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By Chris Snellgrove
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Whereas Buffy the Vampire Slayer was full of many stunning 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 change into the Huge Unhealthy. It additionally added salt to the injuries of followers who had been reeling from a season that includes our title character coping with every part from being plucked out of heaven to just about getting raped by her vampire frenemy, Spike. Because it seems, showrunner Joss Whedon really needed to resurrect the fan-favorite character in Season 7 however averted doing so as a result of actor Amber Benson didn’t need it to occur.
How Buffy Was Going To Carry Tara Again
Should you want a bit of 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 change into roughly 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 buddy Xander.
Buffy followers had 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 community, 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? Briefly, 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 pleased.
Amber Benson Had A Belief Challenge
On paper, Buffy’s viewers would have been overjoyed to see the return of Tara, so why did this by no means occur? In line with Amber Benson’s interview within the e-book Into Each Era a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts, one cause 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, nevertheless, 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 had been resurrected by Whedon and that they advised her “Yeah, I got here again… after which he simply did what he needed.” Getting extra particular, Benson mentioned these unnamed actors confided in her that “Though he advised me that he wasn’t going to kill me on this manner, he killed me in that manner.”
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 anyone on the present” and that “it had form of come to a head as I used to be on the point of go away.” She by no means named names, however it seems like she was anxious about dealing with drama from each the showrunner and a minimum of one of many present’s primary actors.
For Buffy followers, these revelations add some crunchy complexity to Tara’s problematic loss of life…for all of the blame Joss Whedon obtained for killing her off, he appeared very enthusiastic to convey her again and solely averted 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 needed 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 they usually at all times come again.
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