Giles & Faith farewell conversation (10.02)

[The Bronze]

So I've just read the second issue of Angel & Faith. The bit that jumped out at me was Giles telling Faith that she was more complete than Buffy. What does everyone make of this? It struck me as odd for a number of reasons.

The most obvious being that Giles has had very limited contact with Buffy in the last few years. I'm not sure he's in a position to judge how strong she is at her core. She has survived without him well enough so far, I'm not sure she desperately needs him to save her. The time when she needed him most was during Season 6 when he abandoned her. If anything I would say Giles wanting to go back to Buffy is an admission of mistakes on his part rather than her needing him.

I'm not convinced by his analysis of Faith either. Sure she's capable of looking after herself but I can't think of another character in the verse who really needs a strong family/friendship group for support than Faith. We've seen how badly things can go for her when she's left on her own.

I think the speech was a pep talk for Faith and a bit of denial from Giles rather than an accurate summing up of affairs.

 

[thetopher]

So I've just read the second issue of Angel & Faith. The bit that jumped out at me was Giles telling Faith that she was more complete than Buffy. What does everyone make of this? It struck me as odd for a number of reasons.

The most obvious being that Giles has had very limited contact with Buffy in the last few years. I'm not sure he's in a position to judge how strong she is at her core. She has survived without him well enough so far, I'm not sure she desperately needs him to save her. The time when she needed him most was during Season 6 when he abandoned her. If anything I would say Giles wanting to go back to Buffy is an admission of mistakes on his part rather than her needing him.

I'm not convinced by his analysis of Faith either. Sure she's capable of looking after herself but I can't think of another character in the verse who really needs a strong family/friendship group for support than Faith. We've seen how badly things can go for her when she's left on her own.

I think the speech was a pep talk for Faith and a bit of denial from Giles rather than an accurate summing up of affairs.

Honestly, I think its Giles completely BS- ing and trying to make himself feel better because he wants to get back to Buffy.

I mean, sure Faith seems more self-reliant, she hasn't had as many friends as Buffy, as many 'you're awesome' pep talks (Buffy gets on average about 1 a season) or that many close relationships (this is all partly self-inflicted and partly not).

But Faith has admitted, out loud and in front of people, that she needs Giles in her life, that she missed him after the events of S8 (where they bonded, Giles as another father figure to her ) and that she feels less lonely when he's around, she loves and cares for him. 🙂
But at the first, world-not-ending opportunity, he's off. 🙁
I mean, I get why he's going, Giles has been through a lot and now he's a man stuck in a child's body. He needs to find his place in the world again, so he needs familiar familial ties, i.e- Buffy, Willow and Xander.
I just wish he was more honest about his motivations and be straight with Faith.
Still, its nice for somebody to tell Faith that she was strong, because she is. A&F proved that to some extent, but she's still got a ways to go and needs all the help she can get. She needs/deserves friends.
Imo, Buffy's got plenty of help, she always has.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I think that Faith has grown more as a person than Buffy, and maybe that is what Giles means. Faith started out as a wild child, without much of a conscience to guide her, and she never had the familial/friend support that Buffy did. She has grown and changed mostly of her own accord because she wanted to, not because others told her she should.

 

[Kean]

I honestly didn't even take that speech seriously because a) it was clearly just a tidy way for them skip over the messiness of the situation so they could move ahead with whatever story they want to tell and ignore having built up the Giles/Faith relationship since S8 and b) Giles is 12 years old and what he said didn't even sound like him. Also, Giles had been dead for the whole of S9, he has no idea what state Faith or Buffy is in, he is in no position to tell either one who they are or what they need.

 

[The Bronze]

Well I'm glad it's not just me who couldn't take the speech too seriously. I think you guys have pretty much covered it. A mixture of Giles not really knowing the situation becuase he's been dead for a year and BSing to make himself feel better about his decision. That said I think regardless of the accuracy it was nice for Faith to get some praise. She's been working her ass off fighting the good fight for a number of years now and deserves a pat on the back and some support.

 

[Buffyverse Fan]

Well I'm glad it's not just me who couldn't take the speech too seriously. I think you guys have pretty much covered it. A mixture of Giles not really knowing the situation becuase he's been dead for a year and BSing to make himself feel better about his decision. That said I think regardless of the accuracy it was nice for Faith to get some praise. She's been working her ass off fighting the good fight for a number of years now and deserves a pat on the back and some support.

Completely agree.

There was some truth to what Giles said, but the main thing is, Buffy is Giles' daughter for all intents and purposes. Under those silly circumstances when Buffy wanted to marry Spike via magic, she asked Giles to walk her down the aisle rather than her biological father. Keep in mind, at that time Buffy still had a decent relationship with her father, having just visited him in LA.

Faith on the other hand is more like Giles' little sister, and arguably closer to a Watcher/Slayer relationship. While that's an exceptionally strong bond, it can't compete with his father's love for Buffy.

The Buffy/Giles relationship has always been a key bit of the series, but I must admit from a spectator's POV, Giles teamed with Faith is arguably more fun to watch. It's like Angel & Spike team-ups; I doubt Spike would even have Angel in the top 5 people he's want to hang around with, but they're entertaining to watch together.