‘My Girl’ – A Detailed Analysis of Willow and Tara's r'ship

[Garner]

GG, I've seen a fic by Cynthia Winters that covers W/T telling Joyce about them that was a bit more straightforward. Willow just goes and says, Uh, by the way... and so on. It is pretty good. As for Dawn, I have read several FF that show her first finding out and frankly I've always sort of liked those. I doubt Dawn would have freaked anywhere near as much as Joyce or Buffy initially. As for the what if stuff, I like the what if ideas when they contrast with what was, and show how things could have gone diffferently if one was thinking or writing with some talent. A lot of times it appears to me that things happened to simply get plot element B to occur. A perfect example is Giles in Season Sux. He does not really act in character early on, and definitely leaves much too soon. Why? Because ASH wanted to go back to London. The writers tried to make it seem reasonable, but it really wasn't. That's not entirely their fault, but in my mind Giles wouldn't have done some of the things he did if ASH had been staying with the series. Simple as that. I have a similar opinion on the Addiction Crap. If the writers had a magical bible (I mean a firm outline of HOW magic worked on BtVS) instead of winging it, they might have had Giles say stuff early on, shown Amy addicted, and the group could have worried about Willow going this direction. They didn't and it wasn't ever brought up earlier, or a concern, of someone who should have known better because it was tacked on later. The plot overrode the character consistencies, and no real backstory was present because they made it up too late for that. And frankly this is the biggest fault BtVS shows. They had no real grand arc, they had no firm idea of the universe, they made it up as they went. This is fine for a few seasons, 3 maybe 4. After that the weight of show history gets hard to support, cobbled together plot points start to contradict later events. A better producer or show creator would have ironed out the way certain things worked early on and made sure everyone knew that. If that had been done we would have richer seasons 5-7 and perhaps Tara wouldn't have had to die.



I also love the idea of the troll hammer having settings! Awesome. I can just see Giles saying, "Ms. Summers, set Hammer on stun!" Very sad!



Garner

[darkmagicwillow]

I totally agree, Garner. Joss likes to say how much he's planned BtVS, but if he had, it would show like it did on JMS' Babylon 5. Some of the changes as they went were great, like Tara, but overall, they needed a real plan or at least a real understanding of their setting such as how magic works.

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"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit." -- "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

[Firefoot]

Mods, if this is off-topic, please feel free to move to a more appropriate threat. It seems to fit well here, as we've been discussing W/T's relationship and Willow's magic use.



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I didn’t find Willow’s misuse of magic to be terribly out of character, and it actually seemed to be consistent with her personality and past behavior. It seems to me that any young person who possesses a tremendous power will sooner or later use it unwisely. I don’t have problems with this particular notion. I do, however, have issues with the way the Buffy staff chose to depict Willow’s struggle with her power.



One of Willow’s more endearing traits in the early seasons is that her intelligence was so much more advanced than her other skills, especially her social skills. When she befriended Buffy, her brains were suddenly not only valued but actively needed. In the second season, she began to dabble in magic, demonstrating a remarkable natural affinity for it. This was shown most vividly when she performed the Romany curse, clearly channeling the spirit of the Gypsy who originally cast the spell. An ability to perform magic gave Willow yet another skill that would aid in the Scoobies’ fight against evil.



When she met Tara and began working with her, Willow’s abilities developed further. Although Tara didn’t have Willow’s sheer magical firepower, she’d been practicing longer, and she seemed to possess more practical skills—things she then presumably taught Willow. At first, they balanced each other: Willow had more power, but Tara had more knowledge. But the more Willow learned, the more her magical abilities began to surpass Tara’s. Another key difference between the two characters was the way they viewed magic. Tara clearly had a lot of respect for magic as a powerful supernatural force, whereas Willow regarded it as a tool, like a computer—and she seemed eager both to develop her power and to use it.



The first sign that this difference in philosophy might cause a problem between them was in “Forever.” Willow stands beside Tara, listening to her explain to Dawn why Wiccans don’t raise the dead, and then, behind Tara’s back, she gives Dawn access to a book that would enable her to do exactly that. Although Dawn didn’t raise Joyce and Tara evidently didn’t find out about her attempt, the incident reveals that Willow was willing to disregard Tara’s judgment.



Not long after this, the two had an argument about Willow’s magical use (in “Tough Love”). It’s interesting that this argument starts when Willow fears that Buffy and Tara will bond over the mutual experience of losing their mothers and that she will be excluded. (This is similar to Willow’s insecurity when Buffy began chumming around with Faith in season three.) When Tara expresses concern about Willow’s increasing magical power, Willow quickly accuses Tara of doubting her orientation. This doesn’t seem to have been Tara’s intent at all, but Willow twists the argument in that direction. She adds an especially cruel jab about establishing her “lesbo street cred” before walking out on the conversation.



The argument had serious repercussions in terms of Willow’s magic use. Until then, Tara had probably been able to persuade Willow from attempting anything magically dangerous. However, when Tara was incapacitated by Glory, she was no longer able to do this. To boot, Willow’s anger—and very likely guilt—over the attack led her to recklessly seek revenge against the god. She consulted a book on “darkest magics,” and in going after Glory, she demonstrated some formidable skills—levitation, telekinesis, the ability to shoot lightning. As the season drew to a close, the Scoobies relied on Willow’s magical abilities more and more: for example, she created magical defense barriers, and she entered Buffy’s mind to learn what was ailing her friend. In “The Gift,” she employed telekinesis and telepathy (with Spike). When she restored Tara’s sanity, she wounded Glory sufficiently so that Buffy could weaken the god back to mortal form, allowing Giles to deliver the final coup de grâce.



