| an icebook reunion: sensible yet flawed
it has been a year since icy's elimination and i wanted to go over my proper opinion on her entire arc with book. before i begin, i just want to say that this post is going to be different from my other posts as this time, i'll be giving a little bit of criticism about the show. i genuinely do not like giving criticisms as i don't really like being negative. i really prefer looking at the brighter and more positive of things and things to love about the show instead. however, with that being said, i do have a problem with the way how the show handled it, so i would like to talk about it anyway.
before we discuss the problem, i would actually like to say that icy forgiving book was not out of character for her. at a face value, it makes no sense for the most vengeful character of series to forgive book so easily or even forgive book at all. but if looked in depth, i would say that forgiving book was an integral part of icy's character.
now i have said this before and i will say it again but i believe that the conversation between clock and winner in tpot 10 was the catalyst for icy's arc with book. clock and winner both shared the same hardships icy faced with book but in the end, they were able to overcome those hardships together.
icy, not only did she witness clock and winner reconciliation, she actually congratulated clock and said she was happy that he was able to work things out with winner in the end. (this means that icy isn't against the idea of forgiveness which says a lot due to her usual vengeful nature!) and then not a moment after, she looks over to book directly after congratulating clock. the scene here hints that icy might have been inspired by clock and winner to finally talk things out with book. this hints at her actual desire to connect with book.
of course, despite her desire to reconnect with book, icy still has a hard time sharing her true feelings with book, which is why she uncomfortably ignores her when they reunite again in team two.
and yet icy proves to still care about book deeply. she defended book from pencil when pencil tries to coerce book into rejoining her alliance. icy didn't have to protect book from pencil but she did it anyway, meaning she put aside her grievances to help book.
and then we have the "end of the world" scene in tpot 15, where icy runs up to book and price tag. it just goes to show that even if book has hurt her, in the end she would rather be with her than end up alone.
in both instances, this shows that icy still cares a lot about book even if she has trouble reconnecting with her. we have to keep in mind, after book, icy didn't have any close connections with anybody after book besides some of her fellow s! teammates. this made her feel all alone.
this is why in the end, icy told book that she wanted their friendship back. she needed to have a close connection again because she didn't want to end up all alone again. because of that, icy wanted book back because she wanted someone to care about her again. she knew that despite their flawed relationship, ice cube still cared a lot about book because book still remained to be one of her most closest friends in her life.
ice cube forgiving book was never out of character for her. if you actually paid attention to icy's character throughout the series, you would understand the conclusion why icy wanted to reconnect with book again. icy forgave book because she didn't want to end up alone with no one to support her. she forgave book because she wanted to have that care and friendship that she had with book again. in the end, ice cube forgives book she was tired of being alone and wanted to bring back a friend that actually cared for her.
and yet, i can understand why a lot of people were dissatisfied with this outcome and why it didn't make sense that ice cube forgave book so quickly. the biggest problem with book and icy's reunion was that it was cut too quickly. but more than that, they weren't given enough time to sort out their problems.
one of my biggest criticisms about the way how they handled book and icy's reunion was that they weren't given time to talk about their problems. tpot 10 supposedly hinted that ice cube would bring up the courage to talk about her problems with book again. this never happens and that's the problem.
the biggest flaw between book and icy's relationship is that they don't talk, they don't communicate. they're just avoiding each other, walking on eggshells and never addressing the problem. it's something that could've been explored and something that should have been addressed, but jacknjellify doesn't do that. by the time icy gets eliminated, it's too late. jacknjellify had plenty of time between episodes 12 and 16 to redevelop their relationship but they just don't do anything with their problems.
the sad part is that jacknjellify are capable of writing meaningful reunions and exploring problems. the biggest examples i could think of is clock and winner and firey and leafy. while the writing of how they fixed their relationships were flawed, in the end, it shows that jacknjellify had the capability to help write the characters into mending broken relationships. and that's the problem. we could've had scenes like this with ice cube and book where they talk about their problems and what they could do to improve their relationship better. but jacknjellify just doesn't do that. if they could have done it for clock and winner and firey and leafy, why couldn't they do it for book and ice cube?
because jacknjellify were unable to properly write a satisfying conclusion to book and ice cube's arc, it leads to people misinterpreting that ice cube shouldn't have forgiven book because it seems so out of character but in reality, it actually does fit ice cube's character. we just never got the chance to learn ice cube's true feelings and neither do we learn about book's. because of this unsatisfactory ending, it leaves a bad taste on people's mouths. jacknjellify could've written a proper conclusion to book and ice cube's relationships with meaningful lessons of forgiveness and how to mend a broken friendship but they just never do that. instead, all we got is a rushed ending to their relationship with no development or explanation of the character's feelings whatsoever. and it hurts for me to think that icebook's conclusion to their relationship could have been written so much better.
