Angel 5: Is That It? Am I Done?
[NAFDA] This is where we talk about the show! Anything that's aired in the US (including promos) is fair game. No spoilers though -- if you post one by accident, an admin will delete it.
I think I just know a couple of May/December, December/May relationships that work, that have a fascinating dynamic that I'd wish on other people I care about. It seems to me that neither Buffy nor Giles ever had much chance for peace and a quiet contentment when they weren't on task. And I see, years on, that they could give that to each other, provide a safe haven for each other, a we know exactly what sort of wolf howls outside the door but for here and now, this is magic and this is us.
I'm not explaining well. Suffice it to say that the relationship--ten years on, or so--has never bothered me, and for the characters who won my heart, I've imagined it and wished it for them. But my heart and mind are not yours, and you need to wish and imagine your own endings and continuings.
I'll just be dreaming in the corner.
Buffy/Giles set anywhere during the course of the show is squicky because she's both underage and his student.
But there are points during the show when she's neither. Not a student, not being Watched by him, not underaged. Does it still squick you then?
And is the underage only important in combination with the student (since she was underaged with Angel)?
"Underage" meaning "not an adult," rather than the strictly legal sense. I wouldn't consider S7 Buffy a child, but I wouldn't consider her an adult, either.
Of course, I was always pretty squicked by Buffy/Angel, too -- someone 200+ having the hots for a teenager is not my idea of romance.
(And edited above. Sorry Beverly!)
I think I just know a couple of May/December, December/May relationships that work, that have a fascinating dynamic that I'd wish on other people I care about.
I have no problem with May/December in general, just particular ones, and this pings those problems for me. I would be less squicked by Willow/Giles than Buffy/Giles. Tara/Giles or Anya/Giles wouldn't have squicked me at all.
'S fine. And thanks. I'm always a bit reluctant to go against the prevailing squick, so it's good to know I'm not the only one lacking it.
I would be less squicked by Willow/Giles than Buffy/Giles.
S7 would have put me in the W/G squick place. It's not just teaching, so much, but emotional, I dunno, repacking from a place of authority. No place for semen!
Anya/Giles would have rocked, and that's way May/December.
So who has Buffy boffed? Three men much older than her (Spike, Angel, the Immortal), one asshole, and her TA.
Tsk, tsk.
But the rest of the point stands -- he's all the father she's got, usefully, and she need[s/ed] him so much that way that I think anything groiny would be inappropriate -- for a REALLY long time.
I totally agree. And while May/December is to some people all well and good (I'm fine with it so long as May is "past mid-20s" and May never had a quasiparental relationship with December), May/December with someone who was once your teacher/mentor/father stand-in remains something that I find disturbing.
It's not the age difference, but the roots of the relationship, that bothers me.
I'm glad other folks are willing to stand up for the possible acceptability of B/G. It's damned hard to pull off, and I've seen maybe one writer who has managed it, but it can, I believe, be done.
And, as with all pairings, nobody has to read it who doesn't want to. F/F pairings will never be a fave of mine. But that's my thing.
I totally agree that age per se doesn't matter so much, although I still think that if Angel looked like he was 200 years old more of us would be bothered by the B/A relationship. But as for Buffy/Giles, I think it would be wrong wrong wrong for that relationship to be sexual at all. I guess partly because, as a college teacher, I feel how wrong wrong wrong it is for teachers to be sexually involved with students (even if they are "adults"). And partly it's the quasi-parental thing. But it goes beyond that, I think. I just think that the Slayer/Watcher relationship as I understand it is so unique and special that I want to keep it unique. I.e. no s-e-x.
Call me shallow, but people who look 200 years old having sex will bother me, even if it's with someone their own age.
It's a thing.
