Who Shot the arrow...?

[Buffy obsessed fan]

This has been bugging me, I had to ask someone! In 'Choices' when the vamp is about to bite Willow, then it gets dusted by that arrow, who did it? Because if Faith and The Mayor were busy in that meeting, or whatever, and none of the Scoobies were there yet, it just seems to have no possible explanation. Who did it?!?

[Joyce Summers]

You mean the bit in the office? Where Willow is being held hostage? And she says 'my mouth gets dry when I'm nervous or held hostage against my will'. Because he gets dusted because Will uses her magicks to float up a pencil and stake him with it; she staked him herself. Just erm magically. haha.

[palabravampiress]

Magical staking? lol. That actually sounds kind of fun -- and funny! I'd forgotten about that. Maybe I need to rewatch that episode!

[Buffy obsessed fan]

It was a pencil? But it came from out of the room, huh, I was sure it was an arrow, oh well -Sits in a corner, sniffling at my stupidity- :p

[Joyce Summers]

Yes, the marvelous intrigue-osity of magical staking haha. But yeah, it was a pencil; I kinda didn't realize till the third time I saw the episode and I was like huh- go Will. I think that's why we see her magically floating a pencil at the beginning of the episode; to show she could actually do it beforehand and they hadn't just thrown it in for Will Survival. And Buffy mentions the ability in Gingerbread 'what are you gonna do? Float a pencil at 'em?'.

[Buffy obsessed fan]

Oh, I really really get it now. I've seen that episode, SO many times, and never even noticed. I'm gonna re-watch that scene in a few mins. I think I'll notice this time :p

[greetings]

yeah, she's looking through draws and stuff and finds it before he comes in. go willow. i was so proud of her then.

[littlewilly]

On the subject of Choices, why didnt Willow grab as many books or pages of ascension as quick as possible and then run away out a window or something.
When Faith walked in, and willow was just... sitting there looking at the books! aaaaargh.
now look what you've done Will-ow, now the scoobs are going to have to save you now you clown.

[Lyri]

'Cause Willow's a nerd. She enjoys reading, and can get lost in things. I think that was her plan, to rip out a lot of pages, and run, but she got engrossed in what she was reading and lost in the pages, so she only managed to steal a few of them.

[Crazy Flakes]

'Cause Willow's a nerd. She enjoys reading, and can get lost in things. I think that was her plan, to rip out a lot of pages, and run, but she got engrossed in what she was reading and lost in the pages, so she only managed to steal a few of them.

Also, I think if she'd stolen too many pages, the Mayor or Faith would've noticed and gotten pretty mad about it. That was probably why she tried to read as many pages as she could while she was there.

[littlewilly]

One thing your forgetting though.
Willow is not in the position to be sitting there reading books.
She is in the Mayors building, y'know, the Scoobies arch enemies, does she not think 'if i get caught, they might kill me?'
willows supposed to be smart, why would she put herself in that position. considering it would take days to read all the books anyway, she should have just ripped random pages out and run. And in the end it was her fault they had to give the Mayor his box back.

[Joyce Summers]

Well Faith pointed out Willow's mistake there. 'Anyone else would think of escaping, but you? You just can't help Nancy Drewing can you?'. Willow knew there was a risk, but she also knew that that knowledge was important.

Plus, I think some part of her would always believe she would be okay. A survival instinct in us says that we'll be fine, we'll escape and perhaps that's how Willow felt when she sat down and began reading those books.

Ripping random pages would have been pointless- she could have ended up ripping out a contents page for crying out loud!

[littlewilly]

She got a few pages. She could probably have just grabbed all the books and ran. How hard would it be to carry 5 books.
and survival instinct! Doubt that was the reason.
She may be book smart, but she lacks common sense.

[ILLYRIAN]

Yet she had enough common sense to realise that carrying five books that size would have made it nigh on impossible for her to run.

[The Chosen]

Wouldn't it make sense that Willow didn't want to take all the books? Because Faith and the Mayor WOULD have gotten them back somehow, and then the books would have been put in even greater security. The Scoobies woulda been screwed.

That's how I view it anyway.

[littlewilly]

If she managed to get 2 or 3 books and run, then the scoobys would have the box, a few books and willow.
I just cant believe people seem to think she was in the position to
be sitting there, in her enemies offices deciding what few pages to take out of god knows how many thousands.
I mean, if that pshyco Faith decided to kill her, well, she'd only have herself to blame.

(btw, i actually like willow, just incase it sounds like i hate her)

[Rowan Hawthorn]

I just cant believe people seem to think she was in the position to be sitting there, in her enemies offices deciding what few pages to take out of god knows how many thousands.
That's because you're not reading their posts carefully enough. They're not saying she was in a position to do that, simply that it's in Willow's nature to get so absorbed in reading something (learning) that she'd lose sight of everything else, even her own safety. She's shown that side a number of times.

[Jules]

I agree that it was Willow that staked the vamp with the pencil, as far as I remember I think I noticed it first time.

As far as why Willow didn't try to leave, maybe she understood that her odds of making it out of a building filled with vampires, a rogue slayer and the Mayor were pretty slim even for a newbie witch. The most logical think would have been to wait for a resuce attempt. She would have known that Buffy was on her way or planning how to get her out.