I've always felt that Giles/Angel was one pairing I just couldn't write with any conviction,because of the torture, Jenny and, for all Giles' outward calm about it, the fact that Angel's the man who slept with Buffy.

The idea that the torture brought them closer in a twisted way is something I've accepted easily enough with Faith/Wes but never really applied to Giles/Angel.

And there's the unacknowledged power that Giles has over Angel, as one of his few living victims, to forgive.

Oh, that's very true! I think Angel was staggered by Giles' rejection of him - twice - in AtS S5.

Thanks for giving me a fresh way of looking at the pairing; I really enjoyed reading this.