<P> The Buffy television series first aired mid-season in March 1997, almost immediately earning positive critical reviews . Willow is presented as a bookish nerd with considerable computer skills, dowdily dressed and easily intimidated by more popular girls in school . She grows faint at the sight of monsters, but quickly forms a friendship with Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and is revealed to have grown up as friends with Xander (Nicholas Brendon). They are mentored by the school librarian who is also Buffy's Watcher, Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), who often works closely with Willow in researching the various monsters the group encounters . Joss Whedon found that Hannigan was especially gifted reacting with fear (calling her the "king of pain") and viewers responded strongly when she was placed in danger, needing to be rescued by Buffy . Willow in various predicaments became common in early episodes . However, Willow establishes herself as integral to the group's effectiveness, often willing to break rules by hacking into highly secure computer systems . </P> <P> In the second season when the characters are in 11th grade, Willow becomes more sure of herself, standing up to the conceited Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), and approaching Xander, on whom she has had a crush for years, although it is unrequited as Xander is in love with Buffy . Seth Green joined the cast during the second season as Oz, a high school senior who becomes a werewolf, and Willow's primary romantic interest . The show's popularity by early 1998 was evident to the cast members, and Hannigan remarked on her surprise specifically . Willow was noted to be the spirit of the Scooby Gang, and Hannigan attributed Willow's popularity with viewers (she had by May 1998 seven websites devoted to her) to being an underdog who develops confidence and is accepted by Buffy, a strong, popular person in school . Hannigan described her appeal: "Willow is the only reality - based character . She really is what a lot of high - schoolers are like, with that awkwardness and shyness, and all those adolescent feelings ." </P> <P> At the end of the second season, Willow begins to study magic following the murder of the computer teacher and spell caster Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte). Willow is able to perform a complicated spell to restore the soul of Angel, a vampire who is also Calendar's murderer and Buffy's boyfriend . During the third season three episodes explore Willow's backstory and foreshadow her development . In "Gingerbread", her home life is made clearer: Sunnydale falls under the spell of a demon who throws the town's adults into a moral panic, and Willow's mother is portrayed as a career - obsessed academic who is unable to communicate with her daughter, eventually trying to burn Willow at the stake for being involved in witchcraft; her father is never featured . In "The Wish" a vengeance demon named Anya (Emma Caulfield) grants Cordelia's wish that Buffy never came to Sunnydale, showing what would happen if it were overrun with vampires . In this alternate reality, Willow is an aggressively bisexual vampire . In a related episode, "Doppelgangland", Willow meets "Vamp Willow", who dresses provocatively and flirts with her . </P> <P> Willow chooses to attend college with Buffy in Sunnydale although she is accepted to prestigious schools elsewhere . Her relationships with Buffy and Xander become strained as they try to find their place following high school . Willow becomes much more confident in college, finally finding a place that respects her intellect, while Buffy has difficulty in classes and Xander does not attend school . Willow's relationship with Oz continues until a female werewolf appears on the scene, aggressively pursuing him, and he leaves town to learn how to control the wolf within . She becomes depressed and explores magic more deeply, often with powerful but inconsistent results . She joins the campus Wicca group, meeting Tara Maclay, eventually falling in love with and choosing to be with her even when Oz returns to Sunnydale after apparently getting his lycanthropic tendencies under control . </P>

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