#even if it had nothing to do w any sort of romantic cheating on jules it was very toxic for rue to do to her even if her being sick at the

[m0tel6mxzzy]

me when i’m a blonde female character sam levinson ruined the development of (🖤🖤)

[m0tel6mxzzy]

a nuanced essay on maddy/cassie + nate ig

i wish the girls in euphoria didn’t have their trauma compared. maddy’s trauma from nate’s abuse, as well as the hurt she feels from cassie secretly dating nate while complacently letting maddy confide about wanting to get back together with him is valid. the emotional abuse nate put cassie through in a similar but equally as calculated manner as he did toward maddy to coerce her into staying with him, the trauma of her abortion and shame she feels abt mckay being a reminder of it is also valid.

i feel the nuances of rue/jules were resolved but not so much cassie and maddy. i’m sorry but nate is such a lackluster character made solely to traumatize any girl in the show at a moment’s notice, including rue herself while much less frequent. still rue (even at her worst) felt this sort of camaraderie with maddy (although at the time this was a diversion tactic toward she intervention) to say “hey nate’s kind of fucked up and i know you care about him.” never judging maddy or jules for their feelings toward nate, not even cassie (debatable) but rather how nate is often used as a catalyst to hurt others.

(it is also interesting bc rue seemingly constructs cassie and jules to be these similar romantics at heart she sympathizes with, that is until jules narcs on her (which was the right fucking thing to do idk why she gets hate for that) and bc rue can no longer see jules as this living allegory of her addiction that can be substituted with drugs [comparing jules to fentanyl] and until she finds out cassie’s been w/ nate which contradicts her association w maddy and nate being the well known school couple, and assumes her relationship with nate, being as they were in a secluded location, was a means to secretly hurt maddy. this also reminds her of the fact she felt cheated on by jules w/ anna despite at the time neither rue/jules confirming a relationship, and again by jules w/ elliot even tho while yes she did cheat (jules is a lesbian who no longer cares abt male validation so the jules/elliot kiss was unnecessary) rue had no physical proof of that.)

and rue being an unreliable narrator, she is going to make it appear as if cassie had full agency in her relationship with nate despite not knowing the full story herself considering her 2x05 situation, but i doubt maddy, seeing as she had a much clearer head and was processing moving on from nate—would not develop this sort of nuance herself despite the confusion or (as much emotional labor as that requires) consider that possibly nate was already coercing and manipulating her, not just when cassie revealed he broke up with her. a part of her has to be incredibly scared knowing the torment she was put through and that her best friend, who has otherwise been incredibly loyal to her, is now being subject to the same. had cassie explained nate’s manipulation, much of this could have been mended slowly but surely even if they were never friends the same way again. maddy would receive closure, and cassie would be encouraged to get out of her relationship with nate and spot the signs that she is being abused.

it really is a shame maddy is left thinking cassie 100% deliberately went out w nate to hurt maddy based on cassies actions after the relationship was revealed, and maddy knowing nothing about the forced secrecy and manipulation he put on cassie initially. so much so cassie was unable to communicate this to maddy, and maddy was then able to take this as it being an attempt to hurt her especially considering her flaunting nate in her face despite knowing of his abuse of her in the past.

and 80% of this issue comes from how messily cassie was characterized for the sake of some climatic scenes that further are used to both say “look how deep male validation sabotages you” and “let’s not actually critique it but instead have maddy/cassie fight and none of the abuse nate subjected cassie to be addressed. let’s have cassie enter her glamorous carrie white era despite none of that being productive to her character growth or discerning whether and what feelings she’s actually processing.”

everything could’ve gone so much better had it not been turned into cassie constantly making excuses for hiding the relationship from maddy but also wanting her forgiveness despite not making an effort to even listen to her. and i do believe cassie, the social butterfly and conversationalist she is, is not so scared of maddy that she’s afraid of being confronted with honesty when she’s hurt someone with her actions. maddy is incredibly emotionally articulate, and to have her first get physical with cassie for again, the sake of drama, and cassie have zero self awareness and be put in her “villain era” shows an incredibly lack of nuance for their how these characters’ environments and situations as a whole developed them.

it’s completely out of character for them both, and it is such a shame the maddy/cassie/nate dilemma became that, and not maddy roghtfully being upset with cassie for lying but also cassie being able to reconcile with her and be given the opportunity maddy’s wanted her to explain her side, and how manipulative nate was. they’ve both been in an abusive relationship and it was reduced to a girl on girl cat fight.