Tara Maclay

Tara Maclay is a recurring character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in seasons 4-6. She is introduced as a love interest for Willow Rosenberg and soon becomes one of the Scoobies as her relationship with Willow progresses. 
For many young fans, Tara was one of the first openly queer characters they saw on TV, and her canon found family dynamic with the Scoobies is viewed positively by many. As a character who was almost universally loved by Buffy fandom, Tara is a popular character in fanworks. There are gen character studies as well as shipping fics, art and many other fan created works featuring Tara. 
As well as being one of the first openly queer characters on primetime TV, Tara is also one of the earliest and most infamous examples of the Bury Your Gays trope. While her death on the show was a widely known spoiler in fandom at the time, fans were still shocked and angry at the manner of Tara's death. There were many fanworks created in the aftermath: meta essays, fix-it fics and fics focused on other characters' grief. Her death also inspired fan activism and gained media attention. 
Much of the criticism fans leveled at the Buffy writers in 2002, following Tara's death, would appear again over the years as writers on other shows fell into the same trope. 
==Canon==
Tara is a shy young woman, but a powerful witch. She meets and begins a romantic relationship with Willow Rosenberg in season 4. Together, they help Buffy fight evil in Sunnydale. Tara and Willow live together for much of season 5 & 6, adopting a kitten together, Miss Kitty Fantastico. 
On her 20th birthday, Tara's family arrive in Sunnydale to take her home. Tara believes she is a demon and is desperately trying to hide her demon heritage from Willow and their friends. With a little help from Spike, Tara and the scooby gang discover that Tara is fully human. The men of the Maclay family have been lying about their family heritage in order to keep the magical women of the family in line.
For a time, Tara leaves Willow in season six, due to Willow's continued abuse of magic. In the season six episode 'Seeing Red', the two reconcile briefly before Tara is murdered. Her death occurred immediately after their reconciliation and scenes where the two were talking in bed together after having sex. Thus Tara's death was much-criticized for falling into the Dead Lesbian Trope.
===Amber Benson Comments About Tara's Death===
Amber Benson is the actor who portrayed Tara.
In March 2022, Comicbook.com reported Amber Benson's reasoning for not returning to the show to play Tara, despite a number of opportunities to bring the character back (at least briefly) as well as a proposed resurrection in the season finale. In the interview, conducted for the book Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts Benson said that she "truly [didn't] think" showrunner Joss Whedon "meant to hurt the LGBTQ+ community" with Tara's death.
Benson said:
However, Benson also said that one of her reasons for not wanting to return as Tara, in addition to scheduling conflicts and issues with an unnamed person involved with the show, was a lack of trust in what Whedon might do with the character of Tara:
==Fandom==
Tara was a popular and well-liked character, and there are a lot of fanworks featuring Tara. In shipping works, the canonical Willow/Tara is the major pairing. Due to the fragmented nature of Buffyverse fandom, it's impossible to calculate ship rankings, but W/T is probably the most popular pairing for Tara. 
Tara is also a popular character in femslash works not pairing her with Willow. Other femslash pairings for Tara include Buffy/Tara, Faith/Tara and Anya/Tara. There are also het ships for Tara; including Tara/Spike and Xander/Tara.
In fanfiction, there are understandably many works dealing with Tara's death. This includes works where characters have an opportunity to grieve for Tara. There are also many works where Tara lives. In some fics, she is resurrected, or a character may use time travel or a spell to save Tara in a different way. Sometimes her prompt resurrection leads to Tara saving the world, as she is the one to stop Dark!Willow. There are also AU fics where events happen in a slightly different way, and Tara is not killed. This includes works where another character (sometimes Buffy) dies instead of Tara.Fanworks where another character dies so that Tara lives are possibly inspired by comments from the writers. Joss and other writers implied that Tara's death was "necessary" as it was the consequence of a spell Willow performed to bring Buffy back to life. 
Some Tara-centric fics examine the consequences or residual trauma of her abusive childhood. There are alternate first meeting stories or works set in season 4, where Tara is anxious or fearful about others discovering her supposed demon heritage. Alternate First Meeting fics are often stories where Tara arrives in Sunnydale earlier and meets Willow and the Scoobies before season 4. There are also stories where characters leave Sunnydale (or are travelling to Sunnydale) and meet Tara before she goes to college. 
===Tara's Death===
====Spoilers====
Spoilers for Tara's death leaked long before the episode "Seeing Red"'s airdate. 
