Considering Angel and Dawn

[jetpack_monkey]

Angel and Dawn have always had a curious relationship, in that in one sense they have three years of solid history together, but in another they've only had one communication on-screen ever (and that was Angelus, with only his side of the conversation seen).

So, how are they? I'm not talking in a shippy sense, because I'm frankly not interested in that. It's just one of the great conundrums of the Whedonverse - how does Dawn interact with people like Angel, Cordelia, and Oz, who were all gone by the time she appeared on the scene, and yet would have memories of her.

My guess is that they have an understanding. Dawn sees Angel as Buffy's boyfriend from way back when, who broke her heart more than a couple times. She's probably come to terms with him on some levels, but probably regards him with more than a little antagonism. She may even project some of her issues with her dad onto him - an asshole who leaves without so much as a goodbye, but keeps intruding at inopportune times.

Does she have bad memories of Angelus, or was Buffy able to shield her from all of that? Would Angelus allowed that? I'd prefer to think that her contact was limited but frightening. She may have been with Joyce during that scene in Passion where Angelus reveals his tryst with Buffy.

If Angel was at Buffy's funeral, as I suppose he must have been, they may have come to some kind of understanding then. Survivors bonding. I doubt Dawn would ever grow close to Angel, but then I doubt he'd let her.

I see a BtVS-era Angel viewing Dawn as an annoyance. In the early years, he had a low opinion of people like Xander who he believed were getting in the way (although part of that was jealousy, also). He might be surprised by her maturity today, compared to the brat who probably stuck her nose where it shouldn't have been more than once.

An S5/post-NFA Angel, who's seen ordinary and occasionally irritating women like Cordelia and Fred become absolutely vital keys to the fight against evil, might see Dawn as a possible ally. He admires strength in women, and Dawn is hardly the victim she once was.

Any thoughts?

Comments

[honeywillow.livejournal.com]

I think he would've viewed her with more patience, at least sometimes, kinda like Spike did.

[lizbetann]

Kind of like how Angel viewed Willow? (And oh, for the animated series, set in a Dawn-verse season 3!)

[honeywillow.livejournal.com]

Angel has a rather dorky side that comes out sometimes, more like that!

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but the dorky side seemed to be more of an "Angel" thing than a "BtVS" thing; it's another thing they added to flesh out a relatively two-dimensional character, IMHO.

[honeywillow.livejournal.com]

I totally know what you mean about the Angel characters fleshing out, it's some of his reactions he had with Connor that suggest he'd had a bit of a softer side with Dawn.

As for the Angel & Xander thing, they were having a rivalry over Buffy, so they weren't about to be nice to one another anyway.

[thevelvetdays.livejournal.com]

If BtVS -era Angel had any sense of annoyance toward Dawn, I doubt he would have expressed it. I would think that his age (despite his occassionably questionable maturity) would cause him to realize that outwardly sympathizing with Buffy in her sibling woes would make him seem weak and tied to a rather petty human drama. Angel historically doesn't deal well with the less significant aspects of the human condition (Ex: BtVS Cordelia)

I think that Dawn would be too young to have overt memories of Angelus; I would expect Buffy to do whatever it took to keep her sister alert but blissfully ignorant. If Buffy didn't think Dawn could handle being the Key 3 years later, I doubt she'd be upfront about Angelus and the underlying darkly sexual implications going along with that. As is discussed in the S6 finale, Buffy doesn't really trust Dawn with any independence.

I don't think that Dawn and Angel would have interacted too terribly much during S1 and 2: Buffy's central dilemma was keeping the slaying out of her personal life and trying to integrate Angel into that "personal life" (Which, in time revealed itself to be impossible.) I think their interaction would be as limited as say, that of Dawn and Giles in the pre-S5 years. Dawn was probably far closer to Riley. With Buffy/Angel, she was at that age (around 10?) where romantic interaction would be seen as "gross"- therefore, if anyone was seen as annoying by anyone else, it would probably be Dawn being annoyed with Angel.

That was fun to think about; I haven't really done any BtVS character analysis since footwear days. It was a nice break from dissecting Raskolnikov...

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Interesting points, re: Dawn's age. I hadn't really factored that. But if I recall, the events that f'ed me up the most took place during those formative years. Even if she doesn't have a clear memory of what happened then, the emotional memories of the time will still resonate.

[hjcallipygian.livejournal.com]

I think it's possible that Angel treated her as a much younger girl than she was. We know that Angel had a little sister whom he was fairly close to, and from what I remember of the flashbacks she was around 6-8 years old or so. Dawn would've been around 10, and I bet Angel treated her in his standard awkward way and a bit younger than she really was, and it annoyed Dawn a little bit, and that was the end of it. I doubt she really understood the truth about Angel until after she realized the truth about Spike, and I'd imagine a good deal of her perception of the Buffy/Angel relationship is colored by what she knows about the Buffy/Spike relationship.

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Hm. Interesting point. So Angel was the creepy guy who swept her sister away, then?

I can see Angel treating Dawn like Kathy. Weird. There's a drabble/shorter story in and of itself.

[hjcallipygian.livejournal.com]

I think he was retroactively the creepy guy. He was probably just that attractive-yet-distant dude who didn't seem to realize she was a Big Girl and not a little kid, at first.

[kenobi.livejournal.com]

Dawn would have been an annoyance, and Angel would have been patient with a her a bit. Little girls that age can be very possessive of their older sibling and angered that Angel was taking time away from her. I think they wouldn't have had much interaction with each other until Buffy died. Then Angel would have become an overbearing mother a bit more so than spike. I dunno. =/

[jetpack-monkey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, except Angel went to a monastery. He didn't really stick around. If he thought he owed it to Buffy, he might have stayed, but my guess is that he saw that Dawn could either handle herself or was well handled by the Scoobies.