Be that as it may, she's the best singer remaining in the cast. I simply couldn't abide losing her.

As for the redundancy of roles...

1) Giles is gone.
2) Willow can no longer use magic. Well, that actually depends on how they play it. If they eventually decide that it's a control issue, she could conceivably return to using magic, though not as much as she once did, and retain control of herself. If they insist on that ridiculous addiction thing, she can never use any again.
3) The magic that Anya used as a vengeance demon hasn't worked since her pendant broke. I don't recall her doing any magic the human way since she became human. I'm not entirely sure that she can. Her wish-fulfilling powers may have been an artifact of whatever type of demon she was, or it might have been the pendant. Either way, I don't think Anya can do magic anymore. (If she could, don't you think she'd have tried doing something to get them out of the house in "Older and Far Away?")
4) Even assuming Anya could work magic, Tara is a natural talent.

I've often wondered how magic works in the Buffyverse, and I've developed a theory. There are certain types of magic that anyone can do. The power in this kind comes entirely from the objects used in the spell or the universe in general. (Xander setting the book on fire in "Superstar" would be an example of this type of thing.) Other kinds of magic seem to depend mainly on the will and the inherent magical energy of the one who does them. For instance, Willow's "my will be done" spell in "Something Blue" or the spell that resurrected Buffy. A person with a weak will or one without appreciable magical potential wouldn't be able to work these spells, or if they did they would only get very weak effects. There also seems to be some kind of sacrifice magic system. That is to say, you can sacrifice something of value in exchange for something else of value. Buffy's resurrection spell has aspects of this. So does shedding Dawn's blood to merge the universes, although both of these spells also have elements from the other types.

This way, someone like Xander would still be able to set things on fire by reading a spell out of a book. However, they wouldn't be able to do things that depended solely on will, like Willow's levitation. The way we've seen human characters work magic in the show supports this. The only ones I can think of offhand who seem to have enough will and inherent magic in them to do spells of the second type well are Willow, Ms. Calendar, Tara, and Jonathan. (Yes, Jonathan. We've seen him change reality and set up a recursive causality loop. He's got the power, even if he is a dork.)

That's why Tara's necessary. She has abilities nobody else in the cast has, unless Dawn spontaneously manifests Willow-level magic tomorrow.

A good argument, since I have not seen season six as my area dosen't get UPN. Personally, I would love to see her family legend come true, and her turn into a horrible demon monster, just as a ultimate double plot twist.

Willow's problem is her use of high level magic. Who put the curse on Angel? Who pulled out the book of "darkest magics" for use on Gloria? Who used the forbidden resurection spell? Who never understood the power of this stuff? Willow. They will proberly let her use magic again, since let's face it, what other reason are Willow and Tara toghether, and we wouldn't want her to become as dull and useless as Xander or Dawn (From what I have read, seems to be now, "I make things", "Bedtime Anya" or "I steal things").

I think the level and experiance theory is good. However, for the most part, magic works like the writter wants it too. If Amy can't be turned back from Rat form for three years, but gods can be stopped then that's the way it is. Or like in a video game.

You forgot about Amy, but I can't see her replacing Tara, since she apparently is a little bitter that it took Willow so long to de-rat her.

Actually, Anya does have the will and the talent for witchcraft. She turned Olaf into a troll before D'Hoffryn recruited her, and Willow offered to help her relearn her forgotten magics. "I know what this is. It's peer pressure. Your'e going to make me smoke and do drugs" (both in Triangle). And she participated in both spells in Dopplegangland. She is merely rusty, and would prefer the easier method of a vengence demon's amulet.

I think that there are also different "flavors" of witchcraft type magic. The spells that Giles can perform are of a generic nature, and different types of magic practitioners perform different kinds of spells. When Giles found out that Ms Calendar was more than just a computer sciences teacher, he asked her if she was a witch. She said that she was not; she was a techno-pagan. Also, the gypsies from which she descended had powers that other "witchy" types did not. One of the reasons that the gang needed to do the enjoining spell in Primevil was that while Giles knew the paralyzing spell, and presumably others that the "SuperBuffy" used against Adam, he was not qualified to perform them.