The crisis with Glory had put Willow’s abilities to the test, revealing the full extent of her power. When the sixth season began, she attempted her most awesome magical feat ever: raising the dead. Even though this had the tragic consequence of pulling Buffy out of heaven, it represented a tremendous validation of Willow’s skills. She had achieved perhaps the ultimate in supernatural power: reversing death. Even more amazingly, Willow reached this level of magical ability after only three or four years of practice—between the ages of approximately seventeen and twenty-one, she went from struggling to float pencils to performing a resurrection.



There is a wonderful scene in Jurassic Park (both the book and the movie) where Ian Malcolm raps about the dangers of acquiring tremendous power with no attendant discipline. Normally, when one acquires a great power (he uses black belt in the martial arts as one example), there is a long learning process involved. By the time the student develops enough skill to be deadly, he or she has also (ideally) grown wise enough not to use that power in anger or for personal gain.



However, even this long learning process is sometimes not enough to prevent the misuse of power. To use other fictitious examples, long periods of study and discipline didn’t stop Saruman, Anakin Skywalker, or Tom Riddle from going bad and using their powers for their own gain. Is it any surprise, then, that Willow abused her magical powers, given that she acquired them so rapidly and with so little discipline? Despite her innate intelligence and compassion, she became arrogant with Giles and Tara—two people she loved and respected—when they questioned the ways in which she was using her magical abilities.



Wiping Tara’s memory of their argument was fully in keeping with Willow’s prior use of magic. In the third season, she attempted to “de-lust” herself of her feelings for Xander, and in season four, she tried to will away her grief over Oz’s departure. On both those occasions, she tried to use magic as a quick fix to a thorny emotional situation. It’s therefore hardly surprising that she would also attempt to remedy her quarrel with Tara by magically erasing Tara’s memory of it. Willow may have feared that the disagreement with Tara might lead to a breakup, and having suffered that pain before with Oz, she probably had no desire to experience it again. The irony (as I pointed out earlier in this thread) is that Willow’s very urge to make the problem go away (the second “forget” spell) is precisely what caused her estrangement from Tara.



My problem is where the writers took Willow’s arc post-“Tabula Rasa.” Her problem was not “addiction,” either to some magical buzz or even to power, but that she had acquired an almost god-like power with no discipline. Quitting magic “cold turkey” makes no sense at all given that the Scoobies live on a Hellmouth and fight the evil it attracts: sooner or later, they would need Willow to perform magic. She clearly needed to have a proper respect for the forces she channeled, and she needed to use magic with the strictest discipline, only when there was no other solution. And this would be very difficult for her, as magic is so much “easier” than other, more conventional means. And she needed to acquire this discipline not to “win Tara back,” but because it would be the right thing to do. She needed to learn that (to paraphrase Ian Malcolm), just because she can doesn’t mean she should.



Unfortunately, this kind of arc would take a lot of work, involving slow progress and detailed character development. It’s the kind of story that would take time and effort to build up, and the payoff would be a more mature character rather than some spectacular fight scene. And by the sixth season, the Buffy writers didn’t seem to care much for character development and well-plotted drama: they mostly seemed interested in fight scenes, idiot humor, special effects, and Spuffy. “Addiction” was an easy, obvious way out of the corner Willow had been painted into, and it was a quick, lazy way to achieve the hopelessly over-the-top “Dark Magic Willow.” It’s especially galling to realize that Willow’s entire season six arc was contorted so that she could go toe-to-toe with Buffy in a battle that was little more than a tired retread of Buffy vs. Faith. Talk about the tail wagging the dog!



Finally, Tara would (IMO) be the wrong person to act as Willow’s mentor. She was too close to Willow, too emotionally involved with her, and magic was at the heart of not only their relationship but their conflict. IMO, Willow needed a sympathetic outsider, a guru she could occasionally study with on neutral territory. I would have preferred to see W/T not reunite until season seven, after Willow had a chance to come to grips with the implications of her tremendous ability. Also (again IMO), before W/T could completely overcome their differences and reconcile wholeheartedly, there had to be some acknowledgement that what Willow did to Tara was fundamentally wrong. It’s been discussed in the TWOP Buffy forum that Willow never really acknowledged her transgression—the memory-wipe didn't just involve an unethical use of her powers; she arrogantly over-rode Tara’s fundamental right to free will. IMO, any reconciliation between them, no matter how willing Tara was to forgive, would not have lasted unless Willow fully took responsibility for her actions.



This is all my interpretation, anyway. Obviously, YMMV.



Firefoot

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"The holy passion of friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last for a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money."

--Mark Twain

Edited by: Firefoot at: 5/6/03 11:39:46 am

[LostWithoutTara]

You pretty much hit the nail on the head there.



Up to TR, Willow's development was okay - if a little wonky in terms of the writers making up things as they went along.



But Wrecked... I hate that episode. It fills me with horror. I'm attempting to analyse it at the moment for this thread and I'm finding that my desire to write bitchily about how awful it was is overriding my normal, calm analytical self. After Wrecked, ME irretrievably damaged Willow. I still choose to believe that Buffy ended at The Gift, with Willow and Tara reunited, X/A being engaged and Buffy dying a meaningful, heroic death.

[chilled monkey]

I agree that BtVS ended with Season Five.



As for Wrecked, I say just go with your feelings. Let everyone know how garbage it is and why.

[Garner]

Firefoot has a couple of very good points. I agree that Willow developed her powers awfully quickly and with such quick development there can always be extra liklihood of problems. I personally still maintain that the leap from Darkest Magics should have come at a greater cost and been more integral to the storyline, but that's me. Willow certainly didn't have the time to learn when to use magic and when not, and certainly the summer between seasons 5 and 6 would have made that worse.



