Willow and... Faith?!

LGBT viewers latched onto Buffy the Vampire Slayer due to the pairing of Willow and Tara and the other gay characters like Larry Blaisdell and Andrew and made a game of permutations and combinations by putting various same-sex people into fanfic relationships. Some are hinted at like Angel and Spike ("except for that one time") and others may be imagined like Giles and Ethan. A lot of people put Spike and Xander together just because they shared the same basement.

Willow and Faith is just another combination in a long list.

Let's see, who haven't I seen paired yet, how about Gunn and Lorne? Yeah, somebody should write that one since Lorne is played as gay.
Also J August Richards is gay too. To be honest I actually don't mind Gunn and Lorne LOL. Two great characters who don't have much meaningful interaction, apart from the negative in s3. Wouldn't be that bad character development to have him fall for a demon after his prejudice. I'm not saying I would want it to happen in the show or anything, but as a fan pairing it's better than some of the others.

J is an awesome guy in real life too. Always been so cool and funny on instagram with his fans.
 
Faith with a woman, absolutely. But not Willow, they are radically not each other's type and barring one episode on Angel where they worked together okay Willow hates Faith. Buffy is the woman for Faith. I could maybe see her with Cordelia. Perhaps at a stretch Anya, Faith might appreciate her forthrightness. But Willow would not be a good match for Faith at all.

Kennedy and Willow never really made sense to me. I guess it makes sense that Willow would take what happiness she can get if the world might be about to end, but more than that? Honestly, I'd probably have made Willow bi and have Oz return. Would have made sense and been great nostalgia. If the politics of that offends anyone, they can go back and watch Season 4 and see it makes sense.
 
Faith with a woman, absolutely. But not Willow, they are radically not each other's type and barring one episode on Angel where they worked together okay Willow hates Faith. Buffy is the woman for Faith. I could maybe see her with Cordelia. Perhaps at a stretch Anya, Faith might appreciate her forthrightness. But Willow would not be a good match for Faith at all.
Two formerly evil people now making things right - perhaps no blossoming relationship, but I think there could've been a budding friendship between the two. They're a bit older, been through things, so they could probably understand one another better.

Kennedy and Willow never really made sense to me. I guess it makes sense that Willow would take what happiness she can get if the world might be about to end, but more than that? Honestly, I'd probably have made Willow bi and have Oz return. Would have made sense and been great nostalgia. If the politics of that offends anyone, they can go back and watch Season 4 and see it makes sense.

Not the only forced relationship of the season. They also had zero chemistry.
 
Two formerly evil people now making things right - perhaps no blossoming relationship, but I think there could've been a budding friendship between the two. They're a bit older, been through things, so they could probably understand one another better.

Interestingly, this is a basis for Willow/Anya pairings in S7.
 
The entitled side of the LGBT fandom however again, because they are part of a vulnerable minority who have been demonized as whole, people won't want to say that about them out of fear of looking like a homophobe and punching down in general which I get. Still by letting them run rampant, you're not treating them as equals, and worse the more you let these entitled asshats like the ones on X speak for the entire LGBT community as they claim, the more there is likely to be a backlash where everybody does get lumped in with them.
As someone who is both part of the LGBT community (no one come at me, please) and enjoys Buffy/Faith on the hypothetical fanon side of things, I don't think saying this is homophobic at all, and I actually do agree with you. Funny enough, one of the reasons why I started looking for older forums to engage in my fandoms is because on some social media you have to be so careful what you say about characters and shows or else people will dogpile you, especially when it comes to shipping and headcanons. Of course there are extreme fans of every variety, but I do feel that due to the historic demonization of LGBT people in fandoms, as well as current demonization by other fans, musicians/actors/creators are so scared to criticize genuinely toxic behavior. I have been in many TV fandoms with a loud minority that is exactly like what you are describing. Shipping is harmless, headcanons are harmless, and I do both frequently, but when people want their reading of a fictional work to be validated to the point that they're willing to harass the actors and producers over it, it isn't harmless anymore. Speculation and discussing hypothetical character readings is supposed to be for fun; it's not a competition! And you're correct about the backlash as well, I've already noticed people generalizing all "fangirls" or all LGBT people in many social media circles because no one will call out the toxicity. It's very disappointing how sometimes a few bad eggs can ruin the perception of everyone in a group.

Hilariously a lot of these outlets will praise guys with GENUINELY shitty histories with LGBT people. Arnold Schwarzanegger banned gay marriage TWICE, yet The Mary Sue, Rachel Leishman in particular who spent 5 years attacking Gina, praise him and call him a hero. Similarly Pink News as we've been over treat Gina on the level of a child abuser, yet they praise Brad Pitt a man accused of beating his bisexual wife LMAO. However again they don't care about these guys because A/ they are straight white men, so who cares, they don't have that possessive love for them and B/ They are too powerful and it might not be convenient to take them down either
Yes! It's such a double standard! I feel like as a society we could make more change if we focused on criticizing celebrities who are actually bigoted and even abusive in some cases instead of coming after people, especially women, on the basis of the way a social media post was worded or something equally inconsequential. And that's not to say there's nothing to be criticized about insensitive language (speaking generally, I am unfamiliar with this specific situation), but intentions are what matter most. Anyway, to bring this back to Buffy: "I go online sometimes, but everyone's spelling is really bad. It's depressing." But replace "spelling" with "sense of nuance and human decency." Sorry for being controversial, I just read your messages and figured there's probably not anywhere else I can say this stuff since most people seem to have extreme opinions on this topic one way or the other.

Kennedy and Willow never really made sense to me. I guess it makes sense that Willow would take what happiness she can get if the world might be about to end, but more than that? Honestly, I'd probably have made Willow bi and have Oz return. Would have made sense and been great nostalgia. If the politics of that offends anyone, they can go back and watch Season 4 and see it makes sense.
They had no chemistry! I wouldn't mind Oz coming back, but I honestly think Willow should've been alone in season 7. I think it could have been interesting to see her reflect on the previous season and have her arc be about getting past that, then have her be with Oz or a new female character more her type in the comics.
 
G
garfan
They didn't want any chance of Tara being seen as just a phase. The comics were YEARS later and never a guarantee to exist. Maybe if there was a season 8 they would have held off. But that was the onky way
@garfan They didn't want any chance of Tara being seen as just a phase. The comics were YEARS later and never a guarantee to exist. Maybe if there was a season 8 they would have held off. But that was the onky way

I 100% get that! I guess I was just looking at it from the perspective of that both of her past relationships ended poorly (for different reasons, of course). So maybe it would be beneficial for her to reflect on who she is with and without magic, who she is individually, etc. However, I see what you're saying from a logistical standpoint. She and Tara were groundbreaking representation, and after they made the decision to kill off Tara they probably didn't want to cheapen the depth of their relationship by making it seem like experimentation. I do maintain what I said about Kennedy, though. If the writers wanted people to care about Willow's season 7 relationship, they should've 1. put her with a more likeable character and/or a previously existing character and 2. had them meet sooner; half a season isn't enough time to care about a relationship in a show's final season. I guess that relates to the topic of this thread; people disliked that relationship so much they started putting Willow with any other character they could haha. And I don't blame them!
 
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