Dawn, the uninteresting teenager..?

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eponinethen

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People complain that Dawn wasn't like a real 14-16 year old, and most people seem to agree that she was a rather annoying character. The typical annoying little sister? But isn't there anyone who can identify with Dawn?

I mean, she is in many ways more of the typical teenager than any of the other characters. Buffy, Xander, Willow, Cordelia, Tara and Oz all have very specific characteristics (not to mention Anya even though she wasn't really a teenager), Dawn is a lot more "typical teenager", but still not in the boring way (at least that's my opinion), she still has her own personality.. So shouldn't that actually make it possible for many of us to recognize parts of ourselves in her?

But maybe those very un-typical characters are what we're looking for in a show like BtVS, is that what we want to see?

What I'm wondering is why do you think Dawn is considered such an uninteresting character, and do you think that she really is that boring? Or can you actually relate to her..?
 
eponinethen said:
What I'm wondering is why do you think Dawn is considered such an uninteresting character, and do you think that she really is that boring? Or can you actually relate to her..?
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I loved Dawn, I have a cousin who acted just like her at her age (she actully still does to some degree and she's 18 now, so actully they are the same age I think) I have no clue why people (some people) Don't like her, I guess that's because they don't know anyone like her?
 
Yea I like her too, both because I can relate to her and also because I have a tendency to look at things through Buffy's eyes and Dawn is very much important to her most of the time.

I also like Dawn more and more, first she was just okey, but I just keep discovering little things about her and that she do that makes me like her more. There's this scene in Flooded when Buffy's going away to Angel and just rushes out and leaves Dawn and Giles, and I can't really explain it but there's something so sad about Dawn there, sitting in the sofa trying to fix the lamp and just looking so confused, sad, old and very young at the same time.

Perhaps one of the reasons why people don't like her is because they don't give her a chance, they see her and their first impression is that she's just a whiny teenager so they just don't take an interest.
 
eponinethen said:
What I'm wondering is why do you think Dawn is considered such an uninteresting character, and do you think that she really is that boring? Or can you actually relate to her..?
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I hate Dawn because she had no facility and no necessity in the group. All she had done was whining all the time. It was very disturbing and took many energy of Buffy and switched storylines because of her. A constantly crying baby, that's what she was, she never grew up. I mean all characters learnt to deal with the world, but Dawn survived because of Buffy. Yet she was ungrateful to her, along with to all members of the gang. I couldn't stand her.
 
THE BLUE said:
I hate Dawn because she had no facility and no necessity in the group. All she had done was whining all the time. It was very disturbing and took many energy of Buffy and switched storylines because of her. A constantly crying baby, that's what she was, she never grew up. I mean all characters learnt to deal with the world, but Dawn survived because of Buffy. Yet she was ungrateful to her, along with to all members of the gang. I couldn't stand her.
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I disagree with that. Dawn was a major storyline in BtVS, and I don't remember her ever being ungrateful to any other scoobies.

I loved Dawn. She was one of my favorite characters, possibly because she was one of the most normal characters (besides the whole key-thing. 😉) I do think she was written a little young, but I can understand why they would do that. She sort of got the childhood that Buffy didn't get after being called, and was the baby of the family.
 
personally, i loved dawn from the moment she arrived on screen (even though we didn't know where the hell she came from and why buffy suddenly had a sister!) she was a typical teenager, and she acted the way me and my friends were acting. when dawn first showed up, i was 15, and could totally relate to her. i don't have any older brothers or sisters, but i have two older cousins who i think of as my big sisters. they used to take me to hang out with their friends, and i felt exactly like dawn, the little girl people got annoyed at because she was ALWAYS around.

my sister (River on this board) and i have the same age gap that buffy and dawn had, so hopefully i'll be able to use the buffy/dawn relationship as a guide line!! LOL!
 
I think that Dawn did grow up, yea part of her will always be the little sister sometimes, but the Dawn in season 7 is so much more mature than season 5 Dawn imo. Dawn also learned to deal with the world, when Buffy finally understood that she couldn't save her from everything and started "showing her the world" instead.
 
THE BLUE said:
That's my whole point, she was the baby of the family and didn't grow up, didn't mature, didn't take responsibilities and thus resulting her treating the whole gang as her baby sitters.
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But she did grow up. She may have been immature in seasons five and six, but she matured a lot in season 7. She could fight, research, and she didn't act like a little kid anymore.
 
She acted like everyone was responsible for her. She didn't take any respondibility for anybody including herself. And I believe she was jealous of her sister.
 
THE BLUE said:
She acted like everyone was responsible for her. She didn't take any respondibility for anybody including herself. And I believe she was jealous of her sister.
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I don't remember her ever acting like everyone else was responsible for her, or her not taking any responsibility. And who cares if she was jealous of her sister? What younger sibling isn't jealous of their older sibling for some reason or another?
 
I love Dawn because she acted like the typical teenager at that age.Yeah she was whiny but evryone gets like that when they are fourteen or so.I think that Dawn brought a lot to the show and I can't imagine season 5 6 and 7 without her.
 
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eponinethen
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THE BLUE said:
She acted like everyone was responsible for her. She didn't take any respondibility for anybody including herself. And I believe she was jealous of her sister.
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No she didn't... she ALWAYS said she didn't need a babysitter. Also, so what if she was jealous of Buffy, they were sisters, it happens almost always.
 
I loved Dawn and i found her to be a normal teenager.....alot of my friends are like her and i'm even like her sometimes well was when i was like 14 nothing was ever fair my older brother got to do everything! and i had nothing to do but sit around and do homework. I mean i get very jealous over my brother when he first moved back in with us my mom gave him tons of attention i was so heated i pouted(3 years ago) lol and he had even had more friends than i did so i find Dawn a very likable and true to the heart teenager very normal indeed
 
I can see how someone would say that Dawn saw the Scoobies as her babysitters, 'cause that's the way they treated her in the beginning. Later n though, I knw she craved a lot of attention from them, but can you blame her? Dawn had been very over-protected, by both Joyce and Buffy, she wasn't allowed to do a lot of things in season 5 ('cause of the key thing, but also later, in season 6. So she hadn't made a lot of friends, being the sister of a slayer (and not being able to tell anyone about that) probably made her a bit weird in other peoples eyes sometimes (we don't get to see a lot of Dawn in school and such). So, Dawn saw the Scoobies as her friends, and n the beginning they were around her all the time 'cause she wasn't allowed to be alone, is it weird that she got used to having them there..?

VisionGuy said:
I think that Dawn brought a lot to the show and I can't imagine season 5 6 and 7 without her.
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I agree, at first I just thougth she spoiled things, but now I really think she was needed there, and I have no idea what those seasons would have been without her...
 
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