Kennedy

"The world embraced vampires with open arms, Buffy. Now it's got to learn to deal with them without crying for the nearest slayer. You're one of the strongest girls I know. The people who hire us needs our help ... even if they're not getting chased by some Big Bad with an unpronouncable name."

- Kennedy to Buffy Summers

Kennedy was a Slayer and ally of the Scooby Gang. Activated in 2003, she fought at the Sunnydale Hellmouth during the battle against the First Evil and afterward continued to work for the Slayer Organization. Kennedy was in a romantic relationship with Willow Rosenberg, having helped her move on from the death of her previous girlfriend, Tara Maclay.

Early Life
Kennedy came from a wealthy New York family with a summer home in the Hamptons and she had one sibling, a half-sister. An out-of-the-closet lesbian, Kennedy claimed she knew about her sexuality since the age of five after watching Gone with the Wind and wanting to "sweep Scarlet off her feet". At some point in her life, Kennedy was identified as a Potential Slayer and was trained to use weapons, at least from the age of eight.

Sunnydale
"Come on, Red. Make it happen."

- Kennedy whispers words of comfort to Willow before she starts the spell to activate the Potential Slayers

In 2002, the entity known as the First Evil began locating and killing Potential Slayers in an effort to destroy the Slayer line. After her watcher was murdered by the Bringers, Kennedy was one of the first three Potential Slayers, along with Molly and Annabelle to arrive in Sunnydale seeking protection with the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. She met and began aggressively pursuing a relationship with Buffy's friend Willow Rosenberg, whose longtime lover, Tara Maclay, had recently been murdered. Willow was reluctant to enter into a new relationship, and upon Kennedy's and her first kiss, Willow's guilt manifested physically transforming her into Tara's killer, Warren Mears, whom Willow had murdered in vengeance. Kennedy helped Willow overcome the sense that she had betrayed Tara's memory by helping her move on and by breaking the hex. Kennedy and Willow became lovers, with Kennedy acting as an anchor to keep Willow sane when Willow worked her powerful magic. However, she did not take Willow's statements about the dangers of magic seriously until Willow drained a significant portion of her life force in order to reopen a portal, which briefly put a strain on their relationship. Even though the number of potential slayers in Sunnydale kept changing, bothing coming and going (dying), Kennedy became a consistent ally to the Scoobies, acting as a decoy for Bringers and taking initiative after the potentials were attacked by a group of Turok-Han vampires.

Kennedy fought alongside Buffy and the other Potentials in the final battle against the First's army of Turok-Han. In this battle, Willow activated every Potential around the world, including Kennedy, causing her to become a Slayer. She survived, having quickly taken on her new life as a Slayer, remarking "I could get use to this".

As a Slayer
"I could get used to this."

- Kennedy after being activated as a Slayer

Following the battle with the First, Andrew Wells claimed that Kennedy and Willow continued to be a couple and were then living in Brazil together. At some point, Kennedy suffered a month-long mystical death and she and Willow started taking their relationship more slowly. She confessed to Willow her concerns that Willow was keeping her away from her friends due to shame, which prompted Willow to reveal that she blamed herself for Tara's death by keeping her close to Buffy and therefore danger. Willow then stated that she refuses to let that happen to Kennedy. She and Willow were later reunited in New York, where she expressed protectiveness of Willow to Buffy having heard of Buffy's lesbian encounter with Satsu. Though she was aware of Willow training under the demon Saga Vasuki, she remained unaware of the sexual aspects of their relationship.

Kennedy later traveled to Tokyo to give new squad leader, Satsu, a performance evaluation. Satsu, a lesbian, had recently shared a one-night-stand with Buffy, who was straight. Kennedy wished to support Satsu on her situation and help her to move on from Buffy.

After the Seed of Wonder was broken and all magic was sucked from Earth, she comforted Willow. After the battle, Willow broke up with her since she felt Kennedy was only with her because of her magic powers. Kennedy expressed anger at Buffy's decision because she believed that Willow was close to defeating the attacking demons without Buffy's intervention.



Profession as a Slayer Bodyguard
"People hire us because we're strong, smart, and good in a fight. Not because they're scared of refuges from the hell dimension next door. They want us to protect them from kidnappings, ransoms, assassinations even .... so if you want me to certify you for field work, you need to stop looking at the world like you're the Chosen one."

- Kennedy explaining to Buffy the job of a bodyguard

Personality
"Don't be a brat, slinky. That's my profession, and I don't like amateurs crowding me."

- Kennedy to Satsu

Outspoken confrontational, 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, she played an instrumental part in the argument which ended with Buffy's brief ejection from the Summers' residence and the Scooby Gang. She continued to push an argument with Faith, but was ultimately forced to give in when Faith informed her that she was the leader and she would have to get used to it. Later, she freely admitted to being a "brat" on numerous occassions.

Unlike the other Potential Slayers, Kennedy sometimes became involved with actions and events of core Scoobies. Kennedy served as a martial arts instructor to other Potentials, showing and enjoying a "drill sergeant" attitude, echoing Gunnery Sergeant Hartman of Full Metal Jacket and Sergeant Foley of An Officer and a Gentleman. Like them, she unknowingly helped drive the weakest of the "recruits" to suicide (in this case, Chloe, who was called "maggot") when the First Evil manipulated the feelings of weakness Kennedy caused. Kennedy also chose to dismiss her other responsibilities, opting to feign illness to avoid joining Vi, Rona, and several other potentials on a vision quest to converse with the spirit of the First Slayer, instead choosing to take the opportunity to further pursue her relationship with Willow.

Following the end of magic, Kennedy seems to have newfound maturity and patience. Finally finding her purpose as a Slayer Bodyguard, she seems more understanding and less selfish, as she expresses a desire to help her clients and give other fellow slayers a purpose since the failure of the Slayer Organization. Unlike Buffy, she is able to shut off or ignore her slayer instincts to get the job done, openly saying with confidence that world needs to deal without the help of slayers for once.

Behind the Scenes

 * She was portrayed by Iyari Limon.


 * 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, Kennedy does reference herself as being the oldest of the potentials.


 * After her first appearance, Kennedy was never absent from the series.


 * 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. 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 by this time were disenchanted with the show.


 * Show creator Joss Whedon describes the character by saying that, "Kennedy is, as she herself said, a bit of a brat. What I wanted was an anti-Tara. I wanted somebody who was as different from Tara as possible. Tara was very reticent, and she was somebody that Willow caused to blossom. What I wanted was somebody who was further on down in dealing with her sexuality than Willow ever was. Somebody who was totally confident, who was totally not earthy-crunchy, who was a completely different person."

Appearances

 * "Bring on the Night"
 * "Showtime"
 * "Potential"
 * "The Killer in Me"
 * "First Date"
 * "Get It Done"
 * "Storyteller"
 * "Lies My Parents Told Me"
 * "Dirty Girls"
 * "Empty Places"
 * "Touched"
 * "End of Days"
 * "Chosen"
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow
 * Anywhere but Here
 * Time of Your Life
 * Swell
 * Retreat
 * Twilight
 * Last Gleaming
 * Guarded