Is Character Development Even Important Anymore?
Iâll be called, âA salty Lucaya&Riarkle shipper who canât deal with the fact that their ship(s) are dead.â Â But itâs so much more than about ships.
We donât know what happened in Part 1, but from Part 2, I guess we can decipher that Maya must have decided that her feelings for Lucas were never real, and that the only guy she âlovesâ throughout the series is Josh. Â And as for Lucas, as he gets jealous of Evan/Greg, he realizes that the only girl he âlovesâ throughout the series is Riley.
If Rucas and Joshaya were always the plan, then Rucas and Joshaya were always the plan. I canât try to deny it if thatâs how it is. But if thatâs the case, I really wish the writers didnât have all that God damn amazing development between Maya&Lucas and Riley&Farkle, and then decide to throw it out the window.
The cheering shippers will scoff, âThere was never any development between Maya&Lucas and Riley&Farkle. Â You all were just over-analyzing and searching for answers to help your ship when the real story was right in front of you all along!â Maybe the real story was in front of us all along, but I will never back down to the fact that the character development between Maya&Lucas and Riley&Farkle was damn real.
Maya and Lucas went from friends who went from planning how to make the other tick (âYou actually put thought into our little game, donât you?â), to being able to express how much they care about each other and want each other to succeed (âI want Maya to be happy!â, Mayaâs complete fear of him riding Tombstone), to admitting feelings that seemed so incredibly real, (The entirety of the campfire scene, âYou donât need to be sorry Huckleberry, of course I like you. Youâre a good guy.â), and we donât even know how long Mayaâs actually liked Lucas for (âYou stepped back. I know you stepped back.â). Â And this is only from the first two seasons. Â This isnât even counting what Lucas apparently says about Maya in Girl Meets Upstate or Girl Meets True Maya.
And these are only three examples in regards to an enormous amount. Everyone will argue that all the Lucaya fans were a, âfanservice because of all the obnoxious Lucaya fans complainingâ, but I donât think these writers are the type of people who would give into peer pressure. But the thing is, if that is the case, I would have much rather have had seen Rucas and Joshaya go through growth together as a whole, instead of using Maya as a, âspeed bumpâ into Rucasâ happily ever after. That completely degrades not just her character, but character development overall. And after everything, it turns out (from the rumors) that Maya never even liked Lucas in the first place?  That all those months and all that time and all those moments was just to make sure that Lucas was, âworthyâ enough for Riley? And then when Riley&Lucas got together, she could go back to her âtrue loveâ Josh? And that, because Josh is older, Maya will just have to wait for him for years until sheâs old enough for them to be together, longing for him&being alone?  How does that make any sense at all?
As for Riarkle? Maybe they didnât have an official romantic plot as of yet, but God, the character development with them had me hoping for so much, especially with Riley. Again, it will be argued that everyone was âover-analyzingâ, but watching Girl Meets Texas Part 3, Girl Meets the New Year, Girl Meets STEM. Dialogue is important (âI care so much about youâ âI do (want you to get better). Thereâs no situation where I wouldnât want that for youâ). Direction is important (The incredibly long hugs in Texas Part 3 and Great Lady of NY-TWO of them). Â Settings of a scene (physical and feeling (atmosphere)) are important (both for Riarkle&Lucaya). Everyone will argue, âItâs just a great friendship!â and I guess from Ski Lodge, that may be all the writers ever intended Riarkle to be. Â
But Riarkle was a huge opportunity for enormous growth, especially for Riley. That it isnât about being the âprincessâ, or living up to her parents âperfect, fairytaleâ relationship, or that love doesnât happen at first sight. That she can be able to grow in a relationship, that she doesnât have to live her parentâs lives, and that she doesnât have to cling her childhood dreams (Bay Window: Lucasâ boots were in the bucket with Rileyâs bear) to be happy.
Now, I donât know whatâs going to happen after Ski Lodge, or whatâs going to be endgame.  Maybe Lucaya and Riarkle still have a chance, and maybe they very well donât.  If the endgame is Rucas and Joshaya (as the cheers ring through the fandom that they are endgame), then thatâs what it is. And, I do understand the reasoning of having Rucas&Joshaya.  The idea of having people believe you can end up with your first love, never giving up on your dreams, Riley and Lucas being the next Cory&Topanga (even though I remember Michael Jacobs saying specifically in a radio interview that they werenât, butâŠ).
But what angers me is that they brought in all of this character development for Maya&Lucas and Riley&Farkle, and if that wasnât their plan, they should have left Maya and Farkle out of it and should have focused more on Riley and Lucas talking about their relationship earlier than waiting until now. Â And if Maya was to end up with Josh, they should have planned to have him in more episodes or mention him more, not have him come in for one episode where Maya reveals after everything thatâs happened that she never even liked Lucas in the first place. Â And to have it decided that Maya is just going to cling onto the idea that sheâs going to wait for him until she turns 17-18, without exploring other options is just awful and degrading for her character.
This isnât me trying to bash Rucas and Joshaya. I just wish that if those ships were the plans all along, that the writers would have used different characters and situations as obstacles to their ultimate endgame, instead of using the other two main characters to build tension and development and then decide that none of it was important in the end.
