I refuse to accept Kennedy as Willow's end game pairing / one true love.

[S Rou]

I agree pretty much with all you say @S Rou - I have enjoyed writing Xander/Dawn, in TTR series, but even in that story, Anya has a strong role, even though she is dead! I loved her and X/A so much, I had to have her be part of things.

They had plenty people to kill in Chosen. Andrew, for one! Anya did not need to die. That basically meant that all three scoobies left the one they loved in Sunnydale. Buffy lost Spike, Xander lost Anya and Willow had already lost Tara. It is exactly as if Joss cannot stand happy couples.

Every good relationship in his shows is either destroyed or never really happens. In Buffy, Angel & Firefly. Why?

I agree. Anya deserved so much better. Her death bothers me almost as much as Tara's does.

For me, the best line up of the gang is:
Buffy, Willow, Xander, Anya, Tara, and Faith. With Spike and Angel as the allies that both love Buffy (even though I'm team bangel).

 

[thetopher]

In S12 Willow didn't end up with Kennedy. Kennedy hasn't even been on her radar since the beginning of S10.

Willow dated a couple of ladies afterwards but she ended the comics totally single.

Although one friend of mine is convinced that there was a 'coded Fillow ending', given how chummy they were getting. *snort*

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

I am one of those few voices in the wilderness who likes Kennedy, so I would not mind as much as others if she had been the end game but Willow dumps her in the comics so she is not the end game.

Whereas Tara was timid and tended to shy away from a fight, Kennedy was a confident fighter.
Whereas tara would never volunteer to be bringer bait, Kennedy did.
Whereas Tara would have run away screaming if she saw Willow turn into Warren, Kennedy stayed and broke the remining love that would have kept Willow in the past for decades.

I also don't see Kennedy as the end game but I believe she was a necessary encounter for Willow.

Tara may not be quite as physically brave as Kennedy, but she saves Willow from the Freddy Kreuger demon. First, she joins Xander and Anya in battering him with a chain. Then after Xan and An are incapacitated, Tara runs straight up to the demon with her fists raised and is almost killed. Finally, she hits him in the back with an axe and kills him.

There are several examples of Tara being brave, selfless and uncompromising.

 

[S Rou]

Tara may not be quite as physically brave as Kennedy, but she saves Willow from the Freddy Kreuger demon. First, she joins Xander and Anya in battering him with a chain. Then after Xan and An are incapacitated, Tara runs straight up to the demon with her fists raised and is almost killed. Finally, she hits him in the back with an axe and kills him.

There are several examples of Tara being brave, selfless and uncompromising.

Where did you get the idea of the epilogue with willow.marrying Kennedy? Or were you messing with me? 😈

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

Tara may not be quite as physically brave as Kennedy, but she saves Willow from the Freddy Kreuger demon. First, she joins Xander and Anya in battering him with a chain. Then after Xan and An are incapacitated, Tara runs straight up to the demon with her fists raised and is almost killed. Finally, she hits him in the back with an axe and kills him.

There are several examples of Tara being brave, selfless and uncompromising.

Tara's friendship with Willow begins with her act of bravery in Hush. Together, they move the soda machine to keep the gentlemen and their minions out. Bravery is not in bravado. It is in necessary action, often while in serious danger and absolute terror.

Just leaving her abusive family and living an 'out' life shows serious courage. For her, living the truth is a continuous act of courage. Even in 2018, coming out can be dangerous. With her family? It could have been life-threatening. Tara may be afraid, but she is one of the bravest characters in the entire series.

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

Tara's friendship with Willow begins with her act of bravery in Hush. Together, they move the soda machine to keep the gentlemen and their minions out. Bravery is not in bravado. It is in necessary action, often while in serious danger and absolute terror.

Just leaving her abusive family and living an 'out' life shows serious courage. For her, living the truth is a continuous act of courage. Even in 2018, coming out can be dangerous. With her family? It could have been life-threatening. Tara may be afraid, but she is one of the bravest characters in the entire series.

Is the implication here that Kennedy's bravery can be written off as bravado?

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

PS. I don't really hate Kennedy. I do hate her as the long haul girl for Willow AND I love Tara.

Kennedy simply did not fit. She was abrasive. Tara changed Willow's life without pushing or needing to control. I also think Kennedy needed to grow up.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Kennedy was two girlfriends ago for Willow... three if you count Aura. And Willow is single at the end of season 12.

She was last seen in season 10, running a group of Slayer "civilian contractors."

 

[Altoz]

I see that Willow and Kennedy broke up in the comics- so she wasn't Willow's endgame, and whether Willow established a new relationship with another woman afterward is a moot point. Personally, I'm a Tara loyalist as well and if I'd been writing Season 6, it would be have been Xander that Warren shot that day on Ravello Drive. Still, I accept that something dark needed to happen at the end of Season 6 to culminate the moral drift that Buffy and Willow undertook in their respective lives, albeit in different ways. So... Xander dies, followed by Spike and Giles. Two of the Trio are far deadlier than they are in the canon timeline and they get to wreak havoc as a result, by killing one of the core characters, then Buffy's ex and finally, her mentor. Buffy goes dark and wreaks vengeance on Warren and Andrew, and only Jonathan's personal intervention and willingness to die brings Buffy out of her moment of madness. Meanwhile, Tara comforts Dawn after she finds Xander's body back at Buffy's place. Willow chooses to permanently sideline her darkside. Tara and Willow continue to exist as a couple, and...

