Post by stargazer1682 on Apr 24, 2020 3:57:14 GMT
Was Giles right to leave at the start of season 6? I know it was necessitated by Tony Head's desire to go back to England full time, but as an internal excuse, was the decision they gave him the most sensible?
Re-watching Bargaining, now matter all the years that have passed since I first watched or how much time has passed or I've "matured", I still can't get behind his decision. I sort of get his desperation to find purpose, especially in the face of grief; and I suppose it's easy for that to blind someone to things that are worthwhile or require your attention. But objectively, it was a bad call. He lost his Slayer, the person closest to being his child and that's going to be difficult to cope with; especially when a robotic look-alike is roaming around.
On the other hand though, to start with, there's the Sunnydale itself. Sunnydale has lost it's major protector. The Scoobies may have been no replacement for the Slayer, but that effort should reduced even further? Maybe that's not fair, but Giles has always been all about how the responsibilities of these circumstances rests on their shoulders; and as a Watcher that's as much in his blood, given the tradition to pass down the responsibility to their descendants. If nothing else, he should arguably feel they should protect Sunnydale in Buffy's memory; because while her sacrifice saved the world, to not do everything to ensure Sunnydale doesn't fall in her absence seems like it does Buffy's memory some level of disservice. That again is probably an unfair burden to put on Giles or any of the rest of the Scoobies who might want to move on, but there again is their burden. Do you fly off and lead a more peaceful life, sipping tea and riding horses, knowing all the while that somewhere a place that was once important to you might literally be going to hell and you walked away; or do you do whatever you can, if you have something to offer?
Sure, they had the Buffy-bot, but that wasn't exactly fool proof or arguably even a viable long term solution; and it always seems odd that any of them act like it will be. We can probably assume Xander, Tara and Anya didn't really expect it to last long term, since they intended to bring Buffy back, but Giles should have known better. The whole pretense was obviously designed around the writers need not to have to explain where Buffy was while she was dead or why anyone thought she was dead, but it was putting the cart in front of the horse. She barely last what, three months and it seems like it was a miracle she last that long.
Then there's the Scoobies. Yes, Xander, Willow, Tara and Anya were all adults and his formal responsibilities started and ended with Buffy; the others may have been part of the team, he may have cared to varying degree for all of them, but it was Buffy he was supposed to look out for.
Which sounds all fine and well, and is also complete rubbish. You don't have to look any further than "Doppelgangland" and Giles' own response to realizing that Willow had not in fact be killed and turned into a vampire to understand what the rest of the group mean to him. They may be adults and under any other circumstance it wouldn't be unreasonable for an adult figure like Giles to give their children or proteges room at this stage in their life to become independent; the life and dangers they're poised to face in Sunnydale are like nothing the average person coming of age would normally have to face. And he repeats this same failing with Buffy herself later in the season, because he suddenly becomes the man who can't say "no" with her, despite five seasons of proof to the contrary.
But more importantly, there's Dawn. And this one is probably more contentious, because there's no reason for Dawn to be Giles' responsibility. She's not his daughter and he's under no obligation to be a surrogate father to her; especially when she does technically have a father in Hank, who would likely happily take her in and raise her moving forward. But for plot convenience reasons, they didn't want that, she needed to stay in Sunnydale; and that's....whatever; it's the conceit that her stay was the preferred plan. However, this puts Giles in the position, particularly in light of his leaving, of seeing no issue with this ruse or leaving her in the character of two college students with no apparent means of income; surely he had to be aware of the debt situation (and if now, why not?) and while (issues with Willow gradually abusing magic aside) Willow and Tara appeared to be fairly responsible with Dawn, they didn't really show them to be much in the way of the parent figure Dawn needed.
Again, there's a strong argument that that figure shouldn't have to be Giles, but if he's on board with ruling out Hank, he in turn should have given serious thought about who it should be and what's really going to be in Dawn's best interest.
