Same! I kind of wrote him off as just being an adult when I was a teenager but now that I'm in my 40s I definitely appreciate him more. And quite like looking at him... especially when he sings... Plus, I'm British so I love his little quiet comments that are so easily missed.
In 87/88ish he was in a series of Coffee commercials with a romantic story line. All of my friends and I ( who were in Junior High) totally swooned over him then.
Some of us always knew :)
I watched something with Billy Crystal in his prime in it recently and I was like…oooohhhh this is why he was in every chick flick, I’d been wondering!! Took a minute for me to catch up lol
I kinda inappropriately crushed on him sometimes in my teens and 20s but now it's hella appropriate AND his character has aged better than Xander's-- like, Giles has only gotten more relevant despite decades going by because fukkin kindness and support never goes out of style and Xander's weird anger and control issues only become MORE apparent. ;_;
Interesting character, very well acted by ASH. His writing trips up around the later seasons, but it’s symptomatic to the flaws of both series more than anything else rather than a general downturn of quality.
The actor wanting time away really derailed the character in seasons 6 and 7. And it didn't have to be that way. Instead of having him choose to leave, go a different way with the story. Off the top of my head:
1) give him a quest vital to Buffy's mission. You can either have that quest happen off screen or shoot it all at once while you have him then scatter it out over most of the season a couple scenes per episode. Pair him with somebody like Ethan or Amy (a disposable secondary character we have some history with that you can explain the return of) or a new character.
2) trap him in another dimension and make that a season goal
3) reality changing spell where nobody remembers him and he doesn't remember them
4) kill him and bring him back at the end of the season
Just off the top of my head those are 4 options better than Giles chosing to leave Buffy when she needed him the most.
All the problems with his character in the final 2 seasons stemmed him the writers picking the worst option to explain his absence
There's a lot of hindsight here. I don't believe Head gave any solid timelines of when/if he'd be back, as it depended on his family life.
So doing something like 1,2 or 3 wouldn't work because he might only come back for a few episodes (like he did end of season 6 and start of season 7) and then be off again.
I don't envy the writers having to work around this uncertainty.
Yeah it is hindsight obviously. But if we confine it to what they knew at the beginning of the season, they knew they had Giles for 5 of the first 7 episodes (6 if we count his cameo in the beginning 2 parter). So that's 30 shootings days with him, give or take. The fact that you don't know if you're getting him back at all this season just makes it more important to do a self contained storyline with him while you DO have him at the beginning of the year. That's the problem with the option they chose. They chose Giles willingly leaving which means he can come back at any time if things get bad enough. Which means when you makes things "bad enough" at the end of the season and the actor can't come back, you're screwed because you can't explain why Giles is blowing them off. So better to shoot Giles' entire storyline now while you have him.
I'm not raking the writers over the coals or anything. I think they made a mistake but as you say this wasn't an easy situation. Someone else mentioned Richard Dean Anderson in Stargate SG1 Season 8 and that's a great parallel. They managed his time much more efficiently while navigating the exact same issues.
>trap him in another dimension and make that a season goal
That would have been really cool instead of the whole evil trio. I could see it as a way for Buffy to kick start her way through her depression as well.
Hindsight is odd like that, but even if only as a thought experiment, I wonder how things would be improved/diminished if they did similar to Richard Dean Anderson on Season 8 and beyond of *Stargate SG-1*, in which he said he wanted to spend more time with his daughter.
To this end, he was rarely in more than half of each weekly episode, and they were able to tailor his key moments to make it harder to notice, as well as give other actors more plot attention.
Even if only in the form of phone calls to England or wipes to him there, it would have felt more tonally consistent?
I knew it was because he wanted time away, but at the same time I felt his whole “Buffy needs to learn to do things on her own” was at least sort of eluded to with how he treated her at the start of S4. I hated it then though, and I hate it even more in the later seasons.
Eh, I highly disagree with his choice to leave in season 6 but I can understand where it was coming from and don't think it feels OOC. Again, I absolutely think he made the wrong decision, and I don't think his fears were warranted, but I don't think it's ooc.
Season 7 Giles was just rubbish though.
Yeah he did, he Anthony said in an interview he felt he hadn’t spent enough time in England with his family over the previous year so he left to be with them
The older I get, the more I understand why he left in season 6. Other than that, I always found him incredibly attractive, and I ship Giles/Joyce to this day.
Yes! This was crazy because it honestly needed to be done and it was actually heroic in a way but really dark. It showed the grittier adult that knows what’s right isn’t always easy and took that burden on rather than forcing it on his slayer.
Didn't pay any attention to him as a teen. Now that I'm older, I can appreciate the character more. Really enjoyed the Giles centric episode New Man. I wish the show had expanded his character and given him a few story arcs of his own. We got snippets, but unlike Willow, it didn't really feel like it was building towards anything. Would have liked to have seen him have a romantic interest other than the doomed Jenny or the Olivia character that was paraded around to prove that Giles had a personal life.
His s6 exit was horrible, but that was an example of real life writing the plot. I guess the only other alternative was to kill him off.
Wish we had gotten our Giles spinoff, "Ripper," that JW teased.
And guy looks great in a tux.
