Year One | Season Two - Three Season Four - Six | Season Eight     Rupert Giles was born in 1954 into an upper-class family in London, England. They had worked within the Council of Watchers for at least three generations; both Rupert's father and grandmother, Edna, were also Watchers. Being a Watcher is a calling, much as being a Slayer is. Upon reaching maturity, he became the curator of a British museum and later joined the Watchers Council, where he studied up on the occult. During his studies, Giles pursued a relationship with Alexa Landry, an operative of the Council, but quickly broke it off when he realized that she enjoyed the more visceral aspect of her duties a bit more than was healthy. While competing for the position of Watcher over the new Slayer, Buffy Summers, Giles discovered that his opposing candidate, Willem Bryardale, was dabbling in forbidden arts, and exposed him with magic that was prohibited by the Council to be used by anyone. Sullying his reputation in order to stop Bryardale, Giles was given the option by the Council of saving face and embracing the essence of a Watcher. (BtVs: Viva Las Buffy)     Heading to a small cave owned by the Council along the Synne Head Coast of Northern Ireland dubbed the Blackshed, Giles attempted to exorcise his inner demons, but instead embraced it to better serve his Slayer by realizing that he could not deny what he once was. Returning to the England, Giles graduated and was bestowed with the distinction of Watcher. (BtVs: Slayer Interrupted)     At the behest of the Watchers' Council, he traveled to Sunnydale, California and worked as the librarian at the local high school. There he met his charge, Buffy, whom he began to train. The library, a sort of command center for Buffy and her Scooby Gang, sat right above the Hellmouth. As the Watcher, librarian and general authority figure, Giles often delivered exposition. He was a father figure to Buffy and an advisor to her friends Xander and Willow. (BtVs: A Stake to the Heart)         Giles became devastated after his girlfriend Jenny Calendar was murdered by Angelus, a vampire who lost his human soul after having sex with Buffy. Angelus took pleasure in torturing Buffy, and by extension, her Watcher. The ramifications of Jenny's death caused Giles to become distant and abandon his duties as Buffy's watcher to find a spell that could bring Jenny back. Jenny's spirit intervened in time, causing Giles to end his path of self-destruction and return to his role as Buffy's watcher. (BtVs: Ring of Fire)    After the Council of Watchers fired Giles for caring for his charge too much, Buffy refused to forgive the Council or take orders from them any longer. Buffy continued her duties as the Slayer without the Council's guidelines, while Giles continuing to supervise on an unsanctioned basis. Giles's first summer unemployed was spent hospitalized in bed, after being wounded by a vampire during a patrol. (Giles: Beyond the Pale, BtVs: Haunted)         After recovering from the attack, Giles' past came back to haunt him, when the Council informed him that his old flame, Alexa Landry had gone rogue and set her sights on Buffy's old flame, Angel, whose soul had been returned to him a short while after Jenny Calendar's murder. Buffy, Giles and the Scoobies ventured to Los Angeles to help Angel defeat Alexa and return her to the Council's custody. Giles later met a new love interest in Rebecca Stansberry, but the Scoobies suspected that she couldn't be trusted. Rebecca ended their brief romance when she realized that Giles would put his duties before romance, and left Sunnydale. (BtVs: Past Lives, Out of the Woodwork)     Giles ended his status as unemployed, after buying the local magic shop, The Magic Box, and it became the Scooby Gang's meeting place and source of knowledge. Giles relationship with Buffy became tense, when she discovered that centuries ago, a Slayer had been turned into a vampire, but the records had been stricken from the books by the Counil, Though Giles was no longer employed by the Council, his loyalties as a Watcher came first, and he withheld valuable information from about the missing Slayer from Buffy, which put their relationship under tension. (BtVs: False Memories)    After Buffy sacrificed herself to save the world, Giles decided to return to England, giving Magic Box to Anya, who became the new manager. He returned to Sunnydale after Buffy was resurrected, but soon decided that his presence was preventing Buffy from assuming responsibility for her own life. (BtVs/Angel: Reunion)

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