ElisabethNelehHeidiRok wrote:
Why did they kill Anya in the end but they let people like Dawn, Faith, the Principal, Kennedy and other useless characters that didnt really have much character build until the end, over Anya? Crap.
I've read that Emma Caulfield wanted off for no chance of spinoffs, and then I've read that Joss told her he'd never kill off her character.

As for why Anya, it pretty much had to be her. Joss said he wasn't going to get rid of any of the original 4 because there's no way to have a happy ending. Faith was in line for a spinoff. Joss felt there needed to still be a significant death. My guess is that it was between Dawn and Anya. In terms of connections to other characters, Dawn dying would've made any semblence of Buffy being happy they survived completely wrong, so it had to be Anya.

They also killed off Amanda, the potential slayer who had the most background (we knew she was a student/somewhat friend of Dawn; it wasn't like she was a nobody that just showed up).