Better season 3 scenes: Faith/The Mayor or Buffy/Giles

I like both relationships a lot. I love the relationship between the Mayor and Faith since they were both evil characters but they still had deep affection for one another. It was nice to see The Mayor have a fatherly love for Faith since she had a rough past and was never close to anyone throughout her life, especially her parents. If I had to choose I would pick The Mayor and Faith since Buffy and Giles have good moments together throughout the whole show and not just season three while The Mayor and Faith only had a few scenes together throughout the entire show. Also it was hard to see Giles betray Buffy's trust in "Helpless" but it is nice that their relationship was able to be repaired.
 
Faith and the mayor are a bit creepy together, as they are meant to be. Buffy and Giles for me!
Creepy? Really? I never got that impression, nor did I ever think we were supposed to find them creepy.

Anyway, I'd choose The Mayor and Faith, all the way. Their relationship was actually quite sweet (not at all creepy) and there was genuinely love and affection there. The Mayor even put The Ascension on hold for her. This was something he'd been working towards for a hundred years, and yet he ceased to care about it the moment he found out Faith was in danger. He was the first person to truly love and accept Faith, and she obviously saw him as a father figure and a stable influence. I wish we had had more time with them.
 
While I love Faith and the Mayor, Giles and Buffy have some great scenes this season. I love him trying to get Buffy to talk about killing Angel in Faith Hope and Trick. I love him talking to her in Revelations about hiding Angel from him. I love them in Helpess, it's heartbreaking. The moments are just deeper and more touching, there's a lot more emotion behind some of them. Partly because the show has built up their relationship, whereas Faith and the Mayor are still new and have no prior relationship. Therfore is less impactful, in season 3.
 
Creepy? Really? I never got that impression, nor did I ever think we were supposed to find them creepy.

Anyway, I'd choose The Mayor and Faith, all the way. Their relationship was actually quite sweet (not at all creepy) and there was genuinely love and affection there. The Mayor even put The Ascension on hold for her. This was something he'd been working towards for a hundred years, and yet he ceased to care about it the moment he found out Faith was in danger. He was the first person to truly love and accept Faith, and she obviously saw him as a father figure and a stable influence. I wish we had had more time with them.

I agree with you on all of this. I think their relationship is supposed to come off as sweet and endearing. And I think their relationship shows that despite her immoral actions underneath it all Faith wants to be accepted and loved since she had a rough past and no real relationships. I also wish there had been more scenes between the two of them.
 
Of course The Mayor and Faith had a creepy relationship. It was practically grooming. He showered her with money, gifts and praise. In return he expected her to do more and more unpleasant work. He was obviously fond of Faith to a degree but to hold him up as some kind of champion for her is ridiculous. Exactly what kind of life was she going to have after the Ascension if it didn't go tits up? Running around in the shadow of the snake and looting the dead after it had finished eating?
 
I love the relationship between Faith and The Mayor, it makes them both more human, and we see a different side of Faith, one she doesn't show to anyone else.

But Buffy and Giles are family. Their mutual love and respect is wonderful, and they are so funny together. My favourite S3 episode is Helpless, partly because of the Buffy/Giles relationship
 
Buffy and Giles.

As @The Bronze says, there is an element of grooming to the Faith/The Mayor relationship. He does something for Faith and he expects her to return the favour by doing something he wants. Although the relationship was never played as that as such, it did have that vibe to it.
 
I personally preferred the mayor and Faith. The mayor, for me, oozes charisma. And S3 Faith is my favorite character. So to see my favorite character get something she needs, a parental figure, in the entertaining Mayor WIlkin's the 3'rd tickled my fancy. Plus he is so supportive in the killing of all who opposed him/Faith.

As to who i think had better scenes in S3, i still lean towards Faith and the Mayor. But, also injecting a fresh look on a Watcher/Slayer dynamic with the way those two handled situations
 
The Mayor did legitimately care about Faith. When she was missing from her apartment he was visibly upset and worrying for her safety. She wasn't around so he wasn't doing that just to get her to do things for him. When he sees her in a coma in the hospital he is so upset about it (and he usually doesn't get upset) that he gets super angry and tries to kill Buffy. In his graduation speech, he mentions that Faith should be there and he gets a bit choked up about it. And how Buffy is able to defeat him is by taunting him with Faith's knife and taunting him that she stabbed Faith with it. I think the point of their relationship is kind of similar to Spike and Dru's relationship in that even though they are both evil they both still have love for each other. It shows us that Faith isn't just evil just to be evil but she has a lot of issues she needs to deal with and wants to be loved. To me that makes it more interesting since they are evil characters but they still have this nice relationship. While I love the relationship between Buffy and Giles, they have moments throughout the whole series and The Mayor and Faith only get these moments in season three.
 
I really enjoyed the scenes with Faith and The Mayor. Their relationship was quite unique for the show, and made for a perfect father figure parallel with Buffy and Giles. I'm quite fond of the scene in S4 when Faith is watching the video of Wilkins, his voice is so soft and comforting when he speaks to her - he manages to convince you that he feels a lot for Faith, while still being pretty evil.
 
Well there are some great scenes between Buffy and Giles in S3. Such as the when Giles scords Buffy in private over not telling the Scoobies about the Angel thing. But I think over the seasons the Faith-Mayor relationship might top it.
 
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