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The first thing I ever wrote regarding Buffy the Vampire Slayer was on the Buffy Cross & Stake spoiler discussion board in Feburary of 2002, and it was entitled "Giles:the Reluctant Father". It's also the only essay that I lost. I don't have it any more. It's not saved anywhere. It was only posted once - then gone. I think I sent it to a few people or they copied it, before it went into computer hell.
Giles has always been amongst my favorite characters - mostly because of Anthony Stewart Head. I started watching Buffy because of Anthony Stewart Head, who had been tapped to play Rupert Giles. The character interests me, for the same reason most of the Buffy characters do, their contradictions. Giles is a mess of contradictions. He's an educated somewhat prudish, and controlled upper class man on the surface - the epitomy of the British Libraian stereotype, but peel back the layers and you get an urban street tough, capable of breaking your fingers, and getting into a brawl. He's principaled and ethical, yet also ruthless and willing to bend the rules. Also, Giles has spent his life atoning for the stream of ugly mistakes he made as a youth, he is filled to the brim with regrets. Think of him, if you will, as a human version of Spike and Angel. A psuedo Alex from a Clockwork Orange. And I can't help but wonder if Rupert "Ripper" Giles may not have been based on that.
Giles like all of the characters in Buffy, is deeply flawed. And his relationships with the other characters are at times messy, not neat. His own personal baggage often gets in his way.
Buffy, issue 24, focuses mostly on Giles, with bits of Faith and another slayer thrown in.
Unlike the Andrew issue, and No Future for You arc, there isn't much character development in this issue, it is largely plot driven. But I would not say it is devoid of it.
( Review of Safe: Giles ...the Regretful Watcher )
Giles has always been amongst my favorite characters - mostly because of Anthony Stewart Head. I started watching Buffy because of Anthony Stewart Head, who had been tapped to play Rupert Giles. The character interests me, for the same reason most of the Buffy characters do, their contradictions. Giles is a mess of contradictions. He's an educated somewhat prudish, and controlled upper class man on the surface - the epitomy of the British Libraian stereotype, but peel back the layers and you get an urban street tough, capable of breaking your fingers, and getting into a brawl. He's principaled and ethical, yet also ruthless and willing to bend the rules. Also, Giles has spent his life atoning for the stream of ugly mistakes he made as a youth, he is filled to the brim with regrets. Think of him, if you will, as a human version of Spike and Angel. A psuedo Alex from a Clockwork Orange. And I can't help but wonder if Rupert "Ripper" Giles may not have been based on that.
Giles like all of the characters in Buffy, is deeply flawed. And his relationships with the other characters are at times messy, not neat. His own personal baggage often gets in his way.
Buffy, issue 24, focuses mostly on Giles, with bits of Faith and another slayer thrown in.
Unlike the Andrew issue, and No Future for You arc, there isn't much character development in this issue, it is largely plot driven. But I would not say it is devoid of it.
( Review of Safe: Giles ...the Regretful Watcher )