Rupert Giles

From Freepedia

Rupert Giles is a character from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series played by actor Anthony Stewart Head. He is a British Watcher given the responsibility of teaching and training Buffy Summers in her role as Slayer.

Character summary

Giles served as a father figure to Buffy and her friends as Buffy's and Xander's fathers were rarely seen, Willow's was never seen, and all of their fathers were often declared to be absent or inadequate. His character was often somewhat of a straight man and his British sensibility served as counterpoint to the stereotypical Southern California characters and setting. As the Watcher, librarian, and general authority figure, Giles' character was often used to deliver the expository scene of an episode.

Character arc

In his early years with Buffy, he also worked as the librarian at Sunnydale High School. However, with the destruction of the school, he took over a magic shop, The Magic Box, in the town. Over time, and with Buffy becoming older and wiser, he found his services as a Watcher required less and less, and eventually decided to return to his native England, moving to a place near Bath.

Being a Watcher for Giles is continuing a family profession; his father was a Watcher as well as his grandmother Edna Giles. It was believed that being a Watcher is a calling as much as being a Slayer is.

Young Giles didn't like the idea of a calling and he left university for a while to rebel. He met up with a crowd that included Ethan Rayne, Philip Henry, Diedre Page, and started his involvement with black magics, and demon summoning. He was known by the nickname "Ripper".

Giles went back to answer his calling as a Watcher out of guilt and/or a sense of awakening, when one of their friends was killed as a result of summoning Eyghon, a demon that possesses the dead or the unconscious. Ripper's group summoned the demon, because the Eyghon demon gives the host it possesses a sense of ecstasy.

When Eyghon returned decades later, all of Ripper's former group who wore the tattooed mark of Eyghon on their bodies were killed, with the exception of Giles and Ethan Rayne.

After Buffy's death in the fifth season of the show, Giles planned to return to England permanently, but the very day he left Buffy was brought back from the dead. When he learned of this he returned briefly before deciding that his presence was preventing Buffy from assuming responsibility for her own life (and for Dawn) and so left again.

Months later he again returned after Willow's girlfriend, Tara, was killed and Willow, addicted to dark magic, began a killing spree of revenge. He told everybody that he had returned, gifted with great magical power, to defeat Willow where in fact he knew she was too strong and so tricked her into draining him of his magic, allowing Xander to reason with her as the "good" magic brought out her natural love and compassion, draining the evil energy. This plan summarises Giles well - a combination of mystical and intellectual prowess.

After this he returned to England with Willow for her rehabilitation, returning to Sunnydale after The First Evil began its attack on the Slayer line and destroyed the Watchers' Council, bringing with him the remaining Potential Slayers.

After the First was defeated and Sunnydale was destroyed he traveled to Europe with Buffy and presumably began recreating the Watcher's Council.

Giles's personal relationships were never fully clear, but the writers tinkered with the possibility of Buffy's mother, Joyce, as his romantic interest. He also had several liaisons with a British-African woman named Olivia, an old friend of his (Giles's "orgasm friend").

Future

There has been talk about a spinoff series from Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the BBC called Ripper, though it is thought (in mid-2004) that this is no longer likely to happen.