For
singer_d, who wanted Giles/Buffy friendship, rip-snorting adventure, snark, swords, and a discussion about a 2007 movie only one of them enjoyed.This is not Sparta
Giles/Buffy friendship
FRT
Giles held the theater door for Buffy. She bounced past him into the wet spring evening. He followed her down the street, along with the flow of the crowd. Mostly young men, he observed, and the showing they'd attended had been packed. This made the last-second bowing out of Buffy's latest boyfriend somewhat baffling to Giles. But he'd long since given up attempting to make sense of the love lives of his young friends.
Buffy walked backwards down the pavement in front of him. "That was cool. Didn't you think that was cool, Giles? Mmm. Leonidas's chest was awesome."
Giles snorted. "It was dreadful! That fellow ought to have shouted 'This is not Sparta!' for all the resemblance it had to reality."
Buffy made a face. "Don't you dare complain about the demons. Those were realistic."
Giles conceded that they were. "But there the basis in history ends."
"Like what? Name some problems."
"For one thing, the Spartans had institutionalized pederasty. The Persians weren't the ones buggering each other. Every one of those warriors got his boyhood initiation not by fighting a monster, but by, by, by--" Giles flung his hands into the air.
"Yowza," said Buffy. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."
"The movie thinks there is. It criticizes the Persians with the accusation."
"Well--"
Giles was warming to his subject. "Not to mention the slavery. The Spartans weren't blacksmiths. Oh no. They had slaves to be blacksmiths for them. And revolt against them. Sparta spent its latter years in constant fear of helot uprisings."
"Um. Not so free, is what you're saying."
He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "Not in the least. Pure fantasy. Fascist fantasy, if you ask me."
"Oh." Buffy was silent for a minute as they walked. "Fight scenes were still awesome. I loved the slomo sword work. Feels like that, sometimes, when I'm fighting. You know? Everything slows down and I can see exactly how everything is moving."
"Oh," said Giles. He turned to watch her walk alongside him. "Really?"
"Yeah. I can kinda turn it on if I'm stressed."
Giles made a thoughtful sound. "Something you could teach the others to do, perhaps?"
"Maybe. If you and me sit down and work on it until I can do it at will."
Giles nodded. "Tomorrow. So. Dinner?"
"Yeah. Let's get those tapir things."
Giles rolled his eyes, as expected. "Tapas."
"Whatever."
