(Still officially on hiatus. I live a life of contradiction.)
This is lovely -- and what I like especially is that it captures something that is true about Giles all the time, but ESPECIALLY true in s6. That is, after all, the season where he KNOWS that he shouldn't make decisions for the girls anymore, but also makes decisions for them in order to ensure that they make their own decisions. This is most obvious with Buffy, "listen, you're old enough to make your own choices, so you have no choice but for me to leave and not support you," and it happens very much in Grave, too, where his idea is "OK, I will give Willow LOTS MORE POWER and trust that she will use it properly, but I will trick her into it." It's a great place for him to be in near the end of the arc, where you can see that he's about to really genuinely let Buffy (and Willow) make their own choices, and that he believes in their right to do so, but he also wants their freedom to make choices to be on his terms. He is getting there, but he's not there yet.
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Date: 2012-10-18 04:10 pm (UTC)This is lovely -- and what I like especially is that it captures something that is true about Giles all the time, but ESPECIALLY true in s6. That is, after all, the season where he KNOWS that he shouldn't make decisions for the girls anymore, but also makes decisions for them in order to ensure that they make their own decisions. This is most obvious with Buffy, "listen, you're old enough to make your own choices, so you have no choice but for me to leave and not support you," and it happens very much in Grave, too, where his idea is "OK, I will give Willow LOTS MORE POWER and trust that she will use it properly, but I will trick her into it." It's a great place for him to be in near the end of the arc, where you can see that he's about to really genuinely let Buffy (and Willow) make their own choices, and that he believes in their right to do so, but he also wants their freedom to make choices to be on his terms. He is getting there, but he's not there yet.