Dear Buffy Season 4:

[alexmegami]

I like women in a sexy way as much as the next bisexual-or-lesbian person.

This was totally not on, though, OK?

Yours truly,
Alex

(Also: goal #17 of 101. Full list here.)

Comments

[sasuran.livejournal.com]

Is that Tara/Willow or something else?

[adagioweapon.livejournal.com]

The only thing that girl does well in that series is die.

[user-lain.livejournal.com]

Shut up, Patrick.

[alexmegami]

Yar. Willow/Oz was way better. :/ Tara's kinda... well... boring.

And if the implication is that they were having sex, then that also kinda comes totally out of left field in the Oz-returning ep.

[user-lain.livejournal.com]

You must be blind, because I saw it coming a mile away. But I'm prescient like that.

[alexmegami]

I don't mean the romance, I mean the actual sex.

[user-lain.livejournal.com]

Oh. Well, c'mon, like they have to show every bump and grind in a relationship?

This was before the L Word, they were being cautious.

[alexmegami]

The best they'd done was hold hands. I mean, even if they'd had the candle thing at the top of the episode (or in some other episode), that would have been at least *something*. Y'know? Otherwise it's a pretty major jump between things to have Oz freaking out like he does.

[user-lain.livejournal.com]

I liked Willow and Tara, I thought that they were sweet together and I don't think that the Season 4 and Season 5 would have happened in the way that it did if Tara hadn't been ridiculously shy and subordinate and painfully socially awkward.

She totally triggered Willow's protective instinct. I couldn't see the same character development in Willow with a stronger, more "feisty" character.

Now, granted, that's not necessarily a good thing for those who envision a different Season 4 and Season 5.

Besides, obviously Willow didn't care enough about Oz since she cheated on him with Xander. And then Oz cheated on her with Veruca. So I suppose if your measuring stick for interesting relationships is infidelity, I guess Tara and Willow are pretty boring. [/snark]

[alexmegami]

Keep in mind that I haven't seen Season 5 yet, and so I'm not exactly taking into account Willow's character development beyond the end of the season.

I'm not saying they aren't sweet. They just aren't... much of anything, really, right now. I mean, the implication is that they are having sex prior to the Oz-returning, but that comes up in exactly zero ways other than 1) a comment by Faith, not exactly the most reliable of sources and 2) Tara "giving" herself to Willow, which I read as Tara's crush on Willow but not vice versa.

For people in a sexual relationship, they're sure not particularly physical or romantic. We're supposed to infer that the deep magical connection = lesbian romance, but Willow never seems to have much interest in Giles (aside from that one offhand comment which is hilarious), who also helps her perform magic routinely.

And as for the cheating, Oz forgave Willow on the first and had to make a really bad decision on the second, and I do think he made the *right* choice out of two terrible ones. *Leaving* was a worse idea (and the consequences made sense).

I just don't *get* any sort of sexual connection between Tara and Willow. It comes kinda out of left field, and that's with me *watching* for it and *knowing* that it turns into a relationship.

[user-lain.livejournal.com]

I didn't see a sexual connection between Willow and Xander either, but I could still see the burgeoning romantic possibility.

I'm suspicious that they proceeded with extreme caution in the presentation of the relationship because it was controversial when it was first put forth. Hell, they don't even get to kiss on-screen until Season Five.

[alexmegami]

Yeah, but that's kinda my point. They play it so safe that even knowing going into the Tara storyline that they wind up an item, I got to the ep where Oz comes back and went "wait, what?"

Otherwise, I really don't see Tara and Willow do much that *Buffy* and Willow don't also do. I mean, even a conversation with Xander, or a spell or -something-. Because even watching for it, I saw "Tara has massive, right now unrequited crush on Willow".

[user-lain.livejournal.com]

Geez, other than the sex and making out what DO college couples do that friends don't do?

If you're going to complain about that, then I don't see why Zoe would want to date Wash, much less marry him. We weren't given anything and just left to accept being told that they were in love from the get-go.

[alexmegami]

Except it's clearly not the same thing, as one is a relationship that's set out from the start, and one is a relationship developed within the course of the series. If Kaylee started having sex with Jayne in episode 4, yeah, I'd want some damn setup for it.

[user-lain.livejournal.com]

But there WAS setup for Tara/Willow.

Willow was a former straight girl, I think that she'd be confused about the exact nature of her feelings. They had that whole stupid conversation about the cat JUST to show Willow and Tara holding hands. Willow wasn't talking to her friends about it yet because I don't think she was ready to reveal the whole "Hey I think I'm a lesbian" thing so it never came up. The network were still pretty conservative because break-out shows like the L Word hadn't aired yet so the producers were cautious in showing blatant romance.

I don't understand how you missed it.

Like Cordelia and Xander weren't out of the blue or Buffy and Spike.

