Dawn or Connor ?

[Antho]

Dawn is probably one of the most hated character in Buffy and Connor is indoutedbly the most hated character in Angel. So here my question : do you prefer Dawn or Connor ?

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

I am with the mother of dinosaurs.

 

[Priceless]

I adore Dawn. I admire the risk the writers took to introduce a new character in the way they did in the fifth season of a very popular show. They risked making her integral to the main character and to the themes of the season They also didn't take the easy route and make her the adorable little sister who everyone loves. She had character and layers, she was allowed to be angry and mean and stupid, which as a viewer I appreciated. I also enjoyed watching her grow and change, from the poorly behaved child of S5 (with lots of reasons to be poorly behaved) to the cofident and enthusiastic young woman of S7.

I feel so incredibly sorry for Connor. He was stolen by a psychopath and groomed until he became a monster. He breaks my heart, all his parental figures used, abused and discarded him. The problem is that although I love him, he doesn't show enough layers to be a compelling character in the long term.

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

The problem is that although I love him, he doesn't show enough layers to be a compelling character in the long term.

This! I really wanted to like Connor. I would have forgiven him a lot. The problem is: He never does the right thing. He often takes pleasure in being cruel. Unlike Spike and Faith, there is nothing to balance out the badness. He sacrifices a woman for evil Cordy, he tries to suicide bomb himself, he drops Angel in the ocean...

He did have a good enough start with the junkie girl, but it was all down hill from there.

P.S. I kinda liked the fact that he accepted Jasmine, even if she was ugly. They could have built on that. The problem is: Growing up in a Hell dimension did not stop him from being instantly attracted to Cordy and Faith.

 

[Priceless]

He did have a good enough start with the junkie girl, but it was all down hill from there.

That was like Adam slicing a man open to see how he worked. Connor fed off the junkie and thought this is how the world worked

P.S. I kinda liked the fact that he accepted Jasmine, even if she was ugly. They could have built on that. The problem is: Growing up in a Hell dimension did not stop him from being instantly attracted to Cordy and Faith.

He did have good taste in women, I'll give him that, but it's not a 'layer' . . . or is it?

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

That was like Adam slicing a man open to see how he worked. Connor fed off the junkie and thought this is how the world worked

Really? I thought I remembered that scene being quite sweet.

He did have good taste in women, I'll give him that, but it's not a 'layer' . . . or is it?

It is more confusing than anything. He looked past Jasmine's monstrous appearance, but he immediately fell for Cordelia and Faith. Of course, part of the reason he fell for Faith was because she is a bad ass.

 

[Puppet]

I never disliked Dawn, though obviously I was a bit wary of her the first time around, before I found out what she was and why she was there as Buffy's sister. Maybe it has to do with being 12 when S5 came out and Dawn was 14, I probably related to her in a way I hadn't been able to before (I would later relate best to Faith, but not until I grew up a bit and rewactched the show).

Dawn always, imo, had moments when she wasn't as annoying as some people found her and, perhaps the most important part, she grew up over the next three seasons. If you watch her in Real Me and then immediately jump to Chosen...wow, that's a mature young lady right there.

If you leave out Connor's cameo's in AtS S5 (the only place I actually like him in) and watch his episode, the one with Sunny, and then immediately jump to Home, wow, the dude has degraded into an even worse character. Ugh, no thank you.

 

[Fool for Buffy]

I'd take Dawn's tantrums over Connor's revenge any day. But they both do grow a lot, and I have sympathy for both of them. They were both best in the last seasons of the two shows, but for Dawn that was an entire season so that also gives her the win.

 

[VaderSpike24]

Dawn is annoying and useless.
Connor is annoying but actually has a purpose in his show. At least he can beat the crap out of the people who don't like him. Still not a good character, but better than Dawn.

 

[Antho]

Connor is a great fighter.. good points for him

 

[Priceless]

Dawn is annoying and useless.
Connor is annoying but actually has a purpose in his show. At least he can beat the crap out of the people who don't like him. Still not a good character, but better than Dawn.

