whenever i go to the tag and see any of your new posts, i'm delighted so no matter of the pace of posting know that you have people who enjoy your content!
also, don't want to spam you with asks, but wanted to thank you for answering my Gina(and Dylan) ask as detailed as you did. i have to say that i completely agree with you on everything! Gina was a great addition to the show those last two seasons when the show was grasping to keep going. she was definitely the most interesting character at that time. totally agree that she was after Brenda the best! and she and Dylan were so compelling to me. i was frustrated with writers tho because they created this very great character with Gina, they gave her great backstory but then never fully commited to it and instead kept the show centred around Kelly/Dylan in a horribly boring and repetitive way when they could've commit to Gina/Dylan and make such a good love story. why do you think they never allowed Dylan to "love" Gina? they made them keep coming back to each other, keeping them together in some way for both of seasons 9 and 10 (totally agree they got rid of Gina too soon, very out of the blue and in a lazy way tbh). and it wasn't just Gina. whenever Gina would break up with him, he would want her back and he had very genuine moments of care for her. when her and Donna's father died he came to take care of her when everybody were blaming her (kelly was so obnoxious there, it wasn't even her business to make accusations like that). but the writers were always keeping Dylan closer to Kelly, making sure he says how he cares for Gina but isn't in love with her. i was so annoyed they didn't commit to them as a couple with allowing Dylan to love her, why do you think that was? especially when Luke and Vanessa had great chemistry, and Vanessa in general played Gina so interesting and amazing.
also, again sorry that this turned out longer than expected, but what was that scene when Kelly and Dylan are talking and he says he only connected to two things in his life and they were Toni and Kelly. why did writers have the need to erase Brenda and Dylan's connection to her?! i understand she wasn't on the show and they knew at that point she would never come back but the erasure was unnecessary. i feel like in earlier seasons after Shannen left they were still keeping the memory of Brenda somehow alive, not erasing her like that, but that moment with Dylan and Kelly infuriates me so much.
Why hello, Gina anon! I am delighted to have you pop back up in my inbox! <3
It's purely speculation, but I know seasons 9 and 10 had some new writers, and I kind of wonder if maybe the whole Gina character was their passion project, because she's written pretty well, and with a unique complexity that was fresh to the show. That would also explain why her relationship with Dylan feels so compelling, and seemed to have a lot of effort put into developing it (that, and as mentioned in my previous reply, the great performances by Luke and Vanessa). However, I suspect that it was probably some sort of mandate from producers, showrunners, other writers, or whomever was in charge at that point that Dylan and Kelly wind up together, and so Gina had to be given the boot. You're right when you say this is totally lazy, and the fact that we see Dylan with someone like Gina, who absolutely has her problems but undoubtedly has the capacity for growth and the potential to be a loving, passionate person, and then are forced to accept that Kelly is his "endgame" when those two have ONLY ever been interested in one thing from each other (sex), and are generally depicted as HATING each other otherwise, is absolutely RIDICULOUS.
Going way back to season one, I feel like Dylan and Brenda were written to be the main couple of the show, but public backlash to their sexual exploits caused that pairing to take a backseat, and he was ultimately paired with Kelly to form a love triangle. I absolutely buy that those two would hook up behind Brenda's back purely out of sexual interest in one another, but we watched them try to make it work in an actual relationship, and they couldn't, and Kelly gravitated to Brandon, who was much better suited for her (I still hate that pairing because they were both insufferable but at least it made sense). All that felt realistic. But without Brandon and Brenda, it's like the show couldn't bear to pair either Kelly or Dylan with a new character, and shoved them back together purely because they were both there. I find this so annoying for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that it's just indicative of how little the show trusts its audience. It's a pet peeve of mine when a series will always default to the same old pairing just because they assume it's what the audience expects and wants even if it no longer makes sense. It feels lazy. Secondly, it's not even a GOOD romance. We've seen Kelly and Dylan together and they are a terrible match. They don't even like each other as people, and they never have. The only reason they got together in the first place was out of teenage horniness! And yet we're suddenly expected to believe that they've always been starcrossed lovers? Don't piss on my foot and tell me it's raining! Again, LAZY! Finally, the Brenda erasure in those final two seasons is EGREGIOUS! Like you said, that conversation where Dylan says he's only ever loved two people (Toni and Kelly) is gaslighting of the highest order. Don't try to tell me he loved Kelly more than Brenda. I was there! I KNOW WHAT I SAW!
To me the whole Gina and Dylan thing feels like new writers being allowed to have some fun, but then being told to wrap it up and deliver the (boring, basic-ass) finale to the series that fans "expect." Personally I would have ended the series with Matt dumping Kelly (because she deserved it for stringing him along) and leaving her with the opportunity to be alone and do some self-reflection, and Dylan and Gina's relationship being left open-ended. I don't necessarily need the reassurance than Dylan and Gina are forever (and maybe it wouldn't even make sense if they were given that we'd seem them get pretty volatile), but I would have felt satisfied by seeing them decide to give things a real shot. Maybe even leave LA altogether and go back to Denver or wherever it was Gina was from. That would have felt like a more organic and plausible resolution for those characters, and leaned into the character nuance that they hinted at throughout those last two seasons. But I guess that was never gonna happen because boring Kelly needs a happy ending!
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