Would Willow still have gone dark had Joyce been alive?

buffffy

The "what-if" guy
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I am one to always ask "would this of happened if this hadn't of happened" questions about Buffyverse questions. And so I present you with this one.
Would Willow still of went off in the deep in had Joyce been alive?
 
This is a good question, and ultimately, the answer is almost certainly no. Getting to that ultimate answer will take some guesswork and assumption. (And, please, no jokes about making an "ass" out of "you" and "umption")

Assuming that Joyce had lived, I find it highly doubtful that she would have stayed in Sunnydale after Buffy's death. Where would she go? I have no clue, but almost certainly Sunnydale would hold too many bad memories for her to stay there, plus, it would certainly have been the last straw in her association with anything vaguely associated with the hellmouth. She would take Dawn and try to start a new life somewhere that didn't have a large portion of its population classified as either undead or nonhuman.

With Joyce gone, even if Willow had still resurrected Buffy, the Slayer would have either gone to be with her mother and sister wherever they had moved, or would have not informed them that she was back, and stayed in Sunnydale to continue her mission there. Either way, it's doubtful that Willow and Tara would have been living with her. They would have remained on campus as roommates in some dorm. They only moved in at Revello Drive to help take care of Dawn. With Joyce and Dawn gone, the house would probably have been sold.

Buffy, if she did, indeed, decide to stay in Sunnydale, would be literally homeless, with no money and nothing except the clothes on her back. She would probably stay with Xander and Anya temporarily, but they really wouldn't have been able to support her indefinitely. Another choice (hang onto your hats, Bangles) would have been moving in with Spike in his crypt. Of all the group, he had the most spacious living quarters, and the only one who could provide Buffy with her own private "apartment," the chamber below his crypt. Remember, she actually seemed to be most comfortable with him when she first returned, and his underground chamber might have even been her idea of the perfect shelter from the harsh, bright, loud, sharp world she had just returned to. I'm suggesting only a place to live, not any sort of romantic involvement here.

Of course, wherever she chose to stay initially, once Giles returned, he would have provided her with quarters, either with him or separately, and no doubt also an allowance for living expenses. Remember, with Joyce still alive and with Dawn in her custody, there would have been no reason to cover up Buffy's death. She would have been declared legally dead, no I D, no Social Security card, and, therefore, no way to get anything but the most menial employment in order to support herself.

Giles would have been able to get the Watchers' Council or someone else to create Buffy a new identity with credentials once he arrived, and with that, she would have been able to find employment and establish her own home.

Willow went dark because Warren accidentally killed Tara while attempting to murder Buffy. With Willow and Tara living either in a college dorm or in their own apartment, they would almost certainly not been near Warren and Buffy at the time of the shooting, so Tara would not have died, giving Willow no reason to go dark.
 
Blaze
Blaze
I love this answer!
No. Buffy survives "The Gift" with Joyce around. Joyce is alive so Spike never introduces Dawn to Doc. No Doc, no portal. No resurrection. On the other hand, Willow already goes off in the deep end as you put it in season 5, when she raids Glory, she just isn't powerful enough yet. Still, I think that as long as Buffy doesn't completely suck shit as the slayer and as Willow's friend, the odds of her losing control again are unlikely.
 
Probably not, or more accurately, not when she did in the show.

There's no way to know if Willow would have continued to dive deeper into magic and eventually have ended up in the hole she did, but what we can certainly say is that Tara would not have been in Joyce's room to get shot and push Willow over the edge.
 
Probably not. If Buffy had survived, I think that Willow might have continued to have an interest in Dark Magicks, but I think Tara would have tried to put a stop to it, and eventually put her foot down entirely. Without there being the 'addiction' to the Magicks, which resurrecting Buffy probably strengthened, I don't see Willow going Dark at all.
 
No. Buffy survives "The Gift" with Joyce around. Joyce is alive so Spike never introduces Dawn to Doc. No Doc, no portal. No resurrection. On the other hand, Willow already goes off in the deep end as you put it in season 5, when she raids Glory, she just isn't powerful enough yet. Still, I think that as long as Buffy doesn't completely suck shit as the slayer and as Willow's friend, the odds of her losing control again are unlikely.

Well Doc would have still been around, he was still a worshipper of Glory, and as such would have been present at the end, just as he was, the only difference would be that we'd have no idea who this strange man was.
 
I think she would have still continued down the same path, just at a slower rate. Like [MENTION=7585]Kean[/MENTION] says, if Joyce was alive, Willow and Tara would not have been in Joyce's bedroom, so Tara wouldn't have been shot, but Tara's death was only the final push that did Willow in.

Willow had been going down that path for close to a year before the events of the end of S6, her addiction to magic was to such a degree that she had to use a spell to get dressed - it might not have happened exactly like we saw on the show if Joyce had survived her brain tumor, but I think it would have happened eventually.

I don't think Joyce and Willow had the kind of relationship that meant that Joyce could have helped Willow get over her addiction or helped her see where she was going wrong. The only thing Joyce could have prevented was Tara's death, and even that would only be my circumstance. Willow's addiction would have still been there, and, eventually, something would have happened that would tip Willow over that edge.
 
I think it's important to take into consideration that before Tara's death, Willow was doing extremely good with dealing with her addiction. So I completely agree with WA on this topic. Of course, an addiction is always there with you (just think of nicotine addiction), you can get completely clean, but the temptation will always be there. But I think Tara's death is just about the only thing that could truly push Willow over the edge again. I mean, her best friend died and that pushed her farther, but not over the edge, so I think that as long as Tara is there, Willow would have done fine.
 
According to Joss, Willow was supposed to go dark a while before the end of S6, so I doubt Joyce living would have changed anything to her planned story arc. They would have just found another way to kill Tara. Sorry my answer isn't as creative as WA's, but honestly Willow going dark had no relation with Joyce's death. If it did, then any - and every - little event in the show could be related to everything else; there's nothing that couldn't be linked somehow. 😛
 
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