#trina was raised as a taggert/robinson

[bklynmusicnerd]

I want Taggert to stay Trina’s father because Trina is the only one not tied to a legacy family unlike Spencer, Joss, and Cameron. At least with Taggert, even though he’s not a part of a legacy family, he’s been on the show for years and is a well known character so she’s tied to history through him. With Curtis as her bio father, she loses that small historical connection since he’s a nobody.

I've heard this sentiment before, and I understand where it's coming from. But I do have some thoughts on the whole "legacy" thing that I want to express. To me, Taggert should be Trina's only father because he is very key to Trina's established history on this show. He has been established as one of her most important relationships and definitely the most important male figure in her life.

They have had years to convince us of what Curtis brings to Trina's life, and they don't have anything to show for it. We hear all the time about how great it would be for Curtis to have Trina as a daughter and how much it would mean for him. But they never took the time to show us what Curtis brings to Trina's life besides unnecessary paternalism and condescension.

Every time they've had Trina say she "loves" Curtis, I've really struggled to believe it because they haven't shown it. Meanwhile, I've never doubted Taggert and Trina's love for each other, and that's across recasts.

As far as legacy goes, yes, it makes more storytelling sense to mine the history that Taggert and his sister Gia have with the Cassadines, than it does to try to have the Ashfords comment on the Cassadines. I do wanna say though that Trina's value as a character is in no way tied to who her dad is, legacy or no legacy. Legacy is both a gift and a curse for the soap genre. It's a secret weapon to have all this rich history to mine.

But acting like legacy is the only thing that matters can be stifling and make the world of the show too small and homogenous. Trina is being put in the same conversation as thee Laura Webber Collins and she didn't need any strong legacy ties to do it. Legacy can help a character have impact but it's not the only way for them to.

And too often writers lean on legacy status and think that will make up for good characterization. Trina will be fine no matter who they make her bio dad, I just don't want it to be Curtis, because I don't want history that's key to Trina's characterization disregarded to make the latest Curtis agenda work.

[bklynmusicnerd]

It’s the way Taggert literally had a moment like this with Liz when Lucky “died” and the writers refused to do a full circle moment with his own daughter when her boyfriend “dies”. But instead we have Curtis who was absolutely useless and not needed in these scenes whatsoever. His reaction being “well he’s dead soooo” was just so not needed and threw off the emotion. Just like with Dante being in full cop mode when sir that’s literally your fucking cousin?! And I’m about to be annoyed with this quick ass funeral Wednesday when all of Spencer’s drive by family members now ironically remember he exists when he’s “dead”.

FV is clearly all in on Curtis as the one and only black patriarch/male lead in a way I've never been comfortable with. I just don't think Curtis is as strong of a character as they want him to be and instead of accepting that and moving on, it feels like all of the Ashfords/Robinsons are held back from their full potential to give him the air of importance. I will say, to C&D's credit they were clearly building toward a real arc for Taggert pre-strike that was promptly aborted during the strike, and then just never picked back up again.

The disappearing of Taggert is pretty childish at this point. It's not having the desired effect of selling Curtis as Trina's father, it's just coming across silly. Taggert was Trina's father for the first twenty years of her life, it's silly to try to switch Curtis in and force Trina to disregard her entire adolescence. I can't tell you how much I resent hearing about Curtis' childhood knowing that we can barely get Trina's childhood anecdotes because it'll remind the audience that Curtis didn't raise her.

This current limbo with Taggert is strange and I hope it's one of the first things PM deals with. Its an unfinished arc (the drunken spiral) of a popular throwback character who is the parental figure of a currently prominent character. It's absurd to expect the audience to be content with them just never addressing it or Taggert again.