The Joss interview had yet another version of the "why Amber Benson didn't appear in Season 7" story. It just gets weirder and weirder.
WHEDON: Plan A was to bring Tara back.
IGNFF: I heard there were some failed discussions about that.
WHEDON: Amber didn't want to do it. She wanted to do other things. I had a whole – I used to tell people, "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to have her in a couple of flashbacks, keep her alive, and then at the end ..." I had a whole show figured out that ended with the return of Tara. I used to cry every time I pitched it. It was going to be Tara's her one true love, people are going to be blown away, they'll never see it coming – except on the Internet – and it's going to be just about the biggest thing. Quite frankly, Amber just didn't want to do it – which is her decision. I was like, "Okay, the thing where I cried, and we all cried, and I told you about? That's gone. So, instead, we're going to go out and find somebody really hot, and we're going to make this about moving on, because that's the only option we have.
I had a whole show figured out that ended with the return of Tara.
I really can't stand the thought of how much better this would have made Willow's arc in S7 for me. If I think about it too much - I get really really sad.
hatekennedy.hateherhateher.
editted to say really one more time 'cause what the hell.
He's a weirdo.
Yeah. This version doesn't really make sense in light of the CWDP shooting script.
Bad Joss. Want Real Giles!, not Cheap Joke Giles.But the Tara story made me go "Aw!"
I've heard that "alternate S7 with Returned Tara" thing before, and I don't believe a word of it.
I'm not sure I believe it, but still I find it touching.
I don't believe a word of it.
why not?
(hoping for an answer that will ease my pain)
(hoping for an answer that will ease my pain)
I don't know what Jess' answer will be, but for me, they went through a LOT of trouble at the end of S6 to make it known that Tara was dead, dead, dead, dead as fucking stone and that there was Jack and Shit to be done about it.
I would have been very upset to have that nullified, no matter how happy the return of Tara would have made me.
Mostly because it sounds a lot like some of the bullshit he and Marti and SG were making up on the Wild at Heart commentary.
And because I can't believe that they'd cap off Buffy's year of post-mortem depression by rewarding the woman who put her there with the return of her true love from the dead. The show's always been about forgiveness, but it's generally people forgiving each other, not the universe handing out candy and flowers.
[And What Sean Said, too.]
