Question Why is Dawn so annoying sometimes?

[EveryNiteISaveU]

So, I'm re-watching Season 5...

Is it me? Or is Dawn super annoying in Season 5 Epi 13 "blood ties" when she admits to Ben that she's the key and Glory's after her??!

He tells her to leave, and she keeps asking stupid questions..just looking for trouble!

Anyone else think so too?!

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

I liked Dawn in Season 5. I never got all the "whiney" comments people make about her. She's been living a lie for her whole life. I can understand her being a tad irked. And I don't see the big fuss about the "Get Out" thing. Sure, it was high pitched and annoying, but it worked well in the scene it was in.

 

[T.I.P]

I would blame Ben more than her, she's just a little innocent wanting someone to give her answers, but Bens the one to blame in this situation.

 

[JenniferAlice]

I think Dawn and Ben are as dumb as each other, the season should have ended with BOTH of them dying, what a waste of paper.

 

[Lyri]

I love Dawn, she's one of my favorite characters. I never got the whiny-ness, or why everyone hated her so much, or why they blamed her for Buffy's death. She was a kid who wanted answers, and no one was giving them to her. They tip-toed around her, and ignored the Dawn-shaped elephant in the room, and that just served to piss Dawn off. I think that was why she screamed and cried so much. The people she loved and cared for most in the world were lying to her face, and she had to find out the truth about her origins from someone she was raised to hate. I think I'd be a little annoyed if I were in Dawn's shoes.

 

[Schillaci]

I tend to think shes annoying when she raises her voice. As it happens she's also playing the part of a teenage girl. Its commonly known, no matter how cute they might be, or how much they delusionaly argue otherwise, that all teenage girls are annoying c***s. Sad, but true.

Unfortunately for us, Joss and the writers wanted to capture the true essence of a teenage girl, and show it to the viewing public. And then you top all that with Michelle trachtenbergs screech.

If you watch season 5 with a heart monitor on, then the moments that Dawn raises her voice coincides with your blood pressure rising.(This is a well documented fact, researched by thousands of medical experts)

Normal conversation, Dawn doesn't bug me, but when her voice reaches certain decibles... eardrums burst, glass breaks, apocalypse ensues.

 

[fly on the wall]

I think S5 Dawn is a bunch of middle-aged writers' idea of what a 14-year-old girl is. And usually these interpretations aren't accurate.

Do I think Dawn was annoying? Yes. Most of the time S5 and S6 I want her to just shut up. But is it understandable? Usually. She's been in the shadows her whole life, with Buffy as the big superstar. Buffy has Joyce's attention (with all the trouble she gets in, then the slayerness); Buffy has the close gang and the boyfriends; Buffy has the superpowers and the important life role. Dawn's always just her little sister. Then she comes to find out she's not even real, every memory she has is fake, and if it weren't for Buffy she wouldn't even be alive...I mean, who can't understand why she's an emotional wreck?

Oh, and it's probable that she let it slip that she's the Key because she was overemotional and assumed Ben wouldn't understand what she meant. She didn't know he was Glory, after all. So she was just kind of babbling, letting everything out, thinking he'd just take it as babble. Still a stupid thing to do, but that's probably why at any rate.

 

[Superstar]

I have a theory...

I believe white avenger once mentioned a similarity to a Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk was split into two personalities. I think this is a similar situation with Buffy and the creation of Dawn.

Dawn is made to be more childlike to stimulate a "protection reaction". This quality is taken from Buffy herself and is/was a part of her. It could even be said that this is the point where Buffy's character begins to diverge since she is essentially incomplete. Buffy becomes a sterner personality. Relating back to the Trek episode, she also seems a bit more indecisive as the season goes on.

A hint of this is given early in this same season with "The Replacement" where Xander is split into two personalities.

Other hints could be attributed to some of Buffy's lines "Restless".
Needing her beauty sleep, the scene with the Tarot card (one hand open, one closed in a fist), the imagery of a primal Buffy covered in mud.

In effect I think that being incomplete both before and after Buffy returns from the dead from Willow's spell has had a disruptive effect on the slayer line. Was Dawn being created from Buffy "the key" that not only Glory was seeking but one that The First utilized as well?

------------------------------------

It is interesting looking back at "Restless" that a couple of lines jumped out at me composing this post; when she was talking to Riley and the first slayer.

Riley: "They made me surgeon general... We're drawing up a plan for world domination. The key element? Coffeemakers that think."

