OC Fic
Title: The Hart Break
Chapter 8
Author: ChaseII
Story Rating: PG-13(?) (minor language)
Story is AU
Disclaimer: The OC Universe, with all its assorted characters, belongs to Josh Schwartz, et. al. No copyright or trademark infringement is intended, nor is any money being made.
(Note: The Harts belong to me.)
A/N: Many thanks to Beachtree, ever a ( Read more... )
My first thought about Ryan being emotionally unwell was Duh! He had his GF OD, be held captive by a gun-wielding lunatic, turn lesbian, almost raped, shoot his brother, watch her new guy-pal die while Ryan tried to save him, take up with the Nazi surfer....and then die herself. And his mom and brother moved out of state, his dad returned still an asshole, IMHO. None of this was his doing, but how many kids have all this crap by the time they are 18! And with Marissa at least, Ryan signed up for the job himself.
You continue with one of the biggest complaints we all had with canon Cohens - that damn pool house! How many of us, myself included, have tried to correct that in fic? And of course TPTB and their awful writing of non-parenting. Plus, I suspect they wanted to keep Ryan able to bring home the girls for those lovely almost-sex scenes....but I digress.
Megan contemplates Ryan's lack of self-esteem, which certainly wasn't caused by the Cohens. True, they did little to help it, but Ryan's insecurities were set long before he came to them. IRL, it would take intensive therapy to correct his early upbringing, not just the unconditional love of a good woman. And I'm not so sure it doesn't come with strings. For Ryan to accept what Megan wants to give him, he, in true Ryan fashion, would be in effect slapping Kirsten in the face. At least in his conflicted mind.
All this being said, I do love this story. I look forward to what happens in SF, but cannot wait to see what you have in store for when he returns to Newport. Too much pressure? Imagine my having to wait what I imagine will be a very long time to read that!!!
As always, excellent work.
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We agree that TPTB did the Cohens few favors with respect to their portrayal of the Cohens' parenting Ryan. Throughout the series, I think there are far more instances where Ryan was ignored, neglected, used, or chastised (usually about some failure of his with a GF) than there were moments where he was well-parented or fully-embraced.
As you point out, by age 18 Ryan faced a plethora of issues, some he came to the Cohens with, and others that found him in Newport.
In addition to the ones you've set out, I immediately think about the initial childhood of violence, alcoholism, and abandonment (never addressed), the lack of trust during the Oliver fiasco (maybe even worse than the whole crappy GF piece of that mess -- never addressed), having his brother thrust on him with no one paying any attention to the resultant issues that Sandy Cohen-championed arrangement bred (we saw where that lack of attention led -- never addressed), being told off by Kirsten at her 'intervention' -- no apology), giving up everything to play psudo-parent to an 'almost' child only to think that child died (no discussions, ever), having Sandy's flippant 'at least the jumpsuit still fits' remark thrown in his face -- no apology), being pushed to reconnect with 'mom' without anyone seemingly concerned that Dawn might be an alcoholic mess or be entangled with another violent man (I'm looking at you, Kirsten), being pushed into a relationship with 'dad' against his will (Kirsten, Frank isn't Caleb, and Ryan isn't you!), being virtually ignored during most of season three by both Cohen parents (after Kirsten's Sariok lobotomy and Sandy's evil clone showed up), having to parent Seth during most of the series (can't blame the Cohens for not wanting that responsibility -- I'd want someone else to parent Seth, too)...
Sorry for the litany -- I'm stopping, but there are many, many more instances where I believe the writers dropped the ball.
(Thanks TPTB writers, for taking your own terrific blueprint for the Cohens and writing them into shadows of who I think they were meant to be.)
Fanfic wrote them so much better than they were played out on TV!
Canon Cohens provided Ryan with a home, and food, and education. They gave him a safe place to live (although if he'd been in the pool house during the earthquake, given how that thing shattered onscreen, he'd have been a goner!), and an opportunity to make something of himself.
Additionally, there were a few beautiful, iconic moments when they gave him more -- and to Ryan, with so little self-esteem or selfworth, anything they gave him was far more than he would have ever dreamed of having. These are the moments we all cling to, I think. We see them and think 'that's the real Cohens.' However, in reality, those moments were few and far between, particularly after Season One.
I'll always believe that, thanks to inattentive writing, far too many important 'Ryan' issues went unaddressed by anyone named Cohen. (And yes, I'm sure much of it was so that we could dance on to the oh-so-deeply-moving teen romances, which sadly became priorty one with TPTB. Gag.)
I agree wholeheartedly with your point about Ryan's issues -- at this point in Ryan's life, neither the Cohens nor the Harts (or the two together) could possibly correct all Ryan's issues without significant professional help. If you and I can see that, I'd think the adults in his life would, too -- that someone would insist that he get some therapy and start addressing his self-worth issues and assorted demons, rather than continuing to ignore or bury them.
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Of course the Oliver moments made me scream at my TV. And every time a character wanted Ryan to "BOND" with a family member....some of them should have been institutionalized, not bonded with! Like Kirsten freaking pushed Ryan to Theresa and to Dawn. Kirsten and Taylor wanted Ryan to make nice with Frank. So many wrongs here.
We did such a better job of writing the characters in fanfic than TPTB did. And yes, they dropped the ball repeatedly with the parenting.
that someone would insist that he get some therapy and start addressing his self-worth issues and assorted demons, rather than continuing to ignore or bury them OMG yes! But I'm guessing that the population as a whole has a thing against therapy.
And again, ITA.
And yes, I'm sure much of it was so that we could dance on to the oh-so-deeply-moving teen romances, which sadly became priorty one with TPTB. Gag)
And didn't you want to gag on that?
Damn---why did no one want Ryan to go into therapy????
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Poor Ryan, riddled with insecurities... and yet in canon no one ever seemed to care. Maybe one of the scenes on TV that most powerfully showed how much he needed help was the scene where he was going off to the fishing boat.
He told Sandy and Kirsten that he might not be an Atwood anymore, but that he wasn't a Cohen, either. The Cohens listened to him talking about there being no difference between being lost on land or lost on sea.
For Ryan, speaking those words aloud had to be like him screaming "I need help" from some mountaintop. What did Sandy and Kirsten do? Absolutely nothing. They simply watched him leave. (The whole stupid Dean of Discipline & Taylor scam was Seth and Summer's brainchild -- not Sandy's.)
Yikes -- another rant! I'm done, I promise. It's just that bad, bad writers make bad, bad Cohens. If I want 'our' adorable Cohens, I have to turn to fanfic, where the Cohens can be the parents we all hoped they would be.
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