We all strive to be Buffy. We all see ourselves in Dawn.
When I first heard of Michelle Trachtenberg’s death, I immediately thought of one of her most iconic roles in one of my favorite TV shows. Here is my reflection on the extraordinary Dawn Summers.
Many top TV lists have Dawn Summers, the younger sister of Buffy Summers in “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, as one of the most hated characters of all time. And when I first started watching it randomly on TV, I supported this label. She seemed whiny, was always in the way, and not very helpful. But when I finally sat down as an adult and watched the show chronologically, I started to see a true character arc that resonated with me.
To fully understand the Dawn dilemma, you have to start at the beginning. Or Dawn’s beginning, because she doesn’t show up until season 5 of the show. And it had been fully established that Buffy was an only child. Viewers are instantly thrown into a state of confusion as to who this preteen girl is and her purpose. Add the fact that your older sister is revered and constantly has to save the world and you have an identity crisis on your hands. We follow Dawn on that journey as she discovers that she was created to be protected by Buffy from an evil force who wants to use her as a key to unleash hell on Earth. Once that evil is defeated, Dawn must learn who she is outside of this higher calling that no longer exists. The title is gone, but not for her sister Buffy as she continues to grow into the role of Sunnydale, and the world’s, savior.
What’s a budding teenager to do? What any other teen would do, of course, try to find their own path. For Dawn this involves a path of kleptomania, raising her mom from the dead, and trying out for the cheerleading squad to get the attention of one cute football player. A lot of this puts Dawn in expected trouble and as the role of damsel in distress, so Buffy is forced to come to her rescue. Dawn’s frustration bubbles up when she finally confronts Buffy about her role in the Scooby Gang. She’s aware she doesn’t have the same abilities as everyone, but she wants to help. Buffy agrees and begins to train her on how to protect herself.
Dawn’s full character development comes to a beautiful conclusion with the episode “Potential”. The gang is tasked with finding all the potential Slayers and for a time it’s believed that Dawn could be one. Everyone is excited, especially Dawn, as she sees this as an opportunity to fully belong with the group and fight the evil she has had to run from for most of her life. But she later discovers it was a mixup and another girl is the Potential. Dawn doesn’t have time to fully reflect on what that means until later when she’s home. And thus begins what is one of my favorite scenes in the whole series. Xander comes in and tells her the truth, she doesn’t have any special powers and that will always be her life. But Xander says one of the best lines ever written, “You’re not special, you’re extraordinary.” And Michelle Trachtenberg plays the scene perfectly as her eyes well up and she accepts her fate in life. She will never be the one on top but she will always keep fighting for the ones who will be.
With Michelle’s passing, I was able to look back at Dawn’s character and realize how much we can learn from her in today’s world. In this day and age, there are plenty of people and organizations to deem the “Big Bad”, and a lot of us are just ordinary people with no special powers. It can be so easy to just give up and let the ones who are seen as the heroes do something. But behind every hero are many people doing what they can to push them forward. We can’t all be in the spotlight. Not all of us have that “special something” that makes people want to follow us or listen to what we have to say. But each of us is needed to take the little steps towards a greater good. We can’t all be Buffy, but we can take a lesson from Dawn and know our strengths and use them to defeat any evil that comes our way.
Michelle Trachtenberg did an amazing job fully embodying this complex character and she will be missed. Hopefully this reflection makes her memory just a little stronger.
