Okay last time I complain about folks who get Thaisha wrong (for now) Something that’s been really rattling my wind chimes is when people claim they love how Aabria plays Thaisha, but then go “she’s so good at playing a selfish character”
Like excuse me??? Like sure, Aabria has played selfish pcs before. But if you really want a selfish character played by Aabria you should be watching Private Nightmares already (Katherine my beloved whose crimes I hope never catch up to her.)
Thaisha is not that. Like what is she selfish for? Leaving her kids in the care of people she trusts to go out and do good? Following the Old Path that for all her life has been true to her? Being with Druids who so far are as thoughtful and, while cautious, still as open to new things as her? Not being able to contain her disgust at the idea that someone would want to bring back their shaper who was willing to sell them out to replace her own people? Not being polite enough? Not being motherly enough? Not being patient enough when she felt her actual son who she just rewatched die when he was just a little boy could be in horrible danger? Staying in the bath too long???
Thaisha’s main internal conflict is not her being selfish. She’s no more selfish than any other character who has things like “wants they admit to or cannot hide” and “priorities that might not match the priorities of the rest of the group” and “values that are different from others including their dead young friend who they still deeply care about.”
Throughout this arc there’s been so many examples of her being the opposite of selfish. She may trade barbs (and ACCIDENTAL friendly fire) but she was almost always thoughtful and considerate with everyone in the group. She might be a bad liar and doesn’t have a poker face, but until they got into the dungeon where her fear for her son was at its highest she was constantly thinking things through and putting herself out there as support.
Like….uuuuuuuuuugh. I’m spending a lot of time getting steamed about people placing what they want against Thaisha and not really trying to understand her actions at face value. And to be fair I might not be totally correct on my read on her either. I’ve seen a lot of great bloggers in this fandom who are way better at articulating their points about Thaisha than me.
But I definitely know what she’s not, which whatever the fuck these folks were imagining.
