BTVS (spoilers included). Options

[*Kathleen*]

Okay, so I was wondering (please don't move this to Debate, because it really belongs in here) who you (loyal BTVS fans) believe is/was the real, true Slayer after Buffy died the first time - Buffy or Faith. Here are the facts:
- Buffy died first season at the Master's hands and was revived by Xander.
- Kendra was summoned.
- Kendra died, Faith was summoned.
- Buffy died the second time at the end of the fifth season due to mystical forces and energy and all that jazz. Basically, she died an unnatural death this time.
- No one was supposedly summoned, although it has been mentioned throughout the series that there's another powerful Hellmouth in Cleveland, no? She could've been sent there.
- Buffy took on all the Slayer responsibilities until the end of Sunnydale's Hellmouth, but does that make her the true Slayer?

[*Zatanna*]

^ Actually, the debate is still out on that one (rather it was Spike or Angel that was *the* vampire with the soul of *the* prophecy). Joss never fully answered that because of Angel's premature demise. I raise my anvil and smash it hard on the heads of the then WB execs.

I've been watching Buffy since Welcome to the Hellmouth and have re-watched the entire seasons at least 4 times (some seasons/episodes a great deal more than that as I have all of them on DVD. Yes, be jealous. :p ) I was a part of one of the first Buffy Yahoo Groups (yeah I know, nothing to brag about), but we've been discussing the mythos for almost a decade now (maybe a decade at this point). The consensus is that Faith is the true slayer of lineage now. Buffy, like all of the slayerettes is now just a *slayer*. Having said that, she is the most valuable and powerful slayer. That's not just my opinion, if you ask around, it'll be the opinion of most Buff-buffs. It would seem fairly obvious that this is so because although she died from mystical means (in The Gift), the point is, she still DIED. Also, one could argue that being killed by the Master in season 1 could loosely be interpreted as a mystical death (from which she was also revived) and Kendra (of the Mr. Pointy fame) was called to be the true slayer of lineage. There was no slayer called after The Gift.