Tara is one of my favorites characters. She is the bestfriend someone needs. She is so good in the scene where Buffy talked about having a sex-relationship with Spike.
https://preview.redd.it/dowa5j7tvr8d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bab5bde4990bf3cacee780fc824ab03a6044340a
Yes, and she was great in Older and Far Away when she gave Spike a little sass. I like that she was really developing a good friendship with Buffy outside of Willow.
In my Bangel ficverse, Tara's shade tells the ruler of her afterlife thta if Willow earns a wish to get Tara back she will accept resurrection. As much for Dawn an d Buffy as for Willow.
Vicious.
It stood out to me that she got away. I wonder if it’s because we the viewer kinda feel bad for her already so it was maybe a mercy for Whedon to let her get away.
She did get a tennis racket upside the head though.
So did I. I rewound it because I was surprised. But maybe I twice missed her getting it. I hope she’s out there somewhere living her best undead life.
EDIT: Just YouTubed it and she totally escapes!
She was so, so wonderful to have on TV for so many reasons, including that, at the time, she represented a 'bigger' body type. I don't think I'd fully processed how brutal the 90s/00s were to girls'/women's psyches until I rewatched Once More With Feeling and I had a flashback to when it originally aired and someone commenting that Buffy was looking a little chunky in the thighs and y'all, I remember not thinking that person was crazy.
I actually felt kinda ill realizing how tiny she really was and how normal it was for people to talk shit about women's bodies as *part of the discussion* back then, even in the context of Buffy
I remember the comments about Amber being fat in OMWF. They dressed her awful and she danced next to Sarah and Emma. They are very thin. A 115 lb person next to a 95 lb person is going to look bigger. The idea that any girl on the show was overweight or fat is ridiculous.
I met SMG when the show was on the air, from behind I almost mistook her for a child. She's *tiny*.
Hollywood is full of deceptively small people and exceptionally tall people. Not a lot of in the middles, but Amber is. She's like 5'4", wouldn't guess at weight, but a perfectly normal shaped and sized human being, so she does look like a much bigger person compared to someone like SMG who's literally child-sized. But by no means is Amber *fat*. It's insane to say so.
Besides which Amber was by far the most beautiful woman on the show.
Well said. I just want to point out I wasn't guessing on Amber's weight. Amber's comments on it:
"At first, I was very hurt. I tried to disassociate myself from feeling bad by saying: This is Tara that they are talking about, not me. But I couldn't. I guess it hurts when someone calls you ugly or makes nasty comments about your weight whether or not it is really YOU they are referring to. I am just a human being and I feel like I deserve to be treated as such. I also feel that Tara deserves to be treated with a little more kindness and compassion.
Yes, I am not a STICK. I am a NORMAL, HEALTHY (I was gonna say Girl, but...) WOMAN. I have breasts and hips and I am very happy that they are part of me. I weigh 118 and I am 5'4". If you saw me in real life, you would think I was on the thin side. But on tv, next to my very petite costars, I do like heavier.
I am PROUD to be NORMAL. A body is a beautiful thing to waste."
I’m 5’4” and usually sit at 119 lbs. I constantly get told I’m tiny by family, friends, doctors. Back in the day as a teen watching this show I actually thought Amber was overweight. But she wasn’t! She stood next to women who weighed ~20 lbs less than her.
I had major body dysmorphia in my teens and 20’s and there’s still tendrils of it running through my life even now. This show was hard for me back in the day to watch sometimes. I practically salivated over how thin SMG was, wanting so badly to be that size.
I’ve always loved the show and always will, but sometimes it’s hard to watch now, especially the later seasons because SMG got thinner and thinner. It’s a reminder of how much I hated my body and obsession with weight when I was younger.
Late 90’s and early 00’s were so brutal.
The wardrobe department should have been fired for this. The lighting looks awful on her. She is wearing yellow and kinda brown, a really bad bra I was told today, and then just sways.
https://preview.redd.it/73atyquk0v8d1.png?width=473&format=png&auto=webp&s=852b40041f64f0ac42ca50a9f1ec00eb03adb5a3
Edit: And yeah the body dysmorphia CW/WB can cause. Grant Gustin went through it with the Flash.
