What people were saying about Willow/Tara back in 1999...

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Title:	What people were saying about Willow/Tara back in 1999...
Creator:	stormwreath
Date(s):	31st August 2009
Medium:	online
Fandom:	Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Topic:	Willow/Tara
External Links:	What people were saying about Willow/Tara back in 1999...), Archived version
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What people were saying about Willow/Tara back in 1999... is a meta post by stormwreath looking back at fandoms reaction to Willow/Tara.

Excerpts

gabrielleabelle recently posted on the oh-so-subtle "let's do spells together!" metaphor of Willow and Tara in Season 4, and wondered if anyone was actually fooled. And since I wasn't around in fandom at the time, I got curious, and searched around in the Google Groups archive for alt-tv-buffy-v-slayer for 1999/2000 to see what the fans were saying back when Season 4 was first broadcast.

Here are some extracts:

Some people were seeing the subtext the moment 'Hush' was aired:

It's not just that they held hands. It was the entire scene -- Willow is startled by Tara's touch, Tara's hand slips underneath hers, they lace their fingers, Tara has this "dare I hope?" expression on her face. The lesbian claims are not just wishful thinking. They might not be right, but neither are they completely without basis.

Particularly since they were being chased by freaky floating guys. I'd have thought they would have been a lot more anxious. (If that were the main emotion to convey, I would have had Tara forcefully grab Willow's hand, shake it a couple of times as if to say, concentrate! But they didn't stage it that way.) The only non-sensual explanation I can come up with is that Tara was tentative; the slow groping expressed hesitation about using her power and not something sensual. Personally, I'm going with the sensual explanation until the show demonstrates to the contrary. It fits the staging, it fits the final conversation between Tara and Willow, it fits with alt.Willow.

(I assume 'alt.Willow is a reference to vampire!Willow from 'Doppelgangland' and the whole "I thnk I'm kinda gay!" controversy. I'm also a bit boggled by the idea of Tara, of all people, forcefully grabbing Willow's hand and shaking it and saying "Concentrate!". *g* But this was her first appearance on the show.)

That doesn't mean Tara's a potential love interest, of course, but my first thought after they slammed the drink machine against the door was "climax". I'll take the subtext even further and point out the same thing I did with Spike earlier this season. If Willow IS attracted to Tara, notice the girl she's attracted to is a powerful blonde?

(Spike/Harmony, Willow/Tara, Xander/Anya... everybody subconsciously wants to sleep with Buffy.)

But not everybody was convinced:

Is this the wetdream of little Buffy fanboys? I watched "Hush" last night and didn't derive any lesbian hinting whatsoever. Willow found a "kindred spirit-witch" and a good friend, that's all. Ok fanboys, here's a lesson on women...just because they hold hands, hug, or even kiss does not mean they are lesbians.

Why are you so eager to see a lesbian Willow? It seems that you are the one who is reaching here. This is the 4th season for Gods sake, don't you think it would have come out by now. My prediction is that this is going to be debated until the final episode of the last season. If Joss wanted Willow to be lesbian then don't you think he could manage to write this into a script? The only way Willow is going to turn out to be lesbian is if the ratings get so low that they think this would boost them up. And right after that they would probably kill off the Willow character.

But you know, any intense scene between 2 women MUST mean they're budding lesbians.

Which got other people annoyed:

I'm just curious why some people seem *SO* desperate to see no subtext whatsoever between Tara and Willow. Some people seem just as evangelical in their determination NOT to see anything remotely readable as subtext, as those who preach for it. I'm seeing lots of posts starting along the lines of... "I have nothing against Lesbianism... BUT..."

It got to the point where the WB were issuing official denials that there were going to be lesbian scenes in Season 4:

WB officials deny that the intimate scenes on "Buffy" will get that far. "There is no sexual relationship between" Willow and her new friend, a WB spokeswoman said. "They're witches and they're friends and they get along."

- but as someone immediately pointed out:

Note, IS no sexual relationship, not WILL NEVER BE.

And finally, in late January 2000 (after the broadcast of 'A New Man'), Joss let the cat out of the bag with a post on the Bronze Posting Board, which I'll quote in full:

Well, we meant it to be SUBTEXT, but you guys have obviously worked it out. Yes, Willow is becoming a Monkey-owner. I just hope we don't get a lot of protest from Christian Right Groups over this.

Marginally more seriously, Willow and Tara's relationship is definitely romantic. Thorny subject; the writers and I have had long topics about how to deal with the subject responsibly, without writing a story that sounds like people spent a long time discussing how to deal with it responsibly. To me it feels just right. ALL the relationships on the show are sort of romantic (Hence the B Y O Subtext principle) and this feels like the natural next step for her. I can only promise you two things for sure: We're not going to do an ALLY or PARTY OF5 in which we promote the hell out of a same sex relationship for exploitation value that we take back by the end of the ep, and we will never have a very special Buffy where someone gets on a soapbox and... oh, I nodded off for a moment there. I just know there's a sweet story there, that would become very complicated if Oz were to show up again. Which he will.

As will Faith. I'm shooting an ep with the irrepressable Eliza now and it's great fun. She's gonna shake things up.