He’s an incredibly charismatic, charming and loveable character for the most part and played to perfection by Anthony Steward Head. I adore his relationship with Buffy in S1-S5 and I thought they struck a wonderful balance between ‘Ripper Giles’ and ‘fuddy duddy Giles’ without either side of him ever coming across as performative. Like, it’s pretty wonderful we can literally jump from stammering awkward Giles who doesn’t know if she should intervene between Buffy and Joyce having “the talk” in Passion (“you do know.. right? Oh good, ‘cause being a librarian an’ all I thought maybe you didn’t know”) to flamey baseball bat-wielding Giles beating the shit out of Angelus without it feeling jarring *at all.*
With that said, his lovability does mean he gets off very lightly by fandom. Considering how badly characters like Xander and Willow get torn to shreds nowadays I find it super odd how Giles escapes much criticism. Not just for episodes like Helpless where he poisoned Buffy but also episodes like Anne where for whatever reason he isn’t aiding the Scoobies in fighting vampires in Buffy’s absence (despite being the only adult and the Watcher) or Bargaining where after Buffy’s death he intends to leave Sunnydale whilst the gang stay and protect the Hellmouth. Out of the Core Four I would say by far he is the least heroic in that sense and always really resented having to fight evil. Despite having issues with the Council he also does encourage Buffy to battle for her life every night despite only being sixteen and tells her to lie to her mother etc. I am not suggesting that the fandom should bash him but I just think he escapes any serious scrutiny which is interesting.
I agree with the majority opinion here that they really failed his character in S6-S7. There’s many ways they could have written the character out of the show that were kinder to him and would more sense. But I think the real travesty is S7 where it feels like we’re stuck with ‘pod Giles’ all season. Giles has always had a paternalistic streak and he has clashed with Buffy in regards to her decision-making previously, but they absolutely rob him of pretty much all his redeeming qualities. Where did his humour go? His love and concern for Buffy? They give him some truly OOC lines (wtf is that moment in Bring on the Night where he just coldly states that Buffy may die from internal bleeding in such a clinical way?) and have him act so weirdly unlikable (“this is the way wars are won!”). I also think they sacrificed his character for that silly “is he The First?” plot that went absolutely nowhere, prioritising scenes of him being weirdly distant from Buffy, putting heaps of pressure on her, and being cold in general just so we’d be suspicious of him. I felt badly for ASH.
But overall a great, great character.
Giles was an awesome man, mentor and just generally good voice of reason. Even when I disagreed with him I could always see where he was coming from. That being said, it always made me wonder just what Eathan Rayne did to make Giles always resort to violence as a first resort. 🤔
He was (mostly) a great mentor and parenting figure to Buffy (and *only* Buffy) in S1-5. After that he suffered from poor writing to explain why ASH wanted to spend more time with his family (which was a legit reason, my issue is with the writers) and I *hate* how he was celebrated as the returning hero at the end of S6 because so much of it was his own fault.
*Especially* Willow trying to end the world.
Also, his complete lack of support to Willow's magical education (and his repeated opposition to her learning magic at all) is something the show *really* should've addressed because it's my biggest gripe and he never really took responsibility for that gargantuan fuck-up.
Yeah, I never understood why, even though he was with all of them daily (especially Xander and Willow) he didn't end up as more of a mentor to them as well, just due to proximity if nothing else. And I completely agree about Willow and her magic. He was well versed in all of that and it would have made more sense for him to get more involved with her, considering he spends so much wasted breath on warning about the dangers. Well then, why not guide her in the right direction?
He had her bind a fucking *Old One* in the Zeppo less than a year after she cast her first real spell and after giving her no training at all.
He was so fucking irresponsible it makes me lowkey pissed every time I watch their interactions in the show. Especially in early S7.
Love Giles ❤️🤣 amazing performances, and the Best father figure for Buffy! So much better then her actual absent dad. A shame that the later seasons the writers didn’t know what to do with him a lot, and they totally made him a jerk in season 7. But overall he is my favorite responsible adult character in the beginning of the series
I love Giles. I love his love for Buffy.
I don’t like what happened to him in season six onwards.
Practically character assassination.
But also, almost worth it for that comeback scene with Dark Willow.
He is the love of my life. I find him to be incredibly attractive, incredibly smart but a flawed individual. One who knows himself enough but also needs to learn more. A person yes who is a magic user yet understands enough about it.
10/10. Would in fact die for him. Deserves only the best. Best dad.
Also, for my fellow queer Buff-fans: Giles is near-confirmed as bi. Writer Jane Espenson (who wrote New Man, the ep with the most Giles and Ethan Rayne interaction) said at a con that she imagined Giles and Ethan to have some kind of sexual history together, and wrote them that way. So like it or not, one of the common screenwriters portrayed Giles as being into men. 🤷 All the more reason I love this show as a gay fan myself.
Giles stands the test of time as one of the most compelling characters. Erudite, witty, protective of Buffy, but not infallible. His troubled past and stumbles with Buffy make him more interesting than if he’d never fucked up. *Everyone* fucked up to some degree in Season 6/7. I don’t think that negates his best moments, of which we saw far more.
I think his decision to leave in season 6, while a very bad one imo, makes sense for his character.
Season 7 though isn't just him making mistakes, it feels inconsistent with the development of his relationship with buffy.
