#summers sisters

[jennycalendar]

so have had a couple conversations with people about dawn that have made me think that maybe my take on dawn is worth bringing to the table! it's best framed by my convo with my mom, who was expressing general dawn frustration -- not just with dawn's characterization, but more specifically with the retcon in. and dawn's characterization, as we all know, is very "baby teenage girl" + "was originally written as younger than fourteen," so that's a straightforward explanation, but the retcon to me has always felt emblematic of dawn's status in the narrative as buffy's childhood innocence.

dawn is buffy. she's a part of buffy. the show emphasizes this in season five: that to buffy, dawn feels like more than just a sister and therefore more vital to protect. i've seen this framed as dawn being sort of like buffy's spiritual daughter, but i think that's a little off base: dawn is buffy's innocence, her girlhood, personified. she shows up in season five because if we're charting buffy's emotional journey, season five is the season where buffy feels like she is calcifying and becoming unfeeling because of everything that she's been through -- so of course this is the season where dawn springs into being but simultaneously Has Always Been There! buffy has reached a point of emotional distress so severe that the little girl in her has sprung away and out of reach, becoming a literal other person who is somehow always getting into trouble and causing problems. dawn is this little girl. dawn is a part of buffy.

and this contextualizes EVERYTHING that buffy goes through this season re: dawn. everyone in the entire world is bearing down on her girlhood, and it is her responsibility as the slayer to kill it. like from a pragmatic standpoint, killing dawn would (as giles points out) solve the big-picture problem, because killing dawn means that glory no longer has access to this Exploitable Thing that will allow her to end the world. killing dawn is also what the knights of byzantium are trying to do, and they're presented as just as much of an obstacle as glory, despite having the fate of the world in mind as well. she is posed with this essential choice, and it is so horrifying to her that the penultimate episode shows her literally retreating into her mind, playing over and over all of these moments where she was told it's her responsibility to protect this vital part of her, and the one moment she entertained the notion of just Giving Up. just Letting That Part Die.

which in turn makes her choice at the VERY end of the season so heartbreaking -- she is posed with this question and she chooses, instead, to die. she does not want to let go of her innocence. she does not want to live in a world where she has been forced to kill that part of herself, and so she tries to kill herself instead.

[invisible-pink-toast]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer | Melissa Broder, "Problem Area"

[disco-tea]

It’s the “I’ll kill anybody who comes near Dawn” to “if you try anything again Spike will kill you, and more importantly, I’ll let him” continuity. She was so valid for these.

[terapsina]

Who are your favorite Fictional Sisters?

[juniperhillpatient]

I want to hear you ramble about how awesome it would be if Dawn being a potential hadn't been a fake-out and she would have become a real slayer alongside her big sis

Oh, shit can you IMAGINE??? It makes so much sense, too, if you really think about it!!!

Okay, Watsonian POV - Dawn is MADE out of Buffy's blood. Essentially, as a human person, she IS Buffy. I mean, she's the Key, but that's WHAT she is not WHO she is. She is made from the slayer's essence. So, it's completely logical, in-universe, that she would ALSO be a slayer. It really requires no explanation or stretch of the imagination, because in the context that Dawn is literally a magical Key to a Hell dimension made from her sister (the slayer!)'s blood, why on earth WOULDN'T she be a slayer?

Now - we're talking Whedonverse - so from a Doylist POV - we know that the narrative is more important than anything. The metaphor & hashtag meaning behind the story is ALWAYS going to be just a little bit more important than the textual logical stuff in Whedonverse.

But like!!! The THING is!!! Dawn being the slayer makes sense on BOTH fronts!!! Actually!!!

Let's talk about how BTVS season 6 ended. Like, just for a second, let's talk about it. Because Buffy & Dawn had been struggling to communicate all season.

Buffy is unable to be the caretaker that Dawn needs because she is scrambling to even feel alive after being dragged out of heaven. Hashtag metaphor for suicide attempt hashtag depression ETC. Buffy is going THROUGH it in season 6 & it sucks for Dawn, who's also just lost her mom, too.

But the thing is!!! The WAY that the Summers sisters are able to overcome their difficulties & regain their strength as people & their bond as a family in the end!!! Is by COMING TOGETHER!!!

I was going to argue that Buffy & Dawn standing together & fighting is one of the strongest moments in season 6, but I'm actually going to say that it's one of the strongest moments in the series.

Buffy & Dawn fighting together is the culmination of their conflict as sisters, of Buffy not understanding that Dawn IS strong, of Dawn not understanding that Buffy DOES need support, of their loss & grief as a family - of everything.

So, yeah, Dawn becoming a slayer herself? That would've been AMAZING for the series. I would have loved to see Dawn fight alongside Buffy & I don't understand how the opportunity was slept on!!!

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Aww, I just love this page: of Buffy looking at this picture of her and Dawn, while Dawn's in another dimension at the moment and she doesn't know if/when she's going to be able to get her out.

[fang3d4]

in my head Joyce gets them matching food themed pajamas every Christmas

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER | 4.14 & 5.12 ↳ The Summers sisters and their food themed pajamas

[chloesimaginationthings]

Michael can survive (almost) anything in FNAF

[violetsinblacknwhite]

i don’t know where else i can go

[eyerealm]

To end the summer with

[thechosenthree]

(via @5bi5)

What do you know? Bitty Buffy.

[invisible-pink-toast]

the slayer's brat kid sister

Chapters: 1/16 Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Spike & Dawn Summers, Buffy Summers & Dawn Summers, Spike/Buffy Summers Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Early BTVS with Dawn, Missing Scenes, spike and dawn's developing relationship from s2, Pre Spike/Buffy, dawn is a weird kid, Canon-Typical Violence, POV Alternating Summary:

‘You can’t smoke in here!’ The girl whispers angrily. Raising an eyebrow, Spike flicks on the flame and lights up the cigarette. The girl gasps in outrage, and comes out from behind the wall, standing at the top of the stairs. She’s a little thing, probably about ten, all gangly limbs and furious glaring. ‘My sister will kick your butt!’ ‘Isn’t it past your bedtime, kid?’ ~ When Dawn Summers popped into existence in 2001, her and everyone around her had their memories altered to remember a new life that she'd been a part of. And that includes Spike. So what exactly happened between these two that the first time Spike mentions Dawn he calls her Buffy's 'brat kid sister' and that by the time Dawn is sneaking out of her house to find Spike lurking/standing about she's not afraid of William the Bloody in the slightest?

Read Chapter 1 - 2x22 on AO3

[disco-tea]

screaming crying throwing up etc etc

[demigods-posts]

no but imagine percy who inherited his mom's beachwave brown, shoulder length hair as a kid. and all of his classmates and teachers thinking he's a girl and referring to him as such. and he doesn't correct them because he thinks it means they find him pretty. and he likes feeling pretty like his mom. then gabe makes him cut his hair in the second grade. and finds he likes the short hair and feeling handsome too. but he also really misses feeling pretty sometimes. and it isn't until after gabe mysteriously dissapears that he grows it out again and reconciles switching between both.

[disco-tea]

if you hate dawn summers. die

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Buffy liking "The Princess Bride."

Dawn liking "The Princess Bride."