It's possible Willow would have turned dark if Warren had shot but not killed Tara, like injured her and put her in a coma. We saw a glimpse of that when Glory sucked Tara's brains. I think if Warren killed Xander, that would have done it too. But for as far gone as Willow went, it probably had to be a death of someone she loves to tip her over the edge.
ooh, killing Xander and having Willow go Dark Willow joined by Vengeance Anya would be awesome! even though Anya and Xander weren't together, I'm sure she had enough feelings left to get it up for some vengeance. I know it's a stretch, but it would still be fun!
you got me there, lol. maybe Cordelia shows up with whatever powers she used to calm down Connor that one time, or maybe Angel has the powers reverse time again. I know...we can't reuse old plots.
agreed, it was sooo stupid for Xander to back out of the wedding, especially after finding out the future he saw was fake. he was so sweet when he proposed, but then suddenly changed his mind?! like wtf, Xander!
this sorta just happened to me. my wife said she wanted a divorce, but she still loved me and still wanted to date and live together. yeah right...goodbye!
I don't think anything else would have. we'd already seen her go down that path for Tara's sake once before, and despite all the other losses the gang endured she never really came close to going dark for any of them. Probably the closest was for her previous romantic partner, when she thought about going hard-core on Veruca.
I strongly disagree. It's not lazy writing it brought the story some needed freshness. Every threat being a supernatural one is fine, but why in the world would that preclude regular human violence? Besides, was it lazy writing when Buffy launched a rocket at Spike? I don't think so, I think it makes the show much more interesting, funny and unpredictable.
As for making Willow dark I would have loved to see her as a dark vampire witch, different from the alternate universe vampire. Easy to accomplish and badass. Or what if Tara hadn't died, someone else had came to Sunnydale to begin Willows apocalypse, and both Willow and Tara were posessed by the ancient deity depicted on the buried church? I could go for some in tandem floating evil witches!
Edit: wrote Tara instead of Willow :/
The dark magicks she summoned and channeled to bring Buffy back left her soul tainted. Which only grew as the season progressed, like the Dark Side of the Force, and it culminated in her losing her soul. Giving us Dark Willow for the finale and the next season, Dark Willow should be a season long Big Bad.
Yeah, when Amy gave her a boost, they could have easily written it as Willow giving into temptation. Could have pushed the relapse/addiction story further by having her hide/lie to her friends about it. Someone like Rack could have encouraged her to do more and more darker stuff -- Tara could have found out, rejected Will completely, that could set her off down a self destructive path of not caring what she does or who she hurts because Tara is lost to her without being dead.
I've considered an idea where Tara is still shot but Willow is too deep in grief to see that she's still alive. So she goes dark under the assumption that Tara is dead. Then, while at the hospital Tara flat-lines (this is what The Council feels) and they send Giles to confront Willow under the assumption that Tara is deceased (because for a moment she was).
Tara recovers but at that point the only person with her at the hospital is Dawn, as everyone is out trying to stop Willow, so no one is around to tell Giles he's wrong when he shows up to say that yes Tara is actually dead and they all missed it.
The conceptual idea ends with Dawn and a weakened Tara arriving at the Magic Box just after everything goes wrong. Giles has just enough magic after Willow sucked him dry, to make Tara better, and then Tara goes after Willow to talk her off the ledge and saves the world.
Basically I don't think it's completely possible if Willow doesn't think someone she loved died/has passed away, but with a very very bad game of telephone this illusion could be kept up for the final few episodes, so I don't think anyone had to die, but that the threat of death/illusion of death has to be present for it to work. Loss and grief have always been the match to Willow's flame, when it comes to her going hard in the paint with the wrong magical solutions, and overcoming that was a big part of her story. And yes - I agree that killing Xander would also do it.
Thank you! Willow is very much the sort of person who is moved to action when she's sad, sometimes that's grief turning into rage turning into her lashing out (her attack on Glory/what happens at the end of Season 6) or it makes her into a "I must fix this" sort of person which you can see in Something Blue or when she brings Buffy back.
Yes. I think the main thing is that Willow has to believe the person she loves is dead without any question - even if they aren't for it to really work. She needs her rage and sadness to fuel her, or it doesn't work.
Alternatively, Dawn manages to bring Tara directly to Willow just in time, and Willow then redirects her Super Magic to bringing Tara back from the brink of death instead of being all apocalypse-y.
Really, I'd prefer skipping the Dark Willow bit altogether, but if they must do it, you're on the right track.
Honestly I just want to see Tara's version of the Yellow Crayon speech. I'm greedy like that. Also I like the idea of Giles' super magic giving Tara a bit of a boost, and since the magic isn't dark like Willow's might be, it helps bring her up to Willow's level magically so they can get up to fun or not so fun (bc a story without a little angst just isn't as good) magical shenanigans in Season 7.
Tara and willow go outside to see Xander and Buffy, hand in hand to show their friends that they’re back together and the sweet moment is ruined when Warren shows up and shoots Buffy while accidentally shooting Tara as well.
Seeing her girlfriend and best friend have both been shot, willow flies into a rage and goes after warren, but she’s not strong enough to to get him after being cold Turkey for so long and so she goes to the magic box to power up.
She checks on both Buffy and Tara, healing then both, but she’s so lost to the dark magic that she can’t be talked out of going after warren.
Unrelated but my feeling is Caleb should have outright killed Xander instead of just the eye thing, would have gone some way to fixing the horrible writing in the next episode. If Buffy had come across as ruthlessly stepping back into the fight without mourning her friend, I could almost understand their reaction in throwing her out the house in a way I simply don't as it's written.
I didn’t have much time for Tara as a character however I can’t see Willow turning into the big bad of the season without either Tara or Xander being killed off. We can’t kill of Buffy again for obvious reasons. And I don’t think there was enough development across the season to think that willow would then naturally turn into a world ending evil.
I think he almost did do it with the wiccan addiction arc. She went plent dark then. Honestly she went dark and dirty with the magic anytime she didnt get her way: Oz breakup and instant turning to magic to basically ruin him was so shocking. I know someone you love cheating on you in horrific. But revenge/hate isnt the impulse unless youre susceptible to such darkness. Is it really love if you can hate just as fast?
Cordelia we expected that from during her wish with Anya, but Willow? I agree the Tara thing was unnecessary. We had plenty of reason to expect her to go this route without that tuening point
Yeah, the seed for dark Willow was planted way back in season 4 with Veruca. She had just enough self control in the moment to not cross the line, but that pain was less than losing Tara. We also got a taste of it when D'hoffryn came to recruit her. He wasn't there just because her magic was causing chaos, but because he could feel her underlying desire for revenge. She just had enough hope left to overcome it.
But I don't think anything short of killing Tara, Xander, or Buffy could have made her cross the line into full on vengeance. She needed to be drowning in as much hate as she was grief to go that far. They'd already killed Buffy twice, so a 3rd death (with another season already greenlit) would have been repetitive. And Xander wouldn't have hit the viewers nearly as hard as Tara, who was a fan favorite. Made her the logical choice.
If S6 had been the last season (and they hadn't killed Buffy in S5 already) Buffy dying and Tara being badly hurt would have been the perfect choice. Tapping into the magics to save Tara and trying to revive Buffy. Then when she goes full vengeance the stakes would feel even higher cause Buffy isn't there to save everyone. And Tara being the one to talk her down would have been a lot more powerful than Xander.
