Did the fan reaction change after Tara died?

It was really tough. The way she died was awful, it was really, really horrible and I wish that it hadn't happened, but I understood from a story standpoint why it had to go in that direction.

The only way that Joss could get Willow's character to that level of desperation was to take the one thing away from her that she loved which was Tara. As awful as it was, he was really trying to put the message out that Willow's problem with magic was a allegory for drug abuse.

[It was an allegory for] anything where it's an addictive, obsessive thing, when you drink too much or you do drugs, you sleep around and have no care for yourself. That's what Willow was going through, this mad obsession, this addiction, and the only way she could go back to reality was to bottom out. Then she could return to the Willow that we all know and love.