Quentin: You're having doubts. Cruciamentum is not easy... for Slayer or Watcher. But it's been done this way for a dozen centuries. Whenever a Slayer turns eighteen. It's a time-honored rite of passage.

GILES: It's an archaic exercise in cruelty. To lock her in this... tomb... weakened, defenseless. And to unleash *that* on her. If any one of the Council still had actual contact with a Slayer, they would see, but I'm the one in the thick of it.

Quentin: Which is why you're not qualified to make this decision. You're too close.

GILES: That's not true.

Quentin: A Slayer is not just physical prowess. She must have cunning, imagination, a confidence derived from self-reliance. And believe me, once this is all over, your Buffy will be stronger for it.

GILES: Or she'll be dead for it.

Quentin: Rupert, if this girl is everything you say, then you've nothing to worry about.

• Buffy & Giles
• Slayerhood
• Watcher's Council

written by: David Fury; Transcribed by: AleXander Thompson. Full transcript at:
http://www.studiesinwords.de/46helpless.html