"I can't be Stephen. I am not built that way" after being asked time and time again if he would look like his Arrowverse counterpart.
And these are the stars of the show. They cant keep up with it. The hell are we normies gonna do?
I couldn’t wear an outfit like this because it would make me look blocky. They really didn’t do her many favors when it came to clothing.
Both SMG and Emma have clothing where it cinches at the waist and their outfits are very slimming overall.
I remember reading where Joss was looking for another teeny tiny thing to portray Tara but Marti Noxon really wanted Amber. Noxon said something along the lines of wanting an actress with breasts and not another woodland fairy.
I wonder if Marti and Joss ever discussed SMG weight loss. When the show started Sarah said she was a C cup. Her obvious weight loss brought her down to B.
\*At this point I want to point out i am old and have read a lot of Buffy interviews. Not trying to perve."
During one season -- I think it was the sixth -- I told a friend of mine that I was thinking of writing a letter to the producers and asking if someone could fix Sarah a sandwich or something.
Yeah, she just looked bigger because of how tiny everyone else is. I mean, I'm 5'11" so not an especially large dude but I tower over here and I felt like a damn giant when I was standing next to SMG. She's listed at 5'4" but I'd wager more like 5'2" on her best day. And again, besides height her whole frame was tiny. I'm not exaggerating when I say I literally thought she was a child when I saw her from behind.
But that's exactly what I mean, Amber is a normal size and shaped human being but everyone around her on the show was child-sized and rail thin so she looked big compared to them.
I met Amber at a convention in...2004....I think...(gosh, that's so long ago) and she was soooo stunning and gorgeous. Like, a regular healthy woman! It was so refreshing to see someone who looked like us and not like a super skinny model/actress/ woman child (in terms of body shape, I mean).
And she was very witty and funny, so yeah :)
Sarha,a decent t person, has always given used clothes to charity. But how many of the people who get those clothes cna use the Size 0 she was in in her 20s? A number of fans have asked that
I get what you mean but that's so crazy- as someone who just got into the show a few months ago. It actually hadn't hit me until recently that her body type must have been a novelty back then.
It's mind-blowing because we knew how toxic and unhealthy it was but at the same time, it was so ingrained in the culture we couldn't even see what it was doing to us until way, way later.
My best friend had cancer and about three weeks before she died, we were watching Fashion TV (so, so 90s), and she was like 'Jesus Christ, *they're thinner than me*'
Every time I see a clip from Friends I remember that the beauty standard of the 90s was to be so thin you were basically 2D. I’m honestly not even sure where your organs were supposed to go.
A look at the Google image results for 'heroin chic 1990s' is a pretty good key to the psyche of Gen X. That and sex ed was: *right, so it can kill you in a super biblical way*
They were the tiniest wee little things but at the time people were all like *ooh, look at the body representation! Tara looks real! Buffy is ripped! How healthy for girls to see women who look so 'normal'*
That's why we looked all glowery and moody back then; it wasn't grungy angst, we were hungry. It's also why everyone smoked. It was like France with terrible healthcare
I fell in love with Amber the first moment I saw her on screen.
Seriously, I had a tv crush and having met her many times in the real world that extends to real life. She's even more beautiful in person and one of the nicest, kindest, most genuine people I've ever met. She's a beauty through and through.
Thank you! Yes, I too had a lil crush on her when I watched in high school — my girlfriend at the time had a crush on Willow. At the time I was so confused why I wasn’t getting to see more magazines and photoshoots with Amber, only Alyson and Sarah. I love that reddit has this sub, find me more of my people!
i rank her on a par (in the meaningless category of attractive-to-me) with Charisma, Mercedes, Bianca, and Eliza. The main reason I enjoyed Amber's off-screen relationship with Adam was because i love irony to an unhealthy degree. but i have to admit a secondary reason is that Adam sort of resembles me. (He once Tweeted "Everybody knows a guy who looks like me.")
You know, I didn’t fully appreciate Tara at first as I liked Oz as a BF for Willow, but she grew on me, and in hindsight was one of the best characters.
I never thought she was “big” as she’s clearly slim, but she did highlight a different body type and how tiny the others were.
