Summary
We hope this episode finds you well! We get to talk about how great Giles is, how bad-mom Joyce is back, and the fine hobby of unicorn collecting. Thanks for listening to our discussion of Season 5, Episode 2: Real Me!
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Myth Taken: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast 
I always saw the inconsistent portrayal of Dawn’s age as reflecting the plurality of ages she has as an entity in the Buffyverse. One one hand, she’s a 14-year-old girl, on the other hand, she’s an ancient mystical energy that has existed for eons, and on yet another hand, she only has a couple days worth of actual life experience. I think this explains some of Buffy’s overreaction to her as well. She’s expressing the kind of resentment that a lot of kids have to process when they first go from being an only child to an older sibling, but Buffy isn’t consciously aware of the massive change in her family life that she’s dealing with. She does get pretty close when she’s talking to Riley about how she knows Dawn has always been around but lately she’s just *everywhere*.
Anyway, I realize this whole justification can become an easy get-out-of-jail-free card for not writing Dawn as a cohesive character whose actions make sense. Playing that card over and over definitely gets old and it doesn’t fix all the issues with Dawn’s integration into the story, but in a lot of ways, it works for me. I do really wish there was more camaraderie and affection between the sisters though, especially because it seems like the monks’ highest priority would be to make that bond as strong as possible. The chemistry between the actresses is great right off the bat but the relationship is pretty flat at this point. Overall I still really like the episode, despite its pilot-y stumbles. I just love how gutsy this move is and I love the dimension that Dawn’s addition brings to the characters we already know so well.
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