Poor Dawn... Buffy The Vampire Slayer S06E14 ''Older and Far Away''♡Reaction & Review♡
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The demon was Cecily - the woman who told human Spike that he is beneath her in Fool for Love. Also, Buffy is now 21.
Good question is : Cecily was her ture humaan identity or did she was a demon already when Spike was alive ? Both explanation for her attitude are cool lol
@@deusveritasest56
She was a demon.
In the comic Spike: old times, it s said that she was on a job at the time that William fell for Cecily.
@@deusveritasest56 In one of the episodes, Anya and Halfrek are talking during the Crimean War which happened about thirty years before Spike was turned. She was Halfrek before she was Cecily.
Buffy = king of callbacks 🎉
"Effulgent" 😂
Tara trolling Spike is one of my fave parts of this episode and her standing up for Willow is such a good moment too
Those are my *absolute* favorite moments!!🤣😈😎🤍
I wish we’d gotten more of that side of her. It’s adorable and seeing that protective the dynamic with Willow is even more so. Such a waste.
This random “monster-of-the-week” episode of Buffy was 100 times better than the Game of Thrones series finale.
💯 couldn’t agree more
Yep!
"She looks familiar"
She is the first woman who broke our William the Bloody's heart, that's why 😂
"you're gonna have to go through me first" is such a great call back to what Buffy said in support of Tara in the episode Family.
Especially with Tara folding her arms. It’s exactly how Willow did in ‘Family’.
Buffy and spike playng cards is possibly one of the most underrated spuffy moments.😂
Thank u 🙏 nobody ever notice that part she can’t stay away from him they soulmates
Tara sassing Spike is definitely the highlight of this episode for me. xD
Same!🤣😈
Notice that Tara sasses Spike the first time when he's getting Buffy alone. Buffy already told Tara about her relationship with Spike, and Tara is standing up for Buffy by giving her a way to get away from Spike - but she's also giving Spike crap because Buffy is her friend, and this thing with Spike is hurting her, so Tara is subtly letting Spike know that she's watching him.
@@Kayjee17 I love her so much,she's the best!😎🤍She's not my _favourite_ but definitely objectively the best!👍
Tara is so badass when it comes to protecting people she cares about. And, yay, Clem is here! XD
Tara is amazing isn't she? She really is the best of them, such a great character. I really hope she and Willow get back together and have a long, happy life together - Tara deserves it.
Oh you're cruel❤🩹
I know this comment is 6 months old but still you are going to HELL lmaoo💀💀
"How's that cramp. Spike?"
Maybe you should put some ice on it?... 😂
😈🤍
Halfrek is ‘Cecily’ the woman Spike was in love with as a human. She was a vengeance Demon then also. Not sure if that was always the plan but I guess cause the show used that Actress to play Halfrek they decided to at least hint at it in case fans picked up on it.
Once I realized this, I headcannoned that someone in Spike’s life (like, let’s say, his mother) made a wish to Halfrek/Cecile that William would fall madly in love with a woman. Being a vengeance demon, she turned it around so he would be head-over-heals in love with her, then reject him. This one act caused the creation of Spike, one of the cruelest vampires in history, which caused chaos among his countless victims (along with the death of 2 slayers).
Am I the only one who wanted more episodes with Halfrek?! I love her motherly nature even as a demon! Also when she realizes William is there.. iconic!! 😂
@@PyroDrake1134 Very interesting!
@@PyroDrake1134 I always thought she was there to get vengeance for a kid, since that seemed to be her thing. Possibly a young woman about Dawn's age who was being forced into marrying a much older man, as was the custom in those times in those sorts of parties. William was just getting in the way, so she said that to get rid of him.
It was not originally the plan. They just reused the actress, because she was right for the role. They were just not even going to make the connection, but they decided to just hang a lamp on it, and make it part of the story.
Sophie is finally represented in the Buffyverse!
Thank you for saying 'Poor Dawn." I don't understand people not understanding her perspective in this. Even in-universe the Scoobies pretty much just put it down to her age and don't consider what, as a group, they are doing to the 15-year-old the whole season.
Halfrek isn't just the actor who played Cecily. It is implied she is the same character, as well.
In season 6 Dawn is now 15.
@@davidmeadows5627 Thanks. Buffy's age is a hard one for me. Not because I don't know but because I tend to get muddled over the fact that her first Sunnydale birthday is Angel losing his soul ad how old she is when she becomes the slayer to S1 to S2 isn't all different years I know Dawn is the same age in the last season as Buffy when she's in S1, so that ends up being part of the muddling.
