Thoughts on Kennedy

Kennedy. Hmmm. Kennedy. A throughly lovable and essential character. S7 wouldn't have been the same without her.

But in all seriousness, she was a plague. A cancerous lesion upon humanity. Bossy, glomming onto Willow, and arrogant/delusional as Mazikeen from Dominion.

She really didn't have the right to swoop in there and take charge. It's a shame that Faith didn't accidentally stake her.
 
Skanky Vamp
Skanky Vamp
You aren't seriously comparing London to Sunnydale! There's no comparison.
HowiMetdaSlayer
HowiMetdaSlayer
wow and I thought that I hated Kennedy :p
DeepBlueJoy
DeepBlueJoy
that is what bothered me: the arrogance. and the getting people killed thing doesn't help.
Anyanka Bunny Killer said:
But in all seriousness, she was a plague. A cancerous lesion upon humanity. Bossy, glomming onto Willow, and arrogant/delusional as Mazikeen from Dominion.
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At least sarcasm is still alive.

I do agree that she was an essential character and the season would not be the same without her.
 
Anyanka Bunny Slayer
Anyanka Bunny Slayer
Yes, and London wouldn't have been the same without Jack the Ripper.
Wait a minute? I'm a little confused how potentials didn't know about Buffy? She's probably the most famous Slayer ever. Certainly as the current Slayer you would expect them to know about her.
 
Kennedy appears to be written like General George S. Patton, who was by far the most effective of the American generals during WWII. Patton was from the richest family of any general in the US military but that didn't stop him from taking the risks of leading a battle from the front. Like Kennedy, he was always ready for a fight that others shied away from. When Willow morphed into Warren, she never left whereas any of the other potentials would have run off screaming. When her kiss drives out the sense of loss Willow has, even for a few seconds, we know she has changed the course of Willow's history and Willow is no longer condemned to pine away forever.

Was she a brat? Definitely.
Was she from a wealthy family? Yes and that makes her story even more remarkable because she had the most to lose and could have shirked her duties easily.
Who volunteered to act as bait for the bringers when the scoobies decided to capture one? Kennedy.
Did she want more say in what was going on? Yes, and so would I. Buffy had devolved from the successful general of "Graduation Day II" into someone unfit to lead.
Was she willing to fight? Yes, more than any other potential.

I get the idea that Willow should have been left to mourn Tara for a bit longer. But this could turn malignant - I know someone who lost the man of her dreams to WWI and never considered anyone else after that (and she said this in 1975). The two seconds Willow forgot Tara was two seconds that saved her from decades of misery.

I have been a manager before and one of the most critical questions you have to evaluate when you hire a person is: Do you really want this job? The rest of the potentials were variable in this but the usual conclusion I would come to is that they did not. Kennedy relished the fight, wanted to be there and had the capability to be the best slayer in history.
 
Mr Trick
Mr Trick
Wow didn't expect a reference to Patton, props!
I think people dislike her bc they compare her to Tara? Or that they wanted to see Willow sad for a longer time? But honestly I was happy willow got to move on, it wouldve been a little too much making her alone just to show that she loved Tara. but also it didnt seem like a very serious relationship at all? Seemed more like a rebound thing? But i havent read the comics so idk if theres anything there.
I thought she was the least annoying of all the potentials (although thats not saying much) She was strong, confident and good at fighting. It wouldve made more sense to me if all the potentials were more like her in that way instead of all that whining.
 
Ethanrayne said:
I think people dislike her bc they compare her to Tara? Or that they wanted to see Willow sad for a longer time? But honestly I was happy willow got to move on, it wouldve been a little too much making her alone just to show that she loved Tara. but also it didnt seem like a very serious relationship at all? Seemed more like a rebound thing? But i havent read the comics so idk if theres anything there.
I thought she was the least annoying of all the potentials (although thats not saying much) She was strong, confident and good at fighting. It wouldve made more sense to me if all the potentials were more like her in that way instead of all that whining.
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I'm not sure that's it. To me it just felt like a forced TV storyline. Like they had, to have a love interest for Willow whether it felt right or not. Besides who says not being in a relationship makes Willow's sad? Lots of people are happy staying single for a period. To me it would be more true to life if Willow waited longer before moving on.
 
