[ SECRET POST #3590 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3590 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05. [posted twice]


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________



11.







Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 42 secrets from Secret Submission Post #513.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Canon may not be explicit about whether or not she sees him as her father figure, but it certainly is explicit that he sees her as a daughter. I'm not sure what you mean by power imbalance, but I do think that if you are going to write the pairing, you can't just ignore what canon makes pretty clear. You have to deal with it somehow.

[(Anonymous)]

Actually canon is explicit that he views her as his Slayer. And also that she wants him to be the stand in for her absent father, but only when it is to her immediate benefit.

[(Anonymous)]

Uh, disagree. If nothing else, there is the episode where he is fired as her watcher because of his caring for her like a daughter. But I think it is actually obvious earlier, at least from the season 1 final where he's prepared to go after the Master instead of her. And there is the way he tries to train her too hard, not because she's the Slayer, but because he knows what she's up against and cares for her. That isn't just watcher/slayer, that's familial.

[(Anonymous)]

I think we have different ideas about what being the slayer and being a watcher are. I personally view it as far more than a parent/child relationship, hence there being a different kind of power imbalance.

[(Anonymous)]

But don't they have to send their slayer off to a super dangerous, could get them killed trial? Am I remembering that correctly? Because if so, slayers and watchers are typically not very parent/child.

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty much. I sometimes wonder if the people who view their relationship as parent/child saw the same show I did. We're all going to have our own interpretations but the show hit on the lore of slayers, watchers, and their relationships often enough that I'm not sure how so many people completely missed all of it.

[(Anonymous)]

It wasn't Giles in that scene who said he had father's love for her, it was Travers, and I think POV matters here. Father/Daughter relationship is what made sense to Travers, but from Buffy's and Giles' POV, their relationship is much more complicated than that.

Just the nature of the Watcher/Slayer makes it more nuanced. It's a rare parent who sends their kid to their possible death every night.

[(Anonymous)]

Just the nature of the Watcher/Slayer makes it more nuanced. It's a rare parent who sends their kid to their possible death every night.

Yes, this. In fact, that's probably the polar opposite of parent behavior -- more likened, I suppose, to a gladiator trainer in a slave system where the gladiator trainer is also on a low run of the social ladder. Or, in modern times, transmuted into something less deadly, like being a corporate law firm partner to an associate assigned to you.

Sure, you can be as good as you like to these kids. But the ultimate thing you must do, YOUR JOB, is that they perform.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, this!

Not to mention, it's made very clear that Travers has very little clear understanding of what it actually means to be watcher/slayer. So it's very obvious that his interpretation of 'a father's love' is WAY off. It boggles my mind that anyone who watched the show could take his statement at face-value, knowing how wrong he is.

[(Anonymous)]

This is exactly how I view the show's take on their relationship.

[(Anonymous)]

you can't just ignore what canon makes pretty clear

Sure you can.

[deird1]

Canon may not be explicit about whether or not she sees him as her father figure

I'd say asking him to walk her down the aisle is a pretty decent clue.

[(Anonymous)]

Wait, you're using an episode where Buffy was completely under some ridiculous spell as evidence of her true feelings? She was going to marry Spike, for gods sake. The whole point of that spell was that it modified her true feelings.

[(Anonymous)]

"...you can't just ignore what canon makes pretty clear."

You knew to fandom, anon? ;)

[(Anonymous)]

LOL. You clearly have a very different interpretation of canon than the people you're arguing with. And that's the whole problem with your extremely black and white view - it's YOUR view. I'm not 'ignoring canon' - I watched the same show you did and see things extremely differently and I'm taking all of my cues from the same canon.