1) I got lost in your soa meta tag... My opinions on the characters change with each rewatch, except Tara. She’s my fave... and I’ll never understand the hate she got, especially from women. The same women who loved and rooted for Gemma, and defended all her actions but hated Tara. I remember when the spoilers came out that Gemma murdered Tara- women on fb and ig were cheering about it. I was horrified.
cont. I loved Gemma in the first 3 seasons, her relationship with Tara in s2/3 was my favorite. After that I hated her. I’ll never understand what Nero saw in her. She was a complete train wreck. Jax is horrible, but I can’t help but love him. I think because I don’t rewatch the last few seasons as much as I do the others, so I try to block out all the really bad stuff. I hated all the bloodshed and how horrible the characters got- the last season makes me nauseous. But SOA is still one of my favorite shows of all time. Jax finding Tara’s dead body is still the saddest scene in television history for me. I sob every single time I watch it. The first time I watched SOA I hated Wendy. Then other rewatches became a like/hate with her. One minute I hated her the next I could sympathize with her. Back and forth. I’ve rewatched it so many times (mainly the first 4) some times I would try to work out timelines and that would be reason enough to hate Wendy. There was a point I even shipped her with Jax, and was glad they worked it out in the end. But then I would read someone’s meta about her, and I’d be like wtf she’s not good enough for Jax or the boys. Smh. Now the only thing that irritates me about Wendy is the s6 crap. and this is probably a very unpopular opinion... but I cannot stand Opie and never got why fans liked him so much. If I made a list of fav soa characters he wouldn’t even make the top 10. I thought he was boring in s1, dumb in s2, I only remember him killing Stahl in s3, and I hated him in s4 for cheating on Lyla. Like, I’m not completely heartless when it comes to him tho, mainly due to Ryan Hurst’s acting, the emotional scenes really got me; seeing Donna dead, beating up Tig, finding Piney dead, killing Stahl, the whole scene leading up to him shooting Clay, all great scenes that made me cry. But Opie is still just “blah” to me. Ps.. sorry for all the messages 👀
Hey there! Please, never apologise for sending asks. I love interacting with people and discussing fandom things. I hope you enjoyed reading through my rather extensive SOA meta tag. Since you’ve read some of my posts, I assume you probably already know my stance on the characters and a lot of the things that you’ve spoken about.
My opinions also change with every re-watch I do. That’s the case for any show I re-watch, not just SOA. That’s why I love re-watches so much; they allow us to get to know the universe and characters even better, to notice details we may have missed previously and develop new perceptions on things. With every re-watch I do, I purposefully try to watch it with fresh eyes and to cast previous opinions aside and look beyond what I’ve previously seen/thought about the show.
The hate that Tara gets is unfair and undeserved. I wasn’t in the SOA fandom when the show was airing, but it’s horrifying to know that fans were cheering about her death. I know she’s only a fictional character, but it’s very sad that people would react that way. Regardless of personal feeling, Tara did not deserve what happened to her. No one deserves to be so brutally and viciously murdered in that way, it’s by far the most gruesome and painful death on the show. I still find that scene (and the one that follows with Jax finding her body) difficult to watch. Tara is definitley not my favourite character, but she’s by far the most relatable character and she’s fantastically well written. I think that perhaps the hate she has got in the past (I don’t really see it now) stems from that fact that she’s not really that likeable. That may just be my personal opinion, but despite the fact that she always tries to do the right thing and was one of the most morally “good” characters on the show, she always came across a little hypocritcal and snobby to me. But I completely understand why she’d be your favourite character and why so many fans love her.
When it comes to discussing my like and dislike for characters on SOA, it’s a very complex thing. I detest practically every single character on the show, because they’re all awful people that do terrible things. However, there are certain characters who I’m able to love despite that because of the way in which they’re written and how complex they are. Jax is one of those characters and so is Clay. I hate Gemma with a passion, but again, I can appreciate how complex she is and as far as villains go, she’s one of the best in my opinion. I love Wendy to pieces, but you’ll already know that from reading my tag. I think she’s very misunderstood and underrated. I really saw Wendy as being an underdog, and that’s probably why I love her so much. I completely agree about Opie! He is by far the most overrated character. I don’t understand why fans love him so much. I think that maybe it stems from his death and that because it was so emotional and impactful, fans have memorialised him and placed him on a pedastal. But in reality, he was a stagnant character with nothing to offer. I feel that way about a lot of the other minor characters too like Tig, Chibs, Bobby, Juice, Happy etc.
Thanks for sending these asks, my lovely, it was a pleasure to discuss SOA with you :)
