- "She still thinks I'm little miss nobody, just her dumb little sister. Boy, is she in for a surprise."-Dawn Summers, "Real Me"
Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
Dawn Summers is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon and introduced by Marti Noxon and David Fury on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, portrayed by Michelle Trachtenberg.
Biography[]
Premonition?[]
- "Miles to go. Little Miss Muffet counting down from seven three oh."
-Faith Lehane, "Graduation Day, Part Two"
Dawn Summers's arrival into the life of Buffy Summers was seemingly foreshadowed in a number of dreams the Slayer experienced the years 1999 and 2000. Prior to her confrontation with Mayor Richard Wilkins III, Buffy dreamed of preparing a bed with rogue Slayer Faith Lehane, who, at the time suffered a coma due to blood loss and severe injuries. Next year, in a similar dream, the still comatose Faith told Buffy, while in Dawn's future bedroom, "Little sis coming, I know.", to which Buffy replied, "So much to do before she gets here." Some months later, in a third dream, Buffy was told by what appears to be Tara Maclay to "Be back before Dawn."
The Key[]
- "They had to be certain the Slayer would protect it with her life. So they sent the Key to her in human form… in the form of a sister."
-Spike, "Blood Ties"
In 2000, Czech monks of the Order of Dagon continued to protect The Key, as they had done since the 12th century. The Key was a concentration of living energy that could be used to shatter the veil separating all dimensions. If used, The Key would cause dimensions to flood one into the other, merging until the energy of the Key was spent, thus sealing the dimensional tearing. The monks wanted to put this dangerous power to good use, however, they were attacked by Glorificus, a hellish goddess bent on returning to her home dimension regardless of the cost. In an act of desperation, the three surviving monks used powerful magics, as well as a portion of the Slayer's own essence to forge The Key into human form as a fourteen-year-old girl, then sending her to Buffy as a sister for protection. The monks also altered reality, as well as the memories of the Slayer, her family and friends, to make the now-human Key fit into the world.
Sunnydale[]
Buffy discovers that Dawn isn't her sister.
- -"What is she?"
- -"Human. Human, now, and helpless. Please, she is... an innocent in this, and she needs you."
-Buffy Summers and the last Monk of Dagon, "No Place Like Home"
For many months, Dawn, as well as Buffy, Joyce and the Scooby Gang, were unaware of Dawn's mystical origins, believing the memories the monks had crafted for them. Dawn was supposedly born in 1986 in Los Angeles. Only those "outside reality," such as mental patients, were capable of seeing Dawn's true nature. Later, when Joyce developed a brain tumor, she was briefly capable of perceiving Dawn in her original form. By this time, Buffy also discovered that Dawn's origins through a spell, though after she met the last dying monk of Dagon, she learned that she was now a common human being with no memories of her original form, and that she had to be protected.
Over the course of late 2000, Dawn came to learn how she came into existence. Upon learning of her mystical origin, she took to self-harming and ran away from home, though Buffy, who had initially considered Dawn a burden laid upon her shoulders against her will, managed to assure her that, no matter how she came to be, they were real sisters no matter what.
Dawn was then subjected to more turmoil when her mother died unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm. Devastated to the point of irrationality, and feeling abandoned by Buffy, she turned to necromancy in order to bring her back to life, though she undid the spell when she came to realize the inherent dangers of what she had done.
Glory realizes that Dawn is the Key.
- "You wanna know what I'm scared of, Spike? Right now, Glory thinks Tara's the Key. But I'm the Key, Spike. I am. And anything that happens to Tara... is 'cause of me. Your bruises, your limp... that's all me, too. I'm like a lightning rod... for pain and hurt, and everyone around me suffers... and dies. I... must be something so horrible... to cause so much pain... and evil."
-Dawn blames herself for Glory's attacks, "Tough Love"
Weeks later, when Glory "brain-sucked" Tara, leaving her completely insane, Dawn was greatly affected and blamed herself for all of the harm that Glory had done to the people of Sunnydale (particularly Tara's insanity and Spike's brutal torture), describing herself as a "lightning rod" for pain. Despite her sister's best efforts, Dawn was nonetheless kidnapped by Glory and taken to a tower, crudely built for the ritual that would allow Glory to return home. Dawn tried to plead with Glory's human alter-ego, Ben, though she ultimately failed at convincing him to help her.
As Glory's plan came to fruition and the barriers between dimensions began to crack, Dawn was willing to give her life to save the world, but Buffy stopped her and sacrificed herself instead.