 

[Twinkie]

This may sound mean but I kind of didn't care who Willow ended up with. I didn't mind hervwith Oz but I was pretty indifferent with Tara and Kennedy. So who she ended up with I wouldn't have mind.

 

[Athene]

I don’t think Willow/Kennedy was presented as endgame anymore than Faith/Robin I just saw it as a rebound for Willow in a good way.

 

[GaviGrimm]

People wouldn't mind Willow moving on, just so long as it's not with Kennedy

I agree. I haven't read the comics yet but from just the show, she was awful. She was forceful of Willow to move on when you could tell she was still going through some stuff about Tara and how she lost control of herself. She obviously needed some more time but Kennedy just kept at it because she is spoiled. Plus she was so rude to Buffy when she first met her.

 

[Wilder Midnight]

I hated Tara dying. It would have been insanely beautiful and romantic to love someone so much you can never be with anyone else again but as already outlined in this thread its just now how things really work. Tara would never want Willow to be alone if it wasn't her.

I think the issue is they brought Kennedy in too soon.

And she was a pushy brat. And not in the fun Cordelia way.

 

[DeadlyDuo]

I think the issue is they brought Kennedy in too soon.

And she was a pushy brat. And not in the fun Cordelia way.

Kennedy's personality was a massive issue, there was nothing likeable about her.

 

[Honoria Dedlock]

Kennedy was a nasty, petulant bully, spoiled with riches and dripping with entitlement.

Willow was a vindictive, murderous shell of a human being who violated Tara's mind and body.

The sickos deserve each other.

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

I am one of those few voices in the wilderness who likes Kennedy, so I would not mind as much as others if she had been the end game but Willow dumps her in the comics so she is not the end game.

Whereas Tara was timid and tended to shy away from a fight, Kennedy was a confident fighter.
Whereas tara would never volunteer to be bringer bait, Kennedy did.
Whereas Tara would have run away screaming if she saw Willow turn into Warren, Kennedy stayed and broke the remining love that would have kept Willow in the past for decades.

I also don't see Kennedy as the end game but I believe she was a necessary encounter for Willow.

Tara left her abusive conservative family and lived an "out" life even though it could have been life threatening.
Tara went looking for Willow during Hush, and she and willow faced the gentlemen's minions alone and lived.
Tara stood up to the most powerful witch on the planet - when she was out of control, and when she did not change, Tara had the guts to leave.

Tara is no coward. Having fear does not make her a coward.

As I said, I don't hate Kennedy, but I do think someone whose VERY FIRST ACT on the show is to walk into Buffy's house and insult her is problematic at best. She is cruel, rude and arrogant to her fellow potentials. She may be brave but she lacks seriously in the compassion department.

 

[Priceless]

Season 12 ends (IIRC) Willow and Faith giggling together in the garden . . . I'm betting on a Fillow future 😍

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

I love Tara and I am quite sure that the Willow who basically date raped her (roofie sex) did not deserve her. I wish she had left Sunnydale and gone to Angel instead of dying and losing her future. Maybe Willow, not Anya should have died in Chosen?

That said, after a loss so huge, part of me still wants good for Willow, particularly since she seems (somewhat) repentant.

But I don't desire to see more Kennedy. Kennedy was vile to Buffy as she walked in the door asking for protection and training!

Kennedy's behavior to the potentials was horrid, and she may have caused a suicide with her arrogance... She is more abrasive than sand in the eye. She is a negative lesbian stereotype.

Then there is her pushy way of "courting" Willow. Had a man been that forceful, it would have been considered coercive and harassing. It was so stressful, it set off a (spell induced) semi-psychotic state.

She is not partner material. courage is irrelevant. I don't grudge Willow her rebound/recovery #$!& or a relationship, but it never seemed like more and I am glad.

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

I love Tara and I am quite sure that the Willow who basically date raped her (roofie sex) did not deserve her.

Tara isn't unconscious or intoxicated as they have sex.

Kennedy was vile to Buffy as she walked in the door asking for protection and training!

No, she isn't. It is exactly the kind of thing Buffy or Faith would say to their elder ... or what Buffy would say to each other.

Had a man been that forceful, it would have been considered coercive and harassing.

If Kennedy was a man, no one would bat an eye.

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

Tara isn't unconscious or intoxicated as they have sex.

No, she isn't. It is exactly the kind of thing Buffy or Faith would say to their elder ... or what Buffy would say to each other.

If Kennedy was a man, no one would bat an eye.

* No, she has had ANY ability to make meaningful consent REMOVED by means of a mindwipe. The mind rape facilitates actual rape - sex that the clear minded Tara would not have consented to. She was made to forget the reason for no sex. Women who are drugged are often given things that make them confused, compliant and controllable. How is this different?

* Buffy never said anything like that to Giles, even at the beginning when the WC had led to her being expelled and put in a mental institution. Kennedy was about to be a guest when she arrived at Buffy's door and her OPENING greeting was a nasty verbal slap in the face.

* I am not sure you are right. Just because men sometimes get away with stuff does not make it right.