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.

The only B/G I've ever read was really desperate and sad. And now, it's the only way I can see them, when they are mentioned as a possible pair. It's a hollow, sad thing, and they're just shells. It was a beautifully painful story, but not how I want them to be.

I want more for my babies than that.

Call me shallow, but people who look 200 years old having sex will bother me, even if it's with someone their own age.

ita, we'll be shallow together. ook.

::cue Yoda::

"When nine hundred years old you reach, look this good you will not!"

Buffy and Yoda? Angel and Yoda? Giles and Yoda? I have no problem with any of these pairings.

I've read Buffy/Giles fic I loved. It was by yahtzee, I think.

Teacher/student does squick me, so it takes effort for it to work. Most Snape/insert-student-here fic, which is ridiculously common in HP fandom, for example, bugs the shit out of me. But I've read some pretty good long-post-school Snape/Hermione fic. I think it works if they've been long enough apart from each other that the old roles of student/teacher have dissipated, and the relationship can begin again.

Anya/Giles would have rocked, and that's way May/December.

Yeah, but in a way totally contrary to appearance. She's older than Giles by a greater factor than Angel was compared to Buffy. (And way eviler, to boot.)

I've read Buffy/Giles fic I loved. It was by yahtzee, I think.

This explains much. The woman was able to write Angel/Cordelia fic which, while not to my taste, got past my "Burn the writer!" reaction to such stories.