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SkinTheKat - Soap Buff Uber Alles
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Date Posted: 06:23:06 09/14/03 Sun
In reply to:
m&m
's message, "Truthfully, I'm not...maybe that makes me unfit to weigh in on specifics" on 16:32:14 09/13/03 Sat
Quite a few people on the internet (mainly TnTers, some other Todders) fell in love with the LABINIAN incarnation of Todd and ALL that went with it. They seem to act like THAT was the ONLY incarnation that ever existed. I concede that Roger The Dodger ABOVE ALL loved it, too, mainly because HE thought that Todd as an abusive, nose-picking, ass-picking SLOB would turn off ANY woman and thus he'd be spared the LOVE SCENES he so dreaded. Imagine his shock when TnTers came out of the woodwork demanding that TEA be able to make love to this pig!
I RELUCTANTLY fell in love with Griffith-Malone's version. And I did so, because they showed consistent, progressive, life-altering CHANGE with the consequences of prison and losing any love, respect, friends, and opportuunities in his life. They showed Todd in some kind of therapy story while doing a menial job. They showed Todd with an idealistic, innocent young girl named Rebecca who maked him yearn to be a better person. They had Todd fall in love with Blair and still be able to love her in spite of her faults and they gave Todd a desire to be a better man so he could give his children a legacy they could be PROUD of. So, WTF is wrong with THAT?!
The MAJOR problem that I had with the Labines is that when they decided to change Todd's direction toward TEA, they chose to tear up Griffith and Malone's template, regress Todd back into some stupid psycho and START ALL OVER AGAIN. To ME the death of "REAL TODD" began when Todd was suddenly transformed into a bomb-toting moron in a PATRICK wig, all to throw him into Tea's orbit, so SHE could human him up. Stupid, sloppy, all-around DESTRUCTIVE writing. What I resent and facts IS facts is that this AWFUL, lazy sloppy take on Todd (and everyone else to prop it) STILL haunts the character to the point that when Todd does something MALONEON, the vast majority of the net say THAT's not something Todd would do! The Labininan Nightmare has such a strong hold on Todd that even MY kneejerk reaction is the same and I saw Original Vintage Todd live and still have him on tape. And quite frankly, I RESENT it. But facts IS facts, which is why the ongoing and continuing destructoin of Todd since he slapped on that Patrick Wig has been such that I would have rather seen the character killed off when RH finally gave us all a break and left for good. He simply WASN'T VIABLE anymore.
A lot of people assume that the TODD WARS were all about his women...SHRUG. THAT was only the outer layer. For obviously, Todd's WOMEN were the barometer of the writing of TODD. I have been a soap opera viewer long enough to know that a hot property like Roger would end up with different leading ladies. Though I did not like it, I did NOT have the problem with Todd ending up with Tea that most people THOUGHT I did. I just resented the utter and total podification and often OUTRIGHT DESTRUCTION of Todd and OTHER characters to make this possible. Starting and ending with BLAIR, a character I LIKED. Had that incompetent hack, LAIMAN had Todd come back to find Blair pregnant by Cord (John Loprieno and KDP begged to work together again) it still would have been the end of T&B and the held the door open to TnT, but it would have made SENSE. But to keep that Quadrangle from Hell going (that BOTH the Patrick & Marty fans AND the T&B fans detested), they had to have Blair knocked up by Patrick and turned into the biggest Patrick groupie of all. Yeah, I KNOW that was pre-Tea, but how long was FL waiting in the wings anyway?
Starr's aplastic anemia SHOULD have signified SOMETHING to both Todd and Blair. That their child was more important than THEMSELVES and if they WANTED to end T&B, the Labines didn't have to write a FUGLY story using STARR, the symbol of their love to tear them apart all to put a baby-stealing TROLL up on a pedestal.
Again, I DON'T have the problem with Tea that many people THINK I do. I ususally LIKE villains. And I really thought Blair was at a point in her life where she needed a life-long nemesis and rival. Viki and Dorian, the Next Generation if you WILL.
Logically, watching the progesson of Todd's women: Rebecca was there to eroticize Todd, Blair was there to sensitize him and Tea (with her ambitions and schmoozing skills) was there to socialize him.