That little moment 2:49 where Tara hugs Buffy and calls her "sweetie" gets to me, too. It's the first time we've seen them together since the wrenching ending of 'Dead Things' and the continuation of that emotional bond is so touching! I always wanted to see more of that (I even wrote a couple of Buffy/Tara fanfics back in the day).
The way spike says ‘shut up he’s sweet’ KILLS ME
I love the fact that you're sympathetic to Dawn. I honestly hate when people just blindly dump on the 14/15 year old who has gone through A LOT for being a little whiny, when there's literally a witch who almost ended the world, a murderous vampire and a vengeance demon also in that house. A lot of the community seem to have sympathy for those characters, but not for the literal child.
With all Dawn has gone through she's pretty amazing. A very underrated character in my opinion.
I always find it odd that the characters the fandom dump on the most are Xander, Riley and Dawn as protagonists characters when as you said - Willow, Anya, Faith and Spike exist.
Actual murderers. The most Dawn ever does with that is murder your ears.
Xander is never violent or tries to rape anyone. Willow, Faith and Spike on the other hand…
I really just can’t take the hate and slander against these characters seriously when Willow, Anya, Faith and Spike exist. Sure they have toxic traits every now and again. But Willow, Anya, Faith and Spike literally committed war crimes and some of them even attempted mass genocide. It’s insane to me that the characters fans have the most problems with are Xander, Riley and Dawn.
In regards to Willow and Xander in particular, somebody mentioned that the reason why the fans take great issue with Xander is because he is never called out in the show writing for his toxic behaviour but Willow is. But I don’t know about that. I think that’s just an excuse.
There's a witch who almost ended the world in that house? In S06E14?
@@phueal they’re talking about Dark Willow.
@@Girl4Music in S06E14?
Tara is the real MVP of the episode.
Notice how she stands up for Willow. What she does, what she says.
Doesn’t it remind you of why Buffy and the Gang stood up for her in ‘Family’?
BUFFY: “You want to take Tara out of here against her will, you got to come through me.”
DAWN: “And me.”
It’s come full circle. Breaking up with Willow is the best thing that ever happened to Tara. But only because they were together in the first place.
isthis buffy's best birthday party so far?
Snarky tara is best tara
Dawn's kleptomania is so well done: she's literally shown stealing stuff all troughout the season, her arc in "Once more with feelings" is centred around that and yet it still feel like a surprise when it's revealed in this episode because we're so hung up on everyone elses drama that we don't look at dawn even when she's in the centre of the shot
So ironic that you forgot you were a guest star in this episode! #justiceforsofie
Fun fact: James Marsters (Spike) and Amber Benson (Tara) used to date in real life about a year before this season. He even played in one semi-amateur movie of hers. That makes their scenes naturally funny..
Thank God. I was beginning to think Sophie had made good on her threat and finally abandoned Buffy the vampire slayer series after it broke her heart one too many times.
This is the moment where Tara arrives as a fully dimensional, developed character. She's just great in this episode and she's standing on her own, instead of being an extension of Willow.
She was the girl who spike wrote the poem about the night he was turned. “Fool for love” was the episode
This is one of the best episodes for Tara, I just love her so much
Tara, you the real MVP
Finally a reaction content creator that cares about Dawn, you remind me of Tara ❤ she might have a been a queen drama in this episode like others said but she faced so much loss just like Halfrek said, you can tell even by the way the demon looks at her this girl suffered so much 😢 as a kid I didn't like Dawn but as an adult I understand what she's going through and I like her a lot, as the youngest sibling I've been through the same sense of loneliness so maybe that's why I feel bad for her and other people on YT or other platforms don't that much, it's because I've been through something similar... Also the shade Tara throwed at Spike... Iconic!!! 💀😂
Didn't TheLexiCrowd care about Dawn as well?
The only part of this episode that never worked to me is them being upset Willow kept a few supplies. Its a perfect example of why the overly literal magic=drugs metaphor fails as keeping some spell components on hand for an emergency could literally save all their lives on any given day. If anything it’s a show of strength that shes had them all this time and resisted the urge to use them, essentially torturing herself even more because she knows it may save her friends.
Consensus among fans is that Halfrek is also Cecily Addams (both played by Kali Rocha) who rejected William Pratt in 1880. William was distraught and stormed off and ran into Drusilla who turned him into a vampire. Oh, and he took on the moniker Spike.
And confirmed in the comics apparently.
Tara is *by far* the BEST part of this episode and about Anya?I believe she is simply claustrophobic.
