Kennedy

[Cast No Shadow]

I'm rewatching season 7, because it's been literally years since I last saw it, and I couldn't really remember Kennedy, but knew from what people have said on here that she's generally disliked and people find her really annoying.

I'm up to "Lies my Parents Told Me" (7x16) at the moment, and I can honestly say I don't have a problem with her. She's not ever gonna be one of my favourites, but I don't find her irritating, and it's nice that Willow has someone again. It's not completely in your face either, their relationship.

What is it that people dislike?

 

[Chosen Enemy]

I think the main reason I cannot stand her, is because she's always trying to be "The Slayer". She thinks she knows better than the real slayers (Buffy and Faith), and sure she's gonna be the next one. She also doesn't seem like a very nice person. Only to Willow.

 

[Goby]

She's smoking hot. That's a plus.

She has no substance. She's arrogant. That's a negative.

But the biggie for me is that I did not see any "sparks" between Willow and Kennedy. It seemed so forced.

And she's oh so irritating. If she called me up and wanted to get a cup of coffee, I'd tell her I was sick.... really, really sick.

She was so wrong for my beloved Willow. 😡

 

[sisterofmercy]

She thought she knew better than all of the other potentials and constantly questioned someone who had a lot more experience in the field and who was already finding everything rather stressful. Most of the things she said weren't constructive but generally whiny and bratty. Plus it did feel like she forced a relationship with Willow, their scenes together just seemed a bit awkward.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I think the main reason I cannot stand her, is because she's always trying to be "The Slayer". She thinks she knows better than the real slayers (Buffy and Faith), and sure she's gonna be the next one. She also doesn't seem like a very nice person. Only to Willow.

Definitely agree with everything you said here. I don't HATE Kennedy but I usually find myself unconsciously making a face whenever she's on screen. :\ She gets on my nerves so bad.

 

[PrincessBuffy16]

I seriously don't know.. but there's something in the way she talks and they way she acts that makes me hate her.

 

[Hale Caesar]

I pretty much agree with everyone else, Kennedy sucks. She tried to take over and act like she was more important and intelligent than the Scoobies. Not sure what Joss was thinking when he came up with her

 

[OhWow]

For the most part she was just very intrusive. Like she was invading our Scoobys!

1. Willow. She was all over her and I am one who was not entirely over Tara's death. Plus she always disrespected Willow's magic. She acted like it was some lame hobby but that just shows how little she even knows about Willow. And it is difficult to see Kennedy making fun of Willow's magic when Willow once had Tara, a friend so magically inclined and similar to her.

2. She acted like she "owned the place." She was trying to "boss" over. Or at least that's what I say when I see her on the show. She always tried to get in Buffy's way like she knew better than her. It would be like a teen mom with one child who is 2 months old criticizing how a mother with 3 18-ish children should take care of her kids or how that mother should handle things. Or like a private saying to the commander, " That plan for invading Normandy there is stupid." Or like a high school chemistry student telling a rocket scientist what to do. You get my point. She has no experience and that makes her opinion amateur. So just shut up and sit down 😀

 

[Ms.Trick]

I actually have a high opinion of Kennedy. I just don't like her.

I have a high opinion of her because she's the 'best' potential, as in "she's the more independant, self-confident, strong, trained" of the potential. And she's quite smart. She's the one who is the more fitted to be a leader, if the Potential needed a Potential leader. I feel like she can be strong alone. There is something that tells me that if you locked her up in a creepy place with a vampire, she would maybe be scared, but she wouldn't let fear take her whole. She'd think of a plan or something, but in the end, she'd be okay and the vampire dust. She's like Buffy in Helpless: even without the Slayer force, she could get by. That's the impression I have of Kennedy. She has something really strong.

But then...I just don't like her attitude about it. She makes Buffy's superiority complex look like nothing. Kennedy knows her strenght, but she acts like she was the next big thing because of it. She has an overdimensioned ego, she just acts like she already is THE Slayer. Seriously Kennedy, get back on Earth. You're strong, yeah. But guess what. Buffy is better. Deal with it.

 

[brinkster130]

She was arrogant, rude, immature and acted like she was entitled. She also seemed to pit Willow against Buffy in Empty Places.

Other than her physical appearance I can't think of anything nice about her.

 

[Chosen Enemy]

I actually have a high opinion of Kennedy. I just don't like her.

