Meta: Dawn, the Potentials and the Slayer
Feb. 11th, 2006 07:53 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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lateseasonlove::waves hello:: This is such a neat community!
During my most recent BtVS rewatch, I was inspired to try to reclaim some of the more controversial (or obnoxious, depending on your opinion) characters: Dawn and the Potential Slayers. A little bit of meta follows. We'll see how much sense it makes.
Introducing a new character into an established show -- especially a younger relative of the main character -- can very easily be the kiss of death. The Jossverse writers did this twice with Dawn and Connor, and both times they used the supernatural elements of the shows in their favor to keep from falling into the worst type of cliches. Connor did his growing up a hell dimension, avoiding entirely the problem of having a kid permanently around. And I think the way Dawn was introduced was done exactly right. I remember the first time I watched the beginning of S5; the fact that the rest of the characters were treating Dawn as an established fact was wonderfully surreal and provided a nice mystery for the first few episodes of the season.
In both cases, the characters of Dawn and Connor were used to the best benefit when they provided more insight into the characters of Buffy and Angel. In the case of Dawn, this insight is especially substantial because of the connection between the two characters. Now, it's always been a bit unclear to me exactly where Buffy got her insight that Dawn was somehow a part of her. Was it related to Joyce's sudden knowledge about who Dawn was? Was it due to the fact that Glory's power was slipping in those last few hours? Was it some innate Slayer knowledge that had been percolating in her brain ever since the monk told her about Dawn? Regardless, it's interesting that Dawn is, in some mystical way, a part of Buffy-the-girl.
Dawn serves as the link to the world which has always been a source of Buffy's strength. In the previous seasons, this link was mostly embodied by her mother and friends. I find it fascinating that Buffy was given this charge to care for Dawn at exactly the right time when she would need this link more than ever. With her mother's death and her own concerns about the nature of her Slayer self, Buffy was more than ever in need of a connection to the world around her. I think that, as much as she loved them, her friends wouldn't have been able to be the main source of that link any more, and I think that's part of the growing-up theme that Joss established in the last few seasons. Dawn depended on her in a way that no one else did.
By connecting with Dawn, Buffy was, in a way, connecting more with the human part of herself. (And incidentally, looking at the end of S5 this way makes me more comfortable with the circumstances of Buffy's death. By considering Dawn in light of her connection to Buffy, Buffy's self-sacrifice seems less fatalistic and more about accepting her own calling.) Dawn served to emphasize Buffy's humanity at a time when she was most afraid of losing it. And more than that, I think that her presence was preparing Buffy to later integrate the other side of her dual nature: her Slayer side.
Just as Dawn serves as a mystical extension of Buffy-the-girl, the Potentials in S7 are a mystical extension of Buffy-the-Slayer. I think that the Potentials provided the means for Buffy to gain the final pieces of knowledge about who she was in relation to her calling. After all, as any teacher can tell you, the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else.
But it's more than about Buffy being a teacher. Buffy was in a unique position, as far as Slayers went, in that she already knew two others. But she must have spent time over the years wondering exactly why she was called. Why her, and why Kendra and Faith? What did they have -- or not have -- that made them the necessary vessels? Buffy had clearly worried during S5 that there was something missing in her, that she was lacking in humanity and the ability to love. The thought must have terrified her: was she this way as a consequence of being the Slayer, or was she chosen as the Slayer because this ability to disconnect from the world was part of her makeup to begin with? Faith's issues couldn't have reassured her.
Dealing with the Potentials in S7 allowed Buffy to see the truth for herself: those who were called to be Slayers were just girls. Some brave and some afraid, but all human, and all with an inner core of strength. I think that overseeing the Potentials was a way for Buffy to not only truly accept the Slayer part of herself, but also to reconcile and integrate it with her humanity. In a way, the Potentials are Buffy's supernatural family just as Dawn is, and in dealing with them Buffy is learning how to be herself.
I think there's another reason why Dawn ends up being important to Buffy's mission. Through her dealings with Dawn, Buffy has to learn to learn how to be responsible for someone -- and not in the same way she felt responsible for the safety of her friends. Buffy had to be the adult for someone who needed not only love and support, but guidance and firmness. During S5 and S6, Buffy struggled with dealing with someone who was so dependent on her.