I also think the point about Willow needing a neutal guru and taking more time to come to grips with what she did would have been a good idea. IF she had acknowledged her mistake and the wrongness of what she did, it could have been Tara. Hell, Tara should have taught her more prior to that point, but that was obviously either glossed over or not thought of. I also sort of blame Giles for not taking a greater interest in Willow's magical development and watching over her or taking and active guiding role. He should have known the dangers of young adults messing with supernatural forces and how things could go wrong. Again, I think the writers just missed that or didn't think of it. Having W/T stay apart until season 7 could have worked, we could have seen Willow coming to grips with her approach to magic and all that and then they could have gotten back together in a much more natural way.



However, I still don't follow the train of abuse to the mind wipe on Tara. That I'll never believe. First of all the de-lusting spell was not the first attempt Willow made to resist her feelings for Xander. It was more of a last ditch attempt to fix the situation. And Xander intervened before she could go through with it. Would she really have done it? This is probably her biggest abuse early on. The second instance, to work her will, was again not her first recourse. It was another last ditch attempt to make HER feel better. She was abusing magic, maybe, but not anyone else. I've never doubted she treated magic too cavalierly or abused it to an extent, BUT to violate Tara, that is beyond what she should be capable of. First off her regard and love for Tara should be too strong to do something that obviously wrong. Willow's morals were never seriously a problem prior to season sux, raging teen hormones and long history with Xander aside. Plus she should have known how badly the attack by Glory affected Tara. We didn't see that but Willow would have. There is no way the person who cared for Tara, fed her, cleaned her, probably helped her to the bathroom, ever, EVER, would have done what Willow did. Her love and respect for Tara should have been too strong. Plus, the fight they had was not that big. She found out in TL that they could fight and not break up, so her fears there shouldn't have been that great.



I will agree though that after TR, things got worse on the show. That was when the story took on a bend that was irretrievably bad. I think that with the first mind wipe, things were going in a bad direction. Smashed and Wrecked just made things A LOT worse.



I also think that LWT should just go ahead and give the analysis the emotional aspect as well. It is likely to be more powerful that way.



Garner

[darkmagicwillow]

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Not long after this, the two had an argument about Willow’s magical use (in “Tough Love”). It’s interesting that this argument starts when Willow fears that Buffy and Tara will bond over the mutual experience of losing their mothers and that she will be excluded. (This is similar to Willow’s insecurity when Buffy began chumming around with Faith in season three.)

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Willow's potential jealousy over B/T's friendship as a source of the argument is an interesting thought, though I must admit I don't see this in the text. Willow is understandably puzzled with Buffy interrupting their geometry session with Dawn, especially as Willow's encouragement is more likely to restore Dawn's enthusiasm about school (remember what she wrote about Willow in her journal?) than Buffy's buckle-down approach. However, Willow doesn't know about Buffy's potential for losing Dawn as Buffy hasn't told anyone but Giles.

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When Tara expresses concern about Willow’s increasing magical power, Willow quickly accuses Tara of doubting her orientation. This doesn’t seem to have been Tara’s intent at all, but Willow twists the argument in that direction. She adds an especially cruel jab about establishing her “lesbo street cred” before walking out on the conversation.

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It might not have been Tara's intent, but she is quick to follow up on the subject, indicating that she does indeed have worries on that.

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"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit." -- "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

[Gatito Grande]

The differences between Willow and Tara over magic use surfaced as early as Out of My Mind (Ep.5.4, I think), when Willow "tinkered w/ the tinker bell light." Of course, the problem was not so much that Willow upped the wattage on Tara's spell, but that Willow was so blase' about turning to magic rather than ("Muggle" horrors!) simply use a flashlight.



I'm still of mixed feelings re: Willow's magic (ab)use in S6. It was kind of in character, I think, until Tabula Rasa, in that it showed Willow becoming addicted/enamored of The Power. The ATW mind-wipe was extreme (and of course, a violation of trust even more than memory), but I believe that Willow, in her power-addiction, *believed* she was just trying to make a conflict "go away" in much the same way that couples used to stereotypically "fix you a [strong] drink, honey" at the end of a stressful day. Note: I'm not trying to justify what Willow did, only see it from her (twisted) perspective.



But then we get to TR: that Willow would go back on her word is one thing, but that she would do it so casually is another. Y'know, if we'd seen an episode like Wrecked before TR, I might have bought it---because then magic would be seen to be significantly mind-altering (way beyond just judgment-impairing). But of course, it was precisely this brand new "Have a Nice Trip, Baaaaby!" quality to magic in Wrecked that bothered so many as being 1)completely out of left field (um, is that an Americanism? How 'bout "a bolt from the blue"?), and 2)A "Just Say No" After School Special.



In my opinion (since canon-altering is permitted here!), the "Magic Addiction Arc" could have been made more believable, if the "euphoria" (with which I've seen some describe the magic in Wrecked) was simply an even-more amped version of the "giggle-fit" Willow and Amy seemed to be having on the balcony in Smashed. Rack could still have had a role as "pusher," but more subtly, instead of as Lord of the MagiCrack House. It was the stoner quality of Wrecked magic that seemed incongruous w/ Willow. I mean, she *let* Buffy take her home from beer-binguing in Something Blue: she just didn't seem to be the "drowning my sorrows" type.



GG Spike seemed to be familiar with, but shied away from, the MagiCrack House. Why in the world was that, he being quintessentially the "drown your sorrows" type? For that matter, why didn't Giles, Mr. "Magic is dangerous, I've been there," know about Rack's back when Amy was pre-Rat (and send Buffy for to be slaying, yah)? Oy vey, they raised the Buffster, but left continuity buried in the cold, cold ground. Out

[DarkRed]

i really value analysis like Firefoot's , cuz they put things in such a way that even if it's not your opinion u still appreciate it. first cuz they really dig deep and find all the evidence needed to prove the point, and secondly cuz they don't 'yell' or slime ppl responsible (Joss, ME...), but instead put their point in a nice way.