Dawn helps Buffy fighting demons.
Depression[]
Season Six 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 casts a spell to bring her back to life. She later experiences her first kiss with a vampire named Justin, who she is reluctantly forced to stake when he tries to kill her. Feeling isolated from the other Scoobies, Dawn inadvertently makes a wish to the vengeance demon Halfrek which results in them becoming trapped inside the Summers house.
She later accompanies an increasingly-reckless Willow to the home of Rack, a magical drug dealer, which goes badly when the two are attacked by a demon and in a car accident that lands Dawn in the hospital with a broken arm; the latter event serves as the catalyst that leads to Willow's decision to stop using magic altogether.
When Tara is shot by Warren Mears, Dawn was the first to find her dead in the house, hours after Willow had left her side to pursue revenge; she is noticeably affected by her death, even advocating Willow's decision to kill Warren in revenge. Consumed by black magic, Willow then threatens to turn Dawn back into energy, ending her human existence, just to put an end to her whining. While helping Buffy battle demons, Dawn proves herself to be capable in a fight, finally earning Buffy's respect.
A Warrior in Training[]
Dawn after doing the exorcism.
Dawn fights against the Turok-Han.
In Season Seven, Dawn learns how to be a grown-up and becomes a fully-fledged Scooby member. 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 explains to Dawn that being normal is perhaps the hardest burden of all, as nobody understands the pain of being overlooked. During the mutiny against Buffy, Dawn is the one responsible for personally kicking her own sister out of the house. When Buffy returns to the fold, she attempts to send Xander and Dawn away from it, but Dawn tasers Xander, returns, and comically kicks Buffy in the shin when she returns after slaying Caleb. In the final battle against the First in "Chosen", she proves herself once again to be a strong and capable young woman, keeping a clear head and slaying at least three Turok-Han vampires independently.
Post-Sunnydale[]
Giant Dawn in Tokyo.
In "The Long Way Home," we learn that Dawn has become a giantess, which Buffy believes is the result of losing her virginity to a "thricewise" named Kenny. Xander, however, believes that she may have subconsciously brought it on herself as a way of gaining Buffy's attention after so many new Slayers moved in with them. Dawn's relationship with her sister is strained; Buffy says in a monologue that they haven't really gotten along since they "changed the world" in "Kenny." Dawn does not want to speak with Buffy about her condition, preferring to wait for Willow, who Dawn describes as "like a mom to me."
Dawn turns into a centaur
Dawn has indicated that she wants to leave Scotland once her condition is back to normal, possibly to go to Berkeley, which is where Buffy wants Dawn to go to school. Dawn begins to accept the advantages of being super-sized when she stomps on malevolent witch Amy Madison, knocking her unconscious and allowing Willow to capture her.
In "No Future for You," it is revealed that Dawn only has one set of clothes in her size. She is also unsure whether Kenny was the reason for her massive growth spurt. Her exact height is unknown. But she is tall enough to pick apples from the very top of the trees. It is unknown whether Dawn is still growing. In "Anywhere But Here," Dawn reveals to Xander that she did not have sex with Kenny like everyone else believes and that she had in fact slept with his roommate.
In "Time of Your Life", 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.
In "After These Messages... We’ll Be Right Back!", Buffy is somehow transported back in time to the "good old days" of Sunnydale High, where Dawn is a bratty ten-year-old girl.
In "Living Doll", the twenty-fifth issue of the series, Dawn undergoes her final transformation into a living doll and is kidnapped by a dollmaker for her 'protection'. Buffy, Willow, Andrew and the Slayers manage to confront Kenny about the curse but he flees, only to show up later alongside Buffy to rescue Dawn. After she apologizes to him, the spell is instantly broken and she becomes a real girl again. The two have a heart-to-heart, where she explains she wasn't ready for sex with Kenny because of how intensely she liked him before parting ways again. At the end of the story, she and Buffy mend their bridges too.