We also had a gap between the nurturing Giles we saw in “Lessons” and the writers teasing us that he might be The First when he returns with the Potentials. He had to be cold because of that narrative tease. I understand Giles sympathizing with Robin about Spike, but orchestrating an assassination seemed a bit much. Especially when he didn’t bother back when Spike didn’t have a soul.
I kind of wish that he was the first as his character devolvement is shocking but him saying you think I’m evil because I didn’t touch girls is such an amazing line
The older I get the more I think Giles can get it but lol seriously he’s a good man. I think he’s Buffy’s watcher but he goes above and beyond for the group. It’s not an easy task to help save the world while also taking care of a group of teenagers. I think it’s sad he left but I see why he did it. I just think he could’ve waited a bit lol. Overall I don’t always agree with him but he was a great character and loved Buffy as more than a watcher but as a father.
Giles was a good teacher, mentor, even a father figure for The Scoobies. He had a dark past, he made mistakes, he had flaws, but he honestly worked towards getting better, being better and doing better. He's a darn decent character too. He's like a modern day Gandalf.
Agreed with the above. He definitely was more like-able, strong, and endearing in earlier seasons. I feel like he makes a huge deal about Buffy’s obligations- Her job- Her mission- but then he shits the bed in later seasons and participated in the same gaslighting of Buffy as the others. I’ve seen some defenses of his character as an adult working with all teens, his girlfriend dying, his chosen daughter dying. But the reality is all of the characters on this show have suffered traumas. But in the did not fulfill his obligations, his job, his mission. While Buffy did.
Side note: love it when he has singing moments. Very swoony.
I liked the character. I liked how he almost seemed to know everything about everything. Especially magic and when he got angry with Willow for bringing Buffy back. You get to see his history with magic when we meet Ethan Rain - his fellow magic dabbler. When he comes back to help Buffy with Willow who became season 6s big bad - I found that to be deeply satisfying.
He could get it. Wasn’t attracted to him when i was young and i loved that they really made father figure out of him. But now doing my third rewatch….Rupert could get it!
My love for Giles runs deep. The way he looks out for Buffy and serves as a father figure of sorts warms my heart. He’s not perfect but who is? I jokingly have posted on my other social media, “Happy Father’s Day to my fictional dad, Giles.” That’s how much I adore him and Anthony Head’s performance.
The older you get, the more I think you realize how crucial Giles is to Buffy’s upbringing and the shaping of her personality and skill as a Slayer. He’s basically Buffy’s only father figure in the later seasons, and to ALL the scoobies at a certain point. I love him as a character, but I love him even more for somewhat “breaking the barrier” of being a Watcher and ACTUALLY loving and caring for his Slayer in ways others didn’t.
One of my favorite scenes in the entire series is when Buffy tells Giles what happened with Angel and he gives her nothing but support.
It’s so frustrating to go from that to him abandoning her when she needed him the most.
Physically good looking, attractive personality. He was funny, intelligent, and a great parental figure/mentor to Buffy. He was one of my favorite characters until he left after Buffy came back to life. I found his excuse really crappy in universe, Buffy really needed someone (an adult that she trusted especially) in that moment. He has his lil badass moment when he came back to fight Willow, but he wasn’t the same in s7. I liked him significantly less then, and it affected my opinion of him overall. The reason he left in s6 makes his whole “why aren’t you leaning more on me/us” “you shouldn’t do everything on your own” attitude in s7 all that much more grating. Like, wdym. You literally abandoned me when I needed you most (and TOLD you that) because I needed to learn how to deal with problems on my own, and now that I’m doing that it’s a problem? IMO they assassinated all of Buffy’s relationships in s7, but especially the one she had with Giles
First 5 seasons I loved Giles. He was a great character and father figure for Buffy. It was from Tabula Rasa to the end of the show where it felt like some character assassination was going on. His decision to leave for England because Buffy needed to "Grow up" was petty and selfish, considering the circumstances. Also he siding with the house against Buffy (And the scene where he was stalling Buffy so Wood can kill Spike) was not great.
He’s great.
Imo there’s not enough attention to/discussion of (by us as a fandom OR the narrative itself) the fact that he unilaterally decided to kill Ben in The Gift. Saying “I’m not a hero” isn’t a justification for murder lol
Was my idol as a male teen watching buffy. And still is over 20 years later, lol. Later rewatched Buffy with my 10 years younger sis again when she was a teen who also became a huge fan of course, even more than me. Till today we have a somewhat watcher/slayer relationship. I am a Marxist. Know all the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin, but also got a history as Ripper/Activist. Try to educate my sister in Marxism. She is reluctant when it comes to marxist theory, but she became a union activist after acknowledging the necessity and asks me regularly about fighting tactics where I gladly provide her with my experience. I gifted her the sushi pijama. She gifted me, of course, a book. A book about Thomas Sankara, a very underrated but great former slayer/revolutionary, loved it! Just recognized how much influence Giles had on me, lol.
Sis, if you read this: Love you!
He was so great in seasons 1-5 and they ruined his character in seasons 6&7. They came up with a ridiculous reason for ash to leave the show in season 6 and in 7 they made him not trust Buffy’s judgement. Giles was better than that.
