India Cohen

[MaverickKing]

How much was mentioned about India Cohen, Buffy's predecessor, in BTVS and Angel? I'm developing an India Cohen virtual series and was wondering how much information is available.

[Wolfie Gilmore]

You know, I have NEVER heard of her! Wow. Where did you find out about her? She's not mentioned in the show is she...or is she? Is she from one of hte tales of the slayers books or something?

[vampmogs]

She was never talked about in either Bvts or Ats, and so far hasn't been brought up in season 8 or After the Fall either I'm afraid.

Unless you count both Whistler and Sid saying that Buffy was prettier than her.

[NileQT87]

here's a list of all of the slayers that have been written about or shown: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffyverse_Slayer_timeline

some are canon, some are more or less canonical--nothing to say they couldn't be, some were once semi-canon and became canonical (yuki--who is in tales of the slayers after having been just part of the normal comic run) and a handful have some canonical issues (the ones from the spike and dru book).

and yep, india cohen is the one that gets the unlucky derision about her looks by whistler and the master.

[Retrograde]

I vaguely remember a reference to her in a book I've read, possibly some about Gateways? There was something to do with a path in the spirit world. It was a good book anyway, and a vital read if you want to know more about the previous slayers

[Charles]

I thought Buffy's predecessor was Japanese?

[lee]

India is definetly mentioned somewhere, in the dvd bonus's.

[Julian]

From what I can remember of my past readings, she's half filipino and half American. Her dad's a navy captain and her mom's an actress. She was described as somewhat tomboyish with a fondness for sports. She travelled a lot with her father and by the time she was slayer her parents had already separated though not divorced. She stayed around with her dad and travelled to Japan with him where he was stationed.

Her watcher was Christopher Kit Bothwell. He was in his twenties I think and India had a big crush on him, a feeling that was not reciprocated until later in the relationship. India also had a dog named Mariposa which is Filipino for Butterfly. She died because of a demon called the gatherer. Her death caused Kit to reevaluate his relationship with her and later realised that he was actuallyin love with her.

That's about what I can remember

For more info, try visiting this site: http://www.hideous-beauty.com/slayage/

[dane5by5]

I wish this was explored more in the series, I feel it's too late to go back now, but back in season five, when Buffy was researching the Slayer heritage, it would have been the perfect time to explore the previous Slayer that died for Buffy to gain her powers. It would have made for a great standalone episode. Buffy visiting the Kit, would have been interesting. It would have also been nice to have it in canon, who the previous Slayer and Watcher were.

I loved the story about India in Tales of the Slayers. It was great. And "The Book of Fours" was an interesting read.

Lee, are you sure India was mentioned in the dvd bonus material? I never knew that she was...

So to the original poster, read Tales of the Slayers "The Code of the Samurai", and the novel "The Book of Fours". That, to my knowledge is all the available history and information on India Cohen.

She had an awesome name, I guess that's the one thing she had that trumped Buffy.

[smashed]

It's too bad that Tales Of the Slayer (Novel, not the comic) aren't canon.

Are they?

And Yuki, Is she the one that was sired by the master?
She's canon now?

[ThePoet's<3]

MaverickKing -

Wow! That's very interesting! Hadn't heard of her - although I do own a copy of "Tales of the Slayers". I'll have to crawl into my attic and get some of the TPB's to place on my "Buffy Reference Shelf" .

Nile - thank you also for the Wiki link to the succession of the Slayers! As you said - some are canon - some are not but it's very interesting!

I wish this was explored more in the series, I feel it's too late to go back now, but back in season five, when Buffy was researching the Slayer heritage, it would have been the perfect time to explore the previous Slayer that died for Buffy to gain her powers. It would have made for a great standalone episode. Buffy visiting the Kit, would have been interesting. It would have also been nice to have it in canon, who the previous Slayer and Watcher were.

I loved the story about India in Tales of the Slayers. It was great. And "The Book of Fours" was an interesting read.

Lee, are you sure India was mentioned in the dvd bonus material? I never knew that she was...

