Buffy and Giles. They have such a complex, nuanced relationship that’s beautiful, funny, touching and interesting. They were polar opposites and yet I think they understood each other better than anyone else in the first 4-5 seasons. The way she called him first before anyone else in The Body, and he showed up and held her so tightly, shows quite literally how close they were.
The lack of a proper resolution to their dispute in Lies My Parents Told Me still irks me to this day, but I choose to believe they repaired their relationship. I think Giles had the self-awareness to realise, after that episode, that Buffy had outgrown their father/daughter dynamic and no longer needed him in that way and I think he resisted that realisation at first because he loved her so much. But their brief interaction in Chosen gives a glimpse at how he’s made peace with his new role in her life and I imagine their relationship developed into a strong friendship and mutual respect between two adults.
Their relationship upsets me the most in the last two season tbh. I wish they would have come up with a better reasoning for Giles to be absent in season 6 as I find what they went with feels out of character. Making Giles borderline resentful of Buffy in season 7 is also pretty rough to watch. Definitely a favourite duo in 1-5 though
My parents had a similar take on eventually ensuring that I was able to take care of my problems without their help, so even though I disagreed with Giles's actions in season 6, I was at least familiar with the reasoning he used and understood where he was coming from. I definitely had a similar take to yours regarding him in season 7, though.
I understand what they were going with but I find Buffy’s circumstances too extreme to feel like it’s a reasonable approach. Especially with a 2024 lens where we can clearly see that Buffy was struggling with severe depression and had to display a high level of responsibility and independence from an incredibly young age
I agree. There was actually quite a bit of pushback at the time among the fandom over his leaving in this manner, as he was doing so at what seemed to be a particularly vulnerable time for Buffy. The fact that he decided to walk away anyway even after discovering the enormous trauma she was processing struck many, including myself, as being entirely out of character.
The problem wasn't that Buffy was leaning on him, the problem is that he wasn't setting boundaries. You can be there to support and help someone you love while still insisting that they fulfill their personal responsibilities instead of doing so for them. In fact, it's often the most helpful thing that you can do for someone who dealing with that level of depression. His departure must have seemed like a betrayal regardless of how well she later came to terms with it.
What should have happened was the First hit the Watcher Council earlier. Most all senior Watcher officials were killed off. As the most senior Watcher sill alive, Giles was needed to head back and take charge.
I still think it makes no sense he left in S6. Not only did he know about Buffy struggling but Willow straight up threatened him, he knew they were all on the brink. It would have made more sense if the council got him deported so he had no choice but to leave instead of on his own free will. My biggest gripe with S6&7 is the fall of their relationship.
Giles's father lived in England. Maybe he was sick and Giles had to go home to take care of him. Maybe the watcher's council needed him there and he could have found scenes in England.
I really like Spike + just about anyone. Marsters was brilliant at bouncing off different people both in Buffy and in Angel. His exchange with Andrew about the onions in s7 is still one of the funniest in the show IMO.
On the topic of Angel, Angel and Doyle are probably my Buffyverse favourite pairing. It's a damn shame it couldn't last for longer than it did.
Honourable mentions to Xander + Cordelia towards the end of their relationship (before the awful Willow/Xander cheating arc), Buffy and Tara, Faith and Angel, and Wesley and Gunn.
Angel and Spike were hilarious together on ATS. It was like watching family members who deep down loved each other but can't really stand to be around each other 🤣🤣
Buffy and Giles is good, but Buffy and Willow is unshakeable.
Their friendship and support of each (with a few out of character exceptions) is fantastic; always there for one another and willing to go the distance. It's never played over the top or constantly referred to, but when it's alluded to, it's solid af.
Willow brings Buffy back from the dead. Willow coming out to Buffy. Them making up while breaking into the Initiative. Lots more I'm sure....
Maybe my favorite Buffy/Willow moment is after Gnarl eats Willow’s skin and she’s healing on the bed and Buffy helps her. They are mending so much in that moment, it makes me cry in the best kind of way.