P.S. I love Halfrek.💙And Clem.😊
Yeah, Dawn has abandonment issues. On the other hand, look at how Dawn reacts any time anyone _does_ want to spend time with her. Either she has other plans herself (spending the night with her friend) or she storms off with a "you don't _really_ want to spend time with me." This isn't to say that she doesn't have some justice on her side, just that, as usual with this show, things are more complicated than that.
And of course Halifrek--demon. "You people deserve to be cursed." Does Sophie? Does Clem (demon or no)? The guy Xander brought? Hell, Tara (who has pretty much _always_ been there for Dawn)?
Absolutely love your Buffy reactions.. don't you just want to binge watch the rest of the show?! That'd be awesome..
This is meant to be a Dawn episode, but I definitely see it more of a Tara episode.
It would be a Tara episode if they didn’t basically just say “you’re not powerful enough, take a backseat and let Willow take over”. Still furious. Like that would have even done anything even if Willow tried using magic.
A character doesn’t have to be the physically or magically strongest to have purpose or be the focus. Willow being stronger magically has been the case the whole time, Tara has other strengths as a person and this episode highlights them. Tara’s calm empathy is a force of balance, one that especially levels willow just as willow’s fierce nature emboldens Tara. It’s why they work so well.
@@troikas3353 I know that but it was still infuriating if that they just made it out as if she couldn’t do powerful spells without the aid of Willow. As if she was incompetent without her even though she’s the one that taught and guided Willow in magic to begin with.
I know that her strongest trait is empathy and yes, of course that makes her stand out as a character. But I just don’t like that “you’re too weak without Willow” bullshit when it comes to using magic. Tara just chooses not to.
@@Girl4Music No one ever said Tara was "too weak without Willow." No one in the entire series ever called Tara weak or incompetent at any point, not even Faith when she was deliberately trying to hurt Tara, and certainly no one ever said she requires Willow to do anything. The opposite in fact as there are numerous times throughout the show many different characters state that Tara is a strong and gifted Witch.
Anya is just panicking, and in that panic she blurts out, in typical Anya fashion, the blunt fact that Willow has more raw magical power and from Anya's point of view Willow isn't doing anything to help and there's no good reason for her not helping. Which she's wrong about, there's a very good reason Willow isn't using magic and Tara stands up for that decision.
Anya's just scared and angry that no ones bringing up that they have a tactical nuke in the house they aren't utilizing. Which that's not a barb at Tara, it's just a statement of fact because Willow canonically is more powerful and the only character in the whole group that's ever been bothered by the notion that Willow is their "big gun".. is Willow herself.
@@troikas3353 The implication by Anya is just because she’s scared and panicking, that is true. But the writers themselves make it apparent that they think of Tara as the lesser of the Wiccan duo precisely because Willow is canonically more powerful. Even Tara herself feels that way sometimes. I’m not sure I’m explaining this well so I’m just going to drop the subject. I’ve written a BUFFY REWATCH recap that explains it much better. Just not in the right state of mind to do so at the moment so go read that if you want to know what I mean. If you don’t - it’s fine.
Another Buffy birthday can only mean trouble. Halfrek is of course Anya's friend and Vengeance Demon, this is of course the same actress who played Cecily in S5 who rejected Spike so cruelly. An interesting concept here of being trapped in the house, and of course the Richard character is thrown into the mix as well as Sophie, but make things worse. Dawn's Kleptomania now reaching extreme levels. It was just as well it was Tara that caught Spike and Buffy, and great little comedy with the groin cramp with Spike and Tara when playing cards. Dawn again being the total stroppy teenager causing all this trouble again, we know she is going through deep psychological trauma, but it is interesting to see how this affects others, which I think is what the writers were trying to show. The fact that Richard gets sliced by The Demon is also interesting as he is totally innocent but collateral damage because of Dawn's Wish. The Anya/Willow/Tara confrontation was great drama, it is so awkward too when Anya confronts Dawn in front of everyone about the stealing. A bittersweet ending with Willow and Tara reconciling, and great little comedy moment at the end when Richard says you have some strange friends. All in all a good episode mirroring The Wish from S3.
Honestly this show is about to get intense no spoilers but man I remember watching it years ago and it was a roller coaster of emotions but it's going to be some powerful moments buckle up Sofie
I love this episode.
there's a comic tie-in that fills in the blanks regarding Cecily and Halfrek.
13:45 Maybe I am wrong but I think that she was the girl in Spike flashback from before he became a vampire, the one he was in love with that completly rejected him.