The episode aired in May 2002 but on March 9th, AnGel X, a well known spoiler source at The Buffy Cross & Stake board had confirmed Tara's death would occur in episode 19 of season 6.Discussion of Spoiler on The Kitten Board, March 09 2002. AnGel X was not the only spoiler to confirm Tara's manner of death around this time but AnGel X chose to share the spoiler with the kittens (W/T fans) at The Kitten Board, a Willow/Tara-centric board, before posting at C&S.Spoilers were a regular feature of Buffyverse fandom. AnGel X posted spoilers for Tara's death in the spoilers thread, and mods and users of the Kitten appreciated that she had delayed posting at C&S to inform them first.
The backlash was almost immediate. Many fans immediately linked the spoiler to the dead/evil lesbian cliche. The Kitten Board's unofficial mantra had for years been "Remember the kitten board mantra: Joss is nuts about Willow/Tara". On the day the spoiler was posted a new mantra was proposed in the spoiler thread "Remember the kitten board mantra: Joss can go to hell." The board was soon updated to display this new mantra on the main page, meaning even casual readers of the board who avoided spoilers were aware that something very bad was about to happen.The whole sad, sordid storya LiveJournal post by kdickson, March 21, 2002. Spoilers for all the controversial plot points in "Seeing Red" were running rampant in Buffyverse fandom at this time and were very difficult to avoid.
Some fans dealt with the spoiler through fanworks. Once More With Bitterness - Soundtrack (link) is a collaborative work by many fans, rewriting the musical episode "Once More with Feeling" to express the reaction of Kitten Board members to news of Tara's upcoming death. It was posted three weeks before "Seeing Red" aired.
====Fan Reaction to "Seeing Red"====
The reaction to Tara's death was swift and almost universally negative. Joss Whedon was heavily criticized for writing Tara's death, causing, as it did, a formerly positive gay relationship to suddenly fulfill two negative stereotypes, that of the mentally unstable gay person (Willow), and the gay person who must die as 'punishment' for their sexuality (Tara). Other fans felt it was unfair to criticize Joss who had previously killed fan-favourite characters with no warning.Final Thoughts (archived link) posted at ink19.com
Some fans refused to believe the spoilers, and even after Tara's death, a small number of fans were hopeful that the character could still return. There were several petitions expressing dissatisfaction at Tara's loss and/or demanding the return of Tara in Season 7.We Love Tara Maclay Petition to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy with 2327 Total Signatures as of April 2005 We want Tara back on Buffy The Vampire Slayer!! Petition to Joss Whedon and Marti Noxon with 1649 Total Signatures as of December 2006. 
Still other fans were angry at showrunners, who they felt had misled fans intentionally, vowing to stop watching Buffy and refusing to watch Joss's new series Firefly. 
Years later, Shipperx referenced something called the kitten jihad in her tongue in cheek diagnostic tool, You Might Have Post-Traumatic Joss Syndrome. This may refer to some fans who allegedly threatened Joss Whedon and other Buffy writers in the aftermath of season six.Comment referencing so called 'kitten jihad' and alleged threats to harm/kill Joss Whedon and others. (8 July 2002) 
The loss of Tara was felt across the usually fragmented Buffyverse fandom. The Bloody Awful Poet Society, a board not associated with Tara or W/T fans, posted BAPS Remembers Tara in May 2002: a letter remembering the character, the actress who played her and expressing sympathy with all Tara fans.
The fan reaction to Tara's death included many fan activities that are now (unfortunately) commonly associated with the deaths of LGBT characters in media. The Kitten Board had a Charity Drive and raised over $8000 for the Trevor Project. Kitten Charity Drive - The Trevor Project raised $8,326.27. Xita, founder of the Kitten Board explained that fans wanted "to make a statement by contributing to something that helps the kind of fans whom Tara was important to: gay and questioning youth."Xita's interview on Page 18 of the The Advocate, Nov 26 2002. 
Much meta was also written, with frequent discussion of the Bury Your Gays trope. The Kitten Board was again very active when it came to contributing meta related to Tara's death. The board's Lesbian Cliche FAQ posted in Sept 2002 was the product of discussions within that community and inspired even more discussion and meta on the topic.
====Related Meta====
* The Death of Tara, the Fall of Willow and The Dead/Evil Lesbian Cliché FAQ aka The Kitten Board's Lesbian Cliche FAQ, 2002
* It's Not Homophobia, But That Doesn't Make It Right, 2002
* Girl on Girl Politics: Willow/Tara and New Approaches to Media Fandom, 2003
* The Dead Evil Lesbian Cliche by gabrielleabelle, 2008.
See also PsychoLesbian at TV Tropes.
===Tara's Legacy===
Tara's death is one of the earliest and widely known examples of the Bury Your Gays trope, and consequently Tara has become the quintessential example of the "dead lesbian" cliché in media representations of queer characters. Many parallels have been drawn between the death of Tara and the deaths of other lesbian characters; with fannish reaction to the killing of canon queer characters often including comparisons to Tara's unnecessary death. 
