Writing: Dawn Summers

[seraphcelene]

Swiped from lettered. Just because I am poking at an ages old Dawn-centric Christmas fic. This year I might finish it, skip the beta, call it a day, and post it. Maybe.

Pick a character I've written and I'll list the top ideas/concepts/etc I keep in mind while writing them that I believe are essential to accurately depicting them.*

- Dawn is made out of Buffy. She never ever, ever, ever forgets that.
- Because she was made from someonelse, Dawn is never sure if what she feels are her emotions or the echoes of what her sister feels.
- Dawn, even after season 7, isn't sure if she is a real person.
- Dawn loves Spike
- What Dawn doesn't know, but that I do, is that she loves him more completely than Buffy ever will. She grew up with his affection and his kindness (even though, in the beginning it was mostly just to earn brownie points with Buffy). But then he went and got a soul, got his heart broken by Buffy, and maybe in the future he really does love Dawn, after all.
- Dawn always had a crush on Xander, but will never admit that she also had a major crush on Angel. Buffy "lurved" him, so she will totally deny that she ever thought he was cute or anything.
- Joyce dying is the hardest thing that Dawn ever had to deal with. It was harder than Buffy dying. If it meant she got to keep her mom, Dawn would have preferred that Buffy had died way back in Season 1 before Dawn was a real person, but of course, she wasn't then, so the wish is irrelevant.
- Tara is Dawn's replacement mom, so, it's really like her mom died twice. Even though Buffy died twice, Dawn is still more affected by her mom dying twice.
- Dawn started doing research so that she wouldn't have to be alone after her mother died. The Scooby Gang made a habit of congregating around tables when they did research. Joining in gave Dawn a real reason to be in the room.
- Dawn dreams of her life before she was Dawn, when she was the Key. The dreams are dim and indistinct and sometimes she's convinced they're real memories and other times she thinks they're only dreams.
- Dawn will never be sure if she's a real girl, after all.

Comments

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

This is beautiful.

[seraphcelene]

Thank you, buttercup. There's also one that I forgot. When I look back over all my Dawn fic, it's huge ...

- In a way that she will never completely understand, Dawn wants to be close to Buffy. Like a part of her close. Sometimes it's like love, sometimes it's like desire, sometimes it's like obsession. It has everything to do with wanting to go back to where she came from.
- Because Dawn doesn't understand her need,sometimes she hates Buffy a little.

Okay ... that's two things. But important.

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

Those are so spot on. I mean, the Dawn in my head canon is...basically of this too. I wish they had done more with the "made of Buffy" bit. It was such an important thing to be a throw away line that kind of came out of nowhere. Like, how the hell did they manage that??

[seraphcelene]

Yeah, alot about Dawn and S5 turned out to be throw-away. I mean, we're told as recent as S4's Restless, that magic has repercussions. You can't just do stuff. Part of Willow's arc is how repercussions happen, but with Dawn they totally ignored that rule. The monks completely change all of reality to create her (and think of the amount of energy and magic required to even DO THAT -- she's inserted everywhere), and once Glory is gone, it's like okay, tada! Buffy you still get to have a sister. Even though the threat is gone. Dawn doesn't go back to being a key at the end of it all. She turns out to be a sorta average, but smarter, teenage girl. That's it? She doesn't even get the Slayer gene (re: Potential).

So, yeah ... I realize that a lot of my Dawn fic ends up referencing the Dawn/Buffy doppleganger/keyness issue. For me, it's pretty huge.

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

They dropped so many potentially cool threads after S5. And replaced them with .. Potentials. There's irony for you. Bah.

[seraphcelene]

LOL! I see what you did there.

I didn't think of that, but you're totally right. They were in such a hurry to get to all the slayers who could be would be before the series ended. They trampled alot of mythology to get there. To this day, I still don't quite understand how Buffy dying meant that all the First Evil gets to become corporeal. :/

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

It was corporeal? I didn't think it managed that, which is why S7 was so fucking stupid. Look! It's Spike! Being held hostage by... something that can't actually touch him. It was also why they hired Captain Mal to speak bad southern preacher dialect at Buffy et al, so she would have something to actually HIT. Ugh I hated S7 and everything it ever chose to be.

[seraphcelene]

I thought it was trying to be corporeal. Or going to try to be corporeal?? I admit to not understanding The First Evil At All. Or being happy with S7 ... In my head canon, it all really ends with One Thousand Kisses Deep cause you can't just change the world.

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my Buffy died in S5. S6 was a nice AU about What if She Came Back Wrong, and S7 never fucking happened. Spike just went over to Angel right after souling himself like a fucking idiot and let's just say Anya got to poke out Xander's eye because he totally fucking deserved it. Nothing else worth noting happened in S7 anyway.

[seraphcelene]

let's just say Anya got to poke out Xander's eye because he totally fucking deserved it

OMG!! YES!! Let's say that!!!!!!!