BtVS Meta Series: Dawn and Narrative (5.2)
BtVS Meta Series: Dawn and Narrative
In order to prepare for the work I’ve laid out for myself in the thesis-of-awesome, I’ve decided to go through S5 (possibly also 6&7) one episode at a time and discuss the narrative constructs and how Dawnie is interacting with them. This will not be a normal episode-by-episode meta series since I will be starting in S5 (and possibly never continuing on, or choosing only important Dawn-centric episodes in the later seasons to continue the series with) instead of at the very beginning. Also, rather than discussing everything that is happy about every episode, I’m not only going to focus on just Dawn - but I’ll be looking at how the episode’s narrative construct works and Dawn’s reaction(s) to that construct. It’s hard, sometimes, to think only of the narrative itself, without getting bogged down in the details of the characters and all the shiny things. It also means that certain aspects of the story and the characters will get glossed over to prove my point in a different way - this will never mean that I don’t think there is another way to read these episodes, but that for the purpose of my argument, not everything can be taken into account.
So… this will be an experiment in - not only a Kelpy sticking to her guns and actually finishing a meta series - but also in focus. I have a tendency to get off topic and ramble J
5.2 “The Real Me”
The episode opens with Giles telling Buffy: “There is only you.” Then this long, very Star Wars-esque training scene with Buffy standing on one arm and Giles even moves in slow motion, which is interrupted by Dawn. Yes. We’re going to push that forward again with the “Dawn is the interruptus” motif. Because it is necessary to do it more than once; at the end of “Buffy vs Dracula” wasn’t enough. Dawn changes stuff. She redefines things. She’s interrupting the narrative we are familiar with.
And then this really amazing thing happens: Dawn tells us about her world. She’s the first character that we see journaling - the only character who tells the audience about the world in voice-over. (Except Angelus… who also uses voice-over to show how much control Buffy has lost over her narrative/reality). The result of this is just fancy - we are completely put into her shoes. She’s the one who is telling us what is going on, the world - this new world that has changed from what we know because of her - is filtered through her own perceptions. And since this is done through the use of first-person narrative, the audience is forced to be there with her. Rather than staying in Buffy’s perspective, in which Dawnie is a foreign and destructive force, the narrative is completely taken over by Dawn’s voice. She is the one that matters, and she says so at the end, she is the one that the audience is supposed to identify with. And it’s so easy to… Why? Why is Dawn so easy to identify with? What does the text tell us about her and about why we should love her?
Because Dawn is a fangirl just like us.
In telling the audience about the world she lives in, Dawn is telling fans what she loves and hates about the thing they are already invested in. She is both a slice of fandom and a character within the world simultaneously:
She’s confused by but loves the hero.
She finds Riley cute, but a little nauseating and condescending.
She thinks Giles might be a little too out-of-touch and British.
She has her OTP (Willow and Tara).
She has her own tv-boyfriend (Xander).
She has her own interpretation of the text (Xander was “undercover” in the last epi… I mean, wasn’t he?)
Dawnie. She’s us. Stuck right in the middle of the narrative that we already love, telling us the reasons why we love it … the reasons why she loves it. And in writing in her journal, having a voice over - Dawnie says: “Aren’t these the reasons why you love this show, too?” And it’s perfectly legitimate to disagree. Fandom disagrees within the ranks all the time. Thing is, Dawnie gets to live in the world that she’s a fan of… kind of.
When Tara points out that the world is hard for Dawn, that being a “Scooby” may come with responsibility - but not being allowed into the “Slayer circle” can be just as hard. (This all goes back to a recent discussion on my podcast, in which I argued that Boone and Jack’s narratives show that it’s just as hard to NOT be the hero as it is to be one when you don’t want to… #LOST has taken over my brain.) Willow responds: Well of course YOU are a Scooby, silly. And no matter how much Tara tries to bring the focus back to Dawn, she is seen as just a reflection of Tara. No matter how much this episode tries to pin down Dawn, she is still just a reflection of someone else. What the episode is trying to tell us - what Dawn herself is trying to tell us - is that even though she’s there, right next to the action, she is still an outsider. That’s where Tara is pointing out Dawnie lives. She’s the one who isn’t really in the story yet. She’s not a favorite character, she’s not part of a ship, she hasn’t made an impact on the story yet - but she completely rewrote the entire story by existing. Dawn is both outside and inside the text-proper.