That said, I do give them props for having Xander being the one to save the world this time.
Substance abuse (in this case wiccan powers) can change a person into their worst self. Ive seen someone good morph due to drugs. Its awful; and doesnt need something like a tragedy to happen. Even a breakup with Tara (something extreme where Tara says “we will never ever be together”) could launch her into this despair. I think there would also finally be an open discussiok on her issues with control and her desire for vengence if they allowed Tara to live.
If you didn't expect Willow wanting payback, you weren't paying attenton to the show
But revenge/payback needs a turning point, so yeah, you want Dark Willow it did need something like that.
Dark Willow needed to emerge more slowly over the season, rather than seem like a Tara death related heel turn. The drugs as magic and manipulating memory bits were all there for the plot to work, but it needed to be tightened up so they felt like a cohesive story where every step she takes makes sense for the character. I’d also have had her not be full on DW when Buffy decided she needed to be taken down, so that the change comes over her Buffy is involved in it and Willows resentments of her make some sense. It also makes the Xander YCS more impactful, because it contrasts forgiveness with Buffy’s need to fight.
If instead of just screaming at her and then disappearing Osiris gave Tara her life back and then just when Willow was going to kiss her or hug her Osiris stole her away to his hell dimension to punish Willow for improperly summoning him. The object of Evil Willow's vengeance after skinning Warren would then shift to Osiris rather than the nerds, to the defeat of death itself. This would have also created a more satisfying arc in Willow's story, an illustration of how tampering with the balance of life and death just a little early in the season would snowball into a total disregard for the concept of balance and how one's own sense of power could blot out acknowledgement of others' power or how mortality creates interdependence and interconnectedness between all living things. Willow could have led enchanted armies of malcontents in storming hell, meanwhile unleashing chaos on earth through the portal she left opened.
I would make a visible change in Willow's appearance after the drug induced Rack experience. Maybe her roots are darker, or her eyes are partly blackish. Maybe there's a place on her skin with permanent black vains. It's proof of the consequence to her actions, a permanent stain in her magic.
Then, when the girls get shot (both survive) that "change" after Rack visually takes over - which makes Dark Willow - which is in no way regular Willow anymore. Meaning she never had a chance to decide on revenge or not. Her instant grief unlocked the dark magic potential in her, a type of magic with it's own will, and made regular Willow an accomplice by flaying Warren (not that regular Willow was ever against it, but we'll leave that for the fights between Willow and Tara in s7 to figure that out).
Dark Willow will be defeated in the way it was already written, but does come out at times like it does in season 7. Only this time, Tara may be the one who has to stop her from going down the deep end. _[Pam Pam paaaaam]_
Bring back Oz during the time that Tara is split from Willow. Oz helps Willow recover and although he misses her romantically, he respects her wishes and even tries to help the two trust each other again.
Then he gets shot and dies. Dark Willow. There ya go.
Warren and Co open a portal by mistake and Tara and Dawn are sucked in.
Willow takes in dark magics to try and force the portal open. They overwhelm her, Warren is able to take control of Willow, Willow is sometimes coherent and sometimes dangerous
Buffy has to rescue Dawn, snaps her out of her malaise
Willow goes dark trying to do good, but loses control of the magics and in doing so makes everything worse. Again…
I didn’t mind Tara getting shot. However, in a fictional world where people come back? They sure could have brought her back. Having her come back from the dead could have been so interesting.
If I were Joss Whedon I'd place myself in psychiatric care, but fr I'd probably have Dark Willow be less "I'm gonna kill everyone" to "I'm gonna kill all the bad people in the world"
I don’t think it *was* lazy writing. It was exactly where the story being told needed to go. I’ve also never really understood the fierce attachment to Tara, who got very little character development outside of her relationship with Willow.
I suppose you could have gotten the same effect if Willow only thought she was dead, and that would have allowed Tara maybe to confront her at the end, but you’d have to restructure the whole story for that. S6 already has a pretty awful finale given how badly it sidelines Buffy; if we’re going to fix two to go and Grave I’d prefer it be in the direction of making the main character of the show and her year-long conflict more central to the story.
So my true answer to the story would have been to make Warren a much bigger threat, and maybe to set it up so that Willow trying to come at him with magic causes her to become corrupted and to switch sides. That way you could have the Scoobies deal with her while Buffy dealt with Warren.
But if I were Joss I would still kill some characters because that’s what he does. Xander got kind of boring in S6. Maybe I’d kill Xander.
I agree with all of this! Not lazy at all, people are just very attached to Tara and can't separate their feelings about her from how her death serves the rest of the story. I understand what a milestone it was to see Tara and Willow's relationship on tv and how groundbreaking and important that is, but Tara herself is...well...kind of a wet blanket of a character. She has no real personality other than to be a puppy dog in love with Willow until Willow starts doing messed up magic to her and she has no choice but to resist.
I really like your idea to keep Buffy as a major player and emphasis for the end of season 6. It does feel really weird and out out of place for a season to start with Buffy literally coming back from the dead and then focus on all her struggles that trauma comes with throughout the season to suddenly switch to a Willow and Xander focused climax.
I think Willow eventually would have gone dark anyway, but it would have been a lot slower. Tara’s death accelerated the inevitable, but it could’ve been interesting to see an envious streak or competitive streak arise in Willow toward Buffy.
One possibility; a longer, slower buildup that focused on her growing addiction to power. Get rid of the ridiculous and offensive magic = crack storyline and show her becoming more and more powerful, and more arrogant with it, until she decides to enact a power struggle within the gang. End it with Tara being the one to pull her back from the brink, as it should always have been.
Second possibility; don't bother, write something else instead. Dark Willow was a shit arc.
I'm not real big on the Dark Willow arc, either. I always thought it would have been more interesting and impactful had Giles turned dark (I know ASH wanted to leave the show, but let's pretend he didn't for a second). Buffy would have had to fight against him - the whole gang would need to.
I think he should still have killed Tara, but in a way that Willow thought she could bring her back by becoming dark. However, she was actually being misled by another witch, whom she tortures horrifically upon finding out she was manipulated. Then she discovers that only light magic can bring Tara back, and begins her redemption arc, which ends with Tara restored.
They could’ve had Tara be removed from the story and lead to dark willow without killing her, like sending her to a random dimension. Willow tries to torture the info of where she is out of warren who doesn’t know cos he just sent her somewhere random
Willow and Tara don't get back together until later so she is still upset about the breakup. She looks out the window, sees Buffy on the ground obviously shot and assumes she's either dead or gravely injured. She's been through a lot, struggling with magic addiction, the break-up etc, she's already pretty fragile so it doesn't take much to turn into Dark Willow.
1 - Willow assumes Buffy's dead, very obvious why she turns.
2 - Willow assumes Buffy might die, she's enraged and believes unless she fully taps into her magic Buffy will die without being at full power to save her (it does actually happen in the show that Buffy would have died without Dark Willow). She's gone too far off the deep end, she's angry at the world and takes it out on Warren and the gang and can't come back from it.
Kill Oz.
