Season Seven is deeply problematic from a writing standpoint, so my answer is a mixture of Doyleist (extratextual reasons) and Watsonian (character reasons).
Watsonian: yes, Giles has a warrior-side, and has done since the character-reworking in "Halloween" and "The Dark Age." He says in "First Date" that this is a war, and he's behaving accordingly. And he does not rely on Buffy to solve the problem. (It's important to me that he doesn't torture the Bringer, however.)
But I would also note, as Barb says above, that the man has lost the institution by which and against which he has defined himself his adult life. He has lost friends. He has lost resources and backing. He has been doing the work of a dozen men since then, travelling continually on the grim job of collecting Potentials, exhausted and stretched past bearing. AND, to extend and slightly counter sahiya's point, no one has hugged HIM (except Anya and Co in "The Killer in Me" when they tackle him in the desert). He's had no comfort or support -- not from Buffy or Willow, certainly, who are taken up with their own concerns.
Doyleist: Because the thrust of the show is "It's All About Buffy," in Season Seven the writers *take away* any Giles character work they've done to save room for more feel-sorry-for-Buffy moments -- Joss and Co wrote and then discarded scenes in which (in LMPTM) he talks about how killing Ben has affected him, and in Chosen how the First had appeared to him as Jenny.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-07-06 10:28 am (UTC)Watsonian: yes, Giles has a warrior-side, and has done since the character-reworking in "Halloween" and "The Dark Age." He says in "First Date" that this is a war, and he's behaving accordingly. And he does not rely on Buffy to solve the problem. (It's important to me that he doesn't torture the Bringer, however.)
But I would also note, as Barb says above, that the man has lost the institution by which and against which he has defined himself his adult life. He has lost friends. He has lost resources and backing. He has been doing the work of a dozen men since then, travelling continually on the grim job of collecting Potentials, exhausted and stretched past bearing. AND, to extend and slightly counter
Doyleist: Because the thrust of the show is "It's All About Buffy," in Season Seven the writers *take away* any Giles character work they've done to save room for more feel-sorry-for-Buffy moments -- Joss and Co wrote and then discarded scenes in which (in LMPTM) he talks about how killing Ben has affected him, and in Chosen how the First had appeared to him as Jenny.