Willow Rosenberg's History
Early life
Willow Rosenberg was born to Sheila and Ira Rosenberg. Her mother was supercilious and distant, noticing Willow had cut her hair months after she had it cut. She had a "bad birthday party pony thing" when she was four, leaving her with a fear of ponies and horses. At some point, Willow also developed a fear of frogs and spiders. After watching Snoopy on Ice, her dad took her backstage, but she was scared and threw up on Woodstock.
Willow became best friends with Alexander Harris at a young age and she attended school with him throughout all of her life. On the first day of kindergarten, Willow cried because she broke a yellow crayon. Willow was also close friends with Amy Madison during junior high, and they would eat brownies together at Willow's whenever Amy's mother Catherine was in a diet.
Sunnydale High
Wallflower
In her early years in high school, Willow was a shy, naive "nerd" with a light, risqué sense of humor. A member of the math, science, and computer clubs, she was the go-to person for tutoring help. Willow was ridiculed by the popular Cordelia Chase, so she founded the We Hate Cordelia Club. She had a hopeless crush on her lifelong friend Xander, who ignored her to pursue his equally hopeless crush on a new student and their eventual mutual best friend, Buffy Summers.
After witnessing Willow being insulted by Cordelia, Buffy quickly approached Willow as a friend despite Willow responding in fear as she saw her with Cordelia. The two met at the Bronze and Buffy encouraged Willow to seize her day, so she went out with a boy she had just met, Thomas, who was actually a vampire. Buffy saved Willow from the Order of Aurelius, leading Willow along with Xander to learn about Buffy's secret identity as the Slayer, but their friend Jesse McNally did not survive. Willow soon became Buffy's best friend, and the revelation of the supernatural led Willow to dedicate herself to aiding her friend in the battle against evil. Willow's assistance to the Scooby Gang was mostly through her computing and hacking skills as well as helping the school librarian and Buffy's Watcher Rupert Giles on researching about demons.
By the end of her sophomore year, Willow's interest in computers got her almost killed by the demon Moloch the Corruptor, who pretended to be a teenage boy talking to her on the net. Willow initially ignored her friends' warnings but came to realize his true nature when he revealed himself in his new robotic form. After Buffy killed him, Willow felt bad for falling for a demon, thinking something was wrong with her. Buffy and Xander cheered her up by reminding her of the times they fell for someone out of the norm.
She also witnessed the death of several students at the hands of the Order of Aurelius, affecting her emotionally. This experience gave Buffy the push to confront the Order's leader, the Master who was prophesied to kill her. Learning this, Willow met up with Giles, Xander and Jennifer Calendar, her computer science teacher and technopagan she admired. They believed that a swarm of the Master's vampire minions would assemble at the Bronze where the school's prom was currently being held. Willow accompanied Jenny to her car where they discovered that the vampires were instead going to the school where they were. Luckily, Cordelia arrived and rescued them with her car, having been helped the gang prior. Returning to the library, Willow fought off both vampires and a tentacle monster that spawned from the Hellmouth, awakened by the Master after he bit Buffy and left her to drown. Buffy, however, was revived by CPR and came to their need and killed the Master.
Character development
The following year, just as Buffy returned, Willow was kidnapped along with Giles, Jenny, and Cordelia by the Order's remaining members and almost killed in the ritual to resurrect the Master, since they were at close proximity to him as he died. Even though it was Buffy's emotional irrationality that put them in danger, Willow along with the others did not express any anger to her afterward.
In her junior year, Willow began to have huge advances to her persona. During Halloween when everyone became whatever their costumes from Ethan's Costume Shop represented , Buffy and Xander were given different mindsets, leaving the ghostly Willow to take initiative. She assigned for Giles' help while wearing skimpy outfit that Buffy before hence encouraged her to put on to impress Xander, though she kept it hidden a ghost costume that she abandoned while becoming a ghost. Also, when Buffy lied to Giles so she could hold off her Slayer duties to attend a college frat party, Willow burst out in a fit of guilt yet also judging Giles for not allowing Buffy to have time for herself and Angel for not bothering to make time for her.
After discovering Xander's relationship with Cordelia when she caught them kissing, a heartbroken Willow angrily expressed her shock and disgust that Xander would involve himself with someone like Cordelia before her, further strengthening her assertiveness and pride.
She then quickly decided to move on, starting a romantic relationship with Daniel "Oz" Osbourne, a guitarist in the local band Dingoes Ate My Baby. The two began talking after they were selected by the "world's leading software concern" during the Careers Fair. She later invited him to Buffy's birthday where he witnessed his first vampire being staked. Even after the revelation that he was a werewolf and almost getting killed by him, Willow still continued to date him, even confidently kissing him at her own accord.
When Jenny Calendar was murdered by Buffy's newly soulless boyfriend Angel, Willow agreed to teach her classes for the rest of the year. During this time, she went through her former teacher's belongings, dabbling in magic. She eventually discovered a floppy disk containing the translated text of the lost Ritual of Restoration, the curse that originally had been used to ensoul Angel decades before. Willow took it upon herself to perform the spell if Buffy couldn't kill him, as she claimed it would be the last resort.
Willow first attempted the ritual in the school library, but failed when Angel's vampire minions attacked and a bookcase was dropped on her. Recovering at the hospital, Willow performed the Ritual of Restoration with Cordelia and Oz at her side. She told Xander to inform Buffy of this, who instead just told Buffy to kill him. At the exact climax of the ritual, a powerful burst of magic surged through her, ensouling Angel just before Buffy stabbed and sent him to hell to close Acathla's portal.