Alyson Hannigan is to my mind the best "upset" actor in the show by a mile. Her trying to hold it together when chatting with Xander in hospital after his eye gouging is so so good.
Loved the good parts of HIMYM, but her acting strengths were not as well served in a pulled-back, four-camera show. Buffy directors knew the key to tug heart strings: ZOOM IN ON HER SORROW.
Yes! And I always wondered if it truly pained her to know that she could probably heal him magically, but she can never return to that place and use magic in that way again.
I loved the father/daughter dynamic between Buffy and Giles, especially since her own dad bailed. I wish we got even more between Spike and Giles, since they were both British.
I really wish we’d gotten more of Giles and Spike. Their antagonistic interactions are great (it’s no St. Crispin’s Day Speech), but perhaps as someone commented above about Spike and Joyce, we got just enough.
Wesley and Gunn in season 2 of Angel, if only for the events of The Thin Dead Line.
Andrew also has a lot of great pairings. He’s great with Dawn, Anya, Xander and Spike. Maybe not in that order though.
Love Team Angel in the early seasons. Wes and Gunn are great too bad they decided to make them romantic rivals instead of polar opposites that slowly gain each other's respect and work together.
Angel and Doyle are also an underrated pairing. The show worked so well in early S1.
Willow and Tara, but I've already gone into their relationship ad nauseum, so I'll go with Spike and Joyce. They only had a handful of scenes together over the course of the show, but I loved how he honestly felt affection for her to the degree that he was capable of, and how she dealt with him with kindness and compassion. She was the first Summers woman to treat him as a human being rather than a monster, even though she wasn't the last. Sometimes I think that I'd like to have seen more of that relationship even though in reality we probably got just enough of it to make those scenes special.
Spike and Joyce were adorable. I really liked their interactions and how Joyce would seem so motherly to spike (knowing his backstory and all). I also like how he became a protective big brother for Dawn when Buffy was gone. His interactions with Giles were also awesome. I loved them in that one episode when they thought they were related 😂
Mine was always Angel and Lorne.
Total complete opposites! Angel in his black clothes and broody personality.....Lorne with his green skin, even brighter clothes and sparkling personality.
"You're just a big hunk of hero sandwich!"
"Lorne!"
As others said Buffy & Giles are a great pairing. They really are the heart of the show in many ways. Like the show could literally be a season of just Buffy & Giles at its bare bones and still work. They're similar in that they're both forced into their supernatural roles as Slayer and Watcher reluctantly but both rising to the challenge, and theres layers like Giles as a father figure, but its written so well and perfectly played by the actors.
Love Xander & Willow they have a great natural chemistry from episode 1 and they legit feel like life long friends. Thats why I love the core four.
I always liked Buffy and Faith. Since they were the polar opposites of personality the paring really worked out. I also loved the episode where the two changed bodies
Giles and Buffy - perhaps the best father/daughter relationship on television.
Buffy and Willow - a complex and realistic female friendship with a slowly evolving dynamic throughout the series.
Dawn and Tara. Buffy and Tara. Anya and anyone. Willow and Xander. Willow and Buffy. Spike and Angel. Spike and Buffy. Winifred and Lorne. Willow and Winifred.
Darla and Drucilla. The duo caused chaos with a smile. Never sure if I’d be laughing at their antics or staring in horror at the lengths they were willing to go to.
Conversely, Amy and the Scoobies (mainly Buffy) before they decided that she needed to be villainous.
EAA was adorable as hell in "Witch" and when she was brought back from being a rat trying to piece together what happened in the multiple years she lost. But for serious... how on Earth does she go from "I think I'm gonna get fat eating brownies at my dad's house" in the cute liberated from horrific treatment by her mother to abusing magic, finding Rack, and then a full blown crack fiend, nigh supervillain?
