#giles stans maybe this post isn't for you!

[jennycalendar]

it takes so much time and integrity and innovation and love to write jenny well and sometimes i feel like that goes completely over the heads of my readers ANYWAY and everyone just laser-focuses on giles. that man does not deserve shit. i am so tired of having to qualify my takes on giles to say “well actually he was having a hard time too” like you know what? if i give giles this amount of leeway and i STILL get stupid fucking comments i am going to say it outright: giles was a horrible boyfriend to jenny, a horrible father to buffy, and a horrible person in general. we act as a collective like he is this great sympathetic gentle figure when he is constantly actively inflicting emotional damage on people in his life, ESPECIALLY women. he doesn’t respect jenny’s boundaries and doesn’t care about what she wants if it conflicts with his desire to have her in his life. he is openly and consistently derisive towards a teenage boy in a textually abusive home -- and yes he DOES know that xander’s parents are shitty; xander talks about it CONSTANTLY in the form of a joke that is too awful to be untrue, and there is no way at least one of those jokes wasn’t within earshot of giles. he absolutely checks out when it comes to willow’s magic, making a few vague attempts to dissuade her before treating her magic like a useful tool that can help the mission at large, and then when she starts doing fucked up stuff, he comes down HARD with the discipline despite never doing so before, to the point where her first reaction is to be surprised and injured that he isn’t proud -- because that’s what she’s learned to expect. HE DRUGS BUFFY AND BREAKS HER TRUST. absolutely he is a sympathetic character but this fandom as a whole cuts him this absurd amount of slack while coming down horrifically hard on female characters and i am so so fucking sick of it. 

[buffyanon]

All this talk about Buffy and Giles and post-patrol patch-ups last night got me wanting to write an early season 3 ficlet where Buffy is (again) injured really badly while out on patrol with Giles, and he takes her home and fixes her up and puts her to bed in her room (for the first time in months). And basically spends the whole night running back and forth to her room to check on her. But then Joyce comes home from an art buying weekend early and sees Buffy isn't there and FLIPS (1/2)

And goes straight to Giles' to tell him that Buffy's run off again. Only to have him tell her that that's not the case, and then to awkwardly explain to Joyce that Buffy is upstairs asleep in the guest room, that she's hurt very badly (but should be fine in a few days), and that this has been routine for them for going on three years now. Idk, I just think all the character reactions would be really interesting in this scenario. Joyce having to confront (again) that there's this whole other aspect to her daughter's life that she's unaware of. That a new parental figure has taken not only Hank's place, but hers' as well. Giles, meanwhile, having to confront that he's sort of usurped Joyce's right to be involved in all this, without even giving her a chance. Oh, and for fun, let's say Buffy wakes up in the middle of a particularly heated discussion between them and walks out into the hallway And is all "Mom! What are you doing here?" **shrinks back into the room and prepares herself for a repeat of her "welcome home" party bc Joyce has got that combination extremely hurt/extremely furious expression on her face. Idk where this is going and tbh I didn't think I had this much to say about it, but you're like the only person who gets my need for Buffy x Giles family angst so here you go

I’m pretty sure this has been in my inbox for about 3 weeks or more which is an absolute travesty because it’s absolutely gold. Also maybe the first multi-part ask I’ve ever gotten? When I logged on and saw I had 4 unread messages I thought I accidentally started discourse. Or that my super power wore off and spyke stans decided to give me what I’ve had coming for years, angry anons defending his honor. This was such a happy surprise. 

Okay well I’m not trying to bash on Joyce, because I do think she’s a nuanced character who improves with time, but her reaction to things that she can’t understand or control is anger. Which sucks in this situation, because her daughter’s hurt. This time the anger would be directed at Giles, but when Buffy steps in to defend him, she’d get some of it too. 

Joyce probably didn’t even know that Buffy had a room at Giles’s house. She doesn’t like that. She’s Buffy’s mom, and if Buffy’s going to be regularly spending the night at her watcher/librarian’s house, that’s something she feels she should at least know about. She would want Buffy to come home with her, or go to the hospital, but Buffy keeps insisting that she’s a slayer and this has happened a lot before, she’ll be fine. (Not to mention that she h a t e s hospitals.)

Extra fun- Dawn would probably be there too, I assume? Because she’s little at this point and Joyce wouldn’t just leave her alone in the house. She was supposed to stay in the car but she’s a curious little kid, so that doesn’t happen. The fighting stops when they all realize she’s there, but it’s...really really tense between Joyce and Giles for a while after that.