Is Willow a fan of her own story? Probably not. She’s living her story. Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror and say: “I totally ship you with ____________.”? Um. God I hope not. But you know your BFF and that really cute someone that’s been hanging on for years (or the coworkers who always make moonings at lunch, or that couple you see at the diner every Sunday, or the girl you see sometimes at the bus stop), and you know their adorable story, and how you can’t wait to be the one giving the toast at their first anniversary dinner saying: “I’ve shipped you from the beginning”? You know those people that are in the “real world” but their story is just so cute, you are a fan?
We don’t put things into those terms in RL, and I’m not really sure why not. Narrative is narrative. The way we see the world is made into a narrative, because that’s how we know how to prioritize events/people/places/memories. The story of “how we met” - “how I got this job” - “where you’re from” - “what do you do” - “what’s your major” - They are all narratives that shape the way we place meaning on things. And our favorite stories are the ones we tell over and over. “Let me tell you about the time…” “Did I ever tell you about the friend who…” “Do you remember when…”
Dawn is in the place that we don’t typically put television/film/literary characters - she’s the outskirts person, and we’re getting her perspective. She’s the “little sister” - the thing that is redefining the text. She has both always been there and never been there, both “in the know” and in the dark, both the inside and the outside of the text.
Dawn is not just the voice of the fan from within the narrative, given the ability of reflecting and commenting on the story she is in, she’s also the only one who is able to see that she’s in a narrative, and that the role she’s been given doesn’t fit/ doesn’t work. And interestingly enough, she’s also told how being the “leader” doesn’t necessarily mean that one is respected. Harmony is the best thing to happen to this episode. Why? ... because she is both Buffy and Dawn. All at once! It’s pretty neat.
So we’ve got this whole “Dawn as Insider|Outsider” that we get to hear through her own first-person narrative. And then Dawn is the audience for Harmony’s own first-person narrative in which she explains how hard it is to be the leader, but still not to be thought of. For the first time, this monologue struck me as great foreshadowing to Buffy’s S6 arc - in which she is the leader and her own emotional break down is (relatively) ignored by the rest of the Scoobies. In S5 Dawn is set-up as the Insider|Outsider, the element that redefines the narrative and relationships that she herself is a fan of, but right at the moment that the show proves this - it poses a Harmony. She’s trying so hard (like Dawn and Tara**) to find her space within the narrative of “leader” and “villain” … Harmony in this episode is so very Dr. Evil. Harmony is a fan of her own story. She knows that she’s going through a “personal growth” moment, she’s read self-help books and is aware of the story she is writing for herself. Why aren’t we killing the hostage? Well, because film-villains never kill the hostage! That’s not how the plan works. That’s not how the narrative works. (Don’t we all just miss/love Ford from S2?!?! I know I do!) Similarly, we will see Buffy attempting to do the very same thing in S6 - trying to fit the role of leader and Slayer and friend in a narrative, a reality, which she no longer has a connection to, but understands the operations of.
Dawn is a fan of the world she belongs to - she can’t rewrite it the way Harmony does, because her mere presence changes it for the audience. What she can do is explain it to herself and fight for a better role within it. She knows she’s on the outskirts of a story about heroes, and that no one thinks she can be one. But after hearing Harmony’s monologue, after seeing her sister rewrite the world to protect their mother, she begins to understand the narrative she’s a part of a little better. And she starts to fit inside of it a little more.
[EDIT] I just remembered a shiny thing! That I meant to mention! During the argument with Joyce about Dawn needing a babysitter, Buffy is shown primarily in a mirror throughout the scene, and Joyce is arguing with (SMG) off-camera. Meanwhile, Dawn is only heard yelling from her room during the scene. Joyce is the only real in that scene. Dawn is an echo and Buffy is merely a reflection. As if Buffy and Dawn are a split - the seen and the heard of what was once a united Buffy. Since Dawn is rewriting the narrative, her voice is jutting into this scene, a scene that Buffy's body is literally pushed out of, while Joyce is left in the middle - arguing with two figures who are (technically) off-camera. Moar foreshadowing, possibly? Or just another instance in which we see that Dawn's voice is taking precedence in the narrative over Buffy's already established presence? Hmm... will have to continue thinking on this....
** Waiting to really deal with Tara until “Family”
Ugh. Not really happy with this one, but I have to move on... Feeling really tired and overwhelmed today by ALL THE THINGS. Saturday is really hard because http://theotherlostpodcast.blogspot.com records from 10a to 2p every week... and by the end I just want to lie in bed and ignore the world.