She may have been smitten by Moloch/Malcolm, but once she sees through him, she has no problem rejecting him and everything he has to offer
I think there's also a crucial difference in that she doesn't want to be handed power. She wants it on her own terms. When she does get powerful, she's going to boss Mighty Forces around in her own language. Doing Moloch's dirty work would never appeal to later season Willow either, but she would be able to zap him herself.
Also, not to be a Dark Willow apologist or anything, but the episode also seeds the huge problem of nobody taking Willow seriously. She looks young, she is a nerd, what trouble can she get up to? It'll happen again in S2/early S3 when Giles tries to get her to Just Say No to magic instead of getting her to some healthy role models, then again in Doppelgangland when she asks that her friends notice something non-homework-based about her and then again in Something Blue when everyone tsk-tsks at her for taking a whole two weeks to get over Oz and all the baggage that came with his leaving.
And really, none of that stuff is unreasonable. It's not like she feels undervalued for no rational reason. Her friends always miss clear chances to step in because they underestimate her. I think that's a huge factor in her eventual ability to rationalize, because even when she knows she is extremely powerful, I am not sure she believes that she can actually do a whole lot of harm: you can only be told so many times that you don't have any impact on the world before you start believing it. It doesn't excuse S6 Willow, but it goes a long way towards explaining her.
(I am not sure if I have commented on one of these yet, but I have been thoroughly enjoying them!)
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I think there's also a crucial difference in that she doesn't want to be handed power. She wants it on her own terms. When she does get powerful, she's going to boss Mighty Forces around in her own language. Doing Moloch's dirty work would never appeal to later season Willow either, but she would be able to zap him herself.
Also, not to be a Dark Willow apologist or anything, but the episode also seeds the huge problem of nobody taking Willow seriously. She looks young, she is a nerd, what trouble can she get up to? It'll happen again in S2/early S3 when Giles tries to get her to Just Say No to magic instead of getting her to some healthy role models, then again in Doppelgangland when she asks that her friends notice something non-homework-based about her and then again in Something Blue when everyone tsk-tsks at her for taking a whole two weeks to get over Oz and all the baggage that came with his leaving.
And really, none of that stuff is unreasonable. It's not like she feels undervalued for no rational reason. Her friends always miss clear chances to step in because they underestimate her. I think that's a huge factor in her eventual ability to rationalize, because even when she knows she is extremely powerful, I am not sure she believes that she can actually do a whole lot of harm: you can only be told so many times that you don't have any impact on the world before you start believing it. It doesn't excuse S6 Willow, but it goes a long way towards explaining her.
(I am not sure if I have commented on one of these yet, but I have been thoroughly enjoying them!)