Um, That's Not How It Originally Happened: Retcons Good & Bad

[UYI]

Felicia being a deadbeat mother in the 2000's. Sadly, it's clear by now that Frisco really was/is a deadbeat father, but the audience actually SAW Felicia raise Maxie and Georgie. Which makes these scenes, no matter how great Kirsten Storms is in them, total bullshit.

 

[methodwriter85]

On 11/22/2021 at 10:37 AM, jsbt said:

I didn't mind Ethan initially, but ultimately his entire role became simply to be Off-Brand Lucky for Tony to lavish adoration upon for, uh, reasons. I heard (though can't confirm) that it was TG that insisted Ethan be his kid, which was ridiculous, but when JJ returned Ethan was completely superfluous.

I was pretty much on the barge for most of the mid/late 2000's on this show, so I mostly missed Ethan, although I am familiar with his later work on Roswell New Mexico. 

You've now given me flashbacks though to how Tony would say "Hey, Cowboy" to Jacob Young's Lucky and everyone thought it sounded less like father/son and more like a sexual come-on. 

As for Lenora, I'm really surprised this show hasn't decided to retcon her death and have it turn out to be EVIL Alex hid Lenora from Anna all these years. Does it make any sense? No, but neither did suddenly deciding to make Anna's normal twin Alex from AMC suddenly evil. Finola did seem to have way more fun with playing Evil Alex than she did playing Boring Normal Alex, so I'm not as angry about Alex being retconned as evil.

Edited November 24, 2021 by methodwriter85

[ouinason]

Yes, the absolute WTFery of how they changed Alex's entire character when she showed up on GH will never not annoy me.

 

I mention this too often, but the way that they have background retconned Jason's role in Jake's life is stupid.  HE DID NOT KNOW JASON BEFORE HE "DIED".  He just didn't.  He knew Jason's face as the one from Helena's Island, that's it.

[WendyCR72]

5 hours ago, UYI said:

Felicia being a deadbeat mother in the 2000's. Sadly, it's clear by now that Frisco really was/is a deadbeat father, but the audience actually SAW Felicia raise Maxie and Georgie. Which makes these scenes, no matter how great Kirsten Storms is in them, total bullshit.

 

Maybe, but even so, I miss that Maxie, one with fire and not bogged down with 800,000 kids (or so it feels like!) and general idiocy.

[jsbt]

I mean, Felicia left Mac and the kids for a fling with Luke and then Roy, and then split town and shacked up with Frisco while she was supposed to be caring for Mariah. Mac became the only consistent parent they had. I think she had a lot to answer for by the time she returned in 2012, and fortunately they rehabilitated the character which I didn't think would ever happen. I felt Ron and Frank's approach to that rehabilitation was extremely lazy and half-assed when they brought her back, but ultimately I was just so happy to have her back and with Mac and fixed as a character - I could not stand Felicia from about 1999 on until she exited in the early 2000s - that I rolled with it.

[ouinason]

That was less retcon and more sudden character shift.  I have no idea why they decided to go in that particular direction with Felicia, but I assume that KW pissed someone OFF.

[Cheyanne11]

8 hours ago, jsbt said:

Mac became the only consistent parent they had.

Best father on the show who actually isn't one legally or biologically.  But he raised Robin, Maxie and Georgie and did a damned good job.

[Melgaypet]

22 minutes ago, Cheyanne11 said:

Best father on the show who actually isn't one legally or biologically.  But he raised Robin, Maxie and Georgie and did a damned good job.

TBH, I'm still mad that Robin and Patrick didn't name their son after Mac.

[Cheyanne11]

10 minutes ago, Melgaypet said:

TBH, I'm still mad that Robin and Patrick didn't name their son after Mac.

Named after Noah, whom Patrick had a crappy relationship with--I just...

 

[SlovakPrincess]

Retcons are always a sign of bad writing, IMO.  It's reworking (ruining, usually) an old story because you can't figure out a new story.  

Now, fans understandably sometimes want a retcon to fix a shitty story, but again, that's just a desperate desire to get rid of a shitty story, so it's bad writing on top of bad writing.  

Of all the characters with holes in their background that could legitimately be filled without any retconning, it was always weird to me they didn't bring back some more of Mac's rogue past.  That would've (a) made him less "boring / too nice" and (b) would've made way more sense than all the other retcons they've done on already overwritten characters.

[ouinason]

2 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

Of all the characters with holes in their background that could legitimately be filled without any retconning, it was always weird to me they didn't bring back some more of Mac's rogue past.  That would've (a) made him less "boring / too nice" and (b) would've made way more sense than all the other retcons they've done on already overwritten characters.

Yes, if they were desperate to bring on NP for TG's slobber toy then they should have made Ethan Mac's kid with some unknown woman (or, fuck it, Miranda if they wanted to futz with the past) and have him be his conman self who Luke takes under his wing because he's so disappointed in Lucky's rather bland lifestyle choices (he hated him becoming a cop from the get go).  More Mac, less bullshit with Luke's past and generally more entertaining.

(BTW, I liked Ethan, I like NP as an actor and I still didn't like him being Luke's kid.)