Your first impression of Dawn [Archive]

SlayerGuy91

10-12-2007, 10:55 PM

If you can all think back to when you watched the fifth season for the first time and watching the end of 'Buffy Vs Dracula' when Dawn is in the house and Joyce says to take her sister out and they both shout out "Mom!". Did you think like me and go 'What the hell is going on?! Buffy doesn't have a sister!" What were your first theories on what was happening?

Tranquillity

10-13-2007, 12:07 AM

i wasn't spoiled for this one - if i remember correctly i looked at my husband and said "what the?" I hoped it wasn't a case of Buffy 'jumping the shark' and intorducing a cute kid character to try and catch a younger audience. i was dubious. Dawn's introduction sent me to that new fangled contraption called the "Internet" looking for clues and spoilers as to what was going on. Nothing in Buffy was ever unspoilt for me ever again.

partofyourworld

11-13-2007, 02:56 AM

i thought that maybe Buffy had a sister who had gone 2 boarding school or something, cause at that stage, i hadn't seen the 2 or 3 seasons. But then i thought that maybe having her blood sucked made her delirious or something...

white avenger

11-13-2007, 06:01 AM

I started out watching Buffy in reruns on FX, so I had seen her before. Actually, when the series ran through and started over again, I was confused as to where the little pest was.

Blondie Bear

11-13-2007, 07:58 AM

I knew she was coming and thought it was some dumb ratings-booster thing, so I was prepared to hate S5. But then it wasn't too bad. And by S7 Dawn stopped annoying me to the point that I wanted to punch her in the face.

elmo

11-13-2007, 08:06 AM

My first impressions were probably just like everyone else... "What the *censored*?!"

I was just so confused...

Buffy obsessed fan

11-13-2007, 10:01 AM

Well, I saw season 6 before 5 - Yes, I'm weird - so I already knew she would come, though if I hadn't seen it I would have been really confused. I was confused enough seeing her in season 6, after I'd only seen season 3, but I realised who she was, so by the time I saw season 5 I wasn't that shocked.

Jade In The Sky

11-13-2007, 11:23 AM

My first impression was...uuuh they don't look like sisters at all!! Then I was...ow I have to rewatch the other seasons to see a hint. I didn't doubt that they were sisters, only I didn't like them being such. But that's understandable cause I haven't seen much of the previous seasons and I knew she lived in LA before so I concluded the sis lived with her father.

Now Dawn is one of my fav characters of the series, I really love her despite of her annoying scenes :)

Nabila

11-13-2007, 01:11 PM

I thought Buff or Joyce was dreaming. By the next episode, I was thinking this is a long dream. Then I swtched to the theory that it's a hallucinating spell and Dawn was an evil dwarf. Well, she did write some coy, mysterious stuff in her diary.

GATEGOD

11-13-2007, 02:51 PM

lol in a week i'll be on season 5 again ^_^ I'll tell you how i fell then ^.^

Keanoite

11-13-2007, 05:18 PM

I knew she was coming but I just didn't know how!! My first reaction was "Dear God she is annoying!!" and my second was " I distinctly remember Joyce calling Buffy an only child in 'Faith, Hope and Trick'"...so mostly I was trying to figure out how I missed her!!!

Wiccaness

11-13-2007, 07:20 PM

I thought i had missed an episode, I was like what the heck, o watched it yesterday didnt i? and i also thought that Dawn was Buffys sister or stepsister and had been staying with there dad

i had to wait till they showed the episode again to finally figure out a little better what was going on.

Buffy obsessed fan

11-14-2007, 10:32 AM

I distinctly remember Joyce calling Buffy an only child in 'Faith, Hope and Trick'"...

I think that was why Joss put that in, so any people as obsessed with Buffy as most of us :p Would pick that up and be totally confused.

VisionGuy

11-14-2007, 10:38 AM

Even in Buffy VS Dracula there is a reference to Buffy being an only child.

JOYCE: Right, of course. You know, I'm gonna have to get used to this place without you again. It gets so quiet.

Joss just wanted to confuse all the fans. I'm sure that's it. Although the first time I saw the ep, I thought it was some sister that just came back from living with her dad. I mean the bedroom did look kinda messy in that last scene. Like there was some unpacking being done.

Keanoite

11-14-2007, 10:44 AM

I think that was why Joss put that in, so any people as obsessed with Buffy as most of us :p Would pick that up and be totally confused.

well he definitely succeeded!

