very messy, unedited rant about mari ibarra
mari ibarra is such an interesting character, especially after her development in season 3, and killing her off was such a poor decision (but also, at the end of the day, who else would it have been?). it's so hard to believe that she really isn't going to be in the next season. i never really realized how important a character she was until she was gone.
i'm currently rewatching season 3 and her scenes with coach ben really had me thinking. i feel like there's so much more to her character that we just never got to see. i honestly thought her scenes in the cave were really endearing. the way she goes from completely flipping out and yelling at him to letting her guard down a little bit after being offered hot chocolate. after the hot chocolate she starts to feel like she can trust him again and tries to get him to sleep with her. but after coach rejected her i feel like thats what led to her spraying him with the bear mace.
much like shauna i feel like mari is very sensitive to rejection but tries to hide it, but where shauna hides her sensitivity with anger, mari hides it with humor or apathy.
mny times throughout the show we see mari sucking up to whoever has the most influence or power at the time. first, it was jackie. "who has the best arm?" "i do jackie!" hanging out with jackie at the lake, where you can debate whether she truly wanted to talk to jackie or not. but seeing how quickly she turned on jackie and sent snarky remarks her way (like forcing her to go get water) i dont think she truly cared that much about being friends with jackie. i think it was once agaun just going wherever the power was. and for my personal marishauna agenda i like to think that she saw through shauna's bs and just wanted to piss her off and make her jealous. (more on shauna and mari later). later on when jackie starts to lose power and lottie starts to gain power, who do we see mari befriend? lottie. because she goes wherever she will receive benefits. and then after lottie is beat and natalie is selected leader, she starts to be pissier to lottie (the pee comments). what i do find interesting is that we never see her have this admiration or follower energy toward natalie when shes leader. maybe by this point she just doesnt care about power anymore? or another possiblity is that she simply doesnt like nat. mari is a judgemental and rude girl (no shade i love mari) so part of me think it might be a mixture of distaste for nat and deciding influence doesnt matter anymore at this point in survival.
anyway, now i want to get a little bit into headcanons. in the original script mari makes up a rumor about becky (girl who prank called misty) because she got a better grade than her on a test. the rumor was that becky uses peanut butter to get her dog to go down on her. ive always been a firm believer that these girls already had darkness and cruelty within them before the plane even went down (especially shauna and misty but mari, melissa, and tai are also mentionable) and this line from the script was confirmation of that for me.
this specific action from mari gets me thinking so much. to start, the first thing i take away is that shes clearly smart and cares about her academics. if shes petty enough to start a nasty rumor like that over a test score, grades clearly mean a lot to her. i find this so interesting because up until her scene in the cave with ben, she's always been portrayed as a stupid airhead. but the more i think about the more i love the idea of competetive mari who has to be the best at everything, even though shes rarely successful. soccer, tests, boys, power, influence. even though she never actually makes it to the top she still clings to the possibility that she someday might.
the next part of that line from the script is the cruelty that seems to come naturally to her. we see mari being rude very often. she sells people out, insults them when they're vulnerable, and overall isn't very loyal. i love characters like her and misty and shauna who have this darkness to them but also have their hidden sensitivity and kindness.
in season 3 we find out the mari was with her four year old cousin while she died. that she watched her die. (which let me get this out really quick before i go on, i love the idea of mari having a huge super close family, possibly living with some of her cousins or grandparents). i love this scene where she finally opens up for the first time in the show. we see how traumatized, hurt, and truly affected she really is, which she usually works so hard to mask. and during her confession, we also see how intellectual she is, sharing her theories about the multiple realities. this isnt a stupid girl who thinks and cares about nothing. shes clearly a complex and calculated thinker who resorts to harsh words or actions to hide her soft-heartedness.
and that is what makes mari, mari. i wish the show didnt kill her off, but i also understand that it was necessary to create who she is. we never got to see her fully be herself with all her guards down, other than that short conversation with ben. so many of these girls we only got to see suffer and become products of their environments. if it werent for the crash, i do still think that mari would be an asshole, but she also wouldve gotten the chance to grown up and mature. she wouldve gotten the chance to show everyone her kind heart. but she never did, and that is the tragedy of mari ibarra.
i wanted to talk a little more about marishauna but i think ill expand on them more in a different rant im planning about how shauna and jackie arent compatible romantically (dont crusify me, i LOVE jackieshauna, but i also do think im right) and how marishauna, shaunahat, or butcherqueen are all more compatible than jackieshauna
anyway if anybody read this messy rambling thank you so much! id love to hear some other opinions about her characterization (:
