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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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