Learning magic
While Buffy was away in Los Angeles, Willow continued to practice witchcraft — first starting simple through a number of pagan blessings and also once used a glamour to conceal a pimple. She even took a frightening turn when she attempted to contact the spirit world while not being ready, having found the experience to have "pulled her apart inside," as well as blowing out the power for the whole street block. Willow also took charge of the Scooby Gang through their series of unsuccessful vampire hunts.
Willow joined a coven with fellow magic-users Amy and Michael Czajak, who became the victims of a witch-hunt led by the group Mothers Opposed to the Occult (MOO), of which Willow's mother was a member. However, the group had been under the influence of a demon who impersonated two victims of witches. Willow, Buffy, and Amy were nearly burned at the stake before Giles revealed the demon, which Buffy then slew, breaking the spell. Afterward, Willow kept Amy as a pet after she turned herself into a rat to escape, Willow not possessing Amy's powers of transmogrification at that time.
Though she showed initial shock at Buffy's secret relationship with Angel who had just returned, the heads of the gang were turned when Angel saved her from being killed by corrupt ex-watcher Gwendolyn Post.
Willow and Xander discovered a growing attraction for each other, despite the fact that they were each in relationships with other people. While being held hostage by Spike, Willow and Xander shared a kiss, believing that they were going to be killed. To their dismay, they were caught in the act by Oz and Cordelia, who had come to rescue them. Although Cordelia broke up with Xander for good, Oz and Willow eventually managed to work things out after some weeks.
Tired of being "old reliable," Willow aided former vengeance demon Anya Jenkins in a spell, unwittingly releasing her own vampire counterpart from an alternate universe. Wanting to return to her dimension, Willow's counterpart rounded up a gang of vampire minions originally employed by Mayor Richard Wilkins to kill Willow. She then used them to hold the Bronze patrons hostage in hopes of forcing the real Willow to send her back. After a fortunate encounter, Willow managed to trap her counterpart and was then forced to pretend to be her so the gang could kill each vampire one by one. In the ordeal, she was shocked to discover that her vampire counterpart exhibited attraction to women, a foreshadowing to her own undiscovered lesbianism. One positive from the whole event was the encounter between vampire Willow and Percy West, a jock who Willow was forced to tutor but left Willow to do his own unfinished assignments. After meeting her vampire counterpart, a fearful Percy decided to do the work required and he started to respect her as she tutored him.
Despite being accepted by several colleges, including Harvard, Yale, and Oxford, Willow decided to attend University of California, Sunnydale so that she could continue fighting the "good fight" with Buffy after being held hostage by Mayor Richard Wilkins and rogue Slayer Faith Lehane, where the Scooby Gang traded a key component of the Mayor's Ascension for Willow. Fearing she would die not having experienced new depths in her relationship with Oz, she lost her virginity to him the night before graduation when the Mayor would ascend into the Old One Olvikan. During the fight against the Mayor and his vampire minions, Willow and a number of other students wielded spear guns, though this did little damage to the Mayor. Willow then survived the battle.
College
In her first year of college, Willow initially enjoyed being in an environment that appreciated her intellect and further excelled in her magical abilities. Moving across town to UC Sunnydale, Willow and Buffy become roommates at room 214 in Stevenson Hall after the expulsion of Buffy's previous demonic roommate, Kathy Newman. Though her skills in magic got better, Willow did struggle in some areas in terms of control. During Halloween, the Scoobies became trapped in a frat house that was being magically altered by the demon Gachnar. Willow wanted to prove herself by locating endangered party-goers with magic despite her friends' opposition because of concerns for her safety. She ignored them and the spell she performed ending up attacking her.
Willow soon reached a stage of emotional heartbreak. Oz left town after cheating on Willow with another werewolf called Veruca. Around this time Willow attempted to curse them both with magic, though stopped when Veruca arrived to kill her only to be killed by Oz who then left her out of fear of endangering her. Willow then waited but was left with a bitter attitude, writing letters to Oz but not knowing where to post them. A devastated Willow cast a spell to have "My Will Be Done," accidentally endangering her friends' lives in the process when she called Xander a "demon magnet," thus attracting real hostile demons to his location. This also made her eligible to become a vengeance demon, but she declined the offer and undid the spell.
Afterward, she joined the campus Wicca group Daughters of Gaea, a disappointing experience when she found out none of the other members were actually real witches with the exception of the presence of timid, serious witch Tara Maclay. After discovering each other's magic during an encounter with the Gentlemen, they became friends, meeting each other on a regular basis to practice spells weeks before Tara was introduced to Willow's friends. From this, they eventually formed a close bond and fell in love with each other, though both remained discreet about it.
Later, Oz returned, believing he had gained control over his wolf side, with hopes of continuing his relationship with Willow. This put her in a tough position, and she came out to Buffy about her feelings for Tara. Oz was unable to control his condition when he discovered that Willow and Tara were involved, so he left Sunnydale once more. Willow stayed with Tara, telling her that she was with the one she loved.
Spike, in league with Adam, attempted to split the Scoobies apart. He used Willow's relationship with Tara as one of the catalysts, and her sexuality came out to everyone at this time. She later joined with the fellow essences of Buffy, Xander, and Giles to form a super being to defeat Adam. Willow acted as the "spirit" of the ensemble, using her magic skills to disarm Adam's technological advantages.
