Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Anyanka - BtVS Season 3, episode 9 - "The Wish" This is the real world now.

Well, yes, some may recognize the title as the same as the very Dawn centric trade paperback, and right that you should, because it is the same, and for good reason. Memories in the Buffyverse are a fickle thing, we’ve seen them changed, we’ve seen the whole world changed, we’ve seen destiny changed...

But that’s not the point of this column.

When the monks of the order of Dagon transfigured The Key into the being known as Dawn Summers, they had to make it so everyone accepted her. How exactly they did this has been a source of much debate amongst fans. Did they simply plant memories into the minds of all those that would have encountered Dawn? Or did they alter time itself to include Dawn right from the beginning?

Well, personally, I believe they simply planted the memories, temporal alterations are too tricky for people to do, too unpredictable, even for a spell, you’d still need someone guiding it, but with memories they’re easier to alter, as we saw when Willow made Tara forget their fight at the end of the season 6 episode "All The Way."

* * *

TARA: (angrily) You know what, can, can we not do this now? I’m tired. (gets into bed) WILLOW: Okay. Let’s just forget it ever happened.

Willow goes over to a side table, picks up a small piece of herb with a couple of flowers on it. She holds it in her palm.

WILLOW: (softly) Forget.

A flash of light moves across the herb, leaving it dead and wilted.

Willow turns off the light, goes over to the bed and turns off another light, gets into bed.

Tara smiles, giggles.

TARA: Ooh, your feet are cold. WILLOW: Better warm me up. TARA: Mmm.

Tara snuggles up to Willow.

TARA: This is how every day should always end ... and start. And all the stuff in the middle. (kisses Willow’s cheek) WILLOW: (smiles) So, uh ... you’re not mad? TARA: ’Bout what?

Willow smiles to herself and closes her eyes.

* * *

But the scale of what the monks had to do was enormous, I mean imagine all the people that would have to have memories altered, and not just the obvious ones such as Buffy, Willow, Giles, Angel, Cordy, Riley, Joyce and so on, all the other people, teachers, fellow students (from the time she first started school), store keepers, nurses, doctors, all the little people you never see on the show.

All those people, hundreds, even thousands of people all walking round with false memories.

So what would some of those memories be?

Angel babysitting Dawn while Buffy patrolled and Joyce was working at the gallery?

The doctor overseeing Joyce giving birth to Dawn.

Dawn getting a cursed stuffed bear intended for Buffy? (See the BtVS comic "Dawn and the Hoopy Bear" for that story)

The school nurse putting a bandage on Dawn’s skinned knee.

Dawn tagging along after Angel and Xander as they followed Buffy down into the Master’s lair ("Prophesy Girl")?

Dawn’s third grade teacher telling her off for passing notes in class.

Dawn sneaking out of the Summers’ LA residence following Buffy as she hunted for vampires?

During the three seasons of Buffy where Dawn was present we have had small glimpses of some of these false memories, no episode held more hints than the pivotal season 5 episode "Blood Ties"...

* * *

DAWN: (gets up) Here. Open mine. (Gives gift to Buffy) BUFFY: It’s not gonna explode, is it?

She opens it and removes a photo of herself and Dawn, in a frame covered with seashells.

DAWN: It’s when we visited Dad that summer in San Diego. (Buffy staring at it) Um, I put the shells on it myself. We picked them off the beach. BUFFY: (softly) I remember.

. . .

Cut to: Dawn in her bedroom looking through her diaries. She has a bunch of them, of different sizes, shapes, covers, etc. She clutches one to her chin and looks pensive.

. . .

Cut to: Dawn storming back into her room, crying. She slams the door, looks around, and begins to trash her room, shrieking. She shoves stuff off the desk, shoves books off the shelves, tears posters off the walls. She picks up one of her diaries and flips through it, then begins to tear out pages, throws them in the wastebasket, then throws the whole book in. Extended sequence of Dawn ripping pages out of diaries, throwing the pages and the diaries into the wastebasket.

. . .

Fade in on magic shop, night. BUFFY: She tore up her room ... she burned all of her diaries. (Moves across the screen to sit in a chair by the table) XANDER: The Dawnmeister Chronicles?

Pan across Xander to find Willow and Tara sitting beside the counter. Giles and Anya behind it. Giles hands Willow a cup of tea.

WILLOW: She’s been keeping those since ... (pauses, looks confused) I mean... BUFFY: Since she was seven. I remember too, Will.

* * *

So, with the knowledge that the memories of the Buffyverse characters have been altered once already, what happens when someone else’s memories get altered?

Imagine if Connor had met Dawn.

Imagine what would have happened if the monk’s memory altering spell had mingled with whatever is was that took Connor’s memories.

Imagine...

False memories are there, in the minds of all the people that encountered Dawn prior to her sudden appearance at the end of "Buffy vs. Dracula" and they’ll be there, in those minds forever.

Treasure your memories, because you never know when someone may come along and alter them.

= = = = = =

If you have an idea for the next "The Bard Blabs..." column then please email it to me at newsdesk@mtnexus.com