Willow is one of those rare people who not only can do many different flavors of magic, but can combine them. I don't think that Ms Calendar, or anyone else with less than pure gypsy blood could have restored Angel's soul, but Willow did it on her second attempt. Willow also took a "tiny Tinkerbell light" spell that Tara taught her and "tinkered" it into a "night into day" spell. And the ressurection spell would have failed if Willow had not been the primary in the ritual.

They will proberly let her use magic again, since let's face it, what other reason are Willow and Tara toghether, and we wouldn't want her to become as dull and useless as Xander or Dawn (From what I have read, seems to be now, "I make things", "Bedtime Anya" or "I steal things").

The Xander/Anya thing has taken some interesting twists. I'm kind of liking it, although somewhere in the back of my mind I'm still thinking that Xander needs to be with Willow and nobody else.

Since they seem determined to stick with the addiction storyline, I don't think they'll let Willow use magic again unless the end result of the spell is her death. You don't get to be a partial addict.

You forgot about Amy, but I can't see her replacing Tara, since she apparently is a little bitter that it took Willow so long to de-rat her.

D'OH!

But no, I don't think she'll be back. Willow certainly doesn't trust her anymore, and I think Amy's eventually going to wind up setting herself on fire. There has to come a point where she just can't control what she does.

And she participated in both spells in Dopplegangland.

True, but I'm wondering if that wasn't just because they needed a focus for the spell to work. For example, Xander's no spellcaster, but if he hadn't been there in "Primevil," the spell wouldn't have worked. I'm thinking that even if Anya has Willow or Tara-level potential for magic, she'll never use it again. She likes her money too much. (However, considering the heavy foreshadowing at the end of "Hell's Bells," I wouldn't be surprised if she started using magic of a different form soon...)

The events in Primeval weren't about magic as much as they were about friendship.

Jenny: Everything she said was a lie then, her status as "techno-pagan" was proberly part of the front that Jenny Calender was for Janna Kalendar or whatever her real name was (for her witch status, "Nothing that powerful"). But, Spike did say that Gypsy Magic was behind Dracula's bag of tricks.

Types of Magic: I remember the earlier spells having greater amounts of instructions of what was happening. As FX should start showing the tail end of second season by oh, late March. We can verifiy that then.

Does anyone else think Amy didn't get that fat?

The events in Primeval weren't about magic as much as they were about friendship. Pesti

Almost all of the problems that Buffy and her friends face are parables for real life teen and young adult situations. Joss and the writers make no secret about that. But still, within the Buffyverse the magic is both real and necessary.

True, but that's why Xander had to participate, rather than using Tara or Anya, who knew a bit more about magic. Sometimes, continuity shouldn't stand in the way of good story telling.

I quite agree.

Besides, I can't imagine Anya being the "heart" of the SuperBuffy.

Tara, maybe, but at this point she did not consider herself to be a "real" Scoobie, plus she was hiding things even from Willow. No, it definitely had to be Xander.

[On the other hand, if Angel and/or Oz were still in the picture at this point, would they have had a place in the spell? What else can be added beyond the Spirit (soul), the Mind (intellect), the Heart (emotions) and the Hand (the physical body)?]

No real argument there, I'm just saying he didn't actually contribute anything to the casting. Attributes of him were used in the actual spell, but he's essentially magical dead weight.

Angel and Oz, in my view, are Scooby "Groupies" like Tara and Cordelia, and are not in the same leauge as the four. Although, since we are into, "What if's" Cordelia as part of Superbuffy would be my choice

SPOILER (Whitetext)
It dosen't look like Tara survives. Sorry Matt.

I know. And, drat.

SPOILER FOR "SEEING RED"
Well, Tara, Spike and Anya has been around for almost three seasons. The auxilery characthers seem to have a short life span. The Mains change, and people who were good for them at one part of their life, may not always be that way. Angel, Oz, and Cordie all had to leave the show eventually. Oh, and the auxs get movie deals, but that is an issue for the "Seth Green is jerk" board

Okay, I come up with all these theories about magic, and then Mutant Enemy decides, hey, let's make it an addiction after all, and all bets are off.

