early seasons. Just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you only do mature things. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-daughter-is-the-slayer-what-do-you-do-about-the-watcher-training-her-withour-your-consent/562856/42 "2010-12-06T21:48:45Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > Just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you only do mature things. The poor choices would mean she isn’t quite an adult yet and should still be under her mom’s supervision. I don’t think it would have been fair for Joyce to do anything about Buffy and her slaying duties though. The Slayer and The Fight Against Evil is bigger than both of them. It’s just something the mother of the slayer has to deal with and adapt to. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-daughter-is-the-slayer-what-do-you-do-about-the-watcher-training-her-withour-your-consent/562856/43 "2010-12-06T21:57:04Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > I concur. We live in a world of laws - even if vampires and so on are stronger than most people, we see a number of times in the series that well-trained or well-equipped but otherwise ordinary people are perfectly capable of dealing with them. If sentient monsters are committing violent crimes in Sunnydale - well, that’s why we arm our police. If their weapons are inadequate, that’s what SWAT is for. Or (Ford forbid) the military. There is no justification for hobbyist vigilantism against the undead menace. Never - an individual, Slayer or not, has the right to protect themselves against sentient monsters. And a person also has the right, or perhaps even duty, to protect others against them. If we call the military into U.S. towns and cities to protect us from gangs of vampires, why not from gangs of bikers, or drug dealers? Your way leads us to an all on military dictatorship, where we will be begging for a return to the days of the Hellmouth and hobbyist vigilantes. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-daughter-is-the-slayer-what-do-you-do-about-the-watcher-training-her-withour-your-consent/562856/44 "2010-12-07T13:33:39Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > I concur. We live in a world of laws - even if vampires and so on are stronger than most people, we see a number of times in the series that well-trained or well-equipped but otherwise ordinary people are perfectly capable of dealing with them. If sentient monsters are committing violent crimes in Sunnydale - well, that’s why we arm our police. If their weapons are inadequate, that’s what SWAT is for. Or (Ford forbid) the military. There is no justification for hobbyist vigilantism against the undead menace. For the first three years of Buffy, we heard Principal Snyder (sp?) call the Sunnydale Police “deeply stupid.” Of course, the real reason for their lack of concern about uncanny menaces was The Mayor. Sure, Joyce should have asked _Him_ for help! (It is not illegal simply to be a vampire or demon. Wouldn’t the authorities have to wait until deaths occurred?) Later, the military did have their chance. But The Initiative did not end well. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-daughter-is-the-slayer-what-do-you-do-about-the-watcher-training-her-withour-your-consent/562856/45 "2010-12-07T15:00:25Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > The poor choices would mean she isn’t quite an adult yet and should still be under her mom’s supervision. > > I don’t think it would have been fair for Joyce to do anything about Buffy and her slaying duties though. The Slayer and The Fight Against Evil is bigger than both of them. > > It’s just something the mother of the slayer has to deal with and adapt to. No, they wouldn’t. She’s an adult at 18, meaning she has to deal with her own poor choices - and meaning that the first two seasons don’t count as her being an adult, of course. Agreed with the rest. Neither of them had a choice. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-daughter-is-the-slayer-what-do-you-do-about-the-watcher-training-her-withour-your-consent/562856/46 "2010-12-07T15:08:41Z")
> [@villa](#): > > Never - an individual, Slayer or not, has the right to protect themselves against sentient monsters. And a person also has the right, or perhaps even duty, to protect others against them. If we call the military into U.S. towns and cities to protect us from gangs of vampires, why not from gangs of bikers, or drug dealers? > > Your way leads us to an all on military dictatorship, where we will be begging for a return to the days of the Hellmouth and hobbyist vigilantes. This reminds me of one of the biggest problems with the mythos of Buffy. We can see throughout the series that it’s possible for completely average people to kick vampire butt if they are aware and informed. This makes it a ridiculous choice to keep people in the dark about what’s out there. Essentially, all vampires would be eradicated in pretty short order if people knew how to handle them. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-daughter-is-the-slayer-what-do-you-do-about-the-watcher-training-her-withour-your-consent/562856/47 "2010-12-07T15:24:52Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > This reminds me of one of the biggest problems with the mythos of Buffy. We can see throughout the series that it’s possible for completely average people to kick vampire butt if they are aware and informed. This makes it a ridiculous choice to keep people in the dark about what’s out there. Essentially, all vampires would be eradicated in pretty short order if people knew how to handle them. One could say the same thing about abusive boyfriends, peer pressure, cliques and bullies and everything else “vampires” (and other demoney things) are metaphors for in the series. The whole premise of the show is that High School is Hell and (most) grownups are clueless and in denial about the nasty things teenagers have to deal with. Could they help, if you could get them to believe you? Probably. But they keep on denying there’s a problem, so they won’t help. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-daughter-is-the-slayer-what-do-you-do-about-the-watcher-training-her-withour-your-consent/562856/48 "2010-12-07T17:28:40Z")
If I came to believe that the threat was real and her power to deal with it was real, I would demand to be a part of the fight. Hell, I know several people who, if I could convince it were real, would want to be blowing away vampires every night, without pay and have the training to be of some use. I’d also have insisted on a weapons upgrade. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-daughter-is-the-slayer-what-do-you-do-about-the-watcher-training-her-withour-your-consent/562856.md?page=2)