Emma Harwood and Tashi Duncan: How both women are treated and perceived in their respective worlds and relationships versus how both are treated and perceived by the audience
The idea for this analysis sparked from an amalgamation of things.
1. Discussions with friends and my mom about the respective characters and their films. Noticing moots’ friends discussing Tashi versus Emma in terms of characterization, writing, performance, etc.
2. The statement “you only like/empathize with her because Zendaya played her.”
3. The great question posed in Trin Lovell’s video review of The Drama when addressing the question of why did Emma’s secret have to be *that* and if it had been something else like cheating for example- would it really had been received better?
4. Emma’s relationship with Charlie versus Tashi’s relationships with Art and Patrick. The topic of love and truly knowing someone.
1. I’ve seen the term “plot device” or “it’s really the men’s story” hurled towards Emma and Tashi. Both sentiments, I respectfully heavily disagree with. Neither story exists without them and I don’t want to imagine either without them. But I do believe the writing in both stories isn’t perfect.
The Drama: I personally would’ve liked a tad bit more scenes of Emma’s perspective in the present especially after she’s ostracized by Charlie and their friends. I wanted to dive further into her beautiful empathy as an adult and how despite everything, she didn’t really lose sight of it. Obviously outside of her firing the first DJ but I think she just wanted to make Charlie happy and be on his good side again.💔 I would’ve liked to see her talking to her parents after the disastrous wedding speech. Did her parents feel guilty for not knowing that their daughter was suffering silently as a teenager? Do they feel complicit over her radicalization as a teenager?
Challengers: If you know me or you’re new around these parts, I make no secret that I did not like that most of Tashi’s scenes from the original script got cut entirely or edited down. I fully understand the argument for subtlety, I do. But I love that the original script was direct. It will forever make me sad that I didn’t get to see Zendaya do those scenes because Tashi is my favorite character and performance of her’s and I know she would’ve killed those scenes. Some of my favorite scenes from the original script was Tashi in the dorm room with Art, the longer alleyway scene with Patrick, the moment with reporters with Art and them in their hotel room in Atlanta, the longer Atlanta scene with Patrick, and the longer car scene.
As for performance: Tashi is my favorite performance of Zendaya’s and my favorite character of all time. I could go on and on about why I love my fictional sister but we’d be here all day. Emma would easily be my second. I love how Zendaya is operating in both roles. Emma is played with beautiful understatement while Tashi played with a gorgeous vibrancy.
In conclusion, I think I’m more forgiving with Emma and The Drama than I am with Tashi and Challengers. Firstly, The Drama didn’t cut out that much from its original script and what was cut, I honestly think the film was better off. Secondly, I won’t lie to y’all. Audience perception plays a big factor. It shouldn’t because no one is forced to like these women and engage with them but I’m human lol. I am continuously blown away by how much the audience has empathized with Emma and wanted to analyze the character on a deeper level. I never would’ve anticipated that due to previous audience perception to Tashi, which brings us to point two.
2 and 3: I’d like to push back on the statement “you only like and empathize with Emma because Zendaya is playing her.” Emma Harwood and Tashi Duncan in my honest opinion, are two characters that can go south very quickly in the wrong hands. One of the reasons Zendaya is my favorite actress is her deep empathy, compassion, understanding, and love for her characters. It shines beautifully with Emma and Tashi. That said, the empathy that is extended to Emma, generally hasn’t been extended to Tashi. I must reiterate that the audience isn’t obligated to like Tashi or empathize with her. I’ve known that for two years lol.
Emma is kind, empathetic, understanding, patient, thoughtful, naive, and misguided. Not surprised people would gravitate towards her. Teenage Emma, even though we do not condone her thoughts and plans, it’s depressingly easy to understand how she got there. A biracial girl who lived in the Deep South who went to a religious predominantly white school. She was bullied, neglected by her parents and adults in her life, she had unlimited access to the internet and found connection in unhealthy toxic places online where these horrible acts have been glamorized, and she had unlimited access guns. It’s devastating to see how easy it was for her to be radicalized. It’s ultimately her empathy and compassion that makes her realize that what she was planning and practicing to do is horrific and wrong. Her looking across from Sally and no longer seeing her as her tormentor, but someone who was also in pain like she was… Emma could no longer bear the thought of doing what she was going to do. Luckily, not too long after she found that community and committed herself to changing for the better ultimately becoming an anti-gun activist. Empathy and mercy are things that Emma carries with her the rest of her life.