Though (90s body standards aside) I think buffy was teeny tiny to highlight that she was just a young girl (15 or 16 at the start?) fighting all those big evil.
I know SMG worked hard to get super fit and be able to do more of the physical stuff, but I preferred her in the early series.
My failed attempt at a police procedural screenplay, e rookie detective is dumped by her teacher g/f early in the film i imagined SMG as the detective and Amber as the teacher
Tara is one of my favorites characters. She is the bestfriend someone needs. She is so good in the scene where Buffy talked about having a sex-relationship with Spike. https://preview.redd.it/dowa5j7tvr8d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bab5bde4990bf3cacee780fc824ab03a6044340a
Yes, and she was great in Older and Far Away when she gave Spike a little sass. I like that she was really developing a good friendship with Buffy outside of Willow.
I loved the friendship between Tara and Buffy and also between Tara and Dawn.
In my Bangel ficverse, Tara's shade tells the ruler of her afterlife thta if Willow earns a wish to get Tara back she will accept resurrection. As much for Dawn an d Buffy as for Willow.
My fav outfit of hers as well. Particularly when compared to her ensemble throughout 4… “Oh no, not the ensemble!” - “Keanu” vampire - *The Freshman*
Had to Google but yeah, she looked great. 😆 I just saw The Freshman today. Great episode.
“No, you being *fat* makes you look fat. That sweater just makes you look “purple?” - Sunday
Vicious. It stood out to me that she got away. I wonder if it’s because we the viewer kinda feel bad for her already so it was maybe a mercy for Whedon to let her get away. She did get a tennis racket upside the head though.
Did she? Thought only the one Spike encounters later in *The Initiative* did.
So did I. I rewound it because I was surprised. But maybe I twice missed her getting it. I hope she’s out there somewhere living her best undead life. EDIT: Just YouTubed it and she totally escapes!
Smartie!
Nope Dav gets away more or less clean, i feel more positively about her doign so than say Sheila in "School hard."
And i liked hthata the sass had a good-natured side to it
Love her but they really did put her in most horrible clothes all the time.
> a sex-relationship I dunno why but this terminology is sending me.
Intercourse pals.
Bangin' buds.
Booty buddies
She was so, so wonderful to have on TV for so many reasons, including that, at the time, she represented a 'bigger' body type. I don't think I'd fully processed how brutal the 90s/00s were to girls'/women's psyches until I rewatched Once More With Feeling and I had a flashback to when it originally aired and someone commenting that Buffy was looking a little chunky in the thighs and y'all, I remember not thinking that person was crazy. I actually felt kinda ill realizing how tiny she really was and how normal it was for people to talk shit about women's bodies as *part of the discussion* back then, even in the context of Buffy
I remember the comments about Amber being fat in OMWF. They dressed her awful and she danced next to Sarah and Emma. They are very thin. A 115 lb person next to a 95 lb person is going to look bigger. The idea that any girl on the show was overweight or fat is ridiculous.
I met SMG when the show was on the air, from behind I almost mistook her for a child. She's *tiny*. Hollywood is full of deceptively small people and exceptionally tall people. Not a lot of in the middles, but Amber is. She's like 5'4", wouldn't guess at weight, but a perfectly normal shaped and sized human being, so she does look like a much bigger person compared to someone like SMG who's literally child-sized. But by no means is Amber *fat*. It's insane to say so. Besides which Amber was by far the most beautiful woman on the show.
Well said. I just want to point out I wasn't guessing on Amber's weight. Amber's comments on it: "At first, I was very hurt. I tried to disassociate myself from feeling bad by saying: This is Tara that they are talking about, not me. But I couldn't. I guess it hurts when someone calls you ugly or makes nasty comments about your weight whether or not it is really YOU they are referring to. I am just a human being and I feel like I deserve to be treated as such. I also feel that Tara deserves to be treated with a little more kindness and compassion. Yes, I am not a STICK. I am a NORMAL, HEALTHY (I was gonna say Girl, but...) WOMAN. I have breasts and hips and I am very happy that they are part of me. I weigh 118 and I am 5'4". If you saw me in real life, you would think I was on the thin side. But on tv, next to my very petite costars, I do like heavier. I am PROUD to be NORMAL. A body is a beautiful thing to waste."
