W/T + 5

[BBOvenGuy]

It may seem hard to believe, but we're coming up on the fifth anniversary of that fateful Wicca Group meeting where Willow first met Tara.



What a wild ride it's been. It's amazing how many things have happened, even for someone like me who is neither a lesbian nor a witch. My interest in W/T has introduced me to so many interesting people, and has led me to do many interesting things. I mean, without W/T I never would have driven around in the desert east of Palmdale in the middle of the night, or been banned for life from a Santa Barbara comic book store.



So what about you? Anybody have any thoughts on this momentous occasion?

"The stories we tell - that's us explaining how we think the world works. Once we speak it, once we say it aloud, that makes it real for us - and real for everyone else who hears it too. When we tell a story, we invite people to visit our reality. We invite them to move in. Our stories are the reality we live in." - David Gerrold, The Martian Child

[The Rose24]

I can't believe it! I still get the same shudders(good ones) everytime I see the handholding scene. PHEW! Something simply awesome happens there!



I am not a lesbian or a witch either, but they definitely restored my faith in true love. W/T are definitely a beautiful couple.

Tara: My heart doesn't stutter.


Tara: Willow, I got so lost.

Willow: I found you. I will always find you.

[werewolf123]

5th anniversary is wood , what gifts would they exchange?

[urnofosiris]

5 years already? Time really does fly, it has been slighty less long for me. I am not sure when I first saw Hush on Dutch TV, I think it was during spring, not sure. I am sure that it was 4 years ago around this time when I found this board. Only a few days after Family aired I ended up surfing right into the Family discussion thread and I have been here ever since. It took me a wee bit longer to warm up to WT than most people here. I was sold during WAY, that Flaming O did it for me. In retrospect I cannot understand why I did not see the magic in the Hush handclasp and the smiles in the end had "hello, in true love now" written all over them.

Edited by: DrG at: 11/13/04 7:30 am

[concrete]

G., you just are a bit slow on the uptake but I for one won’t hold it against you (much). Not sure when I first saw this episode either but I instinctively knew there was more between those two than presumably was intended by their creator. The looks at the end definitely clinched the deal for me!

I have many skills....

[charmedwitchtara]

Wow 5 yrs. I didnt actually see the hush until july last year. in january last year a friend got me into buffy. I saw tara for the first time in seeing red and i instantly saw her and willows connection. After that i went and bought seasons 4 and 5 and i have to say even if i hadnt seen seeing red and didnt know they were g/fs already i still would have seen the connection. yeah ive done some crazy stuff. I think im the reason why the forbidden planet store in croydon earns money, the whole trip to the london expo, hmmm the whole meeting of my friend morgan and a load of other really embaressing stuff.



mel XXX

[CaptMurdock]

Funny. I had been watching Buffy pre-W/T (though even then was my favorite character) but it wasn't until showed up that it became my Must See show.



I credit W/T with being so wonderful, so stirring to the imagination (not just that way, gutterminds! ) that it finally reawakened my muse. The W/T fics I wrote were the first creative writing I had done in nearly ten years.



Five years...from there to forever.

[taralicious]

5 years since "Hush", is it?

I think Jerry Garcia put it best: "What a long strange trip it's been."

As another in the neither a lesbian nor a witch category, the handclasp in the laundry room was the catalyst reaffirming for me the salient and inescapable fact that some unions are larger than those who claim to know what's best for them.

Here we all are, five years later, and the creative splendour of DCP has taken Willow/Tara far beyond their sparsely rendered onscreen personas to lay claim to being the iconic archetypes of two becoming one.

Circumstances will always adapt, shift, and change no matter the variation in thier identities to allow them to find each other and to take up the mantle of their essential oneness.

[WebWarlock]

Wow five years.



I am with most who posted here, neither lesbian, witch or even female for that matter, who saw W/T as something more.



Also like others W/T was a catalyst for me to get my RPG writing career underway. Before all of this I was writing on my own using a “Peter Gabriel” model of writing (take years to do one project, but have every one of them be deeply personal). Course I still follow that model to a degree, I have rolled out a number of W/T based RPG products, both official and fan-made.



In the end we will be our own greatest legacy.



Warlock

Web Warlock, web.warlock@comcast.net, The Other Side.

Liber Mysterium: The D20 Netbook of Witches & The Dragon and the Phoenix: New Adventures of Willow and Tara

"I am the eggman, they are the eggmen. I am the walrus, goo goo g’joob." - The Beatles.

[sam7777]

Congrats to and and to Amber and Aly who played them so well on their 5 year anniversary.



CaptMurdock: Like you I was a Willow fan but I was ready to drop the show until Tara came on board. I wanted more than we got on the show so I discovered the Kitten Board and Pens and that's when W/T really took off for me.



It's great to see that 5 years have passed and still so many folks care about W/T.

