Dawn or Connor ?

[DeadlyDuo]

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.

I think it would've actually helped if we'd seen Connor growing up in the hell dimension. To be honest though, I think it is Season 4 that really screws Connor over especially with the evilCordy plot, he's just really unlikeable.

 

[AnthonyCordova]

I think it would've actually helped if we'd seen Connor growing up in the hell dimension. To be honest though, I think it is Season 4 that really screws Connor over especially with the evilCordy plot, he's just really unlikeable.

About S4 I feel like Connor's pain and angst make sense and I understand why, although I would agree I don't necessarily like it (for me, the word "like" would be the wrong language to use with respect to Connor and the circumstances here; "understanding" seems more appropriate). Also, I would say I empathize rather than sympathize (I largely don't approve of or condone what he does in S4 but I can understand how he might feel the need to do so, due to his pain, conditioning, etc., like I said before). I don't like the evil Cordy plot either, but for me that has always had more to do with Cordy than Connor. The reason why might be because I feel like Connor's attitudes and behavior have at this point in the show been established and he isn't necessarily inconsistent here. What Connor does doesn't surprise me, whereas from the perspective of the character of Cordelia it marks the ignoble beginning of the end of her character. The plot was twisted around to bring an untimely end to her.

 

[CHK DeWilSon]

I like both of them actually and never really saw why some had such HUGE problems with them.
They both pretty much (to me) acted like typical teenagers with more angst because they were both magically created for certain purposes.

If I HAD to choose one then it would be Connor because HE'S Angel's son plus Darla's sacrifice for him was such a wonderful scene which probably makes it one of my favourite ATS scene if not my no.1.

 

[Albion]

I really like both of them. Dawn is probably one of my favourite characters though when I first watched the show at 14 I hated her. Now she just reminds me of how dramatic everything can feel when you're 15.

Connor had a pretty tough time. I really liked the first few Connor episodes, especially the portrayal of him confusion. I kinda hate how the writers never let him catch a break, it just made him too damaged. I wish he had been able to get better after season 4 without having to be basically written off the show.

I hated the Connor/Cordy arc though.

 

[Altoz]

Neither. Connor basically suffered from the time distortion MacGuffin so that he was effectively denied a chance to mature properly, and then the character was poorly provided for when it came to scripting. He remained little more than a cipher, impossible to really identify with, which must be why the character was sidelined in Season 5. As for Dawn, yes, she could fight, she was self-motivated and had a complex relationship with her sister. I think she was there as an Audience Identification POV character as Buffy, Willow and Xander got older and left high school. She did fulfil some function, and Michelle Trachtenberg portrayed the nuance and growing independence of the character quite well. To some extent though, Dawn was an accretion.

 

[RiverandFaith]

I think part of the problem you run into with these characters, is that they are both INCREDIBLY disliked.
For me though, I prefer Dawn. I never hated Dawn the way a lot of other fans did, I liked that she wasn't the goody two shoes little sister that you get a lot of, and that she had dimension, and I think most of the time you didn't have to try to like her.
Connor however, I've never been big on. it was always a challenge to even like him for me. I do love a good conflict between characters that should be close, but Connor just had conflict with everybody except Cordy, and that plot line, was just messed up! Probably the moment I most want to hit him so hard he'll see stars, is when I watch Salvage and he's an a**hole to Faith just because they disagree.

 

[GreyWalker1958]

I think it would've actually helped if we'd seen Connor growing up in the hell dimension. To be honest though, I think it is Season 4 that really screws Connor over especially with the evilCordy plot, he's just really unlikeable.

I think had David Greenwalt not left the series, Connor could've evolved into what we saw of him in S5 early as S4 (and the Jasmine hijacking Cordelia's body not happened) and what we ended up with wouldn't have made that far as it did.

 

[Give Us A Kiss]

Dawn, not as crazy and is actually shown to have some character development.