Editing Rupert Giles (section)

===Literature===
A main character from the beginning of the series, Giles has appeared in most of the spin-off books published based on the series. He plays a particularly key role in ''The Lost Slayer'' series, where a chain of events lead to Buffy (from a point early in the fourth season) being projected into the body of her twenty-four-year-old self in a timeline where Giles was turned into a vampire by the followers of an Aztec bat god, forcing Buffy to face a foe who knows her every technique before she manages to find a way to return to the past and prevent Giles being captured and turned.

In the canonical comic book continuation of the series, ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight]]'', the Scooby Gang has expanded into a global organization, training approximately five hundred Slayers spread over ten squads. Giles is head of the Slayer operations in England, parallel with Andrew's operations in [[Italy]] and Buffy and Xander's in [[Scotland]], and he keeps in close contact with Xander and Andrew, discussing issues. In the Season Eight arc, "[[No Future For You (Buffy comic)|No Future For You]]", he comes to [[Faith Lehane|Faith]] to request her assistance assassinating another Slayer, who will bring about the Apocalypse if left unchecked. After they are both forced to make the difficult decisions to kill the rogue Slayer Gigi and her mentor Roden, they decide to work together in the future as equal partners, keeping Slayers from turning down the dark path that both Faith and Gigi walked. As a result of their covert operation, Buffy and Giles are no longer on speaking terms.

In the story "[[Predators and Prey|Safe]]," Giles and Faith hear of a "Slayer Sanctuary" in a town called Hanselstadt from a young Slayer named Courtney. There, Giles encounters Duncan Fillworthe, a former Watcher, who claims vampires do not dare to enter the town because they know the town contains an army of Slayers. Later, as Giles argues that a stalemate is not a solution to the vampire problem, Duncan reveals that in fact the town is feeding the Slayers who come seeking sanctuary to an ancient demon. The fear of the demon is what really keeps the vampires from entering. Giles goes to warn Faith as Duncan states this is the fate that Slayers deserve for rejecting the Watchers Council, especially Buffy, reminding Giles that Buffy's relationship with Angel resulted in Jenny Calendar's death. Giles finds Faith already in combat with the demon, which feeds on beings who feel regret and fear. While trying to free Courtney from the demon, Duncan intercepts Giles. During their skirmish, the demon devours Duncan and Giles saves Courtney while Faith kills the demon. The stalemate ended, Giles and Faith rally the reluctant townspeople against the coming vampires, telling them if they want to live, they'll have to fight.<ref>''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' Season 8 - #24 "Safe"</ref> After [[Harmony Kendall]]'s [[reality show]] establishes a new pro-vampire, anti-Slayer world order, Faith and Giles are in hiding in the [[Führerbunker]] in the "[[Retreat (Buffy comic)|Retreat]]" storyline. Once their underground hideout is compromised by demons, they retreat to Scotland to reunite with Buffy. Giles and Buffy are driven to reconcile by [[Twilight (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Twilight]]'s attacks. The entire group are later transported to Oz in Tibet to learn how to suppress magic to stop Twilight tracking them.

In the penultimate issue of ''Season Eight'', Angel is possessed by a powerful mystical entity known as Twilight, and while under its influence, murders Giles, after Giles deliberately put himself in harm's way to provoke Buffy to action. Angel does so by snapping Giles' neck, homaging Angelus' murder of Jenny Calendar.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://buffyfest.blogspot.com/2010/12/exclusive-big-scott-allie-interview.html|title=Exclusive Scott Allie interview|work=Buffyfest|date=December 2, 2010|access-date=December 9, 2010}} confirms that the resemblance between the two deaths was intentional.</ref> While Angelus killed Jenny in vampiric face—a result of Joss not wanting the audience to truly hate Angel's face—Giles is murdered while Angel's face is in human form. Afterwards, it is revealed that Giles has left to Faith his entire estate in his will (with the exception of the 'Vampyr' book from the first episode of the series, which he leaves to Buffy), and Faith assures Buffy this doesn't mean Giles cared about her less but rather felt Faith needed it more.

