#matatakuhoshi

[ritahanson]

@matataku-hoshi reblogged your post:

#thank you for the lovely character analysis

@ventrie reblogged your post:

#this is great!!!

@groundhoglesbian reblogged your post:

#i’m love her

{ Honestly, I love Rita so much and it’s a joy to be able to write posts about her like that one. I’m glad the three of you liked it, too! }

[ritahanson]

No one is perfect. With that in mind, what do you see as Rita's weaknesses?

OUT OF STICKY BUNS  ::  This took me far too long to get to, and I’m sorry for that! This is actually something I’ve wanted to have an excuse to talk about for a while, now, so I’m really grateful that you sent this in. Thank you so much!

I’ve said this before, but one of the reasons I adore Rita is that she’s a very dynamic, complex, contradictory character - which makes her very human, to me. So while she’s a warm, friendly, empathetic person, that certainly isn’t all there is to her - and sometimes, her good traits (her strengths) can backfire on her to become weaknesses, too.

A good example of that last point is that Rita has a very clear sense of right and wrong, and a tendency for speaking up when she feels the need to. However, her interpretation of situations isn’t always right, and as such she can be pretty quick to pass judgement. While she tends to rectify these misunderstandings after the fact, Rita’s temper (which can be pretty short at times) is a huge weakness; she can be quick to react, and very argumentative when she sets her mind to it. And for all her empathy, she can be pretty critical when she’s taken against someone. When something really winds her up she can be quite aggressive, too.

She’s impatient and impulsive (although the latter can have some benefits!), and she’s something of a perfectionist - which can sometimes cause her to lose sight of the bigger picture, and it also means she sometimes puts work ahead of everything else, in a bad way. She can be a bit touchy, a bit too opinionated, and she’s definitely sarcastic, and sharp. She’s stubborn as hell, too, which definitely isn’t always a good thing.

Though she’s clearly more naturally optimistic than a certain other character we could mention here, there’s a cynicism to Rita that makes her a little more reluctant and closed off than she can first appear - because she’s so positive and friendly towards people. That stems from some of her past experiences with people; she’s been hurt before, and while she doesn’t hold one person’s actions against the other people she knows, it has made her more cautious than she used to be. This also means she can be quite reluctant to give second chances, when people have really messed up.

She’s an emotional person (even aside from the temper mentioned above!), and she’s had to learn the hard way that being open-hearted can be a weakness just as much as it is a strength, sometimes. Essentially, she sometimes finds it hard to tread the line between being vulnerable in a good way, and in a way that leaves her open to getting hurt. Even though she’s definitely a romantic at heart, she’s pretty sceptical when it comes to romantic relationships now. She recognises that she’s closed herself off from romance in a lot of the more... Serious ways, in her heart, and she sees this as a weakness in herself because she feels it means she’s letting what has happened to her in the past change who she is.

She’s contradictory, though, so as well as being closed off and cynical to some degrees, she also ends up chiding herself for being a little too wishful - too romantic, possibly holding people to ridiculous standards both to try and stop herself from getting hurt again, and because there’s too much of a romantic streak in her heart.

It’s hard to talk about character weaknesses - especially ones that can sometimes be strengths as well, or ones that require a bit of an explanation - without sounding like you’re making excuses for them. The thing with Rita, though, is that she’s pretty self-aware; for the most part she knows what her weaknesses are, and while she tries her best to be better (to be a good person, at the end of the day) she’s only human. For every time her stubbornness has helped her out, there’s been a time when it has caused problems for her either personally or professionally. Etcetera, etcetera. Although we should be honest, here: just because she acknowledges her weaknesses, that doesn’t mean she’s always going to be able to keep a handle on her temper, for example!

[ritahanson]

@matataku-hoshi replied to your post “/post/152744551727/ i think its disgusting that you would think she...”

What I love about musical!Rita is that she very explicitly knows what she does not and does want in both sex and romance. Like you've mentioned in other posts, *she* is the one who initiates the kiss with Phil and everything thereafter. Frankly, I find her agency in this regard refreshing.

{ Yes! Yes, exactly. The fact that Rita has so much agency at that point is very important to me (and very rare, imo), especially considering where she and Phil are at the same point in act one. People can interpret it however they like, but... She’s very vocal about a lot of things, and being very sex-positive is one of them. }

@toughlittleguy replied to your post “/post/152744551727/ i think its disgusting that you would think she...”

Isn't sex just like a big part of the musical too? Lol

{ For a certain weatherman in act one, certainly! ;) }

[ritahanson]

@matataku-hoshi reblogged your post:

This sums up most of my feelings. Rita hasn’t had as much time, but the show leaves them on the morning of February 3rd with so much *possibility.* Phil was stuck in one place for a really, really, long time, and for the first time they actually have a chance.

(For the record, my headcanon is that they end up together. Phil still has his demons and Rita has her own, but they make it through the things life throws at them together).

{ I hope you don’t mind, I just wanted your response to that post on my blog! I’m glad you agree; I think it’s important to remember that even though Phil knows how he feels, he also recognises that he doesn’t know everything about her yet (despite his earlier comments!) - I’ve talked about this on my blog before, but he’s yet to know Rita outside of Punxsutawney on many, many iterations on February 2nd, and she’s at a point where she knows she feels something for him but doesn’t yet know him well enough to call it something serious.

As you say, that leaves them with so much possibility in front of them, and a chance to get to know each other and, really, to fall in love properly. I think one of my favourite things about this show is that it doesn’t tie everything up neatly in a sort of ‘and now everything is perfect and finished’ way, and I think that (given where Phil in particular is when we first meet him) leaving them at the beginning is a much more fitting thing. }

[weheartbarrettdoss]

@matataku-hoshi​ replied to your post “@matataku-hoshi​ replied to your video “From Backstage Bite’s...”

Alas. Well, at least we have the episode to look forward to!

We can’t wait! And we’re trying to keep on top of any Instagram stories Barrett is in (we have a lot of older ones to queue up!), so people don’t miss them :)

[weheartbarrettdoss]

@matataku-hoshi​ replied to your video “From Backstage Bite’s Instagram story, August 10th 2017”

I can not for the life of me find where the rest of these bits are when I click the link - am I missing something???

Hey there! The Backstage Bite posts were saved from that page’s Instagram story on August 10th, so they’re not visible on Instagram any more :)