Author: Sone’t Robinson

Part 2 of 2: Black Friday 

We left off with Uncle Wiley aka Wilbur Cross feeding into our main antagonist Linda Monroe’s want to be adored in order to have her help him bring along the birth of a god aka “Wiggly”. 

Immediate cut to the white house where we find out that Hatchetfield isn’t the only place dealing with this extreme shopper mania. Its all over America at this point and even threatening other countries. The president is wracking his brain for an answer but the search is cut short when a doll is revealed in the white house and they all nearly turn on eachother before a the doll is shot by none other than General Macnamara from TGWDLM. He informs President Goodman that to defeat Wiggly they must step into the black. 

Another cut Becky and Tom are in an empty movie theatre while Becky nurses Toms stab wound. The two begin to share about their lives since high school, Tom expresses guilt for Jane’s death, stating that if Jane were driving the accident wouldn’t have ever happened and that he killed his family. Becky then begins to share her story, meeting Stanely and the beginning of his violent behavior dating back to high school. It is then we find out Stanley never left Becky. Becky found out about Jane’s death and wanted to attend the funeral much to Stanley dismay. But she fought back, he chased her into the woods where she stabbed him in his femoral artery, a blood vessel she only knew about because Stanley encouraged her to be a nurse. After both revelations the two share a song and a passionate kiss. 

Cut back to Macnamara and Goodman, here we learn that there’s another dimension referred to as the black and white, this dimension is led by Wiggly as he is also the dolls and Wilbur Cross(Uncle Wiley) was a man who pledged his loyalty to Wiggly and disappeared not long after and that his goal is to have a birth canal built so he can enter their dimension. 

We cut toy Sherman Young pledging his loyalty to Wiggly to the other residents at the mall, goons bring in Frank and Lex who are bound. After that it is then they introduce their “mother” Linda. Linda slits Frank’s throat after he fails to tell her where to find a Wiggly. She heads over to Lex who denies knowing anything about a Wiggly before a mall cop turned crazed cult follower reveals security tapes from earlier announcing that Lex gave the doll to a little girl with pigtails and a baseball cap, Hannah. Linda sends goons after Hannah as others drag Lex away who’s pleading with them to not hurt her. 

Cut to Hannah, hiding away frightened it is then a spirit who resembles Ethan steps forward and tries to lead Hannah astray, telling her to give the doll to Linda. Wiggly then speaks to Hannah himself but his magic seems to not affect her at all. The come Tom and Becky also turned crazed by Wiggly’s magic they chase Hannah down, Becky wielding a large needle. When they catch her Becky goes to jab her but ends up getting herself instead knocking her unconscious on top of Hannah, who can’t move her while Tom grabs the doll and flees. The crazed shoppers find Hannah and an unconscious Becky and bring them to Linda.   

Cut to Goodman who’s in the black and white being coached by John. After a failed attempt at reasoning with Wilbur and Wiggly John sacrifices himself to allow President Goodman to leave the black and white. 

In the Toy Store Sherman is holding Lex hostage with the same box cutter used to kill Frank to her neck. She gets him to untie her with a promise of mispaint pony toys. She then knees him in the groin once she’s free, this doesn’t work too as in no time Sherman is back on top of her with his hands around her neck. It is then she sees General Macnamara, he informs her that Hannah isn’t only one connected to the black and white. He encourages her to reach in as he holds out his gun, she is able to reach in and take the gun shooting Sherman and saving her own life. Lex then finds Tom who is just about to leave, she manages to break through Wiggly’s trance and reason with him. It is then he realizes that Tim never even asked for the stupid doll he just wanted to spend time with him. 

Meanwhile, Hannah and an unconscious Becky are being taunted by Linda. Her smile quickly dissipates when she sees that Hannah doesn’t have a doll. Right before Linda has the chance to hurt Hannah in her rage Lex walks in holding the doll. Tom comes from another entrance and holds Linda at gunpoint. She seems to be defeated until Lex holds a lighter up to Wiggly and somehow Linda is able to get away and get her hands back on Wiggly. But she doesn’t celebrate for long before Becky appears holding a gun and shoots Linda in the dead center of her forehead, killing her on the spot. 

