Now You're Just Some Programme That I Used To Know.

[rionaleonhart]

Some more notes on our Glee rewatch! We've gone through the third season and are now in early season four. I originally stopped watching at some point in late season four, I believe, so we're approaching uncharted territory. (But not Uncharted territory. I bet Nate can't sing.)

I love the extreme intensity with which Blaine performs. He's always so into it!

I think Kurt and Blaine may be the only couple in Glee who actually communicate about the problems in their relationship and find ways to resolve them. It's really noticeable in contrast to the other relationship plotlines.

(Their relationship becomes much less functional in season four, which has an early episode where the writers evidently went 'you know, I'm bored of the canonical couples; let's break up ALL OF THEM.')

Season three isn't my favourite (that would be season two), but I do love how much of it is devoted to Rachel becoming friends with everyone. She's come so far!

Blaine having an intense duet of 'Somebody That I Used to Know' with his brother is even weirder than I remember it. If they had an affair, it would explain why Blaine never talks about his brother.

Slightly shipping Quinn and Artie after Quinn's accident in this rewatch, which I wasn't expecting! Artie helping and encouraging her as she gets to grips with the chair is very endearing.

I like that friends in Glee are prepared to say 'I love you' to each other. I love the Kurt-and-Rachel dynamic so much; it's probably my favourite relationship in Glee. I got slightly tearful when Kurt showed up to surprise her at the start of season four, when she was alone and upset in the big city. Rachel's friendship storylines are so much more enjoyable than her romantic ones.


Season four of Glee introduces a bunch of new characters and then only gives them plotlines with each other, which strikes me as an odd choice. Sam and Blaine, in season two, were more successful character introductions because they actually interacted with the characters we already knew and cared about, rather than the show going 'now, after that scene with characters you know and care about, let's switch to a load of strangers!'

I'm pretty interested in what makes a late character introduction work or not work. Obviously, in some cases, such as Doctor Who or Waterloo Road, a general cycling of characters is expected and new characters don't really feel like latecomers. In canons where the cast is mainly static and then they throw in a new significant character, though, what determines whether I'll go 'ooh, I like you' (e.g. Nathaniel Plimpton of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Blaine Anderson of Glee) or 'YOU'RE TOO LATE, THERE'S NO ROOM IN MY HEART' (e.g. Sam Drake of Uncharted, the new Glee kids of season four)?

I wonder whether it depends on how emotionally invested I am in the canon. I was having fun with Glee before Blaine showed up, but I wasn't really invested, so I could cheerfully embrace the new guy. The more I care about the existing characters, the more likely I am to resent new characters for taking screentime away from the ones I'm invested in.

I'd be interested in hearing about late-arrival characters that worked or didn't work for you!

Comments

[alaterdate]

I think from the animes I watched and games I played I got used to the kinds of stories where they just keep picking up new friends. Sometimes the old ones drop off (or die), but the new characters aren't exactly replacement characters. I can see how it'd be frustrating to come across characters explicitly meant to replace the others (they will probably never live up to the originals). In games like Fire Emblem (anime chess) I look forward to the new characters who are going to appear. Then again I know beforehand that new characters are going to show up, so maybe I save space in my heart for them 🤔

Relatedly, I hate Sam Drake. Cannot stand the guy. He's the skeeziest character in the whole series and I was waiting the entire time for him to betray Nathan. Whenever there was a part where he was like "let me go first" I thought, Oh, here it comes. He's stranding me here. The bastard I knew it. Of course, H— then he came back, but I was still suspicious.

[rionaleonhart]

I'm sorry for the late response! But it warms my heart to hear about people hating Sam Drake, who is the worst. I found him slightly more bearable in The Lost Legacy, but only because Nadine hated him twice as much as I did; I resented his presence less when he spent most of his screentime just getting dunked on relentlessly by the protagonists.

There's a surprising amount of Sam Drake/You, The Reader fanfiction, so I suppose he must have found his audience somewhere! But I didn't like him at all, and I couldn't make myself believe Nate had a brother when there hadn't been a single mention of siblings in the previous games.

[alaterdate]

He's not a guy Nate needs in his life! It was definitely cathartic in The Lost Legacy to finally have someone in-game really hating his guts. I was hoping he'd die lol. He didn't need to be in that game either!

I was surprised at that too! He's so skeezy what on earth is appealing about him? I don't know why they decided he needed a "secret" brother, but they could have handled the reveal better. For instance I think the little adventure in the prison was a mistake. Would have made more sense if Sam abandoned Nate early on in life and Nate assumed him dead then so never talked about him. They had him "die" too late imo. There's no reason Nathan wouldn't have told Elena about his brother if he had to go "save" him like the game paints. Would have made more sense for him to be sneaky about it if it was just another adventure and perhaps he did tell Elena that was his brother and she saw how damn skeezy he appears and was like "Nathan, no" (though I don't think she'd ever actually stop him from adventuring really). Sam would still suck tho, he just sucks.