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

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

That could have been a really strong storyline definitely. I think season 6 especially suffered from Dawn feeling a bit like an afterthought because she was younger than the other characters, and so couldn't feel like part of the gang in the same way. Episodes focused on Dawn like All The Way almost felt like their own spin-off because Dawn and her friends were part of a completely different social circle. Maybe she would have worked better as a recurring character after season 5, like Joyce. There just weren't a ton of interesting storylines they could use for a little sister character

[rahirah]

Argh, that was me, posting with the wrong account. I'm gonna delete it - sorry for the threading confusion! (Deleted content here: IIRC Dawn was originally going to be 12 or so, but was aged up when Michelle Trachtenberg was cast. Unfortunately I don't think they always aged the writing up to match. Also unfortunately, I don't think Joss had any idea what to do with Dawn once Buffy jumped off that tower. I like Dawn, but sometimes I think that storywise, it might have worked better to have Dawn die in S5, and have Buffy's S6 depression be about her failure to save her sister.)