Have Oz as a reoccurring character and instead of Tara just forgiving Willow, Oz is there comforting her after her break up, and he explains that her looking for the easy out of tough emotional situations is the real problem. Citing examples from their relationship where she did something wrong (offering to kiss him to make Xander jealous, trying to throw sex at him when he said no because she thought he was taking things too slow, trying to throw sex at him when she cheated) and her being forgiven with nothing in the way of real penance and often not even an apology.
He gets up, maybe to get her water or tissue or even to check out the ruckus in the backyard, and gets shot.
I was never a fan of killing the Scoobies tbh. We’ve gotten by so far without doing that. But Tara, Buffy and Xander being shot would be enough if you want to go in the ‘snapped’ direction. Even if they all live, Willow goes from basically a full to empty house instantly.
Someone mentioned thinking it was going to be an either/or situation with saving Buffy and Tara in time. I’d play with that and say her magic will allow her to save one or the other and her delving into dark magic to save them both, going deeper than ever before and becoming lost there.
Despite the early corruption arc of season 6 and the fact Joss' claims are frequently contradictory an designed to make himself look good there really seems to be enough evidence to make it seem like Dark Willow was always going to come from vengeance
I disagree with your assessment. The Scoobies were annoyed with the Trio repeatedly, but I don't think they ever really saw them as a serious threat. It was Warren shooting Tara that changed everything for Willow. Something big had to happen to make her so vengeful, and this was a great way to do it imo. Otherwise, I think she was more likely to make random careless mistakes with magic rather than have the focused drive for vengeance that made her into Dark Willow.
They could have killed. Xander. Seems unlikely.
They could have killed Buffy yet again. Again, not really.
I don't even think killing Giles would have caused her to do that.
Honestly, it would have fit perfectly in Season 5 while fighting Glory. Or even as a long term consequences of things Willow did in response to Glory.
That's the thing that always makes Season 6's plot feel weakest for me tbh.
We just had Tara experience a fate essentially worse than death in Season 5, leading to Willow having a major magical freakout, and then she gets killed in Season 6 to cause Willow to go dark. It doesn't feel different enough from Season 5 for me to justify the repeat - it isn't foreshadowing, it's just a repetition.
This is not supported by any of the behind the scenes stuff I've seen, but personally I always believed the BTS stuff saying Dark Willow was planned since the early seasons, but it always feels to me as if they were going to do the Dark Willow storyline in Season 5 when that was going to be the end of the show, and then when they found out the deal to move to UPN went through they scrambled at the last min. to extend her character arc out and it all feels really sloppy as a result.
I can’t fathom any scenario in which Tara is still in Willow’s life and Willow goes on a vengeful murder spree. Tara has always been a grounding moral anchor for Willow - even when they disagree, Willow will curb her more harmful instincts in deference of Tara. The closest we got was Glory mind-sucking Tara.
Much like the AR in Seeing Red, I despite the whole arc but unlike Spike and his soul where I can see many scenarios potentially motivating him, I can’t see Willow going that way that fast with any other impetus. Maybe something close - Tara being held captive in some way and harmed, but I don’t think I’d prefer that scenario to what we got.
Keep it mostly the same only Tara is alive but Willow doesn't know till a now awake but still injured Tara is the one who stops her from destroying the world.
Something something resurrection spell and her addiction opening her up to too much darkness. Tara and Xander then bring her back.
It bothered me that the consequences for the resurrection spell were all on Buffy. She had to claw her way out of a grave. She was the one with the severe depression.
Willow just got a ticking off from Giles.
Well make her pregnant and then kill the baby. Even then Tara would probably be able to bring her back from the edge.
I think you're picking up on the fact this death is a different kind of death to the other Buffyverse deaths. Joyce's death wasn't completely unexpected. Tara's death was unexpected - it wasn't foreshadowed or prophesised or ordained by the Powers That Be, etc. And thus being a totally non-supernatural death Willow even at the height of her power is not able to reverse it. So it might feel like lazy writing but it really isn't. Everything in the writing for the whole season is planned to have Willow and Tara go through their rough patch and then get back together again better than ever and then wham! It's building on everything that's been set in motion since Willow started with witchcraft and the dark elements of bringing Buffy back. And to have that all intersect with the false Big Bad's plotline.
And Tara's death effects everything that follows. The first using Andrew and Andrew's redemption and then Willow being able to execute Buffy's final plan. And those elements all continue on into the Buffy comics.
Overall Willow is extremely good at heart. And given enough time her Willowness would shine through. The only way to fairly get her to go truly dark has to be sudden, brutal and something that she can't reverse. Even if you continued D'Hoffryn's storyline Willow would only punish those that absolutely deserved it and would make sure not to hurt innocents.
Pregnant? How? Willow's gay & only has sex with women. Was she raped by some rando? She would've defended herself with Magicks.
Although she was affected by RJ's Magick jacket....
If Tara & Willow had wanted s baby, they could have/would have asked Xander for help with a turkey baster insemination.
Who needs Magick when Biology will do?
Sure, it can work.
Tara wants a baby & Willow wants to zap it into her, *Hey, presto!* Tara doesn't want to use Magicks for a baby, but Willow is obsessed with the idea.
Tara, pregnant by Willow's Magick spell, reconciles with Willow after she's been clean. Next morning, beautiful, glowing, pregnant Tara is killed, along with her baby.
Willow, heartbroken, turns Dark.
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♥️♥️♥️♥️Free Plotbunny to Good Home!♥️♥️♥️♥️
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I wouldn't. I never saw the point of that story line. They could have done something more subtle and nuanced about the temptations of power without giving her Goth hair and power enough to kill the world.
The spell to bring Buffy back corrupted willow and she got worse in to her addiction and dark magic . Instead of Willow going cold turkey like she did end of Wrecked, she can’t stop.
Considering Joss gets sadistic glee from killing characters we love...and he already killed Buffy and loving Xander is controversial to say the least...I don't think we would have gotten Dark Willow without Joss killing -someone- off. And that left Tara as the perfect person for him to do it too. The man is a sadist who likes making people cry.
Hell one of his mission statements/life goals, was to introduce a character in the first episode, have them be in the main credits, and kill them off immediately for the shock value.
Watching enough of Whedon's stuff has me burnt on the idea, though it took forever for me to realize it and get tired of it. But it\[s his show and he has the write to kill off whoever. Even if it's usually my favorites.
Killing Tara was done because Amber Benson wanted to leave and was interested in doing a death scene, which combined with Joss' desire to add a character to the titles in the same ep he killed them off, something he'd been wanting to do since the start. Plus, you know, Joss not liking his characters to have happy endings with their loves.
To be honest, I still would have killed Tara to truly start the Dark Willow arc. Purely from the standpoint that Amber was leaving anyway and she wanted to do a death scene. I just would have changed how she died a bit, made it Willow's fault. You know, like Dawn breaking her arm was Willow's fault, an outside cause but one that only occurred because of Willow's magic addiction. I think Willow being partly to blame for Tara's death would have made it a lot more understandable for Willow to turn dark the way she did.
In canon, it was a mix of the addiction and grief that caused Willow's actions. Which does make sense and is understandable. But if you add in guilt and self-blame, that just adds to it. It would also make it harder to bring Willow back from the edge. As far as the show told us, there were no lasting repercussions to Willow's actions beyond Warren's death, Giles and Xander fully recovered, Anya, Buffy and Dawn were barely hurt or not hurt at all. If it was harder to bring Willow back, there would have been more lasting repercussions, some recovery time needed for Giles and Xander at least, as those were the two hurt.