Then we have Tashi. Tashi is confident, blunt, determined, manipulative, love her to death but she can be a bit delusional, cocky, selfish, perceptive, and emotionally repressed. Given her personality and historical context of fictional women who share similar personality traits, it’s not entirely surprising people would be put off by her. Many have interpreted Tashi to be a “girl boss”, a “villain”, a “homewrecker” (even though she was invited to the house 🤔 and never told them to stop talking to each other but that’s for a different conversation lol), or my personal least favorite “the movie would be better without her.” Tashi isn’t a saint by any means and neither are Patrick and Art.🙂 For me, Tashi is a flawed woman deep in her grief and insecurity, that constantly puts up a facade that is cracking day by day. I’ve noticed the visible frustration amongst my fellow Tashi fans who beg the question that The Drama raises “Why is Emma afforded grace and Tashi isn’t?” “Can it really be answered simply due to personality?” Trin Lovell in her YouTube review of The Drama mentioned people saying they wished Emma’s worst thing was cheating instead. But if that had been the case whether Emma cheated on Charlie or she cheated with someone who was married (before she met Charlie) - would the audience perception and treatment still be the same towards Emma? Possibly since Emma’s personality is warmer. But when I think about Tashi’s personality being warmer and her actions in Challengers remaining the same, I’m not sure it would radically change anything concerning audience perception. Just as much as I would’ve liked those specific Tashi original script scenes that got cut or edited down to be in the film, again I think audience perception would remain similar. Tashi in the original script and in the film, is who she is. She is a very unapologetic emotionally repressed woman who can be selfish, who expresses her love and her emotions in a unique way through tennis, she is actively falling apart and desperately trying to hold onto some semblance of control just so she can survive. I fully understand she isn’t the easiest to empathize with. But I empathize with her anyway. Onto the final point lol.
4. To be loved is to be known, I think is a lovely quote and sentiment. It’s really been making me think about how much does Charlie know Emma and how much Art & Patrick know Tashi.
Not that it’s explicitly stated in the film but Emma and Charlie have only been together for 2 years (if that). There’s 10 years between them and there’s a cultural different as well. But what’s really fascinating to me is that it isn’t those details that make you question once you watch the film more than once, does Charlie actually know Emma and does he actually care what she has to say.
1. Their meet cute. Charlie takes a picture of the book Emma is reading and lies that he read it in order to talk to her and go on a date. 5 watches and it baffles me that he goes to Goodreads instead I don’t know, reading the book itself to show that he actually cared about connecting with her on a personal level or bare minimum, reading a spoiler review or going to spark-notes. Pretty sure he doesn’t even glance at The Damage the same time Emma does when they’re at the bookshop when she asks him what he’s going to use for their individual wedding speeches. During the disastrous wedding speech, Charlie doesn’t even remember the name of the book.🥴
2. This has always pissed me off every time I’ve watched the film even more than he cheats, is when Charlie lies to Rachel and Mike about what Emma told him. Emma tells him everything that happened, she holds nothing back. She doesn’t justify her actions. I think Charlie like some have, simplify Emma not going through with her plans due to another tragedy happening in her local mall that resulted in her classmate dying, “beaten to the punch.” But as Emma’s story goes on, it’s much more than that. Empathy and community is what ultimately changed Emma’s mind. It may feel too simple but sometimes that’s just how life is. Sometimes tragedy can be prevented through kindness, empathy, community, and reaching out. Emma tells him it felt like waking up from a bad dream and she knows better than anyone how lucky she is to have a second chance. She lives with that mental anguish and physical reminder with her deaf ear of what she had planned to do. I think had Charlie been honest, I think Mike would’ve understood as he’s the only one at the table after Emma confesses, to not go 0 to 100. (Though Charlie and Rachel’s reactions are understandable because that’s not easy information to absorb for anyone.) Though I doubt it, maybe Rachel would’ve too. But Charlie doesn’t deem Emma’s story as tragic enough to justify her actions to himself or explain them to others even though Emma doesn’t justify it herself and is quite ashamed of them. I also think Charlie thinks Emma is lying to him/omitting information. Which is it’s so funny to see Charlie’s reactions to Emma’s dad’s speech because he’s CONFIRMING what Emma told him beforehand. He still has the audacity to ask if they kept guns in the house after Emma told him she tossed the gun and her dad said the gun mysteriously disappeared. 🥴
3. The song Emma puts on the “fuck” with Charlie. Inside Out by Jesse Rae lyrics lol:
“I wanna be inside out, oh, darling
I've got to be so deep that you'll be needing me (Inside out)
Over and over and over again.”
This song reflects the love and emotional intimacy Emma has for Charlie. She knows how he gets easily stressed over things. For instance when we first hear this dance, Emma is putting it on to help Charlie not be so in his head over their first dance. She’s trying to convince to just be himself and they can just dance as themselves un-choreographed happily together. She puts it on again a second time to start over in order help Charlie ease his mind because she knows he’s overwhelmed by her confession and they can’t move forward until that happens but Charlie thinks it’s stupid and Emma is devastated. Charlie puts on the song again and that’s when I think he finally realizes she wasn’t putting on the song to mess with him. She put it on because loves and knows him. It took him forever to know her but he finally gets it in the end.
You might be thinking: You must really hate Charlie, Princess of Songs!
My answer would be no. I like him a lot. While his reaction is chaotic, it isn’t born out of nothing. That information wouldn’t be easy for anyone to digest. I think the journey he goes through in the film if anything solidifies his love for Emma and makes him really see her. A flawed woman who has regret and guilt, who’s grown as a person who holds a lot of love, empathy, and grace inside and that’s why he truly fell for her in the first place. I love Emma and Charlie’s romance as well as their chemistry. I believe that they love one another. The wedding speech is a disaster but I oddly find it somewhat sweet to some extent. The diner scene is romantic and breaks me every time I watch it. I’d like to think now that everything is out between them and they’re able to survive that, they’ll be able to move forward together happily as a couple.
