My Favorite Character on Andi Mack
I would have to say — and none of you, I bet, see this coming 🙃 — Amber. She’s one of my favorites (besides Andi and Marty) because her arc is really interesting. As is her overall character.
In season one, she’s simply the one dimensional mean girl/awful girlfriend. She’s only a character foil for Jonah so that we see how nice he is to everyone in comparison to Amber who is mean to literally anyone...and even, at times, to her own boyfriend. She cheats on him. She has it out for Andi during a time when Andi’s whole world had been turned upside down, and she even uses that against the girl: “Where’s Andi’s new dad?” 😒
She’s just awful.
But in the season one finale we see something in her: she’s afraid to lose Jonah. She needs him for whatever reason. When season two begins that’s affirmed when Iris delivers the line, “It’s like she needs a boyfriend to exist.” Suddenly we’re wondering why that is. What happened? Who taught this girl that you’re nothing without a guy in your life? Why was she dating the other boy (who they still have yet to address) if she was convinced she needs a boyfriend* — singular, not plural. Why did she feel the need to have two? Is that because Jonah may have been slipping away already, or she was getting too attached...both? What is her story exactly?
Then later on in the second season we see a nice camaraderie blossoming between Amber and Andi. There’s this undoubtably strong chemistry between the two that have us rooting for them to stay close. But alas, that all falls apart when Amber takes several steps back in “The Snorpion”.
But she clearly cares about Andi; when she saw the fake scars on the other girl’s face and bought the story that she had seriously hurt herself when she attempted to climb off the Ferris wheel before the cops could get there, she was a wreck. She only left Andi because she panicked when she heard the police sirens, and with her dad out of work and her having to get a job to help her family out, it’s arguable whether she ran purely out of fear of getting in trouble or because her family couldn’t afford bailing her out (charges may have crossed her mind.) Like Jonah has mentioned before Amber is gong through a lot. We’ve seen how impulsive she can be when under pressure. It’s clear the girl will make several missteps on her road to redemption but that’s just being realistic.
The person she used to be was awful. The person she is now is honestly trying. Hopefully soon we’ll see her fully redeem herself but I also hope that it takes some time to get there. Amber is a complex character with an arc that is just so real. Nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes, but if we want to change eventually we can. It isn’t an overnight thing, it takes some time and a lot of patience from friends and family. But when the change happens its usually permanent. I can’t wait for Amber to get there but I’ll enjoy watching her stumble on her way there — not because I like seeing her fail or everyone getting mad at her, but because that’s honest character growth. It’s so rare for characters to get this treatment as if they were real people, going through real problems, their real emotions actually being affected.
Amber’s a favorite because she tries again and again despite her being — as the song says,
