The author of the Pop Matters post seems to forget that Dawn is a human being, and has a choice as well. And unlike Angel in Becoming - wasn't the initiator of the problem, but an innocent who got caught up in it through no direct fault of her own. (A lot of fans including the Pop Matters author, compares this to Becoming and GD, forgetting that in both those scenarios, Faith and Angel acted and wanted to bring about the horrible events, no matter what Buffy tried to do to change their mind or stop them. And in both cases, she tries to avoid killing them and succeeds in a way, since neither die, and both come back as heroes.) Dawn, unlike Angel and Faith, is also the whole point of the slayer, which is to protect powerless and innocent human life from demonic forces. Buffy had no obligation to protect Angel or Faith, but she does have an obligation to save and protect Dawn, who has no powers, is blameless, and is helpless. Killing the damsel to save the world is a bit counter-productive because as Buffy herself points out, what's the point of saving the world -- if you have to kill an innocent child to do it? The logic of the Pop Matters post seems to overlook this theme completely.
And yep, people in fandoms, regardless of the fandoms, complain whenever the story doesn't go the way that they personally wanted it to or thought it should go according to their world-view or thought process. Notice this a lot in long-running television and book serial fandoms (such as GoT, Doctor Who, Marvel comics, Daytime Soap Operas...).
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branchandroot
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Date: 2016-08-14 12:30 pm (UTC)The author of the Pop Matters post seems to forget that Dawn is a human being, and has a choice as well. And unlike Angel in Becoming - wasn't the initiator of the problem, but an innocent who got caught up in it through no direct fault of her own. (A lot of fans including the Pop Matters author, compares this to Becoming and GD, forgetting that in both those scenarios, Faith and Angel acted and wanted to bring about the horrible events, no matter what Buffy tried to do to change their mind or stop them. And in both cases, she tries to avoid killing them and succeeds in a way, since neither die, and both come back as heroes.) Dawn, unlike Angel and Faith, is also the whole point of the slayer, which is to protect powerless and innocent human life from demonic forces. Buffy had no obligation to protect Angel or Faith, but she does have an obligation to save and protect Dawn, who has no powers, is blameless, and is helpless. Killing the damsel to save the world is a bit counter-productive because as Buffy herself points out, what's the point of saving the world -- if you have to kill an innocent child to do it? The logic of the Pop Matters post seems to overlook this theme completely.
And yep, people in fandoms, regardless of the fandoms, complain whenever the story doesn't go the way that they personally wanted it to or thought it should go according to their world-view or thought process. Notice this a lot in long-running television and book serial fandoms (such as GoT, Doctor Who, Marvel comics, Daytime Soap Operas...).