one thing that will never sit right with me was how both giles, wesley and the council left faith in that fuckass motel and not only from the perspective of like— she’s a minor living in a different city in a shady ass motel with no one looking after her but from the whole ‘chosen one’ slash ‘slayer’ perspective.
it’s said time and time again that slayers are supposed to have no ties, meaning no family or friends to distract them from their calling, so they could focus only on the slaying and nothing else, faith much like kendra (with the difference that kendra was basically raised from birth into it whereas faith much like buffy found out she was the chosen one unexpectedly) had no family, no friends and no ties.
but how does the council expect someone like faith who was known to be ‘difficult to deal with’ or just anyone in general tbh to submit to them without anything in return? the slayer doesn’t get a salary; the watcher does, so shouldn’t part of that salary go into providing at least the minimum to the slayer? and if not, the first question remains. does the council seriously expect the slayers (who are almost always teenagers) to submit to them without anything in return? and how has this worked before? because we know that kendra was raised into her calling (most likely by her watcher the way nicky’s watcher raised robin wood) so, the watcher providing for the slayer is probably not that foreign of a concept which means that both giles and wesley failed faith tremendously.
it’s understandable that giles wouldn’t provide for buffy in this way, she had a family and she lived with her mom, and the whole point of her character is that she defies the system, so it wouldn’t make sense for her to live with giles. but, the moment the council made giles faith’s watcher (even if only temporarily) giles, as the adult in the situation, as the one in charge should’ve taken like two seconds of his time and realised that faith and buffy’s both financial and family situations were complete opposites and taken her in or at least provided for her in some way or the other.
one of the ways the mayor managed to persuade faith was by giving her a place to stay, by giving her food and some kind of messed up emotional support from his part, he even went above and beyond by getting her a playstation, for example. and that’s how he was able to keep her. because, I feel like faith turning to the mayor, at least at first, was a decision made on sheer impulse that, if he hadn’t provided for her, both emotionally and physically, the way he did, she would’ve, most likely, dropped him the same was she did buffy, giles, the scoobies and the council because there would’ve been nothing ‘tying her down’ to him.
which makes one wonder what could’ve happened if giles, wesley or the council would’ve provided even just the bare minimum to faith who was both the chosen and still a minor at that. it also makes me wonder if it would’ve been different if buffy had died, because maybe the council and the watchers in general would’ve taken more of an interest in faith rather than her being the spare slayer. or maybe they would’ve tired of her sooner and just waited for her to die out and get a new slayer.
but, it raises the question of what would’ve faith done differently if she had gotten the watcher x slayer relationship she craved. because I feel like it even if it didn’t deter her from joining the mayor it would’ve made that decision all the more difficult.
