Well Dawn made the list...

[frelling_tralk]

21 Most Annoying TV Characters Ever


I never got what people found annoying about Dawn in season 5 really, I thought that Real Me was an awesome intro for her character, but I've seen so many people talking about not being able to stand her from the beginning. Honestly I think that some people just hated the whole concept of a 'cute younger character' being added, they were coming at the idea from what they'd seen in other tv shows, and so were already predisposed to find Dawn annoying?

Hmm how would people have corrected the writing of Dawn if you were working on the show, or did you think it was fine just the way it was? I might have changed her age and made her more obviously younger, instead of 14/15/16 over the course of the show. I always thought that was waaay to close to the age that Buffy had been at the start of the series to then make such a big deal about how young Dawn was and how she needed babysitting. If they wanted to write her as such a little sister then I think it would have been a better idea to at least introduce her as 12 or 13 years old, it's not like the other actors were playing their ages either.

Also I think season 5 was Dawn's best season because she was such an important of the main plot, so maybe they could have done more with her powers as the Key after season 5, instead of immediately making her a normal teenage girl?


Oh and I really think her screaming is overstated, she yelled 'get out' just twice. I'm not saying that it wasn't high-pitched and annoying, but from the way people talk you would think she had been screeching like that at least every 4-5 episodes!

Comments

[sabotabby]

I thought "Real Me," and the revelations that followed, were awesome in the way that they played with the "suddenly introducing a younger character" trope. But I agree; Dawn was mainly annoying because she was supposed to be 14 but acted and was treated like a much younger child, and the audience had a baseline for how teenagers acted within the context of the show's universe. (I work with teenagers, and I can attest to the fact that Dawn is not an inaccurate depiction of a 14-year-old, but there's real life and there's what's actually entertaining to watch.)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I think that the writers were definitely too fixated on writing Dawn as the young innocent to be protected and shielded, the problem was the audience shouting that she was only one or two years younger that the scoobies were at the beginning of the show. It's a shame because they could have taken the opportunity of Buffy's death to mature the character a lot, I always fanwanked that she was extra protected in season 5 because of the monks wanting the other characters to feel that way about her, hence Real Me even drawing attention to Dawn being too old for a babysitter.. You got the feeling that Joyce had coddled her a lot and she had been protected from a lot of stuff, but you would expect her to mature fast after losing her mother and then Buffy. But then you get to season 6 with the others still babysitting her, Willow covering her eyes from Spike/Anya sex, Tara not wanting her to see a picture of a demon even, and it all just felt like it was going a bit too far when she was 15 and Bts had started with Buffy and co aged 16