On a board where the “Name the Buffy episode from the quote” got past four pages, I knew someone would get that. 
Not to prolong this, but for one thing, being extroverted and being snobby have nothing to do with each other. For another, there was nothing “punky” about Kennedy; she was spoiled and self-aggrandizing and, when you got right down to it, quite ordinary (I am tempted to say “bourgeois”). I was thinking along the lines of someone like Lucy in the film All Over Me.
As for Willow having gotten over the stammering/shyness bit, that’s not how I remember the episodes progressing, but on that point I will defer to the experts here.
That’s pretty much how I felt about her - a completely pointless character thrown in so they could have a warm body for Willow to show how she’s ‘over’ Tara.
Well, think about “Beer Bad” (I know, I know). She totally threw down (verbally) on Parker after listening to his “I’m such a sensitive, but modern-outlook kind of guy” spiel. Not stammery or shy in the least (although she gave him that impression somewhat to draw him out). And she hadn’t even met Tara yet at that point.
Me too. My least favorite characters on the show were her and Riley, because they were flat and uninteresting, not because they kept characters apart. I wasn’t even thinking of Buffy/Spike while hating Riley, and I didn’t like Willow/Oz as much as the idea of Willow/Zander…
What I most disliked about Kennedy was the way she jumped into the Scoobies as if she belonged. She questioned Buffy, forced herself in where she wasn’t wanted. I also would have preferred if they had dragged the Willow/Kennedy relationship out so that on the very last episode, you knew they were going to get together, but they didn’t rush it. (Maybe a “please don’t die now that I’ve found you” kiss).
Plus, she wasn’t Tara, and I adored Tara. I thought the Tara/Willow relationship was just terrific.
What, no props for the setup? I think you were the only one that got the “volumey text” reference, anyway.
Oh, and I am forced to scratch my head over the whole Xander or Willow was going to be gay thing. We can’t find an original source, just a lot of references to it having been said, but nothing well cited. So chalk it up to rumor, I guess.
(Just watched that one last night!)
Nuh-uh. Dating one guy way back when, then sharing the rest of your life with women does not make you bi. If Willow calls herself gay, then she’s gay.
Well, not to argue with the expert, overmuch… but if we assume that Willow is indeed entirely gay by the end of season seven - if we assume that was Joss’s intent - that retroactively renders the relationship between her and Oz ‘false.’ “She was never really attracted to him, because she’s gay.”
Now, one could make the argument that maybe Oz is a special exception, in a Chasing-Amy sorta scenario - but considering how little of Willow’s love-life we get to see, saying that is about as well-founded as calling her “lesbianness” “just a phase.” She’s ostensibly heterosexual for the first half of the series - not just for Oz, I should point out, but also getting illicit smoochies from Xander. Then gay for the second half?
Barring severe head injury, there’s a better word for that, and it’s “bisexual”. 
Now, I’m all for letting people label themselves however they like, but if I run outside and scream to the world that I’m a Smurf, that doesn’t mean Gargamel can use me to turn lead into gold.
Or a kid (yes, they were “kids”) who is growing up and figuring things out. A bisexual is someone who’s adult sexual tastes run to both men and women. A kid is a kid. Turned out she wasn’t a nerd as an adult either, but she saw the softer side of sears in Season One. People evolve and figure out what’s in their own head and what their persona and preferences really are as they age.
And yeah, I have sort of a personal interest in not dismissing gay people’s previous hetero relationships as “false.” See post #19. But perhaps that’s an issue better left to Great Debates.
For Willow herself, I think it’s clear that she had a huuuuge crush on Xander in Seasons One and Two, probably from the Yellow Crayon Incident, but it was never a fully developed sexual love, because he wouldn’t let it go there. I don’t think there’s anything to suggest that her love for Oz wasn’t real, but at the same time, it was still an immature, uncertain and awkward love. It was the love of a girl who hadn’t quite become comfortable in her own skin. 'Cause she was gay.
But what seals it for me is her reactions in Him. There’s a gorgeous hunky guy whose jacket has them all under a love spell, and rather than chase after him with Dawn, Buffy and Anya, Willow decides to do a spell to make him a woman first. If she’s bisexual, why bother? This was past the point when Willow had stopped doing frivolous magick. The penis was a bit of an issue for her. That’s pretty gay.
That’s ridiculous. Many gay people manage to have fully straight existences. Some of them are even happy doing it. A girl who grew up being told she was straight by her parents, friends, television, society is going to assume it, and perhaps have doubts, until something drastic happens. Plenty of gay people try going straight. Some straight people try out the whole gay thing. That’s not the same as bisexuality.
Not everyone realizes they’re gay from birth. Some people don’t want to be gay, and will fight it and delude themselves at every opportunity. As WhyNot says, Xander was like a brother to her. He was a “safe” male she could form an emotional attachment to, without much threat of physicality. Notice how they didn’t remain dating when they had the opportunity.
She started dating Oz, who fell hard for her, to get back at Xander. Remember their first kiss? Not exactly storybook love. And as SkipMagic points out, there’s some discongruity between Willow’s reaction to evil!Willow in Doppleganged and the actual character of evil!Willow. Could be she’s overprojecting her own fears into evil!Willow’s signals.
Or, you could just accept that Joss is a jerk, and the Buffybot readout (Gay: 1999 - Present) is accurate. She was straight, and now she’s gay.
Still not bisexuality.
I think Tara and Kennedy not having more backstory about how they came to be such rainbow-flag-waving, totally content lesbians might have been helpful. For all intents and purposes, they were born happily queer, and that doesn’t give Willow’s confusion and struggle much support.
And while you regard that as solid evidence of her… conversion? … I regard it as sloppy writing. I think someone earlier mentioned that Willow might be subconsciously overstating things… she tends to throw herself into “roles” very completely. So she might self-describe as a lesbian when, in fact, she’s still somewhere in between.
Dopplegangland further supports the idea of bisexual Willow, I think. She does seem interested in persons of either gender, from what we can see.
And honestly, I do hope no one’s getting bent out of shape here, I just don’t “buy” that Willow’s a Lesbian as opposed to a Bisexual, based on what the series shows us.
There’s definitely room for vast interpretation in that scene. It shakes things up a bit, under the guise of making us laugh. Same for Him. I think we can have our own Willows.
Especially since I secretly believe Tara belonged with Giles.
Exactly! And Willow with Xander.
Not that I’m biased.
And Faith with me.
You saw that too, huh? I thought I was the only twisted weirdo who noticed. And not in a Penthouse-rompy kind of way, but a sweet and mature love kinda way. The kind of love your parents have for each other. I think it was due to their mutual parental concern over Willow.
Exactly. They were the only two adults in Sunnydale, and Tara, in particular, deserved a more gentle, respectful, equal partner.
For me this comment hits the nail on the head :
She simply ticked me the wrong way.
It had nothing to do with being afraid of change.
Uh, sorry for going askew of the point for a sec, but …
Holy moly! Lindy!!! You’re back in circulation. How have you been? What’s been happinen’? Mail me, man - we’re curious.
CandidGamera basically said everything I’d have said in response.
It’s also worth noting that I hold Willow as a fictional character to different standards than I would a real person. No way in Hell I’m ever going to admit that her relationship with Oz was in any way “less” than her relationships with Tara or, God forbid, Kennedy. Willow is therefore bi and in denial/the victim of sloppy writing.