I love every character in the show for some reason or other. Whether they are minor characters with no name that you see in one episode or a major player that is in all 144 episodes.
Today I want to talk about Willow Rosenberg. Willow is the nerdy female friend Buffy meets in episode one after witnessing the verbal abuse thrown at her from the popular girls that have claimed Buffy for their own. Buffy immediately knows though that if she wants to make a fresh start at a new school, she’s gonna have to pick the right kind of people. So she befriends Willow the first chance she gets. Love that for them both honestly.
Willow is the outcast that many of us were in school. She’s not hip with current fashion, is incredibly smart, and way too nice for her own good. (Not really. Everyone should be this nice all the time, but the amount of abuse she gets because of it is just sad.) She was honestly the most relatable character on the show for me even if she’s not my favorite. (More on that another time.)
Her journey and growth were so great to watch every season, through her highs and especially through her lows. She meets many people who help her on her journey of self-discovery. Some of these people built her up, while others contributed to the aforementioned lows, but all good character development needs a mix of both so this just works in her favor all around.
Now, I’m not naive. I do know that there are some exceptions and that her arc was not the “best-thing-ever-written-no-notes-100%-wouldn’t-change-a-thing.” There were some… let’s say odd choices that were made in terms of the struggles she goes through. Like getting “high” in a magical drug den, but even these had some upsides and happened for good reason. Willow needing to deal with the consequences of what her choices were doing to those around her is a good example. While the magic addiction plot point isn’t even really a veiled metaphor at all and more of a harsh slap in the face with a “drugs are bad” message, there was also merit to this being the direction she goes in. Let’s go back to the beginning again with nerdy, shy, good girl Willow…
Willow at this point has never done a bad thing in her life. That we know of anyhow and I’d be willing to bet she felt bad and apologized immediately after, offering to bring the affronted person cookies. Every time she does have anything to do with an altercation or problem she seems to really sink into herself with guilt. Our first major example of this comes early with the very Willow-centric episode I, Robot… You, Jane. (S1E08) In it, Willow basically gets catfished by a demon on the internet. (Yes I know another extremely obvious message here.) She contributes to but is not the sole reason a demon manages to escape his imprisonment in an old book. Just watch it if you haven’t already, you’ll get what I’m talking about. As people show growing concern for her she gets increasingly more defensive. Here she is, finally doing something on her own that’s just for her and doesn’t include her friends. Sure none of us like it when our friends cast doubt on our choices and imply we may be wrong so we shut our ears and stop talking to them about it all together. This is especially true for Willow who is taking her first big step into a type of rebellion. Sound familiar? It should because this is a very common story for a lot of us. We start discovering that maybe we don’t want to keep on this path of being the dependable goody-two-shoes everyone sees us as. By the end of the episode, Willow goes into self-deprecation mode and can’t even muster the enthusiasm to be with her friends. This is the first focused example we see of who Willow is and where a branch of her development is going to go. She finally for the first time had romantic interest directed at her only to find out it was all a lie. What a punch in the gut for someone with self-esteem issues.
Another aspect of Willow’s character and a factor in her development is her relationships, particularly with Xander. When the show starts it’s immediately made known that they have been best friends pretty much their entire lives, a fact that will constantly be brought up in various places around the show. Xander has a major influence on her personality. He’s the goofy and kinda dumb half of their duo that balances her out. He also happens to be a long-term crush of her’s that she never acts on, until she does. Once Willow is finally in a romantic and pretty dang healthy relationship, suddenly Xander sees her as practically a different person, no longer just the best friend. Over the course of a few episodes, they begin a secret romance behind the backs of both of their significant others. Of course the discovery and fallout of these actions play a HUGE part in the direction the plot goes in, at least in terms of character relationships and development (and not just for Willow). Here is our good, shy, nerdy Willow doing something so outside of her norm. It’s taboo and it’s hurt those around her. While I know fans don’t particularly approved for any number of reasons, this is a great moment for her character. She’s learning and she’s growing. Xander is also so key to another of Willow’s big turning points when he is the person, the only person, who is able to stop Dark Willow. (More on that later.) She needs him, just as much as he needs her, for so many crucial moments in her growth. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad.
Of course, the big, show-encompassing arc that Willow goes through is her transition from being the nerdy computer genius of the group to also being the magic user, the witch. Arguably this is the trait that contributes the most to the needs of the Scoobies. This fact will also contribute to the self-esteem mentioned before, giving Willow a bigger sense of importance than what she started with. Of course, since magic becomes her biggest defining trait it will also be the basis of every other development, or at least the device in which these obstacles are delivered. Like the addiction mentioned before.
Now, Willow Rosenburg has an edge to her. She’s incredibly helpful and can hold her own in a confrontation for the most part. She’s no longer the “loser” she was before. She grabs the attention of the school rockstar, gives a vampire a soul, goes toe to toe with an unkillable god, and completely alters hundreds of years of prophecy and magical tradition. You know, just as a few examples. For the sake of argument let’s look at Willow’s development in a more basic fashion and replace magic with just basic self-confidence. (’cause really everything’s just a metaphor anyhow right?) She’s putting herself out there more, knowing that she has worth, knowing that ‘hell yea’, she can do these things too. Her whole world opens up, especially when the gang moves on to college. (Or not in Xander’s case.) This path her character has gone on thus far is such a joy to see, and like what happens for a lot of people, now that her world has gotten bigger there are more mistakes to make.
