Were there hints of Willow's addiction to magic before season 5?

[Kristine]

In the early seasons?

 

[hoponlilmama]

I wouldn't say addiction, but there were definite signs she would use magic recklessly and for her own benefit - this is seen when Willow doesn't want to confront or deal with her own emotional issues/try and control people's feelings:

-Trying to put a spell on her and Xander to control their lust
-Almost putting a spell on Oz in the episode Wild At Heart
-Her 'my will be done' spell
-The infamous Tabula Rasa spell on Tara

I feel like I'm forgetting something else.

 

[NotASlayer]

I wouldn't say addiction, but there were definite signs she would use magic recklessly and for her own benefit - this is seen when Willow doesn't want to confront or deal with her own emotional issues/try and control people's feelings:

-Trying to put a spell on her and Xander to control their lust
-Almost putting a spell on Oz in the episode Wild At Heart
-Her 'my will be done' spell
-The infamous Tabula Rasa spell on Tara

I feel like I'm forgetting something else.

Agreed. There were no signs of addiction, because until S6 magic was a metaphor for, well, gay love not drugs (which is why S6's retcon of that is so utterly vile) - Willow and Tara for instance spent an entire night "doing magic" together (and there were suggestions that Giles and Ethan had "done magic" with each other in the past). But once Willow discovered magic she did have a tendency to use it for everything, whether or not it was suited. like the saying goes, when all you have is a hammer, the entire world looks like a nail; magic was Willow's hammer.

 

[hoponlilmama]

Agreed. There were no signs of addiction, because until S6 magic was a metaphor for, well, gay love not drugs (which is why S6's retcon of that is so utterly vile) -

Absolutely. The writers doing that certainly was a...choice. 👎

But once Willow discovered magic she did have a tendency to use it for everything, whether or not it was suited. like the saying goes, when all you have is a hammer, the entire world looks like a nail; magic was Willow's hammer.

Perfectly put.

My own theory on this: I wonder if Willow performing the resurrection spell had something to do with the 'addiction'. Using such powerful and dark magic left traces, a force she couldn't fight back against. Combined with the knowledge she'd manage to pull off such a complex spell, made her a little drunk with power.

Of course, that theory doesn't work because she'd performed the soul restoration back in s2. But bringing someone back from the dead would rank higher on a danger/dark magic scale.

 

[thetopher]

Not addiction, per se, but Willow often used (or tried to use) magic to 'fix' or control her emotions; to stop lust, make herself feel less sad, get her vengeance on (making herself feel better in the process) etc.
In S6 she moves on to trying to fix other people like those who complain about her frequent magic or who aren't' grateful for her awesome resurrection talents or whatever.

The magic+ drugs is for S6 and only for S6, its' retconned the next season as 'the magics' are 'a part' of her now. But really they always were a part of Willow, ever since the end of S2, and this is just a gentle ret-conning of the stupid writing of S6.


Side-note but I always tend to headcanon the reason we never see Willow using floaty pencils/flying stakes is because she has so little emotional control that the field-test runs led to 'almost flying fatality' for the good guys so she retired the trick.

 

[garfan]

I think "for her own benefit" is overstated, but recklessly is not

Agreed. There were no signs of addiction, because until S6 magic was a metaphor for, well, gay love not drugs (which is why S6's retcon of that is so utterly vile) - Willow and Tara for instance spent an entire night "doing magic" together (and there were suggestions that Giles and Ethan had "done magic" with each other in the past). But once Willow discovered magic she did have a tendency to use it for everything, whether or not it was suited. like the saying goes, when all you have is a hammer, the entire world looks like a nail; magic was Willow's hammer.

yes, but I feel like Willow's eagerness and ability to find a way to use computers right at the beginning of the series shows she's always going to try to find a way to maximize her primary skill.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Re: Sex: Well, I would argue that magic is better understood as a process of self-discovery, which is part of how "White Magic" is usually described and understood as. Black magic is Willow refusing to deal with her pain, and trying to fight against reality. But they don't really introduce those concepts in the show, it's really about power without any ethical concerns.

The problem is, giving a main character magical powers is one of those circumstances that requires a series bible update. They were pretty upfront about magic having a cost and magic being dangerous, but it was always per incident. There was a metaphysical ethical framework that Tara hinted at, never addressed. I mean, power corrupts is a statement or analysis, not some iron law of the universe that people who argue in platitudes seem to think it is. If they weren't willing to explain the rules of magic, they should have left it with Amy and Ethan.

 

[NotASlayer]

requires a series bible

So many issues would have been avoided if there had actually been one.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

AlphaFoxtrot shows no knowledge of any kind of magic, White magic or Black Magic - how it works or who works it.
To say Black Magic is Willow refusing to deal with her pain shows how wrong it is possible to be.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

Okay. Metaphor wise, I understand White Magic is about trying to understand the universe, and Black magic is about trying to control the universe.