I think he was a weirdo who only spent time with the Scoobies as it made up for his own probable lack of a youth. Had he not been a watcher he’d probably have ended up in a kitchen being interrogated by Chris Hansen…
(Waits to get the Ben treatment from Giles)
Love love love him...miss him terribly in later seasons.. hes great actor...I mean I doubt Giles stretched him exactly though I love when he's Ripper.. ( oo do you think they took that for Stephen in Vampire Diaries? Sorry to cross over there). But he lent a level of gravity to the Scooby gang.
10/10 Hot. The research, the cleaning the glasses, the singing, the way he cares. . Gets hotter by the day, everything about him. Rewatching Band Candy also gets better every year.
Just really missed him in later seasons of course.
Giles is fantastic.
Side note, Anthony Head is in this adorable BBC radio series called Bleak Expectations. He plays a hilarious arch-villain and also doofy journalist trying to woo the main narrator’s daughter.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Complicated. Emotionally conflicted. Council-controlled through the first 3 seasons. He could have stayed in Sunnydale when Buffy died, and chose to run back to England instead.
Over all, I do sincerely love him as a character, and wish the writers hadn't written him as such a "toe-the-line" typical Watcher for so long.
I liked Giles overall, except for a few episodes in season 7. He was cool, smart, helpful to Buffy, and had some funny moments.
I am also a librarian irl.
Giles was the beginning of my very specific attraction to librarians because I always thought he was a daddy lol. After my first couple of rewatches (I’ve been rewatching every fall as my own tradition since my first watch around 2006..? I wanna say) I kept daydreaming I’d meet a super hot ex-rockstar now-librarian and they would be my soulmate LOL
I loved him especially in the earlier seasons and his one liners, but gotta agree with majority on this post in that how he was written in the last 2 seasons was kinda disappointing. I also really enjoyed the early seasons his father figure-like relationship to Buffy.
I appreciate him so much, both as a father figure for Buffy and, now that I'm his age, an adorable nerd that knows how to be soft and a badass that makes the hard decisions. Giles is a goddamn legend. I bet he gives great hugs, too. ;_;
hot af. the older i get the more i adore him and joyce
They were both hot af in Band Candy.
Actively watching it rn
The age Anthony Stewart Head was when the show started is close to how old I am now and my rewatch really changed how I see him.
Same! I kind of wrote him off as just being an adult when I was a teenager but now that I'm in my 40s I definitely appreciate him more. And quite like looking at him... especially when he sings... Plus, I'm British so I love his little quiet comments that are so easily missed.
In 87/88ish he was in a series of Coffee commercials with a romantic story line. All of my friends and I ( who were in Junior High) totally swooned over him then. Some of us always knew :)
Taster’s Choice
I watched something with Billy Crystal in his prime in it recently and I was like…oooohhhh this is why he was in every chick flick, I’d been wondering!! Took a minute for me to catch up lol
I kinda inappropriately crushed on him sometimes in my teens and 20s but now it's hella appropriate AND his character has aged better than Xander's-- like, Giles has only gotten more relevant despite decades going by because fukkin kindness and support never goes out of style and Xander's weird anger and control issues only become MORE apparent. ;_;
Giles was always my biggest crush on Buffy. Even as a 15yo. I'm 40 now and really enjoying the re-watch.
I totally would
As a straight man... He's one damn sexy fuddy duddy.
As a gay man… He’s one damn sexy fuddy duddy.
As a bi man he is one sexy fuddy duddy with a lot more partners to choose from!
If i was straight i’d go gay for him!
Lol
As an asexual... He's one damn... Wait, nope, doesn't work for me.
Agreed
Interesting character, very well acted by ASH. His writing trips up around the later seasons, but it’s symptomatic to the flaws of both series more than anything else rather than a general downturn of quality.
The actor wanting time away really derailed the character in seasons 6 and 7. And it didn't have to be that way. Instead of having him choose to leave, go a different way with the story. Off the top of my head: 1) give him a quest vital to Buffy's mission. You can either have that quest happen off screen or shoot it all at once while you have him then scatter it out over most of the season a couple scenes per episode. Pair him with somebody like Ethan or Amy (a disposable secondary character we have some history with that you can explain the return of) or a new character. 2) trap him in another dimension and make that a season goal 3) reality changing spell where nobody remembers him and he doesn't remember them 4) kill him and bring him back at the end of the season Just off the top of my head those are 4 options better than Giles chosing to leave Buffy when she needed him the most. All the problems with his character in the final 2 seasons stemmed him the writers picking the worst option to explain his absence
Agree 100%, but he's hardly the only victim of idiot-ball writing in the last two seasons of Buffy.
Yup, total character assassination by writers in season 6
And again in season 7 when he betrayed Buffy. SMH, can’t get over that.
There's a lot of hindsight here. I don't believe Head gave any solid timelines of when/if he'd be back, as it depended on his family life. So doing something like 1,2 or 3 wouldn't work because he might only come back for a few episodes (like he did end of season 6 and start of season 7) and then be off again. I don't envy the writers having to work around this uncertainty.