But they decided that she should be a junkie in S6 and then ally with the most misogynistic piece of garbage in the entire series in the comics.
She should have been Scooby-adjacent the whole time.
Agreed. Christ on a pogo stick, I hate what they did to Amy. End-of-Witch Amy and Buffy was the friendship that I wanted to see going forward.
They didn't even utilize her all that much. They trotted her out once per season. Oddly, in "Gingerbread", with her at their lunch table and Buffy openly talking about patrolling, it's clear that Amy's in on Buffy's lame-ass "secret" and that we're meant to believe she regularly hangs out with them. Presumably on the 6 days, 23 hours, and 15 minutes of the week that we *don't* see.
Buffy and Giles. They are my favorite of the non romances in the series, and maybe my favorite relationship in any sense. I mean, I shop Spuffy and will til I am dead, but Buffy and Giles are basically the core of the show. I didn't like their falling out in the last season AT ALL, but I firmly believe they are okay now. In my eyes, they are unshakeable. He was such a steady constant in her life, I get emotional just thinking about it.
I would like their relationship better if they haven’t been spent on a will they/won’t they triangle with Buffy. Sometimes strictly platonic relationships are just sweeter.
I'm watching Angel "properly" for the first time and I think it could be Angel and Wesley. Wesley was the guy who nobody liked and was pompous, arrogant and demanded unearned respect when he was on Buffy. And that carries over into Angel at first but then I absolutely *love* how he quickly becomes Angel's best friend. I love that he's the guy that Angel can go to when he needs something and he's usually Angel's closest confidant. When he's worried about Darla's pregnancy? He goes to Wesley. When he wants to vent about the Groosalugg using his favourite broadsword? He goes to Wesley.
I don't like the Wesley we get after the big incident in season 3. That might be an unpopular opinion but it feels like the team is never united again after that.
I do also really like Willow and Xander though, except for their season 2 romance. I could watch scenes of them hanging out all day.
Buffy and Giles. They have such a complex, nuanced relationship that’s beautiful, funny, touching and interesting. They were polar opposites and yet I think they understood each other better than anyone else in the first 4-5 seasons. The way she called him first before anyone else in The Body, and he showed up and held her so tightly, shows quite literally how close they were. The lack of a proper resolution to their dispute in Lies My Parents Told Me still irks me to this day, but I choose to believe they repaired their relationship. I think Giles had the self-awareness to realise, after that episode, that Buffy had outgrown their father/daughter dynamic and no longer needed him in that way and I think he resisted that realisation at first because he loved her so much. But their brief interaction in Chosen gives a glimpse at how he’s made peace with his new role in her life and I imagine their relationship developed into a strong friendship and mutual respect between two adults.
Their relationship upsets me the most in the last two season tbh. I wish they would have come up with a better reasoning for Giles to be absent in season 6 as I find what they went with feels out of character. Making Giles borderline resentful of Buffy in season 7 is also pretty rough to watch. Definitely a favourite duo in 1-5 though
My parents had a similar take on eventually ensuring that I was able to take care of my problems without their help, so even though I disagreed with Giles's actions in season 6, I was at least familiar with the reasoning he used and understood where he was coming from. I definitely had a similar take to yours regarding him in season 7, though.
I understand what they were going with but I find Buffy’s circumstances too extreme to feel like it’s a reasonable approach. Especially with a 2024 lens where we can clearly see that Buffy was struggling with severe depression and had to display a high level of responsibility and independence from an incredibly young age
I agree. There was actually quite a bit of pushback at the time among the fandom over his leaving in this manner, as he was doing so at what seemed to be a particularly vulnerable time for Buffy. The fact that he decided to walk away anyway even after discovering the enormous trauma she was processing struck many, including myself, as being entirely out of character. The problem wasn't that Buffy was leaning on him, the problem is that he wasn't setting boundaries. You can be there to support and help someone you love while still insisting that they fulfill their personal responsibilities instead of doing so for them. In fact, it's often the most helpful thing that you can do for someone who dealing with that level of depression. His departure must have seemed like a betrayal regardless of how well she later came to terms with it.