(On a side note, this does somewhat tie in with my feeling that they missed the opportunity to substitute Giles with Hank, who could have come to town in season 6 and fights for custody of Dawn, but that's neither here nor there...)
Re-watching Bargaining, now matter all the years that have passed since I first watched or how much time has passed or I've "matured", I still can't get behind his decision. I sort of get his desperation to find purpose, especially in the face of grief; and I suppose it's easy for that to blind someone to things that are worthwhile or require your attention. But objectively, it was a bad call. He lost his Slayer, the person closest to being his child and that's going to be difficult to cope with; especially when a robotic look-alike is roaming around.
On the other hand though, to start with, there's the Sunnydale itself. Sunnydale has lost it's major protector. The Scoobies may have been no replacement for the Slayer, but that effort should reduced even further? Maybe that's not fair, but Giles has always been all about how the responsibilities of these circumstances rests on their shoulders; and as a Watcher that's as much in his blood, given the tradition to pass down the responsibility to their descendants. If nothing else, he should arguably feel they should protect Sunnydale in Buffy's memory; because while her sacrifice saved the world, to not do everything to ensure Sunnydale doesn't fall in her absence seems like it does Buffy's memory some level of disservice. That again is probably an unfair burden to put on Giles or any of the rest of the Scoobies who might want to move on, but there again is their burden. Do you fly off and lead a more peaceful life, sipping tea and riding horses, knowing all the while that somewhere a place that was once important to you might literally be going to hell and you walked away; or do you do whatever you can, if you have something to offer?
Sure, they had the Buffy-bot, but that wasn't exactly fool proof or arguably even a viable long term solution; and it always seems odd that any of them act like it will be. We can probably assume Xander, Tara and Anya didn't really expect it to last long term, since they intended to bring Buffy back, but Giles should have known better. The whole pretense was obviously designed around the writers need not to have to explain where Buffy was while she was dead or why anyone thought she was dead, but it was putting the cart in front of the horse. She barely last what, three months and it seems like it was a miracle she last that long.
Then there's the Scoobies. Yes, Xander, Willow, Tara and Anya were all adults and his formal responsibilities started and ended with Buffy; the others may have been part of the team, he may have cared to varying degree for all of them, but it was Buffy he was supposed to look out for.
Which sounds all fine and well, and is also complete rubbish. You don't have to look any further than "Doppelgangland" and Giles' own response to realizing that Willow had not in fact be killed and turned into a vampire to understand what the rest of the group mean to him. They may be adults and under any other circumstance it wouldn't be unreasonable for an adult figure like Giles to give their children or proteges room at this stage in their life to become independent; the life and dangers they're poised to face in Sunnydale are like nothing the average person coming of age would normally have to face. And he repeats this same failing with Buffy herself later in the season, because he suddenly becomes the man who can't say "no" with her, despite five seasons of proof to the contrary.
But more importantly, there's Dawn. And this one is probably more contentious, because there's no reason for Dawn to be Giles' responsibility. She's not his daughter and he's under no obligation to be a surrogate father to her; especially when she does technically have a father in Hank, who would likely happily take her in and raise her moving forward. But for plot convenience reasons, they didn't want that, she needed to stay in Sunnydale; and that's....whatever; it's the conceit that her stay was the preferred plan. However, this puts Giles in the position, particularly in light of his leaving, of seeing no issue with this ruse or leaving her in the character of two college students with no apparent means of income; surely he had to be aware of the debt situation (and if now, why not?) and while (issues with Willow gradually abusing magic aside) Willow and Tara appeared to be fairly responsible with Dawn, they didn't really show them to be much in the way of the parent figure Dawn needed.
Again, there's a strong argument that that figure shouldn't have to be Giles, but if he's on board with ruling out Hank, he in turn should have given serious thought about who it should be and what's really going to be in Dawn's best interest.
(On a side note, this does somewhat tie in with my feeling that they missed the opportunity to substitute Giles with Hank, who could have come to town in season 6 and fights for custody of Dawn, but that's neither here nor there...)