Willow's power increased at a dramatic rate. Her relationship with Tara was strengthened when she discovered how Tara rose above her family's abusive lies. However, they argued when Tara voiced her concerns at how much magic Willow had been using over the past few months. Shortly afterward, Tara was "brain-sucked" by the hell-goddess Glory, and was left in an insane, babbling state. Enraged and grief-stricken, Willow ignored Buffy's warnings and attacked Glory full force in her own home, but was ultimately defeated; however, to Willow's credit, she did manage to actually injure Glory and weaken her significantly. Willow almost got herself killed after spitting directly in Glory's face in a show of pure spite, but Buffy arrived just in time to save her.
When Buffy later went into a catatonic state, Willow magically entered her mind and freed her, assuring her that they would find a way to defeat Glory. In the final fight against Glory, Willow managed to slow her down by restoring Tara's mind, and disorienting the hell-god, as Willow reunited with her lover. However, Buffy was forced to sacrifice herself to save the life of her sister, Dawn. Following the battle, a devastated Willow departed to Los Angeles and visited the Hyperion Hotel to inform Angel that Buffy had died.
Addiction to magic
Following Buffy's death, Willow assumed leadership of the Scoobies (at Xander's insistence) and used her magic in patrols to help keep the vampire population in check while looking after Dawn in Buffy's absence. Willow's magical skills peaked when she led Tara, Xander, and Anya in resurrecting Buffy. This had major concerns; both Tara and Xander briefly opposed the idea while Giles branded her as a "rank arrogant amateur" for delving into such deep, consequential magic.
Willow developed an addiction to magic and began to use it excessively, and briefly got into an argument with Tara over it; she subsequently used magic to erase all memory of the fight from Tara's mind. After Sweet's musical spell lead to Buffy revealing that she had been in Heaven and not Hell as they originally believed, Willow became guilt-ridden over costing her best friend eternal happiness and suggested using magic to erase Buffy's memories of Heaven, leading to another argument with Tara; not wanting to lose Tara, Willow vowed not to use magic for a week to prove that she was not dependent on it, but almost immediately went back on her word and cast a spell to make Buffy and Tara forget about the negative aspects of what her spells did, only for it to backfire and gave the entire Scooby Gang, including herself, total amnesia, rendering them vulnerable when the Magic Box was attacked by Bro'os, a demonic loan shark trying to collect Spike's gambling debt. When the spell was broken, Tara promptly broke up with Willow.
Without Tara's presence, Willow's addiction spiraled completely out of control; she finally managed to transform Amy back from a rat back into a human, and Amy began taking her to Rack, a dark magic dealer, with her more liberal use of magic contrasting with the Scoobies' attempts to encourage responsibility. Later, while attempting to take Dawn to the movies, Willow dropped by Rack's place again and left Dawn alone and unprotected in the waiting room for two hours, disregarding Dawn's fears and complaints when she emerged. Following this, they were attacked by Mandraz, a demon unwillingly summoned by Willow during her high. Willow commandeered a car using magic to escape, and the two suffered a car accident; while Willow emerged relatively unscathed, Dawn suffered a broken arm, and the two were saved from the demon by the timely arrival of Buffy and Spike shortly afterward. Faced with this, Willow was finally forced to face the consequences of her actions and cut off her contact with Rack and Amy, renouncing the use of her powers and choosing to help the Scoobies with her technical skills.
Sometime later, Willow and Tara reconciled, prompting them to spend several hours in bed. Suddenly, Tara was murdered by a stray bullet from Warren Mears' attempt to kill Buffy. A grief-stricken Willow, having failed to bring Tara back, unleashed her dark side once more, absorbing every bit of dark magic from the texts in the Magic Box, causing both her hair and her eyes to become solid black, with veins protruding on her face as a result of draining Rack's life force to replenish her magic. Willow left her friends, her old self, and her morality behind, and her vengeance reached a climax when she used magic to flay Warren alive.
Willow absorbed the magic and life force from Rack as she pursued Jonathan Levinson and Andrew Wells, Warren's accomplices, despite the fact that they had no involvement in Tara's death, turning against her friends in the process. Andrew Wells compared her to Dark Phoenix and later referred to her as "Dark Willow."
Willow then fought Buffy, infusing herself with super-strength, declaring: "I'm the Slayer now." After having heavily beaten and nearly defeated Buffy, Willow was attacked by Giles, who abruptly returned with borrowed power of the Devon Coven. Despite Giles' attempts to stop her, Willow absorbed his power as well, pushing her so far that she was overcome by all the pain she sensed in the world. She attempted to trigger the apocalypse to end it all but was thwarted by Xander who, out of love, refused to leave her alone, regardless of what she had done or was doing. The power that she had absorbed from Giles put her back in touch with her true emotions and feelings, so Xander's act eventually caused Willow to break down over her actions.
Rehabilitation
After her attempt at destroying the world, Giles took Willow to his home in England where she was forced to deal with her actions, her connection to magic, and her place in the universe. Under the teachings of the Devon Coven, Willow regained control of her magic, though was hesitant and careful about how much she used, fearing that she might revert to her "dark" self. At the time, she met his great-aunts Lavinia and Sophronia Fairweather.
Upon her return to Sunnydale, Willow was nervous about how her friends would react when they saw her again and accidentally cast a spell that made her invisible to them and vice versa which ended in disastrous results as it caused her to fall victim to the demon Gnarl before the spell was ended, at which point she was reunited with the other Scoobies.
