Horrible...just horrible

[LoveAtFirstBITE]

"He raised his pistol, but never fired- I'll never know why."


Neither will I!!

   I can honestly say that I have never, ever witnessed a character that made me want to shed blood more than Morgan Collins.

   What a clod.  What an insecure, arrogant, and insufferable man.  It turns my stomach to see him act like such a bully, especially to his fiance.  What is the point of marrying Catherine when you don't even believe her half the time about Bramwell?  Okay, so maybe she did "the deed" with Bramwell and carries a torch for him deep down, but she also wants you!!  And she's willing to live in a supposedly "cursed" house with you!!  Just consider yourself lucky at this point that you've got ONE woman.

    And the shouting, my God, the shouting.  "DAPHNE, I DON'T CARE IF HE LIVES OR DIES!"  "ONLY THE MEN WILL PARTICIPATE!"  "ANSWER ME, CATHERINE!" and the list goes on and on.  (And wasn't it horrible to watch him yell at Melanie, who doesn't even know where she is half the time?  You know she's got problems, so you shout at her in an attempt to accomplish something.  That's really effective).

   I'll tell you, if I was Bramwell (or any other character), I would have riddled him with bullets. 

   Oh, the horror.

   I do have to say however, that Bramwell's hair is beginning to grow on me.  (sorry)
 

[Patti Feinberg]

LaFB...double your age...then, you won't want to riddle him or smack him upside the head  ; a guy like that is just a 'boorish clod'.

But...a word to the wise (and verify this w/mom and all the other 'grown up women on this board')

you could end up marrying a guy like that!!

Patti

[Mysterious Benefactor]

To be fair to Morgan, Catherine does much more than carry a torch for Bramwell deep down - she loves him passionately, and that's something that she's trying with every fiber of her being to surpress (to the point of complete denial at some points) - and Morgan is aware of this (though he doesn't want to believe it, would certainly prefer it wasn't so, and wants to be in denial much of the time, too). Being caught in that sort of a situation could make almost any man (or woman) act as insecure, arrogant, and insufferably as he does...

[Luciaphile]

Oh, but all of the characters in 1841PT are complete clods or losers or just plain annoying. And the hair. The horror of that still scars me (no smiley, because I'm not joking). The hair.

Really, I'm not. I am that shallow.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Ah. I see.

OK. Well, far be it from me to try to bring some deeper understanding to the characters' motivations. (Honestly, what was I thinking?!  )

From now on I'll try to remember that we're judging them based solely on surface generalizations. 


(Although, everyone does realize that if we're only going to rely on surface perceptions from now on, that pretty much means that not just the 1841PT characters are complete clods or losers or just plain annoying.- basically all the DS characters are guilty of being that and more in one way or another.  )

[Raineypark]

Perhaps at this late date we're impatient with the behaviour of the characters for no other reason than that we are an impatient society.

This story is about passionate people in the midst of a crisis that's plagued them (no pun intended) for generations.

How can we really empathize with such a situation?  This is the age of sound-bites and 24-hour news cycles.  Instead of passionate affairs of the heart like Bramwell and Catherine, we have the latest "reality" show where the pretty girl dumps the average Joe because she's as shallow as a street puddle.

The dumb hair was all the rage in the early 70's....I know ...I was there.  The stories borrowed to create this storyline were many and varied and all of them old.   Sure it looks strange from this vantage point....but it's WE who change....and our ability to appreciate what we're looking at changes with us.

The show we all claim to love remains the same.

[jennifer]

i am with Luciaphil on this one Catherine is a vain spineless creature who loves herself only and Morgan the worst one on the show [spoiler]Wish they both fell off the roof![/spoiler]
 if the show had stayed like this i would have ceased to watch it i really do run from the room when Morgan is on!

jennifer

[Luciaphile]

Ah. I see.

OK. Well, far be it from me to try to bring some deeper understanding to the characters' motivations. (Honestly, what was I thinking?!  )

From now on I'll try to remember that we're judging them based solely on surface generalizations. 

Heh.

I'm sorry, but a case of Aqua Rock and a couple of dead animals on certain characters' heads will do that to me.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Perhaps at this late date we're impatient with the behaviour of the characters for no other reason than that we are an impatient society.

...

it's WE who change....and our ability to appreciate what we're looking at changes with us.

The show we all claim to love remains the same.

I'd be more than willing to accept that theory (because it's one that's extremely well thought out and could really explain things) if it wasn't for the fact that many fans seem to fall all over themselves to explain away the least little bit of cloddish or annoying behavior when it comes to characters like Barn or Ang or 1897/1969/1970Quentin. They'll write endlessly about their inner motivations to explain away anything and everything they do. However, many of the other characters (think other major characters like Carolyn, or Liz, or Roger - or minor ones like 1970PTQuentin, or Morgan, or Catherine, or Bramwell) don't fair as well, and, well, that isn't exactly fair, now is it? 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

a case of Aqua Rock and a couple of dead animals on certain characters' heads will do that to me.