In a sense, the whole thing was completely unfair. Buffy was having a hard enough time dealing with herself -- with her mother's death and the effects of her own resurrection -- and having to be responsible for a teenager (especially with Dawn's particular set of issues) was an added burden. But in light of what Buffy had to deal with in S7, it was completely necessary. In fact, Dawn's relationship with Buffy in S5 and S6 is a parallel to Buffy's situation with the Potentials in S7. It took practice and hard experience for Buffy to learn to be a surrogate parent to Dawn. At the beginning she allowed Giles to set the boundaries; when she did take control, she tended to completely overcompensate out of fear that she would lose Dawn. Buffy acted to preserve Dawn's safety, even when Dawn disliked her for it. Because of this, I think she got practice in doing what was best for her charges whether or not she was liked because of it. Dawn helped prepare Buffy to be the type of leader that a Slayer had never had to be before. If she hadn't had the experience of dealing with Dawn, she might not have been prepared to be the leader to the Potentials and act as a teacher during a time of war. (Which, by the way, was much different dynamic than being the leader of the Scoobies.)
If this was AtS, I'd speculate that it was the Powers who surreptitiously arranged for Dawn to be sent to Buffy so that she could give Buffy experience in the type of leadership Buffy would need to fulfill her destiny as the one who shared the power of the Slayer. But in BtVS, the Powers don't seem to play any kind of active role. In fact, the few times they seem to have intervened in the Buffyverse were related to Angel (i.e., magic snow and the sudden appearance of Whistler). Overall, the Buffyverse seems to downplay the role of the Powers in comparison to the Angelverse.
In the end, the Slayer was always alone. This wasn't about Buffy cutting herself off, but about her recognizing the gifts she'd been given and the burden that came with them. It was about recognizing her own strength, an absolutely necessary component of her ability to fight. In the end, as much as her friends and family were her connection to the world, it still came down to a reliance on her own strength. Buffy's known this from the very beginning. One of my favorite moments from the series is in Becoming II, when Angelus taunts her with being alone without weapons or friends. Even then, Buffy knew where her true strength lies.
The trick, of course, is how to pass this knowledge along. She wants to teach Dawn, and later the Potentials, where to find their power. (It really is all about power.) I think that part of the balancing act of S7 -- and part of the conflict between Buffy and the Potentials -- is that she simultaneously has to lead them and teach them to rely on themselves. Of course, her actions in Chosen are what allow the Potentials to truly utilize the lessons she's been teaching them.
And so the final act of Buffy's story is that she voluntarily shares her power. It isn't about giving her power to someone else -- which is basically what happens when a Slayer dies. Instead, Buffy changes the rule of the game and takes the power back from the proto-Watchers who imposed it on the First Slayer. It is at this point, I think, that the growing-up metaphor from the last few seasons comes full circle.
It's interesting to speculate about the implications of Buffy's actions in Chosen. For one thing, what does this mean for the surviving remnants of the Watcher's Council? The purpose of the Council was, among other things, to be the repository of knowledge and to train the line of Slayers. And really, it's not like the Slayers could have trained each other, given that there was only one at a time. It wouldn't be practical for the world's only Slayer to take the time to pass along her knowledge to however many Potentials they could round up, not when she could be fighting actual battles.
Once Buffy shared her power with all the girls, would there really be a need for a Council at all? Presumably the Slayers could do the job of identifying and training each other, as well as keep track of the history. Incidentally, I've wondered whether some of the female Watchers were in fact Potentials who were never chosen. What did these Potentials do when it became clear that they were too old to ever be the Slayer? What happened to those like Kendra, who was separated from her family at a young age? Did they simply shrug their shoulders and go back to everyday life? Did they join the Watcher's Council? Maybe some of them, the ones who couldn't go back to just being a normal girl, used the training they'd been given and simply fought the fight as well as they could without any superpowers. If this were the case, Buffy's actions were a huge benefit to those who chose to fight.
In order to be in a position to, in a sense, liberate the Slayers from the control of the Watchers, Buffy had to be a leader to the girls who came to her. I think that her relationship with Dawn gave her exactly the experience she needed to be able to act as a figure of authority for the Potentials. I have to admit that, as a whole, the Potentials are not my favorite characters to watch. In fact, I'll say for the record that it would take an act of God for me to actually like Kennedy. But I'm intriuged by the mystical connection between the Potentials and Buffy-the-Slayer, which seems to find a neat parallel in the mystical connection between Dawn and Buffy-the-girl.
During my most recent BtVS rewatch, I was inspired to try to reclaim some of the more controversial (or obnoxious, depending on your opinion) characters: Dawn and the Potential Slayers. A little bit of meta follows. We'll see how much sense it makes.
She's more than that. She's me. The monks made her out of me. I hold her, and I feel closer to her than....It's not just the memories they built. It's physical. Dawn is a part of me. -- The Gift
Introducing a new character into an established show -- especially a younger relative of the main character -- can very easily be the kiss of death. The Jossverse writers did this twice with Dawn and Connor, and both times they used the supernatural elements of the shows in their favor to keep from falling into the worst type of cliches. Connor did his growing up a hell dimension, avoiding entirely the problem of having a kid permanently around. And I think the way Dawn was introduced was done exactly right. I remember the first time I watched the beginning of S5; the fact that the rest of the characters were treating Dawn as an established fact was wonderfully surreal and provided a nice mystery for the first few episodes of the season.
