S04.E18: The Empire Unpossess'd

[Margohill]

13 minutes ago, Dee said:

Especially when Rhonda, who was every bit as awful & dirty as Anika, has been undeservedly canonized in the aftermath.

Rhonda never pushed a pregnant woman down the stairs and killed their unborn child.

[Dee]

Rhonda killed an innocent man and proceeded to use his rotting corpse as collateral to square an outstanding debt.

[Margohill]

1 minute ago, Dee said:

Rhonda killed an innocent man and proceeded to use his rotting corpse as collateral to square an outstanding debt.

Give me a break. The man was a snitch, and tried to strangle her husband to death. All she was trying to do was protect her husband. If she hadn't intervened he would have strangled Andre to death. Isn't it ironic that her and her husband were well rewarded by Lucious when he found out the snitch was dead? It was even accidental and she didn't mean to kill him but Anika plotted maliciously, planned every move to push a pregnant woman down the stairs and kill an unborn baby. How evil can anyone get? 

[Dee]

It doesn't matter what Vernon did. The fact that he was a snitch was altogether irrelevant.

Rhonda knew how much of a bond Vernon and Andre shared, and yet instead of trying to reason with him she killed him, proceeded to cover it up and then used his corpse as a convenient bargaining chip.

That's not only SUPREMELY evil but tremendously ghoulish.

Edited May 30, 2018 by Dee

[Margohill]

3 minutes ago, Dee said:

That's not only SUPREMELY evil but tremendously ghoulish.

If that was the case then why did the audience hate Anika so much? You are entitled to your opinion but the backlash Anika got from the audience after what she did to Rhonda says it all. The reaction of the audience and how much Anika was hated is the ultimate testament as to how terrible the audience viewed her atrocious actions. Rhonda never suffered such backlash after she killed Vernon. Why was that? There is a reason for that and that was all IN THE STORY TELLING.

[Dee]

Rhonda received backlash about killing Vernon twice. When she lost her child and her life. She played the game, badly, and she lost.

She was every bit as conniving & desperate as Anika, the only difference is she had the luck of being a Lyon in-law, a family she LOATHED, before she died.

And Rhonda was NOT a popular character. In fact, she was on most fans most hated list from the very beginning of the show until she lost the baby and even then that wasn't enough to make her a favorite character.

[phoenics]

On 5/30/2018 at 12:13 AM, Dee said:

Rhonda received backlash about killing Vernon twice. When she lost her child and her life. She played the game, badly, and she lost.

She was every bit as conniving & desperate as Anika, the only difference is she had the luck of being a Lyon in-law, a family she LOATHED, before she died.

And Rhonda was NOT a popular character. In fact, she was on most fans most hated list from the very beginning of the show until she lost the baby and even then that wasn't enough to make her a favorite character.

 

Exactly - I really didn't care much for Rhonda apart from being window dressing.  I damn sure didn't want to see her storyline expanded beyond what it was.  I had ZERO desire to see her begin to get more screentime.  Zero.  Zip.  Zilch.  Same with Rumor Willis.  If I want to see a white female character generally be bland and do messed up stuff only to be canonized in death, there are a million majority white shows I could watch.  Both Rhonda and Rumor were non-factors to me.  Rhonda had a couple of funny moments on the show (her hiding behind the chair when that dude put the gun to Cookie's head made me laugh outloud) and she could be endearing, but sorry... no.  I was happy she was killed off.  I was not happy Anika was the one who did it - because I wanted more Anika vs Cookie moments and I knew Anika was a dead character walking.

I *did* like that Rhonda+Andre teamed up so to speak to take her down, even more so because Trai got to send his wife off the show.  I don't know if it was her decision to go, but having her husband in her final scenes might have made it sting less if it wasn't Grace's choice.  I hope we see her soon in other stuff.  She's a really good actress.

Looks like I won't have to wait long!  

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/grace-byers-the-gifted-season-2-fox-1202831287/ 

I had the thought that Rumor's character wasn't dead - I thought Jamal would run into her in London, like Alfred ran into Bruce Wayne at the end of The Dark Knight.  But honestly - she was awful and I don't get the canonization of her either.  Maybe I'm supposed to be sympathetic to her because she was a poor little famous girl?  Yeah - not interested in perpetual victims.

Also - one of the reasons Anika was hated wasn't just because she pushed Rhonda - it was because Cookie hated her too.  That was a large reason she was hated well before she did that to Rhonda.  It's not just about the baby.

Anyway - I'm unapologetic about not caring if the white women characters (and men) are sidelined, killed off or just non-factors on this show.  For once I get to watch a TOP RATED mainstream show have a largely black cast and I don't need more backstory on white characters that usually rise up and eat all the screentime on majority white shows, while the black characters on those shows get treated like garbage - even on shows they are SUPPOSED to be the leads for.  The moment I saw that CoverGirl ad putting Rhonda (the actress) in the CENTER of the ad and the black women on the side like leftovers, I was itching for her to leave the show.  Sorry.  Not at ALL sorry.

Until the scales balance, I will always root for Empire to prioritize black characters over white ones.  Someone has to.

Edited September 15, 2018 by phoenics