Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Spotlight On…

Giles!

Name: Rupert Giles
Born: 1954 in London, England

Backstory:

Told of his destiny to become a Watcher at the age of ten, Giles rebelled. He dropped out of Oxford University and began abusing the dark arts. Seeking cheap highs, he and his friends summoned Eyghon, a grotesque demon that possessed the body of unconscious or dead persons nearby. It wasn’t until one of the group was killed during a possession that he accepted his destiny and gave up the dark arts in order to focus on his training as a Watcher.

Previous Job: Before coming to Sunnydale to serve as Buffy’s watcher he was the curator of the British Museum.

Romance: Much to Buffy and the rest of the Scooby gang’s disgust, Giles does have quite a few romantic interludes during the 7 seasons of the show.

- Jenny Calendar – Computer teacher at Sunnydale High School. The pair slowly developed a romance over the course of the second season, ending tragically when Jenny is murdered.

- Joyce Summers – Brief and eternally humiliating to them both, Giles and Buffy’s mother succumbed to teenage-ish lust after eating candy that magically turns all adults into their younger selves. The pair never speak of their indiscretion afterwards, assumedly because they’re too embarrassed.

- Olivia – An English woman who seems to know Giles from ‘back in the day’ we see her few times during the show. In “Hush” it seems that the truth about the darkness roaming the earth is too much for her and she implies that it might be over between them.

- Anya – During a spell gone wrong, Giles and Anya mistake themselves for lovers.

Quotes:

“Because it's a killer snot monster from outer space... I did not say that.”

“Where am I? I'm an unemployed librarian with a tendency to get knocked on the head.”

“Well, uh, something... something, um, very strange is happening.”

“Magic! Magic's all balderdash and chicanery. I'm afraid we don't know a bloody thing. Except I seem to be British, don't I? Uh, and a man. With ... glasses. Well, that narrows it down considerably.”

“Since Angel lost his soul, he's regained his sense of whimsy.”

“The Bringer's dumb.”

“Could it possibly get uglier? I used to be a highly respected Watcher, and now I'm a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily. I just wish I could sleep.”

“Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell... musty and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is... it has no texture, no context. It's there and then it's gone. If it's to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible. It should be, um, smelly.”

“Once again I teeter at the precipice of the generation gap.”

2 comments:

Marlena said...

My most favorite quote by Giles in the whole entire series is the dwarf one. It never fails to send me into gales of laughter.

IvanovaKnits said...

I love it whenever he sings. Very sexy.