When the First Evil began its campaign against the Scooby Gang, Willow reluctantly began a relationship with the Potential Slayer Kennedy. After their first kiss, however, Willow was transformed into Warren, the result of the hex Penance Malediction, placed on her by a vengeful and jealous Amy. Kennedy saved Willow from fully becoming him by helping her to finally come to terms with Tara's death and move on as she attempted to continue Warren's murderous path with a gun.
Willow was still reluctant to use her full power, especially after the First took control of her during a minor spell. However, Willow was called to Los Angeles by Winifred Burkle to re-ensoul Angel once again. While there, Willow magically dueled with the higher power later known as Jasmine, who had possessed Cordelia, and came out victorious. She then returned to Sunnydale with newly reformed Faith, who had broke out of prison to fight Angel.
With the final battle with the First drawing nearer, Buffy entrusted Willow with an important task that Willow was reluctant to perform. Despite this, Willow tapped into the essence of the Slayer weapon Mʔ (both by her computer and witchcraft prowess), and activated multiple Potential Slayers around the globe, briefly turning her hair white in the process before Kennedy deified her as a goddess. Willow then fell to the floor mumbling "that was nifty." She escaped Sunnydale before its subsequent destruction.
Slayer Organization
Following the destruction of Sunnydale, Willow and Kennedy spent some time in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Willow also visited the Himalayas but was unable to aid Fred Burkle with her mystical illness because she was performing astral projection to another plane at the time.
Willow was given an opportunity to have Tara be her guide while she enhanced her magical prowess but realized that Tara would only be given to her as an illusion or that she would be ripped from her afterlife. Willow decided to study under Aluwyn, a mysterious snake-like woman. Along the way, Willow also began a sexual relationship with Vasuki. During this time, her contact with Buffy and the Scooby Gang diminished.
When Kennedy died a mystical death, Willow resurrected her a month later and they began to take their relationship more slowly. Willow also confessed that she was keeping Kennedy away from Buffy because she didn't want to lose her, believing that if she hadn't resurrected Buffy, Tara would still be alive.
Over a year after the Hellmouth battle, Willow appeared at Buffy and Xander's Scotland base, fighting Amy and her army of the undead. Willow was kidnapped by a skinless Warren Mears, who revealed that Amy had revived him moments after Willow killed him. The pair had been conspiring against her ever since and were responsible for her transformation into Warren in 2003. Warren lobotomized Willow, who took refuge in a mental plane before being rescued by Buffy, unharmed.
Sometime after joining Buffy, Xander, and Dawn in Scotland, Willow traveled to Las Vegas to assist Spike, who had been resurrected in Los Angeles after the destruction of Sunnydale, during his investigation into Hart. When Spike's soul was extracted by the homicidal sociopath John, who had been brought there along with Drusilla by Wolfram & Hart and apparently lost his own soul when Spike regained his, Spike directed his soul into Drusilla to give her a chance at redemption, but ultimately had Willow transfer his soul back into himself when the guilt of a restored conscience only drove Drusilla even more insane. Willow told Spike that Buffy already knew about his resurrection, but agreed to keep their team-up a secret from Buffy. She then committing Drusilla to the Mosaic Wellness Center.
Willow began to settle in Scotland with Buffy and Xander and attempted to aid Dawn who had transformed into a giant. When Buffy and Willow went on a mission to find out about more about the Scoobies' newest enemy, Twilight, the demon Sephrilian revealed the friends' secrets to each other, including the reason why Willow was keeping Kennedy away from Buffy, leaving their friendship strained.
While fighting a group of vampires in Tokyo, Willow met and dueled a fellow student of Saga Vasuki, the witch Kumiko. The vision she received during this fight with Kumiko would later lead her to investigate a possible ripple in time in New York City. When Buffy was kidnapped into the future, Willow contacted Vasuki for help during sex with an oblivious Kennedy. Saga Vasuki warned Willow not to look forward into the future when she rescued Buffy from it; Willow complied and successfully returned Buffy to the present.
After Harmony Kendall unwittingly brought about a new pro-vampire, anti-Slayer world order, Willow was needed more than ever to protect the Slayers from humans and demons alike. Along with a small team of Slayers who were also witches, Willow cast a series of powerful force fields and glamours to protect and conceal the Scottish base. Demons still attacked and defenses fell. Willow teleported out and discovered from Saga Vasuki that Twilight was tracking them by magic. Buffy decided, after sharing concerns with Giles that Willow was heading down a dark path once again, that the group should learn from Oz how to suppress their mystical powers and natures. Buffy had Willow do one last big spell, sending everyone to Oz's retreat in Tibet. In Tibet, Willow was unhappy with the suppression of her powers which she felt were intrinsic to her identity. Furthermore, she was jealous of Oz for having a normal life, settling down with his wife Bayarmaa, and having a son, Kelden. Oz assured her she could have a normal life and learn to suppress her powers too, and also showed his trust in her by letting her watch Kelden for him. Later, Buffy admitted to Willow that she killed her in the future where she had once again gone "dark," but Willow was nonplussed and opined that the future was not fixed.
The suppression of their powers left Buffy and her friends defenseless when Amy tracked them down and Twilight unleashed his military might on the powerless Slayers and Monroe's small band of werewolves, leading to heavy casualties. When Bayarmaa explained that their method of magical suppression worked by sacrificing one's magic to the wrathful goddesses of Tibet; Remati, Vajrayogini and Ekajati; for protection, Buffy and Willow performed a ritual to summon them. The goddesses appeared and began to kill indiscriminately. While collecting the injured from the bloody battlefield, Buffy was dropped by Remati from an incredible height. As Twilight was capturing members of Buffy's group, Buffy awakened to discover she had new superhuman abilities, including flight. Not long after, Willow's powers returned to her suddenly; she identified it as a "ripple effect" of a cataclysmic magical event in the near future. Back at the camp, Buffy instructed Willow not to fight the goddesses head-on but to dig a large hole for them instead. Buffy easily manhandled the goddesses and put them in the pit, which Willow magically sealed up.
