Can I take a moment to talk about how amazing Polaris is on The Gifted, as a bipolar character?
a) She is bipolar! Just that is absolutely amazing! It’s a genre show, not a drama, and she’s just chilling out, being bipolar, and also a super - hero? - and that’s awesome!
b) She regularly talks about being bipolar! It’s not something we just know from Word of God or comics, it’s not something mentioned once and never again, it’s something that she mentions reasonably frequently, because, you know, it’s a major disorder, and it comes up sometimes.
c) BUT the storyline is never about her disorder, even her specific storyline isn’t about that! It’s just another part of who she is. The closest it comes to being a major Thing is that she has had unpleasant experiences in a psychiatric facility and that comes up sometimes - but the emphasis is on the issues with the psychiatric treatment system, not her innate issues.
d) She is in an antagonistic position this season - means well, but not on the side we’ve been encouraged to root for - but they are very, very clear that it’s not because of her bipolar. She is in a potentially villainous position, but they are explicit - she is explicit - that it’s about her personal moral code, and completely unrelated to her disorder.
She’s bipolar and talks about it but her character isn’t about that and! You know how people talk about how antagonist characters should be able to be mentally ill just like anybody else but it’s a huge issue because it always end up suggesting that mental illness causes bad-guyness? She avoids that! She’s an antagonist for reasons that could apply to anybody, her bipolar is a completely separate thing!
I just. I really love Polaris and the way she is portrayed on The Gifted and she’s super important to me and I want all of you to love her too