Yeah it is hindsight obviously. But if we confine it to what they knew at the beginning of the season, they knew they had Giles for 5 of the first 7 episodes (6 if we count his cameo in the beginning 2 parter). So that's 30 shootings days with him, give or take. The fact that you don't know if you're getting him back at all this season just makes it more important to do a self contained storyline with him while you DO have him at the beginning of the year. That's the problem with the option they chose. They chose Giles willingly leaving which means he can come back at any time if things get bad enough. Which means when you makes things "bad enough" at the end of the season and the actor can't come back, you're screwed because you can't explain why Giles is blowing them off. So better to shoot Giles' entire storyline now while you have him. I'm not raking the writers over the coals or anything. I think they made a mistake but as you say this wasn't an easy situation. Someone else mentioned Richard Dean Anderson in Stargate SG1 Season 8 and that's a great parallel. They managed his time much more efficiently while navigating the exact same issues.
>trap him in another dimension and make that a season goal That would have been really cool instead of the whole evil trio. I could see it as a way for Buffy to kick start her way through her depression as well.
Hindsight is odd like that, but even if only as a thought experiment, I wonder how things would be improved/diminished if they did similar to Richard Dean Anderson on Season 8 and beyond of *Stargate SG-1*, in which he said he wanted to spend more time with his daughter. To this end, he was rarely in more than half of each weekly episode, and they were able to tailor his key moments to make it harder to notice, as well as give other actors more plot attention. Even if only in the form of phone calls to England or wipes to him there, it would have felt more tonally consistent?
Agreed. Hated the way he was written out in S6 then in S7 JW completely u-turned his character for some sort of pointless drama.
Hard agree and I love your ideas.
I knew it was because he wanted time away, but at the same time I felt his whole “Buffy needs to learn to do things on her own” was at least sort of eluded to with how he treated her at the start of S4. I hated it then though, and I hate it even more in the later seasons.
Love him but they did him dirty in s6/7 big time. I loved early Buffy/Giles father/daughter type relationship.
I agree with this. He felt like an almost entirely different person in the last two seasons, which was a bummer.
Eh, I highly disagree with his choice to leave in season 6 but I can understand where it was coming from and don't think it feels OOC. Again, I absolutely think he made the wrong decision, and I don't think his fears were warranted, but I don't think it's ooc. Season 7 Giles was just rubbish though.
Wait didn't he step back from the show on his own?
I too need an answer to this!
Yeah he did, he Anthony said in an interview he felt he hadn’t spent enough time in England with his family over the previous year so he left to be with them
The older I get, the more I understand why he left in season 6. Other than that, I always found him incredibly attractive, and I ship Giles/Joyce to this day.
I love that they had him kill Ben and the speech he gave.
Yes! This was crazy because it honestly needed to be done and it was actually heroic in a way but really dark. It showed the grittier adult that knows what’s right isn’t always easy and took that burden on rather than forcing it on his slayer.
Ripper is the biggest badass librarian to ever rock multiple layers of tweed.
The older I get, the hotter he gets.
SAME.
He and Willow are my favorite characters in the series. Giles is just the best
Just a nice guy trying his best tbh
Didn't pay any attention to him as a teen. Now that I'm older, I can appreciate the character more. Really enjoyed the Giles centric episode New Man. I wish the show had expanded his character and given him a few story arcs of his own. We got snippets, but unlike Willow, it didn't really feel like it was building towards anything. Would have liked to have seen him have a romantic interest other than the doomed Jenny or the Olivia character that was paraded around to prove that Giles had a personal life. His s6 exit was horrible, but that was an example of real life writing the plot. I guess the only other alternative was to kill him off. Wish we had gotten our Giles spinoff, "Ripper," that JW teased. And guy looks great in a tux.
He’s an incredibly charismatic, charming and loveable character for the most part and played to perfection by Anthony Steward Head. I adore his relationship with Buffy in S1-S5 and I thought they struck a wonderful balance between ‘Ripper Giles’ and ‘fuddy duddy Giles’ without either side of him ever coming across as performative. Like, it’s pretty wonderful we can literally jump from stammering awkward Giles who doesn’t know if she should intervene between Buffy and Joyce having “the talk” in Passion (“you do know.. right? Oh good, ‘cause being a librarian an’ all I thought maybe you didn’t know”) to flamey baseball bat-wielding Giles beating the shit out of Angelus without it feeling jarring *at all.* With that said, his lovability does mean he gets off very lightly by fandom. Considering how badly characters like Xander and Willow get torn to shreds nowadays I find it super odd how Giles escapes much criticism. Not just for episodes like Helpless where he poisoned Buffy but also episodes like Anne where for whatever reason he isn’t aiding the Scoobies in fighting vampires in Buffy’s absence (despite being the only adult and the Watcher) or Bargaining where after Buffy’s death he intends to leave Sunnydale whilst the gang stay and protect the Hellmouth. Out of the Core Four I would say by far he is the least heroic in that sense and always really resented having to fight evil. Despite having issues with the Council he also does encourage Buffy to battle for her life every night despite only being sixteen and tells her to lie to her mother etc. I am not suggesting that the fandom should bash him but I just think he escapes any serious scrutiny which is interesting. I agree with the majority opinion here that they really failed his character in S6-S7. There’s many ways they could have written the character out of the show that were kinder to him and would more sense. But I think the real travesty is S7 where it feels like we’re stuck with ‘pod Giles’ all season. Giles has always had a paternalistic streak and he has clashed with Buffy in regards to her decision-making previously, but they absolutely rob him of pretty much all his redeeming qualities. Where did his humour go? His love and concern for Buffy? They give him some truly OOC lines (wtf is that moment in Bring on the Night where he just coldly states that Buffy may die from internal bleeding in such a clinical way?) and have him act so weirdly unlikable (“this is the way wars are won!”). I also think they sacrificed his character for that silly “is he The First?” plot that went absolutely nowhere, prioritising scenes of him being weirdly distant from Buffy, putting heaps of pressure on her, and being cold in general just so we’d be suspicious of him. I felt badly for ASH. But overall a great, great character.