You are correct - and apparently from one of the comics she was a vengeance demon at the time, and she rejected William because he was innocent and wasn't one of the people she was about to wreak vengeance on.
i love the episode, interesting interactions and about character's development. Inspired by The Angel Exterminador
One thing I have never understood is the fandom's general opinion of Dawn. So often they are so quick to jump on her and hold her to impossible standards when I think just about everything she does makes sense. Dawn isn't the Slayer, Dawn for all intents and purposes is the youngest sister of a superhero who along with Joyce has sheltered her as much as possible to keep her safe, but they couldn't protect her from life and the world - and that kept beating her down. Her dad, her mom, being the key, being kidnapped and almost sacrificed, being the reason her sister died, Tara leaving, being neglected and ignored regularly, and everything that comes after this episode (to avoid spoilers for anyone watching these who hasn't seen the show) - the hate for Dawn has always felt misplaced and like it's less because of her and more because she was "new" and people didn't like the change.
I always wondered what xander and Anya said at the hospital to the doctor's ,i wish we could've see that.
Good day my beautiful Sofie.. my Sofie.. youre so lovely my best friend🥰 everytime youre watching and reacting im only watching all over your face thus i feel my day be complete🥰..take good care of yourself always👍
Buffy coming back from the dead should have made Dawn's life easier, but it didn't...
"You're beneath me," lady became a vengeance demon... or already was... wait, has that happened yet? It's been a while, I've lost track.
She already was, and apparently per one of the comics she was there to wreak vengeance, and rejected William in order to get him to leave since he was innocent, before she started taking vengeance...
I tend to ignore the comics - I prefer the post-finale fanfic - but that's a reasonable explanation.
Anya sounds like she has a cold I think that’s it with her voice.
Looking forward to the next Buffy reaction!
Yeah nothing goes well at Buffy's birthday's,maybe stop them all together lol
Honestly, although Anya didn't need to attack Willow like she did, Anya is right. Willow was condemning them all to die because she wouldn't use magic when there was no other way to rescue them.
It’s not as simple that. It’s true. She’s justified to use her magic here. And the metaphor to alcoholism doesn’t really hit when she says if she tries, she might not be able to stop. But what does is the message brought forth though it. Consent is important and Tara is the one that defends that. Willow shouldn’t have to do something that she doesn’t want to just because it’s justified or just because it helps them. She’s chosen to stop using magic and that’s her god damn right.
Anya might be right. But the way she goes about it is all wrong because Willow doesn’t want to. And that’s what’s being depicted here with Willow refusing to use her magic.
And not true that Willow was the only way to rescue them. Willow using her magic, no matter how powerful it may be, wouldn’t have helped them at all.
Only Halfrek could lift the curse. At best, the only thing Willow could do was get rid of the demon. That’s it. Their lives would be saved but they’d still be stuck in the house.
That is the one place where the magic = drugs metaphor of Season 6 fails, imo. Given what Buffy an co. face all the time, having some magic on their side is really important. Keeping a few supplies in the house just makes sense.
Whether Willow should use those supplies or not in this situation is less clear. I can see Anya's point and Tara's point.
@@theadamabrams I think it’s specifically because Willow has kept them that’s what is the issue about it. But I agreed with Dawn in ‘Gone’. Completely removing all things with magical or mystical properties was ill judgement and a huge risk given - as you said - everything supernatural that they face on a daily basis. Magic provides defensive protection as well as offensive attack. It’s not always dangerous. Sometimes it can be what prevents or even removes the danger.
However, when you’ve got somebody living in the house that uses and abuses it on a daily basis, that’s a much more complicated situation.
But as far as I’m concerned, - what would have resolved it was Willow not living with them. But then how does that help her? You see why it’s complicated? Addiction is a really tough thing to deal with as a person on the outside looking in. And, for me, that’s the whole reason why the magic-is-drugs metaphor is written the way it is.
As heavy-handed as it may come across, I think it’s realistic how the characters react and respond. They’re coming at it from a place of inexperience and we see the arc through their eyes rather than Willows. They don’t know what to do. They’re only doing what they think is the best thing to do because it’s something they’ve never faced before. And that’s what Anya represents here. Not only not understanding being human, but also not understanding how humans deal with being human when conditions such as addiction occur. Anya only understands the power corruption side of Willow’s arc and being someone who used to have power herself - she figures it’s a choice. That Willow is choosing to be an addict. That’s why she says what she does to her about getting so much of it in her system. It’s her fault.
That’s exactly how people that do not understand addiction treat addicts. Treat a mental illness.
I found Emma Caulfield's performance very confusing in this episode. She's supposed to come off as angry when she confronts Dawn and scared when she's with Xander but instead she just seems depressed or sad. Very weird choice.
