thoughts on Giles and rebellion
Some vague thoughts on why exactly Giles ran off to be Ripper.

That pressure of destiny thing, what precisely was bothering him about it? Was he scared? Of what, being expected to fight vampires all his life? Big scary monsters? Doesn't seem to fit.

Thing about Watchers is, they're taught since they're small that Into each generation a Slayer is born, one girl in all the world, a Chosen One, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires. They are taught that *only* the Slayer has that strength.

I just watched 'Alien Nation', where there was much funny made of the human ideas of masculinity not meshing with the newcomers.

In the dominant western culture, men are expected to be physically strong, to prove themselves in tests of strength and courage, to get in fights a lot.

In Watcher school they are taught not to fight. They are instead taught that they must hide, teach a little girl to fight, and send her out to get killed instead.

Methinks that doesn't mesh so very well.

So Ripper is Giles trying to be hyper-masculine to prove that he doesn't need a little girl to do his fighting for him.

But then there's the demon-drug high, and the messing with magic. So there's more going on there, probably a more general rebellion against the order imposed by the Watchers Council.

But it could start with simply physical stuff. If he proves that he is in fact strong and skilled enough to kill a vampire, then he has proved that the basic foundation of the Watchers way of life is not so simply true as they make out. From there, start to question. Other things they say are too dangerous to do start looking like the next big test. Being stronger than they thought you could be.

Ends up a big mess. Starts out as not wanting to be useless.