Word on Joyce. I guess because I have such great parents, she drives me nuts. Actually, what drives me nuts is I felt like the writers thought she was a decent parent, obviously they weren't trying to make her the best mom ever, but I don't think they were trying to make her the worst mom ever, either. But every moment when I felt like the writers were trying to make me say, hey, Joyce isn't that bad, or awww, Joyce, I just totally am not there. She fucked up way too much for me to forgive her, and 3/4 of the time when she is expressing affection for Buffy there are hidden barbs there. Just, ugh.

But I think Buffy was great even before Giles. But yeah, Giles was a wonderful parent figure for Buffy. He made mistakes, but I could forgive them. I wonder what she'd've been like without Giles? Probably a little more like Wishverse!Buffy.