Well I think that plotline was born out of necessity because Tony wanted to leave, it wasn't really a creative decision, they did their best to find an excuse for Giles to go back to England. & for what it's worth Giles does admit later that it was wrong for him to leave ..
I suppose, but I find that when you're talking about a show, you can either do it from the perspective of the show itself, the outside of it (talking about the writing quality). It isn't really fair to do both at the same time. I mean, I suppose that when a character acts completely out of character, like "Buffy" in "The Girl in Question", you can chalk that up to lazy or bad writing, but normally I like to stick with if it happened, then it happened. And if we are just talking about writing, they could have done almost anything to make it better. I mean, put Giles in a coma. Have him leave on imminent Council business or people will die. Have him do anything. But to find out Buffy was in heaven and is clearly struggling being back, and then to just say "well, figure it out, see ya!" (or something to that effect) was beyond heartless.
And yes, Giles does admit later on that he messed up by leaving, fair point. But that being said, by S7 he's not the same Giles we knew from the early seasons. He changes a lot, and I'm not really convinced it was for the better. He goes behind Buffy's back a lot, and against her. Remember that whole deal with Spike in S7, when he tries to have him assassinated? That was unconscionable.
Exactly! After she came back the first time, it didn't take her long before she got over it, same thing for Angel, he was a bit shaky at first but he got back to normal in no time, & what did Buffy do for him anyway? She visited him a couple of times ..
However, I think that after they found out that she was in heaven, they all got wrapped up in their guilt and completely forgot that she needed support, which kinda sucks, but it didn't come from selfishness in my opinion.
Well, again, yes and no. I remember it taking Angel quite a while for Buffy to bring him back. And let's be clear, without Buffy there is no way Angel comes back from that. She nurses him and cares for him when he can't even speak for more than one episode, and he goes through a long process where he's just destroyed mentally and emotionally. Buffy spends a ton of time with him (in scenes I really liked).
And it just seemed like Willow, Xander and the rest failed to comprehend the magnitude of it all. I thought they treated Angel returning from hell as a very big deal, but with Buffy, there was maybe one episode of them helping her re-acclimate and then they almost seem to get tired of her. They start harping on her almost immediately about getting a job, paying bills, going back to school. She died! I mean, she shouldn't have had to worry about any of that! I know that the harshness of real life was the over-arching theme of that season, but it seemed either very harsh or like a very big plot hole for no one to help with her with that stuff.
