#but she didnt
i am really in a calendiles mood today especially. this literally was never jenny and giles’s story. they were never going to be anything and yet every single second of their time together is both of them throwing their documented multitude of responsibilities to the wind to be with each other. and i think it hits differently than buffy & angel specifically because buffy and angel are portrayed by the show as a more deliberately teenage romance – sort of growing into these oppressive destinies and fighting against them. the fact that giles and jenny are both so hesitant to let go of their own generational expectations, even as it’s clear that neither of them actually Believe In what they’re supposed to be doing, really emphasizes that they both lost the fight that buffy and angel have only just joined. giles and jenny are both forced into these roles that whittle them down into nothingness, and they never truly escape them, and yet they are so positively hungry for and in love with each other that they will spend their on-the-clock work hours kissing on school property & flirting in hallways & cuddling in full view of teenagers. neither of them actually HAS the time for a serious and committed relationship, BOTH of them are badly attempting to hide skeletons in their closet that are always on the verge of tumbling out, and they are both acerbic, sarcastic, vaguely misanthropic individuals who don’t really seem to have any interest in people Not Worth Their Time – but they fucking MELT around each other. they lock eyes and share a special smile (giles does not smile at anyone like he smiles at jenny! jenny does not smile at anyone AT ALL outside of giles!) and it is transparently obvious that they have forgotten anyone exists but their darling. and there is something so goddamn romantic about that when considering the fact that these are two sensible people who have spent DECADES being pushed and pushed and pushed by external forces to give up absolutely all of their personhood. the connection between them is so strong that it trumps absolutely all of that.