Willow’s life, particularly her love life, takes a major nosedive at some point so it’s sort of understandable her habits would turn a bit self-destructive. Now magic has flipped from being a representation of her growth to now just being a metaphor for drugs. I will admit this is a huge point of unrest for BtVS fans (understandably). Not only is it not subtle, but it’s clear the writers are willing to just switch their well established plans as it suits them. In this case changing what magic represents. At some point, we’ve had to switch our way of thinking in a very drastic way. On the one hand, I can appreciate just how much Willow goes through, but on the other, the way this arc was written does come off a bit sloppy. Setting aside the poor transition here it’s still heartbreaking to see her go through this, as well as frustrating because she is making these choices that are ultimately destroying her life and hurting those around her. (S06E10) This, of course, leads her on a road of recovery, more growth and backsliding, and almost destroying the world.
When Willow loses Tara she embodies that ‘angry at the world’ feeling anyone would get in that situation. (S06E19) When she becomes Dark Willow we can safely say this is the farthest she falls, soaking up a ton of dark magic, seeking vengeance in the absolute worst way, and actually finding a way to destroy the world. No world, no pain. Simple. Naturally, she is stopped and is allowed to grieve, afterward going through a sort of rehabilitation.
Willow’s journey, even with some poor writing choices, is an incredible plot to experience with some very choice moments that are easily relatable to a lot of people, myself included. There are, however, one or two points in her character development that I feel need a deep dive and are major sticking points for me.
Let it be known too this is just how I feel about this and I mean no disrespect to anyone when I say this, but Willow should not have been gay.
Let me clarify, they should not have written her character as discovering she’s gay, but instead, Willow should have been bisexual. Absolutely nothing else she went through needed to change at all really. She still could have been with Tara and later with Kennedy (ugh). Making her just skip over the idea of being bisexual feels like it negates other aspects of her past. One of her biggest moments in terms of self-discovery happens in New Moon Rising (S05E19). Oz comes back to town after leaving (S04E06) to learn how to control his wolf. He left everything behind quickly and without warning because he also needed to discover more about himself (love that for him too). Willow was DEVASTATED. She needed time to learn to let go and move past it. During that time she met Tara Maclay and clearly feelings started blossoming between them (S04E10). Oz being back in the picture in the previously mentioned episode presents a massive amount of confusion for Willow. She’s finally moving on and opened up to another person, yet here is this other person, her first actual relationship and first love, back in her life. Oz makes it very clear that he hopes they can have back what they had before. For the record, I loved Oz and I think he was a great guy. I would not have been upset if she ended up with him again at some point in the show or comics/books that followed.
Willow has to figure out what she wants, and if you’ve seen the episode you know things get messy before ultimately she and Tara finally become a couple, or at least acknowledge that there’s something between them. It’s left a bit ambiguous as to what they actually talk about after the conclusion of the episode, which gave us a very cute and iconic moment for them. This was well done and while you can’t help but feel a bit sad for Oz, everything ends respectfully. After this though, Willow is just gay, not bisexual. To be honest this really feels like the creative team wanted to push the boundaries in a big way, but I think Willow realizing she’s bisexual would have been just as, if not more significant. To me, this felt like it made the drama with Oz a little less meaningful. Even her crush and short affair with Xander in the past has less significance now. I do realize there is always this underlying issue and worry that they would have had her with a girl for a little while, kill off the girlfriend, then just have her back to dating men like it never happened (cough The 100 coughcough), but like I stated before they didn’t have to change anything else about the show, with the exception of a few bits of dialogue here and there. This could have even added additional layers to things and even better character development for her.
With how well they did everything else for Willow this feels like such a failure for her development. If you read my previous post that talks about the book In Every Generation by Kandare Blake you might be ready to call me out on contradicting myself, and I completely see why it might seem that way. My issue there was NOT the fact that it feels like Willow is going to end up back with Oz, but it’s constantly reminding the audience that she is gay, while also pushing her emotional struggles towards Oz. If they had just established her bisexuality in the first place this is once again a point of conflict that could add interesting layers of drama. But they made this choice and now they need to live with it. The writer’s even seemed to have missed an opportunity earlier in the series that they themselves had presented! In The Wish (S03E09) when Cordelia makes a wish that drops her into an alternate reality we come face to face with an alternate Willow and oh boy! Vampire Willow is so different from the Willow we know. (It’s fascinating to see who she would have become with a very different path.) I don’t know about the rest of you but Vamp Willow just drips with bisexual energy, being very hands with Vamp Xander, and in a later episode (S03E16) when we see her again being very hands with… herself. (No we aren’t going to think too hard about that one.) Willow makes the comment “I think I’m kinda gay” referring to Vamp Willow. Evidence would suggest that she’s a bit more than that but instead, they chose to simplify her and go directly to gay. It’s just lazy in my opinion.
I can also appreciate that the creators tried to give Willow the only happy relationship at the end of the show. But why Kennedy? One of the worst personalities on the show in my opinion (and other’s opinions too if the inevitable break up in almost every continuation is a clue). I will never get over this one. I’d rather her have not gotten into another relationship at all than with Kennedy. Not only was her personality grating and off-putting, but it felt like a bit of a backhanded compromise to have Willow hook up with the only other lesbian character ever introduced into the show (besides Tara who they killed off) as if it would just automatically happen because “well they are both lesbians so obviously right?” They didn’t seem to have much in the way of chemistry and most of their development was just Kennedy being a brat and pursuing Willow just cause she wanted to despite Willow’s obvious reluctance.
Willow’s character development was amazing, but I feel like they just missed the mark with these points. I can understand that the writing was a product of its time and it’s safe to say I think we would get a very different product were it made today. It still doesn’t quite take away that lingering sting of disappointment. Willow feels like she could have been me, and I’m sure many of you feel the same. Characters like her are why we watch the show after all.
Of course, she has many many other moments that are worth highlighting that I did not include here and maybe there are some disagreements with the ones I did include. Feel free to post in the comments your thoughts on the character too!
The Sunnydale Collection 