Nadia = Missed Opportunity
Beginning of S1 Nadia was everything! She took no shit from anybody, she protected her friends and became manipulative when she needed to. I remember thinking she was going to play a major part in the plot because of attitude and not being intimidated by the elite kids. Then they had her develop feelings for Gooseman and throw all of her morals and constraints that made her character in the name of character development in s2...lol what This post is basically a rant about the blackmailing queen that lasted only a couple of episodes in S1 to the forgiving, almost weak character that she is now. Don’t worry I wont delve too much on her cliche romances, which were wayyyyy to predictable when looking back.
How does Nadia go from looking down on Gooseman’s family for their coke habit to then nearly snorting a line of coke for crusty gooseman?? make it make sense...The alcohol I can believe because of peer pressure and doing rebel teenage things for the first time but COKE nah ooc asf! Then she hooks up with gooseman in the school lockeroom as if the plot of her blackmailing Lu and gooseman for their hookup in school didn’t exist. So embarrassing to see her make these silly mistakes because it was never something her s1 arc would even do.
She’s established as some devout reassured muslim girl in s1 that doesn’t fall to the peer pressure of her age group and out of all the characters the most stern and reasonable, so it was really jarring seeing her doing all these new things as if she didn’t have any self awareness. The first time she kissed and slept with gooseman was when she was drunk so it made it seem as if she wasn’t her self?? Is that a metaphor or something?? She only goes wild when she’s drunk so she doesn’t feel guilty?? It’s weird too because as a character that is raised in a strict religious immigrant family you would think they would have Nadia contemplating her actions or choices because of her up bringing but thats rarely brought up. And at some point it would’ve made sense for Nadia to move on to new and better things because honestly..Nadia didn’t need to be stringing along a depressed, mourning, angry gooseman. She knows damn well that she wouldn’t be available so let that relationship go...and if gooseman is such a great person, he wouldn’t need the girl that he once mocked to “save” him, and if Nadia really cared for him she should’ve let him go to get help. Woman don’t need to be saviours for toxic men. But I get it your favourite hetrocliche ships can’t end half way through the season welpp!
I would’ve preferred her arc in s2 to be about peer pressure then her randomly doing things that looked ooc. She knew herself in the beginning, so by s2 she was lost because of...pleasing her parents or gooseman. Nadia was no longer the stern girl we thought she was. The prejudice she faces at school is no longer a factor for her anymore because her character never commits to fighting for her rights, her biggest problem is her romance. The xenophobia she still faces by the school and Lu is swept under the rug. Gooseman doesn’t even defend Nadia when Lu resorts to racial slurs but in a way it makes sense...would it really take a poor brown girl to change racist, classist ideals that one believes in? Probably not! Seeing Nadia judge and questions some of the things kids in her school did THEN participate in them because it was tempting would’ve made more sense imo. And can we get to the times where characters are NOT defined by their romantic relationships! I also didn’t appreciate that Nadia and Omar were written around their love interest and barely had screen time to interact and speak with each other to discuss the growing teenage pains that they both faced. Omar smoked, drank, had sex, and by then was an open gay muslim, so it would’ve been interesting seeing Nadia and Omar discuss their problems, school life and future goals. Nadia’s education is a big part of her arc in s1, so it was great to see it brought back in s3 but unfortunately Omar’s future goals are never discussed because he’s used as Ander’s emotional support UGHHHH And why doesn’t Nadia have any friends from her old school or neighbourhood??? Omar and Samuel are besties, Christian and Nano were besties, where’s her friends??
As for the hijab thing...well the writers made Nadia to be pretty passive and thats evident when she never makes ANOTHER point to the school about the double standards concerning her hijab and Lu, Rebe, Valerio etc, sometimes shitty and blinged out attire. (But can you imagine the outroar if Nadia was in her hijab dryhumping a naked gooseman with a sextape arc for her character LMFAO Did the writers removed her hijab so she couldn’t fully be the Mia Khalifa pornstar they wanted #DEAD) As for her wearing the hijab or not it’s not really a big deal because she wore it when she pleased but I found it interesting that she never wore it to the club...Omar was shocked and exaggerate to Nadia and Malick that Nadia would wear it to the shower and Nadia and Malick’s reasoning was that they want to break free (I guess from being perfect muslims) ...back to my peer pressure point, maybe she just didn’t feel comfortable and didn’t want attention being looked at as being the only hijabi in the club.
Concluding, Nadia was never given the justice to CALL OUT the racism and prejudice she faced by Lu, Christian, Guzman. In stead she was used as the poc muslim girl to develop Guzman and Lu and excuse them from their classism and xenophobia because they took a chance in Nadia. How can the judgemental, holding 1000 grudges girl that we met in s1 become friends with LUCRECIA!!! That bitch hated her...make it make sense??? I don’t even see Lu being friends with another poc muslim, Omar was enough to her. I also didn’t appreciate that Lu was the one that drove Nadia to stand up for her education to her parents SMH like Lu would even care...she never apologised to Nadia for anything. Nadia needed her self to stand up to her parents, she did that in s1 when she persuaded them to study in Las Encinas for opportunities so it would've made perfect sense for her to do the same thing. Things that bad writing can do smh
To simplify I wasn’t feeling the all forgiving, naive Nadia :( She let Gooseman, Lu and even her brother who hooked up with her boyfriend off wayyyy to easy, I just feel like she’s progressed into this weak forgiving girl to make other characters not face consequences for the way they treated her. IDK the vindictive Nadia in the first episode of s1 was so much more interesting and if she was used in the plot like Carla was her character would’ve been more grey then the judgemental, then forgiving stick they put on her.
As for Nadia’s future...I hope to see her come back with a rich hottie from the prestigious university she goes to now! LOL