Not weird at all when you think about the fact she's scared of death. Xender nearly dying is something that sends her over the edge. She goes from being a powerful demon to human. We've dealt with death our entire life. But imagine if you were playing a video game and would die in the real world if you die in the game. You'd start acting crazy because now something you've dealt with for a long time now can kill you. What used to be a simple task now means death. You just saw the demon get stabbed in this episode well Anya had that same level of durability. She's a baby compared to what she used to be. the mundane is life or death.
Honestly I just think she’s sick. It happens. In real life I mean, maybe not her best work but also a bit of forced conflict by the writers.
No. It’s not. Anya is a human being but she doesn’t understand being human.
That’s the point. Not understanding.
That’s what makes her human. And that’s what makes her arc really hit in its meaning.
Suave Xander picked this up in ‘The Replacement’ well before Anya even realized it herself. He saw through her to her fear. The fear of dying now that she’s human. It’s terrifying to her because this is something that she suddenly has to take seriously. The fact that she could die at any point. Not just when she’s old and grey. What she’s concerned about is the loss of her immortality, thus being a mortal, she fears mortality. She’s constantly anxious about not having her “get out of it” card. Death really matters to her now when it never did as a vengeance demon. That’s something she always has to contend with now. Thus the panic attack is entirely appropriate. It’s her anxiety projecting and externalizing her fear. And she attacks Willow specifically because Willow always takes danger for granted. Practically thrives on it. She wants what she perceives as Willow’s fearlessness to death but she’s misunderstanding. Willow fears death too. Just not her own. If she could understand what Willow is dealing with, she wouldn’t have attacked her. Tara steps in because she wouldn’t relent when Willow had already told her “No.” Like Willow, Anya also suffers from anxiety - they just deal with it differently because they’re coming from different ends of the spectrum. Willow is quickly becoming invincible, Anya has lost her invincibility. But it’s no more or less scary from either side. So they clash often. Both these characters are often headcanoned as autistic.
🥺❤
You look great.
ive seen this episode so many times and so many others reaction to it and im just not a fan of dawn here, i watched this as a teen and an adult and i feel the same. i went through a lot of crap as a teen too. so im just to get it from her perspective
Posting my BUFFY REWATCH recap for ‘Older And Far Away’. May contain spoilers.
‘Older And Far Away’ sees our Scoobies (and a bunch of other random people we don’t really care about) in a predicament brought on by a vengeance spell. Dawn unknowingly confesses her feelings with being alone to Halfrek, Anya’s vengeance demon friend, masquerading as her school councillor. Halfrek manipulates Dawn to wish for people to stop going away. This culminates in a Summers household lockdown. Nobody, whoever is in the house at the time, can leave Buffy’s house. It also happens to be Buffy’s birthday so, as you can imagine, quite a few people come to the house and stay long passed her birthday. When the Gang figure out that no one can walk out the door, they realize magic is behind it and therefore magic will be only what can get them out of it. Willow’s sworn off magic so she’s useless to the cause. But luckily for them there’s one other witch in the house. It’s Tara’s time to shine. Except… it doesn’t do jack shit. She’s not powerful enough… apparently. And it’s this that really bothers me about this episode. The fact Tara needs Willow’s help to be of any use at all to the Gang. Specifically the fact that she’s seen as the “the lesser” of the Wiccan duo because of it. That really infuriates me. Please allow me to go off on a tangent for now. Rest assured - I will bring the point I really want to make with this home where it belongs.
I would say that Willow became co-dependent to Tara when you consider the reason why she put a spell on her to begin with. It’s because she didn’t want to lose her. It’s very much akin to a child wanting to hold a flower in their hand because they think it’s beautiful and not realizing they’re crushing it. Willow doesn’t realize what she’s doing by putting a spell on Tara. What it means. What the implications of it are. Much like the dimension-shifting spell she attempts to put on everybody at The Bronze in ‘All The Way’ before Tara stops her, she doesn’t understand why it’s so wrong to do it. She thinks - believes - that she’s helping. And when she puts that Lethe’s Bramble spell on Tara to make her forget about their fight, she believes that she’s helping them. Helping fix their relationship rapidly breaking down due to all the fights they’re having about her abusing magic - but all it’s doing is destroying it even more. She’s so corrupted by her own magical power that she doesn’t understand that her using it in the ways she does is both a violation of the human mind and body. She doesn’t realize she’s taking someone’s autonomy or agency away by putting a spell on them. And in regards to Tara - that’s partially because she prefers Tara to be compliant to her worldview and lifestyle and submissive to her wants and needs. Wanting to continue to have that attention and validation Tara wilfully bestows upon her. But putting that Lethe’s Bramble spell on her to make sure that that doesn’t change means it’s no longer wilful. Means it’s no longer being given. It’s being taken. Which further means that’s it’s no longer love. It’s abuse. But it still stems from love. From being in love. Specifically from desperately not wanting to lose that love. Because she believes that without Tara’s love - she’s nothing. That she’s neither powerful or loveable without Tara.
