Dark Willow - Loss of humanity or gain of it?

[zobothehobo]

About a week ago, I was in creative writing class and we read a poem about regret about this thing this person had done that was kind of like a loss of humanity. And the more I read it, the more I saw Dark Willow. I wish I could post the poem here so you all could see what I was talking about, but it was so her it was kind of crazy. (fun note, when I said that the whole class went crazy talking about Buffy and the author was like "I love that" and my teacher was like "Ok guys! god. someone mentions Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you all go nuts." It made me so happy. haha) Anyway, the issue is I had never thought of Dark Willow of Willow losing her humanity. It was always more of her gaining humanity... her gaining empathy and this surplus of empathy is what lead her to almost end the world. Her pain and love is what lead her to kill Warren. When I was thinking about it... I wondered... did Willow gain so much humanity that she lost it?

 

[Chosen Enemy]

Very interesting. Never thought of it.
The ending at least was very human. She couldn't contain the (human) feelings anymore and that's what broke her. Also, the humanity is what started it. The so great love that could end the world, that almost did.

Though human feelings aren't just love and joy, they're also anger and hate, revenge. I think the mixture of the two kinds is fetal. Like, you love someone so much that you're willing to hurt other people for them ("for" is a little off, because Tara wouldn't want that). And that blinds you. Human feelings blind for better or for worse. As they say, love is blind. But other feelings too. It's hard to contain so many feelings I guess. I'm not sure if Willow gained humanity (feelings), because it was already part of her. It's what broke her, too much humanity.

 

[kittenpoker]

did Willow gain so much humanity that she lost it?

I really love this question! It's beautiful.

I want to think about how to respond before I do, but I wanted to just say right away how struck I am by the question.

Sounds like you have some really interesting discussions in your classes!!

 

[hazzard]

i've always thought that willow's trip to the "dark side" was not a loss of humanity--rather the opposite. because she could feel everything and everyone and it was too much. i think this is why human beings have filters and why we are conditioned to be numb to pain and suffering after a while--because without those blockers, we'd be overcome. willow going bad was a loss of those filters. her desire to end the world was to stop hers and everyone else's pain. it's a thin, thin line.

 

[LoveLoveLovix]

Personally, I believe in a way, it was both.

Empathy is defined as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of others." This is NOT what Willow does in her Dark!Willow state... in fact, you can even say she does the opposite. She doesn't understand her friends worrying about her and wanting her to stop... she doesn't understand Jonathan and Andrew's regret... she doesn't seem to understand much of anything besides her own feelings of grief and anger.

This isn't to say she had no humanity. Willow felt. Willow felt a lot. She felt some of the most human emotions a human can feel, and felt them in a very human- that is to say, very selfish- way. Willow DID gain a surplus of humanity, if you like to use the term pessimistically, but it wasn't from her empathy. It was from her grief.

There is actually a very similar scene in Puella Magi Madoka Magica I'd like to reference, but as I'm forcing Zo to watch that show, it goes in the spoiler tags!

Spoiler

Puella Magi (show terminology for girls with great physical and magical power) must not fall into despair or encounter too much sadness, or they are transformed by their own unhappy emotions into creatures with no sympathy or empathy. These creatures (ironically called "witches") exist to curse others with sadness and death, hoping eventually to break the entire world with it.

Despite that this is a different show altogether, that is what happens to Willow almost exactly. And if you've seen that show, you know it doesn't end well. A certain scene between two characters, similar to a certain scene between two characters in Buffy, have different results, but to me, that only goes to show how amazing the Scoobies are.

By the way, I love the question, Spikey! <3