"I stopped watching when Tara died."

[thetopher]

Apparently this is a thing that a large group of fans did way back when the series first aired.

The question is why? Why was Tara's death that much worse than any other characters that made it so that people just had to stop wathcing the show?

Other characters had died, violently and shockingly, before this happened but I never thought to myself- 'Right, that's it- I'm not watching this show ever again!'

It just seems like a major overreaction to me. Am I wrong? Deeply insensitive? Crazy?

Any thoughts?


*just for the record I am aware that I'm deeply, crazily wrong, but I'm not insensitive. 🙂*

 

[Evil Angelus 95]

That grouping of people thought it was mainly due to a TV trope or Joss trying to say that anyone who was a gay/lesbian was going to do die. They point out that there was an earlier character on the show (A really minor one that's only in one or two episodes) who dies during "Graduation Day, Pt. 2". It's later revealed in Season 6 that he was gay. (When Willow or Buffy was talking to Amy once Amy was back to her normal human self.). When Tara died, these people thought it was more of the same.

Plus, Joss lied about the death happening. He was quoted as saying many times before (Before "Seeing Red' aired) that Tara wasn't going to die/he wasn't going to kill her off. Episode airs and it's pretty normal to see that that grouping of fans felt betrayed.

Joss actually received death threats if I remember correctly.

I've interacted with some members of that grouping. They get kinda...fanatical, if that's the word. I'm glad that I have my own little group of W/T fans that I interact with instead of that faction.

They scare me. Majorly.

 

[Buffy Summers]

Well, to me, that sounds insane.

Now, I love Amber, but Amber does not equal Tara. She was a nothing character to me. NOW I probably would care more, so maybe if you were a big Amber Benson fan I could see it, but she just wasn't that important to the show imho.

 

[Evil Angelus 95]

I think it had to do more with it being really the only Lesbian relationship on a major TV show at the time than anything else. Take something away from a group of people who love it, and bad things happen.

I personally love Amber Benson, and Tara, (Tara's my bby <3) but I'm able to separate reality from the show. Yes, I was devastated when I saw Tara's death scene on the show. Yes, I deny that it happened because Willow/Tara are my OTP. But threatening Joss? That's just...a little bit mental.

In all honesty, I think Joss should have just killed someone else off.

 

[white avenger]

In my opinion, the people who stopped watching at that point missed some of the most interesting and dramatic episodes of the entire series.

 

[thetopher]

Yeah, the thing is I like Tara/Willow, I also like Fred/Wesley- both couples get torn apart by evil but I'm not gonna boycot the show for it- that's just crazy.

to identify yourself that much with one character, or set of characters.

---------- Post added at 06:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:33 PM ----------

I think it had to do more with it being really the only Lesbian relationship on a major TV show at the time than anything else. Take something away from a group of people who love it, and bad things happen.

I personally love Amber Benson, and Tara, (Tara's my bby <3) but I'm able to separate reality from the show. Yes, I was devastated when I saw Tara's death scene on the show. Yes, I deny that it happened because Willow/Tara are my OTP. But threatening Joss? That's just...a little bit mental.

In all honesty, I think Joss should have just killed someone else off.

I heard that Joss got called (seriously) homophobic, a gay basher/hater, a misogynist- this to the man who fought so hard for this relationship to be aired, to come about, to show a loving relationship between two people who just happened to be of the same gender.
Why shouldn't this relationship get treated just like any other on the show? Why should it be exempt, that's just patronising.

I get why people get upset, they like a certain character or a certain couple/ship,
I like Tara, but to quit over a show you loved up until that point seems like cutting off your nose to spite yourself, it really does.

I get why people want Willow/Tara to be together forever- but that's what Fan-fic is for. 🙂

 

[JCoatsworth]

I don't understand this either. The death of such an important and sweet character has quite the impact on the fans and the other characters on the show. And this is actually one reason that makes me keep watching. Even if it's sad, don't you want to know how the characters on the show cope with it? Isn't that the appeal of a drama series? Don't you want to overcome the crisis along with the characters who lost somebody?

Here's another example, and I'm warning you, this contains some serious Breaking Bad spoilers. Do not read this, unless you've watched the complete series or are 101% sure you never ever will watch it.
Okay, you've been warned.... Here it comes.

Spoiler

In the episode Ozymandias Hank gets shot. Up to that point, Hank had become pretty much my favorite character (after Jesse). Walt had slowly become a monster, and Hank was becoming the hero, the guy I was rooting for with all my heart. I wanted him to beat the crap out of Walt. But when they killed him, I couldn't believe my eyes. I think never in my life was I so desperate to watch the next episode of a TV series. His death shocked me, but it was such a powerful plot device. How would all the characters react? Up to that point, none of the main characters had been killed off. And that's basically how I feel about Tara's death, or deaths of characters in general.

 

[Robb Stark]

Yeah, that seems more than a little out there to me as well. Using the death of a gay character as some sort of referendum on Joss Whedon's personality or supposed hidden messages on BTVS seems crazy to me. I mean, the guy is, to put it mildly, a fanatical liberal on virtually every social issue he's spoken out on. The death of one character suddenly means that he's tinged with homophobia? Come on.