There’s no doubt about it:
Willow abuses Tara because she loves her.
She loves her because Tara is the one person in the whole show that actually gives Willow the attention and validation she actually wants and needs. That makes her feel powerful and loveable. And so the moment Tara’s like “No, you can’t do this”, Willow’s essentially mentally whiplashed because up until Season 6 Tara hasn’t objected to her constant use of magic at all - from what we see as the viewer anyway. And perhaps that’s a fault on the writers part. Perhaps they should have shown that Tara was uncomfortable with it from the beginning of their relationship or midway through Season 5 at least. For me they leave it a little too late to show the character clearly objecting against it. So Tara leaves it a little too late to actually say anything to Willow so that Willow is aware of her concerns from the get go. Thus, the sudden objecting and reprimanding from Tara in Season 6 comes across to Willow as jealousy or hypocrisy. It doesn’t come across as concern or as love. It’s only now that Willow has chosen to go cold turkey with the magic use that she realizes Tara was only looking out for both her and for everyone else’s health and well-being in telling her that she couldn’t use magic in the careless and reckless ways she was or that she couldn’t abuse it for personal gain. And that’s why the moment when Anya attacks Willow for not even trying to use magic to get them out of the difficult situation they’re in, Tara steps in to defend her and tells her to back off. It’s because she realizes that part of the reason why Willow got to the corrupted place she did was because her friends just let her. Some of them even encouraged her. So Willow was receiving mixed signals all the time. She didn’t know what the right (or wrong, for that matter) thing to do was because there was no clear instruction on how to do it from her friends and there was no consistency on whether she should or shouldn’t do it. Tara realized that. In fact she realized that before anyone else did. That’s why she left her. Because she knew she was part of the problem. Willow needed to work that out for herself and to learn the hard way. Otherwise she never would have learned at all. So in a longwinded way, they told the story of a character who had to hit the lowest of the low to see through her own corruption to come out the other side and then to finally get back on top where she was most powerful. She had already learned the lesson by the point that Tara comes back to her. She learns it so well that she absolutely refuses to let herself be swayed by Anya’s attacking her for not using any magic to help them. It’s absolutely justified for Willow to use her magic in this situation because it is actually helping instead of just satisfying her own desires and she’s aware of that, but she’s still steadfast in her resolve regardless. So Tara knows she had to step in at that point to take Anya down a notch because she was out of line. And I know it was just because she was afraid and was going through a panic attack but somebody needed to tell her off. I could see that Spike was ready to go to town on her but I’m glad it was Tara. The voice of reason. The one that truly understands Willow’s side of the argument. And so the one who would step in front of her to defend her from verbal harassment and judgement from Anya. And, as I noticed immediately, defend her non-consent. Defend Willow’s not giving her consent. The very thing Willow has ignored and disregarded of Tara. This was an ironic turnabout but it makes total sense.
Tara has always been somebody that respects choice. And I would say part of the reason why it was so horrific for me to see what Willow does to Tara is because of this. Tara would never do anything near to it to Willow or anyone else - even if she was that powerful. And going back to what it is about this episode that really bothers me - I think she is as powerful as Willow by this point. She just chooses not to show it because she understands that absolute power corrupts absolutely. And while some people might see that as a weakness on her part… I see it as a strength. The fact she does not act in violence of any kind unless absolutely necessary. The fact she performs no offensive action whatsoever unless it’s in defence of either herself or someone else. The fact she is a pacifist until the very last moment when she cannot be or there will be lives lost. The fact she is purity personified. The fact that she represents the theme purity and that that is so underappreciated about her or that it’s viewed as weakness or uselessness. It angers me that she’s seen as powerless and that her spells need the aid of Willow.
