History YMMV / DawsonsCreek

* DesignatedHero: Dawson. Despite being the title character, he frequently acts like a spoilt, [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]] JerkAss, especially in Season 3. He's furious when Joey - who he previously rejected - falls in love with Pacey, and forces her to choose between her new relationship and their friendship. He then alienates Pacey and tries to win Joey back in an increasingly manipulative and underhand way. (Including almost killing Pacey in a sailing race, lying to Joey about reknewing their friendship and tricking her into going to the prom with him). All of this is treated as a normal competition to 'win the girl'. Even worse when you remember the situation Joey and Pacey are in. Dawson ''knows'' that his parents are a surrogate family to the virtually orphaned Joey. In forcing an ultimatum, he's cutting off the only stable family she's ever known. ''And'' he's aware that Pacey suffers emotional abuse from his father and has crippling self-esteem issues. He's desperately searching for love and support, but Dawson does his best to tear him and Joey apart because he can't get over himself.
** To be fair though, the storyline never tries to pretend Dawson is in the right during his more extreme acts: His actions during the sail boat race receive widespread disapproval, especially from Joey, and it's only once he (grudgingly) backs down and accepts it's Pacey Joey wants that his friends rally round him.

** Brittany Daniel of ''Series/TheGame'' portrayed Eve Whitman in season 3.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Jensen Ackles before Smallville & Supernatural; Brittany Daniel before TheGame; Ali Larter before Heroes, the Final Destination & Resident Evil series; Jason Behr before Roswell; Chad Michael Murray before One Tree Hill.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvpZs5skJPM This scene]] in which Charlie Todd is shot down by MTV's Hilarie Burton. Or, if you prefer, [[Series/OneTreeHill Lucas Scott is shot down by Peyton Sawyer]]. Even funnier when you consider that Lucas & Peyton end the show married with a daughter, and Hilarie's dialogue in the scene.

* EarWorm: I DON'T WANT TO WAIT. FOR OUR LIIIIIIVES TO BE OOOOVVVEEEEEERRRRRRR

* {{Narm}}: Anytime Joey sang! Also, the above expression Dawson made at the end of Season 3 dubbed "The I Ate Poo Face".

** Despicable thought she was, Abby's death is quite sad - both the immediate scene where it's revealed that she didn't survive her fall from the pier (the previous scene is the rest of the cast having fun at a wedding; it then cuts to Jen wrapped in a police blanket, watching in tears as they zip up the body bag) and her funeral scene, where her mother realises that absolutely no one has anything nice to say about Abby.

* DesignatedHero: Dawson. Despite being the title character, he frequently acts like a spoilt, self-centred JerkAss, especially in Season 3. He's furious when Joey - who he previously rejected - falls in love with Pacey, and forces her to choose between her new relationship and their friendship. He then alienates Pacey and tries to win Joey back in an increasingly manipulative and underhand way. (Including almost killing Pacey in a sailing race, lying to Joey about reknewing their friendship and tricking her into going to the prom with him). All of this is treated as a normal competition to 'win the girl'. Even worse when you remember the situation Joey and Pacey are in. Dawson ''knows'' that his parents are a surrogate family to the virtually orphaned Joey. In forcing an ultimatum, he's cutting off the only stable family she's ever known. ''And'' he's aware that Pacey suffers emotional abuse from his father and has crippling self-esteem issues. He's desperately searching for love and support, but Dawson does his best to tear him and Joey apart because he can't get over himself.

* ShipMates: Dawson/Jen were a decent ship mate to Pacey/Joey but the finale [[ShipSinking killed that]] [[spoiler: ([[DroppedABridgeOnHim and her]])]]. Gretchen is the next best choice for Dawson, especially since that's who he was dating when Pacey and Joey were together in Season 4, but after the finale the main BetaCouple to Pacey/Joey seems to be Jack/Doug...

* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: Mitch, who takes his eyes off the road for a good 5 seconds, while driving at night, approaching what is later revealed to be a relatively sharp bend. Why does he do this? To pick up his dropped ice-cream. His death is blamed on the fact that the driver of the other car was asleep at the wheel, but honestly, he kinda had it coming.]]

* CreatorsPet: Dawson himself, arguably. For the first three seasons, he was touted by the other characters as being a golden boy who others should strive to be like. For a great number of viewers, he came off as an entitled, coddled man-child a lot of the time. His flaws were very rarely acknowledged in-show and even ''encouraged'' (such as his actions during the boat race in Season 3 that could've killed Pacey--his father justified it as him fighting for love). His characterization was so awful that the writers seemed to set out to redeem him in the next season, practically making him a saint. He was almost a non-entity in the final two seasons, which switched focus from him to...
** Joey, who went from being the EnsembleDarkhorse to a CreatorsPet in some fans' eyes as the show progressed. She lost a lot of the traits that made her popular with fans in the first place, becoming a more standard leading lady as her prominence increased. In spite of that, similar to Dawson's problem, her flaws went unacknowledged and characters continued to go and go about how amazing she was and that she had "It!" (mentioned on the main page).
* DesignatedHero: Dawson again. Despite being the title character, he frequently acts like a spoilt, self-centred JerkAss, especially in Season 3. He's furious when Joey - who he previously rejected - falls in love with Pacey, and forces her to choose between her new relationship and their friendship. He then alienates Pacey and tries to win Joey back in an increasingly manipulative and underhand way. (Including almost killing Pacey in a sailing race, lying to Joey about reknewing their friendship and tricking her into going to the prom with him). All of this is treated as a normal competition to 'win the girl'.
** Even worse when you remember the situation Joey and Pacey are in. Dawson ''knows'' that his parents are a surrogate family to the virtually orphaned Joey. In forcing an ultimatum, he's cutting off the only stable family she's ever known. ''And'' he's aware that Pacey suffers emotional abuse from his father and has crippling self-esteem issues. He's desperately searching for love and support, but Dawson does his best to tear him and Joey apart because he can't get over himself.