Plus i totally agree with what Firefoot said so...



i also thought (and probably expressed) before that willow's misuse of magic was evident before.. i saw it coming and all. but how ME handled it in S6 was simply wrong.. they build this beautiful story-line and then just ruined all the foundations... TB mind erasing was out of charecter, not necessarily because of the action itself, but more because of how it was commited.. with such ease from willow.. like it was nothing at all. in ATW it was believable, but in TB it was way too much!



ok that's my 50 cents.



luv.anne.

Quote:

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"a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection."

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[darkmagicwillow]

I should add my compliments for Firefoot's essay, which is insightful and well-written. I tend to focus on the disagreements first, and I'm really tired of everything being Willow's fault. There's no question that the forget spell was her fault, but the argument in TL is another matter. To contribute to the thread, here's my shorter analysis of Willow's magic use through the years, just notes that I wrote as I was working on my fic.



1997-1998 (s1): Willow DISCOVERS darkness in the vampires she meets the day Buffy arrives and in Jesse's death in Welcome to the Hellmouth. It hits home hardest in Prophecy Girl when she discovers the murder & mayhem at the school and realizes that no place is safe from it.



1998-1999 (s2): The darkness keeps hammering at her, becoming especially personal with Miss Calendar's murder in Passion. In Becoming, Willow TOUCHES darkness in the unknown power that helps her cast the soul restoration spell for Angel in Becoming. More darkness arises in the consequences with Xander's betrayal, perhaps holding Buffy up just enough to allow Angel to activating Acathla and making the soul restoration a tragedy.



1999-2000 (s3): Willow EXPERIENCES the darkness within herself as she commits her first knowing betrayal with Xander in Lover's Walk and when she meets her vampire self in Dopplegangland.



2000-2001 (s4): Willow TEETERS on the brink of darkness with almost casting the revenge spell against Veruca in Wild at Heart, and the unintentional consequences of her Will Be Done spell that result in d'Hoffryn's offer to make her a VD in Something Blue. Tara shows her the light through her love and helps expose her to the tradition of Wicca. Willow with her extra-flamey candle chooses Tara and the light over Oz and the night in New Moon Rising.



2001-2002 (s5): Willow EMBRACES darkness in her fight against Glory, but her actions are grounded in good intentions until she loses Tara as her anchor in Tough Love and attacks Glory alone for revenge without thinking of the consequences. She begins to interfere with people's minds with the best of intentions, with Buffy in The Weight of the World and Glory and Tara in The Gift, foreshadowing her darker actions of next season.



Fall 2002 (s6): The darkness CORRUPTS her as she lies about the resurrection spell, its components and consequences, in Bargaining and CONSUMES her as she casts the second forget spell in Tabula Rasa. She still doesn't think of herself as dark, deceiving herself about her intentions, and is upset more because of losing Tara than because of any remorse for her actions or realizations of how deeply the darkness has stained her soul. Ignore addiction idiocy after Tabula Rasa.

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"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit." -- "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

[Garner]

It might have been very interesting if Smashed and Wrecked had occurred earlier. That indeed might have made Willow's actions seem more not her own. And to tell the truth, I thought they WERE going in a direction like that. A Willow powercrazed or under some outside influence. Something other than just casting spells is easier and so I re-arrange things as I see fit. She had a problem most definitely, it just seems like they didn't go in an interesting or reasonable direction with the problem, and that makes the story arc even less satisfying and more frustrating. I still maintain it would take a GOOD reason for Willow to cast spells on Tara not once, but twice. Something that needed to be hinted at much more blatantly than just magic abuse.



On the flip side of this, if you were a witch why wouldn't you use magic for light in a dark place? I tend to think that they go a little overboard on Tara's outlook that almost comes to "don't use magic at all unless it's life threatening." Someone else mentioned that if Willow had used the locator spell that Warren never would have gotten to kill Tara. That's part of the problem with season sux. Willow should have been allowed to do that spell. It would have been too useful not too, and could have endangered other lives needlessly. Again we see no firm guidelines to when magic should be used and when it shouldn't. Obviously redecorating a room may be too whimsical, but then where is the line? That was never discussed at all. Bad story writing and bad producing as far as I am concerned.



Garner

[LokiPromise]

From season 6 onwards, the writing did seem to go downhill especially considering how well the preceading seasons had been concocted, yes even S4. But after killing Buffy a second time and the odd flashes of prior genius, OMWF et al, it was almost as if the writing staff had been reduced forcing so many issues such as Willow's DM abuse and as the previous post mentions, Tara's ever changing attitudes towards it.

BB:Hello Xander...and Anya, how is your money?!

A:Fine!Thank you for asking!

[Firefoot]

garner wrote:

Quote:

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Again we see no firm guidelines to when magic should be used and when it shouldn't. Obviously redecorating a room may be too whimsical, but then where is the line?

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Well, this is just one of the writing problems re: magic that has plagued the show. Like so many other "rules" of the Buffyverse, the use of magic and characters' magical powers fluctuate at the whim of writers who are too lazy to think of another way around tricky plot points. It's so much easier to have a character "use magic" than to have them maybe, you know, crack open a book or maybe leave their room.