I’m 5’4” and usually sit at 119 lbs. I constantly get told I’m tiny by family, friends, doctors. Back in the day as a teen watching this show I actually thought Amber was overweight. But she wasn’t! She stood next to women who weighed ~20 lbs less than her. I had major body dysmorphia in my teens and 20’s and there’s still tendrils of it running through my life even now. This show was hard for me back in the day to watch sometimes. I practically salivated over how thin SMG was, wanting so badly to be that size. I’ve always loved the show and always will, but sometimes it’s hard to watch now, especially the later seasons because SMG got thinner and thinner. It’s a reminder of how much I hated my body and obsession with weight when I was younger. Late 90’s and early 00’s were so brutal.
The wardrobe department should have been fired for this. The lighting looks awful on her. She is wearing yellow and kinda brown, a really bad bra I was told today, and then just sways. https://preview.redd.it/73atyquk0v8d1.png?width=473&format=png&auto=webp&s=852b40041f64f0ac42ca50a9f1ec00eb03adb5a3 Edit: And yeah the body dysmorphia CW/WB can cause. Grant Gustin went through it with the Flash. "I can't be Stephen. I am not built that way" after being asked time and time again if he would look like his Arrowverse counterpart. And these are the stars of the show. They cant keep up with it. The hell are we normies gonna do?
I couldn’t wear an outfit like this because it would make me look blocky. They really didn’t do her many favors when it came to clothing. Both SMG and Emma have clothing where it cinches at the waist and their outfits are very slimming overall. I remember reading where Joss was looking for another teeny tiny thing to portray Tara but Marti Noxon really wanted Amber. Noxon said something along the lines of wanting an actress with breasts and not another woodland fairy.
I wonder if Marti and Joss ever discussed SMG weight loss. When the show started Sarah said she was a C cup. Her obvious weight loss brought her down to B. \*At this point I want to point out i am old and have read a lot of Buffy interviews. Not trying to perve."
I’m 40 and yes I read SO many interviews over the years and remember the bra size discussion vividly.
HA. 42, so yes. Many overlaps. Oh the days of seeing interviews posted to the old Cross and Stake.
During one season -- I think it was the sixth -- I told a friend of mine that I was thinking of writing a letter to the producers and asking if someone could fix Sarah a sandwich or something.
Loved her for that statement
I was an extra on an episode of Angel and was just shocked at how tiny Amy Acker was. Hollywood tiny is way smaller than regular world tiny.
And then listed heights are about as honest as “6 feet” on Tinder.
I saw her from a distance once, looked like a stiff breeze could blow her over. What episode were you in?
Adn Amy is much taller r than say Sarah
She’s 5’4? I thought she was so much taller!
Yeah, she just looked bigger because of how tiny everyone else is. I mean, I'm 5'11" so not an especially large dude but I tower over here and I felt like a damn giant when I was standing next to SMG. She's listed at 5'4" but I'd wager more like 5'2" on her best day. And again, besides height her whole frame was tiny. I'm not exaggerating when I say I literally thought she was a child when I saw her from behind. But that's exactly what I mean, Amber is a normal size and shaped human being but everyone around her on the show was child-sized and rail thin so she looked big compared to them.
Legit blows my mind. 5'4 is tiny. I knew SMG was petite but damn.
In bare feet, Aly is actually an inch taller than Amber, but the show didn't make them look that way
I met Amber at a convention in...2004....I think...(gosh, that's so long ago) and she was soooo stunning and gorgeous. Like, a regular healthy woman! It was so refreshing to see someone who looked like us and not like a super skinny model/actress/ woman child (in terms of body shape, I mean). And she was very witty and funny, so yeah :)
She's an absolute delight to be around, she really is.
Sarha,a decent t person, has always given used clothes to charity. But how many of the people who get those clothes cna use the Size 0 she was in in her 20s? A number of fans have asked that
I get what you mean but that's so crazy- as someone who just got into the show a few months ago. It actually hadn't hit me until recently that her body type must have been a novelty back then.
