About the Ted incident
Dec. 16th, 2025 06:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annavereI keep running across this Buffy take on Tumblr, which is that Buffy should have brought up the Ted incident with Faith. And if it was brought up at the round table with the Scoobies, sure, excellent continuity. But bringing it up with Faith? Like that was going to help reach her? Honestly, not mentioning it was one of the smartest things Buffy did during 'Consequences.'
Faith was already bitter about golden girl Buffy, forgiven for everything Faith could ever do wrong. How would Buffy saying "I've been there. In fact, I did worse! I killed a man because I was angry and went at him with slayer strength and wouldn't stop hitting him until he was dead because I never liked him anyway. Oh, and then he turned out to be a robot! Whew! Lucky for me! But I totally get how these things happen."
Obviously, Buffy wouldn't have said it that way - but that is what Faith would have heard. It would not have helped, not even a little. Buffy, the girl with all the luck, didn't kill a man even when she tried.
Not bringing it up was the smartest thing Buffy did in that messy situation.
The argument I haven't seen is for what Giles should have said. Lots of people blame him for Faith's living situation, but I've never seen anyone point out he had the golden opportunity to deescalate Faith's panic at the outset. She went to him first (to sell out Buffy, but still). Why didn't he give her the same spiel he later gave Buffy? "It's tragic, but accidents have happened."
Faith would attempt to counter. "You're only saying that because it's Buffy who killed him. If it was the other way around..."
And Giles would say, in his most soothing voice, that if their positions were reversed and Buffy had come in telling him that Faith had accidentally killed a man, Giles would tell her the same thing (because he does, in canon). And he won't be involving the council, and he doesn't care which slayer killed the man. This is exactly the point where Giles letting his mask slip and being a bit of a cold bastard would help Faith.
"Nightly war" is a philosophy Faith could get behind. Sure, it's morally gray (like Giles himself) but it might have kept her from running to the Mayor. She was right there. Wesley wasn't in position to eavesdrop yet. The whole thing could have been avoided.
I love Giles. I will defend him in most things, including many choices that fans smack him around for, but this oversight was really bad on his part. Of course, her accusing Buffy probably put his hackles up and things rapidly snowballed afterward. Perhaps his British reserve simply needed another cup of tea to thaw, and he'd planned to approach Faith with that very line of reasoning after she had a few hours to calm down and he'd had equal time to gear up for the conversation.
(There I go, defending him, because he was never the most skilled at understanding teen girls, and because of his own deep shame about what happened to Randall, and because he was not at his best emotionally after the earlier events of the season, to say nothing of the previous one).
Anyway, Giles had the potentially winning argument here. Buffy, with regards to Ted, absolutely did not. That is all.
Faith was already bitter about golden girl Buffy, forgiven for everything Faith could ever do wrong. How would Buffy saying "I've been there. In fact, I did worse! I killed a man because I was angry and went at him with slayer strength and wouldn't stop hitting him until he was dead because I never liked him anyway. Oh, and then he turned out to be a robot! Whew! Lucky for me! But I totally get how these things happen."
Obviously, Buffy wouldn't have said it that way - but that is what Faith would have heard. It would not have helped, not even a little. Buffy, the girl with all the luck, didn't kill a man even when she tried.
Not bringing it up was the smartest thing Buffy did in that messy situation.
The argument I haven't seen is for what Giles should have said. Lots of people blame him for Faith's living situation, but I've never seen anyone point out he had the golden opportunity to deescalate Faith's panic at the outset. She went to him first (to sell out Buffy, but still). Why didn't he give her the same spiel he later gave Buffy? "It's tragic, but accidents have happened."
Faith would attempt to counter. "You're only saying that because it's Buffy who killed him. If it was the other way around..."
And Giles would say, in his most soothing voice, that if their positions were reversed and Buffy had come in telling him that Faith had accidentally killed a man, Giles would tell her the same thing (because he does, in canon). And he won't be involving the council, and he doesn't care which slayer killed the man. This is exactly the point where Giles letting his mask slip and being a bit of a cold bastard would help Faith.