I have a high opinion of her because she's the 'best' potential, as in "she's the more independant, self-confident, strong, trained" of the potential. And she's quite smart. She's the one who is the more fitted to be a leader, if the Potential needed a Potential leader. I feel like she can be strong alone. There is something that tells me that if you locked her up in a creepy place with a vampire, she would maybe be scared, but she wouldn't let fear take her whole. She'd think of a plan or something, but in the end, she'd be okay and the vampire dust. She's like Buffy in Helpless: even without the Slayer force, she could get by. That's the impression I have of Kennedy. She has something really strong.

But then...I just don't like her attitude about it. She makes Buffy's superiority complex look like nothing. Kennedy knows her strenght, but she acts like she was the next big thing because of it. She has an overdimensioned ego, she just acts like she already is THE Slayer. Seriously Kennedy, get back on Earth. You're strong, yeah. But guess what. Buffy is better. Deal with it.

The first part and the second part you said are connected to me. Because I do firmly agree about the last part, which is why I think all of her attitude is BECAUSE she thinks she will be the next one in line, or she hopes to be the one so she tries to prove herself or something. That's what I got from her, anyway.

 

[The Unspoken]

I find her a little grating, but I don't dislike her. She's courageous and I would argue just what Willow needs. And she isn't afraid to call Buffy out on her crap, which is all the more needed in a season that consists of Buffy making suicidal decisions and only winning because the show is named after her...

 

[Seeing Red]

I actually liked her. *Runs and hides*

 

[Icarium]

Kennedy is a badly written character but not nearly as annoying as Buffy, Spike, Giles, Andrew and a few other character in S7. Not that this is much of achievement, mind you. 🙂

She always tried to get in Buffy's way like she knew better than her.

Considering the (moronic) way Buffy acted all throughout S7, how exactly is that a bad thing? Experience doesn't mean one is always right.

 

[prophecygrrl]

I really don't think she's that bad. Yes, she can be overbearing and bossy but the amount of sheer hate she gets in fandom is so shocking to me. I honestly never thought she was that terrible. I liked the way she kept the other Potentials in line (even if she wasn't necessarily nice about it). I felt it was necessary. And even when her confidence gets the best of her I think she really tries to back it up with action, not just words. Like in 'Showtime', she's consistently the first one to volunteer to help Buffy and fight.

 

[zobothehobo]

What I dislike the most about Kennedy is how she thinks she's better than everyone else, just because she is. I've known a million people like her, I went to middle school and high school with a ton of them. Rich bitches who always got everything as a child and were the center of their parents' worlds who cannot, even for a second, begin to fathom the possibility that they're NOT the authority in everything. They're NOT the best, they're NOT in charge, they're not anything. She was just another potential. And she acted like she was a Scooby.

And then of course there's here very Faith like "see, want, take" approach to dating and Willow. And if I elaborate on that, I won't stop so I'm going to stop there.

 

[Jay Jade]

Beautiful girl, bad character.

At first she wasn't that bad to me, then I had a few more rewatches and then she just seemed so bossy, and thought she was better than the others when really she wasn't. Right now she's an okay character, but not that high on my list.

One of my major problems with her is Willow, she seemed too 'Yeah, Tara's dead. Get over it' for me. I didn't like it.

 

[kittenpoker]

I think she makes a good rebound person for willow... no, I don't think the kennedy is her ideal partner (I doubt she'd be mine either) but for a "I'm just going to get my feet wet and try this whole relationship world again", I think she makes a good person...

also, I think, with kennedy (now, I'm saying this not having gone past season 7 at all yet), more is going to be revealed... she's got a lot of layers of defense around her. I think it might be those layers that are so unlikeable and not her core.

 

[Scarlett Blade]

I don't hate Kennedy at all. I mean, she is annoying and a liitle bitchy and bossy, but at least she wants to do SOMETHING, unlike the other scardy-cat potentials. She would be the best slayer out of the bunch, and i dont blame her that much for acting like it. And while I don't care for her and Willow's relationship at all, she is not a bad girlfriend, and she does care about Willow. And she's beautiful.

 

[caritas08]

I understand that they were trying to have the "anti-Tara" by making Kennedy be bold, outspoken and a fighter. This might've worked if Kennedy had been more like Zoe from Firefly or even Satsu from the comics (strong, silent, and especially wise.)

That's my problem with Kennedy (aside from the fact that she's a brat) she doesn't seem to be anywhere near Willow's intellectual level, which Oz and Tara were.

I admire Kennedy's courage but she and Willow didn't seem to be on equal footing because she seemed to be all talk and bronze with no silent wisdom.