Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Willow’s 10 Most Awesomely Nerdy Scenes

One of the most beloved characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Willow Rosenberg transitioned from awkward teenager to powerful witch over seven seasons, but through every stage of her metamorphosis, she always managed to remain just a little bit nerdy. It was this aspect of her personality that made her so endearing, whether she was doing research with the Scoobies against some new threat to Sunnydale, or just trying to find love.

Fans could relate to Willow because she was initially a social misfit, and not nearly as confident as the Slayer, but she developed into a person who became comfortable with exactly who she was by the time the series ended. While most of them come from the beginning of the series when she was still figuring out her place, these are Willow’s best nerdy moments.

10 When She Tutors Buffy In Chemistry

When Willow begins the series, she’s introduced as a brainy, awkward student who agrees to do her classmates’ homework for them out of a genuine desire to be helpful. Unfortunately, she doesn’t set very good boundaries for herself and she ends up being taken advantage of.

When she starts to tutor her best friend in chemistry, not only does she not do her homework for her, but she also stands up for herself. Willow hates to hear Buffy put herself down when it comes to her academic achievements, but she also makes it clear that if she decides to just give up and not put the work in under Willow’s guidance, she won’t waste her time trying to help her get better.

9 Her Irrational Fear Of Frogs

In Season 1, a very studious Willow remains calm while Xander nervously dissects a frog during science class, a moment that seems to threaten the continuity of later storylines when Willow suddenly develops an irrational phobia around amphibians (or as she tells Giles, “frog fear”).

In Season 2 she uses her ranidaphobia to save Buffy from being killed, but not before shouting to a very confused Giles trying to wake her out of a sound slumber in the library, “Don’t warn the tadpoles!”, which became an oft-quoted line by Buffy fans. The whole scenario perfectly captures Willow’s two most defining traits; endearing and awkward.

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8 When She Uses Ice-Cream To Flirt

Willow has a crush on Xander for some time before they start exploring their feelings for one another, and she has to stand on the sidelines while he dates Cordelia and pines after Buffy. It’s not until the beginning of Season 2 that Willow has her chance. They go out for ice cream and she accidentally gets some on her nose, which almost leads to an adorable moment of intimacy.

Unfortunately, the moment passes, but she has a chance to try later while the pair are at the Bronze. Poor Willow tries to replicate the magic by putting ice cream on her nose again to get Xander’s attention, but he doesn’t even notice.

7 Giving Faith A School Tour

It only makes sense that when Faith first appears in Sunnydale, she goes on a tour of the town with Buffy while on patrol, and a tour of all the places supernatural things have happened at Sunnydale High with Willow and Xander. Willow assuming the role of chipper tour guide contrasted with Faith’s utter indifference is both amusing and trite.

Willow earnestly gives her the school tour with the belief that a worldly, tough the slayer actually cares where a vampire almost killed a freshman in the locker room. More specifically, Willow isn’t intimidated by Faith and shows pride in her school, and she lets her know that if she hurts Buffy, she’ll have to answer to Willow.

6 When She Tries To Explain Witchcraft To Her Mom

While Joyce and the rest of the mothers of Sunnydale are trying to stop the spread of the occult, Willow is trying to come out to her mom as a witch. She uses every cliché in the spellbook to convince her, including making pencils float, summoning the four elements, and even worshiping Beelzebub.

Her mother simply thinks she’s “acting out” like any typical teenager, even when she declares that she has to be a witch because she’s “dating a musician”. Apparently being with Oz is worse than Satan and being filled with his “black, naughty evil!” It’s surreal listening to Willow innocently declare her devotion to the dark arts considering where she ends up in Season 6.

5 When She Won’t Leave School Grounds

Despite the fact that Willow is a senior and allowed to go on lunch dates with Oz off campus, she still won’t go the few yards to where Buffy is forced to set up a picnic basket full of goodies. In her mind, the Slayer’s been expelled and therefore because she can’t be on school grounds, Willow can’t break the rules even for her best friend.

Luckily, Willow decides to not take things quite so literally and agrees to have lunch with Buffy, Xander, and her friends, where the topics range from Buffy’s interactions with Scott, to Martha Stewart, and the dreaded visit to Principal Snyder’s office. While it’s amusing to see Willow so adverse to breaking the rules early in the series, the fledgling rebellious streak she reveals only develops as the series goes on and she becomes more courageous.

4 When She Interrogates Jonathan

An aquatic attack on the Sunnydale swim team garners the interest of one Willow Rosenberg who, alongside Buffy and Xander investigates who would try to ruin the careers of the three best swimmers at Sunnydale High; Cameron, Dodd, and Gage. While Buffy shadows Gage to make sure he’s not injured next, Willow decides to interrogate Jonathan.

Having been harassed by the team earlier and possibly out for revenge, Jonathan is the primary suspect, so Willow uses every tactic she can think of to intimidate him into confessing, including shining a lamp on him like he’s the focus of a tense interrogation. As hilarious as the scene is, she does manage to find out that he did get revenge – by peeing in the pool.

3 When She Dresses As A Ghost On Halloween

For the Scooby Gang, Halloween only makes it harder to spot the actual supernatural entities trying to wreak havoc on Sunnydale, unless they’re being compared to Willow’s ghost costume from Season 2. While adorable, it isn’t going to actually be confused with a true poltergeist.

That all changes when a spell causes everyone in Sunnydale to turn into whatever costume they’re in, so while Xander is busy being an army soldier, and Buffy is an 18th-century noblewoman, Willow’s white bed-sheet turns her into a real specter.

2 When She’s Still Nice To Giles

Willow always shows the most deference to Giles as the adult of the group and a fellow scholar. Though she starts to behave more rebelliously around him in later seasons, the relationship between their characters is built on mutual affection, trust, and being polite.

It’s therefore very reassuring that even when the Scoobies are paid a visit by The (demons) Gentlemen, Willow still retains her distinct camaraderie with Giles. While everyone else is busy trying to communicate about the threat without the use of their voices, Willow’s first instinct is to write, “Hi Giles” on her dry erase board, which everyone finds oddly comforting.

1 Her College-Y Enthusiasm

In the fourth season, most of the Scoobies go to college, and no one is more excited than Willow. In high school, she was looked down on for being intellectually curious, but in college, her voracity for learning things is celebrated. In one of her nerdier moments, she likens the collective energy and intelligence of college to “the Force”, something that penetrates all living things and binds them all together.

Her Star Wars analogy ends up in an unexpectedly suggestive place, but that’s par for the course with the companion to Willow’s nerdy side; her incredibly awkward side.

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