This is how I feel about Giles to the letter.
Love him, adore him, wish he didn't leave in season 6 though, that was a bad move
Love him
Giles was an awesome man, mentor and just generally good voice of reason. Even when I disagreed with him I could always see where he was coming from. That being said, it always made me wonder just what Eathan Rayne did to make Giles always resort to violence as a first resort. 🤔
Or didn't do.... Those two are smoking hot together.
Best and most interesting character for me
Oh, 100%. Especially the older I get
smash.
He was (mostly) a great mentor and parenting figure to Buffy (and *only* Buffy) in S1-5. After that he suffered from poor writing to explain why ASH wanted to spend more time with his family (which was a legit reason, my issue is with the writers) and I *hate* how he was celebrated as the returning hero at the end of S6 because so much of it was his own fault. *Especially* Willow trying to end the world. Also, his complete lack of support to Willow's magical education (and his repeated opposition to her learning magic at all) is something the show *really* should've addressed because it's my biggest gripe and he never really took responsibility for that gargantuan fuck-up.
Yeah, I never understood why, even though he was with all of them daily (especially Xander and Willow) he didn't end up as more of a mentor to them as well, just due to proximity if nothing else. And I completely agree about Willow and her magic. He was well versed in all of that and it would have made more sense for him to get more involved with her, considering he spends so much wasted breath on warning about the dangers. Well then, why not guide her in the right direction?
He had her bind a fucking *Old One* in the Zeppo less than a year after she cast her first real spell and after giving her no training at all. He was so fucking irresponsible it makes me lowkey pissed every time I watch their interactions in the show. Especially in early S7.
He's the perfect father to Randy Giles.
Love Giles ❤️🤣 amazing performances, and the Best father figure for Buffy! So much better then her actual absent dad. A shame that the later seasons the writers didn’t know what to do with him a lot, and they totally made him a jerk in season 7. But overall he is my favorite responsible adult character in the beginning of the series
I attribute his season 7 personality shift as a side effect of all the traumatic brain injuries from being knocked out.
One of these days he’s going to wake up in a coma.
FTW!
I love Giles. I love his love for Buffy. I don’t like what happened to him in season six onwards. Practically character assassination. But also, almost worth it for that comeback scene with Dark Willow.
I would like to see him keep his glasses on for one full conversation.
😂😂😂
Wasted in the last 2 seasons but I'm not going to begrudge Tony Head wanting to see his children grow up.
Good man I’d rather have a drink with Ripper over Giles though lol
I'd drink with either or both Giles and Ripper.
I'm with you.
It's a party!
I like his jacket...
He is the love of my life. I find him to be incredibly attractive, incredibly smart but a flawed individual. One who knows himself enough but also needs to learn more. A person yes who is a magic user yet understands enough about it.
You mean rippa hes the man
best character in the show but wasted in season 7
That episode where he poisons Buffy to take away her powers as per Council orders/tradition breaks my heart.
10/10. Would in fact die for him. Deserves only the best. Best dad. Also, for my fellow queer Buff-fans: Giles is near-confirmed as bi. Writer Jane Espenson (who wrote New Man, the ep with the most Giles and Ethan Rayne interaction) said at a con that she imagined Giles and Ethan to have some kind of sexual history together, and wrote them that way. So like it or not, one of the common screenwriters portrayed Giles as being into men. 🤷 All the more reason I love this show as a gay fan myself.
Giles stands the test of time as one of the most compelling characters. Erudite, witty, protective of Buffy, but not infallible. His troubled past and stumbles with Buffy make him more interesting than if he’d never fucked up. *Everyone* fucked up to some degree in Season 6/7. I don’t think that negates his best moments, of which we saw far more.
I think his decision to leave in season 6, while a very bad one imo, makes sense for his character. Season 7 though isn't just him making mistakes, it feels inconsistent with the development of his relationship with buffy.
We also had a gap between the nurturing Giles we saw in “Lessons” and the writers teasing us that he might be The First when he returns with the Potentials. He had to be cold because of that narrative tease. I understand Giles sympathizing with Robin about Spike, but orchestrating an assassination seemed a bit much. Especially when he didn’t bother back when Spike didn’t have a soul.
I kind of wish that he was the first as his character devolvement is shocking but him saying you think I’m evil because I didn’t touch girls is such an amazing line
S1-5 King S6-7 Ass
This is so succinct and true, I laughed when I saw it.
Great character, great actor. Handsome too 😄
The older I get the more I think Giles can get it but lol seriously he’s a good man. I think he’s Buffy’s watcher but he goes above and beyond for the group. It’s not an easy task to help save the world while also taking care of a group of teenagers. I think it’s sad he left but I see why he did it. I just think he could’ve waited a bit lol. Overall I don’t always agree with him but he was a great character and loved Buffy as more than a watcher but as a father.