** Joey, who went from being the EnsembleDarkhorse to a CreatorsPet in some fans' eyes as the show progressed. She lost a lot of the traits that made her popular with fans in the first place, becoming a more [[DesignatedProtagonistSyndrome standard leading lady as her prominence increased]]. In spite of that, similar to Dawson's problem, her flaws went unacknowledged and characters continued to go and go about how amazing she was and that she had "It!" (mentioned on the main page).

* DesignatedProtagonistSyndrome: Dawson, again.

* MemeticMutation: Dawson weeping over 90s FirstWorldProblems
* {{Narm}}: Anytime Joey sang! Also, the expression Dawson made at the end of Season 3 dubbed "The I Ate Poo Face".

** Made worse because his dad is lying ''right there'' but unconscious.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: As mentioned in the introduction. the main characters were very articulate for... anyone.

* TheScrappy: Main characters aside, a big example was Eve Whitman, a stripper who weeded herself into Dawson's life in Season 3. She was so widely despised that despite major potential storylines she brought to the show [[spoiler: (being Jen's half-sister and taking Dawson's virginity)]], her character was written out abruptly in the second half of the season and all the above mentioned plot points were [[RetCon retconned]].

* DesignatedHero: Dawson again. Despite being the 'title character', he frequently acts like a spoilt, self-centred JerkAss, especially in Season 3. After he himself rejected Joey, he is furious when she falls in love with Pacey. He forces her to choose between their friendship and Pacey, alienates Pacey and tries to win Joey back in an increasingly manipulative, underhand way. (Including almost killing Pacey in a sailing race, lying to Joey about reknewing their friendship and tricking Joey to going to the prom with him). All of this is treated as a normal competition to 'win the girl'.
** Even worse when you remember the situation Joey and Pacey are in. Dawson ''knows'' that his parents are a surrogate family to Joey. (Her mum died and her dad is in prison because of Dawson himself). In forcing his ultimatum, he's cutting off the only stable family she's ever known. And he's also aware that Pacey suffers emotional abuse from his father and has crippling self-esteem issues. He's desperately searching for love and support, but Dawson does his best to tear him and Joey apart because he can't get over himself.

* DesignatedHero: Dawson again. Despite being the 'title character', he frequently acts like a spoilt, self-centred Jerkass, especially in Season 3. When he discovers Joey and Pacey have fallen in love. ''After'' he himself rejected Joey mind you. He forces her to choose between their friendship and Pacey, essentially blackmailing her into ending the relationship, alienates Pacey and tries to win Joey back in an increasingly manipulative, underhand ways. (Including almost killing Pacey in a sailing race, lying to Joey about reknewing their friendship and tricking Joey to going to the prom with him). All of this is treated as a normal competition to 'win the girl'.
** Even worse when you remember the situation Joey and Pacey are in. Dawson ''knows'' that his parents are a surrogate family to Joey. (Her mum died and her dad is in prison because of Dawson himself). In forcing his ultimatum, he's cutting off the only stable family she's ever known.
** And he's also aware that Pacey suffers emotional abuse from his father and has crippling self-esteem issues. He's desperately searching for love and support, but Dawson does his best to tear him and Joey apart because he can't get over himself.

* DesignatedHero: Dawson again. Despite being the 'title character', he frequently acts like a spoilt, self-centred Jerkass, especially in Season 3. When he discovers Joey and Pacey have fallen in love, (''after'' he himself rejected Joey mind you,) he forces her to choose between their friendship and Pacey (essentially blackmailing her into ending the relationship), alienates Pacey and tries to win Joey back in an increasingly manipulative, underhand ways. (Including almost killing Pacey in a sailing race, lying to Joey about reknewing their friendship and tricking Joey to going to the prom with him). All of this is treated as a normal competition to 'win the girl'.

** And he's also aware that Pacey suffers emotional abuse from his father and as a result, has crippling self-esteem issues. He's desperately searching for love and support, but Dawson delibrately cuts this off.

* TheWesley: Dawson himself, arguably. For the first three seasons, he was touted by the other characters as being a golden boy who others should strive to be like. For a great number of viewers, he came off as an entitled, coddled man-child a lot of the time. His flaws were very rarely acknowledged in-show and even ''encouraged'' (such as his actions during the boat race in Season 3 that could've killed Pacey--his father justified it as him fighting for love). His characterization was so awful that the writers seemed to set out to redeem him in the next season, practically making him a saint. He was almost a non-entity in the final two seasons, which switched focus from him to...
** Joey, who went from being the EnsembleDarkhorse to TheWesley in some fans' eyes as the show progressed. She lost a lot of the traits that made her popular with fans in the first place, becoming a more [[DesignatedProtagonistSyndrome standard leading lady as her prominence increased]]. In spite of that, similar to Dawson's problem, her flaws went unacknowledged and characters continued to go and go about how amazing she was and that she had "It!" (mentioned on the main page).