"Nightly war" is a philosophy Faith could get behind. Sure, it's morally gray (like Giles himself) but it might have kept her from running to the Mayor. She was right there. Wesley wasn't in position to eavesdrop yet. The whole thing could have been avoided.
I love Giles. I will defend him in most things, including many choices that fans smack him around for, but this oversight was really bad on his part. Of course, her accusing Buffy probably put his hackles up and things rapidly snowballed afterward. Perhaps his British reserve simply needed another cup of tea to thaw, and he'd planned to approach Faith with that very line of reasoning after she had a few hours to calm down and he'd had equal time to gear up for the conversation.
(There I go, defending him, because he was never the most skilled at understanding teen girls, and because of his own deep shame about what happened to Randall, and because he was not at his best emotionally after the earlier events of the season, to say nothing of the previous one).
Anyway, Giles had the potentially winning argument here. Buffy, with regards to Ted, absolutely did not. That is all.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-16 05:00 pm (UTC)My own take on why Giles held back to much with Faith in general (including not offering her a different place to live) is that it's - subconsciously, I really doubt he's aware of that when it happens - because connecting with Buffy in the way he did, against all his training, scares him somewhat. Because he knows the avarage Slayer life span. And Buffy already died once. Being emotionally there for another Slayer, who'll likely also die young, is just too much. Again, I don't believe he consciously reasons that. Just that it's going on in the depth of his subconsciousness.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-17 11:53 am (UTC)I love your theory about Giles' subconscious fear. That is my main defense of his character when he abandons Buffy in season six. Her death was his nightmare all the way back in the first season, and he'd lived it, and could not face being asked to do so again (because nothing fundamental had changed).
It makes sense that fear would damage his ability to form an attachment to Faith (especially considering he'd gotten along very well with Kendra and, despite having a Watcher and being by the book, she'd died very quickly). Being the main Watcher is not an easy position. That's why Travers says the Cruciamentum tests the Watcher as well, and why Buffy complains the Watcher journals always just stop with the Slayer dying. It's a job that breaks the people who do it.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-17 02:15 am (UTC)I mean, you're right, I don't think Buffy could've brought up Ted, not to Faith, because "I killed a robot, but I thought he was a man first" was not nearly the same thing and Faith would've had another "oh, look, another Saint Buffy moment, you have no idea what it's like to be me!!" Which, not true, but also not entirely not true. In season three, their differences were in some ways far greater than their similarities.
And Giles had a chance to intervene! He could have! Right then! But I feel like he was very protective of "his" Slayer at the expense of another one, and there was probably a better time, and if he'd had a chance to think, he'd have realized there was a better way - and he might've been kicking himself later. I do think he did kick himself later. I hope.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-17 12:10 pm (UTC)There's not a lot I love in season seven of this show, but Buffy and Faith really, finally, figuring each other out was a major plus. As teens, both highly defensive, both dealing (badly) with their own traumas, it was not a good time for them to understand each other, even before the death of Finch.
Giles probably kicked himself over all kinds of things, but in the heat of the moment it is so easy to make the wrong call. It's also possible he didn't intervene because he wanted to hear Buffy's version of events before he committed to any particular action regarding Faith - although being noncommittal is an action in its own right, and it had consequences (oh gee, there's the episode title!).
no subject
Date: 2025-12-18 04:23 am (UTC)Season seven got. Weird. But a large portion of the stuff with Buffy and Faith was what I dreamed about. They accepted each other's differences, understood each other, and it just worked for them. It was an amazing foreshadowing of the end of the series, going from Chosen One to Chosen Two to Chosen Multitude.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-18 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-18 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-18 12:37 am (UTC)Also, there was a visual distinction between Buffy and Faith in season three, in both costume and set design. Faith's dingy motel room was part of that divide between the slayers. The contrast wouldn't have been there if Faith had been immediately put in a decent apartment - even if that would have been the more sensible thing to do!
Agree
Date: 2026-03-26 12:26 am (UTC)Re: Agree
Date: 2026-03-27 12:01 am (UTC)Dopy comment
Re: Dopy comment
Date: 2026-03-27 12:59 pm (UTC)I should probably invest some time in making more icons. One of these days.