[alexmegami]

There was setup for a *relationship*. There was *not* enough setup for a *sexual* relationship, especially given the shyness levels of Tara and Willow.

Haven't seen Buffy and Spike yet. And Cordelia and Xander was played for laughs precisely *because* it was so out-of-the-blue.

[user-lain.livejournal.com]

Again, the lack of setup for a sexual relationship is entirely because up until that point, sexual relationships between women that weren't bicurious straight women kissing for the titillation of men were NIL, Alex.

Buffy is considered GROUNDBREAKING for the depiction of a long-term, nuanced romantic relationship between two women in a television show originally directed towards teenagers and young adults.

In fact, it was pretty much that year that Queer as Folk made its tentative opening among North American audiences. The success of this show, and of the L Word, couldn't have been anticipated by the producers of Buffy and they were very cautious out of fear of losing their main bulk of their audience.

So, they underplayed the sexual aspect of a romantic relationship. Whoopdifuckingdo. It took forever for Xena and Gabrielle to kiss on-screen and even that was a paltry thing, and yet people manage to make the connection anyway.

[alexmegami]

Will & Grace had been on for two years at this point in TV, though. People talking about gay sex was happening in non-Showcase shows.

And Buffy has told Willow she loves her more often than Tara has, by the end of season 4.

My point is it's not just underplaying, it's completely fucking bypassing. It's not that I "didn't make the connection" - like I said, I was WATCHING for it specifically. I just didn't feel that the -reaction- from Oz was in proportion to where I would -reasonably expect- the Willow/Tara relationship to be at, given the way they were acting.

Honestly, it feels like the producers were trying to move slow, and then Seth Green suddenly had to leave the show for good, so something that by rights should have come in sometime in season 5 feels like it happens WAY too early and is too much of a leap.

And you know, it's TV. That happens. Whatever. That doesn't negate the fact that it winds up being *bad storytelling*, IMO.

[user-lain.livejournal.com]

If you paid attention to Will & Grace, they sure talked alot about him being gay but he didn't get to kiss-kiss another guy until 2005. People talk about it, but no one does anything.

The year 2000 was, largely, considered the Big Year for same-sex depictions.

You said you were watching specifically for it. I wasn't and I still caught it. I thought it was romantic and that it didn't necessarily have to be about sex and I DON'T think they slept together that night (I DO think that they slept together at the end of the episode) but that Oz realized that Tara had supplanted him emotionally. Seeing her in Willow's sweater was just the proverbial straw and that stuff about smelling Willow on her was his intepretation of what he was smelling. He knew Willow was distracted and Tara was always clearer on her feelings (apparently she knew she was gay longer) than Willow. Because since dogs can sniff out cancer, I don't think it's a stretch for werewolves to be able to sniff out "true love".

Ugh, did I just say true love?

Of course, you know what would have solved this whole Oz/Willow/Tara thing? A hot threesome.

[alexmegami]

And I'm pretty sure I did say that even some sort of verbal confirmation would have been OK by me. That even the candle moment being the episode previous would have been enough.

See, I kind of looked at that and went, "You know what? Girls borrow each other's clothes. Willow and Buffy even talk about having done -that- in an earlier ep. For Oz to freak out that she's wearing a sweater of Willow's is... errrrr... overreacting much?"

[user-lain.livejournal.com]

Eh. I like Willow and Tara, they really really grow together as a couple.

I felt that I got enough of a start because the rest of the relationship paid off. And this is distracting me from TwilightWank, which is raking in the lulz so let's just agree to disagree?

[sae.livejournal.com]

I remember watching S4 when it was airing and being irked at how the end of the Oz relationship was handled. I forgave them eventually but it was massive disconnect.

I could totally accept really discreet Willow-Tara sexytimes developing suddenly and offscreen (as TV storytelling I find it really cool) but in conjunction with the total 180 Oz-is-now-a-jerk-and-he-smells-the-sex-pheremones-DIE plotline, not feeling it.

[alexmegami]

See, I'm okay with one or the other, but not both.

I can see Oz freaking out over Tara if there were *any* indication that they were that far along (and seriously, the episode IMMEDIATELY prior is the Riley/Buffy fuckathon, they can't show a lesbian kiss? I call shenanigans).

And I can see the slow development if they'd held off on Oz coming back until after a declaration of some sort.

And admittedly there's also an element of "they replaced a taciturn, but witty and interesting person with... a taciturn, awkward person. Why is this slotted in the win column?"

[extramild.livejournal.com]

see, I agree with you about the set up for a relationship, just not a sexual relationship. I can also see how the producers might have decided to go cautiously, as it was one of the first lesbian relationships I remember being portrayed on TV (that wasn't showcase after midnight). Either way, I like Kennedy better. she was hotter.
also-Zoe and Wash were the cutest couple ever, obviously in love AND having sex, as seen in..crap..which ever episode it was where they were both naked and it was their day off..and they decided to have more sex.