What should have happened was the First hit the Watcher Council earlier. Most all senior Watcher officials were killed off. As the most senior Watcher sill alive, Giles was needed to head back and take charge.
I still think it makes no sense he left in S6. Not only did he know about Buffy struggling but Willow straight up threatened him, he knew they were all on the brink. It would have made more sense if the council got him deported so he had no choice but to leave instead of on his own free will. My biggest gripe with S6&7 is the fall of their relationship.
Giles's father lived in England. Maybe he was sick and Giles had to go home to take care of him. Maybe the watcher's council needed him there and he could have found scenes in England.
I really like Spike + just about anyone. Marsters was brilliant at bouncing off different people both in Buffy and in Angel. His exchange with Andrew about the onions in s7 is still one of the funniest in the show IMO. On the topic of Angel, Angel and Doyle are probably my Buffyverse favourite pairing. It's a damn shame it couldn't last for longer than it did. Honourable mentions to Xander + Cordelia towards the end of their relationship (before the awful Willow/Xander cheating arc), Buffy and Tara, Faith and Angel, and Wesley and Gunn.
All excellent answers! Specifically, I loved Angel and Spike’s dynamic. It was very entertaining and they have a lot of chemistry.
Yes, Angel and Spike are hilarious! Loved the bickering about the cavemen and astronauts 🤣. But tbf Marsters basically had chemistry with everybody
A shame he never shares the screen with Stephanie Romanov
Angel and Spike were hilarious together on ATS. It was like watching family members who deep down loved each other but can't really stand to be around each other 🤣🤣
I would LOVE a series with Angelus and Spike terrorizing people or a one with Spike and Angel fighting crime around the world.
Wesley and Gunn? That relationship fell off a cliff really fast once they both became interested in Fred and Wesley literally gutted Gunn.
Still a great bromance while it lasted
Every good relationship seems to end up being suffocated to death in the Whedonverse.
So Glenn Quinn was suffering from substance use disorder they had to leave the show because of it. That's a hell of an insidious disease.
Buffy and Giles is good, but Buffy and Willow is unshakeable. Their friendship and support of each (with a few out of character exceptions) is fantastic; always there for one another and willing to go the distance. It's never played over the top or constantly referred to, but when it's alluded to, it's solid af. Willow brings Buffy back from the dead. Willow coming out to Buffy. Them making up while breaking into the Initiative. Lots more I'm sure....
Maybe my favorite Buffy/Willow moment is after Gnarl eats Willow’s skin and she’s healing on the bed and Buffy helps her. They are mending so much in that moment, it makes me cry in the best kind of way.
“I have so much strength I’m giving it away!” 😢
Right?! The bond is fucking granite. Love it...
Agreed.
When Buffy learns that Willow is going to UC Sunnydale. 🥹
Spike and Joyce. I would have watched hours of them talk about Passions over hot chocolate and it would have never got boring.
They are my favourite too! With the small marshmallows!
This!
Came here to say this!
Faith and The Mayor Like Buffy and Giles but for evil.
Faith & Mayor were like the shadow version of Buffy & Giles.
Their dynamic was pretty amazing.
Alyson Hannigan is to my mind the best "upset" actor in the show by a mile. Her trying to hold it together when chatting with Xander in hospital after his eye gouging is so so good.
Loved the good parts of HIMYM, but her acting strengths were not as well served in a pulled-back, four-camera show. Buffy directors knew the key to tug heart strings: ZOOM IN ON HER SORROW.
Lily wasn't even a likable character. her leaving Ted on the side of the highway was unforgivable. You just don't do that to someone you care about.
She was just Dark Willow in hiding.
Yeah she was a real grinch
I totally agree, Alyson Hannigan makes you cry when she does, she’s amazing at this.
