'This is a story about the three of us, down by the water and the tide is rising...'
Show: Kyle XY
Topic: my hate for Jessi. Is vast enough to topple empires and explode suns.
Since I have so much love for Marguerite and Vala, you think I’d find it in me to like Jessi, someone who isn't the traditional heroine, who has flaws and makes mistakes. BUT I TRIED, OKAY. I gave it my best shot and she still keeps sinking to new lows and inspiring only more disgust and loathing. She got a chance and she blew it. I sympathize with characters that are brittle and hard-edged on the outside for good reason, to protect themselves, and even if they may not be particularly moral or pleasant, their heart ends up being in the right place. But that isn't Jessi at all.
Both Marguerite and Vala come off as flighty, shallow, selfish and greedy but they have proven time and again what valuable assets they are to their respective teams. They’ve risked their lives to save others and demonstrated courage, compassion and integrity. Jessi? None of the above. She's not 'complex' or 'multi-faceted', she's not 'ambiguous' or any of that other supposedly character-developing crap, she's just a stupid kid who abuses her powers for her own selfish whims with no regard for anyone else.
She hurts everyone around her, and blames everyone else but her. She never takes responsibility for her actions, it’s always her programming or because she didn’t have a normal upbringing and she’s so deprived and unloved. Well, Kyle is in the same situation but he’s a force for good, so she has no excuse for turning out bad.
As I’ve said before, Jessi’s selfish and psychotic and everyone keeps giving her chances when she doesn’t deserve them. She uses people without any sense of remorse and doesn’t care who she hurts to get what she wants. And she’s manipulative and delusional.
FOR INSTANCE, Amanda puts up with so much from her that the occasional snarky remark is expected but Jessi cries foul at the slightest hint of criticism, all, ‘You enjoy being mean to me’- whine whine whine- then two seconds later, she calls Amanda lame and pathetic and says she doesn’t like her and she ain’t good enough for Kyle. Well.
I’m disappointed that the fandom is overwhelmingly Kyle/Jessi because I thought the focus of the show was his search for what it meant to be human, and his relationship with Amanda was an example of the purity and sweetness and joy of being a normal person. He yearned for her from afar for a year, and even after they started dating, they didn’t leap to sex immediately, it was about deepening emotions and bonds to each other, learning about themselves and how they fit together as a couple, it was very sweet and innocent and utterly lovely, like a fairytale.
Jessi doesn’t suit him at all. She’s his obligation, his burden, his responsibility. And I hate it. Everyone screws up and he’s left to pick up after them and her and sort everything out. And she never appreciates him, she just uses him. Kyle nearly kills himself saving her a dozen different times but she always goes and acts recklessly and jeopardizes his life, his family and his secrets and when he’s down or sick or hurting, she just cares about how she can be better than him, and how she can beat him at something. GOD. I DON’T CALL THIS A SHIP, PEOPLE. A COMPLETE AND UTTER TRAVESTY, THAT’S WHAT IT IS.
She doesn’t give a damn about his opinion. If he thinks something, she’ll do the opposite because she wants to compete with him and show him up, or because she wants to please her father- who’s using her and couldn’t care less about her- or her mother- who sickened me with that comment ‘I’m here now, it’s all right’ but she did nothing, Kyle was lying there, half-dead from reviving Jessi from her meltdown. That whole scene showed how stupid and undeserving Jess is- he offers her a family, somewhere to belong and she’d rather die and kill everyone around her because she doesn’t want to be part of his family, she wants her own superior, way more awesome family.
SO. MUCH. HATE.
Don't expect me to be cheering on this less-than-epic romance. Colossal error in judgement, more like it. I will hate the show if it goes in this direction.
Kyle's relationship with Amanda was one of the main reasons I enjoyed this show, finally, a mature teen romance without all the stupidity and dumbass mistakes and meaningless angst. And now they're going to ruin it by breaking them up. That on-again, off-again thing works for Lori and Declan because of their personalities and their issues, it makes sense that they'll keep being drawn together and torn apart over and over, because they're such good friends that even when they break up, they still understand and hang out with each other, and care for each other so much they stray into romance again, but it's not the same with Kyle and Amanda, and it cheapens their relationship.