Tara Maclay is one of the protagonists from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. She is a powerful witch who is shy and has little self confidence before meeting her lover Willow Rosenberg.
Due to Tara's natural abilities that she inherited from her mother, her father feared their magic abilties and referred to them as demons. This led Tara to have no self confidence or friends only worsening after her mother died at age 17. Tara started attending college in Sunnydale where she joined a Wiccan. This is where she met Willow because Willow was the only other real witch. The two became close friends and started practicing spells together eventually forming a romantic relationship.
Things were complicated when Oz returned to Sunnydale claiming he could control his transformations into a werewolf. Oz learned that Tara was involved with Willow causing him to get upset and attack her. He was eventually released from The Iniative deciding to leave Sunnydale so Willow could be with Tara. Willow and Tara then came out to the rest of the Scooby Gang. Tara became an integral member even rooming with Willow after Buffy dropped out of college and befriending Buffy's younger sister Dawn.
Unfortunately Tara's family arrived insisting she come home. The rest of the Scooby Gang stood up for her insisting she was their friend. This boosted her Tara's confidence which led her to enjoy her birthday. In the fifth season, Tara was targeted by Glory when she attended alone after fighting with Willow. Glory asked her where The Key but Tara refused to tell her anything. This led Glory to drain her sanity reducing Tara to a childlike state. Willow was angered by this and attempted to attack Glory in revenge. Her attack failed leaving her to take care of Tara. Willow was eventually able to restore Tara to normal at the end of season five.
In season six, Tara and Willow became surrogate parents to Dawn after Buffy's death. Willow decided to resurrect her with Tara being reluctant at first before agreeing to support her. The relationship between Tara and Willow started to decay after noticed Willow was using magic to much. Willow used a spell to make Tara forget their fight but Tara found breaking up with Willow in the process. Willow stopped using magic so that she and Tara could get back together.
Shortly after they made up Tara was shot by Warren Mears. This led Willow to becoming the main villain of season six and hunting down Warren for revenge.