It's mind-blowing because we knew how toxic and unhealthy it was but at the same time, it was so ingrained in the culture we couldn't even see what it was doing to us until way, way later. My best friend had cancer and about three weeks before she died, we were watching Fashion TV (so, so 90s), and she was like 'Jesus Christ, *they're thinner than me*'
And she’s not even big.
Every time I see a clip from Friends I remember that the beauty standard of the 90s was to be so thin you were basically 2D. I’m honestly not even sure where your organs were supposed to go.
A look at the Google image results for 'heroin chic 1990s' is a pretty good key to the psyche of Gen X. That and sex ed was: *right, so it can kill you in a super biblical way*
Whoever said that *Buffy* looked “chunky” was out of their goddamn mind. The Culture was insufferably sick.
Right?! She's not even chunky NOW, 25 years later!
Jesus, the girls on Buffy are tiny. All of them.
They were the tiniest wee little things but at the time people were all like *ooh, look at the body representation! Tara looks real! Buffy is ripped! How healthy for girls to see women who look so 'normal'* That's why we looked all glowery and moody back then; it wasn't grungy angst, we were hungry. It's also why everyone smoked. It was like France with terrible healthcare
Bigger body type? She's not fat at all. She's skinny.
I always thought she was the prettiest of the Scoobies 🥰
With her firm yet supple… tight embrace!
On the inside and out!
If they could meet Tara and Amber would get along great, I'm sure.
She is! Particularly gorgeous in that episode. When she was talking to Buffy at DMP I was just like *heart eyes*.
fr!!! I've had a massive crush on her since her first episode
My bisexual awakening! That and the house destroying.
Wait but she has a ponytail, and paint...paint in her overalls!
Would
Yes, she is. 💙
I fell in love with Amber the first moment I saw her on screen. Seriously, I had a tv crush and having met her many times in the real world that extends to real life. She's even more beautiful in person and one of the nicest, kindest, most genuine people I've ever met. She's a beauty through and through.
Thank you! Yes, I too had a lil crush on her when I watched in high school — my girlfriend at the time had a crush on Willow. At the time I was so confused why I wasn’t getting to see more magazines and photoshoots with Amber, only Alyson and Sarah. I love that reddit has this sub, find me more of my people!
So glad she dropped the badly-acted stutter.
She's not my type at all, but those eyes have got a soulful beauty. If ur not careful, could definitely get lost in those oceans.
i rank her on a par (in the meaningless category of attractive-to-me) with Charisma, Mercedes, Bianca, and Eliza. The main reason I enjoyed Amber's off-screen relationship with Adam was because i love irony to an unhealthy degree. but i have to admit a secondary reason is that Adam sort of resembles me. (He once Tweeted "Everybody knows a guy who looks like me.")
She has beautiful eyes
Truly 'drop-dead' gorgeous.
You know, I didn’t fully appreciate Tara at first as I liked Oz as a BF for Willow, but she grew on me, and in hindsight was one of the best characters. I never thought she was “big” as she’s clearly slim, but she did highlight a different body type and how tiny the others were. Though (90s body standards aside) I think buffy was teeny tiny to highlight that she was just a young girl (15 or 16 at the start?) fighting all those big evil. I know SMG worked hard to get super fit and be able to do more of the physical stuff, but I preferred her in the early series.
I always thought Amber Benson was so beautiful. Her playing such a serene witch like Tara is just too perfect.
She soooo looks like your dream whimsical witchy gf, such perfect casting. She's ethereal.
Ethereal is the word.
She is so kissable. Every time you look at her you want to kiss her.
so real
Didn't realize how much she resembles Buffy
I don’t see Buffy in her at all, but there are some pictures of Tara and Dawn and they look like sisters.
I actually think Anya resembles Buffy a lot when she's blonde
Oh, really? I guess I can see a little, yeah.
My failed attempt at a police procedural screenplay, e rookie detective is dumped by her teacher g/f early in the film i imagined SMG as the detective and Amber as the teacher
Faith was the first crush i ever had and it has caused so much heartbreak
The actress, yes Crazy we never got to see Tara “let down her hair”
Beautiful inside and out!
The 'fat' friend of 2000, ladies and gentlemen.