Lex sets fire to Wiggly leaving him, the shoppers, and the mall to all go up in flames. 

Becky, Lex, Tom, and Hannah watch the mall burn when Paul and Emma come up to him, relieved he is alive and informing him they are just about to leave but Tim refuses to go anywhere without him. When questioned where to go Emma informs them of her cooky reclusive biology professor.

The final song of the musical poses a question ‘What if tomorrow comes” Our final surviving characters including a few characters from TGWDLM circle around and Tom begins a 15-second countdown at one they all look into the sky and the screens fades to black. 

This video has 3.9 million views on YouTube and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars on Kickstarter in order to get created.

I have to be honest I favor this one over TGWDLM. The amount of world-building present within this musical, the lore that revealed the interpersonal relationships we learn about is unmatched compared to the Jazzy rendezvous TGWDLM was, though I also love that one there really is no competition here.

I definitely recommend checking both out.

Part 1 of Part 2: Black Friday 

Ok, so my last blog was a review/non-sensical babble about the first part of Team Starkid’s Hatchetfield Trilogy, The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals. So, it’s only natural that I cover the second part. I’ll try to make this one not so long.  

Black Friday, the second part of the Hatchetfield Trilogy created by Team Starkid, opens up with a bunch of people, not named, adorned in green costumes singing a song about the new toy that’s all the rage and will be hitting the shelves at the Hatchetfield Mall this Black Friday, the Tiggle-Me-Wiggly. The song ends opening credits roll and then boom, Emma and Paul(yes from the last show, I know they died but…moving on) Paul makes his disdain for the musical commercial known Emma hushes him, while dropping to the audience that she’s heading to Tom Houston’s the widowed husband of her deceased sister Jane, where she imagines they’ll be having family time. 

Once they arrive, Tom “greets” them at the door and drops that he just needs them to watch Tim, Jane and Tom’s son, her nephew. While he goes to the hardware store. Much to Tim’s dismay, this news causes him to storm off once he’s out of earshot. Tom reveals to an irate Emma that he’s actually going to the mall to get Tim a Tiggle Me Wiggly Doll. He is then struck with the harsh reality that given the high demand of those dolls it’s unlikely that he’ll get that doll after only getting there an hour before opening, but regardless of Emma and Paul’s logic, he’s determined to get this for Tim. 

Once he arrives at the mall, he sees an old student of his, Lex Foster, out back smoking. He expresses his disappointment towards her quitting high school, to which she responds by doing the same, as Tom quit teaching after Jane’s passing. Their conversation is halted when he runs to get into the lengthy line in front of the toy store. 

We then follow Lex, meeting her cranky, greedy boss Frank as she enters her job, the very toy store Tom was rushing to. Frank is just getting a new shipment of the dolls,, and is ecstatic it is here We see the delivery guy for the first time, identical to the main guy from the commercial, Uncle Wiley. After he leaves, Frank degrades Lex, giving the audience some information about her: she lives in a trailer with her drunk mom and her little sister, who is referred to as “crazy” in the musical. Once Frank leaves, Lex opens the box to begin shelfing but quickly shoves one in her bag, We learn here that she intends to steal and sell the Wiggly-Doll to run away to California with her boyfriend Ethan and her little sister Hannah. Ethan was mentioned far before cluing us in on the fact that he’s a troublemaker, henceforth not really allowed around the mall. He’s watching over Hannah, who is in a tizzy saying a whole bunch of things about “Good-Blood and Bad-Blood” and “The black and white.” We learn a lot of what Hannah can see is shown to her by Webby, an “imaginary” spider who lives in her head. Ethan manages to calm her down and get her to wear Lex’s backpack by giving her a hat, swearing that it could protect her from anything.