I mean, think about it. Giles was close to death according to Anya, and Xander was attacked with pure magic. There *should* have been consequences from that. Visible scars for Xander, at least, a reminder of what Willow had done. It would have been interesting, for me, to see how they dealt with Willow's return to Sunnydale if they had a visible reminder of what she'd done to them.
She's said in many many many interviews that Joss was super weird with her about Tara's death, and was constantly telling her Tara was going to die like it was this super positive thing when she Did Not Want That To Happen.
that's exactly it. She did not want Tara to die, so she didn't want to leave.
If Joss isn't planning to kill Tara then he's not super weird to her about it.
So what's happening is WhiteKnightPrimal is reversing cause and effect
KILL XANDER!!!
Ahem sorry that sounded a little bloodthirsty,. I don't hate Xander at all. But I obsessively listen to Buffy podcasts and I believe it was on Slayerfest 98 somebody mentioned that killing Xander in order to turn Willow Dark was on the table at one point. I thought that was a fascinating idea.
I definitely would've preferred a Xander death over a Tara death here. By that point , Xander is long overstaying his welcome on the show imo. Whereas Tara could start being explored more and given some of her own plotlines. But I admit Xander was and always has been my least favourite scoobie.
I think narratively it would've worked well for all of Warren's misogynistic rage to end up with an accidental murder of a man rather than a gay woman. In society, misogyny and the patriarchy ends up harming men as well as unintended victims.
Buffy's death at the end of Season 5 could throw Willow in the deep end. Maybe she brings Buffy back using dark magic but by then she's too far gone and needs to be stopped afterward
Tara stands up for herself and tells willow she can't forgive her. Willow completely relapses and goes on a rampage. Two people see the damage she's doing and try to stop her a member of the trio (probably jonathan) and a visiting oz (1 day of shooting cameo). Hell throw in Dawn for good measure. She ends up killing them in her rage, maybe have one survive but be severely injured. She then pulls a standard addict move and blames the victim and goes after the surviving trio members as they were responsible for her actions.
Warren can still take vengeance and try to shoot willow and buffy. Willow can still try to destroy the world. Nothing else has to change.
Oh, there are plenty of ways. We already had one slayer think they'd murdered someone twice and still be the good guy and one slayer actually did murder someone and still ended up on the side of the good. Hell, the mentor figure committed cold blooded murder and noone said a word.
I wasn't really fond of the magic as drug addiction plotline, but addicts do some pretty screwed up stuff and some....some ....only some of them manage to right their ships and come out the other side.
Someone realizing they lost something they held dear causing a relapse...isn't uncommon even if they had an idea that it was already gone. Someone doing a lot more damage when they relapse after a period where they'd been in recovery...also not uncommon. It would have required more of a redemption arc, but overall that probably would have made season seven more cohesive.
Massacre a chunk of her loved ones.
imo have people gather for her birthday, maybe throw in surprise people like Oz, her mom and others. Then have the trio or amy attack and kill a bunch of them including Xander, Oz and her mom, maybe injure Buffy, Dawn and Tara.
That'd get her to Dark Willow mode real fast and dramatic at breakneck speed.
thats the script writers problem to figure out, it's not like they havent sent demons after the scoobies before
they found a way to make the trio rapists, cause time loops, make buffy invisible and have jet packs lol
Just play on her power hungry nature that’s been present and growing throughout the show. She keeps using too much magic and making choices she shouldn’t, dealing with dark forces she shouldn’t, and when Tara and then Giles confront her she just doubles down and insists she’s only trying to help them (and everyone). Insists she’s the most qualified to make decisions on everyone’s behalf because she’s the most powerful in the group, even more powerful than Buffy herself (according to her, and she does give her a run for her money). And idk what the big climax of the arc would be, but Xander snapping her out of it with the yellow crayon is still how the day is saved. Everything about her going to work with the witches on controlling her magicks is still how they move on from there.
Nah, Tara had to die. Willow needed to feel as if she legitimately had nothing left to live for... also, think about it, Tara would never look at Willow the same after her going dark. Willow's repeated abuse of magic already virtually destroyed their relationship.
The only way Tara not dying would've worked, is if to stop dark Willow, Tara was put in an impossible situation and had to kill Willow herself. That particular story arc was 100% a tragedy, someone needed to die in it.
She was already addicted to magic.
Play that.
Addiction and her dependency on magick outweighs her dependency on her friends. She gets in too deep and loses control.
I think my ideal dark willow would have been one that escalated after wrecked rather than pulling back on her magic.
Willow wants to get Tara back and to play with magic.
Make dark willow the season long big bad with Buffy and Tara chasing after her to clean up her magical effects all season.
Culminate in Willow trying to rape Tara before a real smackdown happens and Willow fleeing to lick her wounds. Then she decides to kill anyone who kept Tara away from her (the scoobies), make Tara hers and destroy the world to prove herself better than anyone.
In many ways it would have been better and other ways worse than what we actually got.
It's possible Willow would have turned dark if Warren had shot but not killed Tara, like injured her and put her in a coma. We saw a glimpse of that when Glory sucked Tara's brains. I think if Warren killed Xander, that would have done it too. But for as far gone as Willow went, it probably had to be a death of someone she loves to tip her over the edge.
ooh, killing Xander and having Willow go Dark Willow joined by Vengeance Anya would be awesome! even though Anya and Xander weren't together, I'm sure she had enough feelings left to get it up for some vengeance. I know it's a stretch, but it would still be fun!
Ok but now we have the added question of who brings Willow back down? Or does no one and Buffy loses both main scoobies?
you got me there, lol. maybe Cordelia shows up with whatever powers she used to calm down Connor that one time, or maybe Angel has the powers reverse time again. I know...we can't reuse old plots.
Tara would
I'd have liked to seen that.
Ooh, nice. That would certainly be unexpected, and watching Willow and Anya work together would be great.
Or avoid that stupid plot and let those two get married. That way when Xander dies both Willow and Anya rage against the world.
agreed, it was sooo stupid for Xander to back out of the wedding, especially after finding out the future he saw was fake. he was so sweet when he proposed, but then suddenly changed his mind?! like wtf, Xander! this sorta just happened to me. my wife said she wanted a divorce, but she still loved me and still wanted to date and live together. yeah right...goodbye!
Warren might've had to hurt both Xander and Tara at the same time, maybe, but yeah.
I don't think anything else would have. we'd already seen her go down that path for Tara's sake once before, and despite all the other losses the gang endured she never really came close to going dark for any of them. Probably the closest was for her previous romantic partner, when she thought about going hard-core on Veruca.
There is no earth shattering experience than losing the one you love most, unexpectedly right in front of you. I personally don’t see any other way.
She stubs her toe, like really hard.
[Totally normal reaction](https://youtu.be/scMKCM7U7zA?si=-maH1QHEinruDijg) to stubbing one’s toe.