Willow later realized that Faith, Giles, and Andrew were captured by Twilight. She teleported around the world in search of them, finding dead Slayers at several locations due to Twilight conducting simultaneous coordinated attacks around the world, leading them to theorize Buffy's new powers have come from the dead Slayers. Amy defected to the Slayers' side and revealed Twilight's HQ was located three seconds in the future. With this knowledge they were able to uncloak it, leading to Buffy's confrontation with Twilight, who revealed himself to be Angel. Willow and the others soon followed to Twilight's HQ. After Buffy and Angel fought in the air and in space, they fell under the influence of external power, had sex and created a new universe, which in turn caused extradimensional demons to flood their dimension ahead of its impending destruction. Willow was one of several battling these. Buffy and Angel returned to their senses and tried to help their friends and save the universe. Suddenly, Spike's ship arrived — which Willow alone recognizes from their adventure together in Vegas.
Spike informed the group that acquiring the Seed of Wonder was vital to the plans of the universe known as Twilight to incarnate itself. The Seed, which was located in Sunnydale's ruins, was the source of all magic in this dimension. While they were being transported to Sunnydale aboard Spike's ship, Willow was summoned to a spiritual dimension by Aluwyn who explained she must protect the Seed or magic will be lost from the universe, and that the walls between worlds will become closed forever. Arriving in Sunnydale's ruins, Willow was able to connect herself to the Seed and experienced unity with the universe. Using more power than ever before, she easily handled thousands of enormous demons. Meanwhile, below, Angel was possessed fully by Twilight and killed Giles, leading Buffy to destroy the Seed; Willow was suddenly and dramatically cut off from all of her power. In the aftermath of the crisis, she possessed no magic whatsoever. Willow broke up with Kennedy soon afterward, believing that Kennedy was drawn to her in part because she had superpowers, and also realizing that she was really in love with someone else. Living in San Francisco like Buffy, Xander, and Dawn, Willow vowed that she would somehow restore magic to the world.
World without magic
A few months after the Seed was destroyed, living in San Francisco along with the other Scoobies, Willow began dating Aura and started working as a computer technician. Willow attempted to warn Buffy of the consequences of destroying the Earth's "spark," and appeared to have grown to resent her best friend for destroying the Seed, her irritation only growing when Buffy repeatedly dismissed her concerns, insisting that she did what she had to do. However, after Buffy and Spike were nearly drained of their powers by Severin, Willow admitted that she was never angry with Buffy, and Buffy promised Willow that they would find a way to bring magic back to the world. Months later, Willow took the Scythe and left, believing it was the key to restoring magic due to advice given to her by a vision of Sineya, the first Slayer.
She subsequently arrived in London, making contact with Angel and Faith in Giles's apartment. Willow quickly deduced Angel's plan to resurrect Giles using the Tooth of Ammuk and fragments of his soul derived from magic items linked to key moments of his life, and coldly told Angel that he was selfish, stupid, reckless, and delusional to think that his attempts would not end in disaster, particularly after all of the pain and suffering she put Buffy and the rest of the gang through after Buffy's own resurrection. However, despite her misgivings, Willow decided to help Angel with his plans because she herself needed him, stating that she needed Connor to bring magic back to Earth; in order to regain her magic, she needed to travel to another dimension where magic still existed and "soak up" the energy from there, but the only dimension that could still be accessed from this world was Quor'toth as there were never any portals to Quor'toth in the first place. Having discovered a ritual that might allow her to access Quor'toth using the residual energy in the Scythe as a "battery," Willow needed something from the target dimension to access it in the first place, requiring Connor due to the time he had spent in that world. Angel was unsurprisingly furious with Willow for wanting to involve his son in her plans, at which point Willow snapped and blasted him for comparing her to him before breaking down in tears and insisting that the Earth was dying without magic and she needed to save it. Seeing Willow's inner turmoil, Angel was more sympathetic and agreed to take her to Connor and talk to him, but made it clear to Willow that it was Connor's choice to go along with her plan.
Despite Angel's misgivings, Connor agreed to the plan, with Willow carving various signs on him with the scythe and opening a rift to Quor'toth. Having recharged her magic in Quor'toth — although it took longer than expected due to the nature of this realm's magic — Willow opened another portal to travel to the world without shrimp, a world with magic sufficiently similar to that once possessed by Earth, although Connor remained to help a cult that had been formed based on his legend. During the quest, Willow and the gang come across the Old One Quor'toth and attempted to fight against him with magic, only to fail at first. Due to Angel's encouragement, Willow fought back again successfully. Despite this seemingly good thing, it becomes clear that things are now much more difficult as Willow stared at them with the ominous words of "We got a problem," her eyes now black due to absorbing too much dark magic.