While I did not have a problem with the way Tea managed to pull the wool over MOST people's eyes. I resented the fact that ONE of them was Dorian. That the OTHER was Andrew. I felt that Tea served Viki and Sam's separate agendas where Todd was concerned VERY well. And unlike many TnTers, I did NOT feel that either of them had Todd's best interests at heart. I DID have a major problem with the TOTALLY DISHONEST way that Tea was presented to the AUDIENCE as some self-sacrificing HEROINE rather than the self-serving, opportunistic BOTTOM FEEDER she actually WAS.
Of course, sooner or later, Todd would have had to wise UP to it and kick her sorry ass to the curb. Which would THEN move him on to his NEXT leading lady and then, God Forbid, Roger would have to do a love scene, so the twistedness of TnTripe lurched on and on and on and on.
>...
>
>I haven't watched for over a year now, and I think the
>only thing that will bring me back is my Max's
>send-off, because I want to see JdP's goodbye to the
>character.
>
>Maybe 'in theory' this really -should- only be a point
>of debate for those who are involved and invested and
>actively still viewers; I'm not sure. In that sense,
>I'm not really targeting the actor and the specifics
>of his take-over of the role...
>
>I just answered originally the other night from a
>heart-jerk reaction to the principle of the thing. In
>the end, it's really hard to explain my feelings
>beyond that how I feel is my raw emotion reaction to
>it all.
>
>I can feel a constant and standard *WTF* look on my
>face when I see anyone refer in the present to T&B, or
>just plain T, in reference to something that's not
>Todd Manning. That is not meant as an attack on those
>who are---it's working for you and you have every
>right to talk about it in those terms----I just can't
>wrap my mind around it.
>
>I hear a strange take on that old philosophical
>question almost every time as I think about it/read
>the takes on it---If a Todd Manning speaks in a
>forest, but it's not Roger Howarth, is there a Todd
>around to hear? I guess that's how strongly my
>Principle Against the Recast particularly of this
>actor stands.
>
>I feel like someone is asking me to say that apples
>and oranges are the same fruit.
>
>I honestly don't think that I would see it differently
>if I was watching. It's like...this new incarnation
>has made Todd "too easy." I'm hearing the point of
>debate that says 'he's all these things that Roger
>Howarth wouldn't let him be'...I've read people say
>"look how easily he know does this..." and my heart
>and head just scream "so then how can that be Todd?"
>If for all the years he held the reigns to Todd, Roger
>Howarth didn't do 'point of debate A' easily, or agree
>to 'point of debate B' then...how is he being Todd
>that doesn't wipe a good portion of the slate and make
>a new Todd where the old Todd no longer exists,
>but...he still reads Todd?
>
>I'm nervous about saying this because I don't want it
>to come out wrong, but to me, this is the same deal I
>had with Todd Manning of the Lord days (I know, mutual
>groan, we've all seen this one before.) This feels
>like it makes Todd much less 'complicated' much
>more...'easy.' It makes his relationships 'easy.'
>And that's good, if that's your character and his
>relationship at its best in your view...
>
>But I found the Todd that I took to the most 'within
>the complicated' in all the things that 'weren't easy'
>and in those 'hardest struggles' and even the 'hard
>questions.' the strengths of my Todd are wiped away
>by what others see as the strengths of 'this version
>of Todd.' That feels like its in opposition to the
>place that the character is being taken in this new
>incarnation, by a new actor...and that's not going to
>read as Todd to me.
>
>Then, it's taking Roger Howarth's acting out of Todd
>to boot just in the nature of 'actor switch' and
>granted, I had huge issues with *something* about Goof
>Todd, and what that was I have yet to put my finger on
>with solid conviction. His acting choices were very
>tied in to the character when he was at his best for
>me, though...so there lies that consideration in it
>all as well.
>
>I don't know---when all is said and done, I feel as
>frustrated as a dog chasing its tail with this one
>because I feel like I can't put my viewpoint to the
>proper words.
>
>Does any of the above make any sense, even if you
>totally disagree with me?
>
>Nope, I'm soapless...my frustration has become fairly
>genre-wide, and I'm not if that will ever be made
>right enough for me to go back. My disillusionment
>with this is also, partly, tied into that general
>whole.
>
>I'm still sorry to have dropped what was a life-long
>passion...I loved the genre from birth on through, but
>that's not enough to make me believe in it enough to
>try again right now.
>
>In addition, soap watching feels like it will never be
>the same without sharing it with one very special
>Voice on the Couch. Talking aloud to myself grew old
>and sad quickly.
>
>~m&m
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