Tara's "missing year"

[AutumnT]

quote:

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Originally posted by The Rose:
Here, Here Warduke.

Why are some people so dead set on Tara being
with someone other than Willow?

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I'm not "dead set" on that. I think you are misreading. I just think it is possible that someone at that age has had a previous girlfriend. Why else would Willow have those lines in "Tough Love" about the lesbo street cred and Tara being the first woman she'd been with? To me that indicated that she knew Tara had some experience before her. Not trying to start anything - it really doesn't bother me either way.

quote:

[Warduke]

Ok, I will say one last time that I think that Tara was a virgin before Willow, that's just my opinion but if it turns out that she wasn't, then that's not the end of the world, it's no big deal really, all I really care about is W/T now, not what was before W/T, and I am really tired of discussing this (like the always fun Willow...bi/gay?), so you guys have fun if you want to keep talking about it but that's it for me

[Spell Gal]

Hmmm, I'm one of those people who always assumed that Tara was a year ahead of Willow at UC Sunnydale. Someone asked why people assumed that?

For me, it was the fact that Tara had a single dorm room (although I admit that I know nothing about that in actuality, only what I have seen on tv, but most freshman seem to have a roomate?) and also that Tara seemed to know about courses available (when she was helping Willow with what to choose next semester) and I would have assumed that Willow would have had a good idea about courses as well, so I always just kinda assumed that Tara had been there longer.

Also there was the fact that Tara is older than Willow.

I never really considered that she hadn't been there longer...

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And how long have you known that your girlfriend's Tinkerbell?

[tommo]

So let me get this right...Tara was a virgin before Willow? Sigh.

Honestly, does it matter? What matters to me now is that W/T are shagging frequently. And they enjoy it. And it's good.

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"Welcome to the nancy tribe."

[fell]

i took tara's words in "under your spell" to imply that she'd been very much alone and was used to being ignored until she met willow. there's certainly room to interpret it either way, though i lean toward willow being her first.

another comment from "family" that caught my attention was her father's statement, "we haven't heard from you in months". since this was early in their sophmore year it implies (to me) two things: first, that she was in school on a full scholarship or had independent means (an inheritance?) and wasn't being supported by her family; and second, that she didn't go home for the summer.

this comment, as well as the ones about her birthday, etc., don't make any sense if she has only been out of touch since school started.

obviously she spent the summer with willow, though we don't know where. the important thing is that they were together.

[fell]

quote:

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Originally posted by AutumnT:
I think Willow is her first love, but not necessarily her first sexual experience.

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if one assumes we're talking about homosexual experience, i think the opposite is actually more likely. like rane says, we all bring our own experiences and emotional baggage to discussions like this, so it's all a matter of opinion and conjecture unless the writers tell us otherwise.

i remember all too well having intense crushes on (presumably) totally straight girls as a teen and asking myself, "am i the only girl in the world who feels this way?" even after my first love affair i was convinced i was the only queer girl in my entire town, if not the whole state.

it seems reasonable to assume that tara might have been through what is a common progression for many: first, realizing that not everyone has these feelings, then coming to feel like a freak of nature, and finally (hopefully) realizing who you are and deciding that's okay. given the fact of tara's shyness and the things she's said about herself i think it's reasonable to assume that while willow is not the first girl she's been attracted to, she's the first she's been seriously involved with.

on the age question, i'm not convinced that tara's more than a few months older than buffy or willow and i'm certain she's in the same grade. as far as her having a single as a freshman, what we know about sunnydale points to the likelihood of there being lots of low-priced off-campus student housing.quote:

[Fuzz]

Oh..the age.
it's official that Tara was born in 1980
And Willow was born in 1982
( It's on UPN site http://www.buffyupn.com/players_main.html. )

But I think they are studying in same year though.

[xita]

My question is where in the show have they said Willow's age?

[Wiccagrrl]

Xita, as far as I know they haven't. We've never had a Willow birthday party, and I don't remember them ever stating her age on the show.

[Scoobiedoo]

quote:

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Originally posted by Fuzz:
Oh..the age.
it's official that Tara was born in 1980
And Willow was born in 1982
( It's on UPN site http://www.buffyupn.com/players_main.html. )

But I think they are studying in same year though.

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I don't know whether i'd rely too much on the bio in the upn site. I know it's the official one and all, but they have, in tara's bio:

"Apparently, Tara is the daughter of a very powerful witch who died when she was a child. "

Tara herself stated that her mother died when she was 17 (The body)...and I really don't think that is the age you would refer to someone as a child.

