If Willow had never been born... (concept) by JustWriter +14
Responses: 0
Categories: Alternate Reality
Characters: Angel, Buffy, Cordelia, Giles, Jesse McNally, Kendra, Spike, The Master
Summary:

Firstly, I am no Willow hater; I actually adore the character. But I am intrigued by the idea of a Buffy-verse where there is no Willow and no replacement character for her (like in It's a Wonderful Life when George Bailey wishes he'd never been born, only George was mostly a good influence on those around him while Willow... well I'm realizing now was more of a negative influence. I'm sure she had some positive influence, but I really don't know how except perhaps making Xander and Buffy and Oz less lonely some of the time).

The following two sections not in bold aren't required for the challenge, just observations and speculations on my part:

Examples of Willow's negative influence:

I observed that Willow's treatment of the Buffy-bot (resurrecting, reprogramming, sending it to die protecting people she deems appropriate, controlling it, violating its mind and innards) is somewhat responsible for what led to Buffy's abuse of Spike. Why? Willow treats a being with decision making skills that looked exactly like her best friend in all the ways I just mentioned. Then, subsequently she treated the real Buffy, her own best friend, in that same way, like she was an object and not a person capable of making her own decisions. Buffy also treats Spike like he's an object and not a real person; she didn't used to, and I know a lot of writers like to pin this change on her trauma with Angel/Angelus, but the timing for that argument makes no sense. Buffy also didn't start obsessing over Angel's soul until after Wonder Willow put it back.

Then I thought of how Willow's behavior has negatively affected Buffy and Xander through their dating choices, which she either orchestrated to her design or fiercely disagreed with. Buffy chose Pike and Spike and Willow forcibly persuaded her to choose Angel, Scott Hope, and Riley using deliberate tactics like leading questions and statements, outright instructions, and put downs.

Xander chose Ampata, Cordelia, and Anya against Willow's wishes. All the railing she did and her scheming failed in his case, thank goodness. But what she plotted to do to herself and to him to keep them faithful to their respective relationship partners was scary. The delusting spell seems dangerous in retrospect and I'm really glad Spike interrupted her plans. Why? Well, delusting is not the same thing as making oneself honor one's agreements made in good faith and once again Willow attempted to control things to be the way that she wanted them to be without much research. It could have been disastrous, like what if it was a spell that turned them into magical eunichs and deprived them of any motivation or passion? No hormones, no romantic relationships, not even with their current significant others. No passion, no desire to save people from evil and preserve life.

Possible Changes without Willow:

Anyway, I'm really curious. Show me who Buffy would be friends with, because there wouldn't be any real animosity between Xander and Cordelia to begin with without Willow. Nor would Xander have skateboarded into Buffy without Willow sitting nearby, which prompted their first meeting. Perhaps Xander still overhears Buffy in and Giles in the library and thinks of her as the crazy girl, but would he have even been in that room without braniac Willow for a friend? Buffy and Cordelia began to naturally gravitate towards being friends and if it weren't for Willow, she wouldn't have scared Cordelia in the Bronze and made her think that she was a weird freak. Would Buffy have fallen into old patterns of behavior (a la popular cheerleader at Hemery with only frenemies)?

Spike refers to Buffy's friends and family as her strength in canon, but I constantly observed them being a burden, not a strength, to her. Would Buffy have been less burdened, not having Willow, or equally burdened as her canon self, only with loneliness and shouldering more of her calling? The only observable difference her canon friends made was in life and death situations (like Xander's CPR).

Would Xander have been more bitter and a bit of a bully without Willow's affection and steadfastness? A loner after Jessie's gone?

With Angel still as the creepy stalker ally, instead of a love interest, would Buffy still assume he saved her after being revived with the kiss of life by Xander?

No resurrection of Buffy by Willow's spell, no release of Angelus... Kendra and Ms. Calendar not dying... Jesse rescued... Faith not called yet...

It'd all be very different without Willow. It's kind of mind boggling. I don't think I realized before now how influential her character was to enact the show authors' will on Buffy's life.

It sounds like it'd be one heck of a vengeance wish, Willow seeing how much better off everyone is without her, but also how they may be worse in other ways.

Have at it!