OLTL: Discussion for the week of July 4

[Toups]

I don't think that's true. The story ended in early November - so the breakdowns were probably written in early August and that's when the story began on screen. So basically, the writers were writing the end of the story when we were watching the beginning of it.

Which was in Todd's head.

There was no way Todd was written as the hero or victim as you suggested.

[DRW50]

I'm talking more about the months of gaps after the stuff where John found Marty and saved the day. They were setting up more of a continuing relationship between Tarty - wasn't she cutting out photos of him or something? I assumed it was going to be that the usual thin line between love and hate routine. This ended very abruptly and you got Marty in a cheap looking pink leather jacket, yelling at people for months on end. This is where I think they slapped together a story to replace their original idea.

A lot of viewers also sympathized with Todd and rooted for Tarty. The show excelled at setting up this forbidden love. I think they truly saw it as a love story, and have never felt comfortable seeing anything Todd did to Marty as an assault. They have even minimized the gang rape story, more than once.

[Vee]

I liked yelly Marty in that jacket, though.

The problem is Marty's "revenge" went as far as that lame suicide attempt, and then that was it.

It was a horribly botched aftermath. If this was a British soap they would have done the unthinkable - have Marty become pregnant with Todd's child, and pass it off as John's for years and years - to power story. I almost would have preferred that to the nothing we got and the quick whitewash leading to Todd & Tea Part 3.

[DRW50]

I liked Marty/Wes.

If the show was as campy as they want to be they should have had an affair between Marty/Jess alter Wes. Including multiple scenes where Ford asks if he can join in and Alter Wes punches him out.

[Cheap21]

Marty pregnant with Todd's kid would have been revolting and I cringe at what that would do to Marty's character, especially after the whole Todd ordeal with Marcie over Sam. OLTL should have killed Todd off in that story. Maybe do a fakeout so he could come back in a year or 2. If and when he were to return, we'd learn that Todd faked his death bc he felt he lost everything and went away to reflect on himself and spare his family and Marty anymore additional pain. I felt they truly went too far with his character and it was offensive to see him continue on with little reprecussions except his family briefly disowning him. He needed to be off the show after that.

[psychofan]

I always feel so strange when people try to say they know exactly what a writer was trying to do. Isn't it possible that Todd was not being portrayed as a hero or a villain in the Marty romance story? Perhaps he was just being written as Todd and Marty reacted to him AS TODD. To her, with amnesia, he was the hero. Without amnesia, he was the villain. Not everything is so black and white.

[DRW50]

Even without amnesia they tried to make sure he was redeemed in her eyes (when he helped her get her memories back).

I don't remember RC ever making comments to the press that suggested Todd was supposed to be seen as a villain.

[Antoyne]

I liked the story, and now it doesn't matter anyway since he's apparently not Todd and is just a guy that took advantage of an amnesiac..Heck he even pointed out RHTodd when she asked about the gangrape, which is looking more and more not like a lie...

I'm really just interested in finding out the whole purpose of Todd not being Todd, and why an imposter wanted to be Todd Manning so bad but got plastic surgery to look like a member of the Lawrence family instead of to look like RHTodd(I know that wouldn't have been possible back then since RH left but now)..Also who got RHTodd out of the crypt? And why did everyone believe TSJTodd to be Todd for 8 years...

[psychofan]

The way I am thinking is that "Walker" was brainwashed into believing he's Todd and so he's really not pretending at all. As far as he's concerned, he IS Todd Manning.