Tabula Rasa

[Merrick]

Knowing that Willow is developing a magic problem and that her spell caused their little mind-wipe session in Tabula Rasa, does anyone else think it seems a bit irresponsible of Giles to leave right at the end of that episode?

I mean yes I understand his Buffy related reasons for leaving, but knowing Willow has a problem that is beginning to get worse it seems odd that he would still go, especially as G-Man generally has good forsight with these things.

 

[Kean]

His Buffy-related reasons weren't understandable at all. He left his Slayer, which he is duty bound as a Watcher to help and support, at a time she needed him the most. And that's before we even address that he viewed her as a daughter. Leaving Willow when he had already spotted the signs of her free-falling into magic abuse is insane.

We all know that there were real world reasons why Tony was scaling back on his time in America, but the writers made a hashjob of the story and the really effed up Giles as a character IMO. I find it very hard for him to buy back those choices in the seasons that follow.

 

[thetopher]

I guess maybe Giles was thinking that they were all grown ups now and that they could handle Willow without him. Boy was he wrong.
Only Tara and Anya seemed to notice the extent of her problem. Buffy and Xander seemed not to care that much. 🙁

I'm always amazed how fast the Scoobies fell apart after he left, they could barely research whatever MotW came along, and they seemed to have no cohesion as a group whatsoever. 😕
They became pretty damn incompotent fairly quickly.

It's sort of similar (though not to the same degree) to how the Fang Gang so came to rely on the awesomeness that was Wesley that after he 'left' they struggled with quite a few of their investigations. 'The Price', finding Angel, finding Cordelia, the whole Apocalypse...

Moral being: keep your Watcher close at hand, they might come in handy.

 

[Merrick]

Agreed. The Fang Gang and Wes hadn't occured to me as strongly as The Scoobies and Giles. Thinking about it though you are totally right.

 

[Blaze]

I hated how they made Giles leave. It was blatantly stupid, and not something he would have realistically done (if Tony Head didn't want time off). You don't leave someone with depression with the idea that it will help them grow, it's a mental problem. Buffy needed all the support she could get; out of the 7 seasons, I truly believe that it was at that time that she needed Giles the most, both as a father figure and as a watcher.

And Willow, that's even worst, it was incompetent of a watcher in charge of those barely adults to leave knowing one of them was out of control and becoming a danger to society and to the gang.

Giles, I love you but you screwed up my man.

Edit: I just wanted to add that I do understand Giles wanting to leave to do his own thing, his whole life was centred around slaying. He might have wanted time on his own to have a family (hinted at in Restless), which is understandable, but he chose a really bad time.

 

[Lyri]

How much did Giles actually know about Willow addiction? Tara talks to her about and they decided on Willow's timeout in 'Tebula Rasa', but did Giles know as much as Tara did? I know he talks to her about how dangerous it was to resurrect Buffy, but I don't think it ever occurred to him that Willow had some kind of addiction, and, as far as my memory serves, he never talks to her about using too much magic. He was more concerned about her using such a dark spell. Giles comes back Sunnydale when he realizes how off the deep end Willow has gone, but I can't ever remember him mentioning anything before that.

On the other hand, as bad as it makes Giles look, I just don't think he cared enough about Willow. She was never his charge or responsibility, she was just someone who came along with the Buffy package.

When Giles left, his reasoning was that he wanted Buffy to stand on her own two feet and deal with her problems instead of hiding from them. Giles thought that having him around was hurting Buffy and giving her an easy out and escape from dealing with certain things, like Dawn in 'All the Way'. He thought that if he left, Buffy would pick herself up and be stronger for it. It was complete crap and a ridiculous idea, but there it is.

Giles' reasoning never included Willow or Xander or anyone else. Buffy is his main priority and he adopted a 'tough love' approach with her. Willow never factored into his decision mainly because she never has before. He's never had to consider that he should be worried about Willow and Xander, too. Not to the extent he worried about Buffy.

I'm sure Giles cared about Willow as a friend, but he just didn't care enough to consider the fact that she might need help. It's shitty and it makes Giles look really bad and it makes me hate S6 even more than I already do.

 

[Merrick]

Fair points. I think he was aware she had a problem with the magic though. After their "conversation" every time/episode that she mentioned using a spell for something the camera would linger on Giles and you'd see him with a worried/knowing look. I reckon he knew something was rotten in Denmark.

Agree about the Giles/Willow relationship. I guess I was hinting at what her obvious addiction would do to Buffy on top of the him leaving/no money/ripped out of heaven thing.

Totally agree about season 6. Lol.

 

[Lyri]

I just don't think it occurred to him as an actual addiction. I think the lingering looks were more about how dark Willow's spells were becoming, how she automatically always went for the black magic and the borderline spells, but I don't necessarily think that Giles' line of thinking here should lead him straight to 'addiction!'.

Willow is always trying to be the best. She gets upset when her SAT scores aren't what she wanted, she gets jealous of Buffy when they have a discussion in college because Buffy makes a better argument than she does, and Giles knows this. I think that he thought that Willow was trying to prove that she could handle the most darkest spells, that she was best witch that ever witched, and he was worried that she wasn't strong enough to handle that type of power and would end up getting hurt. Not addicted.

 

[thetopher]

Maybe Giles did a spell, saw the future S6 scripts, and ran for the hills... and a barf bag. 🙂


But seriously, I think if Giles really thought that Willow had a serious problem with magic addiction he might've stayed, or at least stayed in contact with Tara more, because I think he was more friendly/close to Willow than any other Scooby.

 

[Still a Scoobie]

He knew she had a problem, whether he knew it was addiction or not is another matter but almost as soon as she gets into magic, he tries to reign her in a bit and every time she wants to do a spell, he's the one who tries to caution her against the risks. Which is the worst thing he could do really, it just makes her want to do it more, like a rebellious child when their parent says "don't do that". Hence the "Daddy's home" line when he comes back to get her.

 

[ExLibris]

I don't think there's anything Giles could have done or said at this point to get Willow to back off using magic - she was too proud of herself. It's obvious in "Flooded" that she doesn't care what he says, she only sees her success at bringing Buffy back, not what might have happened if things went wrong. She doesn't care what anyone says about her using magic, she seems to think that after the resurrection spell, there's nothing she can't do, and she can't mess up. Not even the things she did to Tara, even though she lost her because of that, could get her to stop abusing magic. Something needed to go horribly wrong for her to realise what kind of stuff she was messing with, which happens when Dawn gets injured. I don't think Giles could have done anything but wait for the inevitable disaster even if he's been able to stay - nothing else would have got through to her.

He should perhaps have talked more seriously to her about using magic earlier, like back in season 3, and have been more of a teacher to her in season 4 when she started to become more serious about it. Maybe later on he hoped Tara's influence would make her more cautious.