In both cases, the characters of Dawn and Connor were used to the best benefit when they provided more insight into the characters of Buffy and Angel. In the case of Dawn, this insight is especially substantial because of the connection between the two characters. Now, it's always been a bit unclear to me exactly where Buffy got her insight that Dawn was somehow a part of her. Was it related to Joyce's sudden knowledge about who Dawn was? Was it due to the fact that Glory's power was slipping in those last few hours? Was it some innate Slayer knowledge that had been percolating in her brain ever since the monk told her about Dawn? Regardless, it's interesting that Dawn is, in some mystical way, a part of Buffy-the-girl.
Dawn serves as the link to the world which has always been a source of Buffy's strength. In the previous seasons, this link was mostly embodied by her mother and friends. I find it fascinating that Buffy was given this charge to care for Dawn at exactly the right time when she would need this link more than ever. With her mother's death and her own concerns about the nature of her Slayer self, Buffy was more than ever in need of a connection to the world around her. I think that, as much as she loved them, her friends wouldn't have been able to be the main source of that link any more, and I think that's part of the growing-up theme that Joss established in the last few seasons. Dawn depended on her in a way that no one else did.
By connecting with Dawn, Buffy was, in a way, connecting more with the human part of herself. (And incidentally, looking at the end of S5 this way makes me more comfortable with the circumstances of Buffy's death. By considering Dawn in light of her connection to Buffy, Buffy's self-sacrifice seems less fatalistic and more about accepting her own calling.) Dawn served to emphasize Buffy's humanity at a time when she was most afraid of losing it. And more than that, I think that her presence was preparing Buffy to later integrate the other side of her dual nature: her Slayer side.
You're all special. Most people in this world have no idea why they're here or what they want to do. You do. You have a mission, a reason for being here. You're not here by chance. You're here because you are the chosen ones. -- Potential
Just as Dawn serves as a mystical extension of Buffy-the-girl, the Potentials in S7 are a mystical extension of Buffy-the-Slayer. I think that the Potentials provided the means for Buffy to gain the final pieces of knowledge about who she was in relation to her calling. After all, as any teacher can tell you, the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else.
But it's more than about Buffy being a teacher. Buffy was in a unique position, as far as Slayers went, in that she already knew two others. But she must have spent time over the years wondering exactly why she was called. Why her, and why Kendra and Faith? What did they have -- or not have -- that made them the necessary vessels? Buffy had clearly worried during S5 that there was something missing in her, that she was lacking in humanity and the ability to love. The thought must have terrified her: was she this way as a consequence of being the Slayer, or was she chosen as the Slayer because this ability to disconnect from the world was part of her makeup to begin with? Faith's issues couldn't have reassured her.
Dealing with the Potentials in S7 allowed Buffy to see the truth for herself: those who were called to be Slayers were just girls. Some brave and some afraid, but all human, and all with an inner core of strength. I think that overseeing the Potentials was a way for Buffy to not only truly accept the Slayer part of herself, but also to reconcile and integrate it with her humanity. In a way, the Potentials are Buffy's supernatural family just as Dawn is, and in dealing with them Buffy is learning how to be herself.
I'm the Slayer, the one with the power. And the First has me using that power to dig our graves. I've been carrying you - all of you - too far, too long. Ride's over. -- Get it Done
I think there's another reason why Dawn ends up being important to Buffy's mission. Through her dealings with Dawn, Buffy has to learn to learn how to be responsible for someone -- and not in the same way she felt responsible for the safety of her friends. Buffy had to be the adult for someone who needed not only love and support, but guidance and firmness. During S5 and S6, Buffy struggled with dealing with someone who was so dependent on her.
In a sense, the whole thing was completely unfair. Buffy was having a hard enough time dealing with herself -- with her mother's death and the effects of her own resurrection -- and having to be responsible for a teenager (especially with Dawn's particular set of issues) was an added burden. But in light of what Buffy had to deal with in S7, it was completely necessary. In fact, Dawn's relationship with Buffy in S5 and S6 is a parallel to Buffy's situation with the Potentials in S7. It took practice and hard experience for Buffy to learn to be a surrogate parent to Dawn. At the beginning she allowed Giles to set the boundaries; when she did take control, she tended to completely overcompensate out of fear that she would lose Dawn. Buffy acted to preserve Dawn's safety, even when Dawn disliked her for it. Because of this, I think she got practice in doing what was best for her charges whether or not she was liked because of it. Dawn helped prepare Buffy to be the type of leader that a Slayer had never had to be before. If she hadn't had the experience of dealing with Dawn, she might not have been prepared to be the leader to the Potentials and act as a teacher during a time of war. (Which, by the way, was much different dynamic than being the leader of the Scoobies.)
