The training for the new Slayer miraculously brings a story together full circle that started back in the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The latest ongoing series, Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer, sees a much older Buffy serving as Watcher and mentor to the new Slayer, Thessaly. Meanwhile, Thessaly is the daughter of both the rechristened Mother Marrow Tara and the late Willow.
Thessaly’s training under Buffy can be seen over the course of the miniseries Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer by Casey Gilly and Joe Jaro. The story actually harkens back to a favor that Willow and Tara did for Buffy back in Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The sixth season of the show is not always remembered as fondly as other seasons due to the more controversial or questionable moments that take place during it.
However, one overlooked moment from the very start of Season 6 manages to tie together to the BOOM! Studios comics depicting Buffy and Thessaly’s adventures together.
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Buffy Raised Willow and Tara’s Daughter for Them
To truly understand the current status of Thessaly being cared for under Buffy, readers must first recall when Buffy’s sister, Dawn, was cared for under Willow and Tara briefly in the Season 6 two-part opener, “Bargaining.” Going into the sixth season, Buffy had died to save the world, leaving no one else to raise her teenage sister in her absence, even when she did inevitably return. Enter Willow and Tara, who would unofficially become Dawn’s new guardians while Buffy was away in Heaven. It wasn’t easy since they couldn’t legally do it at the time and needed the Buffy robot to ward off suspicion while Dawn lived with them, but it was a sacrifice they were happy to make.
Flash forward to now, where Tara and Willow are long presumed dead (Willow is dead, while until recently, Tara was presumed dead until she resurfaced as the Mother Marrow). Thessaly enters Buffy’s life at a time when the elderly Slayer is certain that all of her friends have either long died or drifted apart at this point. Essentially having to adopt a child and teaching her to become the new Slayer is no easy task, but like Willow and Tara before her, Buffy is willing to make the necessary sacrifice out of love for her late friends.
Buffy Repays a Favor From the Show’s Sixth Season
Buffy taking in and training Tess during The Last Vampire Slayer closes the loop on Willow and Tara adopting Dawn in season 6. It brings even more meaning for Buffy to pass the torch to Willow and Tara’s daughter because in doing so, she is able to repay their earlier efforts more directly than anyone involved would have expected her to. Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer gets a lot of flak, but it’s touching to see how an easy-to-overlook moment from that season can pay off in the present.
