Discover Top Posts Tagged with #susannah simon

I love Susannah Simon as a character so much

I love that no matter how abrasive and “tough” she is, she’s also so GIRLY POP. You know that interview with Kristen Stewart about faux girl power and how often when people write a female protagonist they actually just write a male protagonist and give her a girl name and it’s so frustrating because they didn’t actually do any work to make the character have depth so being female doesn’t add anything and ends up making her kind of boring? Yeah, the mediator does NOT have that problem.

One of my favorite things about the first book is when she first meets and touches Jesse (grabbing the finger he angrily points at her face and threatening to break it) and he says, “what kind of…girl are you?” and she gets so offended! As she should! She’s like, “hey, you don’t get to call my gender identity into question just because I threatened you with violence” and she goes through all the things that she identifies with being a girl. Not a single thought of being “not like other girls”, not a single stray despair at being a girl instead of a Big Strong Boy TM, and nowhere in the entire series does she disparage the interests or feelings of other girls.

And there are so many different kinds of girls and women!! Suze with her leather jacket and batgirl boots and also her affinity for high fashion and designer clothes and accessories, Gina with her raw sex appeal and blazing self confidence, CeeCee with her intelligence and lack of interest in her looks but still an interest in boys, Kelly and Debbie as shallow and silly but still being shown as sympathetic, Heather as a silly and shallow girl with a legitimate mental illness that is shown as valid and Suze doesn’t let people disparage it, Helen Simon-Ackerman as this successful news lady who is also so soft and motherly, even sister Ernestine!!

And also, as confident as Suze is in some of her abilities, she’s also so clearly an insecure teenage girl!! She wonders why boys never liked her while also assuring the reader that clearly it can’t be because she’s ugly because Suze has a high opinion of her looks. And she lets herself be wooed by boys she doesn’t like simply because it feels validating!! What a common phenomenon! I would have and have done the same! I’m pretty sure that as she’s kissing tad (before Jesse interrupts them lol) she’s like “ew why does he dress like he’s from New Jersey, and also there’s clearly nothing behind his eyes” but also “wow he’s such a good kisser, I can’t believe I’m being kissed by a hot guy!!” And I LOVE that dichotomy so much.

I will always love Meg Cabot for creating such a kindred spirit to so many girls in Suze Simon.

#the mediator series #Suze Simon #Susannah Simon #Meg Cabot

Paul x Suze headcanons

Suze and Paul exist a lot in my head, and I have a lot of ideas on what their relationship dynamic would be like. After watching Wuthering Heights (I agree with a lot of the criticisms of this movie, but I also really enjoyed the romance), the relationship dynamic between Cathy and Heathcliff reminded me of how I picture Suze and Paul.

They’re so obsessed with each other — mentally, physically. They’re so witty and funny, and so much more alike than Suze cares to admit — true intellectual equals. Their physical appearance is almost completely irresistible; one glance is enough to drive them wild. But these aren’t the only similarities they hold. They’re both extremely stubborn and desperate to hold power over the other.

In my headcanon, Paul has some kind of big, evil, messed-up Paul plan — probably to take over the world using their gift. Suze is extremely against that, and when they’re not bickering over something silly and insignificant, this is the big overarching conflict. Also, Suze doesn’t need Paul quite as much as he needs her.

I think Paul is extremely wealthy, handsome, smart, and obviously he’s a mediator, so he somewhat understandably has an inflated sense of self. Anyone who is near his level, like his grandfather or his brother, either scorns him or is terrified of him — or both. Everyone else who is obsessed with him is nothing but inferior, and worst of all, they bore him. Without Suze in his life, Paul is incredibly bored. Everything comes his way; nothing is interesting or meaningful. All he has left is his search for power.

Suze is incredibly drawn to him, yes — she cares about him deeply, and she values more about him than she hates — but she has friends, family, and Jesse. Because of this, she is not afraid to just break up with him and ignore him, not take any calls from him for weeks — to which he persists, breaks down her walls, and uses his agonisingly accurate ability to read her and control her to get her right back to where he (and she, secretly) wants her. He is extremely good at manipulation and will do whatever it takes.

This frustrates Suze so much that she will act out, do things to embarrass him, upset him — anything to try to prove that she has just as much control. These usually only really affect other people’s perception of him, to which he finds a way to charm them back. He more so just gets disappointed in Suze — that she’s not living up to her potential.

That love where you honestly just make each other’s lives hell is what reminded me of Wuthering Heights. I really love this relationship dynamic as well bc Its so dramatic and temperamental, constantly changing, that I can literally picture it with every song I listen to

#Mediator #meg cabot #Paul Slater #Susannah simon #the Mediator #PaulxSuze #wuthering heights

“Do people in the twenty-first century still dance?” My heart beat thundered in my ears, far louder than the slow music. “Hm,” I said, barely able to swallow, my throat had gone so dry. “Sometimes.” “How about now?” he asked.

Thinking about how all of Suze can really be defined by the loss of her father and the fact that she is divinely tasked with helping ghosts move on and the fact that she was never going to be able to confide in anyone for the first 16 years of her life.

Like- its a YA Novel, you dont pay attention to the psychology of characters but it's so very clear, that she is strung so tight you could flick her and she'd snap. And she does. Numerous times throughout the series. Do not blame her one bit for being short with the fucking ghosts or kicking their ass. She's earned it. She is so taken aback when she finds out about Father Dom being the same as her, and its evident in how fast she grows to trust and like Jesse as well. She's got her friends and her family but lying to them about something that intrinsically makes you who you are? like, girl is fucked up.

I think a very core aspect of Suze is that she wants to and has to try and be the hero, because for her there's no other option available. Even if it's detrimental to herself. In the flashback from i think Twilight, she talks about how she didn't stop her dad from going for the stroll that killed him, almost as if she blames herself. She has to save everyone, she has to do the right thing.

Peter's ghost tells her she's always made the right decisions and like she shouldn't have to, she's just 16.

#this is very scattered #but i wanted to type it out #the mediator meg cabot #susannah simon #meta #? ig