"I stopped watching when Tara died."

[thetopher]

I somewhat disagree with that.
Tara was much closer to Buffy than Anya was. (I never got the impression that Buffy even liked Anya) She interacted with Buffy in a few key scenes in S5 and 6.
Plus I think Tara and Xander got along pretty well, especially at the beginning of S6.

Anya was louder/funnier, but her character became really one-note as the series progressed. She was all 'I've been learning to be human for about four years now' wacky. Honestly it got tiring after a while.
Anya only became 'interesting' again in 'Selfless' in S7, by which I mean the writers made a completely horrible human being- worse the Angelus, Spike and Faith combined. 🙁

 

[Dobian]

Oh Buffy didn't like Anya alright, but Anya always felt like more of the crew than Tara did. She was always right in the middle of things, working with Giles in the magic shop and all that. Anya was always a character in her own right, even without Xander, while Tara always felt like just an extension of Willow.

 

[SRMarx]

I never thought that Tara was a terribly interesting character. Her sole purpose was always to follow Willow around like a lost puppy. And if you look at her scenes in every episode, she barely interacts with anyone but Willow, Dawn being the one exception. Tara was always just Willow's GF but was never integrated into the gang the way Anya was. I always found it odd how they wrote the character that way. It's like they didn't know what to do with her outside of her being Willow's squeeze.

I agree that when Tara first joined the show she was often portrayed only as "Willow's girlfriend" and I always wish we got more episodes besides Family to explore Tara's character specifically. That being said, I think Tara's integration into the gang as her own person is very subtle, albeit slow at the start. And for me personally, the subtlety of her character is one of the reasons why I like her so much. She has something very different to contribute to the Scoobies (and the show in general).

As much as I like Anya, I never really understood the point of her character outside of humor (which isn't a bad thing, just a different contribution). I always thought the writers did not know what to do with Anya and I think she is rather one-dimensional unfortunately. It seems to me that because Anya was always so assertive and honest about her desires, she made herself more integrated into the Scoobies. But Tara's character is completely different and hence why her "integration" feels different than Anya's. 'Cause I do agree, they are different.

 

[thetopher]

Oh Buffy didn't like Anya alright, but Anya always felt like more of the crew than Tara did. She was always right in the middle of things, working with Giles in the magic shop and all that. Anya was always a character in her own right, even without Xander, while Tara always felt like just an extension of Willow.

I see it like this- when Tara left after 'Tabula Rasa' she still kept in contact with Dawn, and she was still Buffy's friend- willing to support her in whatever way she could (especially when Buffy needed it)
But when Anya left, she left completely- she didn't contact Buffy or Willow or anybody. She was entirely seperated from the group. It was realy only the apocolypse and D'Hoffryn's threats that kept her hanging around her former 'friends'.
Anya might've 'felt' more like a part of the group than Tara, but obviously she didn't see it that way- she was there for Xander and that was all.