Question Love her, hate her, don't care, or should have been a different Actress

There is a lot of controvercy sorunding Willow. So many people love her and so many people hate her. Then there are a few who are on the fence and could care less. And there are some who say they might have liked Willow better if someone besides Aly played her.

I think Alyson Hannigan did a beautiful job with Willow and I would not have wanted to see anyone else in that role. (I also think Aly looks better with red hair even though I know it is not her natural hair color. There were even times you could see her roots but hey)

As for Willow she is my favorite character. She grew and evolved so much. I do not agree with all the choices she made, but all humans make mistakes. At least she tryed to make up for hers. She started out as this shy quiet girl who let so many people walk all over her. Then she learned what is really out there. She finaly learned to stand up for her self. She had help in learning but she learned. It shows that even the shy quite nobody neard sitting in your class can some day be something important. Willow saved the world! Granted she almost destroid it first. But when it mattered, she saved the world. If it was not for her Buffy would not have beaten the first and the world would have lost to evil.

I see an underlining moral to her character. Look when you see that shy quite kid getting picked on in school; cause someday they might be so much more.

Even her look evolved so far. And that is real. When you change who you are on the inside it shows on the outside. Her look always fit with her personality. Her look evolved the most.


So lets get some input. What do you all think? Love her, hate her, or dont really care? And I do want opinions that disagree with mine. Seeing other people view is what helps our minds to grow and keeps us from being so closed minded.

I agree with you 100% I am not one of those people who disliked Willow or wanted someone else to play her. I think Aly did a fantastic job with that role and the look she has worked for her.

Can't fault Alyson Hannigan for how she portrayed Willow. When i think about it anyone else playing Willow would just seem weird. I loved Willow's quirkyness and am really glad the character of Willow was recast and Alyson was the beneficary.

Don't understand how anyone could fault her performance? She was great as Dark Willow, great as nice and sweet Willow.

Willow grew because Alyson Hannigan grew. In S1, there's some wooden acting, but by S3 or so she's a complete natural in the role. I think Alyson Hannigan does a great job as Willow. Like others have said, I can't see anyone else in the role.

But that's not to say anyone else couldn't have filled those shoes, if circumstances were different. Riff Regan gets some bad press, but she could have grown into the character too and, in an alternate world (without shrimp), we could be sitting here saying "I couldn't imagine anyone but Riff Regan in the role". Or anyone but Kirsty Swanson as Buffy.

One of Joss Whedon's strengths is his commitment to character development. His series - the ones that have been lucky enough to last long enough - constantly evolve. Circumstances change, people change. It's a welcome change from TV series where the characters are predictable in their behaviour across the seasons. You could argue that Willow evolves the most - or certainly evolves the most on BtVS (Cordy, Wesley and Fred give her a run for her money), but it never feels artificial or forced. Her journey across the seasons seems entirely believable, and it's a great story about the rewards of self-discovery. BtVS addresses the messy, directionless topic of 'becoming an adult' better than any so-called 'teen drama' I've ever seen.

I love both Alyson Hannigan and Willow. I think Alyson was the perfect actress to play Willow she did an amazing job. She managed to show Willow as this shy geeky girl and then show how she had grown and changed into a powerful Wiccan. I really could not imagine any other actress playing her.

I think it's pretty obvious to say I love how she portrayed Willow 🙂 She was perfect for her character and from checking the votes till now, no one disagree haha!

I love S1-5 Willow. I loathe S6-7 Willow. So I can't vote in the poll. But I can safely say that if another actress had played Willow it's possible I wouldn't have liked her that much. AH has the rare gift of acting all cute without that coming off as fake (at least not to me, I know plenty of people would disagree). She has an incredibly expressive face and is good both at dramatic and comedy scenes.

I had no idea there were people out there who didn't like Aly. I always kind of assumed it was generally agreed that she was a fantastic actress who played the part perfectly.

I don't always like Willow. Her character flaws were frustrating, but definitely well-done. My complaints were never with Aly, it's just the way Willow developed. I think it was a natural progression throughout the series, seeing as you saw hints of her self-absorbtion in earlier seasons. But there are also other moments where I genuinely loved her.

And I agree with Icarium, her character was most likable season 1-5, after that she kind of lost what made her character so endearing. But, once again, that's a natural part of simply growing up and accumulating experience.

There are people on this planet who would have wanted Willow to not be played by Aly? :jawdrop:

I can (just barely 😛) accept that some people hate her (even though I always loved her - including having had a huge crush on her - and always will, I freely admit she's done some pretty awful stuff over the years, the "Forget" spell being one of the worst things done by any character in the entire show), but seriously? Better if another actress? Are you for real? 😱

InsaneMystic said:

There are people on this planet who would have wanted Willow to not be played by Aly? :jawdrop:

Click to expand...