Alterations to the Buffyverse caused by Dawn's presence[]
It's unclear exactly how Dawn's presence altered past events before Season Five, though we do know that she always believed there was more than one of Ted (cf. "I Was Made to Love You"), that she played chess with Willow (cf. Real Me) and that Faith knew her before Dirty Girls and that Dawn held a grudge against her. This grudge could stem from This Year's Girl where by Faith kidnapped Joyce and possibly, in light of the altered reality, Dawn as well. Also, she and Angel apparently know each other; in "Family", when Buffy is lecturing Dawn on not falling in love with vampires (particularly her then-crush Spike), Dawn sarcastically replies "Right, that's why you were never with Angel for three years"; in "Salvage", when Angelus telephones the Summers' residence after hearing of a Slayer in Los Angeles, Dawn answers and Angel clearly knows who she is. All of these are reasonable, as the monks that gave Dawn human form cast a spell that gave the Scoobies and virtually anyone else who knows Buffy memories of having met Dawn; ex-Scoobies Cordelia, Oz, and Wesley more than likely possess knowledge of her as well. In "False Memories", we can see that she was present when Buffy was bitten and drowned by the Master; also she was present when Angelus wanted to kill Buffy's friends and left them as messages in the high school.
Powers and abilities[]
Dawn is a human being who, as the mentally unstable can see, is really a green ball of energy. With the right ritual, her blood opens a dimensional portal to all universes, bringing chaos and destruction to Earth within minutes. It's never made entirely clear if Dawn is actually human or still the transfigured key. As of Season six Dawn believed she didn't open anything anymore.
Dawn's experience in battling vampires and demons has made her a more capable fighter and spell-caster with the ability to cast spells from memory; dialogue between herself and Buffy in "Grave" hints that she learned multiple fighting skills from watching Buffy. She can also read a variety of languages ranging from Turkish to Latin. Dawn has grown to rarely flinch when in danger, and her loyalty to her sister and friends is absolute.
In Season Eight, Dawn mystically grows to the size of a giantess, an event which becomes a recurring gag in the series. However, she is not as proportionally strong as she is large, as mentioned by Buffy. Nevertheless, she still takes an active role in large scale battles, decommissioning enemies with super-sized kicks. She is shown to be able to damage a large stone wall by punching it, although she hurts her hand in the process. Later, Dawn is transformed into a centaur and a living porcelain doll with inherent physical traits, but what supernatural powers these forms granted is unknown.
As of recent events, the transformations have been completely stopped, and Dawn is back to normal.
Relationships[]
Romantic relationships[]
- Xander Harris — Dawn harbors a crush on Xander into her adolescence, feeling that he is the only one who treats her like an adult. Xander is both well-aware of and very flattered by her crush, exhibiting notable jealousy when Buffy informs him that she has moved on to Spike. Although she eventually outgrows her romantic feelings for him, Dawn and Xander remain extremely close, bonding over the fact that neither has any real "superpowers" ("Potential").
- Spike — Feeling isolated after discovering she is the Key, Dawn develops a crush on Spike because "he's got cool hair, and he wears cool leather coats and stuff. And he doesn't treat me like an alien" ("Crush"). However, she soon realizes that, although Spike seems to have some affection for her, he loves Buffy. Dawn accepts that nothing will happen between them and comes to regard him as a kind of older brother/protector figure instead. He looks after Dawn following Buffy's death, helping Willow and Tara raise her, and continues to act as guardian during season six. Following Spike's attack on Buffy, she told him that if he hurt her, she'd set him on fire, something that he was noticeably disturbed by. After learning he had regained his soul, they began to repair their relationship, with Dawn defending him when Andrew asked why Buffy wanted to save him. Spike often called Dawn "Lil'Bit" in an affectionate manner.
- Kevin — Dawn adores this shy boy in her junior high art class. He was surprisingly sensitive about her "family problems", indicating that he too had resorted to self-harm on occasion ("The Body").
- Justin — A manipulative, teenage vampire with whom Dawn, unaware of his identity, shares her first kiss. When Justin tries to turn her into a vampire, Dawn is forced to stake him with a loose crossbow bolt, an experience which upsets her greatly ("All the Way").
- RJ Brooks — Dawn develops an obsessive crush on this popular high school athlete due to his bewitched letterman jacket, resulting in her humiliating herself at cheerleader tryouts and pushing his rival down a flight of stairs. When she finally comes to accept that she can never be with him, she decides to commit suicide by lying on a train track to prove her "love" for him. Buffy rescues her, and the spell is broken ("Him").
- Kenny — Dawn dated this boy for some time, although Buffy, Leah and Giles warned her that he was a "Thricewise". He apparently disappeared after Dawn became a giantess, which Buffy believes to be a side-effect of losing her virginity ("The Long Way Home").
- Nick — Dawn cheated on Kenny with his college roommate Nick, losing her virginity. She and Nick attended a frat party during her freshman year at Berkeley. In "Anywhere but Here", Xander describes him as "cigarettes, dirty hair, didn't care what anyone thought, never gave you the time of day, but he seemed to be in pain deep down." He is also the vocalist and bass guitarist of a band.
