Willow's Relationship History

Xander: Willow and Xander have known each other practically since birth. They even "dated" for a while, but broke up because Xander stole Willow's Barbie (they were 5 years old). There then followed a period of some 10-15 years of Willow harboring unrequited love for Xander, and Xander pretending he didn't notice ... except for one brief period when they were all over each other, despite the fact that they were both in other relationships at the time (Willow with Oz, Xander with Cordelia). They got caught by their significant others, and felt very very guilty. There's been very little indication since then that anything but platonic friendship exists between these two, but at the end of Season 6, a grief-stricken Willow was only restrained from destroying the world by Xander's unconditional love for her. It's uncertain where this will go in Season 7, but given Joss Whedon's descriptions of the theme of Season 7 as "Buffy: Year One," I'm rather hoping that we will finally see Xander and Willow happy together (but I think it rather unlikely, now that Mutant Enemy has so thoroughly established Willow's homosexuality).

Malcolm / Moloch: Willow's first boyfriend on the show was -- very appropriately -- a cyber-boyfriend she met online. Except this guy Malcolm was a bit more literally a cyber-boyfriend than most. He was, in fact, an ancient homicidal demon (actually named "Moloch") trapped in the Internet. He honestly did seem to love Willow, but Willow just couldn't deal with the whole evil thing. It ended badly, with a dead Moloch and a depressed Willow.

Oz: Ah, Oz. One of my favorite characters ever to appear on the show ... with his wonderful, straight-faced, dry sense of humor. Willow and Oz were almost sickeningly sweet together, but I loved it. They met at Sunnydale High, and Oz -- the ultra-cool, ultra-laid-back, ultra-smart, spikey-haired lead-guitar player for a band called "Dingoes Ate My Baby" -- was immediately smitten ... a fairly new experience for Wallflower!Willow. Their relationship suffered some ups and downs -- such as when they discovered that Oz was a werewolf -- but they dated quite happily for about 2 years (eps. 2.13-4.06). In the end, they broke up not because they didn't love each other, but because Oz was concerned about learning to control the wolf inside him, and left town. Willow suffered a major depression after his departure. By the time he came back for her about a year later, Willow was with Tara.

Tara: Willow and Tara met at a lame, pretentious Wicca meeting at UC Sunnydale. They quickly realized that they were both more serious about this Wicca thing than the "Blessed-Wanna-Be's" in the Wicca club. As they became closer and closer friends, Tara and Willow also became more and more aware of a growing attraction between them (though it had seemed present from the very first), and they eventually became a couple. Tara was very shy at first, with a pronounced stammer in her speech, but she blossomed through her relationship with Willow and the Scoobies. Willow and Tara had their share of problems -- most noticeably, Willow's abuse of magic in Season 6 -- but on the whole they were happy together and very deeply in love. Unfortunately, Tara's murder at the end of Season 6 sent Willow off the deep end in a major way. It's still unclear what the emotional fall-out from all this will be in Season 7.