Was Willow turning Dark realistic?

[Buffy Summers]

Did you find that Willow turning Dark was portrayed realistically?

 

[thrasherpix]

To share even my immediate thoughts in full would probably seem to you to be going off topic, so I'll just say I'd have preferred that Willow went dark out of hubris, much like Faith, rather than from magic addiction.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Did you find that Willow turning Dark was portrayed realistically?

Yes, I do. For most of her life, she strove to hide her inner hostility and resentment at being teased and bullied...her exploration of magic finally gave her the means to control certain aspects of he life. At long last, she didn't feel completely powerless. anymore.

Things were looking up... she wasn't just a miserable nerd doing other people's homework now. And her new friendship with Buffy gave her such happiness...and then her relationship with Oz, which was really sweet for awhile...and then came Veruca. Willow's dark side surfaced when she attempted a spell to cause Oz and Veruca misery...but didn't complete it.

THEN SHE MET TARA. And was completely in love, just blissful beyond belief. When Tara was killed, Willow completely snapped. It was just too much to bear...and she absorbed ALL of that dark magic....and we know what happened after that.

Yes, I DO feel that the portrayal of Dark Willow and the carnage which ensued was absolutely believable...and realistic

 

[garfan]

No, I don't feel it was realistic at all. I can see Willow using magic as casually as she did, but I don't think that was dark.

I don't think her little party with Amy was true to her personality, and I don't think her trusting Rack was true to her.

I think her killing Warren was true to herself, but then Buffy and Giles both attempted to get revenged for the death or near death of loved ones too

 

[gnarl]

I found the beginning of her 'journey into darkness' compelling and interesting but as soon as Rack came into the picture and the writers drew a direct line between drugs and magic, it lost something for me.

It felt like from the writers used Willows addiction as a motive for all her bad behavior, which meant they missed out on a lot of potential nuance and character building in that arc.

I think I would have found Dark Willow more frightening/intriguing if it hadn't been framed so clearly as a relapse.

The addiction metaphor would have worked a lot better if it hadn't been so overt.
One of the things BtVS normally does really well is leaving enough ambiguity in thier monster metaphors that there is space for interpretation. By restricting Willow's dark arc to addiction, they excluded other potentially interesting correlations/conversations.

 

[HowiMetdaSlayer]

I don't have a problem with her turning dark. My problem is more the series inconsistent writing of magic use through the seasons. I'm sorry (ok not sorry), but the magic addiction story line was just terrible, and didn't even mesh with what came before, or after. 😩

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Realistic? I suppose I bought Willow has been consumed by her own anger and despair, and due to the timeframe, was still intoxicated with grief. Ultimately, I read her final acts as a suicide attempt. So yes, I mean, black magic is of the Old Ones, and they delight in the ruination of man and mankind, and she is being manipulated by them.