Joss Whedon subverted this trope (whether intentionally or not, I have no idea) in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” by revealing that it was Rupert Giles’ grandMOTHER who had been a Watcher and passed the role down to Giles’ father, who passed it on to Giles himself. Still a paternal grandparent, then. Apparently, maternal grandparents rarely do anything interesting. I call patriarchal shenanigans. -|

(the role of Vampire Slayer itself was, of course, passed down more or less at random from one teenage girl to another)

That’s her maternal Gram, anyway. I don’t think we’ve ever learned anything about her paternal grandmother. Since Bruno doesn’t say anything to the effect of “you’ve never met either of my grandmothers,” it may be that the latter Gram is dead.

American pop culture often (not always) gives the impression that a person only has one set of grandparents. Think of how many films or TV shows feature someone inheriting something from their grandfather, not one or the other, just “grandfather.” Responsibilities that are passed down through the generations (like protecting the Holy Grail or fighting demons or stuff like that) are usually handed down from father to father to father, strictly a paternal thing. Hm.

Bruno’s observation is thus uncannily right. Dije begins to make a salient point himself, but fails to find something liberals find disgusting that conservatives delight in rubbing their smug liberal faces in. But this was years before Donald Trump. And so now the circle is complete.

I wonder what today’s Dije would make of that conundrum. Something sharp and wry, I presume.