Willow: I-if you wanted to try out some spells with it sometime, I wouldn’t say no

Tara: Maybe tonight? I mean, if you’re not doing something you could… come over and we could… do something.

Willow: Tonight? That sounds really nice but… tonight I, uhh, already have plans with… people… other.

Tara: Oh, uh ::awkward sigh laugh:: That’s ok. A-another t-time.

All Willow/Tara scenes now affect me on two emotional levels.

1) Awww Tara’s so sad and seems lonely and is totally trying to get it in her shy, careful way

2) Awww this reminds me of the time my lady (before she was my lady//when we first started hanging out) offered to cook me dinner but I declined because I was nervous//wanted to hang out with my friends (but really just lay in my bed and prepare to get drunk later) and she told me way later she was sad.

Anyway, I know it’s late… I-I thought maybe… if you still wanted to… do something?

This is such a perfect representation of that giddy but awkward it’s-late-and-we’re-hanging-out-we’re-totally-gonna-make-out-later moment.

Did people who didn’t totally cheat and skip ahead//that watched it when it first aired freak out the first time they saw this like WAIT I KNOW THAT MOVE THEY’RE TOTALLY GONNA MAKE OUT ZOMG WILLOW’S GAY?!!1

Or was it kinda like “hmmmm”

Nooooooo! Tara’s not boring! She’s patient and caring and understanding and a little shy at first but strong. Riley is the boring one ughhhhh.

Tara’s like the only unequivocally good character in the series. True, she’s not as fleshed out as the rest of them, but what we do see of her is wonderful (also they allude to her going through a reckless selfish period after her mom dies so she’s not perfect, and that time she sabotages a spell so she can hide what she thinks is her true evil nature from Willow and omg the episode about her family coming to take her away on her birthday is so sad but then at the end when she’s dancing with Willow I can’t even I’m gonna cry).

Tara and Willow’s relationship has a beautiful but quiet power. I love the way it starts off really delicately and is developed mostly off-screen with just the little moments of them smiling or holding hands or “I am, you know. Yours,” to let us know that it’s progressing well.

Maybe it’s just the actresses being super talented (which they are) or the writing and direction (which are also good) or I’m just projecting because their relationship is an Important Milestone in terms of representations of lesbians/queer women on television but…

I feel like you can just feel their love for each other way more than any other couple on the show, or really any couple I’ve seen on other tv shows. It’s a mature I got you, you got me kind of love. Not like the moody, dramatic (turned really creepy and abusive) Angel/Buffy stuff. Or even the cute “squeeee I found someone that really likes me!” Willow/Oz infatuation. Those relationships are important and exciting and formative and done well, but…

To me Willow and Tara is the real deal. We don’t really get to see how they would have worked long-term/whether they’d end up happily ever after but we see them falling in love and then their honeymoon period and then the beginnings of their difficult stage. Some of it is queer specific—the fight that they get in when Willow’s insecure about not being good enough at magic/not being out as long is so true to life it’s scary, but who hasn’t had that time in their relationship when they question why their partner wants to be with them/when you realize it’s going to take actual work and compromise and communication and building of trust and more than just affection and good feelings to hold on?

Also the fact that the network specifically forbade showing same-sex physical stuff (they don’t even get an on-screen kiss until they’ve been seriously dating for a full season!) made the writers/directors have to come up with these really ingenious ways of showing them falling in love and getting comfortable with each other and becoming more intimate and we (the audience) have to cling to those little moments. It’s fascinating from a storytelling and script writing point of view and of course it lends itself really well to a queer analysis and has all kinds of implications (see: Buffy Studies).

Also she’s just really really adorable.

Ok fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine, she reminds me a lot of my girlfriend so I love her by default.

Taraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I will learn to make gifs just so I can capture the weird twitchy face thing she does instead of talking when she first sees Willow

“I like you. You’re funny and you’re nicely shaped and, frankly, it’s ludicrous to have these interlocking bodies and not… interlock. ::steps forward:: Please remove your clothing now.”

Bored now.

Is it wrong that I whole-heartedly support this? Well, not this moment, because I wanted it to just continue on in secrecy and never end (until college/Tara, duh).

But still. I like how she totally always kisses him first. And they’re so tender with one another. Aw.

Hottest.

Hotter.

Hot.