Saturday 8 April 2017

G is for Giles

This month I'm participating in A to Z Challenge, where 100's of bloggers around the world challenge themselves to write every day for the month of April, working their way through the alphabet.  I'm stitching the Buffy The Vampire Slayer alphabet cross stitch pattern (available from my Etsy store).  Each day I will share that letter's stitching, as well as a bit about the relevant character.

G is for Rupert Giles



Rupert Giles was Buffy’s Watcher (mentor, guide and trainer) and surrogate father figure.  Giles was born in 1954 in London, England, into a family who had worked for the Watchers Council for at least three generations.  Giles rebelled against the family legacy and became a rogue magician, until the death of a friend led him back to the Council.  The Watchers Council sent Giles to Sunnydale in the mid 1990’s to become the school librarian, and await the arrival of the new Slayer.  Giles developed a father-like relationship with Buffy, which lead to him being fired from the Council in 1998.  When the school burnt down at the end of that school year (end of season 3), Giles was out of a job.

A year later (beginning of season 5), Giles purchased The Magic Box, an occult store in Sunnydale, and later that same year he was reinstated in his position as Watcher.  Giles left Sunnydale in season 6, when he realised his presence was preventing Buffy from taking on her adult responsibilities.  Giles returned to Sunnydale in Season 7 with a group of Potential Slayers in order to help Buffy stop the First Evil and prevent the hellmouth from opening.  After destroying Sunnydale he joined the others on the big yellow bus riding off into the sunset (it’s a big bus – room for everyone).

Giles was the adult for the show – the surrogate, visible parent (we never meet Xander’s parents, and only meet Willow’s mother once), the voice of reason and intelligence, the grown-up in the room.  He was the dry (as in sarcastic) British voice surrounded by Americans, and the well-read gentleman in a room full of teenagers.  Giles showed us that intelligence was power, and that smart could be sexy (particularly when he starts singing).  Giles showed us that sometimes the best way to show people you love them is to take a step back or walk away.  He also showed us that sometimes the best way to show people you love them is to throw them across the room using magic (like when Willow went bad).  Giles taught us that our teenage years don’t have to define our adult life, that redemption is possible, and that even the quiet bookish person can have a rebellious streak.

Anthony Stewart Head will always be Giles to me.  I have a hard time watching Merlin and Little Britain and that episode of Doctor Who.  I find myself screaming at the TV "Giles, what are you doing?!"


Happy Stitching.

36 comments:

  1. I'm learning more about your teenage obsessions every day... and still wonder that I let you watch....

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  2. Thanks for visiting me blog. Your theme made me smile even though I never saw the show. I enjoyed how you are pulling together the characters and your embroidery.

    G is for Gretna Green

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    Anne Young

    Anne's family history

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  3. Brilliant - it must have taken hours to stitch all of these characters!
    Debbie

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    1. Thanks Debbie. It usually takes me between 2 and 5 hours to stitch each character. It took me about a month of evening stitching to finish the alphabet

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  4. cute. are all the characters going to come together in one piece, or remain separate?
    Animaelia

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    1. They are all on one piece of fabric. If I remember I'll post a picture of the letters to date as my WIP Wednesday post :)

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  5. Well, I've learned something. Next time I drive through Sunningdale (which I often do) I'll think of this! Thanks for visiting Amble Bay

    Another day in Amble Bay!

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  6. I love love love Buffy the Vampire Slayer! If I could, I'd love all your Buffy patterns sewn into a quilt!

    Grisham

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    1. Hi Julie. Thanks :) My mum (Ozzypip) has sewn a few of my finished pieces into quilts or similar over the years. The pattern is available on my Etsy store if you want to check it out ;)

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  7. I always look forward to your A to Z each year. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was one of my favorites back in the day!
    ~Katie
    TheCyborgMom

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    1. Hi Katie! Good to see you again. :) Hope you're enjoying

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  8. You have a very nice theme! Embroidery and information awesome combo.
    Enjoyed reading it, Thanks for sharing 😊
    Best Wishes!

