Did season 6 suffer from the lack of Giles?

Mr Trick

Mr Trick

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Giles is away for a large section of the season and certainly made an impact upon his return. Was his absence a big loss for the show during this season?
 
No - it was needed for the characters to face life and grow up. As long as Giles was the reliable adult who would step in, then the rest of the characters could avoid making hard decisions and dealing with consequences. Buffy wanted to devolve into childhood - understandable. Willow was seriously experimenting with forces that she couldn't control - and she paid the price. Xander was too chickenshit to speak up, and he paid the price.

If Giles had stayed then everyone would have had another safe season, and IMO the show would have suffered. Season six wasn't pretty, but it was passionate and wildly effective - love it or hate it. I don't know many people who are neutral about it.
 
Well. Giles was in all S6's better parts (Buffy's painful revival, Trio's introduction, Dark Willow), and absent in all worse parts (drug metaphor, prolonged and boring depression, disempowerment of all female characters: useless Buffy, regressed Dawn, clung-to-men-and-forgot-about-money Anya, magic-free Willow and Tara). It says something.
 
Yes it did, it always seemed like Giles' departure was more about Tony wanting to leave rather than Giles not being needed. I think both season 6-7 suffered greatly from him not being there. He leaves a void and it's sad that his absence in season 6 makes it feel like an irreparable gap was created between him and Buffy for season 7.
 
I think there is a tension between the creative logic of removing Giles and keeping him in because the character makes the show more watchable. I'm not sure that after season 4 he was ever the same character again, but I did like the mid-life crisis angle and he did come back to life when taking over the magic box. I'm fine with him being a part time character more though, because it makes the impact greater when he returns at the close of S6.
 
Mr Trick said:
I think there is a tension between the creative logic of removing Giles and keeping him in because the character makes the show more watchable. I'm not sure that after season 4 he was ever the same character again, but I did like the mid-life crisis angle and he did come back to life when taking over the magic box. I'm fine with him being a part time character more though, because it makes the impact greater when he returns at the close of S6.
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THAT SCENE - OMG, I think I could watch that scene forever. 'I'd like to test that theory'
But Giles had his own journey to make in order to return at this time and in this way. Had he been there all along there would have been no magic-rage, and no coven to imbue him. I'm not saying that I prefer Giles gone, or like everything that happened when he was gone - just that it would be a completely different season - which i am well aware that some people crave desperately.😛
 
Yes, the brain of the group was gone. The show had no brains.
 
Mr. Pole said:
Yes, the brain of the group was gone. The show had no brains.
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Exactly - the essence of season 6. That period of time when you believe you know everything and are invulnerable, when you believe you can get out of the consequences of the decisions you make, that nothing you do will have permanent effects - without an adult to guide you and point out realities.
 
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