When I first saw Dawn, I so thought they were pulling a reverse Chuck (Happy Days reference). Ooh, I was upset.
Volaran said:
He's the human son of a vampire with a soul, raised in a time compressed hell dimension. She's a 3 year old artifical construct raised as the Slayer's sister. They fight crime.
That made me laugh.
drothgery said:
I didn't dislike him as much as some seem to have, but other than a few good lines, he didn't have much going for him. It seemed like when he was pretty much over Holtz screwing around with his head, Cordellia/Jasmine picked up the ball. And then Joss decided to cop out on trying to do something with him via the plot device that was the season 4 finale.
Under Rug Swept.
I agree that his head was basically screwed with constantly, and I can't help but think we weren't supposed to really like him. First, there's the whole Wes breaking off thing (which, I loved, but the characters really didn't). Then the whole Holtz being dead incident, and he goes all Oedipus on us. Then he started getting better, and then there the whole Jasime thing where he fights our illustrious heroes under his own free will. And it didn't help that Cordy ends up in a coma because of that fiasco, and he loses it. (Charisma, I love you!)
Then the creators must have realizes that he's done so much harm that we arn't going to forgive him soon, so away he goes. Besides, after all this, after alllll this, he's obviously way too screwed up in the head. He's caused the destruction of the world for cryin' out loud. He's broken. So, they write him off for another day (which is something Joss is really really good at, mind you - an aspect I have attempted to incorporate into my DMing).
Even though, he's really a tragic hero, you just look at him and see how he screwed up everyone's life! It isn't his fault. I know that. But wow... just... wow... how much can one person do before that doesn't matter anymore?