While Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenberg) was not the most popular character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, her presence was still good for the show overall. Part of the reason the supernatural series was so strong was not only because of its action and engaging monsters, but because of its ability to explore complex personal relationships, whether they were platonic, romantic, or familial. One of these relationships, between Dawn and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), is the lynchpin of Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 5, even though it wasn’t always the most popular with the fandom. All the same, it’s important to examine how Dawn’s arrival helped the series tread new ground.
Dawn first arrives in Dawn is Buffy the Vampire Slayer's twist resolution for the season, as Dawn is the ‘key’ that Glory needs to return to her hell dimension, and the season ends with Buffy sacrificing herself so that Dawn can survive, closing the portal to hell in the process.
Buffy Needed To Experience Other Relationships
Throughout much of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the most important relationships Buffy had were with her friends, her mother (Kristine Sutherland), and Giles (Anthony Head). By season 5, Buffy and her allies had already tread much of the narrative ground their group could provide: the Scooby gang were growing up, Joyce knew about her daughter’s role, and they faced impossible odds several times, growing closer and stronger. It speaks to the strength of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that it was able to use these character relationships so well, but if the show wanted to stay engaging, it needed to shake up the interpersonal status quo with Dawn.
Of course, Buffy’s close ties with her friends and family were not the only ones that worked well. Much of the drama of the show came from Buffy’s romantic entanglements, whether they were her doomed love with Angel (David Boreanaz) or her temporary tryst with Riley (Marc Blucas). But even these character beats began to run thin for Buffy, as she had already experienced deep love, betrayal, heartbreak, and renewal by season 5. To keep Buffy from becoming a one-note heroine, she needed to experience another kind of bond, one that would push her to reevaluate her duties and herself while not hinging on a ‘will-they-won’t-they’ storyline.
Growing Buffy’s Family Made Her A Better Slayer
While Buffy has protected many people, there’s a difference between defending the world on principle or because of a sense of duty and defending the world to protect specific people in it. Of course, protecting the people she loves is not new ground for Buffy, but introducing Dawn to the story meant that Buffy had a sibling to watch out for, and not just within the context of life-and-death evil, but in quotidian life. With Dawn, and especially in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 5, Buffy’s definition of family and her relationship with it fundamentally changed, making her role as a guardian deeper and more personal than before.
Beyond the familial relationship between siblings impacting Buffy’s duties as the Slayer, when she realized who Dawn was, Buffy was forced to gain a new perspective on her role. Before, she’d sacrificed herself and faced death as a way of accepting her destiny as the Slayer, pushing her character arc into one of a burgeoning hero. With Dawn, Buffy learned what it meant to be a hero to a single person. It drove her to a new place of understanding responsibility, paralleling her journey to college and the eventual step up to Buffy becoming a caretaker after Joyce’s death.
Dawn Was Better Than You
It’s no secret that some fans hated Dawn when she debuted on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Part of this was due to her sudden, surprising appearance, and some of this was because Dawn was the epitome of a teenager, and occasionally came off as whiny and annoying. But looking back at these episodes, it’s easier to see the positive trajectory Dawn experienced on the show.
Throughout her seasons on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it’s easy to see how Dawn is also resilient and determined, much like her sister, as she struggles to understand her place in the world. This struggle, and Dawn’s depiction of it, is closer to the audience experience than Buffy’s story (as much as we might prefer otherwise). This makes her one of the most relatable characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as she grows up and comes into her own, becoming just as capable as her sister by her own choice.