The Most Troubling Thing About Willow in "Flooded"

[Robb Stark]

Because it's not about the magic - it's about something called responsibility!
You don't keep every person from drinking alcohol, just because there are support groups for it as it is potentially addictive and can turn you into an alcoholic.
Same thing with magic

That's not what I said, or at least, not what I meant. I said they should have stopped her from getting in too deep, not that Willow shouldn't do magic at all. Sure, Giles puts his books on the top shelf, but he doesn't exactly try to do much if magic is supposed to be that addictive. His speech in "Flooded" is really the first real time anyone says anything to Willow about it.

Plus, they completely throw the addiction storyline out the window in S7 with the excuse of "it's a part of her now". Um, come on. I like S7 a lot, but it stretches credibility quite a bit when you have an entire major arc about "magic is drugs" (which had already been changed from "magic is love") and then, simply because Willow would have nothing to do as a character without magic by that point, change it radically again. Almost every notable addiction program out there advocates abstinence.

I don't want to come off as negative, but Willow's magic arcs are one of the parts of the latter stages of the show that make me roll my eyes. I just felt like the storytelling got kind of lazy, and that wasn't an issue in the first three seasons.

I don't really understand your "It's about responsibility!" comment though.

 

[iShower4free]

I think in regards to responsibility OpenYourEyes just means that with addictive things like alcohol and in Willows case magic, it all about moderation and being responsible. I dont know i I agree that that would have helped Willow so much, jsut saying what I think she meant.

 

[OpenYourEyes]

I said they should have stopped her from getting in too deep, not that Willow shouldn't do magic at all.

I am not so sure they even knew how deep she got into it at all times. I believe after resurrecting Buffy, Giles seemed to realize it for the first time really.
He always had a very high opinion of Willow...and I think it needed that hit on the head for him to realize that she might be slipping.

Plus, they completely throw the addiction storyline out the window in S7 with the excuse of "it's a part of her now".

It's been a while since season 7 for me, but I remember it being much more elaborate than just "it's part of her now". She turned into some kind of godess - so, the way it came across to me was like she was a source of magic herself now - opposite to before, when she always needed to use outside stuff to do spells.

And I'm sorry, maybe it's just me, but I never understood it as "magic is drugs". I understood it as something very powerful, that only a few really have the discipline, responsibility and strength to fully handle. Many things can either be used for good or for bad. So magic being seen as love or drug doesn't necessarily need to be a contradiction.

I don't really understand your "It's about responsibility!" comment though.

I mean magic is the same thing as alcohol. If you have too much over a long period of time it is the worst you can do - and turns into an addiction. Drinking alcohol doesn't automatically equal addiction though. The same goes for magic - at least in the way it is portrayed in Buffy. So, in those cases it takes responsibility to know how far you can go and where to draw a line. A person neither addicted, nor in the process of becoming addicted knows where to draw that line - a person like Willow who basically has been in the process of becoming more and more addicted to magic since she met Tara, gradually lost that knowledge. The whole Scooby Gang though had such a high opinion of her, believing in her sense of responsibility that she wouldn't slip on this road.
Besides if I remember correctly - no one really gave a damn about the other in Season 6 - it was basically for each and everyone of them trying to get their own problems under control. They were the picture perfect example of how you can be with your family, but not really be "with" them...
And Willow was always the most grown up and responsible of the gang...no one ever expected she could slip like that.


I don't think you're coming off as negative, you have valuable arguments. And I am far from believing that season 6 was perfect. I have my issues with it - but Willow's story is so far from it...to me it was the most amazing way to show how hard it actually is to grow up and how much meaning comes to balance in life.

 

[tec]

Giles: You know we can't. This isn't a hobby or an addiction. It's inside you now, this magic. You're responsible for it.

The exsact line in Lessons about Willow
The Darkness is a part of her now its just been balanced by gaia and the balance she seeks in her self

 

[Robb Stark]

Giles: You know we can't. This isn't a hobby or an addiction. It's inside you now, this magic. You're responsible for it.

The exsact line in Lessons about Willow
The Darkness is a part of her now its just been balanced by gaia and the balance she seeks in her self

Yeah, I know, you're right. It just felt like a very, very convenient plot development. I suppose I just got a little tired of the metaphor constantly changing to suit whatever message Joss was trying to get over that arc.