After this, we are taken to the toy store line, where citizens are currently waiting to purchase a Wiggly-Doll. A blonde woman, who reveals herself to be Linda Monroe, is a highly wealthy Hatchetfield Boating Society member and wife to the most well-renowned plastic surgeon in Hatchetfield. She doesn’t wait in lines, so she writes a check to a man to get him to trade with her. Catching the attention of Becky Barnes, a nurse at the Hatchetfield Hospital’s pediatric wing. She catches the attention of the rest of the line, who mutter to themselves in annoyance, but no one takes a stance. It is here that we are revealed the truly sadistic, evil personality of Linda Monroe. Not only does she tear down Becky’s hunger for justice, but she twists the knife about the situation surrounding her abusive husband, Stanley, and his recent disappearance, which has been believed by many as him leaving Becky for a younger woman in Clivesdale.

All of a sudden, Tom Houston comes rushing in front of the people behind him, about to ask Becky for her spot before he notices who she is. The two of them were high school sweethearts back in the day, before Becky met Stanley and before Tom got enlisted. We can tell by the interaction that they are far from over each other. 

The doors finally open at the toy store, and Sherman Young, the first man in line, immediately requests to buy every Wiggly they have in stock. The line groans and whines about the price; the idea of limiting the purchase amount to one is not on board for Linda as her four little perfect blonde boys all deserve their own Wiggly. This crowd soon gets violent, physical altercations take place. We move on over to the CineaPlex, where Ethan and Hannah are trying to see a movie. We get a true peek into how much Ethan cares for Lex, and Hannah expresses her fear about an upcoming disaster that’s emerging. The sweet moment is soon cut short when shoppers, deluded by the idea that Ethan has a doll, beat him to death. Leaving Hannah to fend for herself. 

Tom and Becky come across Ethan, but it’s too late. Ethan is dead, and the brief act of kindness gets Tom stabbed by another crazed shopper. Becky takes him away to bandage his wound.

Cut again, we are now following Linda, distressed on the phone with Gerald. Soon, she is approached by Wilbur Cross, who we have seen as Uncle Wiley. He reveals that though Linda doesn’t know him, he knows her; he knows enough about her to know that only two of her four children actually belong to her husband. He preys on her only want in life, which is to be adored. He tells her that she needs to help bring about the birth of a “god”.

Starkid’s Hatchetfield trilogy!!!

The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals

PREPARE TO BE SICK OF ME!! 

This may be well known to anyone who has talked to me about media for over 15 minutes but Starkid Productions itself has plagued my brain since the end of the first semester of junior year. Now they have done much more than Hatchetfield-related work and were well established for the musical they put on in college by the name of “A Very Potter Musical”. Youtube and virality and the time being basically unheard especially by a couple of theatre majors at the University of Michigan. So when this launched them into success it took them by quite a surprise. They went on to release two more of these musicals which were equally as beloved by their increasingly blossoming fanbase. Starkid also played a role in launching Glee’s Darren Criss into stardom. 

But that’s a whole other blog, we’re here to specifically discuss the Hatchetfield trilogy starting with the first Musical in the trilogy. 

Spoiler Warning Ahead. Also this is going to be a long one. 

This trilogy was started by the 2018 show, “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals”. The show follows Paul Matthews a run-of-the-meal tech worker at a company named “CCRP”. Paul is gloriously boring, and he likes it that way. We meet some of his co-workers Ted Spankoffski, the office sleaze-ball, Bill Woodworth, a divorced father yearning for his daughter’s approval, Charlotte Sweetly, a woman having an affair with the aforementioned Ted Spankoffski and stuck in a loveless marriage with her husband who is also not the most admirable. Paul is enamored with a barista by the name of Emma Perkins at the local coffee shop “Beanies”. Emma is very snarky and sarcastic, Paul witnesses her get into an altercation with a customer when she refuses to sing after she tipped him. After the man barges off and Emma is scolded by her manager, Paul walks up to the counter asks for his usual, black coffee then drops a five-dollar bill in the tip jar. Much to Emma’s chagrin she starts singing to which he quickly stops her informing her of his hatred for watching people sing and dance. They engage in brief pleasant conversation before a young boy with low blood sugar has an outburst about his delayed hot chocolate.  