If this was AtS, I'd speculate that it was the Powers who surreptitiously arranged for Dawn to be sent to Buffy so that she could give Buffy experience in the type of leadership Buffy would need to fulfill her destiny as the one who shared the power of the Slayer. But in BtVS, the Powers don't seem to play any kind of active role. In fact, the few times they seem to have intervened in the Buffyverse were related to Angel (i.e., magic snow and the sudden appearance of Whistler). Overall, the Buffyverse seems to downplay the role of the Powers in comparison to the Angelverse.
At some point, someone has to draw the line, and that is always going to be me. You get down on me for cutting myself off, but in the end the Slayer is always cut off. There's no mystical guidebook, no all-knowing council. Human rules don't apply. There's only me. I am the law. -- Selfless
In the end, the Slayer was always alone. This wasn't about Buffy cutting herself off, but about her recognizing the gifts she'd been given and the burden that came with them. It was about recognizing her own strength, an absolutely necessary component of her ability to fight. In the end, as much as her friends and family were her connection to the world, it still came down to a reliance on her own strength. Buffy's known this from the very beginning. One of my favorite moments from the series is in Becoming II, when Angelus taunts her with being alone without weapons or friends. Even then, Buffy knew where her true strength lies.
The trick, of course, is how to pass this knowledge along. She wants to teach Dawn, and later the Potentials, where to find their power. (It really is all about power.) I think that part of the balancing act of S7 -- and part of the conflict between Buffy and the Potentials -- is that she simultaneously has to lead them and teach them to rely on themselves. Of course, her actions in Chosen are what allow the Potentials to truly utilize the lessons she's been teaching them.
So I say we change the rule. I say my power should be our power. -- Chosen
And so the final act of Buffy's story is that she voluntarily shares her power. It isn't about giving her power to someone else -- which is basically what happens when a Slayer dies. Instead, Buffy changes the rule of the game and takes the power back from the proto-Watchers who imposed it on the First Slayer. It is at this point, I think, that the growing-up metaphor from the last few seasons comes full circle.
I've had a lot of people talking at me the last few days. Everyone just lining up to tell me how unimportant I am. And I've finally figured out why. Power. I have it, they don't....You guys didn't come all the way from England to determine whether or not I was good enough to be let back in. You came to beg me to let you back in. To give your jobs, your lives, some semblance of meaning. -- Checkpoint
It's interesting to speculate about the implications of Buffy's actions in Chosen. For one thing, what does this mean for the surviving remnants of the Watcher's Council? The purpose of the Council was, among other things, to be the repository of knowledge and to train the line of Slayers. And really, it's not like the Slayers could have trained each other, given that there was only one at a time. It wouldn't be practical for the world's only Slayer to take the time to pass along her knowledge to however many Potentials they could round up, not when she could be fighting actual battles.
Once Buffy shared her power with all the girls, would there really be a need for a Council at all? Presumably the Slayers could do the job of identifying and training each other, as well as keep track of the history. Incidentally, I've wondered whether some of the female Watchers were in fact Potentials who were never chosen. What did these Potentials do when it became clear that they were too old to ever be the Slayer? What happened to those like Kendra, who was separated from her family at a young age? Did they simply shrug their shoulders and go back to everyday life? Did they join the Watcher's Council? Maybe some of them, the ones who couldn't go back to just being a normal girl, used the training they'd been given and simply fought the fight as well as they could without any superpowers. If this were the case, Buffy's actions were a huge benefit to those who chose to fight.
In order to be in a position to, in a sense, liberate the Slayers from the control of the Watchers, Buffy had to be a leader to the girls who came to her. I think that her relationship with Dawn gave her exactly the experience she needed to be able to act as a figure of authority for the Potentials. I have to admit that, as a whole, the Potentials are not my favorite characters to watch. In fact, I'll say for the record that it would take an act of God for me to actually like Kennedy. But I'm intriuged by the mystical connection between the Potentials and Buffy-the-Slayer, which seems to find a neat parallel in the mystical connection between Dawn and Buffy-the-girl.
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Date: 2006-02-12 02:29 am (UTC)Well, I'll be the first to admit that they can also be very annoying. :) I did end up liking Dawn more on rewatch, particularly in S7. (Oh, except at the end of Empty Places. But then again, I pretty much hate everyone except Buffy during that final scene.) I absolutely love the moment between Dawn and Xander at the end of Potential -- it's one of my favorite parts of S7.
I guess this is why, perhaps, it was important that Dawn did not become a Slayer as was hinted at and then scupered in Potential for she was the line that delineated Buffy-the-Slayer from Buffy-the-Girl.
Yes, I agree. And I'm very glad they didn't decide to make Dawn a Potential.