#god forbid a female lead even doubt whether or not she is making good choices | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

serenagaywaterford · 6 years

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Now back to the show, I am very much in agreement with you on Nick. He’s boring af, writers haven’t done him any favors, and Max so far has unable to rise above the material. He’s an important character, but I don’t care too much. Since I am predicting Fred’s death, I am thinking maybe Nick is spared? Killing off two big characters? Oh, the horror!!

As far as Serena kicking it, I think it’s unlikely, but if she gets a glorious death that she deserves, maybe fighting on the side of the good, I am okay with it. I kinda don’t want her fully redeemed. Conflicted bad guys are always far more interesting in my mind. Plus, I am a big Yvonne fan, so for selfish reasons, I’d like to see her expand her horizons and move on to other great projects. I don’t want the show to drag on, 5 seasons is enough for me. Anything longer, quality may suffer.

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Thank god. I mean, the amount of blind Nick/Max worship on this site is just exhausting af. And for some reason they all get posted in the tags/searches consistently and I am forced to see them on my dash EVERY FUCKING DAY (even when I’ve blacklisted the tags!!) but other blogs (like mine, for example lol) can only get like 1 of 10 posts to show up in the main THT tags. Anyway, that’s a personal tumblr gripe tbh.

I really wonder how much of my displeasure and boredom about Nick is because Max is subpar. There’s a certain level basically every other actor in this show is on, and then there’s him... way down below and it’s painfully obvious how out of his depth he is alongside them. I think, if it wasn’t for the talent of the main actors he works opposite (Elisabeth, Yvonne, and Joseph), it would be even more obvious. Also, I do not get the attractiveness thing. He’s not at all appealing to me personally and I can’t find him hot no matter how hard I squint. (Fuck, I think fucking Isaac was better looking! And we all know my terrible opinion about Fred, heh. There is an attractive man!) But then, how much of my inability to view him as hot is due to the fact his personality/character does fuck all for me?

Actor opinions aside, I understand the purpose of Nick. I truly do and I accept it. I can’t denigrate the role he plays in helping tell June’s story. But I still struggle to care anymore (I skip basically ALL Ni*k/June scenes tbh. YAWN.). I certainly got the point of him in S1. He was very important for multiple reasons. But I find him to be a character who seems to get away with being a shitheel and fans just drool no matter what. And god forbid anybody criticise him for anything he has ever done! They have a woobie excuse for every single thing and nothing is ever his fault and he’s “just following orders so he doesn’t die too”. (OH YEAH. Cos that isn’t a historically problematic defense at all...)

At least we admit Serena is a horrible person lol and don’t justify or write-off every single thing she does. Cos, well, Nick has freewill too and he makes many, many terrible choices for YEARS and is completely complicit in Gilead as well, but hey, he’s so hot therefore who cares as long as we get to see him with his shirt off. Him and June are so in loveeee uwu!!!!! UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

But again, that’s a fandom issue of mine, not even a character/show issue. I just feel on the show he’s sort of... past his prime in terms of usefulness. Like, sure, he’s gonna help June escape (AGAIN) and that’s all well and good but like... been there, done that. Even this concept that he’s important because he represents the “brightness and hope” in an otherwise bleak show because ~tru wuv~ just falls flat for me. I think there are plenty of opportunities for longterm slices of hope --- like, I dunno, #resistance, Mayday, the women breaking out of their bondage and getting revenge... like, the entire point of the show, lol. I want women’s happiness without the need for men to be involved in it as a necessity; I don’t want “Men are the reason for women’s true happiness” as a takeaway from THT. As an aside, sure. But not THE focus. Not to mention it leads to “dick is imperative for women to be truly happy” and I just don’t even wanna go there with how problematic that becomes when taken as a generality.

So, yeah. Nick. He’s fine. He’s not a morally good character. He’s grey. Just like almost everyone else in the main cast. But he lacks the complexity of actually morally obtuse characters. While Fred may be becoming more and more cartoonish and 1-dimensional, he still has more complexity than Nick. And, really, the more they flesh out the female characters--even the “evil” ones--the flatter and flatter both Nick and Fred look, especially in comparison.

Maybe this is intentional by the show? It is, after all, a show about women and living as a female in an ultra-male-dominated fascist society, not an in-depth character study of terrible men and their awful ideas/choices.

I am definitely thinking Nick is spared. Probably until the end of the series, tbh. He’s just too much of a fan favourite. Sigh. And this isn’t GoT when you can kill anybody no matter how popular lol. If any male in Gilead survives, it’ll be him. We know that after the Waterford’s house burns down, everybody is fine. (Rita, Nick, Serena, and Fred.) Whether Fred does ANYTHING to Nick afterwards is debatable cos they need him around to be all uwu with June, who clearly comes back into the Waterford’s circle somehow. I would wager not, even though that is absolutely ridic. The amount of plot armour Nick has is atrocious at this point. He actively insubordinate--leaning on downright criminal (in Gileadean terms), sinful, etc etc and Fred just goes, “Oopsie daisy! Oh well!” And it doesn’t even make sense. June, I get. He’s obsessed and possessive. Nick though? Fred really must be the dumbest fucking guy, unless he thinks Nick is an Eye and will squeal on all his (and Serena’s) terrible shit. I dunno. It’s so vague and blah. [And the fact he wouldn’t try to seriously/secretly disappear the dude who’s shtupping the Handmaid he wants so bad is lazy, inconsistent writing.]

(Question: Is Nick actually an Eye? Is that confirmed? From what I recall, he sort of implies he is but we never see him doing ANYTHING Eye-like, and Eyes have a shit tonne of power, do they not? He doesn’t seem to have any pull whatsoever with anybody. We see him working for Pryce, sorta. But again, that doesn’t scream “EYE!” to me. But that could just be because he’s such a weakling. And really other than his hints, the only other suggestion is Emily claiming there’s an Eye in the house--which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true.)

If Serena dies, it’d better be on the side of the good--or after she’s done good. I think it’s pretty impossible for her to fully atone or be redeemed, but hey redemption isn’t a line you cross, it’s a journey you take! I also think it’s 99.9999% certain she will not get a happy ending for the character. All that said, I doubt they’ll kill her off in S3 too. (Although it really does depend about her baby and her contract lol. Sometimes actors take time off to be there with their babies/toddlers. But also some don’t and considering her career is finally taking off, I feel it’d just be bad business to take a break.) I mean, I don’t want her to remain a bad guy, tbh. I’d rather her move from conflicted bad guy who does some good things here and there, to conflicted sorta-good guy who does some bad things here and there.

I think Serena’s the type of character that would be impossible to fully redeem. She’ll always be selfish, she’ll always be looking out for herself, she’ll always have some skewed, icky views on things, she’ll always have a lack of foresight, she’ll always need to be pushed to do difficult but good things (lazy? cowardly? I dunno), she’ll probably always waver when really pressured. She’ll probably always make some choices that are not good, or at least not nice. And things that makes us go “FUCK!” I’m just really tired of the flip-flopping and inconsistency of S2. (2x10... ahem.) Going back and forth on things is fine, but going up a cliff slowly, and slipping sometimes, but still incrementally moving forward---and then just jumping off the side of the damn cliff for no reason is just bad writing, imo. (And then somehow expecting the viewers to... just, accept that she’s back halfway up the hill where she was before she jumped in like a week... ugh). Just no more of that, please.

I’m with you on the 5 seasons max. I feel like 4 is possibly even pushing it. I guess my opinion may change (or not) depending on how well S3 is done.

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