In the first three or so seasons, the show had definite ground rules. Magic was something that was often necessary, but always to be treated with a great deal of respect and caution. "The Dark Age" revealed the tragic consequences of using dark magic in a cavalier or frivolous way. In light of this episode, it's almost criminal for Giles not to have taken a more active role in Willow's magical training. But I'm willing to bet that this is something the writers didn't even consider. (If I want to fanwank and give the writers more benefit of the doubt than they deserve, perhaps Giles thought that Willow's intelligence would prevent her from doing something magically dangerous. But Ethan Rayne was a pretty smart guy, too, and look what happened to him).



Later on, however, it seemed like just about anyone could open a magic book, like a cookbook, and conjure up a nifty spell. And then it descended into the idiocy of people being able to snap fingers or wave a hand for the desired effect, without stopping for a ritual or at least an incantation. Sheesh, at least the Harry Potter folks have to pull out a wand!



When the ground rules are constantly eroded by "cheating" writers, the internal structure of a show crumbles. Everything is basically made up from week to week. It's a sure sign that a series is in decline when this happens, and Buffy has sadly been no exception.



Firefoot

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"The holy passion of friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last for a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money."

--Mark Twain

Edited by: Firefoot at: 5/8/03 9:35:59 am

[LostWithoutTara]

Hey everyone. My sarcasm-tastic 'analysis' (note inverted commas) of Wrecked is almost ready for you to read. (Planning on filling in the gaps soon as I know I still need to cover pre-Wrecked time.



Just one question - a couple of you have mentioned a locator spell that Willow wanted to do that could've tracked down the nerds? I can't recall it - whcih ep. was it in?

[darkmagicwillow]

Willow suggested a locator spell to find who hired the bank-robbing demon in Flooded.

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"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit." -- "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

[Gatito Grande]

dmw, I have a couple of quibbles w/ your chronology (FYI, you have the seasons a year behind: it's S1 '97, S2 '97-98, etc.), mainly this: "Willow with her extra-flamey candle chooses Tara and the light over Oz and the night in New Moon Rising." I don't see symbolism in her choice, only love: Oz was a genuinely good person/werewolf, Willow just loved Tara more (inc. the girl-on-girl action!). That aside, I really liked your chronology and believe it gives a good explanation of Willow's evolution vis-a-vis magic.



I, too, have been thinking about Garner's query:

Quote:

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Again we see no firm guidelines to when magic should be used and when it shouldn't. Obviously redecorating a room may be too whimsical, but then where is the line?

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I'm not sure it was the room-decorating, it was the room-decorating in context:



Willow felt intense guilt over Buffy's death (just why wasn't made clear, IMO). More than simple grief over the loss of her best friend ("best friend" pre-Tara anyway), it was Willow's guilt which drove her to seek a resurrection spell at almost any cost---costs greater than she anticipated (and the anticipated costs were greater than she revealed).



Willow began keeping secrets regarding magic, and it was her keeping of secrets---apprehended, if not comprehended, by the others---that began sowing distrust in the hearts of everyone around her: first Spike ("There's always consequences!"), then Dawn ("You did this!"), then Xander (asking Tara about the spell, instead of Willow directly. BTW, I don't think Anya ever trusted her), then Tara, a little (though she defended Willow, I think Xander's questions raised some doubts), then Giles ("You rank, arrogant amateur!"), then Tara, a lot more. (Then there's Buffy herself, but she was really too out of it until Dead Things I think---when she turns to *Tara* not Willow, and not just because Willow was then "on the wagon.")



By the time of All the Way, Giles was seriously distrusting Willow, and Tara knew it. It was in this context---distrusting Willow's *decision-making about magic* not the magic itself---that "room decorating" appeared so wrong to Tara.



There is another issue however, that was not really picked up on directly in S6: Tara's insecurity about Willow's magical ability. What exactly was that about, anyway? In Family, Tara appears insecure about her own ability, simply because she fears she is not "useful" to the Scoobies compared to Willow. We're meant, I believe, to think that the events of Family go a long way to making Tara feel she is important to the Scoobies simply for who she is, not what she can or cannot do. Then what of Tough Love, and what I think of as the "PMS-powered" fight w/ Willow? Did Willow's ability "frighten" Tara, simply because Tara could see where Willow was headed? "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" as Klausewitz's (?) quote goes.



Or was there anything else? Did Tara feel that Willow's ability, outstripping her own, were somehow taking Willow away from her? (A later parallel, perhaps, to Riley's fear about Buffy: "You're getting stronger and stronger, a little more out of reach").



Bah, I dunno: I'm just speculating here. Maybe because magic is so far removed from our everyday experiences (SR's "There was plenty of magic!" aside), it's hard to find a frame of reference to understand how it would fit into a ethical "Thou shalt/Thou shalt not" system.



GG I'm actually remembering ST:TNG eps where they dealt w/ this: being given the powers of "Q" and what that would do to one. Deep, crazy sh*t! Out

[LostWithoutTara]

dmw Thanks for the info. I think I've repressed the memory of having seen Flooded. All I get is a vague feeling of badness.



ETA - I just found an 'essay' I wrote a little while ago detailing the abusiveness in S6 by comparing Spike, Warren and Willow. Would anyone be interested in reading it? Although I'd have to edit beforehand it as there's reference to post SR.

Edited by: LostWithoutTara at: 5/9/03 12:40:49 pm

[urnofosiris]

Any discussion should remain focussed on Willow and Tara, bringing the likes of those two into it could very easily take this thread off topic as has happened in the past with other threads. Also, the mere thought of comparing Willow to those characters even in the slightest makes me rather uncomfortable.

