The Worst ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Character Was a Huge Missed Opportunity for the Series
One of Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s biggest strengths is its quirky, layered, unique characters. But, in the final season, the show added a character that just didn’t work: Kennedy, played by Iyari Limon. In the previous season, Buffy killed off fan favorite Tara Maclay (Amber Benson), the longtime girlfriend of Willow (Alyson Hannigan). Kennedy seemed to be thrown into the show just so Willow could move on.
At the time, showrunner Marti Noxon and the other writers may have felt that they needed to give Willow a happy ending in the final season to mitigate the damage of killing off half of the show’s beloved lesbian romance. But, instead of being a silver lining, the relationship felt like an insult to Tara because Willow rushed past her grieving period. People were already skeptical about Willow’s new love interest and, in a season full of new characters and rushed plotlines, Kennedy never had a chance to prove them wrong. As new viewers watch the show on Hulu to prepare for the announced Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, they’re sure to feel the same frustrations with Kennedy that fans experienced when Season 7 first aired.
Kennedy Had To Fight for Screentime in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Season 7
Kennedy was one of many Potential Slayers introduced in Season 7. The “Potential Slayers” were women and girls whose destiny might be to become the new Slayer if Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) or Faith Lehane (Eliza Dushku) died. Buffy and her friends tracked down as many of these women as they could and brought them to Sunnydale to protect them and help them train for their possible destiny. It was an interesting plot that ultimately flipped the Slayer narrative on its head, asking why there had to be one isolated girl carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, instead of a strong community supporting each other in the fight against evil.
But, the Potential Slayer plotline presented a problem when it came to developing Kennedy: the show had about a dozen new characters it also had to imbue with personality, all fighting for screentime. Kennedy never had the chance for character development that Faith had when she was added in Season 3, because Buffy was balancing so many new characters. None of them were properly developed, but with Kennedy, the lack of development stood out because she was a love interest to one of the core characters.
Kennedy Had Big Shoes To Fill After Tara Died
Image via Warner Bros.
In the rush to give Willow a somewhat happy ending in the show’s final season, Kennedy ended up being underwritten. It felt like she existed solely to be Willow’s new girlfriend, rather than as a character in her own right. Her main personality trait was the aggressive confidence with which she pursued Willow. This was partially because the show was rushing to get the relationship going, but it was also due to another problem: the writers were desperate to make her distinct from Tara.
So, while Tara was insecure, soft-spoken, and cautious, Kennedy was the complete opposite. There’s nothing wrong with a character being confident and assertive, but because she wasn’t fleshed out enough, it felt like the whole concept for her character was “Not Tara.” While a copycat character would’ve been just as bad, it felt inauthentic to strain so hard towards making her Tara’s opposite. If they wanted to truly replicate the success of the show’s previous iconic lesbian couple, it would require a deeper, more nuanced approach.
Kennedy Was Part of the Worst ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Plot Point
Image via Warner Bros.
Kennedy was also prominent in the most infuriating scene of the season, when the other characters turn on Buffy and push her out of her own house. She questions why Willow stands up for Buffy and puts forward the idea of voting to put Faith in charge. Everyone besides Buffy is frustrating in this scene, with Anya (Emma Caulfield) claiming that Buffy hasn’t earned her role as leader and Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenberg) kicking her out of her own house. At least those characters at least had goodwill from the other seasons. Kennedy was already disliked for replacing Tara, so it made things worse that she was so vocal in a scene that was needlessly cruel to Buffy.
Season 7 is one of the worst seasons of Buffy and, while Kennedy isn’t the only thing wrong with the season, she is tied up in a lot of the worst plot threads. The character was underwritten, without much defining her besides a sloppy backstory about growing up rich. The instinct to add more lesbian characters and give Willow some happiness in the end (rather than having her forever consumed with grief) was understandable, but the execution was so sloppy it felt insulting.
Original article at Collider
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