I think I'm in a few years late, but I absolutely loved this. I'm late in a lot of respects because I just finished Buffy as well. And man... Giles/Anya are fantastic. I mean, I kind of shipped them but lately I've been shipping them harder and harder without actually entirely knowing why, and this essay provided me with a lot of reasons beyond "um... they just go together well?"

Then today I started searching out fanfiction (thanks for the recs, by the way,) and I found a couple of good ones but the rest were all extremely lacking canon and it made me feel like I was delusional for shipping them. But your essay makes me feel like a more legit shipper again, and it's overall brilliant. Thank you for writing it. ♥

I'm also curious about that Joss quote, he said it was icky? Or more so, she said he said it was icky? I don't suppose you know where that quote is? I've been trying to find it on the internets with little luck. I mean I do get that aspect, because for along time Buffy/Angel icked me out for the very same reason, but um. The quote just interested me so I was curious.

/long comment. Thanks for the manifesto! :)