That said, it’s interesting to me most of the time Charlie’s love isn’t really called to question. But I’ve seen time and time again it be called to question if Patrick loves Tashi. I wanted to examine that. You might be thinking but what about Art? I luckily haven’t come across anyone questioning Art’s love for Tashi but I’ll add it for funsies.
From the moment during their conversation on the beach when Tashi mentions how tennis is a relationship, Art speaks Tashi’s language and learns her very quickly. He knows her so well even when he isn’t in a relationship with her to pick up her insecurities with herself and her insecurities regarding her relationship with Patrick, that he’s able to successfully lie and play a significant (but the not the only reason) part as to why Patashi breaks up. He knows that she’s soft on him and always had a soft spot for him. IMO, it’s part of the reason why her coaching isn’t working much anymore in 2019. He wants her to really push him. He wants her to be passionate in her coaching. It’s why he says “okay?😒” when she tells him it’s okay to retire. He doesn’t want that. Art knows she’s holding back to spare him when he knows Tashi is much more capable of coach than she’s being at the moment. There isn’t really audience doubt of his love for Tashi because he explicitly says “I love you to her” and he’s a softie for her from the moment he sees her and when talks to her the first time. He is devoted to her through thick and thin.
Now we get to Patrick knowing Tashi.
Patrick never explicitly says “I love you” to Tashi nor Art for that matter in the film. Patrick’s love for Art typically isn’t up for debate but as I mentioned before, Patrick’s love for Tashi has always been up for debate. It’s not secret that their relationship is very physically driven. Not just in a sexual sense but in also in a space sense. Patrick often comes into Tashi’s space and as we all know, Tashi likes to be in control and with Patrick….that goes awry very quickly. Patrick is obsessed with Tashi and knows how to get needle at her pretty quickly. When they first meet, Art keeps his respectful distance while Patrick continues to get into Tashi’s space and it works because Tashi is a bit flustered. He’s the one to convince her to go down to the beach and the hotel room. Their first kiss is the perfect symbol of their relationship. The two them fight for dominance, almost trying to get into each other’s skin, and they can’t just simply stay away from one another. Patrick doesn’t cheat on Tashi during the duration of their relationship which is a first for him. He really cares and loves Tashi. He has insecurities that Art picks at which results in the dorm room argument because Tashi and Patrick aren’t saying what they actually want to say and their individual innate desire to always be right. They’re both hurt, Patrick doesn’t go to the match and Tashi has catastrophic knee injury. Because Tashi is angry and also a teenage girl whose mad her boyfriend, she doesn’t want to see him but imo I think she eventually would’ve caved to let Patrick in the room because they can’t really stay away from one another had Art not said anything. Quick point- this isn’t to blame Art. I think Art felt he was doing the right thing because Patrick wasn’t listening to Tashi. I don’t think he meant for his words to be taken that literally. But in the rule of 3’s in the film, it is sadly. Even years later, Patrick can still crack Tashi emotionally very quickly. Whether that be jealousy, facing the fact Art’s career is dwindling down, or her own feelings toward him. The biggest change is that Patrick isn’t as afraid of his vulnerability and lays it all out in the car (also in the sauna scene) and just like their first kiss, it’s too much emotionally and physically for Tashi to handle and she backs away even though it’s pretty clear how she feels and she’s too afraid to let allow herself that in any capacity. Sidenote: I’ve believed that Tashi loves Patrick and Art but that’s not the point of this analysis lol.
Patrick never puts Tashi on a pedestal from the beginning. (Not that I think Art does either) But I think he’s one of the few people in her life that fully acknowledges the cracks in her foundation and even if the not so lovable aspects of her personality can rile him up, he still loves her anyway. I think another reason he loves her is that in the hotel scene, there’s a moment where he looks downward after Tashi asks if anything happened between him and Art with Art quickly laughing no. It’s a blow to him and I think he’s anticipated Tashi to reject them, to be disgusted, disappointed, and leave if she knew the truth. But Tashi surprises him. She wants to know more about them because she likes them and knows there’s more to it than they’re letting on. She’s invested in them as people, as a duo, as individuals, and I think that shakes him to his core.
Conclusion of the fourth point- I think both of these women love their respective partners and that love is reciprocated. However, Charlie does see Emma as a manic pixie dream girl and it takes pure chaos the week of their wedding to make him realize that she isn’t and he loves her anyway. Versus Patrick and Art love and know Tashi from the beginning. They love different aspects of her and acknowledge that she’s not a perfect person. As of right now, I do think audiences are warmer and more understanding of Emma and Charlie & Tashi and Art than they are of Tashi and Patrick. Nothing wrong with that, it’s incredibly fascinating on what people prefer in terms of romantic dynamics and how that love is expressed and interpreted.
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