Willow was introduced to us as the shy, nerdy girl whose clothes were picked out by her mum and who got out of the way when more popular girls wanted her space. Willow has a huge crush on her best friend and former boyfriend (they broke up when he stole her Barbie), Xander Harris. Like most of the early Buffy relationships this is an unrequited love.
After a disastrous relationship with a demon, Willow finally gets over Xander and her nerd status by dating a guitarist (and werewolf) Oz. Although their relationship has a brief interlude when Willow and Xander finally discover their hidden feelings for each other and get caught, Oz soon realises that losing Willow is like losing a torso and they get back together. That is until female werewolf and songstress, Veruka hits town. Oz's world is rocked and he finally leaves Sunnydale to find himself and a cure for his wolfiness, leaving Willow devastated.
By this time Willow has become an integral and powerful member of the scoobies and her growing interests in the black arts help her find a new friend and fellow Wicca, Tara. As the two become better witches their relationship grows and when Oz makes a surprise reappearance Willow confides in Buffy that she and Tara are more than just good friends.
Willow finally comes into her own at the end of series 5 when it becomes apparent that she is the only one that has any chance of standing up against Glory. But even she can’t stopped Buffy from killing herself to save the world.
Her best friend dead, Willow homes her witchy skills and comes up with a way to bring her back. The ritual causes some concern among her still living friends about her use of magic. Her growing obsession with the dark arts leads to a fight with her girlfriend and fellow witch, Tara. When Tara later finds out that Willow cast a forgetting spell on her so that she would not remember the fight, Tara offers her an ultimatum, but down on the magic or they are finished. Willow agrees at first but the discovery that her she brought Buffy back from heaven where she was happy and not a hell dimension cases her to use the forgetting spell again with disastrous consequences.
When Tara finally leaves her, Willow finds a way to de-rat her old witch friend Amy who in turn introduces her to Rack, a magic dealer who shows Willow a new magic high. Soon her obsession turns into addiction and only when she puts Dawn’s life in danger does she hit her all time low and quits magic cold turkey.
It’s hard at first but the reward is a renewal of her friendship and her relationship with Tara makes it all worthwhile. The two celebrate their newfound happiness in bed together for a whole day and night before Tara is snatched from Willow by a stray bullet meant for Buffy.
Enraged and distraught Willow turns to magic for her revenge and sets out to destroy first the person responsible for Tara’s death and then the world. Buffy cannot stop her, even Giles with the help of an English coven cannot turn her from her course of destruction. Only the love of her oldest friend Xander can get through to her.
After a summer recuperating with Giles in England, Willow returns to Sunnydale having learnt to control her power. Although she fells awkward at first, she is soon welcomed back as a valued member of the team. She finds the courage to visit Tara’s grave and finds new love in potential slayer Kennedy. By the time it comes to the final battle she is ready to use her power for a good, and a glowing white light surrounds her as she use the power of the Slayers’ ancient axe to turn all the potentials into real live slayers thus saving the world. Again. Nifty.
Vampire Willow
Vampire Willow exists in another dimension (created by vengeance demon, Anyanka at Cordelia's wish), where Buffy has never come to Sunnydale, school kids can't were bright colours and nobody goes out at night. At some point Willow got bit and took to wearing revealing leather outfits (I didn't hear anyone complaining) and, along with consort Xander, is the Masters right hand vamp.
When Cordelia realises what she has done, she goes to Giles who summons the slayer and destroys Anyanka's powers but not before Vampire Willow has been staked, ironically by Oz.
Vamp Will enjoys a brief resurrection when Anya enlists Willows help with a spell to help find her lost power centre and turn her back into Anyanka. When the spell goes wrong, Vampire Willow finds herself in our world which is not so much fun as her own. After a bit of fun and twinlike tricks the gang send her back to her own world just in time for Oz to stake her again.
