Dark Witch Willow
Although I love all the characters on Buffy, Willow is by far my favorite. She starts out the series as a nerdy computer girl. At that time her main role was to go into "research mode" and help Buffy know how to vanquish that weeks demon threat. However, as the show progressed Willow started learning magic and eventually became a witch. Her witchcraft got so good that she could levitate things, communicate telepathically, and kill a vampire by levitating a pencil through its heart. Unfortunately, as the show progressed she became so engrossed with magic that it turned into an addiction. So she started to cut back on the magicks for awhile.
It's also important to mention here for the benefit of those who aren't familiar with show that Willow was also know as being one of the rare gay characters found on television at the time. It was a refreshing occurrence to have great lesbian characters. Now gay characters are more standard, if not mostly stereotypical. She and her lover, Tera, had a long-term relationship that was sweet and endearing. Sadly, a villain trying to kill Buffy accidentally shoots and kills Willow's girlfriend Tera. That's when good girl Willow lost it. She turned to the dark side...big time.
Instead of describing every detail in exposition of the events of Willow's fall into the shadows I want to just touch on some of the high points that makes this story arch so damn cool. First of all one has to understand that Willow is the epitome of good. She is a sweet, quiet, introverted type personality. She is very likable, caring, and sensitive. She's a perfect student, a supportive friend, and loving girlfriend. Considering this it makes her fall from grace even more dramatic. After Tera is killed Willow changes dramatically in attitude, appearance and action.
Her demeanor changes first. Looking at her dead girlfriend and her wounded friend Buffy, Willow becomes filled with rage. Willow sets out on a singular goal–to punish the three villains who were responsible.
Charging into the magic shop belonging to the shows characters she uses her telekinesis to fling huge stacks of dark magic books off of their shelves and onto a table. Literally plunging her hands into the open books she draws out the dark power which changes her appearance.
This once red head now has raven black hair, black veins all over her skin and evil tatoo-like symbols briefly cover her face. Also, her outfit changes to a matrix-style black suit. The resulting transformation is Dark Witch Willow! All-in-all she is black, black, black.
Looking bad and acting bad are two different things. Yet Dark Witch Willow definitely lives up to her new tough exterior. After hunting down the man who shot Tera, she tortures and taunts him until finally saying, "Bored now!" and flays him. Yes, just using her magic she rips off his skin and then "poofs" him into oblivion. "One down," she says to her friends who arrived too late to stop her. Then off she vanishes to hunt down the remaining two villains.
Are you all curious what happened next? Guess what this was a cliffhanger! Luckily you don't have to wait, cuz I'm gonna fill you in right now.
Part two of the Dark WItch Willow saga did not disappoint. She tracks down the remaining two guys who are in jail. After putting the guards asleep, Willow uses her powers to rip the walls off of a police station where her two targets are held in the lock-up. She floats up to the fresh hole in the building only to find Buffy rescued the two men already.
Willow lets out a primal gut wrenching scream that could curdle milk and break glass. At this moment we know that a showdown is coming between the two titans; Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dark Witch Willow.
Willow chases after Buffy and the others who are driving away in a car. Just when they think they're in the clear-BOOM. Willow rams into the rear of their car with huge semi truck! Willow isn't driving this truck. Oh no. She is standing upright on the roof of this big truck and is controlling it with her magic. The driver of the truck is still inside, powerless to steer it himself. Luckily for Buffy and crew, all the big stuff Willow had been doing started to drain her evil juice.
After stealing even more dark magic Willow goes back to the Magic Box shop where Buffy is protecting the two baddies that Willow wants to kill. This all leads to the big show down. Bitch against Bitch! Buffy and Willow clash head on in a physical, room-wrecking fight. All this was just Buffy's way of creating a diversion so that the ones she was protecting could get away. Willow just sends a fire ball to track them down while she continues kicking Buffy's ass.
Willow manages to get free pretty fast and then fights Giles. This frees Buffy to go rescue her friends and the two remaining geeks from that nasty fireball that Willow sent to cook 'em up like Kentucky Fried Chicken. The battle between Giles and Dark Witch Willow rages on for some time. Leaving the Magic Box totally destroyed. At one point Giles says "Curso!" and green magic rays fly out of his mouth. Willow is hit but just recovers quickly and says, "that...was ruuude!" With Giles weakened Willow sucks out his powers (no it wasn't dirty). She puts her hand to his chest and draws out the magic Giles borrowed from the English witch coven.
In Buffy's world magic has the same affect on people as a drug. Willow starts seriously tripping out on the magic she drained from poor ol' Rupert. Her buzz gets killed though by the realization that she can now sense everyone on the planet. She feels all the pain and suffering of all the people in the world. What do you think Dark Witch Willow's response to this new revelation is? If you picked anything other than (C) then you need to watch more Buffy. Everything results in the coming of the apocalypse. Willow teleports to Kingman's bluff where a satanic temple was buried years ago in an earthquake. She zaps at this phallic looking devil tower with bursts of black smoke and lightning. And where is Buffy to save the day? She's in a grave hole fighting dirt clod monsters. Yea, that's all I want to say about that.
The true hero this time is Xander, the lovable clown of the Scooby gang. He tells Willow that he loves her and delivers a story about how sweet she used to be cuz she cried in kindergarten after breaking the yellow crayon.
Apparently sappy crayon nostalgia is her soft spot because she ends up in his arms balling. I joke, but it was a very touching scene and one of the best episodes of the show ever. Willow's hair loses it's black coloring and the black veins on her face clear up. Dark Witch Willow is gone, for now! There you have it folks. Another great example of how cool it is when good girls go bad! -Dan |
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It's always interesting to see what happens when good girls go bad. That's the case with Willow Rosenberg from the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I only watched a few episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer the series when it aired on TV. And although I sensed that it was a good show I never got into it then. Luckily a few years later a good friend of mine let me borrow the complete series on DVD. If you watched the whole series of Buffy in order from the beginning, then you know how great it is. The stories, the characters, even the acting was good. And the creature make-up and effects were up there with shows like Star Trek the Next Generation. 
It is a point of geek argument that Willow could have totally cleaned Buffy's clock for good. Either way Willow is stopped temporarily by the return of Rupert Giles, Buffy's old Watcher. (A Watcher in Buffy's world is a person that trains and guides a vampire slayer). This again marked another cliffhanger. The return of Giles was a huge moment and every fan of the show was totally jazzed at what this new twist could mean. In the next episode Giles temporarily stopped Willow using magic powers that he was given by a witch coven in England. Willow just hovers in a big green hula hoop of magic goo for a few minutes while the others regroup.