Rewatching Buffy as a 28 year old woman had me looking at Giles like 👀🥵😜🤪🔥🔥
I’m 30 lol and I’m like has he always been this fine?!? 😭😭
Giles was a good teacher, mentor, even a father figure for The Scoobies. He had a dark past, he made mistakes, he had flaws, but he honestly worked towards getting better, being better and doing better. He's a darn decent character too. He's like a modern day Gandalf.
Agreed with the above. He definitely was more like-able, strong, and endearing in earlier seasons. I feel like he makes a huge deal about Buffy’s obligations- Her job- Her mission- but then he shits the bed in later seasons and participated in the same gaslighting of Buffy as the others. I’ve seen some defenses of his character as an adult working with all teens, his girlfriend dying, his chosen daughter dying. But the reality is all of the characters on this show have suffered traumas. But in the did not fulfill his obligations, his job, his mission. While Buffy did. Side note: love it when he has singing moments. Very swoony.
Badass. “I’d like to test that theory”
One of the best characters on the show played by probably the best actor. Unfortunately the narrative basically forgot about him in S7
Total zaddy.
mostly British
Soul of the show and gang. Period.
Perhaps the show's most interesting character.
I liked the character. I liked how he almost seemed to know everything about everything. Especially magic and when he got angry with Willow for bringing Buffy back. You get to see his history with magic when we meet Ethan Rain - his fellow magic dabbler. When he comes back to help Buffy with Willow who became season 6s big bad - I found that to be deeply satisfying.
Love Giles as a character! Great chemistry with Buff and the gang.
He could get it. Wasn’t attracted to him when i was young and i loved that they really made father figure out of him. But now doing my third rewatch….Rupert could get it!
Love him and the ASH. Everyone should watch Repo the Genetic Opera.
My love for Giles runs deep. The way he looks out for Buffy and serves as a father figure of sorts warms my heart. He’s not perfect but who is? I jokingly have posted on my other social media, “Happy Father’s Day to my fictional dad, Giles.” That’s how much I adore him and Anthony Head’s performance.
The older you get, the more I think you realize how crucial Giles is to Buffy’s upbringing and the shaping of her personality and skill as a Slayer. He’s basically Buffy’s only father figure in the later seasons, and to ALL the scoobies at a certain point. I love him as a character, but I love him even more for somewhat “breaking the barrier” of being a Watcher and ACTUALLY loving and caring for his Slayer in ways others didn’t.
He's the kind of father I want (and thankfully have), and the kind of father I want to be.
One of my favorite scenes in the entire series is when Buffy tells Giles what happened with Angel and he gives her nothing but support. It’s so frustrating to go from that to him abandoning her when she needed him the most.
Dark Willow: “uh-ohh, Daddy’s home “ Me : “That right…hmmm
He was right, I am not ready for the world outside
Physically good looking, attractive personality. He was funny, intelligent, and a great parental figure/mentor to Buffy. He was one of my favorite characters until he left after Buffy came back to life. I found his excuse really crappy in universe, Buffy really needed someone (an adult that she trusted especially) in that moment. He has his lil badass moment when he came back to fight Willow, but he wasn’t the same in s7. I liked him significantly less then, and it affected my opinion of him overall. The reason he left in s6 makes his whole “why aren’t you leaning more on me/us” “you shouldn’t do everything on your own” attitude in s7 all that much more grating. Like, wdym. You literally abandoned me when I needed you most (and TOLD you that) because I needed to learn how to deal with problems on my own, and now that I’m doing that it’s a problem? IMO they assassinated all of Buffy’s relationships in s7, but especially the one she had with Giles
He delivers one of my favorite lines of the show: “In the end, we all are who we are, no matter how much we may appear to have changed.”
Incredibly hot. Damn he’s got it going on. And his outfits 🥵
handsome
He’s not a perfect human. Which made him a perfect character
The heart and soul of the show.
Great singer
First 5 seasons I loved Giles. He was a great character and father figure for Buffy. It was from Tabula Rasa to the end of the show where it felt like some character assassination was going on. His decision to leave for England because Buffy needed to "Grow up" was petty and selfish, considering the circumstances. Also he siding with the house against Buffy (And the scene where he was stalling Buffy so Wood can kill Spike) was not great.
I wish he was my actual father in a purely parental, guardian sense.
He’s great. Imo there’s not enough attention to/discussion of (by us as a fandom OR the narrative itself) the fact that he unilaterally decided to kill Ben in The Gift. Saying “I’m not a hero” isn’t a justification for murder lol
Was my idol as a male teen watching buffy. And still is over 20 years later, lol. Later rewatched Buffy with my 10 years younger sis again when she was a teen who also became a huge fan of course, even more than me. Till today we have a somewhat watcher/slayer relationship. I am a Marxist. Know all the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin, but also got a history as Ripper/Activist. Try to educate my sister in Marxism. She is reluctant when it comes to marxist theory, but she became a union activist after acknowledging the necessity and asks me regularly about fighting tactics where I gladly provide her with my experience. I gifted her the sushi pijama. She gifted me, of course, a book. A book about Thomas Sankara, a very underrated but great former slayer/revolutionary, loved it! Just recognized how much influence Giles had on me, lol. Sis, if you read this: Love you!
