Post by stargazer1682 on Oct 29, 2018 2:00:18 GMT
Season 6 and his decision to leave 'for Buffy's own good'? I get that they had to come up with some excuse for Anthony Stewart Head to leave, and we've gone down this path of discussion before, on the old board at least, but no matter how many times I watch season 6 of Buffy, Giles' reasoning in the face of much more solid arguments against his going made by the other characters, is very questionable.
Yes, Buffy, to say nothing of the others, were at a point in their lives where it's necessary to become more self-reliant; and they showed Buffy having some difficulty with that.
But for one thing, they only really drove home one major example of Buffy shirking her responsibilities off on Giles - talking to Dawn about sneaking out on Halloween. There's the money trouble, but that wasn't exactly an example of her being irresponsible. She didn't go and rack up a bunch of debt she had no intention or means of paying back, it was thrust upon her by various circumstances that were out of control; and some of it went beyond the pale of reasonable expectations for someone Buffy's age at the time - like being expected to own a house and take care of everyone and everything under the roof. And as if it weren't bad enough that there's doubt whether or not Tara and Willow were contributing to the household expenses, Giles opts to stay at a hotel for the several weeks he's back in Sunnydale (with the brief exception of his initial return; come "Once More with Feeling," he's living in a hotel); when instead they could have come up with some sort of living arrangement, even just a temporary one, where Giles could stay at the Summers house and pay what he was paying to the hotel as rent to Buffy. I mean, an extended stay at a hotel ain't cheap; and who could use that money more, a hotel chain or Buffy?
Beyond that, Buffy immediately goes back on patrol within a day or so of being resurrected; so it can't even be said she's shirking her responsibilities as Slayer. And those duties unquestionably make finding a job in general, much less a substantial enough one to support herself and her sister (to say nothing about Tara and Willow) much more difficult than the average person.
As for the situation with Dawn and Buffy's new(ish) role as guardian/parental figure/disciplinarian; I call shenanigans on Giles saying that he wouldn't be able to say no to her whenever she would turn to him to fill that role. A) He's had that fortitude to do so in the past, and B) what a bunch of BS, that Giles says Buffy needs to learn to be the very sort of adult he can't be, that he fells the need to fly across the world, rather than occasionally have to tell Buffy, "No, I can't do this for you; you need to be the one to do it," and stick to it.
The, on top of all of that, he finds out that Buffy died and went to heaven and was pulled back the mortal plane; and even as she makes that very case, pleading with him and essentially saying, "don't you realize the very real pain I'm in just being alive right now? Help me!" And still, he walks away. Come on. She practically let herself dance to death in the previous episode, and she was clearly not in the right state of mind to be left with no one to offer support or guidance of any kind.
I've always looked at season 6 as the season where the patience are essentially in charge of the asylum, because they systematically stripped away everyone who might have had the proper maturity and perspective to look at all these dysfunctional characters and say, "Alright, everyone needs to stop what they're doing right now."
And then Giles doesn't even come back for Xander and Anya's wedding.... I mean, what's up with that?
Yes, Buffy, to say nothing of the others, were at a point in their lives where it's necessary to become more self-reliant; and they showed Buffy having some difficulty with that.
But for one thing, they only really drove home one major example of Buffy shirking her responsibilities off on Giles - talking to Dawn about sneaking out on Halloween. There's the money trouble, but that wasn't exactly an example of her being irresponsible. She didn't go and rack up a bunch of debt she had no intention or means of paying back, it was thrust upon her by various circumstances that were out of control; and some of it went beyond the pale of reasonable expectations for someone Buffy's age at the time - like being expected to own a house and take care of everyone and everything under the roof. And as if it weren't bad enough that there's doubt whether or not Tara and Willow were contributing to the household expenses, Giles opts to stay at a hotel for the several weeks he's back in Sunnydale (with the brief exception of his initial return; come "Once More with Feeling," he's living in a hotel); when instead they could have come up with some sort of living arrangement, even just a temporary one, where Giles could stay at the Summers house and pay what he was paying to the hotel as rent to Buffy. I mean, an extended stay at a hotel ain't cheap; and who could use that money more, a hotel chain or Buffy?
Beyond that, Buffy immediately goes back on patrol within a day or so of being resurrected; so it can't even be said she's shirking her responsibilities as Slayer. And those duties unquestionably make finding a job in general, much less a substantial enough one to support herself and her sister (to say nothing about Tara and Willow) much more difficult than the average person.
As for the situation with Dawn and Buffy's new(ish) role as guardian/parental figure/disciplinarian; I call shenanigans on Giles saying that he wouldn't be able to say no to her whenever she would turn to him to fill that role. A) He's had that fortitude to do so in the past, and B) what a bunch of BS, that Giles says Buffy needs to learn to be the very sort of adult he can't be, that he fells the need to fly across the world, rather than occasionally have to tell Buffy, "No, I can't do this for you; you need to be the one to do it," and stick to it.
The, on top of all of that, he finds out that Buffy died and went to heaven and was pulled back the mortal plane; and even as she makes that very case, pleading with him and essentially saying, "don't you realize the very real pain I'm in just being alive right now? Help me!" And still, he walks away. Come on. She practically let herself dance to death in the previous episode, and she was clearly not in the right state of mind to be left with no one to offer support or guidance of any kind.
I've always looked at season 6 as the season where the patience are essentially in charge of the asylum, because they systematically stripped away everyone who might have had the proper maturity and perspective to look at all these dysfunctional characters and say, "Alright, everyone needs to stop what they're doing right now."
And then Giles doesn't even come back for Xander and Anya's wedding.... I mean, what's up with that?