It was actually quite rare for me to outright hate Buffy characters. I hated some storylines, hated certain pairings, but generally not characters. Dawn was...a lot in the first few episodes, but Michelle grew into the role and I thought Dawn grew into her own.
In recent years, I've mostly been concerned about how Michelle was treated on set. There was some kind of rule how Joss was not allowed to be alone with her (which never happens out of thin air, and Joss is a known creep). And that song James Marsters wrote about her, OMG. So creepy. I've never been able to rewatch Spike and Dawn scenes the same way.