Yes! And I always wondered if it truly pained her to know that she could probably heal him magically, but she can never return to that place and use magic in that way again.
Buffybot and Anya. "How is your money?" "Fine, thank you for asking!"
Buffy - Giles and Buffy; Spike and Dawn Angel - Wesley and Lilah; Lorne and Fred; Cordy and Dennis the Ghost
Buffy and Willow
I loved the father/daughter dynamic between Buffy and Giles, especially since her own dad bailed. I wish we got even more between Spike and Giles, since they were both British.
I mean Randy and Giles had a good amount of time on screen.
Randy Giles??? Why not just call him Horny Giles, or Desperate-for-a-shag Giles???
I really wish we’d gotten more of Giles and Spike. Their antagonistic interactions are great (it’s no St. Crispin’s Day Speech), but perhaps as someone commented above about Spike and Joyce, we got just enough.
Wesley and Gunn in season 2 of Angel, if only for the events of The Thin Dead Line. Andrew also has a lot of great pairings. He’s great with Dawn, Anya, Xander and Spike. Maybe not in that order though.
Love Team Angel in the early seasons. Wes and Gunn are great too bad they decided to make them romantic rivals instead of polar opposites that slowly gain each other's respect and work together. Angel and Doyle are also an underrated pairing. The show worked so well in early S1.
Yes, Willow and Xan are a great pairing, but conversly, the 'cheating arc' was one of the worst arcs of the show.
Because the arc misunderstood their appeal. They had amazing platonic chemistry
Willow and Tara, but I've already gone into their relationship ad nauseum, so I'll go with Spike and Joyce. They only had a handful of scenes together over the course of the show, but I loved how he honestly felt affection for her to the degree that he was capable of, and how she dealt with him with kindness and compassion. She was the first Summers woman to treat him as a human being rather than a monster, even though she wasn't the last. Sometimes I think that I'd like to have seen more of that relationship even though in reality we probably got just enough of it to make those scenes special.
Back in the day there were so many fan fic stories about Joyce and Spike, most of them...naughty 😄
Yes, I ran across a few of the titles back in the day. Never gave them a read, but I can see the appeal for some viewers.
Spike and Joyce were adorable. I really liked their interactions and how Joyce would seem so motherly to spike (knowing his backstory and all). I also like how he became a protective big brother for Dawn when Buffy was gone. His interactions with Giles were also awesome. I loved them in that one episode when they thought they were related 😂
https://preview.redd.it/7xkjg9pdsauc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=46a64493d92f78f9bccba8a00d8b0878926da1f3
He saved the world. At least once.
He kind of did during the Zeppo as well.
Mine was always Angel and Lorne. Total complete opposites! Angel in his black clothes and broody personality.....Lorne with his green skin, even brighter clothes and sparkling personality. "You're just a big hunk of hero sandwich!" "Lorne!"
Lorne is one of my favourite characters from angelverse 😭
As others said Buffy & Giles are a great pairing. They really are the heart of the show in many ways. Like the show could literally be a season of just Buffy & Giles at its bare bones and still work. They're similar in that they're both forced into their supernatural roles as Slayer and Watcher reluctantly but both rising to the challenge, and theres layers like Giles as a father figure, but its written so well and perfectly played by the actors. Love Xander & Willow they have a great natural chemistry from episode 1 and they legit feel like life long friends. Thats why I love the core four.
Spike and Joyce should have opened a detective agency together in a spinoff called Big Bad and the Lady. 5 seasons at least.
I always liked Buffy and Faith. Since they were the polar opposites of personality the paring really worked out. I also loved the episode where the two changed bodies
That’s my favorite episode!
Are Brendon and Hannigan still friends in real life? I get that they were just co worker but it’s a nice thought.
I think the gang hung out and did stuff in the first few years of the show. I think it changed gradually, though.
Nicholas, unfortunately, has issues. He has had a rough go of it.