Paul rushes off with a smile, and heads in for the night. The next morning, there’s a news announcement about a meteor that hit the Hatchetfield theatre, much to Bill’s dismay he had planned to take his daughter there to see Mamma Mia with her girlfriend. Paul turns off the tv ignoring it completely. He goes outside and sees the Greenpeace girl, a climate-concerned protester he’d run into the day prior but instead of carrying on their snippy conversation from yesterday she is singing, joined by an entourage of other citizens including kids from Hatchetfield High’s smoke club and the local Homeless man. This freaks Paul out he rushes to work where he tries to explain what happened but sees a distraught Charolette struggling to pour herself coffee. He asks her what’s wrong and she recounts her morning to him listening to her usually pitchy husband sing the same song Paul had heard from the protester except with perfect pitch. 

Paul is called into the office by his boss who has a song of his own, which serves as a kind of fourth wall-break where he enquires about Paul’s wants as the main character must have something to motivate him. Once the song is over he rushes over to Beanies where after a brief scare he sees Emma is still normal. He tries to explain to her what is going on but she obviously has a hard time believing him, they are then interrupted by Emma’s co-workers who pull Emma into this elaborate dance, and she half-heartedly dances along with them as Paul watches mortified. Emma meets her breaking part when there is an entire other eight-count added to the dance. She quits dramatically throwing off her apron in the process it is then revealed to her the gravity of the situation Paul was trying to warn her about. Here it is revealed that a blue substance put into the coffee of the customers causes them to cough and sputter before joining Emma’s coworkers in song and dance.  

Paul and Emma make a run for it and meet Ted, Charlotte, and Bill in an alleyway where they are hiding from the commotion. It is there they inform Paul that their boss has been turning their other coworkers into singing zombies. After a moment of banter, Charlotte’s husband shows up after she calls him for help but unfortunately for them, he has already been turned. Amidst his musical performance, Ted cracks him over the head with a trash can lid and his brain falls out, completely blue and covered in the same blue goo that was in the customer’s coffee. Charlotte seldom leaves her husband in the alley until Emma mentions her professor who has a panic room using his doctorate to convince Charlotte to come along with them, taking Sam along. Once they arrive at Professor Hidgen’s house which is behind the gates, he allows them in disgusted they dared bring “one of them” into his home. He has them tie Sam down and he runs experiments on the blue goo he pulls from Sam’s brain. We also find out that Hidgens theorized this exact scenario twenty years ago. 

Sam and Charolette are left alone for a period of time in which he wakes up and sings a ballad convincing her to untie him. Once she uncuffs him from the chair he picks her up, plunges his hand into her abdomen, and rips out her guts.

 Cut to Paul and Emma getting to know each other better, finding out they went to opposing high schools and Emma’s high school’s showing of Brigadoon’s head started his hate for musicals. Emma confides in Paul about her sister who passed away in a car accident and was the reason she returned to Hatchetfield after leaving to backpack in Guatemala. We learn more about Emma’s upbringing, always having to live in her “perfect” sister’s shadow and having her life be put on display for the first time after her death. We learn about Paul that he loves Hatchetfield and never dreamed of living and in spite of recent events still doesn’t.

This heartfelt moment is interrupted by a singing Charolette who busts into the room guts hanging from her abdomen now the same blue as Sam’s brain. She performs a song, detailing how she’ll make them join her if they won’t do it willingly. Which she’ll do by puking goo into their mouths, causing their organs to renew and be enhanced. Her and Sam’s performance is cut short by Hidgens who saves the dead killing both Sam and Charolette with a shotgun. He reveals to the survivors that the Charlotte they knew was gone the minute she sang her first note, this goo which was connected to the meteorite that hit the Hatchetfield theatre earlier that day. This goo had genetically constructed its victims from the inside out. 

