Gingerbread and the Council

[Spuffy is true love]

So in Gingerbread why didn't Giles call the council when his books were being confiscated. I mean in season 5 we hear that they have the ability to have him deported within the hour. Why couldn't they come in and kinda play hardball with the school and the city council to get the books back?

[Blondie Bear]

Maybe he didn't want to get the Council's attention. Look what they did every OTHER time they showed up. And they seem to think of Giles as the redheaded stepchild of the Council, so maybe they wouldn't have helped anyway.

And maybe the writers just didn't think of it.

[Spuffy is true love]

eh giles was still the Council's bitch at that point. It wasn't until after he was fired in helpless and Wesley came that he really began to rebel against the council. I figured that that would have been the first think that popped into his mind.

[Jules]

I think even at that point, I know its before Helpless, that Giles was breaking away from the Council, so to speak. I think he would have only asked for their help if it was 'end of the world' kind of trouble. Giles season 1 might have been right on the phone to England, but he had grown more independant the longer he'd been with Buffy.

[Cangel]

What I always ask myself, why did Snyder approve of this? Maybe it's just me, but in Becoming pt1 it sounds like Snyder is in some way affiliated with the council, and yet he always seemed to be so anti-Giles and anti-Buffy, and didn't do anything against the deportion of the books in Gingerbread.

[littlewilly]

The Council wouldnt have done anything anyway. Does anyone else
think the WC seemed quite useless? Buffy done just fine without them, and
they never seemed to contribute much to the cause.

[white avenger]

I never really understood just why he would keep books like that in a high school library in the first place. They were potentially dangerous, obviously quite old, and certainly very valuable and quite rare. Even if he didn't allow them to be checked out, they were stored on the public book shelves, and could have easily been damaged by ignorant students (just picture looking up the feeding habits of a Tasmanian wererabbit and finding a big red heart with "Johnny loves Mary 4ever" obliterating the crucial text). As protective as Giles was about his books, he should have kept them at home. That way, MOO couldn't get to them.

[InsaneMystic]

Maybe it's just me, but in Becoming pt1 it sounds like Snyder is in some way affiliated with the council
Huh? How do you reckon that? Got any quote that makes you think so?

(I can't rule out that there might be one - quite possibly another one ruined in translation... Really guys, the more quotes I read on this board, the more I start disliking the German dubbing. Only just today, I managed to locate the famous "fray-adacent" line, by virtue of lip-reading. You wouldn't know anything funny is there from listening to the German dialogue. I pale more and more at the thought of just how much I'm missing out on without even noticing. :sigh: )

[LittleMissLikesToFight]

I was fairly certain Snyder was affiliated with the Mayor, even though he wasn't in on the Mayor's plans entirely. But he seemed to know he was quite the scary guy when he was brought up he was afraid and was quick to rectify any situation.

[WhiteHat]

I just re-re-re-re-watched that ep. Loved it! :D
(I think there should have been more "re"s in that statement, though.):lmao:

You're right: Keeping the "good" books in the school's library was stoopid, but it was a well-known running joke on the show that virtually nobody ever went in there!

When I was in high school, I didn't even know we had one until we went on a English Class "field trip" to see it with our own eyes! (It was above the cafeteria and under the swimming pool! Imagine what would have happened if the pool sprung a leak!)

OT: Another dumb thing about that ep. was the end when they're burning Buff, Will and Amy at the stake, and THEY'RE DOING IT INDOORS! Duh! Wouldn't the courthouse catch on fire?

[InsaneMystic]

When I was in high school, I didn't even know we had one until we went on a English Class "field trip" to see it with our own eyes! (It was above the cafeteria and under the swimming pool! Imagine what would have happened if the pool sprung a leak!)
Huh? Where did you have the pool?? I thought it natural to have the pool at the ground floor (as our school did).

OT: Another dumb thing about that ep. was the end when they're burning Buff, Will and Amy at the stake, and THEY'RE DOING IT INDOORS! Duh! Wouldn't the courthouse catch on fire?
Well, think about it... what does a lynchmob need with a courthouse, anyway? ;)

[Fake Shemp]

im watching the episode now and there's like police or mayor officials with guns there so giles isnt free to do anything and then MOO knock him out until cordy finds him, dont think the council think much of Giles anyways (he's never invited to any retreats aww)

[RockManic]

Been a while since I saw that episode but as I recall it happened over a fairly short amount of days, right? From the books being taken to the end of the episode didn't leave a massive amount of time for Giles or the Council to take any serious action at all and given the fact that the Mayor was still in control of Sunnydale at the time I'd imagine that the Council would have been a lot less effective in getting what they wanted.

Even in season five I tend to think that much of what they threatened Giles with was just that. A threat. I mean, no matter how much power they have as a group, getting someone deported within an hour is very unlikely. Unless by "deported" they actually meant in a similar fashion to how they tried to "deport" Faith in season one of Angel. ;)

[WhiteHat]

Huh? Where did you have the pool?? I thought it natural to have the pool at the ground floor (as our school did).

One building had three storeys: the ground floor was the cafeteria; the next up had the library; the highest housed the natatorium. Pretty dumb, huh? So if there would have been a leak, the books would have gotten soggy and the food watered down as well. :D

[ILLYRIAN]

Now I see the logic WhiteHat!.
If the pool had sprung a leak, the books would have got really wet, then they'd have gotten into the food: thereby ensuring that all the school students became intelligent, passed all the exams and allowing the school govenors to get more money!

Oh yeh, sod the watchers council, they were in with the first at Checkpoint, trying not to let Buffy have details on Glory?. Their place got blown up cos they gave her the info.

Giles didn't tell the council about the books being taken, as the council would've probably sent him the bill for them.

[Lily]

I always find the fact that no one went in the SHS library to be bizarre, cause we had occasional english and drama classes in our library and that's where the computers lived etc so our library was often packed! (So I'm with the people that wanted Giles's books at home) But I don't think calling the council would have been a good idea, at that time it would have been one more reason to prove Giles incompetent and they possibly would have 'confiscated' his books in much the same way that MOO did, just to make sure he was completely useless without them?