In a 2011 interview, Whedon stated that his decision to [[kill off]] Giles could not be discussed in detail "because ripples from that event" will also be a large part of both ''Buffy Season Nine'' and ''Angel and Faith''. However, he was able to explain other motivations; he felt that from a writing perspective, Giles did not work in the comic book medium where he had flourished on the television show. His primary roles - provider of [[exposition (literary technique)|narrative exposition]], and paternal figure - didn't work well in the comic book format. Whedon killed off Giles where he did so that it might have a greater effect on the coming season, "because [he] wanted to make all this matter".<ref name="Whedon EW">{{cite magazine|url=http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/01/19/joss-whedon-buffy-season-8-comic-exclusive/|title=Joss Whedon talks about the end of the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Season 8 comic, and the future of Season 9 -- EXCLUSIVE|last=Vary|first=Adam B.|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|date=January 19, 2011|access-date=8 May 2011}}</ref>

In the follow-up comic series ''[[Angel & Faith]]'', Angel makes it his personal mission to bring Giles back to life. Over the course of several arcs Giles' life before Sunnydale is shown in flashbacks as Angel and Faith gather pieces of Giles' soul from demons or magical objects that were significant in Giles' life. These parts of his soul are absorbed into Angel's body using the mystical Tooth of Ammuk. They are joined by Rupert's great-aunts Lavinia and Sophronia Fairweather, two depowered witches who used magic to remain young, and an old friend of Giles named Alasdair Coames who is a depowered magical archmage and collector of magical artifacts. In the "Death and Consequences" arc Angel and Faith discover Giles is not buried in his grave. It has been possessed by the demon Eyghon who had survived "[[The Dark Age (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|The Dark Age]]". Because Giles had sold his soul to Eyghon in his youth, he did not move on even though he died a natural death, and the core of his soul went to Eyghon, while smaller parts broke off and attached themselves to the things Angel & Faith had found. Thus, it is possible for Giles to be resurrected from a natural death in a world with no current source of magic. Angel recruits Spike to help him kill Eyghon and a group of British Slayers reluctantly agree to work with them to save their friends who are still alive from Eyghon's control. The presence of three beings inside Angel's body (himself, Angelus and Giles) prevent Eyghon from controlling Angel, and Giles speaks through him as Angel kills Eyghon and therefore has all of Giles' soul. It is later transferred out of Angel to a mystical vessel. Using a mystical item to restore Giles' corpse to full health and Coames' collection of artifacts to provide magic for a resurrection spell, Angel, Faith, Coames and the Fairweathers try to bring him back to life. The group is shocked when Giles comes back to life with all his memories intact, but in the body of a 12-year-old boy due to his Aunts thinking of him as a child during the ritual. Giles is grateful to be free of Eyghon but furious at the age of his body and they have been trying to bring him back and not stopping a plot by villains [[Whistler (Buffyverse)]], Pearl and Nash to mutate humans into a magical species at the cost of a few billion lives. Before confronting them, Giles says to Faith she has grown into a fine woman and they may have wanted him back, but none of the group needs him like they used to. The villains plan to unleash their plague by releasing an orb of pure magic into the upper atmosphere. Giles is able to use ambient magic to attack Nash with a fireball causing him to drop the orb but it also mutates a nearby crowd. Nash is killed causing Pearl to flee. Whistler sees the error of his ways and sacrifices his life to destroy the orb. In the aftermath of the battle, Giles wants Faith to keep his money. He decides to return to America because he was at his best with Buffy, not noticing he has hurt Faith's feelings. He parts on good terms with Angel who is staying in London's new Magic Town suburb.

While resenting the challenges of his youthful body compared to his adult mind, Giles adapts to his new situation, particularly with the discovery that his command of magic is more potent in his youthful body; his aunts speculate that he is tapping into the full potential that he repressed to focus on his studies as a Watcher.