Joyce Summers

11-14-2007, 02:26 PM

Yeah, there were so many references from season three onwards pointing out how much Buffy was an only child. Like you guys said there was Joyce saying 'its a good job you were an only child' and then in Living Conditions Giles is like 'its hard learning to share especially for an only child such as yourself' and then how Joyce was gonna be all lonely again when Buffy went back to college.
But yeah, when I first saw Dawn I was like 'mnyehuhuh???!!!!' and then it was quickly followed by 'she's evil. okay her diary entires are amusing ('i asked mom if she'd let Tara and Willow teach me some of the things they do together then she went quiet and told me to go to my room. huh. i guess her generation isn't cool with witchcraft') but she's still evil! evil!'. Then when Joyce started getting ill and was all 'who are you?' i began to think 'she's evil *and* she's trying to kill Joyce! Get her Buffy! Get her!'. Then when it all got revealed what she really was, I sorta mellowed out, haha, and became all sympatheric for Dawn...even though she did bug the hell out of me in the fifth and sixth season. Though I think she was supposed to...you know in that whole 'shes the annoying little sister' thing. But season 7 I liked it. she was all getting a personality and such. hehe.

Keanoite

11-14-2007, 02:30 PM

I still maintain she's evil! Throwing Buffy out proved it for me!

Joyce Summers

11-14-2007, 04:37 PM

Ah, true. good point wise one, hehe I'd almost forgotten about that. How could she throw her own sister out after everything she'd done for her? What happened to this whole blood ties thing huh, huh?

Keanoite

11-14-2007, 04:39 PM

Apparently Buffy was the only one keeping up here end of the deal

Spirit_Of_Fred

11-14-2007, 08:02 PM

uh, guys...pretty much everyone but spike threw buffy out...dont blame it all on dawn :(

Joyce Summers

11-15-2007, 02:53 AM

I know....but maybe it was just more pack-a-punchy when Dawn agreed because she's her sister? I love when Spike comes back though and tells them they're all idiots and after everything Buffy's done for them. I was like 'yay go spike'

Keanoite

11-15-2007, 04:26 AM

everyone else wanted Buffy out but Dawn was the only one who had the power to make her go

GATEGOD

11-17-2007, 09:36 PM

palabravampiress

11-21-2007, 01:09 AM

I thought -- I think I even said to my friend, "Wow. They look and act just like my sister and I used to act -- or would look and act, if we had professional stylists." And then I wondered how the heck they were going to explain it.

Kana

12-03-2007, 03:36 AM

I was like "Did I miss something?" I couldn't even get into her character because I was trying to figure that out. Simply got used to her once everything was explained.

Keanoite

12-03-2007, 06:58 AM

I just read a weird fic where Dawn was Buffy and Angels's daughter conceived in IWRY, it was all very strange!!!!

palabravampiress

12-03-2007, 09:45 AM

I just read a weird fic where Dawn was Buffy and Angels's daughter conceived in IWRY, it was all very strange!!!!

IWRY? Which episode is that?

Keanoite

12-03-2007, 09:51 AM

IWRY? Which episode is that?

It's and ANGEL episdoe...I Will Remember You...1x08 I think...It's the ep when Angel becomes human...

palabravampiress

12-03-2007, 10:01 AM

It's and ANGEL episdoe...I Will Remember You...1x08 I think...It's the ep when Angel becomes human...

Oh. I remember. Yes, I saw it. It was a good episode. I especially liked the part with Angel raiding the fridge.

I am confused, though. If she was conceived during the day that never was, when was she born? Or, you know, I could just read the story. Duh, Palabra. There's an idea. Do you have a link?

Keanoite

12-03-2007, 10:11 AM

Oh. I remember. Yes, I saw it. It was a good episode. I especially liked the part with Angel raiding the fridge.

I am confused, though. If she was conceived during the day that never was, when was she born? Or, you know, I could just read the story. Duh, Palabra. There's an idea. Do you have a link?

http://www.sempbeloved.proboards22.com/index.cgi?board=kay&action=display&thread=1153855485] Permenance (http://www.sempbeloved.proboards22.com/index.cgi?board=kay&action=display&thread=1153855485)

The fic itself is only mediocre but the idea of Dawn being Buffy and Angel's caught my attention, I hadn't seen it before.

faith oracle

12-19-2007, 11:01 AM

cant remeber exactly ,but in real me.i was like..."STAKE HER STAKE HER".because i really didnt like her.

