Potential Rupert Giles Prompt Puppy (don't say "bunny" or Anya will freak, 'kay?)

[red_satin_doll]

ETA 10/08/13: Dead Things screencap

Has anyone ever written a Buffyverse fic in which Giles, not Willow, becomes the Big Bad? The idea occurred to me not long after reading  the episode notes for WTTH  by 2maggie2

In the Bronze, Buffy sees Giles up on the balcony, and he calls her attention to the others out there dancing -- she’s separate from them, with a duty to protect them.  (The scene gets called back in season six in Dead Things when Spike adds another layer to Buffy’s fundamental separation from others – but it starts here in the very first episode).

(Dead Things screencap courtesy of www.bloodqueen.com)

Maggie is talking specifically within the context of how Buffy is separated from her friends/family as the Slayer from the very first episode, but her comments brought back the memory of one of my first visceral reactions to the series.  There was something astonishingly creepy about the way Giles is suddenly "there", beside her, an older man next to a 16-year-old girl (foreshadowing Bangel), and I didn't have a "bead" on his character yet. The idea that he would turn out to be a villain who betrays Buffy and isn't what he seems, was as likely a notion as anything else.  All of which turns out to be true and false at the same time: he doesn't turn out to be a villain but he does have a dark past as the Ripper (as does Angel), he does betray Buffy at times (Helpless, LMPTM), he kills a man behind Buffy's back knowing she wouldn't approve (The Gift).

And when I watched the balcony scene in Dead Things ("Alone in dark with me") my mind was racing back to the parallel scene in WTTH, giving both scenes greater emotional power - foreshadowing squared to th nth egree. The writers surely could not have imagined any of these events when this was written and shot, bu bless* them for knowingly or unknowingly providing the bones right from the start for everything that was to come.

So if I'd had to guess which of the Core Four was most likely to become a Big Bad down the road at the time I was watching S1, I probably would have said Giles.  So it got me wondering if "Giles as the Big Bad" has been done as a fanfiction.  I can't imagine someone in the last 15 years hasn't played with the concept.  If Willow as the Big Bad was fraught with emotional turmoil, the drama and angst of Giles in that role could make LMPTM look like a Sunday cake-walk.

So, gentle flisters - point me the way to one that's already been written, or let that little puppy play around in your head for a while until you come up with something grand. FYI : I've decided to adopt the term plot puppy because: it's still a small, cute animal that you can stroke and love and huggle, and it won't upset Anya needlessly. In this case, a puppy with very sharp teeth that isn't nearly as harmless as it looks.

ETA: beer_good_foamy  and I both ended up rec'ing the same story in the convo thread below,  "All Set Down" desoto_hia873 , an AU take on The Gift (and as you know I seem to have a kink for those.)  Giles is forced to perform a terrible but necessary act.  It doesn't quite fit the "Giles as Big Bad" criteria but it really is quite good.

** (Yes, I know Joss is an atheist. So am I. Or maybe agnostic. Let's go with "undecided".)

Posted on Dreamwidth http://red-satin-doll.dreamwidth.org/11747.html

Comments

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Interesting! Really good point. I can't think of a Giles as the Big Bad fic offhand. I know there are a few fics where he's the bad guy, (I just read one the other day) but they're usually pretty blatant basher-fics. IE, Giles is a bad guy by arrogance and trying to control Buffy's life rather than an actual threat.

You make some excellent points though about the way Buffy & Giles are set up in the first episode; I wonder why I haven't read more Evil giles? Maybe because almost everyone likes him?

You don't see a lot of Evil Anya fic either, and she's a canon bad guy.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I think that "liking" has a lot to do with it. I've also read a lot of bashing fics; and I understand both Giles' motives in-story (see my note to rebcake downthread), as well as the bashers' reasons; but it always makes for an unpleasant read. I did recently read a post-The Gift story (can't find the link) that initially seemed to be yet another story bashing Giles and the Scoobies (they're the worst, yadda yadda) to make Spike look good; but then eventually it evolves so that I understood that the writer was portraying the situation from Spike's POV as he and Giles come to a moment of shared understanding. Quite clever, actually.

Oh - just yesterday I read a story where Giles does something "necessary but horrible" - another AU take on The Gift, by desoto_hia873, "All Set Down" from 2005. Not a "Big Bad" fic, but quite good. I'd forgotten it when I wrote this.
http://desoto-hia873.livejournal.com/162450.html

And I have no idea why there aren't more Evil Anya fics. Maybe because for most of the run her role is a comedic one, and the one episode that does deal with her past seriously is also the one that made me cry when the sword was run through her, in which she was willing to sacrifice her own life to make right what she'd done wrong? (And was willing to make that sacrifice as a demon, btw. Just sayin'.)

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

WOw, that's a gorgeous dark Giles fic. And it builds nicely on his core ruthlessness; it's exactly the kind of darkfic I like. Thanks for the link!

I find it much easier to believe in this kind of dark-Giles than straight-up evil Giles. I think it's part of the Buffy-verse magic; pretty much every character has a darkness that can be drawn out and expanded on. So much more satisfying than bashing!

Selfless is one of my favorite episodes in the whole series. And so very foreshaddowy!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

WOw, that's a gorgeous dark Giles fic. And it builds nicely on his core ruthlessness

Doesn't it, though? I could sort of see the ending coming from a key scene in the middle of the tale but that only made it better because it increased my anxiety (the way knowing Tara was going to die sometime in S6 made me flip out when she fell down the stairs in Normal Again. Sometimes suspecting what's coming is worse than being blindsided because I find myself hoping against hope it won't happen.)

I actually got turned on to desoto's fics via a rec from Barb on her LJ, for "Death's Second Self" which is definitely dark and tragic.
http://desoto-hia873.livejournal.com/272438.html
And I'm just starting her post-NFA Spuffy fic (another kink of mine), "Wish You Were Here"
http://desoto-hia873.livejournal.com/279117.html

I think it's part of the Buffy-verse magic; pretty much every character has a darkness that can be drawn out and expanded on. So much more satisfying than bashing!

EXACTLY. That's why I love each one of them, even Xander (ok not Riley or Angel. I have my limits). There were actually so many ways all of their stories could have gone, which is what makes so much fanfiction possible.

And bashing makes me cry and kills fairies. Bashing is not of the good.

Selfless is one of my favorite episodes in the whole series.

When they cut from Anya's singing to her pinned against the wall with Buffy's sword, a single tear running down her cheek, I completely LOST it. That was the last time the series made me cry. (I don't recall if I cried during Chosen, and if I did it was more a "well now it's done" sort of thing rather than the deep well of sadness that Selfless tapped into.) Speaking of that ep, lostboy left a comment on my "Dopplegangers (Xander)" meta and Selfless came up quite a bit in my response to him, though mostly in terms of Xander's arc (and The Lie) rather than Anya. And babbled on much longer than necessary, as always. I'd love to explore that ep a bit more at some point. Have you written meta or fic about it?
http://red-satin-doll.livejournal.com/5173.html?thread=161333#t161333