Why did they drop the Buffy/Dawn Slayer relationship after Lessons?

Joshua

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Near the end of "Grave" and the start of "Lessons" they were giving Dawn and Buffy a Sister Slayer relationship

and Buffy teaching Dawn how to fight demons and vamps. Then past the few episodes of season 7 once Willow came back; they drop the idea and turned Dawn back into what she used to be in Season 5. An annoying brat but older
 
Potentials ruined it so many extra cast member left very little time for the small things to develop
 
R
Robb Stark
Exactly this
Well, I thought that Dawn in S7 was completely underutilized, but still awesome. I think a huge, huge part of the problem with Dawn, and this is also a reflection of the limitations of the writers, is that BTVS was supposed to end after S5. Dawn as a character and a concept was conceived as a one season deal, with one specific arc that had a definitive ending. Then they were renewed on a new network for two more seasons and the producers of the show had this character who they now had no plan for.

Buffy had her own major arc in S7 with the Potentials and Dawn just didn't factor into that. It's a shame really, because I like Dawn a whole hell of a lot more than I like any of the new characters they introduced that season.
 
Dawn might not have kept with the fighting of the demon, she did reference using a crossbow in season 7 though, but she did keep up with the learning about them she became good at the research.
 
Certainly Giles bringing the Potentials to Buffy's home cut down on Dawn's alone time with big sis, but it just occurred to me that it could have been Giles himself, rather than all of those new girls, who broke up Dawn's training schedule. He could have seen or heard about the training and, in typical Giles fashion, as pseudo daddy, decided that Slaying was too dangerous for her, and talked Dawn into becoming, rather than a demon fighter (rogue or otherwise) a junior Watcher. Less danger, better working conditions, and a much greater chance of surviving long enough to see retirement. During his frequent trips to recover assorted Potentials, he could have assigned her teaching to Willow, with directions to teach her the fundamentals of magic, thus killing two birds with one stone, easing Willow back into magic, and keeping dawn pretty much out of harm's way. That would explain why, later in the year, she's reading spell books, in their native Turkish, no less, when she had been pretty much steered away from such things in the past.

There might have originally been a scene, or even a complete story line, showing something like that, but it had to be scrapped due to lack of tim.
 
They dropped it because they chose to focus on Spuffy and the lame potentials instead. Everyone already know that it is my biggest issue with season seven. They cut down on screen time for Xander, Willow and Dawn. They also turned Giles into a deformed version of himself. A very grating and pompous Giles.

They also dropped the whole *new scoobies gang*(those two kids in Lessons who were with Dawn) early in the season.

There is so much I would have changed in that season: have at least one episode centered on Xander-man and Dawn; kept good old Giles; introduced Caleb earlier instead of that stupid Ubervamp on steroids; no potentials; having the Angel cast come over for one episode, etc. That season could have been soooo much better!
 
Ethan Reigns
Ethan Reigns
Entirely true and the House of Sineya and the House of Black Thorn can both agree.
I
itssmiletime
'stupid ubervamp on steroids' agree, completely with everything...
EVIL UU
EVIL UU
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And then in Season 8 suddenly Dawn became a terrific fighter, out of the blue...LAME

Oh yeah, how the hell did that happen, now that I think about it? I mean, by "Retreat" she's somehow become experienced in battle tactics (or, well, at least what passes for "tactics" in that arc. Namely, "outnumbered? Under siege? No problem. CHARGE!), with no prior indication of that whatsoever.
 
Potentials ruined it so many extra cast member left very little time for the small things to develop

Exactly - so much screen time given to characters we cared little about. And what screentime was left was mainly given to the Spike and Buffy relationship. Things that should have been season arcs were instead given one episode at the most to focus on.
 
it could have been Giles himself, rather than all of those new girls, who broke up Dawn's training schedule. He could have seen or heard about the training and, in typical Giles fashion, as pseudo daddy, decided that Slaying was too dangerous for her, and talked Dawn into becoming, rather than a demon fighter (rogue or otherwise) a junior Watcher


I personally dont think there's any way that happened. Giles was always shown to be uncomfortable taking on a father role with Dawn, he wanted Buffy to do that. If that were the case he wouldn't have let Willow and Xander help Buffy, I also don't think Dawn would have listened to him.

I think this might have been a more of a set up than a story.

I watched an interview with Joss where he mentioned that Dawn would always be normal, he liked that herself and Xander were the grounded mortals of the group.

I think it came across to us as Buffy training Dawn to fight evil, but I think it was more to set up the viewers idea of Buffy being a trainer, same with her guidance counselor job. Both of these maneuvered Buffy into the role of teacher for the viewer and set up the believability of Buffy being the one teaching the potentials.

But in story I totally put it down to the potentials taking up all Buffys time.
 
I wish they could have found a way to have the potentials in the portrait...but not have them in the portrait haha. I like the idea of the story but I don't like the actual potentials.

I actually liked Dawn during that season!
 
S
Spikefan31
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