Bill gets a call from his daughter revealing that she had never actually got on the bus to Clivesdale she was supposed to this morning and was trapped in Hatchetfield High surrounded by the singing doubles. He talks off to save her with the help of Paul and the shortcut Emma used to use back in high school. The two men leave but when they find Alice it is too late she is one of them and Bill meets his demise at his daughter’s hands. Paul is almost killed before a man by the name of General McNamera and his army break in and rescue him before also knocking him unconscious. 

Back in the panic room, Emma forms a theory that the musical doubles are all controlled by the meteor and by destroying this hivemind it could destroy the clones too. But Hidgens, enraptured by the idea of a new musical race knocks her and Ted unconscious. 

Cut back to Paul and General McNamara who gives the opportunity to leave the island which Paul refuses to do without Emma. The General gives Paul his gun and tells him to go save Emma. 

He finds Emma and Ted being serenaded by Professor Hidgens performing a song and dance from the musical he spent his years in solitude writing along with musical doubles he let in by opening the gates. These doubles soon turned Hidgens into one of them, but in the distraction Paul, Emma, and Ted were able to escape. At least till the doubles appear out of nowhere to which Ted throws Paul in their direction, and Emma chases after him. Ted is met with the General who he thinks will save him but it’s revealed that he has also been turned, dooming Ted along with the rest.

Emma saves Paul and they make it onto the Helicopter but soon they realize that the woman operating it is also a musical double, in a struggle with the gun, the helicopter crashes still in Hatchetfield. Emma having been impaled by a piece of the helicopter can’t go anywhere, it is up to Paul to save them. He arms himself with grenades and follows Emma’s instructions to try and destroy the meteor. 

Once he gets there, these doubles taunt him urging him to sing along with them Paul tries his best to refuse but his proximity to the hivemind causes notes and dance moves to come out of him against his will. With the last remaining bit of his humanity, he pulls the pin to the grenade and throws it into the meteor. 

The last scene of the musical takes place at the hospital where Emma has had her leg patched up and is in the process of being given a new identity and being moved to a remote plot of land in Colorado, Emma Perkins will be believed to have died in the Hatchetfield catastrophe. After the colonel leaves Paul walks in but Emma’s joy quickly shifts to fear once he begins to sing. An entourage of town folk come from behind the curtain and the play ends with Emma screaming to the audience for help.

You would think that an ending like that wouldn’t lend to another musical but you would be surprised because next along came Black Friday. Which will need its own blog. 

But TGWDLM was well-liked when it came out and is still known as one of Starkid’s most popular pieces at the time of its release, besides the Harry Potter trilogy. This musical does a great job of balancing strong emotions with humor. Emma’s monologue about her sister is heartbreaking but it’s perfectly sandwiched between moments of comedic relief but not in a way that doesn’t allow the audience to sit in these emotions and recognize the depths of these characters. Another instance of this is Bill’s daughter Alice’s death, her double performs a heartbreaking song about the two’s strained relationship confronting Bill with the mistakes he made wracking him with guilt. Watching him confront this while also realizing he had lost his daughter was so beautifully depressing. 

Overall it’s a beautiful piece of work, and I recommend it to anyone who likes horror or apocalyptic media and musicals. Also, the songs don’t take away from the story at all and add to the story whether it reveals characters’ inner-emotions, make revelations to the audience in a playful way, or make moments that would be less entertaining with dialogue more entertaining. 

Ok so basically I have been working on building the world for this like fantasy novel I want to write, and I have been doing this by writing prologue as a way to just get some of baseline lore of this world down. I decided it might be fun to put it out there and possibly get feedback on it. 

