Restless: if I could only take one episode to a desert island, that would be the one.

But I can say that, perhaps alone, I liked the addicted to magic storyline of S6. I don't even understand what you people are complaining about.

The reason I hate it with the fire of a thousand nuns because it made me feel as if Marti had actually gone to a hardware store, bought an anvil, and personally came around to my house, and dropped it on my head.

I felt it had no foundation within the show

I was on board with the "addicted to magic" metaphor in the sense of "addicted to hang gliding"

Ar one level it's about the adrenalin rush, similar to "Itching for a good kill" Faith - and Buffy - have. Why else would Buffy go hunt vampires in preference to more sex with Riley? (There may be better examples - but work with me here 'K?)

That had foundation as far back as Dark Age Giles "It's an incredible high".
As it could be seen in Willow at the end of DMP: big scare - not going there again. well perhaps just...

And at another level it's a sense of achievement similar to Buffy's "There is something I can do better than anyone else in the world".
This is something Willow can do good that gives her a sense of self-worth. And insecure Reliable Dog Geyser Person needs that. Something where she can be in control.

In S6 Boss of Us is in control, but because she is the least self-aware person ever (OMWF "Do I have to fight to keep you? 'Cause I'm not large with the butch." Right. Move against someone Willow cares about and the girl has one response. It usually involves the use of blunt or sharp objects) who believes she would never go over the limit she goes to Sabrina the Teenage Witch overuse.

Anya saw it "I'm serious. Responsible people are ... always so concerned with ... being good all the time, that when they finally get a taste of being bad ... they can't get enough. It's like all (gestures) kablooey."

Then out of left field: Forget the "addicted to magic" metaphor. Magic is not a metaphor for something you can do, sometimes excessively.
Magic IS an actual physical drug you go and buy at the local rack-house.

Apart from violating the whole Willow does magic because it gives her a sense of being in control concept, it's crazy troll logic of the order of "Willow is addicted to power, so in this episode she has a droud fitted in her brain and becomes a wirehead"

Plus there was the jonesed-out, shaky stealing of sage. Gah. I get annoyed just thinking about it. Go to the grocery store!

Love Restless.

RESTLESS rocks!!! You are with the right people here.

Apart from violating the whole Willow does magic because it gives her a sense of being in control concept

Okay, I just don't see the violation. Some people drink because it makes them feel like they're in control. I felt the Rak business just illustrated how far out of control Willow was. Seemed like a plausible progression, to me.

Then again, subtlety is often lost on me, so maybe it's just a question of how obvious we like our anvils.

The stealing of sage, otoh, just made me laugh.

Some people drink because it makes them feel like they're in control.

But then some people drink because of the actual benefits "It tastes great, makes women appear more attractive, and makes a person virtually invulnerable to criticism"

My problem with the whole season 6 thing is very much like Allan's.

There was an excellent story with loads of potential just ready to go with Willow. For well over a season the show had been building the idea that Willow was getting obsessed with power, overusing her magic, and generally trying to use her special abilities as a quick-fix for all problems. Tara had issues with it, and the audience understood: Willow was going to dangerous places.

OMWF and Tabula Rosa were approaching the ultimate pinnacle of this story as we had it, but I feel the story was not yet blooming for real. I had great hopes for the next few, Willow-focused stories, as this problem developed and was hopefully, at least temporarily, brought to a good conclusion.

And then there was Smashed. Willow, inexplicably, did what she had never been able to do and brought Amy back. Fine. I can let some silliness fly. Amy took Willow out on the town, and convinced her to do some CRAZY stuff (pausing the Bronze, etc. I only have vague memories of this stuff, but I think I'm right.) which seemed sort of in the vein of correct, if not especially well executed.

But then there was Rak. At Rak's place, Willow didn't DO magic. She had magic DONE to her. She turned into a druggy. This didn't have ANYTHING to do with the previous story. It had nothing to do with Willow - I got the distinct impression that Rak could have done his mojo on anybody. Dawn could have been under his spell. Xander could have been under his spell. Hell, I could have been under his spell. This wasn't even a metaphor of "magic = drugs" it was a metaphor of "supernatural drugs = drugs." Willow wasn't even addicted to magic, in the sense that it had anything to do with her performing of magic, she was addicted to this particular experience of mystical pleasure from an outside source.

A story that actually explored something interesting about a character I loved was completely sidetracked by a poorly written, poorly conceived excuse for a story that later PRETENDED to be what the original story was about. I mean, honestly, what did her being addicted to something some guy was doing to her have anything to do with her magic use? They seem unrelated to me, so why did she quit using magic? That particular thing, rather crucial for the rest of the season, only matters if the storyline used was the ORIGINAL story, where Willow becomes addicted to USING her magic, and then, upon realizing, quits what she's addicted to cold turkey. If she's addicted to Rak's magic only then she should quit going to him, but should feel no need to quit her normal magic use.

Other people were more eloquent, but I want to chip in anyway. (This is why I didn't last long as a lurker.)

Willow's not an addictive personality. She's all about the the control. That's her weakness, she wants to control everything, cause she's been hurt and so have her friends and she wants it not to happen again, and she thinks she can make that happen.

Her potential to evil is that she can regard her fight with Tara as a problem to be fixed in Tara. She debugged her girlfriend like she would a computer and seemed not notice the mmagnitude of what she was taking away from Tara. She thinks she's right, when she's got this massive dangerous blind spot, she won't listen to anyone about it, and she's got massive amounts of power.

None of which has anything to do with addiction. And by spatchcocking that plotline in there, they removed the chance for us to see her actual descent and it's real consequences, and thereby, destroyed any interest I had in Willow as a character, permanently. And that's why I hate magic!crack. It violating five and half years of continuity is peanuts in comparision.

Okay, having reread your post -t, I must add, I don't know that much about addiction. I'm basing a lot of this off my being a control freak, and knowing how far addiction is from my personality.

But then there was Rak. At Rak's place, Willow didn't DO magic. She had magic DONE to her.

Yes this! Thank you Nova for articulating what made this ring untrue for me.

Many people who feel obligated to be in control all the time have some type of escape where they are out of control. It could be drugs or alcohol; it could be submissive sex; it could be extreme sports. But it's something DIFFERENT from what they do in day-to-day life. With Willow, they took the one domain where she was most in control & made it into a mechanism for her to cede control. Made no sense at all! And it was a totally unnecessary move, plot-wise, because at the finale, Willow was back to controlling magic again.

I think this may be why B/S worked for me. I saw it as Buffy finding one area in her life where somebody else was driving. It may have been horrible & abusive, but at least it wasn't her trying to save the world . . . again.

Just adding that I agree: B/S totally works. I don't love it, I find it somewhat painful pretty much all the way through, but it rings true to me.

Whereas the magic!crack does not.

Maybe my first foray into fic will be a rewrite of Smashed, Wrecked, etc, where some sort of error she makes DOING magic causes her to give it up. Then we can find Alyson Hannigan, and make her film it.

I honestly think that, with that story not so bad, season 6 would have been one of my favorite couple of seasons. Many things about it were just so wonderful.