The spell Tara attempts to do in this episode didn’t work not because she wasn’t powerful enough. It didn’t work because nobody other than the spell caster can override the spell that was cast,… as proven in the end. Which means that if Willow did intervene and did use her magic - it also wouldn’t have done jack shit! So the point I’m making here is that Tara being passive or not taking any control in any given situation isn’t because she’s not powerful enough to, or that she’s somehow “the lesser” of her and Willow for not using her “significantly weaker” magical power. It’s her choice. It’s her choice to not show herself as a powerful Wiccan. As powerful as Willow or Amy or even Jonathan. It’s her choice because she understands that actions have consequences. And she is very proud of Willow in this episode for putting her foot down on using magic, but at the same time, also has to be the person to tell her that releasing the brake every once in awhile, depending on the situation, is perfectly okay. To carry on with the metaphor - you’re just as in danger of a car crash by being in park as you are in exceeding the speed limit if every other vehicle around you is driving passed you and you’re not moving too. If you’re in stasis and everyone else is accelerating, you’re not helping either yourself or anyone else by not acting, all you’re doing is delaying the traffic. And so the mixed signals Willow’s receiving end in this episode. She now knows when to make a move and when not to. And once again - Tara shows her the way. And sadly, as wonderful as this development is for her, it only makes her double down on the belief that if Tara was not part of her life in any way - she’d be lost. She might know what to do but she won’t know how far she can go with doing it. The reason why is because her friends never make it clear. Thus, as much as I love her arc, the writing of it also never makes it clear. Instead the writers do a roundabout turn and drive off somewhere else. Somewhere out of focus from the departure point of power corruption. So I completely understand the frustration fans feel over Willow’s magic addiction storyline. They don’t make it clear what it’s meant to represent other than the character’s gone a bit loony and I understand that. I guess I’m just a fan that doesn’t mind it so much because I can piece the puzzle together for myself and that’s enough for me.
@@Girl4Music This is an excellent breakdown of the sources of Willow's breakdown. The reason so many of us have a problem with the addiction storyline is that the writers abandoned this beautifully constructed story (there are clues to Willow's need for attention and validation all the way back to Season 1) in the "Wrecked" episode by turning the magic=drugs metaphor into something literal, as if magic was an actual physical substance one could get physically addicted to. I suppose I can understand the reason why they took this approach: the plot demanded that Willow had to spiral farther down and finally hit bottom before she could begin to recover. I only wish they could have come up with something less ham-handed and obvious, as if we in the audience couldn't understand anything subtler. I say this in full knowledge that writing it more subtly is monstrously difficult, and I don't have any suggestions on just how they could or should have done it.
@@DanielOrme First of all. Thank you. I appreciate your response to my recap. That means a lot.
Second,… The thing is is people just don’t realize why it makes sense that she would become addicted to magic. People need to understand that it’s actually not about the magic. That’s just the tool. The addiction is on the power Willow can accumulate through using magic. But the reason why it’s magic specifically that is the physical substance she’s addicted to is because that is what Willow is best at. That’s her most useful and valuable skill and Willow wants to feel that use and value as much as she can. So… to reiterate… What people need to understand with her magic addiction arc is that it is not about the magic. It’s about the power and the control she can have with that magic power. She becomes addicted to it physically not only because she has an addictive personality but also because of the whole thing is that she feels worthless, useless and pointless without an external source of power to make up for it. And that was Willow’s issue well before she got into magic. It was her issue from the fucking get go with science, technology engineering, hacking, researching and romantic/platonic relationships. But she never becomes addicted to any of that when it probably made more sense that she should have because it’s all the same.
So why it makes sense that she would become addicted to magic specifically is because magic is the path to accumulating power and to have control of that power. It’s not specifically the magic itself. And too few understand that. So the magic is a drug metaphor bothers them because they just don’t see why she would start using magic to USE magic : as in use it like a literal drug.
