Why couldn't Willow ressurect Tara?

[magicdanw]

Hi, this is my first post here (or on any Buffy forum)!

I've got a question about the show that's been bugging me for a long time, and I can't find any solid answer. In The Zeppo, the dead guy (I forget his name) went around raising his long-dead friends with little effort. The dead guy didn't have any special aptitude or training for magic (besides some instruction from his grandfather), yet he was able to do this easily. Willow, on the other hand, who is a much more powerful and knowledgeable witch, went through much difficulty to raise Buffy, requiring the last Osiris urn and the painful tests, and was completely unable to raise Tara. Is there any satisfactory answer to why this was, or did the authors simply choose to forget about the Zeppo to make more powerful storylines?

[Sassy]

Well the people brought back in The Zeppo didn't come back human. Willow wouldn't want to bring Buffy or Tara back not completly. That's why she couldn't bring Tara back. As far we know Willow only knew of the spell she used to bring Buffy back is the only one with a chance of her coming back human and thats for mystical deaths, plus there wasn't another urn.

I hope that helps. And welcome to the BF by the way.

[magicdanw]

Oh, I guess I didn't get that the people were demon. I figured that the person's body was just re-animated through some mystical means, so that physical damage didn't affect them. They didn't seem to act any different than they probably did when they were alive, and I don't remember them mentioning that they were demons in the episode.

[Sassy]

Oh, I guess I didn't get that the people were demon. I figured that the person's body was just re-animated through some mystical means, so that physical damage didn't affect them. They didn't seem to act any different than they probably did when they were alive, and I don't remember them mentioning that they were demons in the episode.

They may not have been demon, but they were still technonly dead, if I remember right they weren't actually alive in the sense of a heart beat, ect. So Willow probably wouldn't want to bring anyone back like that.

[magicdanw]

I suppose not. Still, at the time it seemed odd to me that it was never considered in either case. The parallels between Tara's being shot and the immediate attempt at revival and the Zeppo guy being shot and being immediately revived to a pretty high-functioning state seemed obvious to me.

[vampmogs]

If Willow had used the same spell to bring Buffy back that Jack had used on his buddies, Buffy would have been resurrected in the same decayed state we saw her body in moments before Willow's spell restored her. I don't think it has ever really been hard to resurrect someone from the dead in the Buffyverse, Wes has been said to have raised a bird from the dead as a little boy by simply reading out a spell but the catch was that it came back as a zombie. So whilst it is easy to resurrect someone it is a lot harder to resurrect them right.

I suppose not. Still, at the time it seemed odd to me that it was never considered in either case. The parallels between Tara's being shot and the immediate attempt at revival and the Zeppo guy being shot and being immediately revived to a pretty high-functioning state seemed obvious to me.

Yeah but Jack had to read out a specific spell and didn't he mention something about his Grandpa having to wait till the full moon before he could use the same spell on Jack? When Tara died Willow didn't have that spell and it was during the day and not under the light of the full moon.

[RockXcess]

You saw those guys, right? They were only one step above zombie level. That wasn't a return to life so much as a more active than usual death. Willow would have never considered doing that to either Buffy or Tara. It was bring them back completely or nothing at all.

Animating the dead is a simple matter, in the Buffyverse at least. Any kid with a magic book can get the job done. Actually bringing somebody back to life is something else entirely.

[magicdanw]

Ok. I just figured, if it was done immediately, then maybe damage would be minimal. Whatever, I get it now. Thanks

[~Serenity~]

um i thought that she couldn't reserect tara because tara died a natural death...unlike buffy...

[vampmogs]

um i thought that she couldn't reserect tara because tara died a natural death...unlike buffy...

Yeah but magicdanw is refering to the season three episode 'The Zeppo' when Jack O'Tool is resurrected, and resurrects others after dying a natural death. Jack died after having been shot several times in the stomach. It is possible to bring people back from a natural death, only it is very unlikely you can't bring them back right. Dawn manages to bring Joyce back in season five after dying a natural death, but it is implied chances are she came back wrong. As viewers we never saw if she came back right or wrong but given that she stumbled to her house door and knocked on her own door indicates she didn't exactly come back right.

[magicdanw]

Yeah, that was kind of a cool episode. Like, The Monkey Paw, but Buffy-style.