Willow gets a lot of grief from the fandom for various reasons that I probably don't need to go into. (If you've lurked in the Buffy fandom for any length of time, which you have, you already know them all by heart.) But I don't think her actions are necessarily any worse than any of the other characters. Just different. But, that's another lengthy debate -- which I've already had too many times to count. ;-) Suffice it to say, everyone has their favorite and/or least favorite character - which they like to bore everyone to death with -- oh I hate so and so, let me count the ways or oh I adore so and so, let me count the ways. I used to do it with Spike. I think I wrote as many essays as I did on Willow, Buffy, Xander, Giles, etc -- to hide my obsession with Spike or to downplay that just a tad. At any rate, I understand your ambivalence, currently feel the same way about Spike as a character.
Absolutely. Really, I don't think Willow objectively gets more grief in fandom than Xander, or Spike, or Angel, or Buffy herself. It feels like more grief to me sometimes -- but I know that's just because it bothers me the most. When people rant against Xander or Spike or Buffy or whoever, it still bothers me, sometimes a lot -- but most of the time, it feels a little easier to dismiss. I think a lot of the problem is that direct comparisons of which character are worse are always somewhat unfair -- but they are especially unfair with a supernatural show that emphasizes metaphor so much. The point of the series is not really to measure crimes against each other, and even if you did, how do you evaluate them. How much do you count Oz' actions as a werewolf against him? Are Angel and Angelus the same, or are they completely different? Does it make a difference that D'Hoffryn convinced Anya she was doing good in killing men, or is that the flimsiest of rationalizations? How much do we take into account the trauma of being in a war zone -- especially when the shows are also about "everyday life," writ large? Etc.
I think this is very true. What she says in Grave is interesting -- she wants to cure the world of its suffering, just as she wants to cure herself of her own - by ending it. Completely. And she brings back Buffy - partly because she wants to save herself. It's odd though, because before she does so...she's actually very happy, her world goes kablooey after she brings Buffy back, whether that would have happened regardless, I've no clue.
I think it's really interesting that one of the worst things is the discovery that Buffy didn't want to be back. Some of it is guilt, of course -- Willow hurt her friend. But there's something else. Imagine: Buffy really doesn't want to be alive. Existence is torture for her. And this is Buffy -- who for years has been one of the biggest influences on Willow, someone Willow somewhat modeled herself after. While Buffy is Willow's peer in age, and a worse student academically, Buffy was always wiser and worldlier -- and given how little interest Willow's own mother took in her, something like a mother figure, too. It adds to Willow's own despair -- and she brings it up at the end of s6. How can Buffy genuinely claim that the world is worthwhile while Buffy herself hates it here, and more to the point Willow damaged her by bringing her back? Willow saved Buffy to save herself, then tried to save Buffy by killing her, to save-by-killing herself. In some ways, it's also something like a feeling of rejection -- what does it mean, that Buffy would rather be dead than be in a world with her? It's even more pointed when Buffy tries to kill Willow, Xander and Dawn to retreat to her mental hospital world -- which Willow, typically, shows no anger about, until she gives into rage and despair later on ("you lie to your friends when you aren't trying to kill them") -- "mental hospitals are the comfy alternative."
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Absolutely. Really, I don't think Willow objectively gets more grief in fandom than Xander, or Spike, or Angel, or Buffy herself. It feels like more grief to me sometimes -- but I know that's just because it bothers me the most. When people rant against Xander or Spike or Buffy or whoever, it still bothers me, sometimes a lot -- but most of the time, it feels a little easier to dismiss. I think a lot of the problem is that direct comparisons of which character are worse are always somewhat unfair -- but they are especially unfair with a supernatural show that emphasizes metaphor so much. The point of the series is not really to measure crimes against each other, and even if you did, how do you evaluate them. How much do you count Oz' actions as a werewolf against him? Are Angel and Angelus the same, or are they completely different? Does it make a difference that D'Hoffryn convinced Anya she was doing good in killing men, or is that the flimsiest of rationalizations? How much do we take into account the trauma of being in a war zone -- especially when the shows are also about "everyday life," writ large? Etc.
I think this is very true. What she says in Grave is interesting -- she wants to cure the world of its suffering, just as she wants to cure herself of her own - by ending it. Completely. And she brings back Buffy - partly because she wants to save herself. It's odd though, because before she does so...she's actually very happy, her world goes kablooey after she brings Buffy back, whether that would have happened regardless, I've no clue.
I think it's really interesting that one of the worst things is the discovery that Buffy didn't want to be back. Some of it is guilt, of course -- Willow hurt her friend. But there's something else. Imagine: Buffy really doesn't want to be alive. Existence is torture for her. And this is Buffy -- who for years has been one of the biggest influences on Willow, someone Willow somewhat modeled herself after. While Buffy is Willow's peer in age, and a worse student academically, Buffy was always wiser and worldlier -- and given how little interest Willow's own mother took in her, something like a mother figure, too. It adds to Willow's own despair -- and she brings it up at the end of s6. How can Buffy genuinely claim that the world is worthwhile while Buffy herself hates it here, and more to the point Willow damaged her by bringing her back? Willow saved Buffy to save herself, then tried to save Buffy by killing her, to save-by-killing herself. In some ways, it's also something like a feeling of rejection -- what does it mean, that Buffy would rather be dead than be in a world with her? It's even more pointed when Buffy tries to kill Willow, Xander and Dawn to retreat to her mental hospital world -- which Willow, typically, shows no anger about, until she gives into rage and despair later on ("you lie to your friends when you aren't trying to kill them") -- "mental hospitals are the comfy alternative."