Contributed by Ronald Byrd
College students Willow and Tara are members of “the Scooby Gang,” allies of Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer, who is this generation’s “Chosen One” to protect the world from evil. Willow and her longtime best friend, Xander Harris, have been Buffy’s allies since early in her career, while Tara joined the group a few years later when she moved to Sunnydale to escape her oppressive family. Other friends of Buffy’s include keeper of mystic knowledge (or “Watcher”) Rupert Giles and the ex-demon Anya, Xander’s girlfriend. They are also occasionally aided by the vampire Spike. A shy, studious Jewish girl, Willow began to take an interest in Wicca and witchcraft as a result of the mystic phenomena she encountered alongside Buffy and her other friends. Although Willow was originally romantically involved with werewolf Daniel “Oz” Osborne, following his departure from Sunnydale she met Tara, whose mother was a powerful witch, at a Wiccan group meeting, and the two gradually fell in love. With their cat Miss Kitty Fantastico, the couple now share a dorm room at Sunnydale College and are valuable partners to Buffy in her war against vampires, demons, and other evil supernatural entities.
Willow and Tara are both reasonably skilled witches, able to manipulate supernatural energy via the use of incantations and enchanted objects for a variety of effects, such as levitation, teleportation, communication with the dead, and other such skills. Willow is also a computer expert.
Tara’s character in the Buffy comic mirrored her television character’s fate. Willow’s first appearance on the show is “Welcome to the Hellmouth,” episode #1. For Tara it is “Hush,” Episde #66. Wilow’s comic version debuted in Buffy, The Vampire Slayer #1 and Tara in #29. On television they were outed in :”New Moon Rising,” episode #75 and their comic dopplegangers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer #30 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lover’s Walk.
Note: this profile was originally written and published before Tara’s death. It was only retrieved after having disappeared for a number of years.
Read the profiles for Lake Stevens and Kennedy.
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