I *guess* I liked the finale, but it seemed to me to be the weakest of all the season finales thus far. ("Primevil" would have actually been worse, but thankfully, it was followed by "Restless.") I miss Tara already. While I *don't* agree with the people who claim her death fits the Dead Lesbian stereotype (lesbian or gay man dies as a morality-play judgment of their deviant sexuality), I do feel that her death was ill-handled. Did they really have to get her and Willow back together just one episode before she died? Couldn't they have dropped "Gone," "As You Were," and "Normal Again," and instead devoted some time to rebuilding Willow/Tara in a realistic fashion? The death felt rushed.

Now, about magic. The problem with trying to define it is that every character defines magic differently.

For Anya, magic's just there. She's used it for longer than any other character has been alive. It's as much a part of life as opposable thumbs.

For Buffy and Xander, magic's a tool they can use for butt-kicking. (Well, that part's mostly Buffy.) They have no talent for it and no desire to understand it better. It's there if you need it, but someone else's department.

For Tara and, I believe, Giles (and oh, wasn't it good to see *him* again!), magic is a deep and spiritual thing. A means of sort of connecting oneself to the universe, of allowing oneself to be a conduit for a greater power to express itself. Since these greater powers are so far removed from human understanding, these characters are meticulously careful about how and when and most importantly *why* they use magic, if they choose to do so at all. They recognize that having the talent doesn't give you the right to abuse it.

For Willow, magic is crack. I might have said "magic is power, pure and simple," but after "Smashed" and "Wrecked," it became clear that this wasn't where the show was going. That's really too bad, because a story about power-hungry Willow would have been much more interesting than smack addict Willow. Pretty much all the clunky lines in the finale - "I need a recharge," "Head rush," etc. are a result of this interpretation.

So where does Willow's interpretation leave my theory? Well, the way she works it, all magic exists outside herself. She doesn't seem to have much in the way of inherent power by reason of being alive. Absorbing power from books and having them later be useless to other characters indicates that magic is really a property of objects more than of life. I find this hard to reconcile with the way magic was presented earlier in the series, although it does match with the way Willow has used it when going on previous rampages. (See Willow vs. Glory in "Tough Love" - Willow absorbs power from the books in much the same way she did in "Seeing Red.") This makes me wonder if Willow isn't really a strong natural magic user at all, like Tara is, but merely gifted at extracting the maximum possible power from magical objects and texts. It occurs to me that every time we see her perform major spells, it's been preceded by her first absorbing the energy of books or people into herself. (Or else reading from a text and using some kind of magical object or potion, as in "Becoming" when restoring Angel's soul. Plus she seems to be possessed in that scene.)

Of course, if they hadn't made the boneheaded choice to play it like an *addiction*, none of this would have to be rationalized. I'm waiting for a well-written fanfic series that ignores "Smashed" and "Wrecked" and takes Willow all the way through a power trip instead.

Looking over the last three episodes (Villains to Grave), I agree that "Addiction: Magick as a Drug" was definitely the wrong approach to Willow's problem. Willow on a Power jag, or Willow seduced by the Dark Side ("Darth Rosenberg") would have made her over-reaction to Tara's death flow more logically from her "problem," instead of her feelings and her problem being almost totally separate issues that just happen to complicate each other.

I actually liked the "head rush" comment. I thought it was funny.

The "Lesbian death" would have to be a vaild veiwpoint, given the show's occupations with actions and their consequences. More likely they killed off Tara because the writters enjoy robbing characthers of true romantic happiness, at the brink of it. (Angel turns into Angelus when they have sex, Oz and Willow break up less than year into College and after they had sex, the whole Xander-Cordie-Oz-Willow affair, Spike and Dru, Buffy drives Riley away, they realizes she loves him at last moment, Spike and Buffy's unholy relationship, Anya and Xander break up at the altar)

I will agree with you on Willow's reason and add this. Magic to her has always been a game. She just read spellbooks, went to the chemistry lab, and played. She showed no discipline, no understanding of the forces she was using. She never learned from another magic user, save Tara.

And when you say worse season finale, you mean it in a Temple of Doom sense? You know, I think the Scoobies would avoid May completely.