I mean why do people use drugs at all? To escape. So it’s not about the physical substance itself. It’s about what that physical substance substitutes for. Usually a perceived lack-of something internal going on with them. So should they have turned what is clearly an emotional addiction to a physical addiction? For me? Yes. Because sometimes you’ve just got to just take the legitimacy and logicality of something a character would or wouldn’t do in a narrative with a grain of salt for the overall story that is being told. The same can be said for the vampire/demon lore in the show. A lot of it doesn’t make no damn sense or has no consistency with what Spike’s arc is all about and the story they’re telling with him. But you’ve just got to put the story they’re telling in that moment first because the writers did. They very much didn’t care about whether something made sense or didn’t. They were just using metaphors and analogies to provide a thematic meaning or moral. In this case - it’s that addiction can ruin one’s life and destroy externally as well as internally. It’s over-the-top for a reason. Odds are Willow wouldn’t do 95% of those spells. But the writers don’t care about that. What they care about is what can be perceived or gleaned from the scene itself that works with the overall story they’re telling as opposed to what is consistent with the lore of magic in-universe or the logic of substance abuse with drugs/alcohol in reality. I don’t know. It makes sense to me. It makes all the sense to me because when people use drugs/alcohol and go through substance abuse, it’s not actually the substance that they’re addicted to, it’s all about what they can avoid or escape from in using that substance. Emotions, anxieties - all kinds of internal struggles. What’s poorly communicated about Willow’s addiction arc is that she’s using the power of magic to offset her insecurities. Using them as an emotional crutch. And internal struggles can manifest into external ones when you’re that deep into it. So I don’t think it’s for shits and giggles that they turn the metaphor to literal. It’s not supposed to be in your face or on the nose. It’s supposed to be making it apparent that Willow is so in deep with it that it’s become an external problem that’s now affecting everybody else in her orbit either purposefully or accidentally. And I think it was a very brave choice to do this with her arc. What I do wish they had done was made it more clear where Willow’s addiction issues stem from in the actual writing as it’s beyond just magic and even though I like to interpret that for myself and don’t like everything explained, I do like a bit of exposition every now and again just for the sake of knowing what was going on in the creator’s minds. But other people need more than that because maybe their personal interpretation or assumption isn’t enough. Maybe they can’t piece it together.
It makes complete sense to me but I’ll admit it’s not written as well as it could be so that everyone can make sense of it. But then I also think and believe that the intention is for it not to be because the arc isn’t playing out from the inside-looking out. We’re not following Willow’s arc this season through Willow’s eyes. But we are following Buffy’s arc this season through Buffy’s eyes. I genuinely feel that the point is for it to be mixed signal-ly and ham-handed because people that are not familiar with addiction don’t actually understand it - what it is, what it can lead to, how destructive it can be, the working relationships that can be destroyed from it. No, I think the artistic intention is for us to be confused and even frustrated by the writing of it because then that means WE can learn something from it along with the characters. Power corruption and addiction and then a further theme down the line puts it all into perspective. It’s not two completely different and random things going on with Willow. It does make sense. You just got to think about it deeper to understand the intention behind it. If you keep the focus more on the insecurities that Willow has and how accumulating power makes her feel good and less about it being magic… you’ll get it. It’ll hit you and click. It’s actually really clever and profound what they’re doing with the character this season. It just requires a little bit of mental gymnastics. Or maybe I’m just giving the writers for the arc too much credit. That’s probably the case. Addiction of any kind really is a tricky subject to deal with in a TV show context. But for the most part, I think they did very well with it.
Anyway, I hope this wasn’t too long of a response. I’m very passionate about this subject and about the character Willow in particular. I think what she represents is fascinating and not a lot of people go into the intricacies of her representation and development like I do. I hope what I’ve said makes sense for you. If not, feel free to reach out to me on Tumblr and we can discuss in depth about it.
@@Girl4Music Thanks! It does make sense, and I don't think we're that far apart in our view. I'm not sure if I would go as far as saying that the writers were wittingly making Willow's story easy for the audience to misunderstand, but since by the end of Season 6 it does make sense again as being about her insecurities and response to gaining power, and, as I said before, I can't think of any other way it should have been written to get it across, you may be right.
It's true, I also have ignored how logic and supposed in-universe rules were violated in telling Spike's story. When others point out the contradictions and logical fallacies, I admit I can't deny their arguments, but go along with the story anyway, since the story's metaphor of how an individual can change is so compellingly told.
No need to apologize for lengthy posts. Back during the show's original run, one of the best things about it for me was that I was part of a great message board, filled with people who could go on at length about the characters and stories. This reminds me of those days. Thanks! 😎
@@DanielOrme yes, I had something like that for ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’. My favourite TV show of all time since I was 5 years old. Haven’t been watching Buffy nearly as long but they hit on the same themes as Xena very often that it’s easily my second favourite TV show.
Regarding Spike. I’ve said this before in other reactions for Season 6 but I feel like the parallel characters of the season are Willow + Spike and Buffy + Tara. I’ve explained why elsewhere but basically it just makes sense given what goes on for all 4 of them in the season.
Btw now that game of thrones is over you really really need to start reacting to Lucifer. Like trust me you just have to 😊
Can you please try out supernatural
Halfrek knew Spike before his became a vampire. In fact, his poem, “Effulgent” is about her. He wrote the poem in his admiration of her and wanted to court her. She sadly turned him down. She was known as “Cecily” at that time.
It isn't sad if you know why she turned him down - she was already a vengeance demon at the time (per the comics) and was there to wreak vengeance. She turned him down to get him to leave, as he was innocent and didn't deserve to get caught up in whatever nastiness she had planned.
Please start house of the dragon