What If: Giles didn't take Buffy's powers away?

nightshade

nightshade

Your grandfather is a cat
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What if he refused to take part in the test and didn't drug Buffy and take her powers away?
 
Giles said that reducing Buffy's strength it was a barbaric practice yet he still went ahead with it, that was the day Giles caused my loss in the faith I had in the watchers council. It kept going down from then.
 
Then Giles is fired and Buffy gets a new watcher.
Giles would have to tell Buffy why he was fired and so in the end the test probably wouldn't get performed, which would be viewed as problematic and a break with tradition by the WC. So they may have thought up something else to 'test' Buffy.

I think the new Watcher- probably Wesley- would have an even tougher time of it because there might well be less trust from Buffy's end and she would unambiguously trust Giles and his opinions going forward.
 
thetopher said:
Then Giles is fired and Buffy gets a new watcher.
Giles would have to tell Buffy why he was fired and so in the end the test probably wouldn't get performed, which would be viewed as problematic and a break with tradition by the WC. So they may have thought up something else to 'test' Buffy.
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That's a good point. The Watchers might have come up with something more dangerous and chaotic, because Giles had no knowledge of or control over it.
 
thetopher said:
Then Giles is fired and Buffy gets a new watcher.
Giles would have to tell Buffy why he was fired and so in the end the test probably wouldn't get performed, which would be viewed as problematic and a break with tradition by the WC. So they may have thought up something else to 'test' Buffy.

I think the new Watcher- probably Wesley- would have an even tougher time of it because there might well be less trust from Buffy's end and she would unambiguously trust Giles and his opinions going forward.
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In addition to what @thetopher said, I think the Council would also come up with a very direct show of power. Leave Buffy with no question of her place.

I think a new & different test is just far too subtle for these yahoos.
 
Giles and Buffy's relationship would probably have benefited. Yes, he protested the test and wound up being fired because of his actions, but he still went along with it, but an outright refusal by him would have shown even better that he was on her side. Of course, as mentioned, that could have led to something worse. Buffy, at this point, probably lacked the self-confidence that she had in "Checkpoint" when she made the Council into her bitcas, so she would have been more vulnerable to anything they did.
 
garfan said:
could they have actually done anything? I mean they weren't even able to take out Faith. And they did nothing when she fired them
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I think this is a different situation.

Faith was absolutely ruthless and not at all selfless when defending herself. I expect that the Watchers were used to a Slayer within known limits and Faith did not recognize limits.

When Buffy fired the Council, there was an alternative available. Also, Buffy, more or less, followed the Slayer rules. So, she was a known quantity who was protecting the Hellmouth and helping the Council out.

Not sure what would happen if Buffy went totally rogue. But, I am sure the Council would react quite decisively if Buffy followed Giles lead in defying the Council in Helpless.
 
One thing we saw after the cruciamentum - Buffy never wanted to be a "normal" girl again. She had always wished before that she could just be a normal high school girl but we never hear her say that afterwards when she couldn't handle a boy in school who was getting rough with another girl due to the drugs she was on.
 
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