_____________________

I still see dead lesbian cliches

[Dana5140]

In fact, the number of fans are still growing- aren't DVDs great!

[Urn of Osiris]

Well I'm on the non lesbian, non witch side of things here too. Although I've been known to dabble.



I'd have to say I've done some very odd and perhaps borderline insane things since discovering my favorite television couple. I adored Willow in all her nerdy glory and loved that she finally found an equal. This board introduced me to wonderful friends and even more importantly wonderful family.



Happy Anniversary! What a great love to celebrate.

Urn of Osiris"All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the Web of Life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

[Garner]

Wow, has it been that long already? It seems like just yesterday the show just started. I find it amazing that when all is said and done, the kitten, W/T fandom, Different Colored Pens is still going strong (though I haven't gotten anything done is ages, blame Tim for that) and that the impact of W/T is still felt so deeply by so many. One would hope that Aly and Amber are as enriched by what they gave us as we are. Like Capt. Murdock, I hadn't written anything in some time and W/T helped me get that fever going again. And the people I've met due to all this are just amazing.



Let's hope 10 years from now the feelings will still be strong and Hush will remain one of the best TV moments. True chemistry is rare and should be treasured.



Garner

[xita]

Urnie, dabble in witchcraft, I am sure? Right? ...



5 years, yes wow. It's amazing. It's amazing being in the fandom since then. So many things have changed and come and gone. We're still here and that's the most amazing thing, that Willow and Tara still inspire people to write and create and just hang out and maybe believe that true love is possible.

- - - - - - - - - - -
"Trust is a risk masquerading as a promise."

[Urn of Osiris]

uh huh, yes Xita that would be the dabbling area.

Urn of OsirisA new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke or worried to death by a frown on the right person's brow. Charles Brower

[Hemiola]

Ah, five years: it's a bit amazing if you think about it...



The anniversary of "Hush" actually brings something to mind--I know that the "Handclasp Scene" is pretty much "Holy Writ" on this board but, interestingly enough, I remember being a little surprised at the time, thinking that the scene should have gone a little differently: it would be the same until immediately after the "flying soda machine", except that after the famous "significant look" between W and T, Willow should have unclasped her hand from Tara, looked at it, and mouthed "Wow!" I always thought that this would be the logical reaction of this novice witch upon discovering what enormous potential lay in the combining of her (at that time) still unformed skills with the power of an experienced practitioner.



At least, that's the way I always thought it should have gone down.

[taralicious]

In terms of lifting Willow/Tara out of the Buffyverse and making them the center of attention, your extension of the "handclasp" scene is spot on.

In strictly literal terms of advancing the plot of "Hush" as written and played out as seen, the extension of that scene would have slowed the action down and let up on the tension of the Gentlemen and their nefarious plans for Sunnydale.

That seeming neglect of building upon Willow/Tara's relationship with pivotal and even quiet scenes with them discovering the eternal bond/connection between them has spurred countless Kittens to their keyboards, notebooks, and what have you to describe their courtship using Different Coloured Pens as their easel.

[BBOvenGuy]

What amazes me is that this community continues to grow, even though Buffy ended a year and a half ago, and even longer ago for many of us. I don't make it to the board as often now that I have a day job again, so it's always a surprise that we're still getting Blessed WannaBes and Floating Roses.

"The stories we tell - that's us explaining how we think the world works. Once we speak it, once we say it aloud, that makes it real for us - and real for everyone else who hears it too. When we tell a story, we invite people to visit our reality. We invite them to move in. Our stories are the reality we live in." - David Gerrold, The Martian Child

[KirkBaldridge]

Count me in the non-witch, non-lesbian and non-male category, though in my heart I would like to think of myself as a lesbian (we DO have the same interest after all).



I watched Buffy from about halfway through the first season to the end. Xander was initially my favorite since I was a lot like him in high school, but I very quickly warmed to Willow and she was easily my favorite before season 2 was over. As the seasons went on and she was developed more as a character, particularly when the whole witchcraft thing started, I began to like her even more.



Then came season 4, and a certain mostly silent episode of my then favorite TV show. Hush introduced me to one Tara Maclay...and frankly, looking back I think maybe I was a little bit smitten with her from the start. I have always had this protective nature come out in me when I am dealing with shy people, and I almost immediately saw Tara as someone I would have befriended. The now iconic handholding scene was something I kind of knew about ahead of time, as it was mentioned as a blurb in a local paper if I remember correctly, but as soon as I saw it on screen I just had a feeling there was something really special going on.



I wondered if it was possible Willow and Tara were really going to get together. I didn't actually get my hopes up, since I figured the censors or the network or whoever would ultimately never allow it. Lo and behold they proved me wrong and look where we are now. The show is long gone now, and for a lot of us Willow and Tara is one of the few (if not the only) things we still remember fondly from start to finish.



Okay, I'm done rambling. Back to my story writing.

