Editing Dawn Summers (section)

==Concept and creation==
The arrival of Dawn Summers is foreshadowed in cryptic dream sequences in both the season 3 finale "[[Graduation Day (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Graduation Day, Part Two]]" and the season 4 episode "[[This Year's Girl (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|This Year's Girl]]", in which a still-comatose [[Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Faith]] says, while making a bed with Buffy in her bedroom, "Little sis coming, I know." Buffy replies, "So much to do before she gets here." (The first appearance of Dawn is in Buffy's room.) In the season 4 finale, "[[Restless (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Restless]]", [[Tara Maclay|Tara]] warns Buffy to "be back before Dawn."

According to ''Buffy'' creator Joss Whedon, the introduction of Dawn in season 5 was partly so [[protagonist]] [[Buffy Summers]] could experience a "really important, intense emotional relationship" with someone other than a boyfriend. "She's as intense as she was in season 2 with Angelus, but it's about her sister," Whedon says. "To me that was really beautiful."<ref>{{Citation
 |last=Miller 
 |first=Laura 
 |title=The man behind the Slayer 
 |date=May 20, 2003 
 |url=http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/tv/int/2003/05/20/whedon/index.html?pn=3 
 |access-date=July 17, 2007 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070107103615/http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/tv/int/2003/05/20/whedon/index.html?pn=3 
 |archive-date=January 7, 2007 
}}</ref>
Trachtenberg says she was thrust into the role without knowing much about Dawn's personality; she describes her initial meeting with Joss Whedon as "Alright, welcome to the cast, you're a teenager, you're a Key, have fun."<ref>{{Citation| title = Dawning glory Interview with Michelle Trachtenberg| url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/interviews/trachtenberg/page2.shtml | access-date = July 18, 2007| publisher = [[BBC]] }}</ref>