post Buffy s4

Willow is possibly the 'nicest' member of the Scooby Gang and she's extremely bright. In addition she seems to have a more than natural talent for magic. Since she first started looking into it after Jenny's death in Season 2, she's come along in leaps and bounds. This *could* make her a prime candidate for recruitment as a soldier of light re Angel and Buffy in I Will Remember You. Let's look at the evidence.

First of all, you have Willow attempting to restore Angel's soul in Becoming II. It's shortly after she's woken up from her bang on the head and she's not exactly feeling her best. She's about halfway through the ritual when it becomes obvious that she's struggling to keep going and is on the verge of passing out. Suddenly she appears to be possessed by *something* that allows her to finish the ritual with no trouble, no hesitation - and in a foreign language! We still do not know for certain who/what helped Willow out, or what their motivation was - First Evil's claim that it was responsible for bringing Angel back from hell in Amends did muddy the waters a bit. However, I think after the revelations about Angel in To Shanshu in LA we can make an educated guess. If we take the text of the scroll of Aberjian at face value (Wesley was able to cure Cordelia of her compulsory vision quest using it) then TPTB have a grand plan. It would appear from the entire section of the scroll devoted to him, that Angel is a major player in said plan. Given that this is something that has been in motion for a long time, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that TPTB took a hand in restoring Angel's soul when they saw Willow wasn't going to make it on her own. This does appear to be the way they prefer to work - waiting to see if things will occur they want them to "naturally" and then coming up with their own solution if necessary. (I view the snowfall at the end of Amends when Buffy has failed to persuade Angel to get inside as another such intervention).

Next there is Willow herself announcing in Choices that (despite her many offers from Ivy League universities) she's going to UC Sunnydale so she can stay and help people by fighting evil. If that doesn't sound like (a) something remarkably heroic, selfless and generally whitehat- ish and (b) an announcement to the Universe - I don't know what does. We don't know what actual recruitment by TPTB amounts to, but I would imagine that reaching the decision that you do want to make a difference and fight evil is a big part of it.

Finally, there are Willow's ventures in the field of magic. She became very interested very quickly in "researching the black arts - for fun" once she had access to Jenny's files. Magic was the only thing that ever caused her go against her mother's wishes (see Gingerbread). She then proceeded to make incredibly rapid progress and has had remarkable success with the spells used to help the Scooby Gang in their battles against the various hellmouth inhabitants - almost as if the learning process was being accelerated. Things only went pear-shaped in Something Blue when, in the midst of her chaotic emotional state over Oz leaving Sunnydale, Willow cast a spell for personal gain (usually a big no-no in white-hat circles) that went horribly wrong. This was possibly also an indication that she had started to overreach herself with her DIY approach to learning magic.

I find it very interesting that Tara made her first appearance in the very next episode after the above debacle. Once Tara and Willow hooked up and started to do magic together, Willow regained her equilibrium both magically and personally, and she and Tara went on to work some major mojo together.

I don't think TPTB are overly concerned about the welfare of individuals (why else would they make Doyle and then Cordelia's visions so painful?). They seem fairly uncaring as to the emotional/physical trauma inflicted upon their instruments just so long as the job gets done - preferably in as quick and efficient way as possible. *However* when it looks as if that emotional or physical harm will actually interfere with "the mission" or even lead to the death of one of their people, they will intervene (albeit trying the indirect approach first - see above). Is it possible that this is what happened with Willow and Tara? Did Tara appear on the scene because TPTB were concerned their latest potential recruit was losing it?

There is definitely more to Tara than meets the eye. Behind her painfully shy and awkward demeanour (which reminds me strongly of early Angel - could it be that Tara has also been similarly cut off from humans for a while?) lies a powerful witch with a great deal of magic and demonology lore. Remember she was the first one to realise that Buffy wasn't Buffy in Who Are You and she also had some very interesting things to say to Buffy about Slayer-Power in the prophetic dream sequences in Restless (see Sententia's Wrestling With Restless). Maybe Tara is in fact an agent of TPTB sent to guide Willow more directly through the rest of her learning period and to rein her back when necessary. This would explain her deliberately spoiling the spell to find the Polgara demon in Goodbye Iowa after previously voicing her concern that "they" (for which I'm reading "Willow") may not be ready for such a venture. Yes, there are other explanations but I'm sticking with this one (until Joss proves me wrong in Season 5 at any rate). I am not sure if the development of Willow and Tara's personal relationship was part of the plan, but it could be. If it is, it puts a very interesting slant on Oz losing control in New Moon Rising and chasing Tara around the college in full daylight, necessitating him having to leave Sunnydale - and Willow - again. As I said, like all successful generals, TPTB can be quite brutally efficient when it comes to the fulfilling of their plans...

At the very least TPTB have utilised Willow and her magic to work their will. However, I think we might just see Willow becoming of interest to Mohra demons (I Will Remember You) next season.


Opinions

Vox 31/8/00
TPTB have a history of assigning people to similar positions. Angel was originally sent to be Buffy's second 'watcher', then when they split and Angel increasingly becomes a warrior in his own right then he himself gets a 'watcher' in the more obvious form of Doyle.

Rmsgrey 4/10/00
If the scrolls of Aberjian are a true prophecy, then it may be that it is actually a binding agreement between TPTB and the First Evil, or whatever you want to call the higher levels of each side. In that case, the attempt to restore Angel's soul succeeding could have been a necessitated by the prophecy - I suspect that the get-out clauses that the First Evil has to negate the prophecy (if there are any) require a decision to be made by the mortals involved - if Willow had chosen not to attempt the spell, or if Angel had chosen to join the bad guys, then there would have been nothing TPTB could have done about it - because the right choices were made, TPTB could intervene to maintain the prophecy. As to Willow's involvement, her choice could have been the one in Something Blue where she rejected D'Hoffyn's offer to make her a vengeance demon, allowing TPTB to send an assistant. My reading of TPTBs apparent callousness is that they are limited in how far they can intervene, and their interventions are easier when they are two-edged in some way, such as the visions or the time loop in I Will Remember You - Angel had to live with the knowledge that he could have been human and had Buffy. Also, the style of TPTB seems to be one of setting up resources that can be used in lots of ways and using the minimum necessary level of intervention to enable the good guys to win, often by bringing together the unlikeliest combinations of elements. For more on my theories about TPTB, see The Major Powers


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