Dawn:

Dawn: You sleep, right? You, vampires… you sleep?

Spike and Dawn always had a special relationship, he called her nibblet (also Nibblet, Platelet, Little Bit, Sweet Bit) and took special care of her, seeing her as kid sister. Dawn had a crush on Spike and later progressed to support her sister after the two had a relationship. What I enjoyed about their relationship is that they both cared about each other equally and supported each other. (ex: "Blood Ties"). Hopefully, Dawn and Spike will be friends again soon.

Name: Dawn Summers

Nicknames: Dawnie, Dawnster, Nibblet, Platelet, Little Bit, Sweet Bit

Born: Supposedly 1987 in Los Angeles, California ... but she's actually mystical energy (called "The Key") thousands of years old, made human by monks, so she was never actually born.

Likes: Spike, magic, Janice and Lisa (two of her friends at school), nail polish, cute boys, Slayer stuff, milkshakes, learning

Dislikes: being treated "like a kid," being excluded, being left behind, etc.

Fears: abandonment

Special Skills: whining, screaming, shop-lifting, opening dimensional portals, tardiness

Dawn had a crush on Spike for a while, and frequently went to his crypt to hang out with him and hear scary stories about stuff he did when he was evil. Dawn was one of the first people to realize that Spike was in love with Buffy, however, so she knew she didn't have a chance with him. Instead, they developed an increasingly strong friendship founded on mutual respect and acceptance. Spike doesn't treat her like a child, and she doesn't treat him like a pariah.

Dawn did not start out as a human being ... she started out as a vibrating energy matrix called "The Key," an energy force which had the power to open dimensional portals and thereby cause the boundaries between all dimensions to disappear. It is uncertain exactly how old The Key is, but it certainly existed by the 12th century, when the Order of Dagon protected it as their sole purpose, particularly from Glorificus -- or "Glory" -- a hell god who wished to use The Key to get back to her home dimension from which she had been banished. According to Glory, The Key has been around "just this side of forever."

Late in the year 2000, Glory located the monks of the Order of Dagon and slaughtered them. Just moments before the slaughter, the monks were able to hide The Key by magically sending it to the Slayer for protection. To ensure that Buffy would protect The Key, the monks gave it human form, as Buffy's heretofore-nonexistent fourteen-year-old sister. In the process, the monks also manufactured memories for everyone: for Dawn, for Joyce, for Buffy, and for everyone else who would have had contact with her if she had really existed for those fourteen years. They made it all as real as possible, in hopes that this would prevent Glory from finding The Key.

Since being turned human, Dawn has had a pretty rough time of it. When she learned that she wasn't a normal fourteen-year-old girl, that her memories were all fake, that she was in reality some sort of mystical energy stuffed into a human body, Dawn flipped out and ran away ... nearly resulting in her getting caught by Glory. Buffy found her and brought her home, and they all resolved to treat Dawn as a true member of the family, as Buffy's true sister.

Not long afterward, Dawn and Buffy's mother -- Joyce -- died. Their father -- Hank -- apparently never even showed up for the funeral or to make sure his children were being taken care of and provided for. Buffy took over the parental role, but they also still had Glory to worry about. Glory actually did capture Dawn, held her captive, and nearly killed her ... but in the end Buffy's intense love for her sister led her to sacrifice her own life to save Dawn.

After Buffy's death, Dawn relied on Tara, Willow, and Spike as her primary care-givers and support system. Tara and Willow became replacement mother figures, living with Dawn and trying to help give her life some sense of normalcy (a difficult task on the Hellmouth). Dawn's friendship with Spike grew even closer, as he took very seriously the oath he had sworn to Buffy before her death ... to protect Dawn until the end of the world. The two of them shared a unique friendship based on a sort of understanding stemming from the fact that both of them are "freaks" of a sort ... and they each accept the other unconditionally.

Willow resurrected Buffy without even telling Dawn, resulting in an intense shock when she saw her sister alive again. Dawn was ecstatically happy to have her beloved sister returned to her, but Buffy was different ... withdrawn, emotionally flat, burdened, depressed. Dawn's previous minor delinquency became more pronounced as she strove to attract her sister's attention: she began increasingly cutting classes at school, stealing things, lying, and throwing temper tantrums. Social services became concerned, and seriously considered removing Dawn from the Summers home to put her in foster care, believing that Buffy was not providing adequate care. This threat seemed to make Dawn only more unhappy and sullen, especially when Buffy suddenly became distracted by her secret sexual liaison with Spike. Dawn felt neglected ... because she was.

Just when it seemed that Dawn's life couldn't get worse, her replacement-mother Willow became extremely reckless in her usage of magic, nearly killing Dawn in the process. And then Buffy herself tried to kill Dawn (and the rest of the Scooby gang) not long afterward, while under the hallucinogenic influence of a demon's poison. And then -- just when it seemed things definitely couldn't get any worse -- Dawn's other replacement-mother, Tara, was killed ... Willow went destroy-the-world-type evil ... and Spike skipped town after attempting to rape Dawn's sister.

Every parental figure Dawn had ever relied upon had abandoned her, or worse. Her father, Hank, has shown almost no interest in his children since the divorce. Her mother, Joyce, died. Her sister, Buffy, died. Her surrogate father, Giles, moved back to England. Her surrogate-mom, Tara, died. Her other surrogate-mom, Willow, turned evil and nearly killed her. Her surrogate-big-brother, Spike, skipped town without even telling her. It's no wonder the kid has been having some emotional problems!

At the end of Season 6, things were looking up for Dawn. She actually fought side-by-side with Buffy against some mud-demon-thingies, at long last achieving her ambition to get to participate in Slayery-stuff ... and she showed herself quite capable. And Buffy admitted as much, even if not in words ... a validation Dawn had long been needing. In addition, Buffy seemed to finally actually see Dawn, relate to her, engage with her emotionally, and break out of the long funk she'd been in. I expect things will be at long last improving for Dawn in Season 7.