Re: Request and Questions - Rewrite season 6

[JDMeans@xxxxxxx]

Possible spoilers involved, so

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> Another angle I always liked was that magic was a way to make Willow
> feel like she was really contributing something to the group and not
> just the nerd anymore (as she said after overhearing Percy in Doomed).
> It also tracks with Willow's experience in Restless, she is scared
> people will find out who she really is. We've never seen that Tara
> knows what Willow was like in high school. So you could use this
> angle to have Willow grow up and accept who she is. It could easily
> be used to have Willow and Tara grow closer together, although that
> isn't the ship here. I'm trying to think of how to involve Buffy here...
> 

I'm inclined to agree with this assessment of Willow and her quest for magic. 
We were having a discussion of what we thought were Willow's prevalant 
character traits. After some thought I came up with three traits that we've 
seen since she first met Buffy in the pilot. They are;

1) Desire to know love and acceptance.
2) Desire to improve herself, or at least her image of herself, and
3) Fierce loyalty to her friends.

These traits can be both positive or negative, depending on the circumstances 
of each story. Her loyalty has, IMO, been her finest quality(witness the 
'It's a good fight' scene in 'Choices'), but can be turned against her and 
her friends. If she's betrayed, she can get unpleasant (as she did with Oz in 
'Wild at Heart'). And if someone were to hurt someone she loved, she can 
turn downright vengeful(right now, the last person I'd want to be on the show 
is Warren!)

Her desire to learn magic stems from her own negative self-image(the theme of 
her dream in 'Restless'), her desire to belong to the group in a greater way 
and her need to support Buffy, her first true friend. In my opinion, it 
wasn't the magic that was evil, but learning magic without learning control, 
either of her powers or herself. She was mostly self-taught, and needed a 
mentor. Tara filled that role to a small degree, and having her simply 
abandon Willow this season was a cop-out on the part of Joss and his crew. 
She needs a guiding hand, and with her breakup with Tara, plus Giles' 
departure, she has no one to turn to. Which led to her need for love and 
acceptance, which made her easy prey for Rack. 

She needs to back off from the magic, not abandon it altogether. She simply 
needs to learn control. Unfortunately, if what I've read is any indication, 
that ain't gonna happen on the show. Let's face it; for a season with the 
theme of 'Grow Up', the gang's been acting pretty childishly.

Kirayoshi
Wondering if someone's been slipping everyone band candy again!