[Dave V]

Five years, eh? I remember seeing "Hush" the first time it was broadcast. Creepy, fun stuff. Geek that I am, at the time, Willow was my favourite character, too. Then, that mysterious blonde woman showed up.



For months afterward, my fellow Buffy friends wouldn't believe that an actual relationship was evolving. They've all since moved on, now that Buffy and Angel are gone.



The sweetness and genuineness of W/T's connection is what caught me, I think. I thank Amber and Aly for a large part of that.



Despite everything else that occurred in the show, W/T remains my favourite Buffy relationship and storyline.

[jixer]

Hello Kittens-



Wow, five years!



I have to say that I'd still be writing the great fantasy novel in my head if it hadn't been for Willow and Tara. In their relationship that the craft of the actors made so wonderful I have ideas piling up that I'm sure won't make it to Pens until next year. What's amazing is that Pens will be there after the way most of the rest of Buffy fandom imploded. The latest batch of fics is more than I have time to read, and a few more Kittens come along each week.



So I have to thank W&T for making me actually write, and Amber and Aly for making me smitten with the characters (that don't fit my demagraphic).





Keep purring Kittens!





Jixer

[taralicious]

Yes we are indeed so much the smitten Kittens.

I agree with you wholeheartedly that we, the Willow/Tara fans, have proven to have lifted Willow/Tara from the limbo of post-tv series obscurity and delivered them safely to the land of fan driven fiction where they can romp, thrive, and engage in smutaholic goodness/badness and time has no meaning.

[InsectReflection]

BBOvenGuy mentioned something in the first post about the desert east of Palmdale. I live in Mojave, and often get a kick out of seeing scenes of the Mojave Desert pop up in different scenes of Buffy.



Just curious, but is the "east of Palmdale" reference in the post refer to a place actually in the show that you've found? I'm thinking specifically of the scene where Buffy meets the First Slayer and Tara speaks for her ... have you found that spot? If so, I would DEARLY like to know where it is!!

[BBOvenGuy]

I was referring to the 4 Aces Desert Shooting Location, and the night Xita and I were driving around out there was when they were filming "Spiral" in Season 5. I went out there one other time and found them filming another scene that I won't talk about here.



You can find out about all the locations I've visited on my Location Shoot website, which is here:



www.geocities.com/bboveng...tions.html

"The stories we tell - that's us explaining how we think the world works. Once we speak it, once we say it aloud, that makes it real for us - and real for everyone else who hears it too. When we tell a story, we invite people to visit our reality. We invite them to move in. Our stories are the reality we live in." - David Gerrold, The Martian Child

[InsectReflection]

Alright, let me pick my jaw up off the ground. That is an AMAZING site you've got. I'm not at all a fan of driving around LA, but the next I'm forced to head that way I will certainly be taking a detour to find that park where Tara sang in OMWF.



The one spot I'm still really looking for is from that scene in "Restless" where Buffy meets the First Slayer out in the desert and Tara speaks for her. Anyone have a clue where that might be? Red Rock Canyon springs to mind - may have to drive out that way and look around a bit.

[BBOvenGuy]

Here's where you can find some pics from when we had a "Kitten pilgrimage" to Kenneth Hahn Park a few years ago:



pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bb.../my_photos

"The stories we tell - that's us explaining how we think the world works. Once we speak it, once we say it aloud, that makes it real for us - and real for everyone else who hears it too. When we tell a story, we invite people to visit our reality. We invite them to move in. Our stories are the reality we live in." - David Gerrold, The Martian Child

[CaptMurdock]

Quote:

---

BBOvenGuy mentioned something in the first post about the desert east of Palmdale. I live in Mojave, and often get a kick out of seeing scenes of the Mojave Desert pop up in different scenes of Buffy.

---

[slightly OT]

No kidding?? I live in Mojave. We settled here after our "lost in America" phase.

[/slightly OT]

_________________



"Many such journeys are possible. Let me be your gateway."

[xita]

Ahh, captain, I hadn't realized you had finally settled somewhere. what an interesting place to end up at.



And Bob, haha, I remember that day now. I got so lost. I couldn't even find you. It was fun and worth it at the time though.

- - - - - - - - - - -
"Trust is a risk masquerading as a promise."

[Gatito Grande]

Count me way late to the party, but better late than never, right?



I was inspired to check out the W&V Forum, because I was just watching In the Life on PBS: this month's episode was pretty much dedicated to LGBT representation on TV. And in the course of this retrospective, I was pleasantly surprised to see W/T (pillowtalk from an ep whose title I won't mention, but w/ Willow asking "When did morning happen?" ).



Seeing that made me remember again just how wonderful this relationship was---I mean, IS!



GG . . . and how great it is, five years later, to have the Kitten to celebrate it (not to mention ourselves, in All Our Fabulousness! ) + 4Ever! Out