Dawn is not useless. From Grave onwards we see her fighting all sorts of demons and vampires. She does a lot of the watcher-type investigating, she even casts spells. She's actually incredibly useful

 

[FaithLehane16]

Connor because he was more understandable. His grief was way worse than Dawn's. I prefer his storyline over Dawn's. At leat no one's memories were created and turned out to be fake.

 

[RachM]

I love and will always defend both, but my vote goes to Connor. I find him a much more tragic and therefore more endearing character and I think he has more depth to him and more to explore as a character than Dawn does. Plus, I love the dynamic between Angel and Connor more than I do the dynamic between Buffy and Dawn.

 

[spikenbuffy]

Dawn!!! I love Buffy & Dawn sister bond S5, end of S6. It should have had more moments between Buffy Dawn in S7 rather than the damned potentials. I like Connor in S5 ATS but hate him in S4 ATS. 2 episodes of ATS S5 is too short to like more Connor than Dawn.

 

[DeadlyDuo]

I prefer Dawn over Connor, however that's like saying you'd prefer to be kicked in the shin than poked in the eye.

I'm nor sure if Connor suffered from the same problem as early season 5 Dawn did, eg the character was intended to be younger than the actor cast, but I always thought that Connor was an idiot and the adults stupidly let him get away with crap rather than calling him on it.

How old was Connor actually supposed to be? Dawn was a moron when she ate the ice cream but "Real Me" is kind of written for a younger character rather than a teenager.

 

[FaithLehane16]

Connor had it way worse than Dawn ever did?

@DeadlyDuo How could you make such a comparison??

 

[DeepBlueJoy]

I love them both. I feel sorry for them, and they can be annoying, but so can pretty much everyone else. Joyce has moments of being a terrible mom, borderline lush. Giles is a council surrogate and sadly, he comes back to that at the end of the series. Buffy lets everyone walk over her and cares too much what others think. Xander thinks only in black and white. Willow rapes the memory of EVERYONE she claims to love... Point is that EVERYONE in the series is flawed. It is what makes me love them and want to watch and rewatch them. They are fascinating. They are real.

Now, that character Wesley Crusher is crushing bore of a Mary Sue... (speaking of annoying child/teen characters) (he is from Star Trek the next generation, btw)

Connor is a much darker and more tragic character than Dawn, but he was raised in hell by a crazy hate filled madman, so IMO, he actually turned out remarkably well, all things considered. Dawn had her annoying child moments, but she grew into someone who was actually worth having around during an apocalypse, and I think one of her finest moments (and Xander's) is in the episode Potential. Dawn, when she hands off the baton to the Potential, and Xander, whose speech about it is his best performance of the series and one of my favorite moments of the entire run.

Vincent showed Connor's confusion at the world he (Connor) found himself in when he was first back in LA in that hotel room and then again on the roof when he simply couldn't figure out how to function in the world after all that had transpired.... His portrayal of Connor is amazing. He proved he's one of the better actors in the series.

Yes, even though I absolutely HATE the whole Connor/Cordy arc.

No, they aren't always adorable or likeable characters, but I find them real and I care what happens to them. It is a testament to the power of both series and their character building, that we end up caring even about some of our 'villains' (the vampire couple Elizabeth and James come to mind). But, while I felt sympathy for them, I felt, and still feel, genuine attachment to both Dawn and Connor.

 

[DeadlyDuo]

How could you make such a comparison??

Because they're both irritating characters when they are first introduced?

 

[AnthonyCordova]

I can acknowledge that Dawn and Connor were sometimes annoying but I liked them anyway. Dawn was an effective catalyst for growth in Buffy, and I am willing to forgive her tantrums due to her age and circumstances as the key, etc. (not every young teenager is the same, so to automatically expect one teen to behave more mature in the way of another is unrealistic and unfair. And I had a young sibling myself that was similar to Dawn so this adds to my sympathy for her). I also forgive Connor a great many faults because of his crappy life circumstances (hell dimension, Holtz manipulations, etc.) and also because the course of his time on the show before S5 is relatively short and you can't expect a whole lifetime of conditioning to be overcome in the time that the end of S3/S4 take in total. I will say I was disappointed in him for sending his father to the bottom of the sea. That was a truly cruel act to perform. But I can understand it somewhat from the point of view of his very warped perspective due to his conditioning.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Connor > Dawn