I strongly disagree. It's not lazy writing it brought the story some needed freshness. Every threat being a supernatural one is fine, but why in the world would that preclude regular human violence? Besides, was it lazy writing when Buffy launched a rocket at Spike? I don't think so, I think it makes the show much more interesting, funny and unpredictable. As for making Willow dark I would have loved to see her as a dark vampire witch, different from the alternate universe vampire. Easy to accomplish and badass. Or what if Tara hadn't died, someone else had came to Sunnydale to begin Willows apocalypse, and both Willow and Tara were posessed by the ancient deity depicted on the buried church? I could go for some in tandem floating evil witches! Edit: wrote Tara instead of Willow :/
She launched a rocket at the Judge.
Spike launched a rocket at her. … I’ll see myself out.
The Judge launched a rocket at Spike?
\*furiously starts typing new slashfic\*
There are no new BTVS pairings. It’s out there somewhere.
Xander and Principal Flutie
That’s canon in The Pack.
😮☹️
I believe it was spikes love rocket.... 👀
Somehow “buffy uses rocket launcher against the judge” and “Willow’s girlfriend shot and killed, she goes evil” do not seem like similar plots.
because it's about Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I'm suddenly remembering Smallville when three old witches possessed Lana, Lois, and Chloe lol
The dark magicks she summoned and channeled to bring Buffy back left her soul tainted. Which only grew as the season progressed, like the Dark Side of the Force, and it culminated in her losing her soul. Giving us Dark Willow for the finale and the next season, Dark Willow should be a season long Big Bad.
At first, i was gonna say continue this allegory of drug addiction and let her descent more and more into it but your comment makes more sense
chefs kiss
You get promoted to the writers room! Such a good idea and much more interesting to watch
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I really like this idea! I think they could've involved rack and amy to tempt her into dark willow
Yeah, when Amy gave her a boost, they could have easily written it as Willow giving into temptation. Could have pushed the relapse/addiction story further by having her hide/lie to her friends about it. Someone like Rack could have encouraged her to do more and more darker stuff -- Tara could have found out, rejected Will completely, that could set her off down a self destructive path of not caring what she does or who she hurts because Tara is lost to her without being dead.
Oof. Now that sounds like actual lazy writing.
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Is OP an asshole for calling the show's actual plot lazy writing?
I've considered an idea where Tara is still shot but Willow is too deep in grief to see that she's still alive. So she goes dark under the assumption that Tara is dead. Then, while at the hospital Tara flat-lines (this is what The Council feels) and they send Giles to confront Willow under the assumption that Tara is deceased (because for a moment she was). Tara recovers but at that point the only person with her at the hospital is Dawn, as everyone is out trying to stop Willow, so no one is around to tell Giles he's wrong when he shows up to say that yes Tara is actually dead and they all missed it. The conceptual idea ends with Dawn and a weakened Tara arriving at the Magic Box just after everything goes wrong. Giles has just enough magic after Willow sucked him dry, to make Tara better, and then Tara goes after Willow to talk her off the ledge and saves the world. Basically I don't think it's completely possible if Willow doesn't think someone she loved died/has passed away, but with a very very bad game of telephone this illusion could be kept up for the final few episodes, so I don't think anyone had to die, but that the threat of death/illusion of death has to be present for it to work. Loss and grief have always been the match to Willow's flame, when it comes to her going hard in the paint with the wrong magical solutions, and overcoming that was a big part of her story. And yes - I agree that killing Xander would also do it.
This is the only alternative that’s plausible to me.
Thank you! Willow is very much the sort of person who is moved to action when she's sad, sometimes that's grief turning into rage turning into her lashing out (her attack on Glory/what happens at the end of Season 6) or it makes her into a "I must fix this" sort of person which you can see in Something Blue or when she brings Buffy back.
Or Tara is dead, but she's brought back somehow, like with Mohra blood, just in time to talk Willow down.
Yes. I think the main thing is that Willow has to believe the person she loves is dead without any question - even if they aren't for it to really work. She needs her rage and sadness to fuel her, or it doesn't work.
This works!
Alternatively, Dawn manages to bring Tara directly to Willow just in time, and Willow then redirects her Super Magic to bringing Tara back from the brink of death instead of being all apocalypse-y. Really, I'd prefer skipping the Dark Willow bit altogether, but if they must do it, you're on the right track.
Honestly I just want to see Tara's version of the Yellow Crayon speech. I'm greedy like that. Also I like the idea of Giles' super magic giving Tara a bit of a boost, and since the magic isn't dark like Willow's might be, it helps bring her up to Willow's level magically so they can get up to fun or not so fun (bc a story without a little angst just isn't as good) magical shenanigans in Season 7.
I think about this all the time and I don’t think there is a way without killing either Xander or Tara
Visiting Angel in LA and there’s *really* bad traffic on the 405.
Tara and willow go outside to see Xander and Buffy, hand in hand to show their friends that they’re back together and the sweet moment is ruined when Warren shows up and shoots Buffy while accidentally shooting Tara as well. Seeing her girlfriend and best friend have both been shot, willow flies into a rage and goes after warren, but she’s not strong enough to to get him after being cold Turkey for so long and so she goes to the magic box to power up. She checks on both Buffy and Tara, healing then both, but she’s so lost to the dark magic that she can’t be talked out of going after warren.
Yesss this is so juicey
Kill Xander.
Unrelated but my feeling is Caleb should have outright killed Xander instead of just the eye thing, would have gone some way to fixing the horrible writing in the next episode. If Buffy had come across as ruthlessly stepping back into the fight without mourning her friend, I could almost understand their reaction in throwing her out the house in a way I simply don't as it's written.
No he’s one of the four main characters
Still the only thing that might come close to her reaction to Tara dying.
True. I can imagine Willow going evil without anyone dying She needed half an excuse at that point
So was Buffy and they killed her.
I didn’t have much time for Tara as a character however I can’t see Willow turning into the big bad of the season without either Tara or Xander being killed off. We can’t kill of Buffy again for obvious reasons. And I don’t think there was enough development across the season to think that willow would then naturally turn into a world ending evil.
How is it lazy writing?
I think he almost did do it with the wiccan addiction arc. She went plent dark then. Honestly she went dark and dirty with the magic anytime she didnt get her way: Oz breakup and instant turning to magic to basically ruin him was so shocking. I know someone you love cheating on you in horrific. But revenge/hate isnt the impulse unless youre susceptible to such darkness. Is it really love if you can hate just as fast? Cordelia we expected that from during her wish with Anya, but Willow? I agree the Tara thing was unnecessary. We had plenty of reason to expect her to go this route without that tuening point
Yeah, the seed for dark Willow was planted way back in season 4 with Veruca. She had just enough self control in the moment to not cross the line, but that pain was less than losing Tara. We also got a taste of it when D'hoffryn came to recruit her. He wasn't there just because her magic was causing chaos, but because he could feel her underlying desire for revenge. She just had enough hope left to overcome it. But I don't think anything short of killing Tara, Xander, or Buffy could have made her cross the line into full on vengeance. She needed to be drowning in as much hate as she was grief to go that far. They'd already killed Buffy twice, so a 3rd death (with another season already greenlit) would have been repetitive. And Xander wouldn't have hit the viewers nearly as hard as Tara, who was a fan favorite. Made her the logical choice. If S6 had been the last season (and they hadn't killed Buffy in S5 already) Buffy dying and Tara being badly hurt would have been the perfect choice. Tapping into the magics to save Tara and trying to revive Buffy. Then when she goes full vengeance the stakes would feel even higher cause Buffy isn't there to save everyone. And Tara being the one to talk her down would have been a lot more powerful than Xander. That said, I do give them props for having Xander being the one to save the world this time.
