(Do I actually really sit this alone in the "I really like Dawn" corner?)

Yes. Well, actually, I didn't use to have such a problem with Dawn. On the re-watch, however, I began noticing how bloody fucking annoying she was with the whining and the complaining and the flouncing. Now she grates on me a lot. She has her moments, but they are few.

I noticed a strange connection tonight when watching "Normal Again" and "Primeval" back-to-back (with commentary). Buffy kills the "Normal Again" beastie and Adam in the same way: she punches through their chests and removes their "hearts." And both of these scenarios deal with Buffy reconciling with her friends, choosing to stay together with them. I don't know that it was intentional at all, but I find it interesting.

(Another reason I love "Normal Again" is that it has some really funny lines, like Andrew's "I really think to pull this off we're going to need at least eight other people," the Spike/Xander exchange "You didn't tell me it was a Gl'ark Fghjkwhatever!"/"Cause I can't say--," and Xander's "I altered his reality!")

The Buffy Animated Series will apparently explore parts of Buffy's high school career in the dawn-memories. Which I think is kinda interesting.

I think it'd be interesting to see some Rozencrantz and Guildenstern/The Zeppo-style episodes, with familiar plots from Season 1 or 2 seen from the margins while we follow Dawn on a separate little adventure.

I'm pretty meh on Dawn in general, but she had some great moments. Mostly when she was being snarky rather than whiny. I loved "No one gets me".

Andrew's "I really think to pull this off we're going to need at least eight other people,"

Not enough 'Hee!' in the world.

The Czech monks really screwed Buffy over. Not only do they saddle her with an annoying kid sister that's being hunted by a god and has an unparalleled talent for getting into trouble even after Glory bites the dust, it also appears that their memory retcon turned Buffy from a troubled delinquent to an asylum inmate and cost her her relationship with her father (who seemed a bit distant beforehand but certainly not the careless absentee father he became as of Joyce's death).

(Do I actually really sit this alone in the "I really like Dawn" corner?)

I'm with you.

The Czech monks really screwed Buffy over.

I agree-and I kind of like that they did, as it fits in very well with the whole ethical grayness of the Buffyverse. As with Angel's behavior in Season 5, or Giles in The Gift, the monks were willing to do harm to prevent a greater harm.

But the first four seasons did happen the way they did. It's just that no one remembers it that way. All this insertion of Dawn into the story is just looking at fake memories.

But the first four seasons did happen the way they did. It's just that no one remembers it that way. All this insertion of Dawn into the story is just looking at fake memories.

I still find it distancing to remember things differently from the characters--at least in a situation where a) no one's got the memories I do and b) the story doesn't problematize this at all. (The Connor-forgetting in "Home" doesn't bug me the same way, for instance.)

But the first four seasons did happen the way they did. It's just that no one remembers it that way. All this insertion of Dawn into the story is just looking at fake memories.

True.

But I think it is a cool idea to do the animated series from the pov of the altered memories.

If the animated series ever actually happens for real, I'll probably just end up hoping it turns into something like an anthology, skipping here and there around the Buffyverse.

I have no problem with watching early Buffy with Dawn. It's not as if what happened never happened in the first four seasons, we just never saw what was happening to Dawn. Nothing that Dawn did was pivotal, or if it was, it would be a good way to explain some of the asspulls from earlier seasons. It's not like she was necessary to stop any of the apocalypses. At the most, her presence (or lack of it) would be like an unfilmed "Zeppo" episode. I say, bring it on.