Rupert Giles and Remus Lupin: The role of intelligent adult in fictional series

Sometimes we just need adults to help us along the way and that’s why characters like Remus Lupin and Rupert Giles exist in our fictional series. Without them, where would our favorites be?

Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and Rupert Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer are not that different. They’re the ‘all knowing’ adults who dedicate their time and energy to helping those children in their lives and focus on protecting them.

Sure, Remus is a bit more complicated than that and Rupert’s technical title is ‘the watcher’ for Buffy, who is the one true slayer, but you get my point. They’re the adults these younger characters can rely on.

With Remus, he’s the kind of character who wanted to do right by his job, his friends, and those he cared about. Rupert was dedicated to his obligations and formed relationships through them. Both are represented as men who are slightly lonely but who will do anything for those around them.

So why do we need them in our fiction? To be honest, we don’t. We just have them because the idea of not having a central male figure, especially back when both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter came out, wasn’t even a possibility. Now though, we could do without characters like this.

That’s not to say I don’t love them both, I do. Their placement in the series though just make them both seem as if the heroes cannot succeed without their wise wisdom which, probably isn’t the best message to send out.

Do you think these characters are similar? Or why do you think we need these sort of roles in our pop culture? Let us know what you think in the comments below!