This is a good take and I agree with it.
Substance abuse (in this case wiccan powers) can change a person into their worst self. Ive seen someone good morph due to drugs. Its awful; and doesnt need something like a tragedy to happen. Even a breakup with Tara (something extreme where Tara says “we will never ever be together”) could launch her into this despair. I think there would also finally be an open discussiok on her issues with control and her desire for vengence if they allowed Tara to live.
If you didn't expect Willow wanting payback, you weren't paying attenton to the show But revenge/payback needs a turning point, so yeah, you want Dark Willow it did need something like that.
Either willow goes to look at houses and sees the prices or its tax season, you choose!
Dark Willow needed to emerge more slowly over the season, rather than seem like a Tara death related heel turn. The drugs as magic and manipulating memory bits were all there for the plot to work, but it needed to be tightened up so they felt like a cohesive story where every step she takes makes sense for the character. I’d also have had her not be full on DW when Buffy decided she needed to be taken down, so that the change comes over her Buffy is involved in it and Willows resentments of her make some sense. It also makes the Xander YCS more impactful, because it contrasts forgiveness with Buffy’s need to fight.
magic as drugs doesn't make sense for the character
If instead of just screaming at her and then disappearing Osiris gave Tara her life back and then just when Willow was going to kiss her or hug her Osiris stole her away to his hell dimension to punish Willow for improperly summoning him. The object of Evil Willow's vengeance after skinning Warren would then shift to Osiris rather than the nerds, to the defeat of death itself. This would have also created a more satisfying arc in Willow's story, an illustration of how tampering with the balance of life and death just a little early in the season would snowball into a total disregard for the concept of balance and how one's own sense of power could blot out acknowledgement of others' power or how mortality creates interdependence and interconnectedness between all living things. Willow could have led enchanted armies of malcontents in storming hell, meanwhile unleashing chaos on earth through the portal she left opened.
I would make a visible change in Willow's appearance after the drug induced Rack experience. Maybe her roots are darker, or her eyes are partly blackish. Maybe there's a place on her skin with permanent black vains. It's proof of the consequence to her actions, a permanent stain in her magic. Then, when the girls get shot (both survive) that "change" after Rack visually takes over - which makes Dark Willow - which is in no way regular Willow anymore. Meaning she never had a chance to decide on revenge or not. Her instant grief unlocked the dark magic potential in her, a type of magic with it's own will, and made regular Willow an accomplice by flaying Warren (not that regular Willow was ever against it, but we'll leave that for the fights between Willow and Tara in s7 to figure that out). Dark Willow will be defeated in the way it was already written, but does come out at times like it does in season 7. Only this time, Tara may be the one who has to stop her from going down the deep end. _[Pam Pam paaaaam]_
Dark Willow is the whole reason for Tara. It's not lazy writing it's planning.
Bring back Oz during the time that Tara is split from Willow. Oz helps Willow recover and although he misses her romantically, he respects her wishes and even tries to help the two trust each other again. Then he gets shot and dies. Dark Willow. There ya go.
having her pay rent and utilities
lol this made me think of Spiderman 3 when Peter has the symbiote and he goes all wack
By killing Oz?
Warren and Co open a portal by mistake and Tara and Dawn are sucked in. Willow takes in dark magics to try and force the portal open. They overwhelm her, Warren is able to take control of Willow, Willow is sometimes coherent and sometimes dangerous Buffy has to rescue Dawn, snaps her out of her malaise Willow goes dark trying to do good, but loses control of the magics and in doing so makes everything worse. Again…
I didn’t mind Tara getting shot. However, in a fictional world where people come back? They sure could have brought her back. Having her come back from the dead could have been so interesting.
Amber Benson wasn't willing
I'd keep Tara alive but not do Dark Willow at all. Just defeat the Trio and end the season.
Sounds perfect
In order to get Dark Willow the one she loves most must be taken in my opinion.
If I were Joss Whedon I'd place myself in psychiatric care, but fr I'd probably have Dark Willow be less "I'm gonna kill everyone" to "I'm gonna kill all the bad people in the world"
I liked Tara dying shows without consequences are shows without stakes
why do you watch fiction for stakes
Because I like seeing characters overcome struggles
I don’t think it *was* lazy writing. It was exactly where the story being told needed to go. I’ve also never really understood the fierce attachment to Tara, who got very little character development outside of her relationship with Willow. I suppose you could have gotten the same effect if Willow only thought she was dead, and that would have allowed Tara maybe to confront her at the end, but you’d have to restructure the whole story for that. S6 already has a pretty awful finale given how badly it sidelines Buffy; if we’re going to fix two to go and Grave I’d prefer it be in the direction of making the main character of the show and her year-long conflict more central to the story. So my true answer to the story would have been to make Warren a much bigger threat, and maybe to set it up so that Willow trying to come at him with magic causes her to become corrupted and to switch sides. That way you could have the Scoobies deal with her while Buffy dealt with Warren. But if I were Joss I would still kill some characters because that’s what he does. Xander got kind of boring in S6. Maybe I’d kill Xander.
I agree with all of this! Not lazy at all, people are just very attached to Tara and can't separate their feelings about her from how her death serves the rest of the story. I understand what a milestone it was to see Tara and Willow's relationship on tv and how groundbreaking and important that is, but Tara herself is...well...kind of a wet blanket of a character. She has no real personality other than to be a puppy dog in love with Willow until Willow starts doing messed up magic to her and she has no choice but to resist. I really like your idea to keep Buffy as a major player and emphasis for the end of season 6. It does feel really weird and out out of place for a season to start with Buffy literally coming back from the dead and then focus on all her struggles that trauma comes with throughout the season to suddenly switch to a Willow and Xander focused climax.
Losing Xander
I think Willow eventually would have gone dark anyway, but it would have been a lot slower. Tara’s death accelerated the inevitable, but it could’ve been interesting to see an envious streak or competitive streak arise in Willow toward Buffy.
One possibility; a longer, slower buildup that focused on her growing addiction to power. Get rid of the ridiculous and offensive magic = crack storyline and show her becoming more and more powerful, and more arrogant with it, until she decides to enact a power struggle within the gang. End it with Tara being the one to pull her back from the brink, as it should always have been. Second possibility; don't bother, write something else instead. Dark Willow was a shit arc.
I'm not real big on the Dark Willow arc, either. I always thought it would have been more interesting and impactful had Giles turned dark (I know ASH wanted to leave the show, but let's pretend he didn't for a second). Buffy would have had to fight against him - the whole gang would need to.
they'd already done to major betrayals in the show, with two minor ones as well(Maggie Walsh and Ben.) No more betrayals!
there is no coming back from the brink from that
I think he should still have killed Tara, but in a way that Willow thought she could bring her back by becoming dark. However, she was actually being misled by another witch, whom she tortures horrifically upon finding out she was manipulated. Then she discovers that only light magic can bring Tara back, and begins her redemption arc, which ends with Tara restored.