Werewolf

01-10-2008, 09:50 AM

Yeah, i was so confused when i firsted watched that episode, because there was never any mention of a sister

Clem Rocks

01-10-2008, 10:20 AM

When i first saw it i was like "Buffy has a sister? o_O" i didn't find out for a few episodes that she really hadn't because i only started watching during season 4. After i got over the confusion, i was happy that there was finally a goodlooking girl in Buffy =D

Bangelxx

01-10-2008, 02:33 PM

oh- well i kinda knew about dawn before i started watching it!kinda ruined it for me....onlyI didn't know who she was or where she was from! just that Buffy had a 'sister"

UlaGan

01-10-2008, 02:33 PM

I didn't read about Buffy that much over net when it was the very first time I saw it. I was just enjoying the series. Carelessly I paid no attention to 'Be Back before Dawn' clue in the Restless. (It's now, when I've already seen whole series for numerous times it's big fun to find hint and clues in earlier seasons).
So appearance of lil sister was big surprise to me.
And I didn't like her from the start. What a quite annoying little girl - real pain in the neck.

So, Joss got me there - big confusion for Ula.

VisionGuy

01-10-2008, 02:38 PM

At first, I thought she was a sister that was living with her dad and then sent to Sunnydale with Buffy and Joyce.

Cordelia Chase*

01-10-2008, 03:42 PM

I always thought that Faith hinted about Dawn in Season 3 o was it four???? WHen she was still in the coma. She kept saying lil sis is coming and a date which i think was the show number.

UlaGan

01-10-2008, 03:50 PM

I always thought that Faith hinted about Dawn in Season 3 o was it four???? WHen she was still in the coma. She kept saying lil sis is coming and a date which i think was the show number.

She did in fact. But as I said earlier, *Now*, I know that. :) Now, I get all the hints..
Unlike back to the first time - didn't pay attention to lil sis profecy. I was told Buffy's the only kid by the show. So I stuck up with that knowledge.

'Lil sister' was so vague, yet our translators could have messed all things up the way they do. I could simply be fed some other stuff instead. (I saw it on TV, localised variant. No fun).

Clem Rocks

01-10-2008, 04:02 PM

Spirit_Of_Fred

01-10-2008, 07:33 PM

I always thought that Faith hinted about Dawn in Season 3 o was it four???? WHen she was still in the coma. She kept saying lil sis is coming and a date which i think was the show number.

It was season 4 "This Year's Girl".

Wikipedia says there was a hint about Dawn in season 3 though, i thought the only hints were "Lil sis is coming" and "Be back before Dawn" =/

in season three, graduation day part 2, is the one Cordelia Chase* mentioned. faith says "little miss muffet counting down from 7-3-0". this marked the number of days til dawn came.

Jules

01-19-2008, 04:20 AM

I think she was exactly what she was supposed to be. She came across as annoying and irritating. That's exactly what younger siblings are like. They get away with everything, take credit for things they didn't do and basically cause trouble for no reason without even trying too!! (Can you tell I'm an older sibling lol)

justanotherjen

01-20-2008, 01:24 PM

Well, I was very confused. I just started watching the show last summer (I came in at the end of season 2) so already had no clue what was going on. Then I stopped watching (because we moved) midway through season 3. But I had read some fanfiction that kept mentioning Dawn and I'm like "who the heck is Dawn? I'm missing something." I finally figured out she was some plot mechanic. But I was still kind of shocked when I finally saw the episode. They just kind of threw her in there. I can only imagine how confused and freaked people were when it originally aired.

By the next episode I was ready to smack her. I don't remember my younger brother ever being that annoying. And I hope my kids aren't that annoying to each other. Dawn needed some friends of her own. She just kept getting in the way.

UlaGan

01-20-2008, 01:41 PM

Yeah, like in the episode "Real Me" in the very beginning, when Dawn interrupted Buffy's meditation&concentration I wanted to beat Dawn up. rrr..

justanotherjen

01-20-2008, 01:54 PM

Yeah, like in the episode "Real Me" in the very beginning, when Dawn interrupted Buffy's meditation&concentration I wanted to beat Dawn up. rrr..

yes, exactly. She was so nosey. I'm not sure how Buffy got anything done and it made no sense that her mother would have Buffy keeping tabs on Dawn when she knows how dangerous Buffy's life is.

Maybe I don't get it since my brother was only 2 years younger then me and Dawn is supposed to be like 5 years younger then Buffy. Maybe that makes a difference. Or, Dawn is just so freaking annoying she can't make friends of her own so she has to annoy her sister. Either way they needed to tie her up in a closet so they could actually get anything done.