Willow was seen to go in a panic over the dark energies taking over, insisting that she could not stay in Quor'toth any longer. Angel comforted and tried to calm the distraught witch, pleading with her to trust him and protect them from the advancing Old One. Hesitantly, Willow decided to obey and fought with the magical forces against the demon, only to shortly afterward attack Connor, the dark forces proving too much for her. Completely consumed and fully Dark Willow now, she won against Quor'toth by dropping a mountain on him and expressed a desire to rule over the dimension. Angel, however, hurled up and bit her. This caused Willow to faint and the influence of the magic to fade. When Angel himself gets taken over by blood lust, Willow awoke and stopped Faith from killing him as well as him trying to get her to kill him. Once he recovered, she thanked Angel in gratitude for helping but firmly said she had not forgiven him yet though understood his reasons. Insisting that she did not hate him, Willow hesitantly hugged Angel and allowed him to take whatever was left of Giles' soul out of the Scythe. She entered the portal to the World Without Shrimp, continuing her solo quest to bring magic back.
She traveled throughout the dimension, recalling all of the effects she recognized due to the destruction of the Seed. Willow, after fighting some odd demon here and there, soon met up with a man calling himself Marrak. He claimed to her that he was from Earth but trapped in this current dimension with no way back due to loss of magic and that due to the effects of the dark magic, was transformed into a demon. Ever compassionate and trusting, Willow decided to work together with him. Eventually, after some wandering, they meet a large caterpillar-like demon who seemed to want to help, only to be charged by some monster from the woods.
Willow eventually defeated the monster (revealed to be called Hybberax) with the Zen Caterpillar and Marrak. They soon after get attacked by demonic bird-type demons, causing some hallucinations of faceless people in her mind; Willow deduced this was the missing dreams of people that had been unable to pass through. Looking for the Deeper Well of Wonderland, she ran into an old friend: Aluwyn. Immediately, Willow was ecstatic and kissed her in her joy of having finally found her (much to the shock of Marrak). One of the witches with Aluwyn named Vulcana repaired Buffy's scythe and Willow finally reached the Wellspring, this dimension's Deeper Well. She opened up a rift to Earth, seeing Buffy, Xander, and Dawn discussing the vampire problems but it quickly closed. However, it allowed her to witness Dawn being faceless, shocking Willow. Aluwyn then explained afterward that portals could only open and stay open unless there was magic on both sides.
Aluwyn and her "super-coven" convinced Willow to live with them in their paradise dimension and to give up on her plans to save Earth. Willow also began to doubt if her mission was really just for the world rather than herself or even if her friends were in danger.
However, Marrak reminded her of her mission. Aluwyn attempted to persuade her to stay, but the pair separates. Willow had a strong epiphany at that point and realized for the first time that there was no such thing as "Dark Willow" and "Light Willow," only Willow. Traveling with Marrak again, however, she became aware of his lust for dark magic and realized he was in fact Rack, her former magick dealer.
Rack did intend to restore magic to Earth, but also to hoard it all for himself. Rack and Willow dueled over alternate universes until he was overcome by the antibodies of a sentient universe; their fight further helped Willow to overcome her inner doubts about "going dark" again by accepting responsibility for setting herself down the path of addiction long before meeting Rack. The sentient universe explained to Willow as Aluwyn did that it will be impossible to return magic to the world as she had planned, but also that magic was not completely lost as many beings (such as Slayers) use magic that came from within. Though the Seed — the "heart" of Earth's magic — had been destroyed, she would be able to draw power from her own heart now, a power for the world to share. Willow awakened in space, high above Earth, and descended to San Francisco with the intention of returning to her friends.
Willow arrived back in San Francisco with the newly fixed scythe just in time to aid Buffy with Dawn's worsening condition. She was happy to be reunited with her best friend but reminded Buffy that though she had her magic back, it was limited and the Earth was still suffering from a loss of magic. She proceeded to heal a scar on her friend's forehead from a previous fight by a mystical blade as Buffy began to inform her what had happened during her absence.
Fully filled on what was happening while she was away, Willow proceeded to furiously work herself to help save Dawn. Eventually, after much effort, she managed to stabilize her enough so that she could be awake and functioning. However, she made sure to firmly remind everyone that she was not powerful enough to save her life at that point and the most she was able to do was give her a few more days. Acknowledging this, Buffy and the others worked up a game plan. It was decided that the most plausible option they had going for them was traveling to the Deeper Well, a magical place that held enough power to seal Old Ones. Willow was identified as the "battery" that would absorb enough magical energy there that would enable them to completely save Dawn's fading essence. Willing to help in any way she could, Willow, Buffy, and Xander all used Kennedy's jet to England where they would face the council and deal with the guards.
Along with Buffy, Willow fought against the council demons, using her magic to beat them back. After grueling fighting, the arrivals of allies Illyria and Eldre Koh, and rescuing Xander from a demon, Willow and Buffy came up with a dangerous plan together to proceed further in the Deeper Well. Unexpectedly, Xander panicked and told them they didn't have to do it, proceeding to inform the group of his pact with Severin and Simone Doffler to restore magic and consequently save Dawn's life as a result. Willow was shocked and bewildered at Xander's supposed betrayal, but they nonetheless united together to stop Severin since his plan would undoubtedly create reality tears in the universe.
With Buffy, Willow ventured deeper into the core of the Deeper Well. It eventually became clear that both Buffy and Willow were beginning to forget Dawn, but they still managed to put her as their top priority. As they drew closer, Willow suddenly sensed a powerful source of magic, so much so that she began to emit a reddish glow. Willow was shocked at this, explaining to Buffy that it could not only be the key to saving Dawn but the entire world as well. Willow and Buffy had a minor fight when she asked her to go help the council with an Old One rather than save Dawn, but they eventually reached an agreement when she pleaded to Buffy that she would not let her down this time and that she needed to trust her.
