Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Giles’s 10 Best Friends In The Entire Series

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rupert Giles is the Scooby Gang’s odd man out. Pulling double duty as the high school librarian and Buffy’s Watcher leaves Giles precious little time for friendship. When he loses both jobs at the end of season 4, Giles finds himself lonely, as most of his core relationships are with people twenty years younger who are busy exploring adulthood.

Still, as the Scoobies mature, they come to befriend Giles and embrace him as more than just an outsider father figure. Giles also has a few non-Scooby friendships of his own — though not all of them are entirely healthy.

10 Olivia Williams

Olivia Williams is a bit of a mystery, though it’s established that she has known Giles a long time, going back to his Ripper days. She travels from England to visit him a couple of times in season 4 — his “gentleman of leisure” (unemployed) — season. Olivia and Giles have a casual sexual relationship, though after the terrifying Gentlemen terrorize Sunnydale, Olivia confesses that Giles’s world is a little too scary for her and she’s never seen on the show again.

Olivia may not be one of Giles’s long-lasting friends in the show canon, but she really does seem to like him. She knows about the darkest period of Giles’s life and she travels from England to California twice for the sole purpose of spending time with him. As much as the site of Olivia in Giles’s dress shirt might give Buffy the “wiggins,” the pair proves that people can be lovers without romance and still really care about each other.

9 Ethan Rayne

Ethan and Giles go way back and were friends during Giles’s Ripper era. In 1970s England, these two were part of a group that messed around with dark magic. They went their separate ways and while Giles broke good and became a Watcher, Ethan went in the other direction and became a chaos worshipper. He comes to Sunnydale to stir up trouble on a few occasions before getting himself arrested by the Watcher’s Council.

While the best of friends help a person grow, the worst try to drag others down as much as possible. This is what Ethan does to Giles. Still, there’s a special place in Giles’s heart for his old hell-raising friend. During a low point, Giles actually goes for drinks with Ethan to talk about the glory days. Giles may know that Ethan is no good, but it’s still a comfort having someone in his life who knew him back in the day.

8 Xander Harris

Of the core four — Buffy, Giles, Xander, and Willow — Giles and Xander are the least close. Were it not for Xander’s friendship with Buffy, Giles would have no reason to interact with the wise-cracking slacker. Still, though he may find Xander’s quips annoying, Giles relies on him more than he cares to admit. Xander is always ready and willing to do whatever is necessary in fighting evil.

It’s a pity that these two don’t develop a tighter friendship. In many ways, their storylines in season 4 mirror each other as they are both floundering in their changed circumstances. However, both men would likely see it as a major step down to find solace in a friendship with the other. But even though Xander and Giles never have a heart-to-heart, there’s an unspoken connection between the two as the only constant male presences in the Scooby Gang

7 Dawn Summers

When Dawn is young, Giles is filled with dread every time he has to babysit her. Boy bands and cookie dough aren’t his thing. However, like with Buffy, Giles is the closest to a father that Dawn has. He and Willow basically become Dawn’s parents after Buffy dies.

Dawn may not seek out Giles’s company like she does Willow and Tara’s, but the youngest Summers sure wants him in her life. Her tearful goodbye to him when he departs for England speaks volumes. When Giles returns, he slips back into Dawn dad duties like he never left. If Buffy had allowed Dawn to do more research, it’s easy to see her and Giles getting even closer. Though Dawn may drive him bonkers, Giles has nothing but love in his heart for her.

6 Spike

Spike is yet another man who loses his purpose in season 4, as the Initiative implants a chip in his brain that prevents him from hurting humans. When the Scooby Gang takes him in, he and Giles become a sort of odd couple, as the latter is the only one with the time and space required to watch Spike. Though they never become friends in the traditional sense, Giles admits to having watched Passions with the blond vampire.

Though never verbally acknowledged, there is somewhat of a father-son relationship between Giles and Spike. Xander even dreams that Giles trains Spike to be a Watcher and it’s implied that he is envious of this relationship. Also, when Willow’s spell causes the Scoobies to lose their memories, everyone assumes that Giles and Spike are related. The two Englishmen also have parallel storylines, as they both had dark pasts before devoting themselves to the good fight.

5 Joyce Summers

Giles and Joyce have somewhat of a tumultuous relationship, as Joyce resents Giles for knowing Buffy’s secret while she was in the dark. Things are even further complicated when the pair have sex after eating Ethan’s enchanted band candy. After that, things are understandably awkward, but Joyce welcomes Giles as part of Buffy’s life, even having him over for holiday meals.

Things are too complicated for these two to ever become besties, but in a way, they are co-parents to Buffy. Joyce knows that Giles is a big reason why Buffy has lived as a Slayer for so long and Giles has Joyce to thank for raising Buffy into becoming such a capable, incredible woman. It’s implied that Giles carries somewhat of a torch for Joyce, as he mourns her by playing to an album they listened to together when bewitched.

4 Jenny Calendar

Giles may look down at technopagan Jenny Calendar and her new-fangled ways, but any fan can see that he is completely besotted by her. She enjoys their banter just as much and it’s she who asks him out on their first date when he struggles to find the words. Alas, Hellmouth horrors rip them apart time and again, with Angelus murdering Jenny before she and Giles plan to consummate their relationship.

Though they are more doomed lovers than friends, Giles and Jenny fill a lot of emptiness in each other’s lives. Saving the world forces Giles to hang out with a bunch of teenagers all day and night while it seems like all of Jenny’s friends are online. Jenny also appears to be the only person Giles can relax around. It’s not just anyone who can get Rupert Giles to go to a monster truck race.

3 Willow Rosenberg

While Giles begrudgingly accepts Xander’s presence in the Scooby Gang, he is delighted in the nerdy Willow, his junior Watcher of sorts. Willow never complains about research and is eager to learn. The pair have their ups and downs as Willow gets deeper into witchcraft, but that’s mainly because Giles has been there before and knows what a dark path that is.

Giles’s care for Willow is highlighted in season 3 when the gang thinks she has been turned into a vampire. His earnest “She was truly the best of all of us” statement says a lot about his love for her. After she comes back from being Dark Willow, it is Giles who rehabilitates her. Willow even calls him her Dumbledore.

2 Anya Jenkins

If Giles finds Xander annoying, Anya’s voice is like nails on a chalkboard to him. But when he opens the Magic Box and finds himself in over his head, Giles recognizes Anya’s knowledge of marketing and mysticism and offers her a job. The only thing they really have in common is their business, but working side by side for a year brings Giles and Anya closer together than they would have expected. In one hilarious Buffy episode, in addition to thinking Spike is his son, Willow’s spell causes Giles and Anya to think they are engaged.

Outside of their work, it’s clear that Anya finds Giles boring and he thinks she’s obnoxious. Still, Giles gives credit where it’s due and recognizes that in many ways, Anya is a better shopkeeper than he. If he didn’t trust her, he wouldn’t have given her the store. The adorable hug Anya gives Giles when he returns to fight Dark Willow says everything about their relationship.

1 Buffy Summers

Buffy and Giles are from two different worlds and upon first meeting, they don’t get along. But as the years and apocalypses go by, their tension turns to respect, and Buffy and Giles find wholesome familial love. They put their lives on the line for each other time and again, and Giles truly becomes the father Buffy never had.

If it wasn’t for this relationship, the world would have ended a long time ago. Watchers are discouraged from becoming too attached to their Slayers — it’s the reason why Giles is fired from the Council — but these two prove them wrong and become arguably the best Slayer-Watcher duo in history. And when they’re not fighting evil, Buffy and Giles can kick back and laugh and commiserate about their lives like the best of friends.

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