From: daviderl31@yahoo.com   
      
   http://community.ew.com/2015/06/26/buffy-blood-ties/   
      
   'Buffy' nostalgia recap: Imagining a world without Dawn   
      
   Season 5 | Episode 13 | “Blood Ties” | Aired Feb 6, 2001   
      
   “Blood Ties” is maybe better known as “The One Where Dawn Finds Out   
   She’s   
   the Key and Goes Psycho.” You know, she cuts her wrist and starts babbling   
   about if she’s real or not. She has the kind of breakdown most 14-year-olds   
   only contemplate in their most melodramatic of teenage moments. “Blood   
   Ties”   
   is also the one where Buffy tells the rest of the Scoobies that Dawn doesn’t   
   exist. It’s also Buffy’s birthday, which we all know never means anything   
   good. When Dawn gives her sister a framed picture from a trip that, at this   
   point, everyone but her knows never really happened, things get awkward and   
   the truth comes out.   
      
   Did this episode need to happen for the arc of season five to progress? Yes.   
   Of course. Does that make it any more bearable to watch Dawn be the center   
   of attention and shriek and whine at frequencies you thought (hoped) only   
   dogs could hear? No. No it doesn’t.   
      
   Since “Blood Ties” also reminds us, for the umpteenth time this season,   
   that   
   Dawn was not real until late 2000 and that everything before that is   
   fabricated memory, courtesy of a group of very thorough and detail-oriented   
   monks, let’s take this opportunity to imagine the glory (pun only partially   
   intended) of a world without Dawn.   
      
   In a world without Dawn, Buffy never died (um, the second time). If Buffy   
   never died (you know, the second time), season six becomes instantly more   
   enjoyable, as we get to skip the portion in which she was haunted by her   
   return to the mortal coil and depressed about being ripped out of heaven.   
   That was a bummer to find out, and the more I think about it, the sadder I   
   get. Boo, Dawn.   
                  [so, who would be the Big Bad for S5 if not Glory looking for   
   her Key?]   
      
   In a world without Dawn, Joyce wouldn’t have almost been a zombie. That was   
   weird and sad and yuck. Boo, Dawn.   
      
   In a world without Dawn, Joyce might STILL BE ALIVE. I don’t know if this   
   theory holds water in the actual, true Buffy-verse, but I theorize that   
   Joyce’s tumor is a result of having her brain totally wonkified by the   
   monks. Joyce and Buffy would have had more mind-melding done than anyone   
   else (be thankful you were such an absentee father, Hank). It stands to   
   reason that, on a normal human mind, that might take a toll. I blame Dawn   
   for Joyce’s tumor and death. BOO, DAWN.   
      
           [Joss likes to kill off fave characters. This time it was Joyce.]   
      
   In a world without Dawn, Xander has less power. Dawn and Xander are cut from   
   the same cloth, and each is strengthened (in an annoying kind of way, not an   
   empowering kind of way) by the other’s existence. It’s a “we’re normal   
   and   
   boring” pity party with a guest list of two. Boo, Dawn. (And Xander).   
      
   In a world without Dawn, this shrill banshee shriek never happened:   
   "getoutGetOutGETOUT!"   
   You can never unhear the sound of Dawn’s pubescent screams. Boo, Dawn.   
      
   In a world without Dawn, Buffy gets to eat a damn bowl of cereal once in a   
   while.   
   Slayers need the energy provided by a well-balanced breakfast if they’re   
   going to save the world every Tuesday. The sidekicks must make sacrifices,   
   and Dawn has clearly never learned that lesson. Boo, Dawn.   
      
   In a world without Dawn, Gossip Girl would be the only show that people   
   complain about Michelle Trachtenberg being on.   
   I don’t even watch Gossip Girl, but I hear talk. Boo, Dawn/Georgina.   
      
   In a world without Dawn, we probably would have cured all cancers by now.   
   Because the brilliant nerds of the world wouldn’t have had to waste time   
   being annoyed by this nonsense. Boo, Dawn.   
      
   But maybe I’m being too hard on Dawn. Maybe she’s the Jessica Rabbit of   
   Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Maybe she’s not really terrible; the monks just   
   created all knowledge and memory of her that way.   
      
   Who am I kidding? Boo, Dawn. A million boos.   
      
   http://daviderl.com/MichelleTrachtenberg.html .   
   http://daviderl31.blogspot.com/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)