Tara was killed for the same reason she lived, to act as a plot device for Willow. From the day she was introduced to the day she was killed off she was ancillary to Willow's storyline. She rarely, if ever, had individual storylines or angles for herself that didn't do anything but provide backstory (such as the introduction of her family) or act to move Willow's story forward in some way.

That's one of the reasons I always preferred Oz, and one of the absolutely key reasons her death didn't mean that much to me. Tara was just there for Willow. To the larger story I didn't feel she added as much, and her absence didn't materially alter the show beyond a single arc. I know lots of people love her though, which is totally cool, but I felt that the deaths of others were a whole lot more powerful. I mean, losing Doyle and Fred hurt a lot more.

 

[EVIL UU]

So, do you have a time machine?

It's 2014, lesbian couple on the television, well, you see them, nothing that extraordinary these days but in the year 2000, when "New Moon Rising" first aired that was not the case and alright, alright, I know, there was Xena but until the end of the series officially it was just subtext. Yeah. It's the year 2000 and you have Willow and Tara and nothing else. Absolutely groundbreaking stuff. On the top of that, their relationship is presented in a fairly positive light and the issues Willow and Tara face as a couple are rooted in real life. So, imagine that you are a young lesbian living in the late 90s/early 00s. Suddenly there's a lesbian couple on the television and the issues they face are similar to those that you face, you know, coming out, prejudices, lesbian until graduation, competition between women in romantic relationship and so on. And these two, they are in love with each-other, they are decidedly out of the closet, they have wonderful friends who love them and accept them, they are happy and hey, they even get to raise a kid. It is beautiful, heartwarming and unlike anything that came before it. Seriously.

When Tara was killed, it wasn't just a character that died. What was killed was this ideal. A dream you know, that you can be a gay woman and be out of the closet, happy, accepted and so on. This is why people were so pissed off.

 

[JCoatsworth]

Using the death of a gay character as some sort of referendum on Joss Whedon's personality or supposed hidden messages on BTVS seems crazy to me. I mean, the guy is, to put it mildly, a fanatical liberal on virtually every social issue he's spoken out on. The death of one character suddenly means that he's tinged with homophobia? Come on.

I agree. If Tara's death were a homophobic statement by Joss Whedon, shouldn't the people, who think it is, also consider Jenny Calendar's death to be some kind of statement? I mean, what exactly is the difference?

 

[chasesummers]

When I do a rewatch with friends we watch Angel till Season 3 lol, the show completely changed from Season 4 to 5 but I have watched them so I got nothing against them, I acknowledge their existence but I just don't watch them.

Same thing with Xena, the two episodes of Xena are beautiful but they are too tragic and horrifying, we know what happened but most fans don't like to watch them.

It's their choice whether or not they stop, if they loved Tara that much then good for them. I don't feel it was anything related to homophobia, many characters died in the show and some of them never even got mentioned later, like they didn't even exist (for example Anya)

 

[Still a Scoobie]

When I do a rewatch with friends we watch Angel till Season 3 lol, the show completely changed from Season 4 to 5 but I have watched them so I got nothing against them, I acknowledge their existence but I just don't watch them.

Same thing with Xena, the two episodes of Xena are beautiful but they are too tragic and horrifying, we know what happened but most fans don't like to watch them.

It's their choice whether or not they stop, if they loved Tara that much then good for them. I don't feel it was anything related to homophobia, many characters died in the show and some of them never even got mentioned later, like they didn't even exist (for example Anya)

It's one thing stopping in a rewatch (I always stop somewhere before the second half of season 6) but to not continue to follow the show as it airs is another thing entirely.

 

[Silverspike]

I agree. If Tara's death were a homophobic statement by Joss Whedon, shouldn't the people, who think it is, also consider Jenny Calendar's death to be some kind of statement? I mean, what exactly is the difference?

Maybe because Jenny wasn't gay?

Anyhoo I remember the Kittens going nuts at the time and to this day some haven't forgiven Whedon.

 

[Blaze]

A lot of people already covered a lot of it. But I also have a theory of my own. So, most of us started watching BtVS from the beginning and fell in love with the show. When Tara died we of course kept watching because it was BtVS we were in love with.

But I'm almost positive that there is a certain crowd that started watching BtVS only when they learnt about Tillow and their relationship, mainly because they were the first lesbian couple on TV. Those people were probably watching the show primarily for them, hence they "raged quit" as soon as Tara died.

I won't lie, I have watched shows before only based on a ship or even an actor playing in the show, and once that ship/actor was written out I sort of lost interest and stopped watching. But I wasn't crazy about it and didn't freak out, I just decided to stop watching because the show had lost my interest. To me, it's all a bit silly to complain about something like that and say that you'll never watch the show again. If you lose interest because Tara isn't there, fair enough, but there is no need whatsoever to flip out about it.

And I won't even get started on calling Joss homophobic, cause that's just utter bullshit.

 

[JCoatsworth]

Maybe because Jenny wasn't gay?

Anyhoo I remember the Kittens going nuts at the time and to this day some haven't forgiven Whedon.