Ok...now i'm just being pedantic. (oh no...i don't think that's how you spell pedantic...)

quote:

[Web Warlock]

I can see Willow be passed up a year.
Plus with the way some school districts are Tara's november birthday would mean she would not have started scool till she was 5 and spent most of her first year at 6.

So that would place them 1 school year apart.

I do get the feeling that Tara split soon after her mother's death (woulddn't you?).

Warlock.

------------------
Web Warlock
web.warlock@home.com webwarlock@planetadnd.com
Author, the Netbooks of Witches and Warlocks
The Other Side: http://www.xtreme-gaming.com/~theotherside/
The DnD Community Council: http://www.dndcommunitycouncil.org/nbownw
--
"It could be witches, Some evil witches.
Which is ridiculous, 'Cause witches, they were persecuted Wicca good and love the earth
And women power and I'll be over here."

[Corporeal Dennis]

Sorry to open a can of worms. I'm quick to accept apocryphal sources of data about the show (though, curiously, I don't consider novels or comics to be particularly canon), thus the whole "Willow's middle name is Danielle, 'cause that was in an early version of the script of "Bad Girls"" thing and so forth.

The only character ages/birthdays we know for sure are Buffy (age and birthday), Dawn (age), and Tara (age and birthday). We know that in "Welcome to the Hellmouth", Willow commented in passing about a time in history when she and Xander were five ("We broke up." "Why?" "He stole my Barbie. We were five."), but that could easily have been a convenience of conversation. Or the good web-construction people at UPN could simply be wrong. Until it shows up more clearly in an episode, it's open to debate, I suppose...

It should also be kept firmly in mind that Joss has admitted that he sucks at math.

(edited to add a further smartass remark)

[This message has been edited by Corporeal Dennis (edited November 19, 2001).]

[Fuzz]

quote:

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Originally posted by Scoobiedoo:
Ok...now i'm just being pedantic. (oh no...i don't think that's how you spell pedantic...)

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I don't even know what's pedantic quote:

[lustitana]

As for Tara's family saying they "hadn't heard from her in months". Its very possible that Tara split the second she finished high school, leaving her gone for the summer and the 3 months of the school year. Which would make the comment make a little more sense. Of course her father could be lying or exagerating. After all, he doesn't exactly have a reputation for being truthful.

[wiccie]

OK, I'm a cranky-bear today and I'm here to be difficult.

What does it matter if Tara has been at UCS for 3 months or 1 year longer than Willow? I mean, we saw from her appearance in "Hush" that she's probably not burning up the campus social circuit or going to frat keggers.

What's wrong with Tara just having a quiet, bookish, shy, lonely, *and* gay college life before meeting Willow? She said in "under Your Skirt, um, Spell" that she accepted her place living in the shadows.

Maybe she sat in on a few Lesbian Alliance meetings. Maybe she studied magic in her illegally-painted dormroom. Maybe, like the greater percentage of today's gay youth, she fully realized her sexuality and "came out" long before she had sex or fell in love or whatever.

All that matters to me is that she met Willow, they fell in love, and were - until quite recently - blissfully happy.

Going back under my bridge now, to wait for juicy, delicious children with my Billy Goat Gruff.

[This message has been edited by wiccie (edited November 19, 2001).]

[Dumbsaint]

quote:

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Originally posted by Corporeal Dennis:
Any guesses about her birthday? I'm guessing mid-June. She seems very cancerian to me.

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Willow has always struck me as being really Piscean. And especially now with the addiction/self-delusion storyline. Don't get me wrong, Pisces is my favorite sign (not a word to the Leos!) but they are prone to illusions of all kinds as well as negative escapism and addiction.

Hey Bex, is your cute lil butt in this thread? You said a while back that you had worked up a natal chart scenario type thing for Will, right? *poke* I still wanna see that. I've been thinking about doing one lately... break out the astrobabble, baby... yeehaw!

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Shiver me timberless.quote:

[Web Warlock]

I would guess by the shear lack of mention of it that hers and Xander's birthdays are over the summer.

Wouldn't it be strange if the days were close so that they regularly celebrated them together. It is the odd kinda thing I would expect to find.

Warlock.

------------------
Web Warlock
web.warlock@home.com webwarlock@planetadnd.com
Author, the Netbooks of Witches and Warlocks
The Other Side: http://www.xtreme-gaming.com/~theotherside/
The DnD Community Council: http://www.dndcommunitycouncil.org/nbownw
--
"It could be witches, Some evil witches.
Which is ridiculous, 'Cause witches, they were persecuted Wicca good and love the earth
And women power and I'll be over here."