Y&R: Why do you hate Jill is Katherine's daughter so much?

[Sylph]

I've always had this feeling that eventually someone was going to write that story. And guess what? Someone did.

However, why does it get so much hate? Why do you detest it?

I don't even know what I think about it... Over time, I'm just indifferent and bloody bored. I don't care... And at the same time, it's pathetic that over so many years the relationship these two woman had never really evolved. They just fight... What a sad life that one is. What's more — fans crave for more Jill vs. Kay...

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It wasn't necessary and took away Jill's biological tie to the core of the show. For years she was the only blood Foster on this show, and then one day, it wasn't true anymore? What the hell ever.

Katherine and Jill's rivalry is at the core of this show too. You can't have them after 30 years be related, and just to prop up a Billy/Mac romance. It's one of the storyline decisions that definitely did Jack F. Smith in.

I don't see why they had to go there anyway.

[DRW50]

I wasn't unsatisfied with the twist, just because Jess and Jeanne were so good and there should be more to the Kay/Jill relationship than Kay being the long-suffering martyr Jill bullies. Jill is going to become an increasingly irrelevant character if she only goes back to being Kay's mortal enemy and the interfering mother for Billy and Cane. Jess Walton already had to spend years doing nothing more than being yelled at by Kay and by Jill's whiny son because she was mean to poor saintly Mackenzie. I don't want to see her stuck in that role again. Many of Y&R's heroines in her age range have become more and more small time, isolated, as characters (Nikki, Ashley, Lauren). I don't want the same to happen to Jill. I want to see her go back to the fabulously flawed and dynamic woman she is at her best.

If this story does that, then I say go for it. If not, and Jill becomes a bit player while someone like Gloria takes up the part she used to have in Kay's life, then I'll feel sorry for Jess.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Not to mention, Jack F. Smith gave this storyline a horrible follow though and the aftermath just sucked. After this revelation, Katherine and Jill never had much to do. All we saw was they were joined at the hip and "close" - which just rang so false.

I'm glad it's over now...

[YRBB]

Their rivalry is (or should be) at the center of the show... Making them mother and daughter neutralized both characters... it took away their center. Yes, a sad life, but that was part of it. Their inability to get over the past, the constant thirst for revenge. I guess it wouldn't have been as bad, if their relationship change didn't also alter their dynamic so suddenly and so falsely and horribly. Jill vs Kay feels still fresh to me and I would love to see them spar... I'm sorry, but to alter that (as previous writers did) means to alter Y&R.

[Sylph]

I'm in no way saying it was right to do it. No way.

It's just that I see it as a kind of thing that'll never really allow Y&R go in other directions. If it survives for another gazillion years and I tune in, I'll still see Jill & Katherine. I don't know whether that's good, because hey, people will say that's honouring history and taking care of the veterans (zzzzzzzzzzz), or downright depressing and a total recycling of the same cr*p again and again and again... What do Jill & Katherine do? They feud, of course... Nothing else.

Dump the rivalry, begin a new one, just move on...

There comes a time when one just has to end something. And it's probably not now, 'cause everybody's saying "More Jill vs. Katherine!", but I just hope... The day'll come.

[All My Shadows]

It screwed up the dynamics. Once upon a time, they could fight mercilessly with each other and not feel bad about it. Now, they're forced to stop just short of causing each other a heart attack, and it's just...blaaaah

[Sylph]

But is it... Kind of... Monotonous to always watch basically the same feud over and over again? No matter how good those two are when they go against each other?

[YRBB]

Actually... no.... I could watch them yell, and scratch, and tear at each for years and years to come. If it were someone else, maybe not, but they're just so. good. at. it.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I don't understand what's wrong with two people hating each other all their lives. It happens all the time in real life.

There's people I hate and will always hate, I'm not ashamed to admit it.

[Vanguardian]

It's just gonna seem strange to see these two suddenly at each other's throats again after all they've been through as a "family". Honestly, Jill mourned her "mother's" "death" like I never thought she could. Jill cried endlessly for Katherine, now they're gonna be calling each other the "B" word all over again! And what brings on this battle between them anyway? Is it just the revelation that they're not related? And why does it sound like Jill blames Katherine for the outcome? I think Kay will be devastated that Jill is not her daughter.

[Sylph]

I don't know. All I can say, real life — one thing, same story over fifty years in a daytime drama — quite another.

That doesn't mean I'm right, you're wrong. It's not about that at all; I just want to collect various personal opinions on why people detest that story so much and why do they find their dynamics (better said: statics, 'cause it's all the same feuding all over again) so appealing.

[All My Shadows]

It could get old, but I think it would be just a bit more realistic to just have Jill and Kay not always be in the same circle. If you don't get along with someone at all, and you're feuding with them, you shouldn't always be in their face. I think J & K are at least mature enough of to avoid each other, but that's why I wish Phillip III had never died in the first place. Jill and Kay wouldn't always be around each other, but they'd have reason to have frequent encounters/skirmishes. Kinda like AMC's Brooke and Erica...a different type of feud, but still, they were usually doing their own things, but when they ended up crossing paths, the claws would come out.

And really...I hate to say it, but Jill needs a life. Katherine is getting more action than her.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Some things just become way too established to break, they just feel familiar - like "home." When I watch Y&R, I don't expect to Katherine and Jill related and all loving towards one another, it just rings false and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[Sylph]

I totally understand that and in part agree. That's why I think what All My Shadows said is spot on: if you hate someone, you avoid him or her. However, that also goes against the basic dramatic device: conflict. Without conflict, there is nothing.

That also means that someone — and obviously not Maria Arena — needs to cook up a different kind of a conflict for these two, if we must have it. Maria Arena is not really an innovative, ground-breaking kind of writer.