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Coffee, Food, Kisses and Gay Love........Get it while you are hot

[ukxenafan]

Adding my compliments to Firefoot - very good analysis of the development of Willow's magic/power trip. I actually thought the S6 Willow magic storyline was very nearly excellent! The idea of Willow being Buffy's ultimate foe in S6 due to her increasing power and increasing lack of discipline was a good one. Seeing Buffy up against her best friend who has all this supernatural power? Great stuff.



I even thought the addiction storyline in Smashed and Wrecked *nearly* worked - it was just too heavy handed, especially in Wrecked. Would Willow REALLY be turned around by crashing a car with Dawn? Would she really be able to resist the temptation of using her power? It was quite believable that she would become drunk on power and with Amy as her malaevolent guide instead of Wicca-sensible Tara, the magic as a drug analogy could have worked better - with a lighter touch and a little more time.



As far as Tara goes, in many ways, the break up with Willow at least gave her a chance to interact with the others and and to just be an adjunct to Willow all the time. It was good to see her bond with Dawn and help out Buffy. But how could they have fitted the W/T relationship in with the rise of Willow as the big Bad?

[LostWithoutTara]

‘Wrecked’



Yep, I’m jumping the gun a lot, but we’ve already discussed the mind-wipe and I wanted to vent about how truly awful this episode was. Promise I’ll go back to the few half decent moments of the early Season very soon.



Before I analyse this, I will say that I hate this storyline. While the notion of using a magic/heroin metaphor is fine by me (the notion that magic could be used to give oneself a ‘high’ is an interesting concept), the application of it and execution were appalling. Let’s face it, the only thing that makes this episode worth watching is for Aly’s beautiful acting at the end. But analyse I have set out to do, and analyse I must (although I’ll probably just make fun – sorry!) Normally, I try to be neutral, but this annoyed me so much I am going to rant.



Because I do not consider any of Willow’s in this episode remotely plausible or in character (except for one scene), I shall call her NotWillow. The criticism expressed of the character is NOT CRITICISM OF WILLOW BUT OF THE BAD AND OC WRITING.



Note, lots of disclaimers. If any mods feel anything I’ve put is unsuitable, take it out. But I think that everyone will at least partially agree with my criticisms.



At the start of this episode, Buffy, NotWillow and Amy arrive home from their night-time pursuits. Buffy is a little… ‘saddle-sore’ from her night of perverse pleasure with Spike and NotWillow and Amy are discussing their magic ‘bender’.



Tara, being the only mature adult left in Sunnydale, is looking after Dawn, who is being the typical innocent child. Tara’s obviously not very happy when NotWillow comes in – a) because she’s with another woman and b) because she’s been messing with magic for trivial purposes. She’s angry and upset and leaves. NotWillow and Buffy retire to bed – a hallmark of those who play out at night - and leave Dawn alone to find some awake people. See? ‘Dawn’ is left alone during the day. Ha ha ha! So poor Dawnie is left with her Wrecked pancakes – a metaphor for her life at this point.



NotWillow, for some reason being incredibly lazy, decides that she would rather use magic to draw a pair of curtains a few feet away from her bed, but finds that she’s burnt out from her night of manipulating others like puppets for kicks and is forced to do it herself. She’s so tired – she’s Wrecked.



The following night, NotWillow complains about her problem to Amy, who suggests that they visit this guy she knows. NotWillow has evidently forgotten everything she knew about peer pressure and decides to go along to have her mind blown. Amy leads her to Rack’s place, which is pretty much a crackhouse. It looks pretty Wrecked and there are several strung out junkies.







MARTI: See, kids? Amy’s a bad girl from a broken home and she’s going to lead Willow to bad things. Last night was their gateway drug, now they’re going to do the hard stuff. Remember, kids, drugs ARE BAD.



Amy tells NotWillow about Rack –



MARTI – Look, even his name is bad – out a ‘C’ in front and you get ‘crack’! Aren’t I clever?



- who is your standard lechy guy with creepy eyes and questionable personal hygiene.



MARTI: That’s how you can tell, kids. People who do drugs are always ugly with greasy hair. Because, of course, intelligent middle-class people never take any kinds of illegal substances.



NotWillow is a bit ruffled by him, but still allows him to take a ‘tour’ of her.



This has never been specified, but from the looks on their faces, it’s definitely sex-related. NotWillow’s all trippy, and Rack tells her her skin tastes like strawberries.



MARTI: You see what I did there? A strawberry is a woman who sells her body for drugs. So, ON HER FIRST VISIT, Willow has already resorted to prostitution!!! Please, don’t follow Willow. Drugs are bad.



A short while later, NotWillow trips on the ceiling, seeing a funky garden (yes, Marti – we get it, Garden Of Eden in reference to what she did to Buffy) bloom beneath her. She’s enjoying the experience immensely, until a horrible demon suddenly appears beneath her. She screams, blacks out and wakes up on her bedroom floor the following morning. She’s Wrecked.



These first few bits could be forgivable, I suppose. The fact that Willow could be willing to use magic to get high could demonstrate how far she was willing to go and how low she was sinking.



I’ll leave my nasty comments for a second and discuss the next little scene, which is, IMO the only decent one in the episode. In a few actions, we learn more about Willow than we do in this episode’s entire, clunky dialogue.



Given Willow’s ‘up’ last night, she comes crashing down. She sobs in the shower, both from the lousy feeling and in disgust at what she has done. She basically sold her body to get high. As a gay woman, it is even worse as she gave herself to a man. Leaving the shower, she takes Tara’s clothes and animates them. This part was very touching and reminded me of the good old days when the writers knew how to use the supernatural metaphors intelligently and subtly. She has lost the most important person in her life, and is left with an empty shell. And she knows that it’s all her own doing.



Okay, now that touching scene is over, I’ll get back to the sarcasm.