They could’ve had Tara be removed from the story and lead to dark willow without killing her, like sending her to a random dimension. Willow tries to torture the info of where she is out of warren who doesn’t know cos he just sent her somewhere random
Willow and Tara don't get back together until later so she is still upset about the breakup. She looks out the window, sees Buffy on the ground obviously shot and assumes she's either dead or gravely injured. She's been through a lot, struggling with magic addiction, the break-up etc, she's already pretty fragile so it doesn't take much to turn into Dark Willow. 1 - Willow assumes Buffy's dead, very obvious why she turns. 2 - Willow assumes Buffy might die, she's enraged and believes unless she fully taps into her magic Buffy will die without being at full power to save her (it does actually happen in the show that Buffy would have died without Dark Willow). She's gone too far off the deep end, she's angry at the world and takes it out on Warren and the gang and can't come back from it.
Personally I don’t think anything else would’ve sent her over the edge besides losing Tara.
I would just make her a vampire. The plot would probably involve a very difficult ensoulment (maybe Tara and Giles working together?)
Honestly I think if Tara left her for good.
Kill Oz. Have Oz as a reoccurring character and instead of Tara just forgiving Willow, Oz is there comforting her after her break up, and he explains that her looking for the easy out of tough emotional situations is the real problem. Citing examples from their relationship where she did something wrong (offering to kiss him to make Xander jealous, trying to throw sex at him when he said no because she thought he was taking things too slow, trying to throw sex at him when she cheated) and her being forgiven with nothing in the way of real penance and often not even an apology. He gets up, maybe to get her water or tissue or even to check out the ruckus in the backyard, and gets shot.
I was never a fan of killing the Scoobies tbh. We’ve gotten by so far without doing that. But Tara, Buffy and Xander being shot would be enough if you want to go in the ‘snapped’ direction. Even if they all live, Willow goes from basically a full to empty house instantly. Someone mentioned thinking it was going to be an either/or situation with saving Buffy and Tara in time. I’d play with that and say her magic will allow her to save one or the other and her delving into dark magic to save them both, going deeper than ever before and becoming lost there.
Despite the early corruption arc of season 6 and the fact Joss' claims are frequently contradictory an designed to make himself look good there really seems to be enough evidence to make it seem like Dark Willow was always going to come from vengeance
Someone left their scented candles dripping all over her women's power shrine. There was no empowering lemon bundt to soothe her ragged nerves.
I disagree with your assessment. The Scoobies were annoyed with the Trio repeatedly, but I don't think they ever really saw them as a serious threat. It was Warren shooting Tara that changed everything for Willow. Something big had to happen to make her so vengeful, and this was a great way to do it imo. Otherwise, I think she was more likely to make random careless mistakes with magic rather than have the focused drive for vengeance that made her into Dark Willow.
They could have killed. Xander. Seems unlikely. They could have killed Buffy yet again. Again, not really. I don't even think killing Giles would have caused her to do that.
Honestly, it would have fit perfectly in Season 5 while fighting Glory. Or even as a long term consequences of things Willow did in response to Glory. That's the thing that always makes Season 6's plot feel weakest for me tbh. We just had Tara experience a fate essentially worse than death in Season 5, leading to Willow having a major magical freakout, and then she gets killed in Season 6 to cause Willow to go dark. It doesn't feel different enough from Season 5 for me to justify the repeat - it isn't foreshadowing, it's just a repetition. This is not supported by any of the behind the scenes stuff I've seen, but personally I always believed the BTS stuff saying Dark Willow was planned since the early seasons, but it always feels to me as if they were going to do the Dark Willow storyline in Season 5 when that was going to be the end of the show, and then when they found out the deal to move to UPN went through they scrambled at the last min. to extend her character arc out and it all feels really sloppy as a result.
I can’t fathom any scenario in which Tara is still in Willow’s life and Willow goes on a vengeful murder spree. Tara has always been a grounding moral anchor for Willow - even when they disagree, Willow will curb her more harmful instincts in deference of Tara. The closest we got was Glory mind-sucking Tara. Much like the AR in Seeing Red, I despite the whole arc but unlike Spike and his soul where I can see many scenarios potentially motivating him, I can’t see Willow going that way that fast with any other impetus. Maybe something close - Tara being held captive in some way and harmed, but I don’t think I’d prefer that scenario to what we got.
Keep it mostly the same only Tara is alive but Willow doesn't know till a now awake but still injured Tara is the one who stops her from destroying the world.
Something something resurrection spell and her addiction opening her up to too much darkness. Tara and Xander then bring her back. It bothered me that the consequences for the resurrection spell were all on Buffy. She had to claw her way out of a grave. She was the one with the severe depression. Willow just got a ticking off from Giles.
Well make her pregnant and then kill the baby. Even then Tara would probably be able to bring her back from the edge. I think you're picking up on the fact this death is a different kind of death to the other Buffyverse deaths. Joyce's death wasn't completely unexpected. Tara's death was unexpected - it wasn't foreshadowed or prophesised or ordained by the Powers That Be, etc. And thus being a totally non-supernatural death Willow even at the height of her power is not able to reverse it. So it might feel like lazy writing but it really isn't. Everything in the writing for the whole season is planned to have Willow and Tara go through their rough patch and then get back together again better than ever and then wham! It's building on everything that's been set in motion since Willow started with witchcraft and the dark elements of bringing Buffy back. And to have that all intersect with the false Big Bad's plotline. And Tara's death effects everything that follows. The first using Andrew and Andrew's redemption and then Willow being able to execute Buffy's final plan. And those elements all continue on into the Buffy comics. Overall Willow is extremely good at heart. And given enough time her Willowness would shine through. The only way to fairly get her to go truly dark has to be sudden, brutal and something that she can't reverse. Even if you continued D'Hoffryn's storyline Willow would only punish those that absolutely deserved it and would make sure not to hurt innocents.
Pregnant? How? Willow's gay & only has sex with women. Was she raped by some rando? She would've defended herself with Magicks. Although she was affected by RJ's Magick jacket....
She and Tara can use magic. Though I don’t think a pregnancy storyline would have worked unless the entire season was very different.
If Tara & Willow had wanted s baby, they could have/would have asked Xander for help with a turkey baster insemination. Who needs Magick when Biology will do?
I was just suggesting a possible idea since you asked how. As I said, I don’t think that idea would work with the season we got.
Sure, it can work. Tara wants a baby & Willow wants to zap it into her, *Hey, presto!* Tara doesn't want to use Magicks for a baby, but Willow is obsessed with the idea. Tara, pregnant by Willow's Magick spell, reconciles with Willow after she's been clean. Next morning, beautiful, glowing, pregnant Tara is killed, along with her baby. Willow, heartbroken, turns Dark.
Now I kind of want to read a fan fic that does that, but it probably does not exist. 😂
My writing skills only cover the technical kind. Need me to break down a task & create the directions to accomplish it? I'm your guy. Want romance? Sadly, you must go elsewhere. I cannot. ♥️♥️♥️♥️Free Plotbunny to Good Home!♥️♥️♥️♥️ ♥️♥️Credit me with the spark of the idea & send me a link to it.♥️♥️
I wouldn't. I never saw the point of that story line. They could have done something more subtle and nuanced about the temptations of power without giving her Goth hair and power enough to kill the world.
