Watcher (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) - Watchers' Council

The Watchers' Council of Britain is an organization dedicated to finding, training, and supervising Slayers. Over the years, however, the Council had become increasingly arrogant and egocentric, believing themselves to be the supreme authority while the Slayers were just their tools.

The Council eventually bases its headquarters in London, England. It tries to locate potential Slayers and then send Watchers to inform and train them. It is not always successful in doing so, and therefore some Slayers are fully trained when they are called, while others know nothing of the heritage or purpose of their power. Each potential Slayer is assigned her own Watcher – a Council employee who is responsible for training the Slayer in combat techniques as well as researching demons, vampires, and magic's. Watchers also maintain diaries chronicling the lives of the Slayers under their charge.

In late 2002, the Council learns that The First is systematically eliminating potential Slayers around the world in an effort to end the Slayer line. Unfortunately, before this information can be acted on, the Council headquarters is destroyed by agents of The First, specifically Caleb – "At long last. All this time. All the work I've done for you... Blowing up the Council". The Council leadership is killed, and the Council is not able to offer assistance in the struggle against The First.

In the aftermath of the battle with the army of The First and the destruction of the Sunnydale Hellmouth, the Watchers' Council begins the process of rebuilding. The work to be done is considerable, especially in light of the creation of hundreds of active Slayers around the world. The structure of this new Council is unknown, but it appears that Rupert Giles is its new head and is training Andrew Wells as a Watcher. Only three members of the Watchers' Council have been shown to have survived the First's attacks: Rupert Giles; an acquaintance to him named Robson who survived a Bringer attack; and Roger Wyndham-Pryce. His son, Wesley, and Rutherford Sirk were ex-members of the Council and thus not targeted by the First Evil.

In the canonical comic Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Giles informs Faith that he is, for all intents and purposes, the Watcher's Council. Andrew, Xander Harris, and Robin Wood are functioning as Watchers (though Xander dislikes that term and insists that others do not call him as such), assisting in the training and supervision of the new Slayers in separate squads around the world (Rome, Scotland, and Cleveland respectively). Their duties have expanded to monitoring Slayers as well; Giles offers Faith Lehane a new identity in exchange for her undertaking the mission to kill Genevieve Savidge, a sociopathic Slayer. Later, the two form a "Slayer social worker" program to try to prevent more Slayers from going rogue.

According to the comic Fray, a Slayer in the 21st century banishes all demons and magicks from the world. When evil returns, a new Slayer – Melaka Fray – is called. The Watchers' Council in this era apparently retains the resources to locate Slayers. Melaka Fray is approached by her assigned Watcher, but rather than assist or train her, he immolates himself in front of her. Melaka is instead trained by a demon who says that the remaining Council consists of fanatics and fools.