she came off as quite mature compared to most 17 year olds?
I was surprised when I read Eliza was actually 17 at the time - basically the only actor who was the age they were supposed to be playing. Her styling, makeup, clothes, body etc had a LOT to do with that of course; it's how they get 13 amd 13 year old models to look like young adult women. On some level though I think it worked for the character because it implied that a hard life of defending herself and taking care of herself had prematurely aged her on one level emotionally. (but that's also a stereotype of poor working class kids; esp black or hispanic girls who are thought to be "sexually precocious". Faith is actually IMO a repository for a lot of those beliefs, she's the stand-in WOC, without the actual complications of race. Esp after they muffed-up Kendra big-time.)
I know the writers were responsible for failing to adjust MT's behavior to fit her actual age, but that also works for me on some levels, or at least i can fanwank that handily. 1) What would a bunch of monks know about teenagers? 2) Dawn has "memories" of her previous 14 years that have no basis in physical reality; her whole arc is about making herself "real". She has to grow up in a hurry. 3) Baby of the family, designed by the monks to be coddled and over-protected. A more mature-seeming, independent girl would have resisted that. Then after Buffy's death, of course everyone feels sorry for the sisterless, motherless girl and will tend to coddle and overprotect because the habit is already there. And as we've seen, the SG doesn't deal well with grief, for all the death in their world.
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I was surprised when I read Eliza was actually 17 at the time - basically the only actor who was the age they were supposed to be playing. Her styling, makeup, clothes, body etc had a LOT to do with that of course; it's how they get 13 amd 13 year old models to look like young adult women. On some level though I think it worked for the character because it implied that a hard life of defending herself and taking care of herself had prematurely aged her on one level emotionally. (but that's also a stereotype of poor working class kids; esp black or hispanic girls who are thought to be "sexually precocious". Faith is actually IMO a repository for a lot of those beliefs, she's the stand-in WOC, without the actual complications of race. Esp after they muffed-up Kendra big-time.)
I know the writers were responsible for failing to adjust MT's behavior to fit her actual age, but that also works for me on some levels, or at least i can fanwank that handily. 1) What would a bunch of monks know about teenagers?
2) Dawn has "memories" of her previous 14 years that have no basis in physical reality; her whole arc is about making herself "real". She has to grow up in a hurry.
3) Baby of the family, designed by the monks to be coddled and over-protected. A more mature-seeming, independent girl would have resisted that. Then after Buffy's death, of course everyone feels sorry for the sisterless, motherless girl and will tend to coddle and overprotect because the habit is already there. And as we've seen, the SG doesn't deal well with grief, for all the death in their world.