Friends and Enemies
Part two: Enemy Mine

by Katherine Szelag
 

Sonny wasn't the only character to inherit another character's enemy and for it to end up laying a very stinky egg. Luke inherited Cesar Faison, - the supreme villain of all villains - but opposite Luke he just became a silly and ridiculous prop to prop up the burgeoning Luke/Felicia pairing.

The thing this show failed to acknowledge was that Robert Scorpio and Cesar Faison were the super couple of enemies. When Robert and Faison were in a scene together the air just crackled with danger. One of the reasons they made such incredible enemies was the fact in their own way, each of them was afraid of the other, even though they refused to acknowledge it out loud. But you could see the fear factor there in their scenes together.

The closest Robert came to admitting it was when he said he believed Faison was evil and wondered if he could ever really be stopped. You see, there were times when Faison won, and Robert couldn't forget that. As for Faison, Robert was like the Roadrunner and Faison was like Wile E. Coyote. No matter what he tried, he could never ultimately beat Robert. Robert would always be victorious over him in the end. And that was there in every scene they shared together.

The reason for their hatred of each other was Anna, who they were both in love with, but Anna loved Robert and never returned Faison's feelings for her. There was also the backstory of how Faison threatened to kill Robert if Anna didn't do one more spy mission for him and he used that mission to make sure Robert learned Anna was a double agent, which was what destroyed their marriage.

The passing of Faison on to another character might have worked if it was a character Faison actually had some history with like Sean Donely or Mac Scorpio. But Luke Spencer had no history with Faison. To make it worse, they had Faison [unbelievably] obsessed with Felicia Jones. If the show was going to have Faison obsessed with anyone, it would have made more sense to have him obsessed with Anna and Robert's daughter Robin. Yet, they had him become obsessed with a woman he'd barely even noticed while making Robert and Anna's lives miserable. To be fair, it could have worked if the story concentrated on Mac and Faison. Mac was Robert's brother and Faison becoming obsessed with the wife of Robert's brother would make a certain kind of sick sense, but Mac was completely excluded from the Faison story. So the story ended up tanking big time, ruining the villainous Faison's character in the process.

To make good and believable enemies there needs to be a reason for two characters to be enemies. Like a good romance, the story needs to be there, and with most of the enemies on GH, there is no story. The writers slap together some lame reason for two characters to be at odds, and the results are some very lame and laughable enemies. Sonny has past bad blood between Ned, Taggart and Scotty. All would make believable enemies for Sonny, but instead we've got the likes of Jax, AJ, Alcazar and Ric. You can't just bring on a new character as someone's enemy without building some kind of believable back story on why they're someone's enemy. Unfortunately, that just seems to be too much work for the lazy scribes who work at GH. Telling a real story isn't part of their forte.

That's why the enemies on Dark Shadows are believable and GH aren't. You could take the building of new enemies Quentin and Gerard as how to construct a successful pair of enemies. Gerard was brought on the show and he was out to get Quentin. He even lured Quentin to a room planning to strangle him, not to mention, also planned on burying him alive. Currently on Dark Shadows recasts the story is unfolding on just how Quentin and Gerard became enemies. As it so happens, Quentin and Gerard were originally friends, with Gerard being envious and wanting everything the wealthy Quentin had. The tale is now slowly unfolding on just how Gerard and Quentin became the enemies they are in the present time.

If you want to bring a new character on the show who is the enemy for a current character, you need to tell the story of why their enemies and just how they became enemies. You can't get away with some lame, "I was in our Mommy's womb when you tried to kill me and I'm going to make you pay for that" nonsense. There's got to be a real story and real history involved between two characters for them to make believable enemies.

If you build the story well, you won't need to be constantly bringing on new enemies to beset a character. Dark Shadows; Barnabas and Angelique are a prime example of that. They built their adversarial relationship from scratch. Angelique was in love with Barnabas and when he spurned her for another she first made his sister ill to force him to marry her, then she turned him into a vampire. Every time he thinks he's finally free of her, she suddenly shows up to make his life miserable. Recently, she came to visit his coffin on the anniversary of the night she turned him into a vampire and when she found his coffin missing, she was off to the races again, declaring she would let no woman have him but her. Putting action to her words, she turned the woman Barnabas was now in love with into a vampire and got her to bite Barnabas' best friend, Julia.


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