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  9. I always had a giggle over Giles, especially in the early seasons, when he was being, let's face it, a dreadful librarian. Sexy or not - and he was! - he kept the library only as a clubhouse for the Scooby Gang. I think I only saw someone else borrowing from the library once in the entire series, another where a non-Scooby wandered in and was glared out and one where Cordelia wanted to borrow a book for her studies and said something sarcastic about the emptiness of the library.

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    1. I agree, he was a terrible librarian from that point of view! I know what you mean - there was an episode when Jonathan walked in to borrow a book and it was a bit of "don't you knock? What are you doing here?" from the Scoobies.

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  10. This is a lot of fun! I used to be a big Buffy fan back then.

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    1. Thanks Nick :) It was/is such a good show

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  11. that's so wonderfully done. :D Lovely idea for A to Z :D
    Yogasana

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  12. What neat, Buffy VS characters. I will be interested to see how you handle the hard letters.
    Thanks for visiting my blog too.
    A to Z Theme: Sharing Family History via #GenealogyPhotoADay
    Regards Fran from TravelGenee Blog

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    1. Thanks Fran. There's a couple of letters where I had to get a bit inventive!

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  13. Oh, yes, Giles was definitely proof that knowledge is sexy. Mmmmm.

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  14. Oh yeah. I still have a huge crush on Giles, and I wound up marrying a Giles, so there you go. I've always loved smart, and I've never done stupid. I know what you mean about Anthony Head. He played an incredible villain on Scyfy's short lived Dominion series, and he does evil way too well. At one point I was curled up on my side of the couch and told my husband, "I miss Giles." I do miss Giles.

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  15. I can remember Anthony Head when he was the Gold Blend advert hunky neighbour! Not having watched Buffy - did he play a Brit or did he fake a good USA accent? It must be quite difficult stitching characters with glasses when they are such a small size as this. http://pempispalace.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/g-is-for-great-great-grandma-gertrude.html

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    1. He was a Brit, so all future characters who appeared as Watchers had to be Brits too. :)

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  16. Oh my goodness what you are doing is so awesome. Kudos! The stitches are creative and colorful and made me look over and over again. And Buffy! you'll be evolving own crew of fans. I agree with you on Giles, its hard to see him as the bad guy. But that calm demeanor of his does work for villains. Great post.

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    1. Thanks, glad you enjoyed it :) Anthony does do evil so well, which I think is why I really don't like it when he does.

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  17. Well there was Buffy's mom as an adult figure (at least till they killed her off), but I always liked Giles better. Although I thought he and Joyce should have definitely become a couple, they were so good together. :D

    I actually love that episode of Doctor Who, but not because he's in it (although that's a bonus). I love it because Rose gets to meet Sarah Jane and after their absolutely hilarious conversation where they try to one-up each other, they then realize how silly they're being and start comparing notes and laughing together. Then Ten comes along, sees them laughing together and (rightly) gets worried. It's my favorite scene in the whole episode.

    I love how Giles could stand up to anyone, he didn't care if it was a Slayer or a witch (Dark Willow), he even told the Council to sod off a couple times. The only other person who successfully stood up to Dark WIllow was Xander, when he finally talked her down. It says something that the two people in the show that seem the least badass most of the time are actually the ones able to stand up to an overpowered witch and not get themselves killed in the process. :P

    I read somewhere that Anthony is actually the polar opposite of Giles, his personality in real life is more like Spike (without the vampire part of course), and James Marsters in real life is actually more like Giles, so they would actually emulate each other when playing their characters. James even modeled his British accent (he's actually from Texas, I think? Somewhere in the US anyway) after Anthony's actual one (he uses a more refined accent as Giles). His actual one is more like Chris Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, if that helps, because I think they're from the same part of England.

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    1. That episode of Doctor Who is lots of fun - particularly that moment between Rose and Sarah Jane.
      I knew that James Marsters was from the USA (he reads the Dresden Files books and I was very put off by his accent for the first bit!), but hadn't heard that he'd modelled his British accent on Anthony's. Very cool piece of trivia :)

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  18. I envy your creativity!
    Dropping by from the A to Z Challenge

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    Sandra, Aspiring family historian, fellow participant in the #AtoZchallenge

    Sandra's Ancestral Research Journal

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