Dark Willow

[celestialarrow]

i loved willow's turn as dark willow but after seeing it i wished she used power like that all the time. okay this is what i mean willow could have developed her magical abilities sooner became dark willow and then learned from it developed control and when the glory arc started help buffy fight her it would have cool seeing willow fight glory at her best than when she did in that episode forgot which one. and also how cool would it have been willow fighting those ubervamps awesome. tell me what you guys think.

[Dlou444]

I don't know.

It would have been COOL to see Dark Willow turn Glory into a smoldering pile of ash. But, on the other hand, it would have ruined the story arc for half of Season 5 and Season 6. We'd be stuck watching them sip coffee and chat like a Sunnydale version of Friends. And that would not have been as fun.

BTW...Wanabee-slayer is the goddess of all that is pink and fluffy in the world

[LittleMissLikesToFight]

I think Dark Willow was awesome. And as i would agree it would ruin story arch, it would be amazing to see her kicking more butt at some point later on. But she was terrified, you know? and after the "rehab" she went through... she just wouldn't go back into evil mojo mode that quickly.

[Kemy]

I love Dark Willow. You should get the Wicked Willow trilogy of books, the storyline is expanded to last 3 months instead of the two days or so we see in the episodes.

[Bangelxx]

I absolutely LOVE dark willow! those last 3 episodes of buffy in season 6 were 3 of my fave episodes! (hence the banner!) lol- BIG dark willow fan here!

[Fake Shemp]

everything dark willow says is classic...

"uh oh daddys home"

[Cangel]

i wished she used power like that all the time.
willow could have developed her magical abilities sooner became dark willow and then learned from it developed control and when the glory arc started help buffy fight her it would have cool seeing willow fight glory at her best than when she did in that episode forgot which one. and also how cool would it have been willow fighting those ubervamps awesome.

I think we should not forget that the show is called 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and not 'Willow: The now Reformed Invincible Wicked Wicca'
Seriously, if Willow had had this kindof power over several seasons, what would Buffy's job have been? She's supposed to be the strongest, the chosen one. Giving Willow all the real power would probably have undermined the show's whole concepts.
And it's not like Willow didn't do anything with her power after she went bad, let's not forget she restored Angel's soul and turned all the potentials into real slayers.
If there ever were to be a spin-off about Willow with Buffy out of the picture, there she could be the most powerful.

[Joyce Summers]

I pretty much agree with everything FunnyBunny said. Plus, we know that the fact magickal use has to be limited in the Buffyverse; that had already been established from the very beginning. Giles' constant warnings of how using it too often, not to mention his past, showed how over-use could go wrong.
Plus in Afterlife in season 6 Spike says 'the thing about magick is there's always consequences. Always'. If we had Willow constantly being the Wicca who packed-a-punch-a we'd constantly have to deal with the consequences too. I mean in season 8 we've seen the consequences of making every Potential a Slayer (I won't go into that as it may spoil some things for people who haven't perhaps read them all yet)

[Fake Shemp]

oh no way could willow of had that power for several seasons... yes its not willow the witch... but it was great to see the character go through that for that little amount of time... any more and it wouldnt have been as great as it was

[tillow]

I too loved dark wllow she was so fabulous but what bothered me was...

willows part of series six was learning not to use magic unless needed and she did it "for" tara *thats what i think anyway* and then when tara dies she fogets what she leanred and i thought it kinda crapped over tarras memory

as i said i do love dark willo wsoooooo much but i wish they had shown her before that so that it was established as a part of willow that she had no control over instead of a choice because it made it look like tara would want her to do that when we know that is not the case

[Elithustra]

I guess it would have made Buffy somewhat redundant. Seems she was that way sometimes anyway. I mean, there were plenty of times Buffy couldn't or wouldn't perform her duties, even as far back as Season 3, that I can recall off the top of my head.

At any rate, Dark Willow was a fantastic story-arc and I'm sure she'd have been able to whoop Glory's backside within the space of 45 minutes, but at the same time, it would have deflected from everything Glory was to do in future episodes, would have not only made Buffy redundant, but the entire storyline of Dawn, would that have even been viable?

Also, Tillow's right - it's not what Tara would have wanted!

[SMGfan17]

The end of season 6 was absolutely incredible. I was glued to the screen. I really wasn't a Tara fan, so i didn't care she died. But i did love all episodes of the ending of season 6.

