Saturday, November 12, 2011

Willow: Her change from weak and helpless to a force to be reckoned with

Willow's development throughout the seasons of Buffy was definitely the most inspirational. She starts off as a nerdy high schooler with no self confidence who lets people like Cordelia walk all over her. In the first episode when Willow and Buffy talk at The Bronze, Buffy tells Willow to seize her moment. While that almost got Willow killed in that episode, she definitely took the advice to heart. She becomes one of the original Scooby gang, and at times is more useful than anyone because of her brains and, once she realized she was a witch, her power as well.
Willow becomes a more powerful witch then anyone expects her to be. She also, controversially, discovers that she is a lesbian, and falls in love with her fellow witch Tara. Willow went from being a somewhat weak and gentle young girl who was powerless against the people she saw as better than her to being a witch with power stronger than anyone believed that she was capable of. She didn't accept herself, but she found a strong group of friends who always accepted her (with the exception of Cordelia) and helped her do the same. The Scooby gang has a hard time with the idea that one of their best friends is a lesbian, but they love her so they accept her.
Her change from being a weak and helpless individual to being one of the strongest characters on the show is so inspiring because it shows girls that it is okay to be who you are, no matter how nerdy you are or who you love. Once you find your group of true friends, they will love you no matter what and give you the power to accept yourself. Her change was by far the most drastic and the most incredible.

3 comments:

  1. It's true that Willow's character and development are inspiring in many ways--she always seems to be defying expectations--but there are also other things to consider. Even though Willow was initially much less likely to stand up for herself, she has always had a little spark in her and a taste for revenge, as could be seen by her getting the technological one-up on Cordelia throughout season one. Also, even though it's not realistic for everyone to have a Scooby Gang like Willow has, it's still good to know that "true friends" are out there, whether you've found them or not.

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  2. Willow's development was quite interesting because it's common to see characters going from the good side to the bad side or vice versa but this one was a shocker for me because out of all of the characters I would suspect her the least. Until the last moment that she burned Warren I still didn't believe that she would but she did. In the end, she switched to the "bad" side, if that at all can be called so.

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  3. Volkan I completely agree, it is weird to see them go back to their original side. I thought that it was important that her original hair color is red, showing her passionate and fiery side, while her "dark side" hair color is black, showing her emptiness and dark soul. Not only was her emotional journey great, but so was her physical transformation. She turned into a very naive high-schooler with medium length straight hair to a shorter, wavy hair style. I think this symbolizes her "letting her hair down" and being who she truly is, not held back by any social expectations.

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