Hmm. On the one hand I disagree that we learnt much about Dawn’s character in the first four episodes between her introduction and the reveal about her origins. Real Me was a fun look at the old regulars from a new point of view but we didn’t learn much about Dawn herself, she was a rather generic irritating younger sister with a penchant for getting into trouble and cereal free gifts. On the other hand I also disagree that all she’s done so far is be the occasion for giant puns and whining. One of the advantages of the comics medium is that it’s so easy to flick back through her scenes and she actually reveals quite a lot about her back story and motivations. Talking to Xander in issue 2 it becomes clear that she’s unhappy/jealous about Buffy’s new sisterhood. Issue 4 confirms that she and Willow became close after Chosen and it’s easy to infer that part of that happened because Buffy was busy elsewhere. The whole strength not proportional to her size uselessness is also such a telling metaphor.

Since then she’s only had one scene but one that lets slip she’s not been spending her whole time in Scotland with Buffy but for part of it at least has been studying on some campus where she met Kenny. Also that she doesn’t actually believe her embiggenment is his fault, there’s something else she’s hiding. Both Buffy and Willow seem to have jumped to conclusions and the mystery thickens. If it wasn’t Kenny then what has Dawn been up to and I’m still interested in who Kenny is and the fact that everyone but Dawn is suddenly au fait with thricewise knowledge.