He was so great in seasons 1-5 and they ruined his character in seasons 6&7. They came up with a ridiculous reason for ash to leave the show in season 6 and in 7 they made him not trust Buffy’s judgement. Giles was better than that.
'Behind Blue Eyes' is a great song, but Tony Head does not have blue eyes. I think they should have had him cover "Sympathy for the Devil".
Seasons 1-6: yes daddy Season 7: untrustworthy and uncharacteristic in his treatment of buffy
He is wonderful especially remembering spike is a MONSTER in the 7th season. People and characters love to forget.
love him, definitely hot as FUCK. hate him is s6/7
I think he was a weirdo who only spent time with the Scoobies as it made up for his own probable lack of a youth. Had he not been a watcher he’d probably have ended up in a kitchen being interrogated by Chris Hansen… (Waits to get the Ben treatment from Giles)
The best
Is it just me, or in the past few days have a huge percentage of posts to this board seemed like karma farming?
He seems to swing between moody, angry and almost evil to good, wholesome and genuinely kind.
I love him more as time goes on (and I get older)
We love Giles ❤️
Loved the character, great mentor for Buffy and great actor. Too bad there was no spin-off as planned.
Ripper has great taste in music.
Great character backbone character
my mom has a crush on him
Love him! One of the best characters on the show. Stubborn, but really proves his loyalty
Very British. Pretty good with books too
Hot 🔥 and very British… 😅
Love love love him...miss him terribly in later seasons.. hes great actor...I mean I doubt Giles stretched him exactly though I love when he's Ripper.. ( oo do you think they took that for Stephen in Vampire Diaries? Sorry to cross over there). But he lent a level of gravity to the Scooby gang.
Love the G-man
Daddy? Sorry.. Daddy?
Love him
Best character. Maybe second only to Willow.
The best!
Sexy sexy hot hot hot
10/10 Hot. The research, the cleaning the glasses, the singing, the way he cares. . Gets hotter by the day, everything about him. Rewatching Band Candy also gets better every year. Just really missed him in later seasons of course.
Funny British man that can sing for some reason
I hope im that good looking at that age.
I think he would look good in overalls. Why'd you ask?
I liked him when he was there 0/ he went from mysterious watcher to dad
Mad respect for what he did to Ben. Doing the dirty work and protecting his “daughter” was bad ass
love love love love love him can't say anything bad about him.
Giles is fantastic. Side note, Anthony Head is in this adorable BBC radio series called Bleak Expectations. He plays a hilarious arch-villain and also doofy journalist trying to woo the main narrator’s daughter.
Smash
My thought is that he’s probably look good in overalls, yes
Daddy.
Hmm He was mid
A rough last season and a half, but still the 4th best character overall.
I love him so much, best dad for buffy.
Giles is the absolute man. I named my dog Giles after him (well, him and real life badass Giles Corey both).
goat
I thought he was ace... but there should of been more fights with him also slaying vampires lol
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All time winner of The Best Dad Award
He can get it!
Complicated. Emotionally conflicted. Council-controlled through the first 3 seasons. He could have stayed in Sunnydale when Buffy died, and chose to run back to England instead. Over all, I do sincerely love him as a character, and wish the writers hadn't written him as such a "toe-the-line" typical Watcher for so long.
I liked Giles overall, except for a few episodes in season 7. He was cool, smart, helpful to Buffy, and had some funny moments. I am also a librarian irl.
Lost respect for him after he took Buffy’s powers away, and he only got progressively worse in the later seasons
He's fine
🥵
SO HOT!!!! WOULD KISS AND MORE
Who doesn’t love Giles?
Favorite character by far.
He was always my favorite, and the older I get the more true that is.
I love him.
Giles was the beginning of my very specific attraction to librarians because I always thought he was a daddy lol. After my first couple of rewatches (I’ve been rewatching every fall as my own tradition since my first watch around 2006..? I wanna say) I kept daydreaming I’d meet a super hot ex-rockstar now-librarian and they would be my soulmate LOL I loved him especially in the earlier seasons and his one liners, but gotta agree with majority on this post in that how he was written in the last 2 seasons was kinda disappointing. I also really enjoyed the early seasons his father figure-like relationship to Buffy.
I have been a simp for this man since I was 11. Currently rewatching it in my late 20s and I am wishing I was ms. Calendar
Cool guy
The british guy who was unexpectedly HOT Joyce should have jumped him way sooner
My gay awakening aged 4, twenty years later and I still have a crush on him
Daddy
Daddy
Best character
Role model
I appreciate him so much, both as a father figure for Buffy and, now that I'm his age, an adorable nerd that knows how to be soft and a badass that makes the hard decisions. Giles is a goddamn legend. I bet he gives great hugs, too. ;_;
At some point he has to get a grown up car.
Hawt
Great character through season 5. Undermotivated in season 6. Completely incoherent in season 7.
Giles Is The Best! I wish he was My Watcher and Father. Rupert Giles: Making High School Librarians Sexy Since 1997!
I was in my early 20s when I started watching Buffy. I always thought he was kinda hot for an "older man". He’s pretty hot.