The Rift resolution if not for the Bitter Suite
Posted by darfnstyle@reddit | xena | View on Reddit | 6 comments
I sometimes see people complaining about the easy way that was the Bitter Suite, to work the loneliness, disconnection, anger, resentment, hate, and straight abuse (that Gab drag :( between Xena and Gabrielle during the Rift.
What do you think would have been a good way to settle this without diving into a mystical world?
ChippieChamp@reddit
The rift resolved was definitely rushed and done rather too quickly, while using musical and singing to do felt to heartfelt.
Dat_V@reddit
While the musical was great, it shouldn't have ended just like that. The rift was horrible written from the beginning, so it wouldn't have mattered if the conclusion was different. You wanna improve it, you'd have to rewrite the whole thing, imo.
But one thing I hate particularly. Is that it ENDED with the musical. One episode, they wanna kill each other. Next episode, they're acting like this whole thing never happened. That's basically how the season treats the rift - by giving it two continuities both at once. The rift only exists in the episodes in which it's dealt with. In episodes that deal with other things, the rift never happened, X&G simply love each other without a tarnish on their happiness. That retroactively ruins the OAAA to me. You can't have a gabdrag one episode, then have Xena sing praises to Gab and Gab playing games with Xena happily, another. What could have been the best episode of Xena is tarnished by the rift. I wish OAAA aired before The Deliverer, this way it would highlight what they lost.
The very next episode shouldn't have been about them being happy. The next episode should have been about them learning to live in this new reality in which they've hurt each other horribly.
The rift shouldn't have ended in The Bitter Suite, it should have had an extra episode of them dealing with the consequences. A continuous action is more than just the decision to take it, it's also the decision to continue it. In TBS they only decide to forgive RIGHT NOW. But how do they decide to keep forgiving continuously afterwards? That should be a path of it's own.
They end happy in TBS. But then the euphoria stops, they look at each other and think "Sure I forgive her, but why do I still want this woman afterwards?" Their thoughts on this should be dealt with! Just because you forgive someone, that doesn't mean you ever want to see them again after what they did. Forgival is just the first step, there's a whole way ahead after it!
AccomplishedDumbass@reddit
This is a tough one to answer, but honestly, to me the problem is on how Hope was handled by the writing. Anything after that wouldn't have worked well because the root of the problem started before the episode.
darfnstyle@reddit (OP)
Could you elaborate? I'm curious to understand what in Hope story you would change?
AccomplishedDumbass@reddit
Hope was treated as a boring straight to the point trope. And this creative choice is so damaging and so lazy. She was just an evil child born evil who do evil things. Seriously? Wow 🙄.
A child whose destiny was traced by her "blood", who never had a chance to be anything else. Oh, were you born with an unwanted trait? Too bad, you are now resumed to be the unwanted trait forever and nothing else. And we are killing you for this. Even if you had never a chance to be anything else.
The opportunity to write something great with the premise of a half-demon half-human who learns to balance both sides of her nature and gets a chance to be more than she was biologically made for. A chance to make her own choice and become her own person. Literally challenging destiny. It's way more interesting and right. That girl was half GABRIELLE for Tartarus' sake.
This trope also has the sped up pregnancy which I HATE with burning passion. Usually these plots do not care about the mother who just went through a traumatizing change and the multiple effects of it. They just wanna get rid of the parts they don't wanna write about and make it "oops this human managed to SURVIVE a whole pregnancy in a couple of days/hours, magic!". 🤦 Please, go touch some grass.
And let's not forget HOPE HERSELF growing up fast like hell??? The amount of psychological effects only would make a psychiatrist shiver. And yet, once again, none of it matters, her brain and body health are simply this strong.
They just wanted a one dimensional boring evil girl to do evil things because yes.
And this is barely 10% of what I have to say about how I despise this whole plot. But that's basically it.
Dat_V@reddit
Thank you so much for writing this. Your words are a gospel! And you only touch up on Hope alone. One could write BOOKS on what's wrong with the rift. Such a shame they didn't do better.