Dear Flist, I need your help. Sincerely, me

[kwritten]

This poll is research for my Thesis on fandom. Please, please, please share and tell your friends.

Comments

[local_max]

I genuinely forgot that I wrote Dawn meta -- which is weird. But I wrote a weird, personal Dawn & me meta (if it can really be called a meta -- it's a personal reflection post I guess) during a period of time in which I wrote a bunch of Specific Character & Me metas, which is heavily filtered. I am currently checking with one person who wrote personal information in the comments on the entry to see if she'd be okay with me including you on the filter if you are curious as to the content

[kwritten]

Thank you for the links! And your participation and your comments. RL is rude and it took me forever to get back to this post.

I *am* interested in any other Dawn-thoughts that you have, when you aren't too sleepy :)

Thanks again. ♥

[gryfndor_godess]

I'm fond of Dawn now, but I really resented her presence on the show the first time I watched it, way back in 2006, and I didn't come around to liking her until I got into fandom in summer 2010. So even though I like her now, if you're having trouble finding people to be your guinea pig, I could be a, hmm, what would you call it, retrospective guinea pig? I'd PM you or email you, though, as half of my antipathy was for personal reasons that I don't want to get into on a journal. Let me know. :)

Otherwise, in response to some of the other questions in the poll, I've never sought out fic or meta about Dawn, but ones I've stumbled across definitely made me more invested in her as a character. Similarly, I've never written a fic that focused on Dawn herself, but the times I've written her as a secondary character have also made me much fonder of her and helped me see things from her perspective.

[kwritten]

Ack! Yes! Please PM me - I'd love to know your feelings about Dawn. And maybe we can discuss you being a guinea pig :)

[nicole_anell]

re: not watching the series in order, I think because I basically started watching the show after season 5 (while catching up with the earlier seasons) I was less resistant to Dawn as a retcon or newly-added character, like a Cousin Oliver kind of thing. I accepted her from the start as part of the BtVS world even though I was aware she hadn't always been there.

[kwritten]

Thank you so much for participating! And commenting!

[smells_corrupt]

I spoiled myself so thoroughly before I watched Buffy, I can't even begin to tell you. So I knew about Dawn, and about Dawn being the Key, and I was intrigued by the idea of inserting a character so far in, and pretending she'd been there the whole time. I will say though, that her appearance completely threw me, at first, even though I knew it was coming. It had nothing to do with ~her, I was just watching so quickly that I went straight from No-Dawn to Dawn's-been-here-always, and it was discombobulating for the first couple episodes she was in. But I used to her pretty fast (possibly because I watched all of S5 in three days, and then turned around and watched the whole season straight through again? I mean, what

[kwritten]

Loving Dawn is a legitimate way of life.

Thanks, bb!

♥

[pocochina]

I love Dawn. I was tempted to write that as "I love Dawn *but* have some thoughts about x usual criticism," but I think that was kind of inappropriate

[kwritten]

To be at the eye of the Sunnydale maelstrom. To find out that instead of at least getting the super-power to be able to fight back, your special thing is to be sacrificed and objectified. And that she not only survives that, but thrives, and turns herself into little Watcher Junior, at least as adaptable and useful as half of Quinten's lackeys. She's extraordinary.

THIS. This is potentially my favorite description of her narrative I've ever come across.

Thank you so much for participating and commenting.

And yes - I think the DVDs rather than watching live significantly change the viewing experience.