Why didn't Tara just say to Gloria the key is Dawn?.

[Benz]

I mean it’s not like Buffy would hated Tara forever for it as Buffy would eventually realise she needed to protect herself .

Tara would be able to get to Buffy in time to say Gloria knows .

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

First, Tara is the Scooby that looks out for Dawn the most. She would never sell her out to Glory. Second, Glory would not spare Tara, even if she told her what she wanted. That is the problem with being a known homicidal maniac. People know better than to make deals with you.

To sell Dawn out to Glory, Tara would have to be selfish, cowardly and stupid. She is none of those things.

 

[Antho]

Loyalty. Some people are loyal to theirs friends and would prefer die like an hero rather than a coward

 

[DeadlyDuo]

She didn't want to be outdone by Spike.

The scoobies thought that, if any one was going to sell Dawn out to Glory, it'd be Spike but he didn't so Tara didn't want to be the one to let the team down.

Of course it's not clear whether Glory's plan was time based eg could she only use Dawn at a certain point and not before or after? If so, then it wouldn't really matter if she knew the key was Dawn, all Buffy had to do was keep Dawn away from Glory until the time had passed. If Glory knew Dawn was the key early on in the season but couldn't use her until the finale, would she have left her with Buffy until the time was right or would she have her hanging around and put up with her until she was ready to use her?

If Buffy knew that Glory knew that Dawn was the key but couldn't use her until the finale, would Buffy have pretended not to know so Glory would be lured into a false sense of security by leaving Dawn with Buffy thinking she could just take her when the time is right, but Buffy does a runner with Dawn at the last moment, thus keeping Dawn out of Glory's reach until the time had passed?

 

[Faith 2019]

First, Tara is the Scooby that looks out for Dawn the most. She would never sell her out to Glory. Second, Glory would not spare Tara, even if she told her what she wanted. That is the problem with being a known homicidal maniac. People know better than to make deals with you.

To sell Dawn out to Glory, Tara would have to be selfish, cowardly and stupid. She is none of those things.

I have to agree with you 100%. Tara was good to Dawn but more so with Willow. Tara has always had a bad rap with the fan base. Still, her character was good to the other characters on the series. There was a good relationship with Tara and Dawn Summers. Glory, was the only bad girl that never recovered from being bad.

 

[AnthonyCordova]

First, Tara is the Scooby that looks out for Dawn the most. She would never sell her out to Glory. Second, Glory would not spare Tara, even if she told her what she wanted. That is the problem with being a known homicidal maniac. People know better than to make deals with you.

To sell Dawn out to Glory, Tara would have to be selfish, cowardly and stupid. She is none of those things.

This post is my answer also. I marked in bold a small point that shouldn't be overlooked: yes, Tara would never do something as cowardly as give up Dawn...but even if she did, there is no way that Glory would have been nice and spared her afterward, so that even the most cowardly and agreeable character would never get away for free.

 

[MarieVampSlayer]

Well in the end she kinda did but it wasn't her fault obviously. Also what everyone said before!

 

[thetopher]

You forget that Tara and Dawn shared the sacred covenant of the thumb war. Tara would never betray such confidences.

Tara was also a good person who wouldn't want anything bad to happen to Dawn.
Besides I'm sure Tara knew she was done for no matter what she did as soon as Glory sat down next to her (Hell god's gonna Hell god), so why give Glory the satisfaction of giving her what she wants?

 

[Spanky]

See... now I gotta chime in. Everyone saying that Glorificus would have done that to her anyway. I never thought that. Why would she. She'd probably reward Tara for helping her. The whole 'do it anyway' line would have worked with some of the other big bads, I just never saw Glory as that way.

 

[thetopher]

Brain sucking mainly. Glory considered humanity as pathetic and good for nothing but sustenance.
Why would Glory- god-like in her arrogance- ever consider honoring any deal with a mortal? I never got the impression she would stick to her word, too meglomaniacal to care.

 

[famicommander]

I don't think anybody in the gang would have sold Dawn out at that point. Maybe Giles or Anya would be willing to kill Dawn after the portal had been opened, but I can't see any of them telling Glory that Dawn was the key before she knew. Spike, Buffy, Willow, Tara, Giles, Xander, Anya... I think any of them would die first.

I honestly couldn't forgive a character that would sell out a child to save their own skin. To save the whole world, maybe.

 

[GreyWalker1958]

Sure you're not thinking of Pre-Angel S1 Wesley?

Now he'd been eager to surrender to Dawn to Glory as his own gullibility was often his undoing (as seen with Sanjan's manips in Angel S3 re: Connor)