As she drew closer to the power source, the glow in her chest intensified to the point it began seriously affecting her. It became apparent that her level of power was so enormous, a small object reminiscent of the Seed of Wonder emerged from her chest. Willow realized she had created the new seed, but the act left her powerless. She found a spot in the Deeper Well for it to reside for while it would save the world, it'd take a millennium for it to mature. Willow then proceeded to use Severin (who had sided with them due to Illyria) as a possible source to save Dawn's life.
However, Willow, Xander, D'Hoffryn, and Koh witnessed Buffy's being stabbed by Simone. Willow threatened to kill Doffler while the latter just shrugged it off. Soon, Willow discovered a way to escape the Deeper Well before Severin exploded, which was a staff left behind by one of the Council members, and took the opportunity to retrieve it with Xander helping her out. She then activated the staff's powers and transported herself and all of her remaining allies out of the Well, only to witness Buffy being dragged away by Doffler. Willow worried for Buffy's safety but she welcomed her back when she got out of the well, telling her best friend that magic was back. Immediately returning to San Francisco, Willow already started casting the spell to bring Dawn back but she acknowledged that there was something missing. Fortunately, through Spike's inadvertent comment, she figured out that Buffy's blood was the key to making the spell work and, soon enough, Dawn was returned to her original state. Willow was overjoyed to see Dawn again and apologized for getting so caught up in her quest to bring magic back. She also obliged to check if every part of Dawn's body was in order. Buffy and Willow soon discovered that the Vampyr book was blank, with the former wondering what they had done in the Well and the latter in shock from the recent development.
A new world
Since magic had returned, Willow had been working with the Scooby Gang to help rid the zompire threat the suburbs of Santa Rosita. Willow arrived with two civilians so that Buffy and the others could take them to safety. On the way there, Willow aided Buffy and Spike in their attempts to keep the rescue van safe from harm. Arriving at the rendezvous point where Xander, Billy, Devon, and Anaheed were waiting, Willow and the rest of the Scoobies fought against the remaining zompires, only to find themselves facing a group of more powerful vampires that had risen since magic had returned. Willow and the others were on the defensive until Faith, Kennedy, Holly, Leah, and Giles came to their rescue. With the Scooby Gang reunited, they faced the threat together confidently. Fortunately, their combined forces nearly overwhelmed the vampires, who retreated to regroup and increase their numbers. Willow hugged Giles tightly once she got the chance. They all rode Kennedy's jet back to San Francisco. While onboard, she realized the reason why she couldn't control her magic: the Seed of Wonder was still maturing despite the fact it had been completely restored. She convened with the rest of the reconstituted Scooby Gang to talk about how much the vampires had changed. She wanted to cast the Tirer la Couverture on one of the enhanced vampires to better understand the new threat they face.
Willow was among the members of the Scooby Gang who aided Dracula while he assessed the powers the new vampires have acquired. Once they returned to Xander's apartment, she demonstrated how the laws of magic had changed by conjuring a couple of flowers out of thin air unaided by any incantation. She then agreed to find a new vampire to study alongside Buffy. Arriving at the destination, they found no one there, remembering that new vampires had no need to hide from the sun. They soon left in search of a potential subject and bonded over how they distanced themselves from the people they loved and how their whole gang had been reunited. They also worried about the state of Xander and Dawn's relationship. They arrived later that evening with their captured vampire, only to find Xander's apartment in shambles and Dawn in tears, shocked by what beheld them.
Willow and Buffy were briefed of the situation, with the former being irked at how Andrew described Xander's turn as "going Dark Willow." She then sat by Giles's side as he tried to do a divination spell and calmed him down after his efforts were unsuccessful. After failing another attempt, Willow comforted Giles as he genuinely feared the consequences of recent events. Figuring out how to reach Dracula, Willow went with the rest of the Scoobies to the vampire's hideaway. Fighting off the vampire hordes subservient to Dracula, Dawn showed concern for Spike, hoping he wouldn't go "Dark Willow," again irritating the witch. Finally, as Willow and Giles worked together to get to Dracula's room, Willow inadvertently used the "going Dark Willow" term herself, annoying her again. Willow and the others witnessed Dracula's transformation and she was swatted by the vampire and knocked out for a couple of moments. She came to and tried to subdue Dracula until it was revealed that he was turning into Maloker through Xander's connection to the vampire, thinking that Maloker was permanently dead. Willow then witnessed Maloker's return as he set his sights on the Scoobies with great hunger.
Willow and the others tried their best to take Maloker down, but any and all attempts were for naught. Upon learning that Maloker's weaknesses were no different from those of an ordinary vampire's from Giles, Willow magically increased Dawn's size and set out to find a priest to bless the Redwood Investment Building to use it against Maloker. Once she did so, she reversed the spell she cast on Dawn and let the priest leave the scene unharmed. She witnesses Dracula's departure from San Francisco once Xander reversed the damage done to his old Master through the Vampyr Book. Willow gathered with the rest of the Scoobies to discuss who would take care of the book, stating that she was unqualified due to her history with abusing magic. However, when D'Hoffryn arrived to take that responsibility from them, Willow stood by Buffy as she made it clear that they would take care of the book together. Afterward, she was seen playing video games with Giles.
