Plot question about BTVS that just occurred to me; between Seasons 5 and 6, who was Dawn’s legal guardian? Given that she was 15 at the time of Once More with Feeling, there’s no way child protective services would have allowed her to be left guardian-less. With both Joyce and Buffy dead, shouldn’t she have been placed in her father’s custody?
Which, given that she remained in Sunnydale, clearly didn’t happen.
So, who had guardianship over this distraught teenager? Who by the way was still mourning the loss of her mother, struggling with the unusual circumstances of her own existence, when her sister then ends up dead?
People like to gripe about Dawn for a myriad of reasons, but look at her life and the Greek tragedy it became at such a young age. Of course she was struggling and acting out. She must felt so bereft and lost.
I can’t even imagine.