[Crazy Flakes]

I think we should not forget that the show is called 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and not 'Willow: The now Reformed Invincible Wicked Wicca'
Seriously, if Willow had had this kindof power over several seasons, what would Buffy's job have been? She's supposed to be the strongest, the chosen one. Giving Willow all the real power would probably have undermined the show's whole concepts.
And it's not like Willow didn't do anything with her power after she went bad, let's not forget she restored Angel's soul and turned all the potentials into real slayers.
If there ever were to be a spin-off about Willow with Buffy out of the picture, there she could be the most powerful.

If you haven't read season 8 yet and don't want to be spoiled, stop here...


You make some good points. In season 7, notice that, before every fight, Willow is knocked out. In season 8, Willow has all the power Dark Willow had, maybe more, but the writers just use her powers to fly people around.

I just wish the writers could find a way to put her in more fights, but still make every battle interesting...even if it means making a spinoff called Willow the Witch (which I would be even more eager to watch/read than Buffy, just because I'm a total Willow freak.)

ANYWAY...

Dark Willow was DEFINITELY the best Big Bad the show's ever had, in my opinion, and not just because she was the strongest. It was just really shocking seeing Willow, who'd always been the sweetest character (aside from Tara, of course) suddenly try to kill all of the Scoobies. On top of that, it was great to see the season end with something besides Buffy just killing the bad guy, and Xander got his chance to shine.

[PhenixRising]

I thought Dark Willow was poorly executed. Which stems from the fact that I thought the drug metaphor was misplaced and poorly handled as well. Instead of the drug metaphor the writers should have placed their focus on Willow falling into an amoral might makes right attitude. This could also increase friction between Buffy and Willow since Willow is clearly more intelligent than Buffy and when angered her powers surpass Buffy's slayer strength.

The writers could have still created Dark Willow through Tara's death while maintaining friction between the them. When Xander returned with news of Warren's strength Willow could offer Buffy help to contain the Trio but Buffy refuses because they all realize that Willow is dangerous if provoked. The aftermath of Buffy's failure to capture Warren would still result in Tara's death but Willow would have extra incentive to blame Buffy and go off the deep end when the other Scoobies try to protect Andrew and Johnathon.

I would have also liked for Dark Willow to tear into Buffy's handling of Spike and Dawn. No one really took Buffy to task for completely abandoning Dawn to ride Spike. Willow throws a few jabs in but nothing really sticks.

This could carry into season 7 since Willow would need to redeem herself in the eyes of her friends. Of course a redemption arc would require more than one episode. Who else would have liked more Willow in season 7 and perhaps a little less Spike?

[Dlou444]

I kind of liked the drug metaphor. I thought it was quite appropriately used. Maybe not in all situations, but from what I've found out, due to recent events, most addicts start with something they can actually handle and then a triggers sets them lose into their downward spiral.
Even people addicted to prescription pain killers have it happen that way. They're going along, taking the pills the doctor gave them and then something goes wrong. They lose their job, they break-up with their loved one and WHAMMO, they need more and more to dull the pain. And get quite "witchy" when told they shouldn't be. They assume no one else understands, they distance themselves from their loved ones. Stuff happens.
I thought it was a VERY good metaphor for how things actually happen. And, I REALLY loved (especially watching it again and again) how Tara knows there is a problem while the rest of Willows friends are still making excuses for her. It was SO close to my situation it was eerie.
And I REALLY loved the hair change and how weird and twisted Willow looked. Because that is ALSO kind of how it goes. I watched a video the other day that had my loved one as "Dark Willow" and it gave me the willies. Even though they weren't ON the camera, they were behind it and just talking every so often, but it was SO obvious this was the "other person" and NOT the person I knew before or know now. I had to turn the tape off because it was just creepy to hear.

It's all just SO creepy and similar that it makes it hard to watch sometimes. I see Tara get shot and want to skip forward to S7.

[Rowan Hawthorn]

For all the complaints people make about the "drug addiction" metaphor, let's also not forget that there are psychological addictions that can be just as bad in their own way (hell, to hear modern psychologists tell it, anything you do more than twice in your life counts as an addiction...) I mean, we have addictions based on gambling, sex, shopping - and those addictions work in many ways just like real chemical addictions in that it constantly requires More to get the same level of satisfactions: gamblers go for bigger and bigger pots, adrenaline junkies require bigger and bigger thrills... I don't know why it's so difficult to believe someone could become addicted to channeling the magickal energies. It's just another rush...

[Fake Shemp]

i just watched the last 3 eps of s6 today in honour of ally's birthday. i lept to the dvd's and the instinctive thing was dark willow, out of 7 seasons i dunno why

[celestialarrow]

okay i haven't been on this thread in awhile but when i said use power like that what i should have said was use power akin to that of dark willow not as powerful but able to stave off demons instead of being slapped around.