Great post. Short version - I agree with you, disagree with Bart. I really like your thoughts on the similarities between Willow's and Buffy's arc. Like rahirah said, DarkWillow is foreshadowed as far back as "I, Robot... You Jane" and is, the clumsiness of the magic=drugs arc* notwithstanding, one of the most consistent characterisations on the show. And it fits quite nicely with the Trio too; like Willow, they're people who have spent their lives feeling disenfranchised ("I'm not your sidekick!") and feel that the world owes them.
* I do rather like stormwreath's fanwank that the point of the addiction arc isn't that magic is a drug, but that the scoobies simply assume it works kind of like the drug addiction they've been taught about in after-school specials... and so they completely mishandle it and it blows up in their faces.
Not to mention that I never did and never will understand the argument that magic was a metaphor for sex in s4 and therefore it can Never Ever be a metaphor for Anything Else Ever In The World Ever, or that villains can't be likeable or relatable at first. Why demand that a work of fiction be less complex than it is?
While I didn't like the magic=drugs stuff until I encountered stormwreath's and similar interpretations/fanwanks, it wasn't until I got into fandom that I found out that people thought that the Dark Willow material at the end of the season wasn't sufficiently about power and hubris to make clear that her arc was back on track, or that it was commonly felt that the magic=drugs stuff ruined the whole Dark Willow arc rather than just muddling it for a few midseason eps. Even the drug references in those episodes seemed so clearly not-the-point that I could slip past it easily (e.g. "and now, Willow's a junkie" is more about Willow's recognition that she's still a failure, ethically and in personality, even powerful, and that's the important point). Nowadays I understand why people do think they aren't sufficient corrective or make things worse, though I sometimes wish I didn't -- a lot of my time in fandom feels like it's been spent mostly getting back to the state I was in before I found out everyone hating it, but able to articulate why it works for me.
Not to mention, I love the structure of Willow trying to revert to a pre-magic self as the solution to her all her problems. While a slow buildup where she gets more and more powerful over the season culminating in the rampage at the end could have worked and well, it seems just so...Willow (and also so in keeping with everyone's coping strategies that year) to run into a wall at some point and then try to cut all the power and agency out of her life, like it's a tumor that needs to be removed rather than a part of her and a part of adulthood she hasn't figured out how to deal with yet. And of course, that's the thing with power -- once you have it, denying that you have it can only last as long as, well, as long as you believe that it's possible to keep living in the world without your power. If that slips away, then all bets are off and it's right where you left it. Which is actually not inappropriate for an addiction story -- Willow's reliance on magic and knowledge as her primary power source to cultivate her identity IS a dependency and safeguard against the world the way people depend on their own coping mechanisms, it's just that this is one that is also totally necessary and central to becoming an adult (power, not necessarily in its magic form) and retreating to effective childhood and damselhood isn't the answer.
* I do rather like stormwreath's fanwank that the point of the addiction arc isn't that magic is a drug, but that the scoobies simply assume it works kind of like the drug addiction they've been taught about in after-school specials... and so they completely mishandle it and it blows up in their faces.
Not to mention that I never did and never will understand the argument that magic was a metaphor for sex in s4 and therefore it can Never Ever be a metaphor for Anything Else Ever In The World Ever, or that villains can't be likeable or relatable at first. Why demand that a work of fiction be less complex than it is?
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Not to mention, I love the structure of Willow trying to revert to a pre-magic self as the solution to her all her problems. While a slow buildup where she gets more and more powerful over the season culminating in the rampage at the end could have worked and well, it seems just so...Willow (and also so in keeping with everyone's coping strategies that year) to run into a wall at some point and then try to cut all the power and agency out of her life, like it's a tumor that needs to be removed rather than a part of her and a part of adulthood she hasn't figured out how to deal with yet. And of course, that's the thing with power -- once you have it, denying that you have it can only last as long as, well, as long as you believe that it's possible to keep living in the world without your power. If that slips away, then all bets are off and it's right where you left it. Which is actually not inappropriate for an addiction story -- Willow's reliance on magic and knowledge as her primary power source to cultivate her identity IS a dependency and safeguard against the world the way people depend on their own coping mechanisms, it's just that this is one that is also totally necessary and central to becoming an adult (power, not necessarily in its magic form) and retreating to effective childhood and damselhood isn't the answer.
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