Kennedy (Buffyverse)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kennedy the Vampire Slayer | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Iyari Limon as Kennedy |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Kennedy (surname unknown) is a fictional character in the American television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She is played by Iyari Limon. Kennedy is also known as Ken.
Contents |
[edit] Story
Kennedy is one of the first three Potential Slayers to arrive in Sunnydale. She comes from a wealthy family with a summer home in the Hamptons and has at least one sibling; a half-sister. An out-of-the-closet lesbian, Kennedy has known about her sexuality since the age of five, and aggressively pursues a relationship with Willow — whose longtime lover, Tara, was murdered at the end of season 6. This state of affairs produces unexpected consequences in the episode "The Killer in Me". Eventually, Kennedy and Willow become lovers and remain so through the end of the series, acting as an anchor to keep Willow sane when doing powerful magic. Kennedy fights alongside the other "potentials" and Buffy at the final battle with the uber-vampires in the series finale, in which she becomes a Slayer. In Season Five of Angel, a year after the end of Buffy, mention is made that Kennedy and Willow continue to be a couple and are now living in Brazil together.
[edit] Personality
Outspoken, confident and never one to shy away from confrontation, Kennedy made her presence known by both aggressively pursuing her attraction to Willow, and coming to verbal blows with Buffy several times. Continually disagreeing with Buffy's choices, Kennedy played an instrumental part in the argument which ended with Buffy's brief ejection from the Summers' residence and "Scooby Gang" in "Empty Places". However, Kennedy later admitted her somewhat rash actions in "Chosen", unashamedly pointing out she was a "brat". Unlike the other Potential Slayers, Kennedy successfully integrated herself into the Scooby core, often becoming involved with actions and events off guards to the other potentials (most notably in "Get It Done"). She also chose to dismiss her other responsibilities in the episode "The Killer in Me", opting to feign illness to avoid joining Vi, Rona and several other potentials on a vision guest to converse with the spirit of the First Slayer, instead choosing to take the opportunity to further pursue her relationship with Willow.
[edit] Notes and Trivia
- According to the shooting script for "Bring on the Night", Kennedy is nineteen, and the oldest of the potentials to arrive at that time, though this informaton is never given on-screen. Although she alludes to this in "Showtime" when, after the First, secretly operating under the guise of a deceased Potential, strikes up a conversation, detailing on how the Slayer line operates. After discussing who might be next to follow in the footsteps of Buffy and Faith, Kennedy suggests although she feels "ready", is "starting to think she is too old" to be the next slayer to be called.
- Kennedy witnessed her Watcher's death; he was murdered by the Bringers. The fact that she knew about the Watchers (as well as having some comprehension of how the slayer line works) before being chosen indicates that she was approached by them at some point during her teenage years, like Kendra, although Kendra was raised by her Watcher from infancy. However, this is unlike Buffy and Faith, neither of whom learned about the Watchers until after they were chosen.
- Online critic Amy Amatangelo's readers gave Kennedy the "Can We Vote Them Off the TV Island?" award for the "Most Annoying Character" in the 2002-2003 television season, narrowly beating Connor from the Angel series.[1] Phi-Phenomenon, a site that provides statistical analysis of online Buffyverse opinion has demonstrated that the number of lines of Kennedy dialogue is a statistical predictor of an episode's unpopularity, both among committed Buffy fans and among those who were disenchanted with the show.[2]
[edit] Appearances in Buffyverse
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Kennedy appeared as a supporting character in the following episodes:
Season 7
- "Bring on the Night"
- "Showtime"
- "Potential"
- "The Killer in Me" - Focused heavily on the character of Kennedy.
- "First Date"
- "Get It Done"
- "Storyteller"
- "Lies My Parents Told Me"
- "Dirty Girls"
- "Empty Places"
- "Touched"
- "End of Days"
- "Chosen"
[edit] References
- ^ http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,276|81936|1|,00.html
- ^ http://www.phi-phenomenon.org/buffy/tastes/characters
