OLTL: Discussion for the week August 30

[TeamEric]

Yep, we just gotta agree we disagree ;-)

[Cheap21]

What wounds? 95% of the time Dorian is attacking Viki, its unwarranted. She just decides, I hate her so, Im going to destroy her, with no valid motivation behind it. Their feuding seems so empty especially since most times Viki doesnt fight back. The writers have them fight just to fight, even though theres absolutely no substance there. Dorian blames Viki for everything that goes wrong in her life, even if it has little or nothing to do with her. Their feuding got old and stale a long time ago and hasnt been fresh or interesting in years

[DRW50]

So do you think that they were hoping this would happen when Blair called the cops on Marty and sold a story about Marty to the papers when John was helping Marty out after Wes was killed? At the time I felt this was a very obvious way to get people to sympathize with Marty. Then Marty and John got back together, and Blair was punished by being stabbed over and over in the shower.

Not A child so much as Blair's biological child. The show had never really said Blair did not deserve to be a mother to Starr until the storyline where Blair was presented as being a horrible person for being upset with Kelly over Kelly crashing into Blair and Marty's car and Blair losing Brendan. After this they made it clear that Blair was at fault, that Starr was better off with Todd and Tea (even "good" Kelly agreed).

[mistylane]

I hope the original Todd will be reunited with Blair. I have always loved that couple.

[TeamEric]

TPTB view Marty as a perpetual victim and all who hurt her in any way are eventually punished in some way or another. Tea cruelly grilled her in court and she was then blown up at KAD house. Natalie has been on the receiving end too from crossing Marty, too.

So it's hardly the poor Blair only one that gets punished for hurting Marty.

Painting Tea and/or Kelly as the first to ever call into question Blair's mental stability and mothering will just never fly. Tina ripped into Blair during her first pregnancy. Asa even warned a she-wolf was not fit to carry and raise a kid. I watched Max snicker T&B's kid was better off raised away from TWO violent parents.

Blair was a pariaha in Llanview and very few supported her mothering prior to Starr's birth. In fact, Blair had far more advocates on her side during Starr Wars than her first pregnancy. Max changed his tuned and believed Blair to be a good mother who should get her child back.

[DRW50]

Tina was by that time a joke character who was also trying to get Todd's fortune for herself. Asa was not a good person. This was barely any time after Blair had been written as more of a schemer. By the time she lost Brendan Blair was doing less scheming and was just focused on being a mother. Yet she was presented as being the villain.

I don't think until Tea and Kelly did the show say that Blair was a terrible mother who deserved to lose her child. Nor did the show have Blair almost killed, lose her unborn child, and suffer a stroke, and say she was a horrible mother.

I agree with you about Natalie, but Tea was not really injured and then went on to be in the story where she reunited with Todd and was keeping Danielle a secret for what the show said were noble reasons.

Blair, after losing out to Marty, chased after Todd, fell out a window, and was put in the hospital again.

I think both Natalie and Blair are often written as whipping girls.

[TeamEric]

What wounds? Viki, with OBVIOUS good reason, has a deep-seated FEAR of Dorian's vindictive and selfish nature. That FEAR underlies all their interaction as Viki will never really trust Dorian with anyone or anything she considers important. This distrust fuels Dorian's deep-seated insecurities that she can never measure up to the Great Victoria. For example, Dorian ONLY became mayor because Viki stepped aside, that undercut Dorian's self-esteem. Dorian will never be the Victoria, old money and first family of Llanview. Dorian is nouveau trash who mangles Spanish and French while others snicker at her. Dorian is eaten up with ENVY, she only deigns to be nice to Viki when she's lost a husband or had another nervous breakdown. Then Dorian can swoop in and play lady bountiful compassionate role.

The substance of the feud always goes back to Viki's FEAR and DISTRUST and Dorian's INSECURITIES and ENVY. Those wounds are too deeply rooted in the characters with too much history to ever be really healed over.

The roots of the Tea and Blair feud are similar except both sides fear and distrust and both sides are insecure and envious. Viki and Dorian battles started over a man, too, Victor Lord. And like Viki and Dorian, the original battle has spread far beyond just one man.

Viki and Dorian's feud has grown stale because it's just poorly written as some silly, shallow bickering now versus the deadly serious battles of old.

[dntdropthesoap]

As I struggle to enjoy this show, what was OLTL thinking with casting JL as Inez, who looks almost exactly the same age as Ford. She just looks too young to be his mother, and it takes me out of the scene to even watch them together. Who else could they cast in this role to make it even close to normal?

[DRW50]

[SFK]

I think it would be nice if in a heightened emotional moment, Inez spoke Spanish to her children (if only to hear her boys butcher it back to her ).

BTW, this is OLTL we're talking about, I would not be a-TALL surprised if Carlotta ran into her cousin Inez at the diner. Cristian to Ford: We're cousins?? / Ford: I guess so, papi.

[DRW50]

The Edsels can revive Reba McEntire's line from one of the Gambler movies. What was it..."Do you speako Spanisho?"

[SFK]

Admit it Carl, Inez speaking to a shaded figure for a week's worth of episodes, revealing herself to be her mother, the not-so-late Maria Roberts, on a Friday afternoon would make your year.

[DRW50]

Inez: Mama...I...I...

Maria: Speak up! We don't have time for this wasting.

Inez: <quivers>

Maria: My Cordero is brave and strong, even if he has all the taste in women that Viki has in caftans, but you -- you are nothing more than one of those hideous portraits I was forced to stare at during my many stays at Motel 6. Did you hear that, Viki, Tina, you sick twisters of the name of Lord, did you know that your destructive schemes meant I cannot even afford a Holiday Inn?

Inez: Mama I'm worried about my boys.

Maria: I told you not to let them eat all that paste!

Inez: No, Mama...

Maria: It's always no no no with you. No mama, my forehead bumping with that woman was just to try to help her learn to move her face again. No mama, I did not drop mi hijos on their heads. No mama, I do not know why shoulder pads went out of style. It's always no no no! Simpering and simpering, don't you ever stop? Don't you ever think about me? Bucky where are you now??

Inez: Mama...<whimpers>

Maria: Get out of my way! It's a Friday and they're going to kill me off on Monday. I'm going to shove this shoulder pad down Viki's throat while I have a chance! You go find Tina -- just smell for cheap perfume and hairspray.

[SFK]

I love how I can "hear" that nut Maria!

[dntdropthesoap]

I care too much about this obviously! lol But, they really need an older actress to play Inez.