Do you believe Willow & Tara show Wicca in a good light?

H

horrorshock666

Dingoes Ate My Baby!!!
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Wicca is an integral part of Willow & Taras relationship, it brought them together, it helps out alot and for a long time its very positive indeed... I was just wondering what people thought about the way it is done on the show.
Do you think it is shown in a positive light?
Is it true to what Wicca is?

This is my first thread so maybe its been done before, im not sure, but hopefully a discussion may be born.

Love to all,
x JH
 
I think they showed it very positively, if unrealistically (real Wiccans can't do half the stuff Willow and Tara can do). But they approached it like any other power--there's nothing wrong with the power itself, it's how you use it that matters.
 
Karol
Karol
so sad isn´t it? :( I wish I could do all stuf Tara and Will does... lol and I agree with you!
I think it would have sucked if they showed it more realistically, its a tv show, fantasy... and yeah i do think they showed it in a good light even with dark willow by showing the erm.. dark side of it and it duality, like with demons in the show.... they aint necessarily bad.
 
H
horrorshock666
I agree... it is fantasy after all. And the dark side... yeah, very dark!
I don't really know all that much about Wicca, so I can't really say if they showed it in a good light. However, I did immediately recognise that this was Joss' version of what witchcraft is (like vampirism in the show), and so I pretty much had them established as two seperate things in my mind. I did notice that they did occasionally take it back down to a more realistic level, for example in Family when Tara's relatives are in her room. I thought they dealt with that very positively, showing that everyone has a right to choose their own life and beliefs.
 
Yeah... ive never really looked at it like that, you know the whole Joss's perspective thing. Its quite an eye opener. I mean i know he makes it his own and stuff with the vampires but its something ive known and never actually acknowledged. Thanks Five By Five!
ha ha. I love this place! Your all so intersting in your views and stuff!
 
I got annoyed watching the first episode of 'True Blood' or that vampire game that i cant remember the name of, where they have different details for vampires like the silver thing... and im used to Joss's rules for all supernatural stuff. Silver should only be a thing for werewolves, never vamps.
 
R
Relic
I hear you about the influence thing, like in supernatural where sunlight don't kill them and neither do stakes. Your favorite shows sure can influence how you feel about the shared medium. :)
Fake Shemp said:
I got annoyed watching the first episode of 'True Blood' or that vampire game that i cant remember the name of, where they have different details for vampires like the silver thing... and im used to Joss's rules for all supernatural stuff. Silver should only be a thing for werewolves, never vamps.
Click to expand...


I agree. I read alot and some vampire novels that are very different to Joss' idea on things and its weird! ha ha.
 
F
Fake Shemp
most things i can accept just not silver
Wicca is more like a religion in the real world, isn't it? Any evidence of actual power is faith-based.

Like, a christian mother might pray for her son's cancer to leave, and it might go into remission, but there's no real evidence the one thing is connected to the other. You'll never be able to convince her of that though. In the same way a wicca might believe he or she is channeling positive energy through a crystal, and something pleasant might happen, but you'll never be able to prove the correlation between the two in a laboratory. It's too easy to falsify. Correlation is not cause in a scientific sense.

However...the kind of stuff Willow and Tara do, and the consistency with which they do it, that you could support by scientific method. At least you could demonstrate the cause/effect phenomena scientifically.
 
wow... you really know your stuff. I understand what you mean, i read a book by Derren Brown about a year ago and there was a whole chapter on that sort of thing, really interesting stuff actually. Great book! Cant remember the name but if you havnt read it google Derren Brown and have a look, you might be interested.
 
I think they should never have mentioned Wicca at all and just have had her be a witch and do witchcraft, because what she does is not like Wicca, and confuses people.

Wicca is primarily a religion, and while many do spell work, it's not like it's portrayed at all.

Willow is never shown participating in any real Wicca like circles, rituals.

I don't think it gives Wicca a bad name, it just confuses fact with fantasy.

There are people who do the sort of magic Willow engages in, and they come from various traditions, ceremonial magic, chaos magic, even alchemy. I make no statement as to the authenticity or power of any of those practices. I don't have experience with them personally, though I know people who engage in them.

I think it's fairly safe to say that doing magic is not as easy as picking up a recipe book and hitting the local "Magic Box" franchise and getting results, or everyone and their dog would be doing it.
 
I think it was represented poorly in fact; but that's hollywood for ya. And the language they use always makes me cringe. It was more straight out witchcraft than wicca in my eyes.
 
I remember watching season 5 and I think I heard Willow say something concerning the Salem witch trials and the murdering colonists akin to "With their less satanic than thou attitudes." I'm not sure thats the quote to be certain, all I know is that it did not sit well with me.

The witch trials were a terrible, terrible thing and those 'witches' had nothing to do with satanism or even Wica(I think I recall hearing it all started with a slave named Toulie who came from the Caribbean and did some hocus pocus, foretelling etc. to entertain some colonist kid brats.)...if anyone was acting demonic it was the residence of Salem or better said the little girls who latter used fear and religion to exploit and hold hostage a community.

I didn't like that statement by Willow, not that it's not correct from the colonists eyes, but their view was wrong and to me that statement lent it relevance. It just seemed wrong to me.

Overall though, I agree with Blondie Bear about it showing a power that could be what you make of it. I don't think they handled it badly but also agree with Socorro that they should have separated it to straight out witchcraft rather than Wica. The only thing that truly bothered me I just spoke of, when Willow and Terra are watching a documentary about the trials and she made that banter comment. It's a small detail I guess, but it did seem off to me. 😛
 
I've known a few Wiccans, and I have to smile when I see them portrayed on the show (and in the comics) running around hurling spells like Dungeons & Dragons characters. It is a fantasy show, though, so it's all good.

I'm sure there are plenty of real-world Wiccans who are fans of BtVS. There must be some essays or discussions online about how they feel about its portrayal on the show. I'll look around and see if I can find any.
 
Skanky Vamp
Skanky Vamp
its no different than charmed. thats 'their' other big one.
Yes, in fact, I believe they demonstrated it so positively church groups are blaming it for stealing young women away from the righteous hand of God! HAHA!
 
I wouldn't necessarily say they represented it in a BAD light...I mean, they never acted like it was a bad, evil thing. The only time they really did say anything negative about it was when Willow started becoming addicted to black magic, and that wasn't an attack on Wicca by any means...it was about how anything in excess could lead to badness.

Still, they certainly didn't portray it in a realistic manner. In the real world, Wicca is more of a religion than anything. Obviously, they can't make things float or throw lightning bolts at people. Still, since it is a fantasy show, I wouldn't think anyone would take their representation of it the wrong way.
 
I never thought that they expressed their magic through Wicca.
Of course it is how she started, but anything too unrealistic, i didnt see it evident.
Esp. like i remember Willow referring her magic to MAGICKS, not anything wicca based.
 
In the comics the witches working with the Slayers are being called "Wiccans."

And if real Wiccans could do the things they do, there'd be a hell of a lot more Wiccans around, I can tell you.
 
well...grr...
The single and only thing that bothers me about this show is the 'wicca' thing. as a wiccan myself i get really pissed whenever someone tries to portray it one tv. and ya know i would have counted on Joss of all people to do his research. i really wound't care if it was just witchcraft, but it's insulting to call it Wicca.

also considering they don't even use the word right. like when Anya said to Willow "I hear your a pretty powerful wicca." it's improper grammar.

But at least it's better than on charmed
 
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