Other[]
- Rupert Giles — Dawn seems to regards Giles as a fatherly figure. He, as with Buffy, is protective of her and the two are shown to be friends. Dawn was clearly upset when Giles left for England, and he softly told her he was only a phone call away as they hugged. After his return, in the episode "Flooded" they were planning to conduct an experiment by mixing food cereals together before a demon attacked. Giles acts as the lone parent figure to Dawn in "All the Way", being forced to reprimand her for her actions after Buffy absently avoids them. In season seven Giles consoles Dawn after the gang unanimously decide that Buffy should leave for the time being.
- Willow Rosenberg — Dawn always admired Willow; in "Real Me", she states, "Willow's the awesomest person. She's the only one who likes school as much as me." When Buffy dies, Willow and Tara move into Buffy's house and act as guardians to Dawn. Their relationship suffers a blow when Willow, strung out on dark magic, gets Dawn into a car accident, but they soon make up. When Willow is kidnapped by Amy and Warren in "The Long Way Home", a furious Dawn tells Buffy that Willow is "like a mom" to her.Willow and Tara both often call Dawn "Dawnie".
- Tara Maclay — Dawn befriends Tara early in Season Five, when even Buffy and Xander don't know her very well. At that point, neither of them are considered to be part of the Scooby Gang. Dawn was quick to defend Tara from her father in "Family", and was devastated when she was "brain-sucked" by Glory. Even after Willow and Tara broke up, Dawn and Tara continued to meet up for the occasional milkshake. Dawn appeared to consider Tara as a surrogate mother until her death. Dawn was deeply affected by Tara's death, finding the courage to voice her opinion of what Warren deserved.
- Anya Jenkins — Dawn was initially unfriendly towards Anya, no doubt jealous of her relationship with Xander. However, as time when on, they became closer, despite the fact that Anya often spoke to Dawn as if she were much younger than she actually was.
Behind the scenes[]
- 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.".[1]
- Responding to fan complaints of Dawn being whiny throughout Season Six, Joss Whedon said, "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 acknowledged that he and the writers hit "the same note for a while... We needed to make some changes." Likewise, Whedon expressed regret over not being able to go further with Dawn's character during Season 7, though he expressed, "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.[2]
- Dawn was originally intended to appear in the Angel episode "The Girl in Question" after Sarah Michelle Gellar was unavailable to appear as well. However, Michelle Trachtenberg was unavailable for filming, so the character of Andrew Wells, played by Tom Lenk, replaced her.
Products[]
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 Michelle 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.
Appearances[]
Buffy Season 5[]
- "Buffy vs. Dracula"
- "Real Me"
- "The Replacement"
- "Out of My Mind"
- "No Place Like Home"
- "Family"
- "Fool for Love"
- "Shadow"
- "Listening to Fear"
- "Into the Woods"
- "Triangle"
- "Checkpoint"
- "Blood Ties"
- "Crush"
- "I Was Made to Love You"
- "The Body"
- "Forever"
- "Intervention"
- "Tough Love"
- "Spiral"
- "The Weight of the World"
- "The Gift"
Buffy Season 6[]
- "Bargaining, Part One"
- "Bargaining, Part Two"
- "After Life"
- "Flooded"
- "Life Serial"
- "All the Way"
- "Once More, with Feeling"
- "Tabula Rasa"
- "Smashed"
- "Wrecked"
- "Gone"
- "Doublemeat Palace"
- "Dead Things"
- "Older and Far Away"
- "As You Were"
- "Hell's Bells"
- "Normal Again"
- "Entropy"
- "Seeing Red"
- "Villains"
- "Two to Go"
- "Grave"
Buffy Season 7[]
- "Lessons"
- "Beneath You"
- "Same Time, Same Place"
- "Help"
- "Selfless"
- "Him"
- "Conversations with Dead People"
- "Sleeper"
- "Never Leave Me"
- "Bring on the Night"
- "Showtime"
- "Potential"
- "The Killer in Me"
- "First Date"
- "Get It Done"
- "Storyteller"
- "Lies My Parents Told Me"
- "Dirty Girls"
- "Empty Places"
- "Touched"
- "End of Days"
- "Chosen"
Buffy Season 8[]
- The Long Way Home
- No Future for You
- Anywhere but Here
- A Beautiful Sunset
- Wolves at the Gate
- Time of Your Life
- After These Messages... We’ll be right back!
}}