Most Polarizing Characters?

[Cheap21]

Teen Jess was my breaking point and I dropped the show as soon as that mess started and didn't start again until it was over. It takes a lot to offend me and I was legit offended by that story. The twit was mentally ill and instead of getting her help, they were treating her like a joke, placating and letting her 30 year old ass go back to high school as if that made any sense. That mess was not funny for me and I hated that the show went there with her. And you are right; she was nothing like the actual Teen Jess. This was some Valley Girl caricature that was a major turn off

[cassadine1991]

Then the way Teen Jess ended with Ford and that slimy

I agree seemed like that was yet another slap in the face to Erin Torpey's portrayal

[AlexElizabeth]

I forgot about Teen Jess. I have to say that was worse than Wes.

[Skin]

I think both Jessica and Natalie were shells by the end of OLTL. But ultimately I still think Jessica was a character who led story and most of her romances were centered around her (Brody, Nash, Antonio, Ford) rather then having to compete with another character in endless triangles, which was what Natalie was reduced to over the last few years. Natalie didn't have her own story or even her own life outside of John or Jessica by the end of the series. All of her actions, all of her choices, all of her agency revolved around them and their choices and decisions. That never should have happened to a "legacy" Buchanan character, and that was never what Natalie was designed for. Did Jessica lose part of herself? Yes, but then in the end so did Natalie. Natalie was much more then the supporting step stool then she ended up being at the end. At least Jessica separated from Ford could believably start her own life again. Natalie's story was still shackled to John.

Yes, Jessica had alters, I would consider that story apart of Jessica's overall inclusive characterization. The same way it is for Viki. Was the trope overused? Of course. But I see Jessica and all her alters as one in the same. I would say Jessica was still viable up until the Ford romance. Specifically the baby switch, Nash's death and Tess' revenge on Natalie and Cutter were definitely highlights for the character on the show. I would specifically note the romance between her and Nash to be a highlight for OLTL and Jessica in general. Jessica was a centerpiece of OLTL and she always felt that way even when she was back-burnered, she always felt notable and as a key player in her life and others. I think that's very arguably for Natalie, which was my main point.

I don't think that killed Jessica, I still think Jessica was viable until Teen Jess and her relationship with Ford. That was when most board members were jumping up and down that Jessica Buchanan was truly dead. I would agree there. Her relationship with Ford was too far, and there was no need for that storyline.

[Vee]

The lion's share of what happened to Jessica falls on Dena Higley and Ron. Malone II started it, but that was just typical drippy heroine [!@#$%^&*] that could've been easily walked back. DID and molestation, not so much.

[Cheap21]

The difference though is I think Viki's alters added to her characterization; Jessica's took away from her. I don't think the show or ES lost sight of who Viki was. That wasn't the case with Jessica

IDA about Jessica being the centerpiece of OLTL. She was an afterthought

[Vee]

No one else on Earth would, except possibly Ron Carlivati. Tell me who Jessica is outside of those personalities and their antics, what she wants, where she works, what her core personality was. You can't, she didn't have any. She just was a stock heroine who got pregnant, got kidnapped and then would do all the wilder [!@#$%^&*] whenever she went crazy.

99% of characters who are on soaps end up in love triangles, be they well-written or [!@#$%^&*]. They don't by definition "lose themselves" because they are in them. I would've welcomed a basic long-term love triangle for Jessica compared to the [!@#$%^&*] I watched them pour on her face-first. Natalie may have been chained to John for years - just like many other leading ladies on the ABC soaps, including Jessica, were chained to other men and plots, including Babe Carey and her gaggle of men - but IMO Natalie never lost her fire or her sense of vibrant character which shone through a mountain of dreck. Jessica had no sense of character after the recast. None.

Everything Natalie did with John or other men, whether it was [!@#$%^&*] or dumb or smart or fun, was informed by who she was and where she'd been. They sometimes had her do stupid [!@#$%^&*] because they understood that volatility was part of her persona, and they took for granted that she could do it and keep her sense of character.

Nothing about Jessica after 2004 was driven or centered around her. Nothing. It was about things that happened to her. Men, sexual abuse, mental illness. Things happened to Jessica, and Jessica would cry or miscarry or give birth or [!@#$%^&*] other guys while out of her mind or she'd go back into a rubber room. None of that was informed by who Jessica was as a person, because they stopped bothering with who that was, because they found that boring. And it disgusts me, because I grew up with Jessica before they destroyed her.

Yes, Jessica was the future centerpiece and core heroine of OLTL - fourteen years ago. A good ten years ago, they started leaving that all behind. First they turned her into a helpless damsel to be tied to the railroad tracks, then they turned her into a crazy sex joke, then into a brood mare, then a plot rolodex, and then they had her down to two days a week every other week.

