Why was Dawn written too young?

L

Lethe

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I heard that the part of Dawn was originally intended for someone younger than Michelle Tractenburg, so why didn't they edit the script? I mean, she was fourteen, but acted like a nine year old. I know I shouldn't take it personally, but I am fourteen and I don't wear long john pjs, sit in my mothers lap or have nicknames like "pumpkin belly". Joyce always wanted Buffy to take Dawn to do things, but why couldn't Dawn do anything herself? It never seemed she was that independent, but she's a teenager! No one ever seemed to realize how old she was and how much potential she had, or how much help she could have been to the Scoobies if they ever let her. It wasn't until season seven that Dawn finally got a true title as a Scoob. Even then, it was after MT pleaded to Joss Whedon to let Dawn explore some new horizens. Why didn't the writers let Dawn be more mature?
 
C
Cordelia
Great points! Totally agree :D
J
Jill_Valentine
Buffy wasn't much older in S1...
Yeah... 14-yaer-olds don't do those.. (I know, I'm 14 too)

Maybe, they thought MT couldn't pull it off, acting all mature and stuff...???
 
It also might have to do with the fact that she was the younger sister of the slayer. Because her mother was faced with the prospect of loosing one daughter to her calling, she was bound to be more protective of her youngest (I'm a youngest too, and my parents constantly let my sister do things at earlier ages than me). It could also be a function of how the monks designed her--they might have wanted her to be old enough to take care of herself, but still have her family be incredibly protective of her. That way, if she was on her own less, she would be less likely to be cought by Glory.
 
Dawn was changed a bit, she was oringally inteded to be a around 8-10. Dawn the typical younger spoiled sister in S5 even for her age, some kids act like that. But ofcourse she finally matured during the next 2 seasons.
 
not all 14 year olds are the same. Just cos you don't do those things, doesn't mean noone else does. I think she acted very immature at times cos she was the baby of the family, and so overprotected. She was treated like a child, and even though it annoyed her, she couldn't help acting like a child at times.
 
Dawn most likely wasn't treated differently until the end of Season 2, when Joyce finally found out Buffy was the Slayer. That would make her 11 at the time. She probably wasn't babied as much up to that point...I dunno...just throwin in my two cents 😀
 
Maybe they kind of wanted things to balance out...ok well when Cordy was still on the show, supposedly she wasn't allowed to change her hair color yet and stuff because they had Buffy, really blonde, and then they wanted that to balance out by having Cordy with dark hair.
So maybe they wanted to have things balanced out again, by having all these really mature people, and then having at least one person kind of immature to make the show more realistic or something like that.
I'm not sure if that made sense at all but I hope you guys understood me 🙂 I'm probably completely wrong but I figured "hey why not just say it?" so I did.
 
yeah Charisma wanted to be blonde in Season2 but they didnt want 2 blondes on the show so she dyed it back to brown, true.
 
Kazby said:
So maybe they wanted to have things balanced out again, by having all these really mature people, and then having at least one person kind of immature to make the show more realistic or something like that.
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I thought that for a while, but I wouldn't say that it's very fair to Dawn, if you know what I mean. But you may be right.

JustAnnie said:
not all 14 year olds are the same. Just cos you don't do those things, doesn't mean noone else does. I think she acted very immature at times cos she was the baby of the family, and so overprotected. She was treated like a child, and even though it annoyed her, she couldn't help acting like a child at times.
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I know, and I shouldn't take it so hard. Maybe that's it then, that Dawn acted the way she felt she was supposed to act. You know how other see you and you become that image.

eset said:
It also might have to do with the fact that she was the younger sister of the slayer. Because her mother was faced with the prospect of loosing one daughter to her calling, she was bound to be more protective of her youngest (I'm a youngest too, and my parents constantly let my sister do things at earlier ages than me). It could also be a function of how the monks designed her--they might have wanted her to be old enough to take care of herself, but still have her family be incredibly protective of her. That way, if she was on her own less, she would be less likely to be cought by Glory.
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I think you're probably right. The Monks intended her to be that way, so Glory would not find her, or even be suspicious of her. Joyce, as you said too, would probably have been protective of her because she knew that she could never protect Buffy.

