don’t get me wrong Anthony Stewart Head is incredibly talented & I love Giles & I do GET what they were going for with his part in Once More with Feeling but also…. It just does not work on ANY level narratively if you think about it even at all.
If we treat it as a face value story without any additional meaning or metaphor (a read I usually reject with Buffy, or at least support only with caveats): Giles has been paid to be Buffy’s mentor / watcher for years. A role which Buffy has actively advocated for & helped him get payment back for after he was fired. She’s also the one always saving the world while he does the mentoring. This is NOT a generous read on Giles wanting to leave the second it looks like Buffy might need some adult support after her mom just died & she herself was just raised from the dead.
And like…. If we zero in on the allegory element & focus on the narrative meaning it’s NOT better: As a story about coming of age & pushing someone to stand on their own? *** You mean pushing the fresh out of a suicide attempt 21 year old to raise her teenage sister & fully support her other adult friends including financially completely without the aid of any parental figures? Oh I’m sure.
It’s just so annoying because I do GET the read the writers were hoping for with Giles as this sympathetic adult with *no choice* but to step back & let Buffy stand on her own. but it just. does NOT work. Especially after season 4 already HAD the “what do we do with Giles” arc & we SAW he was very bored & useless on his own & BUFFY actively got him his job back.
at least give the man something in Britain to go back to. like he couldn’t even have a family crisis or something to do with his old ripper life come up. ok