[Cheap21]

[Skin]

Forgive me if I am wrong but wasn't Jessica's personality borne out of the the beloved Princess with a heart of gold archetype? If so then I think they played pretty closely to who she ended up being, we can fault the writers for not deepening that personality, mining it and polishing it into a more salient character (a la Viki), but I think that's another issue. Overall I think the true Jessica was there, just obfuscated by other plot devices and stories -- as you said that bored them. I think the same criticisms could be made for other characters at the end of OLTL too, similar problems occurred with other female characters such as Blair, Starr, Tea and Marty most notably were effected adversely by his plot driven writing. Ron de-fanged numerous characters for plot purposes. Was Jessica's situation more egregious than others? Possibly, I honestly don't know. By the end I had scaled back a lot on OLTL. But I would still contend that sweet, good-hearted, true, heroine of a character was still there in the ending weeks and when the credits rolled for the final time, I think she was better off for a new beginning then a lot of other characters were.

I'll just agree to disagree on Natalie, I feel her character was greatly defeated by the end of OLTL, and was heartily damaged by her time with McBain to where she wasn't anything outside of him. That is a long way from what she was when she first came on OLTL as a hell raiser who wanted her rightful place in the Buchannan home.

[Cheap21]

Marty is the only one listed that was ruined. Blair, Tea and Starr were all fine and viable. None of them were utterly gutted, which was the case for Marty and Jessica

[cassadine1991]

They weren't COMPLETELY ruined but pretty damaged

[Vee]

I think we have a very, very different definition of 'the true Jessica.' Jessica had been horribly damaged shortly after the recast, and two years after that both the writers and Bree Williamson showed virtually zero interest in playing Jessica again. So they didn't.

There were many damaged female characters on OLTL, but most of them had problems that could be and were fixed. Even Marty was cleaned up a bit offscreen. But while you could bring Jessica back someday with a clean slate and better writing, nothing will ever undo the years of evisceration of her character.

Natalie may have been shackled to McBain (and Blair to Todd or Téa to Victor, etc.) but she was never of McBain. There is a difference. She was always Natalie, Natalie was strong, Natalie was viable. Jessica was not Jessica. Jessica was her madness and her victimization.

[Skin]

Starr most certainly was ruined after Cole and that dreaded teen pregnancy story, nothing she did was worthy anything after that story was put to paper. She barely existed outside of that pairing, James Ford aside. Tea and Blair were reduced to being the Todd's concubines and were painted into an entrapped kitchen much thereafter. I would say they all were in the same boat more or less of being lesser characters then they were originally envisioned, and I just disagree that Jessica was completely decimated as a character. All women were weakened by Ron's writing.

I guess we'll just agree to disagree then. Even during deeply trying times I didn't think Sharon was her madness on Y&R, I didn't think Emily was her breast cancer on GH, and I wouldn't say Bianca was her rape on AMC. Yes, heroines and ingenues are often victimized on soaps, but I wouldn't say that completely erases their characterization, and I wouldn't say Jessica's mental illness erased her genuinely good, lovable and sweet nature nor would I say it undid her responsibility/reliability, fidelity and dedication to motherhood which was a cornerstone of her character once they were born.

Jessica's character was a result of her romances (who on late OLTL wasn't?), but I still feel she was there, perhaps not well written or even well cared for, but she was still there underneath the alters (which were all extensions of her anyway). I definitely think Jessica was in that story grieving the loss of her husband when Nash died (a true highlight of Bree Williamson's Jessica), and that was in 2008 pretty past that arbitrary 2 year mark, after the recast. I agree that the Jessica character was diminished, but again all OLTL's women were at the end. All in all Jessica wasn't panting after a man at the end of the show, which I don't think could be said about Natalie. Of the two Jessica was the sister that was often the focal point of her own stories and whose actions pushed her (and others) further into (her own) stories. Natalie was not, she was waiting on the sidelines for John to make choices for her and then reeling from them.

[marceline]

IMO, she was gone LONG before that. Jess/Ford was the result of the character's degradation, not the cause.

[Vee]

Jessica grieved her dead husband for a couple of weeks at best. Then she became Tess again. That's not a commitment to her character or telling her story. And I found the Nash/Jessica/Tess/Antonio, etc. era to be horrible.

I loved Jessica and Brody and hoped for better for them, but they still never told stories about Jessica during that time as anything other than a victim or a mental patient.

I think that if Ron thought he could get away with it, he may well have revealed that the 'integrated' Jessica's core personality was, in fact, Tess. He did this with Kate and Connie on GH before giving up on her - wiped out Kate Howard, said his Connie was the true character once she was mentally well. I know Dena Higley wanted this for Jess/Tess, as well.