A soft breeze blew through spring’s misty air whistling through the trees, rustling through Milo’s rich brown hair making it appear messy, something he couldn’t mind as it’d give Lorena an excuse to run her fingers through it later. It had been a while since he’d seen her, but he had written her everyday, each of her letters still laid on his desk, he thought of them higher than any jewel or any medal, their own special treasure. 

He smiled to himself as he headed toward his stable where his stallion Barnabee stood strong and tall, just as he was.

“Hey there girl” Milo cooed at her running his hands through he main before he saddled her up to prepare for the day. He had many plans for later, he would try and get King Antonio to let him off early so he could go to the Midinite Forest and hunt for Borphis, that would allow him to make Borphida a dish used to show love or adoration. 

It wouldn’t be easy to get the king’s approval, not because he was particularly strict in nature, in fact he and Milo were much more than just the roles they held within the castle. They were in fact best friends ever since they were school boys. Milo’s family had a long history of being loyal servants to the throne, his father had been Antonio’s tutor so they were able to built a friendship that survived till he followed in his fathers footsteps and decided to dedicate his life to protect the throne. Only recent tensions were driving a wedge between the two friends. 

Antonio along with most of the village folk spoke down on Milo and Lorena’s relationship, Lorena took most of the harsher lashes. Rumors that she was merrily using Milo to exceed her certain status as a commoner. Milo knew better than to listen to these false narratives, Lorena’s love for the knight was the realest thing he had ever felt. There was no opinion in the world that could make him doubt that. 

Soon Milo arrived at the castle where he stood in his post for the day until he was alerted by a servant that Queen Calliope had needed him. 

“My Lady? You called?” Milo said  entering her chambers bowing once he was in her presence. 

“Sir Milo, I thank you so much for coming. I am in need of your assistance.” Calliope responded with a fragile voice Milo could tell she was distressed. 

“Of course your highness, it is my pleasure.” he said bowing once again. 

“Oh Milo, please give me a break with the pleasantries you know they’re quite unnecessary.” Calliope paused to allow Milo to stand tall once again. 

“I am worried about Antonio, he seems to not be his usual self.” Calliope informed him twiddling with her fingers and motioning him to a seat. 

“How so?” Milo queried, becoming increasing concerned by observing her mannerism. 

“Locking him in his study for hours at a time, secretly sending letters back and forth.” she answered. 

“How has he been delivering them?” Milo asked. 

“By Harthwool Swallow” she answered looking down. 

This caused Milo’s already growing worry to skyrocket as it was common knowledge that letters delivered by Harthwool Swallows were of not only dire importance but secrecy. He wondered how Calliope even managed to find out about them. 

“I do not wish you to spy on him, I just want to know if he’s alright, I’m sure there’s reasons for his secrecy but I just must know if he’s ok…will you please do this for me?” Calliope begged tears welling in her gorgeous amber eyes. 

“You have my word Madame” he said once again without a bow this time. 

“I infinitely thank you Milo, you’re truly the best among me. I wish to excuse you from your post today. I know there’s a special lady you’d rather be seeing right now. I know Antonio has been quite disapproving of the two of you but I’m sure if you think highly of her she must be quite the lady.” Calliope said, looking at him sympathetically. 

“Thank you my Lady, have a great night. I shall see you in the morrow.” Milo said, trying not to rush out back to Barnabee with excitement.

His feet carried him at a speed that can only be compared to light. He mounted his steed with great haste and carried himself off into the night. He cut through the forest of Niteshade.

There could be found the Brandile, a species comparable to that of a hog, known amongst the kingdom as a delicacy of great romance. Although it is deterred to seek them out as they inhabit the same forest as the night feeders. Inhumane creatures that resemble that of humans but lack the souls of the species they imitate. They’re known for feeding on the flesh and blood of those who are lucky, the others are left half-dead and infected. 

This didn’t stop Milo, he was knight afterall. Bravery pumped through his veins like the women and men before him. He unsheathed his blade and walked into the forest with his head held high. He is hyper aware of his surroundings, a predator. His eyes hooded and blood hungry as he observes the terrain, the  moonlight paints the green fauna a navy blue, it would be beautiful if one wasn’t aware of what lurked in the shadows. 