NotWillow heads down to spend time with Dawn. As soon as I saw her approach Dawn I knew what was going to happen. This type of drugs story is so overdone that you can even predict some of the dialogue the characters will say. Willow offers to take Dawn to the cinema (at this point alarm bells started ringing) and they leave.



Buffy arrives home to find that Amy, who apparently doesn’t have the dollar required to buy sage at the grocery store, has broken in in order to steal it.



MARTI: See? This magic stuff is bad. Amy is now not only a crack-addict prostitute, but a thief!



INTELLIGENT ‘Buffy’ VIEWER – Marti, I don’t understand. Why did Amy have break in for a lousy bag of herbs?



MARTI: Because if she didn’t I couldn’t show you how bad drugs really are! Gosh, if you can’t understand my cliché-ridden, plot-hole filled writing it’s your fault, not mine!



Yep, sage. Hello, continuity? Since when did sage enable you to get stoned? What was Amy going to do with it? Stupid plotholes. Amy is Wrecked. Despite only going to Rack’s once, she’s already completely messed up and tells Buffy that NotWillow is now Rack’s favourite.



What was the point of that? Did Marti think that perhaps we were too stupid to get the drugs metaphor, so she’d just throw in some more huge anvils?



US - Okay, Marti, we get it! Drugs are bad. We promise we and no one else we know will ever touch them.



MARTI – No. You have to see where such a path will take you. Drugs are very bad, and if you take them, you’re a bad person, okay? Look at Willow! She used to be sweet and wear clothes from the softer side of Sears and now she’s a leather-wearing crackho!



NotWillow and Dawn walk down the street and Dawn asks if they’re going the right way to the movies. Surely, she’d know? The cinema in Sunnydale is on Main Street, for goodness sakes. If someone decided to take me on the long route through dingy back alleys to go to an easily accessible place I’d be concerned. NotWillow asks how Tara is, and she’s obviously very depressed. Deciding that a pick-me-up might make her feel better, she takes Dawn to Rack’s and leaves her there while she gets stoned. Dawn acts in her usual ‘I can’t do anything for myself’ role and a creepy man sits next to her, smoking a cigarette.



MARTI: Smoking is also bad. Wow, that could be my next episode!



NotWillow has another trip, this time she’s moving through a heavenly space and it’s suddenly ripped apart by the monster from before – again, metaphor for NotWillow’s guilt at taking Buffy out of heaven. Several hours later, she emerges all black-eyed and Wrecked - she and Dawn leave the crackhouse and decide to walk down another badly-lit alley. You’d have thought that after nearly six years of evil monster fighting they’d have learnt that dark streets are not good places to be. A dumb-ass monster appears saying that NotWillow summoned him.



Anyone else notice that whenever the writers can’t explain something, it just happens because of a spell? In this case, it’s embarrassingly sloppy writing. I think it would have been better if the monster had been created or released into our dimension by Rack – as a cost for using magic to get others high.



NotWillow and Dawn flee from dumb-ass monster and NotWillow magically hotwires a car, but as she magically drives it, she spaces out again and smashes the car into a wall. The car is Wrecked. Dawn climbs out of the car. She’s Wrecked.



MARTI: Look! Willow has endangered the life of an innocent child with her crackwhore ways!



Dumb-ass monster attacks Dawn. Luckily, Spike and Buffy are only a teeny distance away – Buffy fights dumb-ass monster and NotWillow kills it with a spell. Dawn is all battered and sobbing and slaps NotWillow.



I must give full credit to Alyson for managing to act this appallingly written scene so beautifully. NotWillow breaks down sobbing and begs Buffy to help her because she can’t stop.



MARTI: See? Willow is helplessly addicted after less than a day! Drugs are bad!



So… NotWillow got high and got addicted to the magical equivalent of crack and realised she needed help within a day?







Not wanting to sound weird, but do you really want me to go on past this point? It pains me to write about how two such beautiful, originally well-written characters were destroyed by lazy, hack writing. With the exception of the few W/T scenes in O+FA and Entropy I don’t even know if there’s anything worth discussing.

[xita]

I don't even think wrecked is worth discussin in terms of w/t. When it aired, we didn't really want to discuss the digusting things implied in it and honestly I don't we should now. Magic Crack? ME is the one on crack they can keep their twisted stories, this wasn't Willow, this was Marti. She can discuss it with her analyst. Surely it isn't worth our time.

[darkmagicwillow]

LWT, I enjoyed your MST3k-like analysis of Wrecked. That's how it felt to me, especially the baseball bat parts. It felt good to make fun of the episode like that. It was the absolute worst episode of Buffy; I actually knew it was all over at this point, but I foolishly kept watching anyway.



ukxenafan, check out the "Season 6 - Kitten rewrite" thread over on Pens for possible answers to your question.

--

"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit." -- "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

Edited by: darkmagicwillow at: 5/10/03 3:48:56 pm

[Gatito Grande]

Well, I confess that I didn't hate Wrecked to anywhere near the extent that many did. The new take on "magicks" as physically-addictive and euphoria-inducing (w/ the accompanying "crash") was heavy-handed, sure. But as far as Willow's behavior? (And you'll notice my absence of a prefix there) I saw it as consistent w/ what she had lost: w/o Tara, she had become unmoored, adrift. If it hadn't been Amy and Rack, it could have been some other self-destructive activity.



Until Willow looked inside herself for what she done to drive Tara away, I truly believe she was headed for some kind of "rock-bottom." The version in Wrecked may have strained credulity in terms of clinical psychopathology, but emotionally (gracias a Aly!), it did the trick for me. YMM---and probably does---V.