I stand behind IM with my jaw droppd to the floor as well.

Who could possibly have done a better job as Willow? I just... can't imagine it. I adore Aly as Willow, I really think she was perfect for that part.
There isn't a season where I don't love her. I mean I don't always love her actions, but Willow's character is one of my eternal favorites.

I think Aly brought that cute quirkiness to her that made her so loveable even at her worst.

I like her, she surprised me taking a role in American Pie, but now I'm used to it.😀

I love Aly. She's one of the reasons I love Willow.

There are things that Will has done that I haven't liked but hey, that goes for all the characters. None of them are perfect.

Pretty lopsided poll, lol. Who doesn't love AH as Willow? No one I say!

I love Alyson Hannigan! She's a very good actress and she did a very good job portraying Willow.

I have no problem with Alyson Hannigan. I blame the writers for the twists/turns that made the character unlikeable to me. After Season 4, I began to like Willow less and less. By the time Season 7 came around, couldn't have cared less if she was there or not.

I really like Willow. I don't agree with all the choices she made, but I never felt that she did the things she did out of spite or in the intent to be evil. Selfishness, maybe, but not evil. I can even think it was really beatiful her going bad after Taras death. I always felt that Tara wasn't recognized the way she should've been, so I thought it was really beautiful portrayed when Ali showed us that Willow had no other choise than to go bad out of grief. I have always had a weak spot for characters who let their emotions get the best of them. They may not act morally correct or even nice, but I sometimes find that these are the characters that are most human. That's also one of the reasons I love Spike so much.🙂

Willow is the single most amazing character on television. I mean, everyone on BTVS is amazing, but Willow is really something special and spectacular. I don't actually know a lot of Willow-haters. That very concept seems strange to me. Willow definitely grew so much over the course of the series. She turned from a shy nerd to an outgoing and quirky young woman. She went through a lot and came out the better. Her actions, I think, are the most human of any of the characters because some of them just aren't justifiable, such as Dark Willow. And she did some just wrong things... like IM said, the forgetting spell was awful. But she was *real.* And that's what makes her so awesome. All of the characters had their bad aspects. They all did bad things. But Willow was, sometimes, a bad person. And in that way, she was relatable. Her breaking down in Wrecked has to be one of the most touching moments on the show simply because we saw where Will was going and now she was seeing it, too. And that's something we can all understand. I'm not entirely sure I'm being clear enough. I'm tired and my head kind of hurts. But the gist: Willow is awesome.

As for Aly, I don't think anyone else could play her. In the unaired pilot, I think it's Riff Reagan who plays her and frankly, she's awful. I think I'd feel that way if it were anyone but Aly. She *is* Willow.

I'm a big fan of both Willow and Alyson. But could someone else had played Willow as good or even better than Aly? It's hard to believe but I'll go with a big probably. But we'll never know. Never might be a strong word since we can't see into the future. But I highly doubt that we'll ever find out. Once you've seen someone do a great job as a character it's very difficult to see someone else do the same part. Not only do the "other" person be better than Alyson she'd also had to fight all the fond memories viewers have of Alyson which makes us kind of biased. Very difficult yes but not impossible.

The closest I personally can compare the situation to is Doctor Who. I didn't think the new doctor could come close to David Tennant and I was seriously thinking of stop watching the show. I'm not saying that Matt is better but I love his version.

Alyson Hannigan was, is and I think she will always be a very talented actress! She portrayed Willow just fine. The reasons I don't like Willow in the last 4 seasons is not because of Alyson. It is because of the script. Willow lost the elements of her character that I loved so much.

Washburne said:

I'm a big fan of both Willow and Alyson. But could someone else had played Willow as good or even better than Aly? It's hard to believe but I'll go with a big probably. But we'll never know. Never might be a strong word since we can't see into the future. But I highly doubt that we'll ever find out. Once you've seen someone do a great job as a character it's very difficult to see someone else do the same part. Not only do the "other" person be better than Alyson she'd also had to fight all the fond memories viewers have of Alyson which makes us kind of biased. Very difficult yes but not impossible.

Click to expand...

Alyson's a decent example since we actually have seen Willow portrayed by another actress. And if Riff was the 2nd best, I'd say, no, the show would not have made 7 seasons without Alyson. Though in fairness, I'd imagine Amy Acker could have done a fair job as Willow.

I think Spike is a better example. I really doubt that Spike would have become even a memorable character without James Marsters. He began as a bad guy of the month, and turned into one of the top characters of the franchise because of James' perfect performance.

Then on Angel, Lorne would not exist without Andy since Joss based Lorne on Andy in the first place. And I doubt Gunn would have been quite as good as he was had they not found J August. The original casting certainly wasn't for a lawyer, yet five years in, J August stepped up to the plate and is now known as one of the best actors in that area.