If she was just a self centered potential, I wouldn't have minded. Being attached to Willow is the problem. Willow may be an easy girl to fall for, but Kennedy seemed to be all over her right away and immediately was willing to manipulate her and other people to be with her. I actually appreciate how Kennedy grows over the season, but I also would have liked to see Willow single, or at least the two take a long time to get to know each other.
 
I LOVE Kennedy, she's one of my favorite characters. I like characters with a little more sass and fire. She's cute, and kind, and brave, and she stands up for herself. I also personally really like the actress, and think she's better at acting than Amber Benson (who I don't think is amazing to be honest...)
 
Kennedy had already said that she was not into magic even when she knew that was a big part of Willow's life. If she had been manipulative, she would have kept that to herself, pretended to be interested and inveigled her way into Willow's heart but she did not do that because she does not use guile or feminine wiles on Willow. It may not be the forever relationship but it served their purposes at the time. And if you follow into the comics, it's Willow who strays away from the relationship so you have to ask the question: how good a relationship did Willow deserve?
 
K
katmobile
It does kinda backup the idea that Kennedy was a rebound relationship and Willow wasn't really read for one then. By yeah Willow was a bit of a heal to her and worse she didn't own it so Kennedy blamed Buffy.
I wish Kennedy had gotten eaten by Gnarl.

She's a stuck up brat who's full of her self importance. She throws her weight around, demands a say in things without earning the right to do so and bullies younger potentials then gloats about it. She also initiates the mutiny that gets Buffy kicked out her own house all because Kennedy wanted a bigger say and Buffy wasn't letting her have it.

The relationship with Willow only makes it worse. Kennedy is very aggressive in her pursuit of Willow and won't take no for an answer, then she jumps down Willow's throat whenever Willow disagrees with her or looks like she's about too. Kennedy tricks Willow into a date by shirking going to the desert with the other potentials, yet then bosses the other potentials about.

Basically I dislike Kennedy a lot and consider her one of the worst aspects of Season 7.
 
GraceK
GraceK
I was wondering when you would join in :)
Mr Trick said:
I'm not sure that's it. To me it just felt like a forced TV storyline. Like they had, to have a love interest for Willow whether it felt right or not. Besides who says not being in a relationship makes Willow's sad? Lots of people are happy staying single for a period. To me it would be more true to life if Willow waited longer before moving on.
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no I didn't at all mean that her being singel = sad, just that it seems like people wanted her to grieve longer then she did and that her being with someone new meant she wasn't. Idk about it being soon though, I think it was kind of realistic to move on to a more casual relationship after i guess 1 1/2 years..
But i get the part about it being forced too, especially since she was thrown in right at the end. I think i read that partly why Joss wanted to write her was to show that Willow was "really" gay and not just a college thing. So that was kind of sucky.
 
The way I see it, one of the major points about the ending of season 6 was Willow literally being driven mad with grief. She almost ended the world, and needed magical rehab in a foreign country. That kind of emotion isn’t all of sudden easy to get over cause this girl can use her tongue ring in interesting ways. I have no problem with Willow moving on and getting past her grief, that’s how life is supposed to work. It just seemed personally very forced and rushed and there was nothing so charming and charismatic about Kennedy that would make Willow fall for her. I get that attraction is relative, but geez at least If she was just a little more likable and less abrasive it wouldn’t be so bad. And why does she even need to be in another serious relationship that season? Willow has enough on her plate as it is without getting romantically involved with someone she barely knows. It’s distasteful to me because I feel Joss was trying to make all the fans who felt he was killing lesbians happy by shoving Willow into another relationship and it just didn’t work for me.

Also, in defense of Kennedy’s character, I really
Think she would have been infinitely more likable if a different actress played her. Iyari was awful and brought nothing but an agressive, entitled personality with no layers of charm or humor to temper it. I didn’t buy for a minute that this was someone Willow would fall for.
 
GraceK said:
less abrasive it wouldn’t be so bad.
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Maybe Willow liked the "abrasiveness" rather than the meek little churchmouse that was Tara. I can certainly see going from Tara to her, as she was pretty much the opposite of what came before. That makes perfect sense and makes Kennedy the perfect rebound girl.
 
Think most of what I wanted to say was already said (quite eloquently) before. Just wanted to add that I wouldn't minded Kennedy as much if they hadn't paired her with Willow. Maybe just have her have a crush on Willow, or maybe just be a fling, or something.
 
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