User blog comment:Corbierr/A rant about three Anubis girls...who may or may not deserve all the hate/@comment-25576856-20150205013752

Let's do this character by character.

Nina: You say that she was better in season 1 than in season 2 because she was less reliant on her friends. But virtually everything she did in season 1 (as well as season 2) was when she was relying on her friends. She rescued Patricia alongside Amber and Fabian. Probably the only exception is when she did the initiation ceremony, but that was only because she wanted to prove herself, not because it was a crucial Sibuna task or anything. In season 1, she relied on Sarah and Fabian; in season 2, she relied on Sarah (through the dollhouse) and Fabian. She does seem slightly less heroic in season 2 only because of how whiny and angry she was, not because she was relying on her friends more than in season 1.

If Nina had taken charge of things, I would like her slightly more. I like one of the examples you used: if she had made the first move on Fabian, it would have made her seem more ballsy and "heroic", in a way. Now that I think of it, she wasn't even the one who made the move of breaking up with Fabian! Ah, I have another anti-Fabina point now! Fabian did all the work in the Fabina relationship, not Nina! He treated her kindly, asked her if she wanted to get back together with him (even though she was conveniently asleep at the time), and was the one who broke up with her. Even when it was so obvious that Nina liked Fabian, especially when Joy kissed him, she didn't do anything about it. Sure, she kissed him at the s1 dance, but that was obviously going to happen. That wasn't gutsy or anything.

Ooh, I would have loved to see Fabian call Nina out for being a bitch. And I'm shocked that Patricia didn't; she seems like just the person who would. That's a problem with this show: the characters are limited to certain things, certain plotlines, and certain characters. For example, Mick can't talk to Nina because their storylines don't collide. And yes, I say CAN'T because the writers won't let Mara and Fabian talk (before the whole s3 finale/TOR Mabian thing, of course), or Alfie and Eddie (they barely interacted on their own). Just like S2Patricia can't do anything other than talking to Joy sometimes about boys, being another Sibuna member, or flirting with Eddie. She COULDN'T call Nina out because the writers wouldn't do something that different from her story. But Fabian really should have.

This is the best point of your blog: "She's the Chosen One, and that's enough to make her the heroine." EXACTLY. You said it PERFECTLY right there. It's not because she was braver, or a better leader, or more pure-hearted. (I'm sure Fabian was pure-hearted enough for the mask, or Amber.) It was merely because she was born on July 7 at the right time. This drives me NUTS.

She doesn't deserve all the hate? I don't agree. She is a weak, bland, Mary Sue protagonist who is the living, breathing embodiment of the role of the Chosen One, and her character should be called out for it. She can't be seen as an anti-hero because she didn't do anything that would deem her one. Her actions were all good and pure of heart with good intentions. The worst thing she did was snap at Fabian a couple times. A show that can have characters as well-written as, say, Jerome (besides s3) should have a protagonist that is just as well-written, if not more.

Joy: Oh, Joy. Joy, Joy, Joy. Why did you have to be so desperate for Fabian? Why did you have to create the dreaded Jabina love triangle? Of course, it wasn't your fault, dear Joy, it was the writers'. They should have put you in Sibuna. But alas, Sibuna has a maximum of five members, not including the Touchstone of Ra, in which you did absolutely nothing. And the Jabina triangle, dear Joy, is why people hated you. People love their precious, perfect, (stupid) little Fabina, and anyone who gets in the way of it is hated by the fandom. More like the Fabinadom. Ugh, I really don't like Fabina. But that's not the point. The point is that Joy did not deserve all the hate she had. Admittedly, I might be a little bit biased against Fabina and therefore towards Jabian. She stole Mara's spotlight, which was of course wrong, but she was not a bad person. I'm sure she was pure of heart enough to wear the mask. Her actions toward Fabian, Nina, and Mara were wrong, and she shouldn't have cried about it afterward, but the fandom was ridiculously cruel toward her. They weren't, if I am not mistaken, this awful to Mara after her whole revenge thing, or to Jerome after he cheated on both Mara AND Willow. The point is, the reason I hate the hate Joy gets (I hate the hate, ha ha) is because it comes from the love of Fabina. And I do not, to say the least, love Fabina. God, s2 Joy had so much potential. But they wasted it on Fabina. I'm not even going to talk about s3 Joy here because she was a lot better that season. One of the extremely rare things that is better in season 3.

Mara: Actually, I don't think that Mara is an underdeveloped character, or flat. She has stereotypical "smart one" traits, but she is a thoroughly round character with apparent good traits and bad traits. For instance, she was the only one who gave a damn about Joy other than Patricia and helped Patricia out on some occasions. (Just want to mention here that I think season 1 Patrara/Matricia--I'm going for Patrara because it sounds funnier--is a decently written friendship in comparison to some others.) And she was obviously insecure about herself; that's why the whole "bad Mara" thing happened. Season 1 showed a lot of sides of Mara, from the Bad Mara thing to the Mick and Ms. Robinson photos thing. Season 2, she did a brave thing by letting Mick go, but other than that it was her being friends with Poppy and supporting Jerome. (Other than the Mara vs. Vera storyline, which I love. Might talk about that sometime.) And then...dun dun dun...the figure of your nightmares...the witch haunting your neighborhood, thirsty for blood...SEASON 3 MARA! Boooooo! She was a real evil bitch, wasn't she? She was so bad, she made cheater Jerome look like a good guy. I do think she is deserving of the hate she got in season 3. I don't think she got much hatred in seasons 1 and 2, though. Sure, her actions are justified to some extent, but she went overboard. (I thought I was the used condom. Hmph.) Basically Mara was the living, breathing embodiment (I love this phrase!) of Jerome's revenge. In seasons 2 and 3, she was the living embodiment of Jerome's plotline. S2-Jerome's daddy plotline, S3-Jerome's cheating plotline. She couldn't do anything else because THE WRITERS DIDN'T LET HER. Again. She couldn't talk to anyone in Sibuna because they were off being Sibuna. All she had was Joy (Jerome plot), Willow (Jerome plot) and Jerome (obviously Jerome plot). Everyone else was busy following Mr. Gary Stu Sweet. So all she had was the Jerome plot.

Honestly, I don't think what you said was controversial. You weren't really supporting the hated characters, you were trying to put them in a better light. But you were also pointing out why they were hated, and agreeing with those points. I'm not saying that I didn't like the blog--on the contrary, I really enjoyed it. Well-written, like anything written by you is. I just don't think it was very controversial. That doesn't mean it's bad.

Damn, that was long. I always keep my promises!