GG Plus, I *really* loved the music, reviving a couple of my favorite T. Wanker themes: the "High" music (used previously in Buffy's Trance in Close to Home), and the "Tara Dress" music (part of the haunting music for Joyce's funeral in Forever) Out

[darkmagicwillow]

GG wrote:

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I don't see symbolism in her choice, only love: Oz was a genuinely good person/werewolf, Willow just loved Tara more (inc. the girl-on-girl action!).

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Before Oz' actions in WAH and NMR, I would have agreed with your assessment of Oz, but after he kills Verucca and attacks Tara, I can't see him as a good person any longer. Oz isn't appropriate for Willow for many of the same reasons that Angel isn't good for Buffy.

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Or was there anything else? Did Tara feel that Willow's ability, outstripping her own, were somehow taking Willow away from her? (A later parallel, perhaps, to Riley's fear about Buffy: "You're getting stronger and stronger, a little more out of reach").

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I find this idea interesting, and it makes sense since their early relationship was based on learning magic together. Perhaps Tara doubts that they would have enough in common if they lost this original core of their relationship.

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Bah, I dunno: I'm just speculating here. Maybe because magic is so far removed from our everyday experiences (SR's "There was plenty of magic!" aside), it's hard to find a frame of reference to understand how it would fit into a ethical "Thou shalt/Thou shalt not" system.

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It's much like trying to figure out how a new scientific advance fits into our ethics. It requires effort to find an appropriate analogy. I think Tara's spell to alter the Scoobies perceptions to not see demons is equivalent to Willow's spell to alter Tara's perception that they had an argument. Both spells alter perception to hide something which the caster is afraid will cause the others to reject her. However, one alters the past instead of the present and future, which is further out of our ordinary experience, and I suspect that difference is why many people are more upset by Willow's spell than Tara's.

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"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit." -- "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

[Munchkin]

To this day, "Wrecked" is the only BtVS episode in its entirety that has made me physically ill. Whether that's due to its childish heavy-handedness of the drug metaphors or the sheer sleaziness is debatable (I won't even go into the Spuffy bull$#!+ here), but one thing is for certain: if it were not for Alyson's Hannigan's performance it would definitely be unwatchable.



That said, this appalling piece of trash (followed by the sick ending of "Seeing Red" nine episodes later) was just about enough to make me want to disown S6 (& S7) of BtVS in their entirety, regardless of highlights of Tara's songs to Willow in "Once More, With Feeling".



And for a better, more adult depiction of the horrors of drug use, may I suggest renting the first season of the HBO prison series OZ (wherever it can be found) and hold out until episode six when its lead character, the alcoholic lawyer turned heroin-addicted inmate Tobias Beecher, explains exactly why he'd hit rock bottom the way he did. Because the simple Truth of that moment was something I found sadly lacking in BtVS's own shallow treatment of Willow's storyline in "Wrecked". But that's just what I think.

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Dave C.

Edited by: Munchkin at: 5/10/03 4:47:25 pm

[darkmagicwillow]

LWT, I do think the story arcs of the main three Scoobies were meant to parallel those of the three Trio members, which isn't a bad idea in itself though it was badly executed in every way from character to plot. An essential difference, which was ignored, was the fact that the Scoobies had people outside of themselves who should have influenced them to (not) follow the paths of the Trio. In particular, Willow had Tara who should have been used to save Willow instead of Xander.

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"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit." -- "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

Edited by: darkmagicwillow at: 5/10/03 4:21:56 pm

[DarkRed]

i have a confession to make - i kinda loved Wrecked... sorry, don't throw rutten tomatoes on me pls but it was mostly because of AH amazing act.. maid me go all



however, everything i read about this ep from u guys i totally agree with.. the writing, the plot structure, the build-up was very poor. if they had taken some extra time and ep to build this storyline it could have been an excellent one..

Quote:

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So… NotWillow got high and got addicted to the magical equivalent of crack and realised she needed help within a day?

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cuz this point is so very true!!



*LostWithoutTara* i loved your -oh so very sarcastic- analysis!! i laughed all the way i hate that woman (Marti N.) hmmm.. makes u wonder, what if joss would've writtendirected this ep? probably wouldn't save it though..



the touchy scene in the shower was indeed beautifull and seemed so not connected with the rest of the ep, didn't it? i was really happy to see the old willow even if for a sec'.. notice how 'high-school-willowy' she looked in that scene, with her hair wet and no make-up.. she looked so innocent and cute..



i'll be waiting for the previous ep analysis.. and btw, i'm really looking foward for the next ep analysis from you *LostWithoutTara*, if they'll be like this one.. hehehe



luv. anne

Quote:

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Voice-over: "I think this is about where we came in." Tyler: "Any last words?" "I still can't think of anything." Tyler: "Oh flashback humour, very funny." -- fight club

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[maudmac]

Just a reminder, folks, please refrain from commenting on events that occurred after Seeing Red.

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I had a Boddingtons and now I can see again! - The Beast

Edited by: maudmac at: 5/10/03 5:11:16 pm

[LostWithoutTara]

Thanks for the positive feedback!!



I wasn't very sure how my sarcasm would take.



DarkRed My view on Wrecked sways depending on how I look at it. As a piece of trashy melodrama, it reigns supreme, but as an attempt at a serious exploration of drugs it fails miserably. Willow's crash was far too fast to be credible in any way and I bet Aly must have really cringed when she read that and saw what ME was going to do to Willow.



Her acting, though, was superb. You can always tell the calibre of an actor if they are able to turn crappy writing into emotional, convincing acting, and Aly managed to do it. Credit for her.

[chilled monkey]

If you actually watched and analysed that garbage, you're a braver person than I am. I have never seen Wrecked and I don't plan on doing so, ever.

You did a very good job of summing up why it is so awful. Well done.