Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2022: Week 12
Tara Maclay is a recurring character in Buffy The Vampire Slayer for seasons 4 - 6. She is introduced as a love interest for Willow Rosenberg and soon becomes one of the Scoobies as her relationship with Willow progresses.
For many young fans, Tara was one of the first openly queer characters they saw on TV, and her canon found family dynamic with the Scoobies is viewed positively by many. As a character who was almost universally loved by Buffy fandom, Tara is a popular character in fanworks. There are gen character studies as well as shipping fics, art and many other fan created works featuring Tara.
As well as being one of the first openly queer characters on primetime TV, Tara is also one of the earliest and most infamous examples of the Bury Your Gays trope. While her death was a widely known spoiler in fandom at the time, fans were still shocked and angry at the manner of Tara's death. There were many fanworks created in the aftermath: meta essays, fix-it fics and fics focused on other characters' grief. Her death also inspired fan activism and gained media attention.
Much of the criticism fans leveled at the Buffy writers in 2002, following Tara's death, would appear again over the years as writers on other shows fell into the same trope.