I agree that Giles doesn't necessarily want Willow to stand trial (or at least, that's the impression I got from the fic) -- but, on some level, he thinks that is how the world works, and he also knows why the world tends to work like that.
Yup.
I think that the other subtext I was feeling is that Giles defending Willow at her trial and publicly admitting he did wrong would be a form of redemption for him -- and the fact that the Coven has already outpaced him means he doesn't get to play the benevolent part he's worked hard to envision for himself.
There's definitely that, too; s6 and s7 has Giles still try to be relevant (by removing himself, and then by rein- and reasserting himself), which Willow specifically calls him on in "Grave" and Buffy in "Lies My Parents Told Me". And it's not that he's completely irrelevant, but that the things he knows - the things he's sure about - are no longer unquestioned truths when Willow and Buffy redefine the story in s6 and s7. Giles makes Willow's redemption partly about himself and his failures, which in itself is a bit arrogant, but that's because it needs to be partly about himself if it's not to end up completely without him. Please get out of the new road if you can't lend a hand. (An alternate title for this drabble was a Terry Pratchett quote: “Wisdom is one of the few things that looks bigger the further away it is.”)
...or something. I did say I put some thought into the backstory here, right? :)
I haven't been reading Mark Field's reviews, and I'm not sure I have the time right now, but that latest post was interesting. And I agree; I think Giles makes a bad decision, but it's an understandable one. Giles' position cannot just be to stand by Buffy in absolutely everything. (It's a bit similar (though also clearly a completely different beast) to a discussion I once had with a... certain fan who was furious with Tara for "abandoning Willow when she needed help" in the same episode.)
no subject
Yup.
I think that the other subtext I was feeling is that Giles defending Willow at her trial and publicly admitting he did wrong would be a form of redemption for him -- and the fact that the Coven has already outpaced him means he doesn't get to play the benevolent part he's worked hard to envision for himself.
There's definitely that, too; s6 and s7 has Giles still try to be relevant (by removing himself, and then by rein- and reasserting himself), which Willow specifically calls him on in "Grave" and Buffy in "Lies My Parents Told Me". And it's not that he's completely irrelevant, but that the things he knows - the things he's sure about - are no longer unquestioned truths when Willow and Buffy redefine the story in s6 and s7. Giles makes Willow's redemption partly about himself and his failures, which in itself is a bit arrogant, but that's because it needs to be partly about himself if it's not to end up completely without him. Please get out of the new road if you can't lend a hand. (An alternate title for this drabble was a Terry Pratchett quote: “Wisdom is one of the few things that looks bigger the further away it is.”)
...or something. I did say I put some thought into the backstory here, right? :)
I haven't been reading Mark Field's reviews, and I'm not sure I have the time right now, but that latest post was interesting. And I agree; I think Giles makes a bad decision, but it's an understandable one. Giles' position cannot just be to stand by Buffy in absolutely everything. (It's a bit similar (though also clearly a completely different beast) to a discussion I once had with a... certain fan who was furious with Tara for "abandoning Willow when she needed help" in the same episode.)