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He's Really Not All That Bad
You know, I think Giles has a bit of an undeserved reputation.
(By the way, I did actually mean that spoiler warning, so![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gabrielleabelle, if you're still reading, for goodness' sake STOP.)
Specifically, I'm thinking about the scene in Shells, when Angel rings Giles for help, and Giles refuses.
As a reminder: Fred has died, Illyria has emerged, and Angel, reasoning that "the soul is what matters", tries to contact Willow for help bringing Fred back. And Giles tells him that Willow is currently unable to be contacted, and refuses to help Angel at all, because Angel's still working at Wolfram & Hart.
I've seen a lot of discussion, both fic and meta, of this scene, and almost invariably, people tend to assume that Giles was being presumptuous, and he shouldn't have dismissed Angel out of hand.
And then they decide that, clearly, Willow (and Buffy) would be really annoyed with Giles for doing that (and for behaving just like he did in Lies My Parents Told Me) because, obviously, Fred was lovely and they would definitely have helped her, had Giles just let them know...
I think I disagree.
The thing is, Fred is dead. Very definitely dead.
And I really don't see Willow - season seven Willow - trying to reverse someone's death. Not after the whole pulling-Buffy-out-of-heaven, losing-her-girlfriend-horribly, and-oh-by-the-way-almost-destroying-the-world thing. She just wouldn't.
Sure, she'd be sad (possibly very sad) that Fred had died, but she wouldn't try to bring Fred back. She's done that before.
And Buffy?
Buffy had, not five episodes earlier, sent Andrew in with a squadron of Slayers to back him up, and made it perfectly clear that, while Angel was at Wolfram & Hart, she really didn't trust him.
Giles might have been giving his own opinion, he might have had Buffy right there beside him dictating his every word, he might have been lying about Willow being unreachable... I really don't know. It's possible that he didn't discuss the situation with anyone before turning Angel down. What I don't agree with is the idea that Giles was responding any differently to the way the others would have. Not definitely, anyway.
So, yeah. I think he's getting unfairly blamed for that one.
Just an opinion.
(By the way, I did actually mean that spoiler warning, so
gabrielleabelle, if you're still reading, for goodness' sake STOP.)Specifically, I'm thinking about the scene in Shells, when Angel rings Giles for help, and Giles refuses.
As a reminder: Fred has died, Illyria has emerged, and Angel, reasoning that "the soul is what matters", tries to contact Willow for help bringing Fred back. And Giles tells him that Willow is currently unable to be contacted, and refuses to help Angel at all, because Angel's still working at Wolfram & Hart.
I've seen a lot of discussion, both fic and meta, of this scene, and almost invariably, people tend to assume that Giles was being presumptuous, and he shouldn't have dismissed Angel out of hand.
And then they decide that, clearly, Willow (and Buffy) would be really annoyed with Giles for doing that (and for behaving just like he did in Lies My Parents Told Me) because, obviously, Fred was lovely and they would definitely have helped her, had Giles just let them know...
I think I disagree.
The thing is, Fred is dead. Very definitely dead.
And I really don't see Willow - season seven Willow - trying to reverse someone's death. Not after the whole pulling-Buffy-out-of-heaven, losing-her-girlfriend-horribly, and-oh-by-the-way-almost-destroying-the-world thing. She just wouldn't.
Sure, she'd be sad (possibly very sad) that Fred had died, but she wouldn't try to bring Fred back. She's done that before.
And Buffy?
Buffy had, not five episodes earlier, sent Andrew in with a squadron of Slayers to back him up, and made it perfectly clear that, while Angel was at Wolfram & Hart, she really didn't trust him.
Giles might have been giving his own opinion, he might have had Buffy right there beside him dictating his every word, he might have been lying about Willow being unreachable... I really don't know. It's possible that he didn't discuss the situation with anyone before turning Angel down. What I don't agree with is the idea that Giles was responding any differently to the way the others would have. Not definitely, anyway.
So, yeah. I think he's getting unfairly blamed for that one.
Just an opinion.
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Since I consider S8 canon, Willow had been gone for a year with no one knowing where she went. So Giles was right when he said that he couldn't reach her. *Shrug*
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Without Buffy, Dawn or Xander knowing where she went, at any rate. Given that Giles apparently knows she's gone to Tibet and is astrally projecting there, I suspect that Willow talked to him about her "six-month mystical walkabout" but didn't discuss it with the rest of her friends. Giles may even have suggested the Tibet trip as a starting point for her to find people to teach her more about using her powers safely, and Willow went on from contact to contact until she eventually tracked down Saga Vasuki.
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When are we told that? *is curious because she's writing a long S8 Spuffy fic and needs to have her details accurate*
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ANGEL (to phone): Himalayas? I thought she was in South America.
SPIKE (to himself): We've got a branch in Tibet? How about a couple of sherpas?
ANGEL (to phone): All right, look— (sighs) What do you mean she's not on this plane? You just said— Astral projection? Well, is there any way to get her astral over to L.A.? Giles, this is an emergency. No. No, I'm not going— Don't put me on hold.
no subject