Summary

• In an alternate timeline revealed in a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" audiobook, Cordelia's sister is turned into a vampire and Cordelia is forced to kill her.
• If Dawn had been a part of the series from the beginning, she would have likely faced the same fate as Cordelia's sister in the alternate timeline.
• The tragic event of Buffy having to kill her own sister would have drastically changed the trajectory of the show and had a significant impact on her character.

Though Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered in 1997, the supernatural franchise is still constantly expanding, and now, a recent audiobook has revealed an alternate timeline that reveals what would have happened if Buffy's sister Dawn had been a part of the television series from the very beginning. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a supernatural television series inspired by the 1992 movie of the same name. It follows Buffy Summers, a teenage girl who is the Slayer, an ultra-powerful individual fated to defeat forces of evil like vampires in her idyllic suburban town.

Recently, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer audiobook called "Slayers: A Buffyverse Story" was released, and in it, an alternate timeline was revealed in which Buffy villain the Master kidnaps Cordelia's sister, turns her, and Cordelia is forced to kill her own sister. Ultimately, this scars Cordelia for life and gives her an entirely different experience than she had in the main timeline.

Cordelia's Story Parallels Buffy - And Shows What Dawn's Fate Would Have Been

Considering the fact that Cordelia's alternate Slayer timeline is exactly the same as Buffy's, it would stand to reason that if Dawn had appeared in the early seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer she would have faced the same fate as Cordelia's sister. Although Dawn was absent from Buffy's life in the first seasons of the series because she was trapped within the Key, she was eventually freed and revealed to be Buffy's little sister. In this way, Dawn missed the tragic sister storyline that she might have faced as described in the "Slayers" audiobook.

Just as this alternate timeline changed Cordelia's Buffy the Vampire Slayer experience, it would have completely altered Dawn's storyline as well. In the main timeline of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawn does not appear until season 5 of the series, and much of her early story is wrapped around Buffy and her peers figuring out that Dawn was not always her sister, but was previously energy within the Key. After that, Dawn suffered many mental battles due to her identity and her relationship with Buffy before becoming a full-fledged member of their gang. None of this would have occurred in the alternate timeline.

Buffy's Story Would Have Changed Horrifically If Dawn Had Really Been Her Sister

The other character who would have been significantly changed by the "Slayers" alternate timeline is Buffy. In this hypothetical scenario, Dawn would have been Buffy's true sister, not the Key, and early on in Buffy's story, she would be turned by the Master. Therefore, Buffy would be forced to kill Dawn just as Cordelia killed her sister. Considering how early this happens in the timeline, this traumatic event would change the rest of the Buffy timeline because of how deeply it would likely affect Buffy. Though she goes through many things throughout Buffy the Vampire Slayer, killing her own sister might have been a step too far.