How Many Times Did Willow Erase/Tamper With Tara's Memory?

[Evil Angelus 95]

I've been thinking about this alot recently, since I'm writing a S7 AU fic that eventually deals with this topic, but I want to make sure I've got this entirely right.

From what I gather/remember, Willow erased/tampered with Tara's memory TWICE. The first one was "All The Way" and the second was during "Tabula Rosa."

Am I correct about this?

 

[jokinghazard]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too, the first one to have them not argue anymore, and then again after she found out about the first one. THen they broke up and she stopped using magic. That is, until she when insane.

 

[tec]

Thats correct twice two seprate accurances

And I love the fact that despite Taras deep love for Willow she stood up for her self and broke it off with Willow that took some strignth to do

 

[Robb Stark]

Twice from what we've seen. However, the innate nature of what she's doing does raise some pretty dicey questions. I mean, Willow is the height of selfishness at that period. Who's to say it didn't happen more than that? Just by definition, we wouldn't really know.

I thought this was when Tara started becoming a really cool character. It's kind of strange that you would ever want to go back to someone who would do that to you at all, but her leaving Willow improved her a lot. Actually, come to think of it, Willow was pretty bad for Tara.

 

[Buffy Summers]

I sort of get the impression that Willow was doing it all the time.

🙂

 

[tec]

No..thay had there first major argument at the Bronze looking for Dawn (All the way)

Willow was hartbroken by it and wished she hand never said what she did on the catwalk so placed the forget spell on Tara the following day or maybe a day or so later but very close to the events of that (Buffy telling Giles thanks for talking to Dawn about the events in All the Way) during OMWF Tara finds out about the flowers magical nature she confronts Willow about it. Willow gose off to try again this time really screwing up and blanking the entire gangs memory (Tibula Rosa) witch happens a day or so after the events of OMWF

So just a span of a few days does Willow mess with Tara's memories

 

[YummySushiPJs]

The way that Willow so easily and without hesitation or guilt, casts the "forget" spell on Tara, made me think this isn't the first time she's done this. It's something that she has become accustomed to doing.

 

[nancylives]

And I love the fact that despite Taras deep love for Willow she stood up for her self and broke it off with Willow that took some strignth to do

i have always thought this as well, and it really makes clear what a complete and utter bada$$ tara is. this is the type of strength of self that i imagine we all wish, to some degree, that we had. i have been in relationships (not my marriage, thankfully) where i accepted whatever scraps the object of my desire was willing to drop in my direction, so deep (and confused) was my love. tara is rendered so beautifully, so powerfully, so self-assuredly, truly, she is an inspiration. under your spell/standing (reprise) illustrates tara's strength of self beautifully, and her very oppositional and conflicting feelings about willow and what she must do. this stands as one of te most powerful and decisive decisions ever made by a character on buffy.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXtt7Mane0I"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXtt7Mane0I[/ame]

also, i get the impression that once willow started magically messing with tara's head, she did so regularly, becoming habitual in its' application, her magic-addled mind believing that gentle brainwashing was necessary for her and tara's relationship to thrive.

and the fact that tara stays friends with willow, and allows he back in once willow has cleaned-up, well that should give hope to all of us in our quests for love🙂.

 

[BuffyElevated]

The way that Willow so easily and without hesitation or guilt, casts the "forget" spell on Tara, made me think this isn't the first time she's done this. It's something that she has become accustomed to doing.

Right... I got the distinct impression that it was something Willow did often. Which made me absolutely sick.

 

[Vorchan]

Her actions amounted to Rape when she had 'altered-consensual sex' with Tara! I love Willow, I really do! (The way a brother would) but what she does is HORRIBLE!

'Altered-consent' IS the same as 'semi-consent' And NON-Consent, People! NO IFFS, Ands, or Buts, on this! If you interfere with someone's ability to Give consent on this: it's the Exact Same as NONCONSENT! (AKA: RAPE!)

