Even more interesting is that Jenny was sent to Sunnydale as soon as Angel revealed himself to Buffy and they started getting too close. At this point, her Kalderash backstory wasn’t even written, but the show got the greatest gift of the ultimate timing coincidence. There’s also the coincidence that Calendar has a vague similarity to Kalderash. Jenny arrived just then after being told that Angel’s pain was lessening and to separate him from the Slayer. Her infiltration one episode later from an in-canon perspective is not a coincidence.
At the time of Mutant Enemy finally deciding on Angelus as season 2’s Big Bad after Whedon’s underestimation of David Boreanaz’s ability to carry the role and the Anointed One as season 2’s originally-intended Big Bad not working out at all, the original intent was actually for Angelus to kill the new character of Oz. However, the popularity of Seth Green and the potential for the Willoz ‘ship eventually settled on Jenny being on the chopping block. It also was a greater emotional hit, as Angel had more of a connection to Jenny (saving her life), whereas he didn’t really know Oz at all. The audience also hadn’t known Oz for that long. There’s also the fact that Angel had saved Giles’ life (not to mention Xander and Willow’s) and a much more profound connection to him, even if Angel was also becoming fairly close to Willow before all that was snatched away.
It also gave Giles the most emotional storyline he ever had, on top of the extra cruelty was the fact that Giles actually liked Angel a lot prior to the Angelus arc, which Giles never forgave Angel for. It was Giles who originally told Xander that Jesse was no longer his friend, but rather the thing that killed him, but it becomes Giles who can’t make that separation between Angel and Angelus. And of course, Xander hated Angel long before Angelus ever showed up, as can be seen by his numerous jealous comments well before the reveal in 1x07.
They kept doing research together and Angel was one of the few other “adults” Giles could interact with. Giles was even fascinated by the maudlin romance of a vampire in love with a Slayer. He’s not against the relationship at all.
One of the non-canon tie-in novels even had Angel spending the entire summer saving Sunnydale with Giles and Jenny as Buffy’s replacement while she was at Hank’s house in L.A. That book tells us the probable context of how Angelus got that off-screen invite into Giles’ house.
After Angelus, Giles gave Angel some begrudging credit for having the mature foresight needed to leave Buffy, which was his criticism of Spike in Lies My Parents Told Me, but that is quickly dashed when it is Giles on the phone who Angel is begging for help to save Fred’s life, only to be utterly rejected and insulted with visits by Andrew. As much as I’m loathe to consider the comics canon, one of the few good calls was to have everything that came out of Andrew’s mouth be more lies that never came from Buffy, but unfortunately that doesn’t excuse Giles being on the phone call refusing to help Fred only because it’s Angel who made the call.
Again, as much as I’m loathe to acknowledge the comics, one of the only bright spots, despite the utter character-assassinating clusterfuck of how it got there (including Twilight!Angel killing Giles), was Angel saving Giles from having sold his soul to Eyghon, which also calls back to Angel (or, more accurately, Angelus) saving Jenny from Eyghon.
In later seasons, it’s interesting to go back to these early pre-Angelus interactions with Giles and Angel where they actually had a lot in common (two nerdy, well-educated bookworms, not unlike the relationship that developed between Angel and Wesley) and often had similar perspectives on what would be best for Buffy and Angel’s own impossible situation. Angel broadcast all his misgivings about the relationship in 1x07 and repeated all the reasons standing between them numerous times, so it really wasn’t just hearing it from Joyce (much is made of her having a better relationship with Spike and never getting past Angel taking her daughter’s virginity, despite the fact that they actually have more interests in common, most especially art and collecting, and were in complete agreement that the relationship was never a good idea) and the Mayor (a fellow immortal who lived out the same tragedy) that led to The Prom. It is Giles whom Angel tells concerning why he’s been so absent in Out of Mind, Out of Sight.
Angelus didn’t just destroy any future for Angel having a relationship with Buffy, but also destroyed most of the budding relationships he had in Sunnydale. Angel, Wesley and Cordy were thus the only characters at the end of season 3 who had nothing left to lose by leaving.
