
The millions of queer women around the world who spent their teen years reading Buffy fanfic may be having their best day today, and we're kind of here for it.
For a show that featured exclusively straight-presenting characters for its first three seasons, and then made questionable choices regarding how it depicted one of its main character's queerness, Buffy really has become essential watching (and rewatching) for LGBTQ+ women (and some men) over the years. An impressive feat.
Aside from the parallels between Buffy's secret identity as a vampire slayer and the experience of many teenagers coming to grips with their sexual identity, there's also of course the fact that the teen show featured a main female character in a relationship with another woman.
Lesbians for prime time? Actually, kinda *groundbreaking*.
But where perhaps its queer subtext shines the brightest is in the subtext of the relationship between Buffy and her best friend Willow.
And it seems Willow herself (or at least the woman who brought her to life) seems to agree.
It all began when Stacey Abrams weighed in on Buffy's relationship.
Yes, that's Abrams who ran for governor of Georgia in 2018, Abrams whose tireless activism saw around 800,000 new voters register in Georgia, a state which Joe Biden won in the election earlier this month after it spent almost 30 years as a Republican stronghold.
Never underestimate the multifaceted interests of a political icon.
Anyway, after a Buffy fan learned that Abrams is actually a huge fan of the show, she did what we would all do were to be so bold and tweeted her:
@Alex_Kack @staceyabrams She ships Spike— Betsey Valentine 🔰 (@Betsey Valentine 🔰) 1604954075
In response, Abrams weighed in on her view of Buffy's choices for romantic partner.
@lisabetsey @Alex_Kack To be fair, Angel was the right boyfriend for Buffy coming into her power. Spike was the rig… https://t.co/j3g5w2FljF— Stacey Abrams (@Stacey Abrams) 1604961111
For the purposes of telling you what happened next, we'll leave aside the analysis of whether we want to stan a relationship between a teenage girl and a vampire who is 240 years old – or, if we want to assume vampires cease to age emotionally as well as they do physically, a 26-year-old man. The long and short of it is that Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow, had other thoughts.
We can only assume she saw Abrams' tweet and decided to offer her perspective:
Actually Buffy should have dated Willow.— alyson hannigan (@alyson hannigan) 1605148389
If Hannigan wasn't intending to break queer Twitter, she just got very very lucky. Suffice to say, fans were seriously into it.
Sorry Stacey Abrams I have updated my Most Correct Buffy Opinion chart in Alyson's favour now. https://t.co/bh5Hwcp5HI— Louie Stowell (@Louie Stowell) 1605176375
i say yes to this! add faith and my dirty dreams come true lol https://t.co/XF05i25C6R— Becky Stone (@Becky Stone) 1605173664
Look, 2020 mostly just takes, but every so often it really ✨gives✨ and for that we are grateful https://t.co/68yU7DVb0K— Lez Hang Out Pod (@Lez Hang Out Pod) 1605162304
Hannigan, being as she is our newly crowned queen, didn't even stop there, commenting on what that would have meant for Willow's relationship with Tara.
After obviously https://t.co/tmrFJX9G1k— alyson hannigan (@alyson hannigan) 1605155906
And whether it would have affected their friendship.
That’s what @AnthonySHead told me when @AlexisDenisof and I were thinking about dating 20 years ago! #stillfriends https://t.co/2fqicZxysR— alyson hannigan (@alyson hannigan) 1605149193
And just generally being awesome on the internet.
@scherbtzky hi!— alyson hannigan (@alyson hannigan) 1605149538
@xxyodiexx she’s smart!— alyson hannigan (@alyson hannigan) 1605148945
So does it actually make sense for Buffy and Willow to enter dateville?
Well, kind of. Maybe.
Buffy is famously not straight. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, a graphic novel continuation of the seven-season TV show run, Buffy dates a woman – a slayer, no less.
The series was overseen by Buffy creator Joss Whedon, so it's safe to assume that Buffy is not exclusively into men..
And there are hints in earlier seasons that Willow is somewhat drawn to Buffy, although this never really sees any follow-though, and it's actually Xander who Willow is depicted as having a crush on in earlier seasons.
Further, in case anyone missed the memo of 2002 discourse, two queer women can have a platonic relationship. That's totally fine and cool and normal in the real world.
That said, Sunnydale isn't the normal world. If we're able to suspend our disbelief to allow for vampires and demons and impossibly self-assured 16-year-olds with an unlimited clothing budget, we can certainly reach far enough to see a world in which Willow and Buffy are living their best life together right now.
And it seems Alyson Hannigan can too... sorry Mr Whedon, we're going to say that's definitely enough to call it canon.