A/N Syg, I think Quentin was an armchair quarterbacker who'd never been in the field, so to speak and so were the gaggle of ducks that followed him around. He got his position because of politics. But yes, he judged Buffy based on reports and even then, Giles' reports would have had to have been really incomplete because the Council's policies, as stated by Wesley, were violated by Buffy, Giles and the Scoobies by allowing Angel to be around. The stated reason for Giles being fired was ridiculous, but he did deserve to be fired. He didn't adequately train any member of the group, let alone Buffy, he allowed them to break laws. He allowed Buffy to break a moral and legal law being involved with Angel. He made it clear she had to deal with Angelus, regardless of her personal feelings in the matter. No military or investigative agency would ever require that, anymore than they would require a pregnant girl to be in the field.
The Cruciamentum and the review by the Council when Glory was around should have centered on Giles, not Buffy, because Giles was the adult who was supposed to be providing training, guidance etc and wasn't, not remotely, not real training or guidance. Buffy wasn't trained to lead or make any of the kind of decisions Giles put off on her and they all made bad choices, but they were teenagers who needed adult guidance and what they got was Giles, every teenagers dream adult.
He let them run wild, stay out all night, break the law and date whoever they wanted and told them whatever they did, mostly, was just fine with him. Of course teenagers would think he was great. 😏
######
Faith leaned against the wall outside the room Cordelia, with the help of her Cordettes, was getting ready in. Despite Harmony's last minute bid for May Queen and Cordelia's distraction from the race, Cordelia had still won and was now getting ready for the dance. Xander had expanded his search of the school beyond the public areas and Jesse had gotten Johnathan Levinson's help in putting together a list of missing and dead students. Turns out someone already had a list going, Freddy Iverson, Editor of the school paper that actually printed a column of dead and missing kids. Were there that many dead and missing kids in Sunnydale? This was something Faith intended to talk to Diana about as soon as she could.
Faith could hear the girls talking through the cracked open door. Being popular had never been possible for her, she was the daughter of a really lower class drunk and later a foster kid. Friends hadn't even really been possible because she hadn't been able to trust anyone. Until Diana. Diana changed her life, gave her a home and love and boundaries Faith hadn't even realized she'd needed. And that led to Xander and Jesse, buds that were becoming actual friends. She put her hand over her stomach, circumstances weren't great, but they were standing by her, especially Xander and that meant a lot to her.
Cordelia was an enigma though, she'd agreed something weird was going on and that it appeared to be centered on her and she'd agreed to Faith keeping an eye on her, but only because Xander had urged her to. Faith concluded that Cordelia trusted Xander, but didn't understand why, after watching the conversation between the two. Faith had also noticed, Xander seemed very concerned about a girl who was his social enemy. And he didn't understand why either, it seemed as instinctive as the trust the Hyena King and Queen had.
"I am so bored." Jesse muttered from down the hall, he was helping keep an eye on Cordelia, something else Mr. Giles had strongly disapproved of. Faith hoped he wasn't around with that attitude when the hormones of pregnancy that she'd heard about kicked in or she might kick in his head.
Diana couldn't get here soon enough as far as the three teenagers were concerned, none of them wanted to be dealing with Mr. Giles.
Farther away Xander was still searching, he was surprised rooms like the Janitor's closet or empty classrooms weren't kept locked . Why did he want to stay in the Janitor's closet and why did being in there make him feel like starting an argument with Cordelia? He shrugged and moved on, as he passed the band classroom, a room he'd never been in, he heard the sound of an instrument being played and glanced in the room. "Weird, there's no one in there." He opened the door and followed the sound and realized it was coming from above the room. But there was nothing above him as far as he knew, this was the top floor of the school. But it did have one of those dropped acoustic ceilings, so maybe there was a crawl space up there, which still begged the question, why was there music coming from up there?
Grabbing the teacher's desk, Xander pushed it over under the area of the ceiling the music was coming from and climbed up on top of it. The ceiling was about eight feet above the floor and the desk gave his just shy of six foot height enough of a lift that he could push up one of the tiles and look around. He could see a light from a lamp and a pile of blankets. The sound cut off and Xander heard a scrambling sound, but couldn't see anyone.
Someone appeared to be living in the ceiling. Woah. Xander dropped the ceiling tile and went to see if Diana had arrived yet.
######
A/N This Giles is still very much the Giles we saw in the first few episodes who called cheerleading a 'cult' and tried to demand that Buffy do what he wanted, behave like he thought the Slayer should act. When Buffy refused to listen to him, he capitulated and as long as she did her job, as Slayer, he let her do want she wanted and acted supportive.