No Powers For Dawnie

L

LoveLoveLovix

Puella Magi
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Does anybody else find it strange that for all intents and purposes, Dawn is a normal girl?

We have the whole Key-centric storyline in Season 5, of course... but we never really learn what the Key can do other than creating that portal. My reaction at the end of the season was, Okay, so Dawn's blood creates a portal to another dimension. Hasn't Willow done that? And later, when Willow does it again, my annoyance with this is repeated. Dawn is supposed to be very important, but she doesn't have any powers, nothing that sets her apart from anyone her age other than who she knows.

Later, in Season 7, the episode "Potential" we think for a while that Dawn is another Potential Slayer. Later, this turns out to be not so. I was very disappointed. To me, Dawn being a Potential made perfect sense- Buffy placed emphasis at the end of Season 5 on her and Dawn having the same blood- not just in a sibling sense, but in a mystical sense, one that enabled her to take Dawn's place as a sacrifice. So if they are that similar, shouldn't Dawn be a Potential Slayer?

I have not read Season 8 yet, so I don't know if anything happens that has Dawn develop powers. But if not, that sort of makes me mad. We have not one, but two places where Dawn could be made useful... into a part of the team... maybe more grown-up and less of the "whiny key." I don't think that every character should have powers, or that "normal" characters are bad. I just think that in the context of Dawn's story, her normalcy doesn't make sense.
 
As far as I understand it, the Key did more than just open a portal; it broke down all the walls between every dimension. That's pretty impressive.

Storyline-wise, no, it didn't make a whole lot of sense that Dawn wasn't a potential. Storytelling wise, I think it was necessary. In almost any fantasy story, you have to have someone who the audience can relate to; here, I think they were trying that with Dawn. Sure, we may all want to be a Slayer or a badass Wicca, but we can't. We know that if we were stuck in this story, we'd be a Xander or a Dawn. So we have Xander and Dawn as touchstones, regular people who stand in for us in the series.
 
Bluebird
Bluebird
[No message]
I like that Dawn was never given any other powers. I read somewhere that she was supposed to be able to speak to the dead, but I'm SO glad they didn't go that route. I like her just the way she is, normal girl or not.
 
Season 8 spoiler here:
While Dawn never did develop any kind of mystical power during s8, she did develop & grow as a person. I certainly didn't consider her that whiney little girl she was in the TV series. Also, her key-ness was mentioned a few times, which makes me think & hope that maybe they'll do something around that in season 9.
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
GREAT points and post!
VisionGirl said:
Season 8 spoiler here:
While Dawn never did develop any kind of mystical power during s8, she did develop & grow as a person. I certainly didn't consider her that whiney little girl she was in the TV series. Also, her key-ness was mentioned a few times, which makes me think & hope that maybe they'll do something around that in season 9.
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That would make me happy.

I understand the need for characters we can relate to, but to me, that's what makes the characters of Buffy extra-loveable. I'm not ever going to be all "bam! pow!" with energy beams, but yet I see myself as Willow. Buffy may have ultra-slayer-powers, but she could still be your best friend.

To me, part of Buffy is about how even people with great powers have the little responsibilities and problems along with bigger ones. That's one of the reasons I love S.6. and hate S.7... there aren't enough "real-life" issues in the last season, while it's pretty much ALL about real life issues in 6 (money, job, what you're going to do with your life, grieving, friendship).

I don't think that Dawn needed to be normal. I think it was just a bad plot decision.
 
Willow My Love said:
I always figured she'd get into Wicca and use her key energy for that, but it never happened.
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Oh, yeah. I forgot that I thought that for a while as well, especially because she was so immensely interested in Wicca, and, similarly to Willow, when there was a problem her first reaction was, "well, let's cast a spell and make it go away."

It seemed ok to me when she didn't get into it though, maybe because Buffy made her disapproval of a possibly witch Dawn very clear. Rebellious as Dawn can be, she probably respected that. Later, when Buffy trusted her judgement more, she may have also felt like she was taking Tara's place.
 
I know we all expected Dawn to have powers, but actually, when I think about it, I'm not sure she has access to them.

Dawn was created to hold the power of the Key, right? She IS the Key, basically, but the body, Dawn herself, is a vessel. So, the 'vessel' was created, and the power of the Key stored inside it, but what if Dawn herself can't find a way to 'find' that power? To access it? She has no idea what that power is, or what it can do, or even where to look to find it.

Maybe it'll be discussed sometime in S9, but I find it hard to believe there's just nothing there.
 
I'm really glad she was normal. She was really intelligent, she was learning how to fight (and getting better at it), and she had a knack for languages. That's pretty cool in my book, lol.
 
I did think it was important to note that she seemed to be able to perform spells pretty well. Maybe her Keyness was why she was able to pull off spells like the ones she did in "Forever" and "Conversations With Dead People".
I could see Dawn being some sort of mini Willow though if they had gone with that route... which I'm glad they didn't.
 
I liked her Jr Watcher-ness. I wanted to see more of that in s8, but I understand why the writers sent her to college instead. I'm sure that Buffy wanted her to have that experience and that Joyce would've wanted that.
 
I'm gla Dawn didn't have any powers apart from being The Key, I know Joss once wanted her to have telekinesis and be able to talk to the dead but I don't think it would have worked. I'd loved to have seen them explore the background of the key more and how it was even created. It would have been nice to see The Key side of it all come out more at the end of season 7 and Dawn included a little more. It's what made Dawn unique in the first place and took away some of that annoying whiny teen we saw in season 6.
 
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