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Another issue with S3 is they really could've explored personal stories more (Eddie's relationship with his dad which is disregarded after Sweet briefly expels the Sibunas, and the descendants plot). Instead, they over relied on the romance which caused problems for new characters (KT being considered an obstacle for Peddie) and old ones (Patricia being jealous the entire season and Fabian not having a plot due to a lack of a romantic partner and being paired with Mara at the last minute).
I have no idea how long this has been waiting for me to read cuss I never check my inbox but OMG THIS THIS THIS! especially the relying on romance. So often (even before season 3) romance was used as a driving force for the narative or character arcs and whilst thats great...it gets boring. It's quite a large main cast with side characters being introduced every season. There isn't realllly enough school romance plots that can fit in WITH the mysteries for every character to constantly have this romance plot line. But as you said with Fabian, the writers also don't know what to do with a character once they remove that romantic partner. I think it's espeically hard for the writers to continue writing a compelling and strong character arc once the person is in a relationship. Patrica I think is the best example of this character growth stunting because in season 1 she didn't really have a massive romance arc like in other seasons. her growth happened through her platonic love for Joy sure, and eventually learning to be friends with the sibunas and realising that she CAN trust other people to help her. But no massive romantic love stories. Then eddie comes and as much as I LOVE them her own character growth was pushed back to focus on the romance. and that focus on her growth just never returned in a satisfying way for me. But also your definitly right with Eddies relationship with his dad it was such a complex and tricky relationship that seemed to only cause problems when the narative needed it to. Honestly thats how a lot of the characters negative aspects work, they are fine untill the narative NEEDS them not to be. And no this isn't me trying to say "characters need to constantly be suffering from past issues with no growth" even though as I'm reading it back it kinda sounds like I am, but certain things just don't randomly go away before returning at the same extreme level as when it was before. If they had worked through Eddies relationship with his dad and explored it before them finding a working solution, fantastic, but then they don't need to bring it back up UNLESS something new happens that shifts the peace from before. Imagine if Nina never got over her home sickness but it only popped up every 5 episode. That would feel strange and weird. I would like to add that this isn't me saying that season 3 is awful and that the first two seasons don't also have these issues, but its more prevelant in season 3 and there was less 'intresting 'special' moments to make up for it.
Joy absolutely brought fabian a shit-ton of fabs during the summer as a joke on his nickname. He’d be like “I’m so hot” and bam 5 minuets later she’s shoving a fab ice lollie in his hand cuss she’s just so kind
trans Fabian is rotting my brain rn and its just ???? perfect. him finding out his parents wrote him down a boy and being ecstatic and then realise oh shit I'm dorming with cisboy and panicking to the point he drags his massive suitcase all the way back to the gate in hopes of god randomly sending his parents back to pick him up ( they don't and victor ends up pissed at him and definitely makes a comment or two about him being a whimp but trudy is the girlboss she is and comforts him thinking he’s just homesick). Anyway he walks into his room finally and sees the man the myth the legend, Mick whos got sports gear everywhere and a massive Smile who rushes in to give him a hug because he's stoked about this to have a brother at this school and Fabian thinks for a moment that actually maybe this is going to go well. and it does go well because Micks epic and when he finds out Fabian is trans dude doesn't know what that means he just sorta goes “....we’re still roommates right?” because he couldn't care less what his friend is as long as Fabian is his friend.