I did not like the way Gia was introduced. I feel like she could’ve worked as a character if she didn’t feel like a convenient plot deceive (aka somewhere for the camp fam to stay while they were in Italy), and felt more like a genuine character - maybe they landed somewhere else and Ben told the camp fam they should go to Italy, rather than her being conveniently close-ish by. She had that brief arc of telling Nonna she wanted to be a paleontologist, but other than that, she didn’t have much, if any, internal conflict or solid and distinct character building. I will give credit to her badass moments like when she helped rescue Sammy and Kenji from the avalanche.
For starters, Ben barely seems certain of where Gia lives. In season 1 he said she lives in “...Europe?” like he wasn’t even sure, which struck me as odd, since in season 3 he knows her full house address. Then he doesn’t mention her aside from trying to convince the camp fam he does in fact have a girlfriend. It would’ve made so much more sense for there to have been at least one scene of Ben trying to contact Gia during season 2, or a snapshot of Gia’s hand holding her phone that’s ringing Ben’s number or something.
And if not Ben and Gia trying to contact each other, I also would’ve liked a scene where Gia confronts Ben for not contacting her the whole time he was in danger. She’d been keeping up with dinosaur news, and was really worried about him as far as I remember. Just one scene where they don’t seem so picture perfect, and have an honest, slightly gritty conversation about their feelings, maybe with Ben promising he’ll try his best to make contact with her so she doesn’t worry so much.
And my main issue with them, Gia validates Ben’s paranoia! When Ben repeatedly says phones are traceable, it’s kind of treated as a running gag, rather than a serious paranoid though (even if there is truth to it, Ben’s anxiety around it is pretty exaggerated and not healthy). Gia validating those paranoid thoughts will really damage Ben’s mental health, and I know other people have issues with this too.
Ben also doesn’t seem like himself around Gia. When Gia says something along the lines of Ben being well behaved, he frowns slightly and says “I can be trouble.” Ben also randomly works out, seemingly to impress Gia, and not because he actually wants to (since we don’t see him doing it any other time) which is kind of disingenuous. It just seems like, for a relationship where both parties are supposed to know a more whole and complete version of each other, Gia seems not to know much about Ben’s true personality.
Finally, they seem heteronormative in my opinion. Yes, Ben can still be queer coded and date a woman, but it essentially boils down to the man in the relationship going off on adventures while Gia stays at home. Of course there’s elements of them not being heteronormative, but it really didn’t sit right with me.
If Dreamworks tweaked all these things I might genuinely ship Bengia, but going off what we have, I just don’t ship them at all.
TL;DR, my opinion is that Gia was not introduced well, and she could’ve been a more rounded character in terms of personality. Plus Bengia’s seemingly perfect relationship definitely has issues which aren’t addressed (yet).
I like Gia but i AGREE i rolled my eyes so hard when they just HAPOENED to end up in the exact part of italy where she lived😭😭 or they somehow managed to trek tens to hundreds of miles in snowy wilderness to get to her?? WHILE DRESSED FOR “light autumnal chill weather” AT THE MAX??? NDJSSJSJJS
This franchise loooovesss its convenient little location arrivals 💀 like in S2, when nublar 6’s shipping container goes rogue and then ends up in senegal randomly. OF COURSE, the facility place theyre looking for just happens to be “right up river.” HELLO? 😭
Its times like these youre really reminded that JWCC & JWCT are kid shows 🥲
Hope s4 writes Gia well. Thanks for sharing your opinion and keeping it respectful