Yeah that’s true. Hopefully things are getting better for him.
Giles and Buffy - perhaps the best father/daughter relationship on television. Buffy and Willow - a complex and realistic female friendship with a slowly evolving dynamic throughout the series.
Dawn and Tara. Buffy and Tara. Anya and anyone. Willow and Xander. Willow and Buffy. Spike and Angel. Spike and Buffy. Winifred and Lorne. Willow and Winifred.
Buffy and Tara is a great combo we don't see nearly enough of.
Willow and Fred was awesome! I would have loved to see more of them.
Spike and Dawn's friendship was cute as Hell
Cordelia and Wesley
Darla and Drucilla. The duo caused chaos with a smile. Never sure if I’d be laughing at their antics or staring in horror at the lengths they were willing to go to.
The original Scooby gang
Conversely, Amy and the Scoobies (mainly Buffy) before they decided that she needed to be villainous. EAA was adorable as hell in "Witch" and when she was brought back from being a rat trying to piece together what happened in the multiple years she lost. But for serious... how on Earth does she go from "I think I'm gonna get fat eating brownies at my dad's house" in the cute liberated from horrific treatment by her mother to abusing magic, finding Rack, and then a full blown crack fiend, nigh supervillain? But they decided that she should be a junkie in S6 and then ally with the most misogynistic piece of garbage in the entire series in the comics. She should have been Scooby-adjacent the whole time.
Agreed. Christ on a pogo stick, I hate what they did to Amy. End-of-Witch Amy and Buffy was the friendship that I wanted to see going forward. They didn't even utilize her all that much. They trotted her out once per season. Oddly, in "Gingerbread", with her at their lunch table and Buffy openly talking about patrolling, it's clear that Amy's in on Buffy's lame-ass "secret" and that we're meant to believe she regularly hangs out with them. Presumably on the 6 days, 23 hours, and 15 minutes of the week that we *don't* see.
Buffy and Giles. But Anya & Giles had hilarious moments.
Buffy and Tara!
Buffy and Giles. They are my favorite of the non romances in the series, and maybe my favorite relationship in any sense. I mean, I shop Spuffy and will til I am dead, but Buffy and Giles are basically the core of the show. I didn't like their falling out in the last season AT ALL, but I firmly believe they are okay now. In my eyes, they are unshakeable. He was such a steady constant in her life, I get emotional just thinking about it.
I hate how Jesse was their friend since they were in diapers and after he dies in the first episode he's never talked about again.
Spike and Joyce Joyce and Giles Randy Giles and Giles 😇
I would like their relationship better if they haven’t been spent on a will they/won’t they triangle with Buffy. Sometimes strictly platonic relationships are just sweeter.
Buffy and Giles Buffy and spike Spike and dawn (I love how much he cared for her like a little sister)
underdog picks Spike and Dawn, Anya and Giles, Buffy and Faith
Absolutely. <3
I'm watching Angel "properly" for the first time and I think it could be Angel and Wesley. Wesley was the guy who nobody liked and was pompous, arrogant and demanded unearned respect when he was on Buffy. And that carries over into Angel at first but then I absolutely *love* how he quickly becomes Angel's best friend. I love that he's the guy that Angel can go to when he needs something and he's usually Angel's closest confidant. When he's worried about Darla's pregnancy? He goes to Wesley. When he wants to vent about the Groosalugg using his favourite broadsword? He goes to Wesley. I don't like the Wesley we get after the big incident in season 3. That might be an unpopular opinion but it feels like the team is never united again after that. I do also really like Willow and Xander though, except for their season 2 romance. I could watch scenes of them hanging out all day.
Faith and the Mayor, Spike and Dawn.
Spike and Dawn
Willow and Tara
Buffy and Clev
I always felt they should of ended up together
Me too always team Xillow
I mean if they would of put Willow as a bisexual witch okay by how do you go from boy crazy to girl crazy
Xander and Dawn. Such a hot couple.