Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The Needless Murder of Tara Maclay

A look at Buffy’s most controversial storyline

There can be little doubt that of all the storylines used on Buffy, the most discussed and hotly debated is the one of Willow’s magic addiction, within which as part of that storyline was the accidental murder of her girlfriend Tara and Willow’s descent into grief-fuelled, magically-enhanced violence and eventually to attempted genocide. It divides opinion unlike any other subject on the Buffy boards and is still a hotly contested topic to this day.

The problem with the argument over whether or not Tara’s death was right has focused all too often on her sexuality and the invocation of the dreaded "Dead/Evil Lesbian" cliche. Whilst there is much to be said on that subject, I will here attempt to show why I disapprove of the entire storyline, not just the death, and as such why I think the death was not only wrong, but counter-productive.

Addiction: What kind is it and what is it progressing towards?

The main problem I have with Willow storyline is that I do not believe they handled the addiction at all well. For Tara’s death to have any validity in dramatic terms the addiction storyline has to hold and quite frankly, it doesn’t.

Before we get into this issue, I want to deal with a small matter of the a change in metaphor for magic. Season 4 the metaphor was undeniably a romantic one, where magic was the metaphor for Willow’s growing relationship with Tara and their romantic and indeed sexual relationship. For it to metamorphose from romantic love to abuse and addiction is not a comfortable one and does give the impression (heightened by the use, deliberate or otherwise, by the "Dead/Evil Lesbian" cliche) that the writers were at the very least subconsciously making a judgement about this lesbian relationship, and possibly others. Its a harsh comment to make, but I can understand why people see this point. Now I will deal with my main points of contention individually.

Firstly, was Willow actually addicted to magic? I would argue not. Magic had never been discussed in any previous season as a substance one could become addicted to, like any narcotic, and it seemed an odd change to suddenly being an addictive substance that anyone could be addicted to. Given that Giles, who knows a thing or two about dark power, never mentions magic as an addictive substance nofor that matter does Tara, it does seem a very odd decision by the writers.

What was apparent during season 5 and certainly the first part of season 6 was that Willow and Tara had a very different ideology when it came to magic and its use. For Tara, brought up as a Wiccan, magic was something spiritual, something to be used only when no other reasonable alternative presented itself. Tara herself rarely if ever used offensive spells, but rather spells for confusion and defence.

Wilow on the other hand, most certainly saw magic as a science project, something to investigate and explore. We see her in season 5 upgrading spells and tinkering with them very much like a scientist, seeing where the next formula takes her. In season 6 she has become adept at this to the point where she sees her power as the first port of call, rather than investigate other possibilities.

And this is my problem with the "magic as drugs" metaphor. For me, up until "Wrecked" (where the substance abuse metaphor first kicks in), Willow’s story is one of being drunk on power rather than one of substance abuse. Willow doesn’t consider other possibilities, instead using her power on the basis of "I can therefore it’s okay". Her inner moral compass is askewed by her power, leading her to the belief that as long as she is making people happy or doing good or that the purpose is honourable, that her using any spell, regardless of possible consequences, is the right thing to do. Her view of the world has become warped, in stark contrast to Tara’s spiritual viewpoint. In essence, Willow is losing her soul. Like Jurassic Park, Willow rather ignores the warning given by the Jeff Goldblum character that "You spent so much time finding out if you could do a thing that you never thought to ask if you should". Willow has reached that point now with "Wrecked". She rapes Tara’s mind not once but twice, because she wants to avoid arguments and the pain she has caused. her moral compass has gone, and her lack of understanding causes the split and her inability to deal with that loss, leading her to both sink further into abusing her power with Amy and reject any notion that it was her actions that caused the split.

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http://amberbenson.yuku.com/topic/2516