(no subject)
Asked over on Tumblr, but might be of interest to you, too. (And yes, I'm very aware of the fact that I know a few people replies, especially in the SVU entry. I will get around to that eventually, but for now? Bedtime!)
Anonymous asked you: Why do you thnk it is that Tony seems to always be the one doing the relapsing? Is it a case of his character arc hasn't come around full circle like Ziva's has after Somalia? Or is it just the writers score points with the audienc by keeping Tony their perpetual fratboy?
Oooh. That’s actually a really interesting question, anon. (Although I’m not sure I should thank you for it, given the fact that you just made me think… right when I was about to go to bed in the wee hours of the morning, lol!)
I think mostly it’s a sign of Tony repressing so very hard when it comes to growth and emotional development. He is, after all, “the guy who looks reality in the face and refuses to accept it”. Facing stuff, dealing with it, growing through it, even though it’s painful - he never really learned how to do that. (How could he, with that dad?) He’s only lately gotten around to actually growing up emotionally, and the few lessons he took from that always stirred painful events in his past. It’s his perpetual MO: he represses and refuses to accept and says it isn’t so, and as a result he often relapses into the behavior patterns that served him (and his dad) so well for years.
Ziva, on the other hand… now, she doesn’t deal with bad stuff, either, but she still handles it in a completely different way: she doesn’t ignore it, but she firmly tucks it away. She puts the label of acceptance on it (“It is what it is”) and mistakes that for dealing with the past. Now, I’m not saying that’s the more healthy approach, but it still leaves her with an awareness of the bad things that have happened to her and around her, and that changes her and keeps her character ever-evolving. (I think she is actually the *only* character on the show who has changed *this* massively. Yes, the others have changed/evolved to a certain degree, but none of them have come this far.) She’s… I think, essentially, Ziva is simply better at coping with change than Tony is, so yes, to me it feels natural that he is the one who relapses.
Anonymous asked you: Why do you thnk it is that Tony seems to always be the one doing the relapsing? Is it a case of his character arc hasn't come around full circle like Ziva's has after Somalia? Or is it just the writers score points with the audienc by keeping Tony their perpetual fratboy?
Oooh. That’s actually a really interesting question, anon. (Although I’m not sure I should thank you for it, given the fact that you just made me think… right when I was about to go to bed in the wee hours of the morning, lol!)
I think mostly it’s a sign of Tony repressing so very hard when it comes to growth and emotional development. He is, after all, “the guy who looks reality in the face and refuses to accept it”. Facing stuff, dealing with it, growing through it, even though it’s painful - he never really learned how to do that. (How could he, with that dad?) He’s only lately gotten around to actually growing up emotionally, and the few lessons he took from that always stirred painful events in his past. It’s his perpetual MO: he represses and refuses to accept and says it isn’t so, and as a result he often relapses into the behavior patterns that served him (and his dad) so well for years.
Ziva, on the other hand… now, she doesn’t deal with bad stuff, either, but she still handles it in a completely different way: she doesn’t ignore it, but she firmly tucks it away. She puts the label of acceptance on it (“It is what it is”) and mistakes that for dealing with the past. Now, I’m not saying that’s the more healthy approach, but it still leaves her with an awareness of the bad things that have happened to her and around her, and that changes her and keeps her character ever-evolving. (I think she is actually the *only* character on the show who has changed *this* massively. Yes, the others have changed/evolved to a certain degree, but none of them have come this far.) She’s… I think, essentially, Ziva is simply better at coping with change than Tony is, so yes, to me it feels natural that he is the one who relapses.