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.

Okay, I can see the objection to Willow going from doing magic to having it done to her. But it did make sense to me - she was burning herself out, and Rak was "recharging" her. Similar to the weekend chipper who finds that sniffing heroin doesn't quite make him as able to handle the suckitude of his life any more and gets a friend to shoot him up. Just to get through the work day.

The motivation for her to go to Rak wasn't to float on the ceiling or whatever, but to be able to do as much magic as she wanted the rest of the time.

I really don't think addicts see themselves as giving up control when they do whatever their addiction is. That's the time when, in their minds, they are most in control. When the universe is exactly as it should be and conforming to their wishes, in fact. And isn't that what Willow was doing with magic all along? Bending the universe to her will? Making everything okay?

When Willow zapped Tara's memory, that was an inappropriate use of magic, a short term fix that bit her on the ass when Tara found out abot it. And she tried it again, but bigger, in Tabula Rasa, even though she knew it didn't fix anything the first time and in fact made things worse. That's pretty darn close to a definitition of addiction.

imo, control issues and addictions are two different things, and not mutually exclusive. There are (most likely) different root causes of addictions in different people. Some people do seem to have addictive personalities. Some substances are just horrifically addictive. Some people seem (although scientific support for this waxes and wanes, depending on whom and what you're reading) to have a genetic predisposition for addiction, which can be separate from the addictive personality thing.

I didn't like Wrecked for many reasons. But mostly what I didn't like is what it didn't have. One of the great things about BtVS was that it told me about real life using fairy tale. Through Tabula Rasa, Willow's power issues and magicks use were still in the land of fairy tale, such that you could liken it to an addiction. Wrecked made it into an actual addiction.

It's a lonely corner, my liking Wrecked corner. Not much decor, either. Maybe I should get myself some inspirational posters or something.

The emotional reality of that episode hit me hard. Close to the punch The Body packed. And it's well-nigh thought to be deeply flawed to the point of being complete garbage by people who aren't me.

Well, I have successfully proven that y'all aren't just aspects of myself that appear as words on my computer screen :-)