10 Ways Buffy The Vampire Slayer Was Almost Totally Different

Dawn may be the most unpopular character from Buffy, with her whiny nature and complex of always doing the opposite of what is asked of her. But Joss Whedon didn't intentionally write her that way. Joss wrote Dawn's character because he wanted Buffy to have a profound connection with someone that wasn't a boyfriend, but once he had created the character he had a tough time reconciling this original idea with the progressing storylines he was writing. Perhaps that is the reason the audience struggled to connect with the tween girl.

Unfortunately for Dawn, as time went on she struggled to like herself too. She was constantly comparing herself to her older sister and friends and she craved something that would make her special like them. For a while there she almost got her wish, as Joss and the writing team tried to find a way to incorporate powers into Dawn's character in the final season.

One of the ideas bouncing around was that she would become a potential slayer. There are shadows of this almost-storyline in the show when we see Dawn want and expect to be one of the potential slayers and suffer the disappointment when she isn't.

Another rumoured storyline for the youngest Summers girl was that she would be able to communicate with the dead. This would have contrasted nicely with Buffy's powers and emphasised Dawn's struggles to connect with the living, as she herself wasn't really human.

The last storyline that floated around was giving Dawn telekinesis, which also would have suited the young girl because she was so insecure and always worrying what people thought of her.

And who knows, maybe if she could read minds she wouldn't have kept doing stupid stuff.