Willow Crush on Giles

[midwesternwatcher]

I'm rewatching "Where the Wild Things Are." At right about 30 minutes, Willow, Tara, Anya and Xander go to the Espresso Pump looking for Giles. They find him singing. Willow is slack jawed. She says, "Now I remember why I used to have such a crush on him."

It makes sense that the Willow of seasons 1 and 2 would have a crush on Giles, but I have to admit, I didn't see it. Did she give any signs of this that I should've noticed? Help me out here.

[drusillacakes]

Well she did hang out at the library an awful lot more than the other scoobies, and she's always the first to volunteer for research. Other than that, I can't come up with anything specific.

[tkts]

I don't think there were any real signs, and there didn't necessarily need to be. Xander was the one she wanted; her crush on Giles was probably much more passive, of the variety that has a lot of overlap with simple admiration.

[The Girl In Question]

I agree with tkts. There's usually someone you want more than anyone else, who means "everything" to you. Then there's other people you have small crushes on who you wouldn't mind being with, but who you don't have as much feelings for. I think that's what Giles was to Willow.

[Beaumonde]

She has a photo of them together in her locker. I find that hilarious.

[The Girl In Question]

Really? Which episode is that shown? o.0

[hitnrun017]

I Robot... You Jane.



Makes me laugh everytime.

[The Girl In Question]

Ahahaha! Wth? Did they actually comment on it or was it just randomly there? Either way it's hilarious.

[hitnrun017]

Didn't say a word about it. Just makes it even funnier.

[Beaumonde]

Yep, I'm pretty sure it's still there during some of season 2.

[AngelFaith]

There's also a scene in Faith, Hope & Trick where Faith makes a comment about Giles being "young and hot" and Buffy says "OK, raise your hand if 'eeuuww'." Xander's hand goes straight up, but if you watch Willow behind him, she kind of just raises her hand to chin level, then stops and smiles as if she's enjoying a secret.

[midwesternwatcher]

I hope you'll all go rewatch that scene, right about 30:00 minutes in "Where the Wild Things Are." Notice Willow's slack jaw when she sees Giles on stage. Notice she says he is "sexy" several times. I think there was some groiny feeling there.

[tkts]

May 6, 2010 18:00:33 GMT -5 AngelFaith said:

There's also a scene in Faith, Hope & Trick where Faith makes a comment about Giles being "young and hot" and Buffy says "OK, raise your hand if 'eeuuww'." Xander's hand goes straight up, but if you watch Willow behind him, she kind of just raises her hand to chin level, then stops and smiles as if she's enjoying a secret.

OK, I have to go back and watch that scene now.

I don't think Willow ever wanted to date Giles, and if he had ever made a move on her, I think she would have been seriously creeped out. It's more of an innocent thing -- sort of a "safe" crush, if you will.

Edited to add:

Found the scene in "Faith, Hope and Trick." I think it's sort of ambiguous -- Willow's expression at that instant isn't all that dissimilar to the one she's wearing a moment earlier -- but it's definitely possible.

[midwesternwatcher]

I agree that Willow is too "nice" and conventional to engage in an actual liaison with a teacher, Giles or anyone else. Even in her imagination, I doubt she'd go for clothes-off contact. If I heard her say that she once fantasized about kissing him, though, that wouldn't surprise me.

For HS students to crush on teachers is not unusual at all. Remember Xander had a crush like that too. I don't think Buffy ever did. When I saw her with Stephen Platt, though, at first I thought they might make something of it. He died before the episode was over, so that was that.

[sosa lola]

May 6, 2010 18:00:33 GMT -5 AngelFaith said:

There's also a scene in Faith, Hope & Trick where Faith makes a comment about Giles being "young and hot" and Buffy says "OK, raise your hand if 'eeuuww'." Xander's hand goes straight up, but if you watch Willow behind him, she kind of just raises her hand to chin level, then stops and smiles as if she's enjoying a secret.

Actually, it's Xander who raises his hand, but hides it by scratching his cheek. Willow doesn't raise her hand at all.

[CourtneyDax]

Haha, that picture of Willow and Giles in her locker looks like a random promotional picture. I'd agree with y'all that Willow's crush was totally passive. It felt more like she respected him and thought he was really cool at the same time.

[Silver]

Apart from being a book worm, I never noticed that there was any crush on Giles. She only ever talked about Xander, then Oz, after that I don't remember being interested in males at all, especially when Tara came onto the scene.