[Raineypark]

..... many fans seem to fall all over themselves to explain away the least little bit of cloddish or annoying behavior when it comes to characters like Barn or Ang or 1897/1969/1970 Quentin......

.......However, many of the other characters (think other major characters like Carolyn, or Liz, or Roger - or minor ones like 1970PTQuentin, or Morgan, or Catherine, or Bramwell) don't fair as well, and, well, that isn't exactly fair, now is it? 

Well, no,  of course it's not FAIR.....but isn't it exactly what we do in real life?  We fall all over ourselves making excuses for the people we love and care about.....but there's NO excuse for people we don't like, is there?

I'll assume it's general knowledge that I despise the character of Barnabas.  Doesn't matter to me if he's vampire or not, in a "good" phase or not, doing the right thing for a change or not....I hate the character and WILL not give him the benefit of the doubt, ever.

Is that fair to the character?....no.  Is it even fair to the show?...no.  Do I give a rats rump if it's fair?...no.  That's how deeply I choose to despise the character.

But think about it.....that means the character must resonate deeply with me....no one would waste the energy it takes to hate  like that on a boring, useless, uninteresting entity.  He must be a fascinating creation to ellicit such a response.  So in this case, even my negative feelings about the character are a positive response to the performance.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I'll assume it's general knowledge that I despise the character of Barnabas.  Doesn't matter to me if he's vampire or not, in a "good" phase or not, doing the right thing for a change or not....I hate the character and WILL not give him the benefit of the doubt, ever.

Is that fair to the character?....no.  Is it even fair to the show?...no.  Do I give a rats rump if it's fair?...no.  That's how deeply I choose to despise the character.

PUBLIC DISCLAIMER

The views expressed in the above quote are in no way endorsed by the forum staff. Yes, we do support the right of this member to have any irrational view that she may choose - but we in no way encourage any other members to follow suit

But think about it.....that means the character must resonate deeply with me....no one would waste the energy it takes to hate  like that on a boring, useless, uninteresting entity.  He must be a fascinating creation to ellicit such a response.  So in this case, even my negative feelings about the character are a positive response to the performance.

Very true. 


I'm disappointed that a whole portion of this post has disappered since I'd originally read it this morning because I had an appointment that didn't give me time to respond to it then but had come up with what I'd hoped might be a wonderful response and one that had great meaning to me personally.

Oh, well.

But something tells me that another opportunity will probably present itself on the forum in some other shape or form sooner or later.

[Raineypark]

I'm disappointed that a whole portion of this post has disappered since I'd originally read it this morning because I had an appointment that didn't give me time to respond to it then but had come up with what I'd hoped might be a wonderful response and one that had great meaning to me personally.

Oh, well.

But something tells me that another opportunity will probably present itself on the forum in some other shape or form sooner or later.

If you are referring to MY portion of the post.....it's exactly the way I wrote it....I didn't edit any part of it after it was posted.....and I'm sure nothing is missing.

[Gothick]

Morgan=terrible manners, awful hair, dimples that could swallow lower Manhattan...

endowment of DEATH...

definitely would not kick him out of bed for eating crackers... though I might give him a tube of superglue cleverly disguised as lipbalm... sheesh, all that chatter could get on ANYONE's nerves.

Gothick the Crew-ell and eee-VIL

[Mysterious Benefactor]

If you are referring to MY portion of the post.....it's exactly the way I wrote it....I didn't edit any part of it after it was posted.....and I'm sure nothing is missing.

Oops, my bad. Apparently I'm as blind as a bat this afternoon. 

The part I didn't see again was this:

Well, no,  of course it's not FAIR.....but isn't it exactly what we do in real life?  We fall all over ourselves making excuses for the people we love and care about.....but there's NO excuse for people we don't like, is there?

To which I was and now am going to respond that that isn't necessarily always the case.

Chalk it up to the fact that I minored in Eng. Lit. in college. Chalk it up to the fact that I've been fascinated with pyschology from an early age (I've taken so many classes just for my own edification that I could probably pass the test to become a certified therapist (I've already completed the therapy requirement.  )) Or chalk it up to the fact that when I was young I had a situation in my life that required me to try to come up with a rational understanding of it or otherwise surrender my sanity (hence the fascination with psychology and the therapy)· But I tend to dig for the deeper motivations in both the fictional characters and in the real life people I encounter - particularly when it comes to characters/people I don't particularly like. Maybe that makes me different from the average DS viewer. I don't know.    But it's definitely the way I am - and it's also one of the reasons I enjpy DS so much. All the characters have so much stuff bubbling under the suface that causes them to act and react the way they do, and it's just so interesting to watch them dealing with it all. Often times I think the subtext of what goes on in the scenes is much more interesting that what we're seeing on the surface...