By Chris Snellgrove
| Printed 9 seconds in the past
Whereas Buffy the Vampire Slayer was crammed with many surprising deaths, none was fairly so emotionally wrenching because the homicide of Willow’s girlfriend Tara close to the tip of Season 6. That loss of life motivated Willow to grow to be the Large Unhealthy. It additionally added salt to the injuries of followers who have been reeling from a season that includes our title character coping with all the things from being plucked out of heaven to almost getting raped by her vampire frenemy, Spike. Because it seems, showrunner Joss Whedon truly wished to resurrect the fan-favorite character in Season 7 however prevented doing so as a result of actor Amber Benson didn’t need it to occur.
How Buffy Was Going To Carry Tara Again
If you happen to want a bit Buffy refresher, Tara died by the hands of Warren, a murderous geek who wasn’t even aiming at her when he fired a gun at Buffy’s home. She died and couldn’t be resurrected, prompting her girlfriend Willow (who had grow to be kind of hooked on channeling darkish magic) to rework right into a black-eyed villain who skinned Warren alive. Later, she endangered the world earlier than being talked again from the brink by childhood good friend Xander.
Buffy followers have been angered by Tara’s loss of life as a result of it was mindless and since she was an LGBTQ+ icon. Whereas Benson later confirmed that Whedon didn’t need to insult the homosexual group, she additionally confirmed that she turned down his provide to resurrect her character. So, how did the showrunner intend to resurrect the character that couldn’t in any other case be introduced again to life by magical means? In brief, there was an aborted Season 7 plot the place Buffy would get an opportunity to have any want granted, and after closely weighing her choices, she would convey Tara again to make Willow completely happy.
Amber Benson Had A Belief Subject
On paper, Buffy’s viewers would have been overjoyed to see the return of Tara, so why did this by no means occur? In accordance with Amber Benson’s interview within the e book Into Each Era a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts, one purpose was her personal profession: coming again to Buffy even briefly would have saved her from directing the 2003 TV miniseries Ghosts of Albion: Legacy. Extra apparently, nonetheless, is that she additionally didn’t need to come again as a result of she didn’t belief how Joss Whedon would deal with her return.
In the identical interview the place she confirmed the Buffy showrunner by no means “meant to harm the LGBTQ+ group,” the Tara actor mentioned, “I didn’t actually belief what was going to occur to the character.” She claims that she spoke to different actors whose characters have been resurrected by Whedon and that they informed her “Yeah, I got here again… after which he simply did what he wished.” Getting extra particular, Benson mentioned these unnamed actors confided in her that “Although he informed me that he wasn’t going to kill me on this approach, he killed me in that approach.”
Due to these points, the beloved Buffy star “simply didn’t really feel tremendous trusting of the scenario” and declined to return as Tara. Elsewhere within the interview, she additionally talked about that she beforehand “had some points with any person on the present” and that “it had sort of come to a head as I used to be on the brink of depart.” She by no means named names, however it appears like she was apprehensive about going through drama from each the showrunner and at the least one of many present’s predominant actors.
For Buffy followers, these revelations add some crunchy complexity to Tara’s problematic loss of life…for all of the blame Joss Whedon acquired for killing her off, he appeared very enthusiastic to convey her again and solely prevented doing so as a result of Amber Benson refused to return. However regardless of her ideas on Whedon’s motivations, there are nonetheless lingering suspicions that he solely wished to convey the character again to silence the loudest critics of Tara’s loss of life. Sadly for Whedon, fan grudges are a bit like vampires: they refuse to die and so they at all times come again.