UlaGan

01-20-2008, 02:03 PM

yes, exactly. She was so nosey. I'm not sure how Buffy got anything done and it made no sense that her mother would have Buffy keeping tabs on Dawn when she knows how dangerous Buffy's life is.

Maybe I don't get it since my brother was only 2 years younger then me and Dawn is supposed to be like 5 years younger then Buffy. Maybe that makes a difference. Or, Dawn is just so freaking annoying she can't make friends of her own so she has to annoy her sister. Either way they needed to tie her up in a closet so they could actually get anything done.

LOl.. Upon watching 'Real Me' I felt lucky being the only child in family. I don't even know what would I do if I had such Dawn as a sister...

justanotherjen

01-20-2008, 02:13 PM

I probably would have strangled her as a toddler, lol. My brother was never that annoying. In fact he was and is one of my best friends. We pretty much went around with the same group of friends until high school. But we were 3 years apart so I was off in college not too long after that. I even did a speech about him in college. We were supposed to do it on an influential person in our lives. Most people did it on their parents, grandparents or a teacher, but I spoke about him.

Okay, now I miss him. He lives on the other side of the country and i've only seen him twice in the last 7 1/2 years. Wah!

Slayerfest 99

01-23-2008, 02:05 PM

When Dawn first popped up I me and my younger sis were like "what the??" and then I started to think she was evil.....what episode was it.....?? where she offers Joyce tea and I was like NOOO don't drink it!!! I think it's the episode where buffy finds out from the monk about what Dawn is. but..she has grown on me as a character....... somewhat..

Fake Shemp

01-26-2008, 01:36 PM

hmmmmmmmm i cant remember.... i wasnt annoyed like some other people i knew who watched it... i was intrigued i guess

Xin Rong

01-28-2008, 12:55 PM

Two words... stupid b****

Elithustra

02-03-2008, 05:22 PM

Dawn? First impression?

Waste of talent on the writer's behalf. Waste of space.

Later on?

Repeat!

Cangel

02-03-2008, 05:27 PM

The first Buffy seasons I watched were 1 and 6, so this led to slight confusion characterwise. Also, I had read enough books of Buffy to she did in fact not have a sister.
So when I saw the episode for the first time I thought 'That's it? Did I miss an episode or two?'

GorramSpaceTrash

02-04-2008, 05:42 PM

Based on her, "Boy, is she in for a surprise." I assumed Dawn was some sort of reality warping demon whose true purpose wouldn't be revealed for some time... and not necessarily bode well for Buffy and crew. I could be wrong, but I recall reading somewhere not even the writers were sure what she was at this point. It was a surprise having the audience more clued in about what Dawn was before the character herself, but I think it played out very well.

ndrocksteady

02-04-2008, 06:21 PM

I didnt like her at first... she annoyed me lol... but i later grew to like her lol... she wasnt so bad after all

kanani

02-04-2008, 09:35 PM

I love the storyline of Dawn, the purpose of Dawn, why Dawn exists... but Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn bugged me to holy hell in Season 5. Her face on the screen would bug me occasionally - it was hard for me to watch her scenes sometimes. Even more so the second time I watched the series. But, thankfully, she bugged me a lot less in S:6, and even less than that in S:7. I like that she grew up with the seasons. Yay for the fantasticalness of the Buffy writers! ;)

I liked her most in S:7 and having just finished that season again for the second time the other night I think a lot of that has to do with her whining ratio going from like, 90/10 to about, eh, 20/80. I liked that she got into Demonology and became an asset, a mini-scooby, to be precise.

So really, kudos to Michelle T. for being sooo good at being annoying, and being sooo good at 'growing up'.

TabulaRasa

02-04-2008, 10:41 PM

I couldn't stand her and I wanted Buffy to get rid of her. But in season 7, I loved her! She was actually really funny and very helpful.

Elithustra

02-07-2008, 06:05 AM

Y'know, watching through a few episodes of Season Five, I sort of started to wonder if I should re-evaluate my feelings about Dawn. I mean, she was after all, some innocent kid, created by powers and beings larger than herself, larger than anyone could seem to understand.

I realized then that it was actually the actress I couldn't stomach, not the character.

InsaneMystic

05-09-2008, 01:15 PM

At first viewing: "Huh? -- Did I missing something? -- What the $%&! are they doing to my show? ::grrr::"

On rewatching, I am one of the (obviously, very, very) few who like Dawn right from the beginning... and I'm 180° on the opposite from Elithustras last sentence - MT is one of my favorite "eye candies" in the show. :wink: