At what point did Willow start abusing magicks?

[Cangel]

Well, the title says it all. We all know that there was definitely some sort of magic abuse, but when did it start? Tara pointed it out in All the Way (6x06) and even the episodes before that we could tell that Willow was maybe overdoing things a little (like the talk Willow and Giles had in Flooded)
These were the points when it was down to obvious Willow was getting out of control, but really, when did it start.
There was bringing Buffy back, that was definitely a part of Willow crossing the line (kinda gave her the feeling of being really powerful imo...if you can raise people from the dead, what else is there you can't do?). Other than that, we have all the dark magicks she used to fight Glory, do you think that might have given her the taste for the real powerful stuff and getting lost in magic?
But even before that we saw her mayvb overusing magic a bit, and not having the same respect for certain things like Tara. In Forever, even though she tells Dawn how wrong it would be to bring back Joyce (adapting to Tara's opinion) you can tell that secretly, she would do it.

So what's your opinion on this?

[palabravampiress]

Nice topic!

I first started to see it in Forever. She knew it was wrong to try to bring someone back from the dead, but she felt like her circumstances were the exception to the rule. That's why she didn't come right out and say she disagreed with Tara. That's why she made sure Dawn saw the book. As a result, Dawn was placed in danger and Joyce was not allowed to rest in peace.

[Joyce Summers]

That's why she made sure Dawn saw the book. As a result, Dawn was placed in danger and Joyce was not allowed to rest in peace.

Well put and basically my thoughts. But I don't think either Willow Dawn realized the direct consequences of such a spell. Dawn I can accept not realizing but Willow should have known better. That's why I love Buffy's line 'You can't let this happen, not to Mom!' because Buffy was the one, besides Tara, that saw bringing her back could go so wrong.

But I think I saw Willow's over-willingingness to use Magick in the season 3 episode 'Enemies'. When she tells Giles and Wesley she read something that referred to an ascension and she explains 'No [nude engravings] just magicks Giles doesn't think I'm ready for'. It was this over-eagerness to do magick, not listening to advice of those who knew better, that set up for the high that would set her up for the fall. It's like the set-up to the set-up. Haha

[ILLYRIAN]

Willow never abused magic.
Tara saw that magic should only be used for certain things; Willow doing more than that didn't mean that she was abusing magic.
Giles had put his own limitations on what should be done with magic, that was his choice. If Willow decided not to be bound by his rules, that is her choice.
As the magic was there, and Willow used it, she wasn't abusing it.
Tara was for all to see, was bound by the rules of Wicca. Willow wasn't. Was Willow a Wiccan? definitely not. Wicca is a nature based religion, a good religion. Willow wanting to do dark magic would put her against Wicca.
Willow did magics against nature many times. To do magic without the use of natural things puts the user in a different part of the magical community.
To put it in normal terms, being a Wiccan is like the Christianity of a human.
Some people choose not to be christian, in much the same way some people in the magical community choose not to be Wiccan.

Lets have a look at Tara, she was like a wiccan person with wiccan values, oh, wait a minute, she had a book that said how to bring a person back to life. Would that have been the only magic in the book that is taboo to a Wiccan, I don't think so.
Seems that she thought she was part demon (Family) ? and a few more question marks ?

She may have been trying to be good, but she didn't know what form of demon was in her, she didn't find out and she stopped other people from doing the same.
Oh and that crap she said about Willow altering her memory, comparing that to what Glory did, oh pleeeease. I suppose she accidentally forgot what she did in family as well?

[Rowan Hawthorn]

Willow had begun abusing the magicks (in the sense of extending herself into areas she had no training or background for and clearly wasn't ready for) well before "Forever". JS mentions the scene from "Enemies", and besides that:

From "Faith, Hope, And Trick":
Willow: Mm, sage. I love that smell. (reaches into a jar) And marnox root. You know, a smidge of this mixed with a virgin's saliva... (gets a look from Giles) Does something I know nothing about.

Giles: These forces are not something that one plays around with, Willow. What have you been conjuring?

Willow: Nothing... much. Well, you know, I tried this spell to cure Angel, and I guess that was a bust. But since then, you know, small stuff: floating feather, fire out of ice, which next time I won't do on the bedspread.

From "Dead Man's Party":

Willow: I mean, I'm not a full-fledged witch. That takes years. I just did a couple pagan blessings and . . . a teeny glamour to hide a zit.

Buffy: Does it scare you?

Willow: It has. I tried to communicate with the spirit world, and I *so* wasn't ready for that. It's like being pulled apart inside. Plus I blew the power for our whole block. Big scare.

So - when did Willow start abusing the magick? Well, pretty much from the time she started using it...

[ILLYRIAN]

Joyce, which statement is the right one?
Willow immediately gave into the temptations that magic had to offer.

Now we know that Willow was of above average intelligence, so bearing that in mind.

Willow wanted to understand what the magic was capable of.

She knew what intelligence could do for her in life, what could magic do?

[Joyce Summers]

Well that was Willow's weakness in my opinion. She had an immense thirst for knowledge and magick is supposed to be the Ultimate knowledge so it would make sense she'd want to learn it, or at least learn from it.

But that was something she stopped doing. She stopped learning from it, and just did without even considering consequences. Knowledge is the ultimate power and I think we can safely say that Willow became power mad.

"You don't even consider the options, you just...do a spell"- Tara summed up Willow's mentality perfectly here. Willow has always been inclined to use magic as a first choice (Wanting to re-ensoul Angel, wanting to help bind Acathla, wanting to conjure the elements, contact the spirit world...) but in the earlier seasons her lack of expertise/ability/experience stopped her from doing so. Season 5 her powers increased immensely and so by season 6 she had the thinking of 'I can so why not'. Which isn't how magick should be used. That's how it became like a drug to her.