When Buffy couldn’t go to Giles for advice or use Willow as a kind sounding board (without Xander’s judgment), it was always Angel whom she ran to. Angel was whom Buffy ran to whenever what worried her was about her parents’ divorce, wanting to be a normal girl, not getting to live long enough to have a future (or the children Angel can’t have) or why they fight. Gingerbread has the philosophical precursor to the Epiphany speech. Buffy has an interesting history of replacement father figures (Giles being the most prominent) and Angel’s paternal tendencies are a huge part of his arc. He’s a Prodigal Son with another Prodigal Son, after all, not to mention his own often-paternal protector/provider relationship with his team at Angel Investigations. So, when Angel was taken from Buffy (blaming herself for killing the person she loved most, thus the connection of her to James Stanley), she also lost one of her biggest confidants. The whole season is having her relationships and reasons to stay in Sunnydale stripped from her.
Wesley, of course, was written entirely as Giles’ mirror when first introduced. He’s there to make Giles look cool and hip by comparison. He was even more of a bookworm than Giles ever was and had much faster recall, more readily having information without all-night research. The only character who challenges Angel for the character with the biggest eidetic memory database concerning history, languages and demonology is Wesley. It’s often Angel who has all the answers in the first season and a half that Giles often doesn’t (the Hellmouth, the Harvest, the Master, the Pergamum Codex, what the Anointed and his followers are up to, Spike, Drusilla, the Judge, etc…). Witch not only lies about Giles’ spell casting history, but it turns out Giles’ entire tweedy persona is a big lie and that he’s actually more street smart than book smart. Wesley is the exact opposite initially, though ends up so brutal that he gives Angel a run for his head-over-heart, big-picture-thinking tendencies. Wesley and Angel end up mirroring each other as well, and you can see the start of it as early as Wesley’s willingness to sacrifice Willow to stop the Mayor.
when ur work crush is arguing with his daughter Right in front of u about who’s going to go kill themselves trying to fight a vampire and it feels very much like this is a private conversation u were not supposed to be there for
here’s a fun little notion: after jenny dies, willow ends up taking a lot of her clothing. mostly because they’re clearing out jenny’s stuff and willow kind of can’t handle the thought of all of ms. calendar’s gorgeous outfits getting donated to people who won’t even know that they belonged to someone so special, but also obviously because willow wants to be more like jenny. because she really is the only person who is going to put on jenny’s leather jacket.
the first and only time she wears something from jenny’s closet, giles does a double-take and his face closes off a little. he doesn’t say anything at all about it, behaves just like he always does, but willow never wears anything of jenny’s again after that.
the wildest thing about jenny calendar is that the absolute lack of thought put into her character by the writers creates this absolute mess of a human. like!!! takes full responsibility for something that was visibly not her fault!!! stays at late in a public building even tho she’s smart enough to know better!!!! only really cares about the thing she was sent to sunnydale to do when her uncle is there to call her on it!!!! idk man it is just Fascinating because somehow these very bad writing choices, when examined closer, only serve to make her more sympathetic.
@enigmaticagentalice said: they like…completely accidentally made her into this really messy, complicated 3 dimensional character who’s open to so much meta and interpretation; a person who’s constantly at war with different aspects of herself and still trying to figure out who she is and who she wants to be…it’s so wild that they created this really fascinating character totally unintentionally just by shoehorning in nonsensical/OOC actions for her in order to fit the plot they wanted
ABSOLUTE EXACT YES. like!!!! she could have been a compelling story about families of blood vs. families of choice! her connection with angel was HUGELY significant and her choice to save her childhood monster instead of kill him said SO much about the kind of person she was! and all of this was done to fill various gaps in the plot, which just blows my mind!! jenny being as compassionate and brave and amazing as she canonically iswas an accident, and i think that that is such a huge part of why she has resonated with me as a character for so long. she was never intended to be kind, or brave–in the latter half of s2, she was just there to be giles’s two-faced girlfriend who got herself killed, and the sloppy writing reflects that. and yet literally every piece of canonical evidence points to her being a hero in her own right–one that the narrative refuses to acknowledge outside What She Meant To Her Boyfriend. which is just so ridiculous.
also as ever rlly have to remind everyone that giles and jenny were absolutely THE love at first sight situation of season one. no one else compares, and this is specifically because their joint response to meeting a person who made them feel one single human emotion was to Try And Attack It. their love language is spirited debate and you cannot convince me that they both weren’t having the time of their lives in their Workplace Nemeses era