Well, of course that's the difference. But... how do I put this so I don't get misunderstood?
Unless a person thinks love between two women is superior to love between a man and a woman, they have no reason to complain about the death of a fictional gay character, purely for the reason that the particular character is gay - and vice versa, obviously!

 

[Silverspike]

I think It's more to do with how underused gay relationships were on TV back then.

 

[thetopher]

A lot of people already covered a lot of it. But I also have a theory of my own. So, most of us started watching BtVS from the beginning and fell in love with the show. When Tara died we of course kept watching because it was BtVS we were in love with.

But I'm almost positive that there is a certain crowd that started watching BtVS only when they learnt about Tillow and their relationship, mainly because they were the first lesbian couple on TV. Those people were probably watching the show primarily for them, hence they "raged quit" as soon as Tara died.

I won't lie, I have watched shows before only based on a ship or even an actor playing in the show, and once that ship/actor was written out I sort of lost interest and stopped watching. But I wasn't crazy about it and didn't freak out, I just decided to stop watching because the show had lost my interest. To me, it's all a bit silly to complain about something like that and say that you'll never watch the show again. If you lose interest because Tara isn't there, fair enough, but there is no need whatsoever to flip out about it.

And I won't even get started on calling Joss homophobic, cause that's just utter bullshit.

I've done the same actually- I only started watching Stargate SG-1 after they brought over Ben Browder and Claudia Black- just cause I like those actors.

But, if I'm honest (and a bit snobby) that really doesn't indicate true fandom to me- its kind of a...I guess a shallow reason to like a show, its almost like tuning into Ally McBeal to see the 'lesbian kiss' episode but not quite as bad. 🙂

I understand that many people invested in Willow/Tara because they were one of the first lesbian couples depicted on television. But Joss's willingness to treat them just like any other couple on the show should extend to everything- including the fate of most Buffy relationships, which is a bad ending.

It annoys me when people say they want all characters to be treated the same and then suddenly want special treatment for their couple.

 

[Blaze]

I've done the same actually- I only started watching Stargate SG-1 after they brought over Ben Browder and Claudia Black- just cause I like those actors.

But, if I'm honest (and a bit snobby) that really doesn't indicate true fandom to me- its kind of a...I guess a shallow reason to like a show, its almost like tuning into Ally McBeal to see the 'lesbian kiss' episode but not quite as bad. 🙂

I understand that many people invested in Willow/Tara because they were one of the first lesbian couples depicted on television. But Joss's willingness to treat them just like any other couple on the show should extend to everything- including the fate of most Buffy relationships, which is a bad ending.

It annoys me when people say they want all characters to be treated the same and then suddenly want special treatment for their couple.

I agree, in no way is that true fandom in my opinion. And when I do watch a show merely base on actors, I'm very open about not necessarily liking the show or being part of the fandom. Aka, I admit my shallowness in watching that show lol. And again, it's completely okay to watch something just because you enjoy and actor or a ship, but don't act like you value the whole show when in fact you watch for specific storylines/actors. And eh, be pissed off when that storyline ends or actor leaves, but for the love of god don't send death threats to the director/writer, that's just beyond ridiculous.

I also agree about the fairness in Joss' portrayal of the gay relationship. That's why I'm led to believe that a lot of the people that rage quit after Tara's death weren't necessarily familiar with BtVS, because it's very evident that Joss likes suffering. I hate that Tara died, but if anything it makes sense that Joss would do this. And never would I want an author to hold back in fear or pissing off a certain demographic that doesn't even bother actually looking at things from a storyline perspective.

 

[WillowTaraHolic]

(I'm not replying to anyone's post, just stating my own opinion about the situation)

I love Tara with all my heart (And Willow and Buffy too) but what Joss did was an important part to the storyline. Willow wouldn't be where she is today if Tara hadn't died. (Plus, Warren probably would still be alive)

But Tara's death teaches us another lesson. We can't live forever. The fact that Tara never came back like she was originally planned to teaches us that no one lives forever, including characters that didn't deserve to die. So as long as Tara stays dead, I will be fine. If she comes back in the next comic series, I think I'll kill Joss. 😛

 

[Evil Angelus 95]

(I'm not replying to anyone's post, just stating my own opinion about the situation)

I love Tara with all my heart (And Willow and Buffy too) but what Joss did was an important part to the storyline. Willow wouldn't be where she is today if Tara hadn't died. (Plus, Warren probably would still be alive)

But Tara's death teaches us another lesson. We can't live forever. The fact that Tara never came back like she was originally planned to teaches us that no one lives forever, including characters that didn't deserve to die. So as long as Tara stays dead, I will be fine. If she comes back in the next comic series, I think I'll kill Joss. 😛

I completely agree with you. I love Tara and Willow more than other characters in the entire world of fiction, whether it be TV, movie, or literature. I understand why Joss killed her off, but I don't agree that it should have been done.

The world is a cruel place. To state an all-too familar quote, "The hardest thing in this world is to live in it."

By the way, are you the same WillowTaraHolic from Archive Of Our Own? Off-topic I know, but I'm just curious. (VampWillowAddict over here 🙂 )