"With great power comes great responsibility" but the more power Willow got the more she seemed to ignore the consequences and was not taking responsibility for her actions. I mean if we look at the little things that lead to the big thing when she admits she was reading texts forbidden to her in Enemies she doesn't apologize to Giles for going against his wishes. Even if it's 'Sorry, but I just wanted to learn stuff' (Which is, actually, what she said in Ted) but she didn't because I think even then she believed she was in the right. I mean in season 6, it wasn't till Dawn was hurt, that Willow even believed Tara had a point. She thought she left her for no good reason

[Rowan Hawthorn]

From "Faith, Hope, And Trick":
Willow: Mm, sage. I love that smell. (reaches into a jar) And marnox root. You know, a smidge of this mixed with a virgin's saliva... (gets a look from Giles) Does something I know nothing about.

Giles: These forces are not something that one plays around with, Willow. What have you been conjuring?

Willow: Nothing... much. Well, you know, I tried this spell to cure Angel, and I guess that was a bust. But since then, you know, small stuff: floating feather, fire out of ice, which next time I won't do on the bedspread.
ILLYRIAN agrees: Willow, well I tried this spell to cure Angel, but I guess that was a bust. The spell did work Buffy had to send Angel to hell.

Whether that spell worked or not isn't the point of the example; the point is that, after trying the spell to cure Angel, Willow had begun trying other spells on her own without Giles's (or anyone else's) knowledge. In other words, rather than working with someone else who might have been able to guide her, she snuck around behind everyone's backs and made some potentially serious goofs, which she might have avoided if she'd been willing to take the proper route. Even back in the mountains where I grew up, we wouldn't hand a loaded .44 magnum to a teenager who'd never even handled a BB gun and let him go wandering off by himself in a crowded neighborhood to learn how to use it on his own.

[eunsoma]

I would have said she started abusing magick when she began using it for everything, even for things she could have done without it. I think in S5 she was still just using it for the greater good, but in S6, it became selfish.

[Buffy obsessed fan]

I don't think she was abusing magicks right from the beggining, because in Dooplegangland, after the temperal fold, she said 'That's a little blacker than I like my arts' so she obviously wasn't into doing that much then, to begin with she was just dabbling. To be honest, I think she started going slightly overboard in 'Out Of My Mind' when she and Tara are in the tunnels, and she conjures that light...she made that from the tiny-tinkerbell light we later see in Bargaining Part...2, I think. That's when I first thought 'Somethings not right about her use of magick' but, I don't think she really did anything that terrible again until she took on Glory, she was half way to looking like Dark Willow, then.

[Rowan Hawthorn]

I don't think she was abusing magicks right from the beggining, because in Dooplegangland, after the temperal fold, she said 'That's a little blacker than I like my arts' so she obviously wasn't into doing that much then, to begin with she was just dabbling.
There are different levels of "abuse". The temporal fold spell simply took her in one jump to a place way beyond anything she'd done to that point, and it scared her. By "Fear Itself", both Buffy and Oz were developing vague concerns, which Willow simply dismisses:

Willow: “I’ve got the basics down – levitation, charms, glamours. I just feel like I’ve plateaued wicca-wise.”
Buffy: “What’s the next level?”
Willow: “Transmutation, conjuring, bringing forth something from nothing. Gets pretty close to the primal forces. A little scary.”
Buffy: “Well, no one’s pushing. You know, if it’s too much don’t do it.”
Willow: “Don’t do it? What kind of encouragement is *that*?”
Buffy: “This is an ‘encouragement’ talk? I thought it was ‘share my pain’.”
Willow: “I don’t know. Then again, what is college for if not experimenting? You know, maybe I can handle it. I’ll know when I’ve reached my limit.”
Oz comes up to them: “Wine coolers?”
Buffy: “Magic.”
Oz: “Ooh, you didn’t encourage her, did you?”
Willow: “Where is supportive boyfriend guy?”
Oz: “He’s picking up your dry cleaning, but he told me to tell you that he’s afraid you’re gonna get hurt.”
Willow with a smile: “Okay, Brutus. (Oz just looks at her) Brutus – Caesar? (Willow looks form Oz to Buffy) Betrayal – trusted friend? (Makes stabbing motions with her banana) Back stabby?”
Oz: “Oh, I’m with you on the reference, but – I won’t lie about the fact that I worry? I know what it’s like to have power you can’t control. I mean, every time I start to wold out, I touch something –deep – dark. It’s not fun. But just know that what ever you decide, I back your play.”
Buffy: “See? Concerned boy, sweet boy.”
Willow: “I kinda like him - worrying anyway.”

Two weeks later, when she finds Oz with Veruca, she begins a spell to curse the two of them the minute she's out of Buffy's sight - and she already has everything handy that she needs for a spell like that. Three weeks after that, she casts the "my will be done" spell, which she screws up and endangers all of them.

Nah, not abusing the power at all...

[Kana]

And the fact that considered it so easily worries. It's not about magic in itself but the attitude towards it. Although in a lot of ways she lacks the utterly sociopathic traits of Warren, what she has in common with him is the need to control what is around her because of her insecurities. It is not the limitations I was worried about it's the attitude towards magic and as others have said, without really dealing with the consequences.

Even her actions in Triangle were worrying. Performing dangerous spells without any regard for personal safety or the safety of others. This was part of her problem: she was precocious in some area but incredibly immature in other areas. She should have underscored the issues she addressed in Restless and Wrecked and that was using power to compensate for her feeling inadequate.