Most notably, in 2016, several prominent queer female characters in Western TV shows died tragically. Comparison between Tara's death and the death of Commander Lexa in The 100 were almost immediate. Lexa was killed accidentally, by a stray bullet, after sharing a sex scene with Clarke Griffin. The fan backlash was swift and prolonged. Another lesbian character, Denise Cloyd (TWD), died a few weeks later. Criticism of the Dead Lesbian trope arose again in fandom, with many fans tagging Tara Maclay, or referencing her death in posts on the subject. 
On a more positive note, fans also draw parallels between Tara and lesbian characters who have not fallen victim to the dead lesbian cliche. Parallels between Tara and 2016's only bulletproof lesbian, Nicole Haught are common. 
====Fannish Opinions and Comments====
:
===Other Fan Comments===
Looking back on Tara's time on Buffy, fans have expressed frustration that her character was under-utilized and lacked purpose, both emotionally and narratively, beyond her relationship with Willow.
Another source of fannish frustration has been the fact that actress Amber Benson was never credited in the title credits akin to a "main" cast member - until the episode that Tara was killed.
==Notable Fanworks==
===Fanfiction===
* Terra Firma by Tulipp, When Tara returns three months after Grave, Willow and the Scoobies must learn how she came back...and why. (2003, Willow/Tara)
* Impossibly Delightful Flesh by Sadbhyl, In which the Scoobies have a small accident that leads to some major changes in their lives and has them questioning the deeper issues of sexuality, gender, and the heart. (2004, Willow/Tara and other pairings) Notable for its focus on Tara's reaction to a genderswap scenario.
* Quiet as a Mouse by Miranda (Fic author), Events have driven Tara from Sunnydale and five years down the line they start to draw her back in, along with a reluctant Spike. (2006, Tara/Spike)
* The Lamb by Tara the Phoenix, Tara is a hospice nurse in Los Osos, California about to get a new patient: Willow Rosenberg, the sole survivor of the Sunnydale implosion. (2007 or earlier)
* The Wish of Three Hearts by 9kodama, AU Post season 7/end season 6. Tara's been dead for three years. On Tara's birthday, Willow drives out to the remains of crater that was once Sunnydale California to talk to her lost love. She makes a wish, and everything changes. (2010, Willow/Tara)
===Meta===
* The Iron Fist in the Velvet Glove by Kristina, an essay on how one fan chooses to remember Tara (2002)
* Her Insect Reflection: A Tara Maclay Idol Reflection essay by calliopes_pen (2006)
* The Needless Murder of Tara Maclay by AmbersSecretAdmirer, posted at The Essence of Amber Forum (2009)
* A Meta on Willow, Tara, and Magic as Crack or why Tara's death was necessary by shadowkat67, written in reponse to AmbersSecretAdmirer's post at the Essence of Amber (2009)
===Fanvids===
* Tara Maclay || Buffy the Vampire Slayer by foomatic21, Made for Amber Benson's panel at ClexaCon 2019. (2019)
===Other===
*Once More With Bitterness - Soundtrack (link) is a collaborative project by members of the Kitten Board, rewriting the musical episode Once More with Feeling to express the reaction of Kitten Board members to news of Tara's upcoming death. This work is very meta and includes appearances from Joss, Buffy characters and Kitten Board mods and members. Posted April 14 2002 (3 weeks before Seeing Red aired)
==Links and Resources==
* Tara Maclay at Wikipedia - canon resource
* The Essence of Amber, an Amber Benson fansite with an associated forum. (Archived site link, Archived forum link)
===Archives===
* Tara fanfiction at Mystic Muse
* www.tarafic.com (archived link) a Tara/Unconventional archive
* Through the Looking Glass an archive of Willow/Tara Uber fiction
* Extra Flamey (archived link) the Willow/Tara zone of the BtVS Writer's Guild
* A Girls Love (archived link) a Willow/Tara site
* Pouty Lips (archived link), a Spike/Tara site
* Tara Maclay works on Ao3
===Fanlistings===
* Beautiful Tragedy: The Approved Tara Maclay Fanlisting (archived link)
* My Always: The Approved Willow and Tara Relationship Fanlisting (archived link)
* bt.fancy-that.net (archived link), a Buffy/Tara fanlisting
* Yes Please (archived link) a Buffy/Tara relationshipper site and fanlisting, which also archived fanfiction.
=== Mailing Lists ===
* Sticky-fingers
==Notes & References==
===Notes===
===References===
Category:Buffyverse Characters
Category:2022 Featured Articles