Willow met with Giles to help him monitor his digital trail with Dowling and discuss the possibility of losing their home in San Francisco due to their difficulty of finding employment. Willow had been looking into re-aging Giles, but he decided against it, with Willow agreeing that it would make things worse if they tried. Dowling gave them a job that let them to a building where children had been disappearing for years. When Willow and Xander got no word from those who arrived to handle the job, they set out to investigate. Having done research on the case prior and determined the commonalities among the abducted children, Willow began to detect strange energies in the site but were taken by a mysterious entity along with Xander. They were trapped in a false reality where they were who they were in their earlier years and where Willow couldn't remember any spells. However, Willow and Xander managed to release themselves from its hold and the former identified it as the Hamelin demon that targeted children who were on the verge of losing their childhood. Though Buffy lashed out at them, they were able to snap her out of it. Finding Dawn and Spike, they were swarmed by the missing children led by Giles, who didn't want to escape. However Buffy snapped him out of it and all of them were released from the hold of the Hamelin demon. The children were returned to their surviving family and D'Hoffryn came to warn them to be wise and take special care with the changing times.
Willow was then seen having secured her shared apartment with Buffy and Dawn and just came from job interviews.
Willow and the Scoobies were shocked to learn that the Vampyr book was missing and Xander and Spike were quick to blame each other when Buffy asked who was responsible for neglecting to keep it safe. However, they soon learned that Andrew was missing as well. Putting two and two together, Buffy was angry that Willow made Andrew an authorized user but was quick to apologize when she brought the discussion to Tara. However, Willow and Giles placed a tracking sigil on the book and used a locator spell to track Andrew's movements, learning that he was heading to Sunnydale. Buffy, Willow, and Spike set out to find Andrew, leaving Giles, Dawn, and Xander behind. Having arrived at a Halloween party celebrated in the Hellmouth, Willow and the others set out but lost her hold on the book when Andrew hid it in a special case. Finding where Andrew kept their DNA samples and considering the possibility that Andrew was going to resurrect Warren, they were ambushed by the Soul Glutton. Willow tried to use her goddess magic against it but it drew power from her magic instead. She then used her dark magic against it, which worked to a fault, as it got up almost immediately after. The demon retreated to regain strength and Willow held back the debris as they left the collapsing cave. Willow and the others regrouped and split up, where Buffy and Spike looked for the demon while Willow looked for Andrew. Willow arrived in front of Warren's grave where she deduced that Andrew had no intention of resurrecting Warren, unaware of the fact that Andrew plans on resurrecting Tara.
When Willow deduced that Andrew was going to bring back Tara, she found him attempting it. Willow tried to convince Andrew to stop, as she had thought about doing the same thing more than once but didn't do it anyway, but Andrew didn't waver. She tried using force but the book was protected from her magic. Andrew tried to convince Willow that things were different and that they could do it if they wanted to because of the new rules of magic, but Willow told Andrew that he'd be cheating Tara out of a peaceful afterlife. Willow asserted herself and tried her best to use her powers to stop Andrew. Finally, when Willow understood Andrew's motivations for attempting to bring Tara back, Willow apologized to Andrew for making him feel alone and told him that he wouldn't be able to fix things this way. Willow and Andrew hugged it out and left the cave together as the former saved Buffy and Spike from the collapsing caves. Willow then parted with Andrew on good terms as he left for Oakland.
Possible future
In the 23rd century, Willow was located in Haddyn (formerly Manhattan) and was known as the "Madwoman"; she had remained youthful for centuries and resumed her dark appearance, but could only wield a small amount of magic. She had allied herself with Harth Fray and told him that bringing Buffy to the 23rd century would secure their future to exist. However, unbeknownst to Harth, Willow had also manipulated his sister into believing the opposite, that Buffy would destroy their future, an outcome the Slayer Melaka Fray intended to prevent. Joining forces with her older sister, Erin, the Fray sisters had managed to successfully capture and detain Buffy, attempting to keep her at bay until the temporal rift had closed. However, Harth went to Mel's apartment and confronted Willow about her manipulations; the dark witch admitted to lying to one of the twins, but she did not reveal which one
Buffy managed to escape confinement and fought her way across Haddyn to get to the rift and return to her time. However, Willow stood in her way, prompting Buffy to kill the dark witch, just as present Willow brought her back to her own time. When Buffy later told her of these events, Willow assured her that the future was not set in stone.
Some time later, the Scooby Gang time-traveled from the year 2011 to the 23rd century, where they learned from the surviving Harmony about the apocalyptic battle of the Reckoning. According to Harmony, demons and vampires had united against the threat of Buffy and Willow's effort in empowering humans; a battle had taken place at Willow's empowerment center, and something caused all Slayers to lose their powers and memories of being Slayers — except Buffy's, who continued to fight while the others ran away. Outnumbered, Dawn opened a portal to a hell dimension, and Willow threw all the demons through it.
Harmony continued her narration saying that Buffy had to go with the demons to keep them from returning to Earth, but the Slayer never came back, bound to fight demons in the hell dimension for the rest of her brief life. Giles, even in advanced age, continuously took care for the portal never open again, and Willow stood guard for centuries after that. When a new Slayer was finally called, Willow brought an early Buffy to 23rd century Haddyn so she would be the one who killed Willow, a choice made in repentance for her guilt for leaving her friend in a hell dimension.
However, when the Scooby Gang fought the battle in the 21st century, Illyria sacrificed herself in Buffy's place. When Melaka and Erin returned to their time, the sisters discovered that Haddyn was significantly improved, replacing the timeline they had left. The Slayers who received them explained that it was all a result of Willow's efforts in her center's, where she had worked toward preventing the dystopian future she had witnessed from coming to pass.
