Lexi. I totally understand how you feel. To me also the way they go about Tara’s death is all wrong. I really think that they should have gone about it in a different way. I actually would have much preferred it if Tara had died in ‘Tabula Rasa’ instead of ‘Seeing Red’. Yeah, she’d have a significantly shorter appearance in the show but least her arc into becoming autonomous wouldn’t have been undermined.
I feel like Tara dying while she had no idea who she was would have been quite poetic for her and I feel like this was the way Whedon originally wanted to kill her off in Season 6. I don’t think she was ever supposed to make it passed the break-up stage of her and Willow’s relationship. I don’t think Willow and Tara breaking up and then getting back together a few episodes later was ever really the plan for Tara’s character arc. Just for Willow’s arc.
The problem with creating this autonomous character arc for her and then killing her off in this way is that they’ve started something they never really intended to conclude. Giving us something substantial just to take it away. And this is much of the problem I have with Season 7 as well. Where they set up and build significant character theme and narrative structure only to just neglect it or even dump it in the end. Putting off addressing and dealing with it properly for as long as they can before deciding discarding it completely is what they should have done all along. Tara should have died when Whedon initially wanted her to die. He should have never listened to the fans because instead what has happened by doing so is he has insulted them by starting to build something with her character that he never really meant to finish off because her death was always what was going to happen in her arc anyway. And what little character development she had in the season was now just completely pointless because they don’t do anything substantial with it. All they did with it was show us that the character refuses to be mistreated any longer but when push comes to shove, their feelings of loneliness and emptiness are stronger and because the character is more about forgive and forget, they just let that happen without reason. They should have never written that storyline for her if all they were going to do with it was just undermine it. Make it feel as if it’s not as important as they originally made it out to be.
And people keep saying that that’s the point of her death happening when and where and why it did. The whole point is for her death to hit so harshly and so suddenly. But all it does for me is just lands hollow because the character themselves has nothing really to do with it. So it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to killing her character off like that in my opinion. The reason why Tara died should have been because of Willow abusing magic and her through it. That would have sent her on an even worse destructive spiral than she went on during those last 3 episodes, culminating in the finale hitting even harder. Much like with Season 4, the Big Bad came in too late and therefore there wasn’t much you could do with them. The only reason why it still works is because we already know who Willow is. We have known for the whole show. And they play that card. The “I can’t believe this is Willow. This is not the Willow I know.” When actually, yes, we have always known that Willow. We’ve just never had a proper exploration of that side of her character before. The Dark Willow arc is that exploration. But I say that the arc is not long enough for it to be really impactful and for Tara’s character to be more than a plot device in it. Yeah, her death is the catalyst for it to happen in the first place. But it always would be no matter when or where or why. So long as it was her that died, Dark Willow would have always emerged from the shadows. I believe that Whedon made the wrong call with it and should have just stuck to his plans from the get go. Should have killed Tara off earlier in the season so that the purpose of her death had to do with her arc too and so the Dark Willow arc could have lasted longer. Tara should have never died from a gun shot. One that she had no awareness was ever coming her way. Nor one that was accidental. I think the unfairness of it all would have hit just as well had her death been purposeful to Tara’s character as well as to Willows. They’ve already told the story of an unpredictable death before and it hit hard enough then and there. They did not need to repeat that same story with Tara. With a Scooby. Who meant more than a plot device. That’s what really grinds my gears about Tara’s death. It’s not that it’s her death. It’s that it is HER death.
It’s not her death that matters. She would have died anyway. It’s the character that does. Does that make any sense? It’s that her death doesn’t feel purposeful to HER as a character. Only Willow’s character. And the reason why it lands so hollow for me with it happening after the breaking up and making up is because they built the whole arc for her character to leave and then come back of her own volition. So her agency is made out to be all important and then it’s not. So they built all of that just to take it all away. It hurts. But it doesn’t hurt in the way it’s meant to. It’s a dull ache. It’s an empty ache. It’s an unsatisfied ache. You don’t feel upset about her death. You just feel angry. I know that’s the point of it. But the point is pointless if there’s no meaning to her death other than “Oops”. Because SHE deserves much much more than that. If all you can feel is anger about it, then there’s no catharsis. There’s no hurt that makes you cry. Makes you grieve. Makes you release. There’s only an ache. And the ache never goes away.
That might be necessary storytelling one time or two times because they did it with Jenny and Joyce. A third time with Tara isn’t and is just cruel. Especially because she IS a Scooby. So I feel you Lexi, in that all that you can feel is anger. I also understand other people’s perspective that the point is to only feel anger because we’re supposed to resonate and agree with Willow in wanting to track and hunt Warren down and make him pay for it all. And that is delicious pay off, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that Tara herself doesn’t have a purposeful or satisfying end to her own arc. So maybe it was better if they never built it at all and she always remained unautonmous instead in that other people always controlled her affairs and governed her life and death. ‘Cause having it be just an accident was just a massive fucking insult to the character herself. Never mind the whole bury your gays and recovery from addiction sides of it. That’s an insult too but not as much as it is for Tara.