That's a very uncomfortable concept for people to consider, but it Does Happen! Should Never! But it Does!

Hey, folks, I am upset over this, too.

 

[Blaze]

Willow erasing Tara's memory was a HUGE part of the story. So big that they had to show the first time she did it, there was no way around it. It would have been like if they hadn't shown Buffy and Angel break up on screen and all of a sudden they weren't together, or it would have been like having Anya go back to vengeance and not showing it on screen. They had to show the first time, it's not really something they could have came up with like "oh, btw, Willow's been doing that for weeks". That's not really something that seems do-able for a writer to do(unless it was done very differently or more explicitly).

Also, Willow is a witch, it makes sense that she has the ingredients. Those might have been fairly common.

As for how many times, I strongly believe it was only two, but if it was ever more than two, than I strongly believe that they happened after the events of the first spell shown on TV. It just wouldn't make sense otherwise.

 

[SRMarx]

I believe Willow only altered Tara's memories twice. [MENTION=8404]Blaze[/MENTION] I think makes a good point: From TV writer's standpoint, if you wanted to imply Willow was doing this for weeks, it would have been more explicit.

Maybe Willow had contemplated the idea before and that's why she had the right flower? Or maybe she had the flower for something else, but then realized she could use it alter Tara's memories in that moment?

I think if the writers wanted us to think this had been going on for a long time, they could have showed it better.

 

[Vorchan]

Maybe it was only twice, but that's kind of Tara's question too.

 

[SRMarx]

Maybe it was only twice, but that's kind of Tara's question too.

Well sure, I can see that.

And it doesn't matter how many times Willow may have done it, messing with Tara's memory even once was awful.

 

[Vorchan]

Yeah, it was horrible.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

When Tara's family went to Sunnydale,
what about when Tara caused Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Giles, Anya, Xander to not see demons and nearly got them all killed, what Tara did was more like brain washing.
With Willow altering Tara's memory, did it put Tara's life under threat.
And with Tara doing that, under her religion, what she did would return three-fold, so according to Tara's chosen religion what Willow did was because of what Tara did. So from that point of view it was all Tara's fault.
Tara was really upset with Willow and wanted to end her and Willow.
How did Willow react when she found out what Tara had done, she defended Tara's actions.
If Spike hadn't gone there would they have figured out what was happening before one or more of them was killed?
Considering that Buffy fought demons, Tara causing her not to see demons would put her life in serious danger.

 

[Blaze]

When Tara's family went to Sunnydale,
what about when Tara caused Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Giles, Anya, Xander to not see demons and nearly got them all killed, what Tara did was more like brain washing.
With Willow altering Tara's memory, did it put Tara's life under threat.
And with Tara doing that, under her religion, what she did would return three-fold, so according to Tara's chosen religion what Willow did was because of what Tara did. So from that point of view it was all Tara's fault.
Tara was really upset with Willow and wanted to end her and Willow.
How did Willow react when she found out what Tara had done, she defended Tara's actions.
If Spike hadn't gone there would they have figured out what was happening before one or more of them was killed?
Considering that Buffy fought demons, Tara causing her not to see demons would put her life in serious danger.

The topic was on Willow, but since you're talking about Tara and because I disagree I will answer to this post. I don't think Tara ever brain washed anyone. No doubt that the spell she did was dangerous, but she did not erase anyone's memory at all, she made the demons invisible (or made the group not see demons, same thing). I don't see how that relates to brain-washing. And by definition (Free online dictionary), brainwashing means "make (someone) adopt radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible pressure". I don't see how this applies to the event in Family.

Also, you keep talking about Religion and Tara, but Tara is never shown to have those particular beliefs on the show. She practices magic and it might even be said that she is a wiccan (really don't remember if it's said or not), but she is never shown to display those specific beliefs aforementioned. Tara doesn't really seem to treat magick as a religion, but that's just my opinion.

I do agree that Tara put them all in danger though.