In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy’s seemingly mild-mannered Watcher, Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), has a dark past, earning him the nickname “Ripper”. From his appearance in the pilot, Giles seems to be rather stuck up and attached to the rules, especially compared to Buffy’s unorthodox way of approaching her life as the Slayer.
Acting as Buffy’s Watcher and the Sunnydale High librarian, Giles seems perfectly ordinary and unthreatening. He takes a strong interest in Buffy herself, leading many characters to comment that he acts like her father, especially compared to Buffy’s own absentee father. It turns out that Giles made this persona for himself on purpose, in trying to stay away from his past.
Rupert Giles was called “Ripper” by his friends who knew him when he was a rebellious magician with a love of the dark arts. This first comes up in season 2 episode 8 “The Dark Age”, when the Scooby Gang has to deal with Eyghon, a demon that Giles and his friends summoned but failed to exorcise in their youth. Ethan Rayne, a friend of Giles’ from those days, comes back because Eyghon is back, bringing with him the idea that Giles wasn’t always who he is now.
After learning about his rebellious days, Buffy summed up Giles’ past by calling him “Bad-Magic-Hates-the-World-Ticking-Time-Bomb-Guy”. He would summon and get possessed by demons because it was fun. He practiced the dark arts just because he could. This stretched beyond just magic, and extended into stealing cars to go on joyrides and forming a punk band called Wretched. Giles started to change more into the familiar character from the TV show after Randall, one of his friends, died from being possessed by Eyghon. He stopped using dark magic and channeling all of his rebellious energy into the bad. He ran away from the Giles family history of being a Watcher, feeling unworthy of mentoring a Slayer given what he’d done. His grandmother Edna, herself a Watcher, eventually convinced him that he could redeem himself by becoming a Watcher again.
For all that he changed, the Ripper persona was never completely gone. When pushed, Giles let that side of himself out. After Angelus killed Jenny Calendar, Giles went after Angelus without hesitation, with Buffy barely stopping him from what seemed like a suicide mission. Giles also used his Ripper persona whenever Ethan Rayne showed up, both because that brought up their old days when he was Ripper and as retaliation for whatever problems Ethan caused. His most ruthless moment came in the season 5 finale, “The Gift”, when Giles strangled Ben with his bare hands, showing no hesitation or remorse because he saw it as the only way that they could stop Glory from coming back.
Giles primarily played the role of Buffy’s Watcher on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he always has his dark past that's difficult to completely leave behind. His darker side does come out sometimes, living up to the name “Ripper” in both brutality and ruthlessness when Giles lets it slip.
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