Why was Ethan Rayne such a wimp?

[burrunjor]

One of my favourite characters don't get me wrong, but it's funny how much of a sissy he was. Whenever Giles attacked him, he didn't even try to defend himself. You'd think someone who loves chaos would have picked up a few tricks. Although that said it's funny that he tried to fight more with Riley than Giles and actually held his own decently against Riley. Shows how badass old Ripper must have been.

 

[NotASlayer]

I suspect that Ethan had come out second best against Ripper enough times that he did not fancy his chances face to face.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Black mages have poor upper body strength?

 

[thetopher]

Most snotty public school boy-types are really bad at fighting, even when they grow up.

The Watcher's Council beat most of that instinct out of Giles, and the rest went when he went through his rebel musician phase.

 

[Plasma]

I suspect that Ethan had come out second best against Ripper enough times that he did not fancy his chances face to face.

I feel like it is maybe a combination of this and budgetary limitations. Realistically, Ethan should’ve been a threat on par with Dark Willow, but the show’s television-level budget meant that grandiose magical battles were likely relegated to “as little as necessary”.

From a character writing POV, you also don’t want Giles being beaten up or getting into crazy tough fights all the time. It cheapens the impact of the moments when Giles does bare his “teeth” and end up in serious conflicts. Moments like his battle against Dark Willow in Season 6 would’ve been lessened had that sort of power and capability been shown off as early as Season 2.

It could also be argued that Ethan didn’t really want to kill or seriously harm Giles anyways, and just wanted him to come back to the dark. There is a sort of gay subtext to their dynamic, and it’s worth noting that the multiple times Ethan could’ve proven a serious threat (such as the Fjarl demon incident), he didn’t and instead chose to perform what could best be described as an elaborate prank. I like to think that somewhere hidden beneath the “I am an evil villain” layer, there is a guarded and soft core where he really cares for Giles.

 

[famicommander]

You know who's good at fighting? People who practice fighting and get into real fights. Giles has spent a lifetime learning martial arts, weapons styles, magic, battle strategies, combat history, etc to prepare him for the task of training a slayer. And he has considerable direct experience fighting on the front lines.

Ethan sows chaos but he rarely causes it directly. He prefers to put various forces in opposition to each other and watch the result. He is rarely confronted with the consequences of his acts and therefore has little experience defending himself from a direct confrontation. And he certainly knows Giles is too much for him in a head to head conflict on equal footing. So rather than try to engage and escalate he tries to weasel out of it.

 

[NotASlayer]

It could also be argued that Ethan didn’t really want to kill or seriously harm Giles anyways, and just wanted him to come back to the dark. There is a sort of gay subtext to their dynamic, and it’s worth noting that the multiple times Ethan could’ve proven a serious threat (such as the Fjarl demon incident), he didn’t and instead chose to perform what could best be described as an elaborate prank. I like to think that somewhere hidden beneath the “I am an evil villain” layer, there is a guarded and soft core where he really cares for Giles.

I have said it before, but I do get more of an "exes with bad blood" than "mortal enemies" vibe from Giles and Ethan!

And we know what they were using dark magic for in the past and that there was only one woman in their little group.

 

[thetopher]

and that there was only one woman in their little group.

the technical term for their kind of set-up is 'orgy cult' or 'magical swingers' lol.

But yeah, that vibe was definitely 'why did we drift apart/break up?' from Ethan and Giles is all 'I'm married to my duty/the Watcher's council now.'

 

[Mott1]

I think it helped the double act that they were so opposite in courage. It made Ethan's cunning and unpredictability make more sense as he knew that Ripper, let alone Buffy, didn't need to break a sweat to physically defeat him. It also helped to inversely develop Giles as a 'grey' good guy, as opposed to Ethan not being wholly evil.

I see the gay subtext between the two a bit more on rewatches, though Giles' behaviour otherwise doesn't fully back this up - he was pretty red-blooded with Joyce in Band Candy!

 

[Kendar]

It's pretty much a staple of the genre that wizards tend to be less physically oriented (note Giles isn't an actively practicing wizard when we meet him). Ethan has chosen to become more powerfully magically at the expense of being a good fighter.

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

There is text. They were lovers. Canon according to Joss. Ethan never wanted to kill Gilws. He was a catty old queen with a resentment. I love his character!