Cordelia said:
Dawn most likely wasn't treated differently until the end of Season 2, when Joyce finally found out Buffy was the Slayer. That would make her 11 at the time. She probably wasn't babied as much up to that point...I dunno...just throwin in my two cents
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Probably right, and again with the Monks that they gave Joyce the memory of doing this (she probably would have naturally too) so she would protect Dawn more.
 
From what I've heard they wanted Dawn to be younger but loved MT.

As far as her acting younger its the same reason Buffy wouldn't let her research etc, they wanted to keep her away from the big scary world so they babied her and she acted that way. For all we know Dawn could of been like a "normal" 14 year old when with her friends and like she was when she was at home. Some people don't liked being babied but it means she got fussed after and was paid attention, which isn't too bad.
 
That babying and all around protecting is probably what led to her shoplifting spree: shewas used to all this love and attention, but then it was gone and she was still being treated like a baby...its gotta be tough.
 
eset said:
That babying and all around protecting is probably what led to her shoplifting spree: shewas used to all this love and attention, but then it was gone and she was still being treated like a baby...its gotta be tough.
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Probably true. Joyce died, who probably loved Dawn the most, second would be Buffy who died several episodes later, so Dawn was left with no family for the summer. Then when Buffy returned, she wasn't in a very "family oriented" place, if you know what I mean. Dawn was practically alone for all of season six - Buffy and Spike, Xander and Anya, no Tara, no Giles, Willow and Amy: everyone was doing other things - non-Dawn things. I expect that would be hard.
 
Lethe said:
I thought that for a while, but I wouldn't say that it's very fair to Dawn, if you know what I mean. But you may be right

Yea i see what you're saying but I just thought I'd put my 2 cents in also 🙂
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I felt really bad for Dawn in s6. She had lost her mother, she had lost her sister, then she got her sister back, but she was so different, and never around, Tara left, Willow was heartbroken and addicted to the magic, Willow almost got her killed, and the whole thing with Xander and Anya. Then things started working out a little, Buffy was being more like Buffy again, Tara came back, and then boom, Tara dies, Willow turns evil, and she gets stuck in a crypt with a demon as a babysitter (I love Clem, but still). It ended well I guess (buffy wanting to show her the world, and Willow not destroying the world), but it must have been a hell of a year for Dawn.
 
JustAnnie said:
I felt really bad for Dawn in s6. She had lost her mother, she had lost her sister, then she got her sister back, but she was so different, and never around, Tara left, Willow was heartbroken and addicted to the magic, Willow almost got her killed, and the whole thing with Xander and Anya. Then things started working out a little, Buffy was being more like Buffy again, Tara came back, and then boom, Tara dies, Willow turns evil, and she gets stuck in a crypt with a demon as a babysitter (I love Clem, but still). It ended well I guess (buffy wanting to show her the world, and Willow not destroying the world), but it must have been a hell of a year for Dawn.
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No kidding. If I were her, I probably would have done something stupid and more drastic than stealing.
 
Yeah, me to. I know Dawn can be very annoying and whiney, but considering everything she's been through, it doesn't surprise me. In the beginning of s5 she hadn't been through as much, but she had always been overprotected and spoiled probably, and that easily makes people whiney. Then to find out she's the key, that most of her memories were never real. I don't think I could have dealt with it. I'd freak out!
 
Yea, that's exactly what I'd do. I'd just try to tell myself to calm down, but then I'd have to think "that's what I always do. Try to calm down. But now it's not real. I could have come into this world 2 minutes ago and I'd neverknow it."
That would freak me out
 
Yeah. I'd loose it completely.
That's one thing that really annoys me when people say Dawn is just a whiney brat. If any of us had been through the same things she has, we would probably be very whiney aswell. I know I could never have been as strong as her.
 
L
Lethe
True True
I really didn't like Dawn at first, she just screamd and was enoying, I was hoping she would just disapear or something after season 5. But in season 7 she was kinda okay.
 
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