Skipping through your thoughts about Giles, just a few small notes...
> The best I could hope for was to find some structure around his
character
> able to explain intent, even if it can't rationalize away the execution.
> And besides, I'd never thought much about Giles having an arc before.
The
> notion that Giles had personally taken on the mantle of the WC in S7 was
> entirely fresh to me when I read of it here in response to your first
> reviews.
It's interesting to think about, but I have to go back to the surface
level and ask - if the average serious repeat viewer of the series
needs to have an arc pointed out by others, is it really a very
effective arc? As drama? I'm kinda partial to stories where my first
thought is "it makes sense for this character to say/do that" without
forcing me to chart through his off-screen motivations.
> S5 is where I think the later Giles arc takes off, perversely by first
> restoring the Watcher/Slayer relation****p. In retrospect, I think a
couple
> of unintended things may have happened. First, what had developed over
the
> last couple years into an easy friend****p between equals, suddenly
became
> formalized into a teacher/student relation****p. A second go around that
I
> think serves to distance them rather than draw them together like it did
the
> first. At the same time Giles rediscovers purpose through his old
personal
> calling as Watcher. Subconsciously that likely validates the Watcher
model
> for Giles, and leads him to become more conservative - more of a purist
in
> its ways. I think I forgot to mention this in our last S5 discussion,
but
> his rehiring as Watcher in Checkpoint can also be seen as a symbolic
return
> to the fold as well as literal. He may still be outwardly contemptuous
of
> the WC bureaucracy, but mentally he's a believer again.
That's true, although I hadn't generally thought along those lines.
(Wow, suddenly the existence of "Checkpoint" makes a lot more sense.)
Giles holds up pretty well through the end of Season Five, but I'm
iffier with the rest.
> There is one last problem. Do I actually like it? Even with imagined
> corrections? Not really no. The history between Buffy and Giles does
allow
> for some good drama - a plus. But it still degrades the character, who
> spends S7 especially being a crank with little to offer. To some extent
> that was true in S4 too, but Giles was much more engaging then, and
still a
> contributor in spite of his gentleman of leisure routine. In S7 there
seems
> like a kind of emptiness around him as he's pompous, obnoxious and
mostly
> ignored. (See Blind Date.) Even with the return to his senses at the
end,
> he's relegated to cheerleader as he applauds Buffy's idea while Willow
does
> all the research and work. S6 doesn't bother me as much, since he
retains
> an impact during his limited time.
> So there are things
> to redeem his role in S6. Not so much in S7.
Agreed with most of that, and it reminds me of a much simpler problem
I have with S7 Giles (besides the undermining. And besides the
attempt to force him uncomfortably into a metaphorical role) but
hadn't articulated. Although you touch on it a few times above. His
sense of humor basically disappears completely after sending Willow
off. That was always a big part of the character for me, one of the
first things I noticed about him back in WTTH, and the first thing
that kept this series's adult exposition-dude/non-authority-figure
away from the land of the stock characters.
-AOQ
~and Giles and Dawn thus end up occupying the majority of the
discussion space in a theoretically ATS-based thread~
~~not a complaint, just an observation~~
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