Dawn Summers

Dawn Summers is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, portrayed by Michelle Trachtenberg. She has the distinction of being the only character, barring Buffy, Willow and characters who only appeared in the last season, to appear in every episode after her debut.

Appearances

Television

Dawn is first introduced as Buffy's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) little sister at the end of Buffy Season Five premiere "Buffy vs. Dracula", despite Buffy having been previously established as an only child. Initially, the mystery of Dawn's sudden existence is not acknowledged in the series, with the other characters accepting her as a part of the status quo. Four episodes later, Buffy discovers that Dawn is in fact a mystical object known as the Key; a group of monks transformed the Key into human form and sent it to the Slayer for protection from the villainous Glory (Clare Kramer). The memories of Dawn and the other characters were altered so they believed her to have always been Buffy's sister. When Dawn learns of her origin, she resorts to self-harm and runs away from home, until Buffy assures her they are real sisters no matter what. Dawn then suffers more pain when her mother (Kristine Sutherland) dies unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm, which leads to Dawn resorting to black magic to bring her back from the grave. It is eventually revealed that Dawn's purpose as the Key is to open portals to alternate dimensions, a power the hell-god Glory wishes to exploit to return home. When Glory successfully uses Dawn's blood to break down the dimensional barriers, Buffy sacrifices her own life to end the apocalypse and save Dawn.

Season Six (2001-2002) sees Dawn struggle with abandonment issues, as well as her escalating kleptomania. Having been devastated by her sister's death, Dawn is overjoyed when Willow (Alyson Hannigan) casts a spell to bring her back to life. She later experiences her first kiss with a vampire named Justin, whom she is reluctantly forced to stake when he tries to kill her. Dawn's isolation from the other characters reaches its apex when she inadvertently makes a wish to the vengeance demon Halfrek (Kali Rocha) which results in them becoming temporarily trapped inside the Summers house. While helping Buffy battle demons in the season finale, Dawn proves herself to be capable in a fight, finally earning her sister's respect. In Season Seven (2002-2003), Dawn becomes more grown-up and a fully-fledged member of the "Scooby Gang". Falling victim to a love spell in the episode "Him", she displays dangerous behavior such as attacking people and trying to commit suicide to prove her "love" for classmate RJ Brooks. While home alone one night, Dawn is forced to perform a solo exorcism to protect what she believes to be her mother from a demon. After wrongly believing herself to be a Potential Slayer, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) explains to Dawn that being normal is perhaps the hardest burden of all, as nobody understands the pain of being overlooked. When Buffy tricks her into leaving town before the impending apocalypse, Dawn adamantly returns to fight against The First, during which she battles alongside Xander and survives. Dawn was originally intended to appear in the Angel episode "The Girl in Question". However, Michelle Trachtenberg was unavailable for filming, so the character of Andrew Wells, played by Tom Lenk, replaced her.

Literature

In the canonical comic book continuation to the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (2007-present), Dawn has become a giant, which Buffy believes is the result of losing her virginity to a "thricewise" named Kenny. Later in the series however, Dawn confides in Xander that she in fact slept with Kenny's roommate and that her becoming a giant was due to a spell cast by Kenny. As a giant, Dawn's personal issues are forced to take a backburner while she finds interaction between friends and family more strained. In battles however, her gigantism has shown some utility; she is able to assist fighting Amy in "The Long Way Home", and rampages through Tokyo to cause a distraction in "Wolves at the Gate".

In "Time of Your Life, Part One" she shrinks to normal size again, but then turns into a centaur. Xander surmises that she will likely experience a third such transformation before she can return to normal.

Dawn will appear in the upcoming "After These Messages... We'll Be Right Back!", which centers on the plot of the unproduced animated series. A variant cover shown by Georges Jeanty features the original Season One cast (including Cordelia and Angel), along with a pre-teen version of Dawn.

Concept and creation

The arrival of Dawn Summers is foreshadowed in cryptic dream sequences in both the Season Three finale "Graduation Day, Part Two" and the Season Four episode "This Year's Girl", in which a still-comatose Faith says, while making a bed with Buffy in Dawn's future bedroom, "Little sis coming, I know." Buffy replies, "So much to do before she gets here." In the season four finale, "Restless," Tara warns Buffy to "be back before Dawn."

According to Buffy creator Joss Whedon, the introduction of Dawn in Season Five was partly so that protagonist Buffy Summers could experience a "really important, intense emotional relationship" with someone other than a boyfriend. "She's as intense as she was in Season Two with Angelus, but it's about her sister," Whedon says. "To me that was really beautiful. Trachtenberg says she was thrust into the role without knowing much about Dawn's personality; she describes her initial meeting with Joss Whedon as "Alright, welcome to the cast, you're a teenager, you're a Key, have fun.

Characterization

Responding to fan complaints of Dawn being whiny throughout Season Six, Joss Whedon says, "I scratched my head. I was like, 'Excuse me, she's been abandoned by about six parental figures. The girl has huge issues.'" However, he acknowledges that he and the writers hit "the same note for a while... We needed to make some changes. Whedon has expressed regret over not being able to go further with Dawn's character in season seven, but, as he says, "You get into a situation that you do like to stand alone [but] "Dawn Goes on a Date" is not something that people would really sit for.

Author Nikki Stafford saw the season seven episode "Potential" as an example of Dawn's growing maturity. She praises the character for taking charge and accepting the possibility that she might be a Potential Slayer, and for quietly stepping back when she turns out to be wrong, without revealing how disappointed she really is. Stafford states, "Dawn has come a long way from the annoying adolescent she was in Season Five, and the screechy, difficult teen she was in Season Six ("get out, Get Out, GET OUT!"). She is a mature young woman, the same age as Buffy was in Season One, but she is handling her problems with even more grace and acceptance than her older sister did."

Popular culture

In 2005, Diamond Select Toys produced several action figures in the likeness of Michelle Trachtenberg for their Buffy the Vampire Slayer line. Each figure featured a "real-scan" likeness of Trachtenberg and episode/character specific outfit. Figures produced: " Lessons Dawn", " Once More, With Feeling Dawn", " The Gift Dawn" alongside Glory, and "Intervention Dawn" alongside Buffy and Joyce in a "Summers Family Figures" set.

References