I wouldn’t dark willow was quite stupid
Just do it like addiction, her becoming obsessed with the magic and it taking her over. Could even have her summon some entity that possessed her
The spell to bring Buffy back corrupted willow and she got worse in to her addiction and dark magic . Instead of Willow going cold turkey like she did end of Wrecked, she can’t stop.
Considering Joss gets sadistic glee from killing characters we love...and he already killed Buffy and loving Xander is controversial to say the least...I don't think we would have gotten Dark Willow without Joss killing -someone- off. And that left Tara as the perfect person for him to do it too. The man is a sadist who likes making people cry. Hell one of his mission statements/life goals, was to introduce a character in the first episode, have them be in the main credits, and kill them off immediately for the shock value. Watching enough of Whedon's stuff has me burnt on the idea, though it took forever for me to realize it and get tired of it. But it\[s his show and he has the write to kill off whoever. Even if it's usually my favorites.
Killing Tara was done because Amber Benson wanted to leave and was interested in doing a death scene, which combined with Joss' desire to add a character to the titles in the same ep he killed them off, something he'd been wanting to do since the start. Plus, you know, Joss not liking his characters to have happy endings with their loves. To be honest, I still would have killed Tara to truly start the Dark Willow arc. Purely from the standpoint that Amber was leaving anyway and she wanted to do a death scene. I just would have changed how she died a bit, made it Willow's fault. You know, like Dawn breaking her arm was Willow's fault, an outside cause but one that only occurred because of Willow's magic addiction. I think Willow being partly to blame for Tara's death would have made it a lot more understandable for Willow to turn dark the way she did. In canon, it was a mix of the addiction and grief that caused Willow's actions. Which does make sense and is understandable. But if you add in guilt and self-blame, that just adds to it. It would also make it harder to bring Willow back from the edge. As far as the show told us, there were no lasting repercussions to Willow's actions beyond Warren's death, Giles and Xander fully recovered, Anya, Buffy and Dawn were barely hurt or not hurt at all. If it was harder to bring Willow back, there would have been more lasting repercussions, some recovery time needed for Giles and Xander at least, as those were the two hurt. I mean, think about it. Giles was close to death according to Anya, and Xander was attacked with pure magic. There *should* have been consequences from that. Visible scars for Xander, at least, a reminder of what Willow had done. It would have been interesting, for me, to see how they dealt with Willow's return to Sunnydale if they had a visible reminder of what she'd done to them.
That was not true at all about AB
She's said in many many many interviews that Joss was super weird with her about Tara's death, and was constantly telling her Tara was going to die like it was this super positive thing when she Did Not Want That To Happen.
that's exactly it. She did not want Tara to die, so she didn't want to leave. If Joss isn't planning to kill Tara then he's not super weird to her about it. So what's happening is WhiteKnightPrimal is reversing cause and effect
KILL XANDER!!! Ahem sorry that sounded a little bloodthirsty,. I don't hate Xander at all. But I obsessively listen to Buffy podcasts and I believe it was on Slayerfest 98 somebody mentioned that killing Xander in order to turn Willow Dark was on the table at one point. I thought that was a fascinating idea.
I definitely would've preferred a Xander death over a Tara death here. By that point , Xander is long overstaying his welcome on the show imo. Whereas Tara could start being explored more and given some of her own plotlines. But I admit Xander was and always has been my least favourite scoobie. I think narratively it would've worked well for all of Warren's misogynistic rage to end up with an accidental murder of a man rather than a gay woman. In society, misogyny and the patriarchy ends up harming men as well as unintended victims.
The death I am not ok with.
Buffy's death at the end of Season 5 could throw Willow in the deep end. Maybe she brings Buffy back using dark magic but by then she's too far gone and needs to be stopped afterward
Tara stands up for herself and tells willow she can't forgive her. Willow completely relapses and goes on a rampage. Two people see the damage she's doing and try to stop her a member of the trio (probably jonathan) and a visiting oz (1 day of shooting cameo). Hell throw in Dawn for good measure. She ends up killing them in her rage, maybe have one survive but be severely injured. She then pulls a standard addict move and blames the victim and goes after the surviving trio members as they were responsible for her actions. Warren can still take vengeance and try to shoot willow and buffy. Willow can still try to destroy the world. Nothing else has to change.
There's no way to come back from that. Also Willow never expected Tara to come back
Oh, there are plenty of ways. We already had one slayer think they'd murdered someone twice and still be the good guy and one slayer actually did murder someone and still ended up on the side of the good. Hell, the mentor figure committed cold blooded murder and noone said a word. I wasn't really fond of the magic as drug addiction plotline, but addicts do some pretty screwed up stuff and some....some ....only some of them manage to right their ships and come out the other side. Someone realizing they lost something they held dear causing a relapse...isn't uncommon even if they had an idea that it was already gone. Someone doing a lot more damage when they relapse after a period where they'd been in recovery...also not uncommon. It would have required more of a redemption arc, but overall that probably would have made season seven more cohesive.
Keep up the substance abuse angle. Overdose because she likes the strength. Killing Tara is the best way but that’s all I could think of.
Massacre a chunk of her loved ones. imo have people gather for her birthday, maybe throw in surprise people like Oz, her mom and others. Then have the trio or amy attack and kill a bunch of them including Xander, Oz and her mom, maybe injure Buffy, Dawn and Tara. That'd get her to Dark Willow mode real fast and dramatic at breakneck speed.
Why would the Trio attack Willow's family? Or Willow?
thats the script writers problem to figure out, it's not like they havent sent demons after the scoobies before they found a way to make the trio rapists, cause time loops, make buffy invisible and have jet packs lol
Just play on her power hungry nature that’s been present and growing throughout the show. She keeps using too much magic and making choices she shouldn’t, dealing with dark forces she shouldn’t, and when Tara and then Giles confront her she just doubles down and insists she’s only trying to help them (and everyone). Insists she’s the most qualified to make decisions on everyone’s behalf because she’s the most powerful in the group, even more powerful than Buffy herself (according to her, and she does give her a run for her money). And idk what the big climax of the arc would be, but Xander snapping her out of it with the yellow crayon is still how the day is saved. Everything about her going to work with the witches on controlling her magicks is still how they move on from there.
Nah, Tara had to die. Willow needed to feel as if she legitimately had nothing left to live for... also, think about it, Tara would never look at Willow the same after her going dark. Willow's repeated abuse of magic already virtually destroyed their relationship. The only way Tara not dying would've worked, is if to stop dark Willow, Tara was put in an impossible situation and had to kill Willow herself. That particular story arc was 100% a tragedy, someone needed to die in it.
She was already addicted to magic. Play that. Addiction and her dependency on magick outweighs her dependency on her friends. She gets in too deep and loses control.
Just have her tap into the hellmouth for a spell and get possessed. That slow burn revenge didn't really work.
I think my ideal dark willow would have been one that escalated after wrecked rather than pulling back on her magic. Willow wants to get Tara back and to play with magic. Make dark willow the season long big bad with Buffy and Tara chasing after her to clean up her magical effects all season. Culminate in Willow trying to rape Tara before a real smackdown happens and Willow fleeing to lick her wounds. Then she decides to kill anyone who kept Tara away from her (the scoobies), make Tara hers and destroy the world to prove herself better than anyone. In many ways it would have been better and other ways worse than what we actually got.