He crept through the forest, steps soft as to not be detected by anything that lurked in those behind those trees. 

I figured given the new word limit for blogs I ought to dive back into my routes, yapping endlessly about a TV show no one else has seen that ended over twenty years ago. Buffy The Vampire Slayer. 

I am shocked I haven’t written a blog about Willow Rosenberg yet. So guess what this blog is about. 

Willow Rosenberg played by Alyson Hannigan was introduced as Buffy’s goody two shoes best friend. Shy and socially awkward she had very few friends before Buffy, the only one truly being Xander. The comedic relief character for lack of a better word. Throughout the course of the show, Willow discovered her connection to witchcraft which she mixed with her existing knowledge of science. This brought her more out of her shell, and she started to gain a stronger personality away from simply being the nerdy friend. Willow’s first love interest aside from her brief stunt with Xander, was Oz, a short ginger werewolf. I believe he also helped draw out more of Willow’s personality and independence.

Skipping ahead to season four Willow and Oz had broken up, and she was entering college. This is where she meant her second love interest. Tara, the complete opposite of Oz earnestly mirroring an early Willow with a socially awkward and shy attitude. They quickly grew closer with the help of their shared status as witches. 

Willow’s relationship with Tara grew as it did with magic. After she brings back Buffy from the dead, which we later find out ripped her out of heaven. Her relationship with magic revealed itself in an unhealthy light. We start to see her dependence on it for the first time. Giles confronts her after finding out what she did and she is defiant in taking his warnings, a trait never seen before within Willow. Her dependency on magic quickly wedges a gap between her and Tara. Ultimately leading to the end of their relationship when she uses magic to manipulate Tara’s mind into forgetting an argument. 

Speaking of Willow’s relationship with magic it was evident to me that it was an allegory for substance abuse even before hearing the writer of the show confirm this. 

After their break up and almost losing her friendship with Buffy after nearly killing her little sister Dawn, Willow begins to try and get clean from magic. We follow her struggles with not using magic. Eventually she is able to completely stop using magic, being given a very minimal amount of scrutiny at one point but Tara is right there to back her up. 

They end up getting back together but soon after Tara gets shot and killed by Warren. Willow attempts to bring Tara back but is unable to because her death was inherently human and not by supernatural forces the same way Buffy’s was. This catapults Willow back into her magic addiction. Turning her into Dark Willow. She seeks revenge against Tara’s killers. Killing and skinning Warren, she attempts to kill the other two after not being able to and draining the magic from Giles. She sets out to end the world but is deterred by her friendship with Xander. Giles takes her away and helps her try and heal her relationship with magic. After this she doesn’t use magic for a while, except when her and Kennedy get together but it was her underlying guilt for moving on from Tara and killing Warren that caused her to subconsciously cast a spell that turned her into Warren. 

It was great to see Willow deal with that anger and guilt. Tara was a huge part of Willow’s story and it was great to see that she still meant something even after she was gone. As well as confronting Jonah and Andrew (the other men Willow tried to kill) with the role that they played, not letting them be blindly redeemed but seeing them show remorse. 

Seeing the actress for Warren mirror the Actress for Willow’s mannerisms was phenomenal to watch, as well as the way the camera was played with or the moments when they chose to switch out the actors. It was clearly a well thought out decision. 

This experience does scare Willow away from magic but this time she couldn’t run for long. Due to the circumstances her magic was needed to essentially save the world. 

The ending scene of Willow using magic perfectly contrasts the first appearance of Dark Willow. From  pitch black hair with soulless pupils to pristine white hair and her regular eyes. I love the incorporation of her eye color. It almost feels like a symbol of how the magic is not overtaking her, she’s still there behind it.  

Willow’s character ark was very interesting to me. Because to put a character so widely beloved through so much and shine her in a sort of antagonistic light is so interesting.