Buffy and Giles formed a close bond over the years. Giles had become the father Buffy always wanted, and Buffy became the daughter Giles never had.
Buffy Anne Summers is the eponymous fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character was portrayed by Sarah Michelle Gellar. In 2005, Bravo TV named her as the 13th greatest television character of all time.
Buffy was born to Hank and Joyce Summers on January 19, 1981, in Los Angeles, California. In the Season Two episode Killed by Death, it is revealed that, at the age of eight, Buffy was close friends with her cousin Celia, and enjoyed playing superhero with her; Buffy pretended to be Power Girl, a prophetic choice of alter ego. She looked on helplessly as Celia was murdered by a demon that killed sick children and was only visible to those who were ill, an experience which instilled a fear of hospitals in Buffy. Buffy came to idolize Olympic ice skater Dorothy Hamill as she learned the sport. She became a popular cheerleader at Hemery High School in Los Angeles. During her time at Hemery (1995-1997), Buffy was elected both Prom Princess and Fiesta Queen.
The details of how Buffy learned she was the Slayer were first presented in the 1992 movie. However, as this movie is not considered canon in the Buffyverse, Christopher Golden adapted Joss Whedon's original script into a canonical comic book entitled The Origin. In the comic, a fifteen-year-old Buffy is having violent dreams about women from different period of history slaying monsters. One day, she is approached by Merrick Jamison-Smythe, a mysterious man who reveals her destiny as the Chosen One and becomes her first Watcher (this scene can also be seen in the Season Two episode "Becoming, Part One"). With little training, and help from her friend Oliver Pike, Buffy defeats her first major enemy, a vampire leader named Lothos, but not before the death of Merrick. In a battle with Lothos' vampiric lackeys, Buffy sets fire to the high school gym and is subsequently expelled.
In the Season Six episode "Normal Again", it is revealed that, shortly after her expulsion, Buffy confided in her parents about what really had happened and her destiny as the Slayer. Worried that she was losing her mind, Buffy's parents sent her to a mental institution. While there, Buffy realized that attempts to persuade others of the existence of demonic forces would be futile. She kept quiet and was released after a couple of weeks. Buffy and her parents never spoke of it again. Joyce and Hank, who had been experiencing marital troubles for years, finally divorced, and Buffy moved with her mother to 1630 Revello Drive in Sunnydale, a small town in California.
Rupert Giles is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head.
Rupert Giles was born in 1954 in London, England. His family has worked within the Council of Watchers for at least three generations; both his father and grandmother, Edna Giles, were also Watchers. Although as a child Giles dreamed of being either "a fighter pilot or a greengrocer", being a Watcher is a calling, much as being a Slayer is, and Rupert's father explained his destiny to him when he was ten-years-old (revealed in "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date"). Although the Scooby Gang later joked that he wore tweed diapers as a child, Rupert was in fact a rebellious youth, rejecting his responsibility as a Watcher and dropping out of his history degree at Oxford University when he was twenty-one. He delved into dark magics and befriended a group of young people who delved into the dark arts for fun or money: Ethan Rayne, Philip Henry, Dierdre Page, Thomas Sutcliff, and Randall. Together, they summoned a particularly grotesque demon called Eyghon, who would eventually murder Randall. Rupert gained the nickname "Ripper" during this time.
During this time, Ripper employed tales of demons and dark magics, and also claimed to be a founding member of Pink Floyd in order to impress girls, although he later admitted this was untrue. It is also possible that he delved into criminal activity, primarily stealing cars, but most likely for joyriding ("Like riding a bloody bicycle," he says as he hot wires his car in the episode "Dead Man's Party"). Following the death of Randall, Ethan and the others failed to exorcise Eyghon, and Rupert accepted his destiny of becoming a Watcher. Before becoming a fully-fledged Watcher, Rupert also worked as "the curator of a British museum, maybe the British Museum" as Willow says (cf. "Welcome to the Hellmouth"). According to the noncanon comic Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Giles, his mentor in the Watcher's Council was Archibald "Archie" Lassiter.