Buffy: "I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back."

I can't help but wonder if this relates to Season 8 and the slayer army. Riley's comment seems to foreshadow the robot army that Angel faces and specifically the copy of his father that Wes dispatches in "Lineage". Buffy's comment of being a fireman when the floods roll back... the flood of slayers? Is Riley in fact the "General" in charge? Would that possibly mean he is indeed Twilight since these robots appear after the slayer army is created?

 

[Perny]

In "blood ties " Dawn was chocked. I think she was devastated, and frightened to find out her whole life was a life. She wasn't even human.

But still that's no excuse to go and blabber about being a key to an almost complete stranger. She brought that one on herself

 

[buffbot23]

I have to agree with both fly on the wall and superstar on their points. Who did like Dawn in season 5? Not too many people that I know. She is a bit of Buffy at a younger age, but also a 14 year old, we all were prob. really annoying back then!

 

[AvatarofTruth]

Pretty much anytime on BTVS when a character does something annoying and/or stupid (akin to the girl stumbling while the axe murderer chases her) for no apparent reason, especially when it's atypical of their character, it's the result of a plot contrivance on the part of a lazy writer. That's just my opinion, but it's true.

 

[DarkAvenger]

ahh again i think i'm all by myself... alone... alone.. I really didn't thought so many people hated Dawn.. 🙁

I wanted to see how you'd react if you were Dawn and if you had her life... What would you do if suddently you discovered that you were a key??! that your whole life was just a LIE!?

 

[AvatarofTruth]

I don't hate Dawn at all. I don't even dislike her. In fact, I think her character had a lot of untapped potential (so to speak), and that it was squandered.

 

[buffbot23]

I may not have liked Dawn the whole way through Buffy, but I did love her on Gossip Girl!

 

[Perny]

I like Dawn 😀 But then again, people hav etheir chars they like and dislike... Like I don't like Angel at all... Or the Mayor

 

[Veyron]

Dawn's a teenager.. that explains everything.

I know some of the readers of this board are still teens themselves but that said, everyone should remember what it's like to be a teen. The questions, then angst, the rebellious stage(s), first love, first kiss etc etc...

Nobody should really hate (such a strong word), or even dislike Dawn. They should appreciate where she's coming from and cut her some slack.

 

[Schillaci]

Dawn's a teenager.. that explains everything.

I know some of the readers of this board are still teens themselves but that said, everyone should remember what it's like to be a teen. The questions, then angst, the rebellious stage(s), first love, first kiss etc etc...

Nobody should really hate (such a strong word), or even dislike Dawn. They should appreciate where she's coming from and cut her some slack.

Really, slack? Of all the things I can imagine cutting of dawns, slack is not one of them. Perhaps her neck, yeah, cutting her carotid artery has passed through my thoughts. Maybe going for the femoral..

Convincing her to cut her own wrists has always been a little fantasy of mine. Actually that fantasy is not just restricted to Dawn.

Maybe being annoying does not merit death... Maybe

I think, cutting out her tongue, however, is not too much to ask. If Xander lost his eye, cos his contribution to the group was seeing stuff, then she should symbollically lose what she contributes to the group.. whining. Out with that tongue!

 

[Veyron]

Really, slack? Of all the things I can imagine cutting of dawns, slack is not one of them. Perhaps her neck, yeah, cutting her carotid artery has passed through my thoughts. Maybe going for the femoral..

Convincing her to cut her own wrists has always been a little fantasy of mine. Actually that fantasy is not just restricted to Dawn.

Maybe being annoying does not merit death... Maybe

I think, cutting out her tongue, however, is not too much to ask. If Xander lost his eye, cos his contribution to the group was seeing stuff, then she should symbollically lose what she contributes to the group.. whining. Out with that tongue!

Such anger toward a teenager who is obviously in need is just not right!

 

[DarkAvenger]

AND she's not a regular teenager! Her sister's the salyer so obviously she knew a lot of things she couldn't tell anyone about them.. of course she wanted to hang out with the scoobies.. it's natural.. and when she discovered her memories weren't real.. i mean, i undersatand her! I am not saying she was not annoying i'm saying she had reason to be like that 😉

 

[Perny]

I like Dawn! People tend to also forget that's she's become quite helpful to the group! She found demons, and learned things even willow didn't know. And Dawn also fights good.. Better than some of the scoobs did at her age!