So to the original poster, read Tales of the Slayers "The Code of the Samurai", and the novel "The Book of Fours". That, to my knowledge is all the available history and information on India Cohen.

She had an awesome name, I guess that's the one thing she had that trumped Buffy.

Thank you dane! That's great! Looks like I may have some Summer reading!

I love to read history of "how things become" and the Slayer Lineage is certainly a curiosity!

Vampmogs referred me to the book "Pretty Maids All in a Row" and I love the wonderful Slayer - "Sophie Carstensen" - of that book! (Thanks Vampmogs!)

It's too bad that Tales Of the Slayer (Novel, not the comic) aren't canon.

Are they?

And Yuki, Is she the one that was sired by the master?
She's canon now?

I know Scott Allie once said "TOS" and "TOV" should be canon material - however I don't know that Joss ever passed judgement.

[NileQT87]

tales of the slayers and vampires ARE canon. yuki was pictured in fray's first appearance (written by joss) and she's canon. joss even wrote some of the stuff in those two comic runs, as well as amber benson and others. i would say yuki's prior sunnydale visit comic and the ones that aren't completely obliterated by canon should be canon.

and yuki, sired by the master, was pictured in fray's first appearance.

i would argue that there's nothing to say viva las buffy, slayer, interrupted, hoopy, the bear and a stake through the heart aren't canon. those four in particular were particularly well-done and the writers tried to fit the story in canon (including buffy in the asylum, angel turning a new leaf with whistler how buffy and pike ended, hank and joyce getting divorced, dawn in year 0--even feeling invisible at one point, moving to sunnydale, etc...). EVEN the first appearance of LILAH!!!

i think that anything that isn't contradicted by a higher source, should be considered canon, because there's nothing to say it isn't.

imo, the btvs/ats expanded universe at least has more character-focus than the star wars expanded universe (which i can't stand).

i'm actually working on a btvs/ats timeline... i'm working on 1990-2009 right now. i even used a combination of the movie/the origin (basically the day/night count from the movie + events changed by the origin--it's about 3 weeks of time) and the comic run to fill in 1996. you'd be surprised how many episodes actually give clues to when they take place. and yep, joss sucks at math. oz and nina's werewolf schedules tend to dominate the calendar placement and sometimes that runs into issues where episodes would actually have had to take place entwined--namely valentine's day/the full moon that week and same with halloween/veruca. buffy's birthday is probably january 20th, if you don't want the scoobies in school on a sunday. and the harvest has the crescent moon involved, which means it took place on january 9, 1997. my last great discovery was nathan reed's e-mail that lindsey breaks into is DATED! the mayor becoming invisible 100 days before the ascension also caused some pain, because it took a little maneuvering to deal with part of bad girls happening on a saturday morning. meaning, there's a few days you had to skip at the end of consequences (faith scrubbing her shirt and the mayor's spell) to get the last day of school on a friday. the zeppo also had to happen in a certain month to get oz's werewolf schedule on school days.

also--you can count 8 lit candles on the menorah during triangle--that dates the episode to the DAY!

i'm the crazy person who looked up the airdate of brian boitano's carmen on ice special that buffy watched. lol.

anyway... here's my timeline .docs if anybody wants to take a look (they are highly filled-out but not finished): http://www.geocities.com/nileqt87/1990-1999.doc / http://www.geocities.com/nileqt87/2000-2009.doc

[ThePoet's<3]

That's awesome Nile! You've put a lot of work into that! And it's appreciated!

I thought that Allie said TOV and TOS were canon - and I think he threw a couple of other comics in there as well - saying "anything that Joss wrote" was canon. (kinda "duh" but kinda not! After all - he's the creator - it's for him to "call", right? )

[CaptainOats]

Hey Nile, did you know that a few years a go the Buffy and Angel Magazine put out an official timeline. If you're looking for any dates that happened on the show for you to compare just give me the word and i'd be willing to help and give you them. BTW, great job so far!

[smashed]

One of the sites listed says that in "The Death Of Buffy" it says Joan of Arc was a slayer?

Which issue did it say that in?