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Worst Characters Ever: Debbie Gallagher Edition
Teen rapist, teen annoyance, and teen mom all in one!
I was in happy tears when those last few seconds of season 7 showed Debbie learning welding. But then I learned that we still have at least one more season and that wasn't The Ending. It was supposed to be The Ending in case they didn't get The Renewal, but they got The Renewal, so now more shit is going to go down next year. Which means Debbie still has time to be even more of a fuckup.
Whatever. Bitter blog post can continue.
My friend Nikole started watching Shameless and my warning was, "You're going to want to punch Debbie." Guess what? She's on season 6 and she wants to punch Debbie.
I'm not saying Debbie is badly written. In fact, I think how she turned out fits in line with how she was as a child. She's probably one of the better written characters in the show! But god, does she make me want to rip out my uterus.
It all started when Debbie started going through this thing called puberty. Before that, she was just there. She could save the Gallaghers when Fiona couldn't. She had a lot of potential, really. But to keep the story going for her, they had to funnel her into a trap. I think the moral of the story is that if you're in poverty, it's extremely unlikely for you to get out.
But god damn. Let's just think of what Debbie has done!
1. Debbie raped a guy. Let us not downplay that. She raped an innocent, awkward pizza guy because she wanted to pop her cherry.
2. She didn't think of the consequences of having a child in her circumstances.
3. She didn't think how her romantic partner felt about having a child- and even worse, she just didn't care.
4. She forced a young boy into fathering a child he didn't want!
5. She brought a child into the world without thinking of anything past, "I want to be a mommmmmmm!"
6. Very clearly doesn't understand that actions have consequences.
Trying to manipulate your sister into having a child so you can raise your kids together is something that I hate her for. No, your sister doesn't need to keep her child! She struggles to feed the kids she already has! So why on earth did you think it was okay to purposefully get knocked up to add to the number of mouths she has? Why not just bring a stray puppy home? They're cuter than a fucking baby and cheaper.
It's like I'm watching my kid. Except I'm a lesbian. And I'm childfree. And my last name isn't Gallagher. And there's a screen between us. But I just want to flick her in the forehead and tell her to have some fuckin' sense! I can't be the only one!
Sometimes, my roommate tries to be rational with me about fictional characters. She's tried to get me to understand why Jace from Shadowhunters is such a whiny, intolerable fuckface, but I still see him as a whiny, intolerable fuckface. But I don't think she's ever tried to get me to understand Debbie Gallagher.
And you know what? Very, very few people are trying to get people to 'understand' Debbie Gallagher. If she was a male and did this shit, there's no way in hell anyone would try to excuse this.
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Debbie in the UK version however, is one of my favourite characters of all time! No hard feelings against the inferior US remake, its still a pretty good show, but it's biggest flaw will always be how hard it tries to be the original and fails at doing so. Countless moments, episodes and arcs are shamelessly (pun intended) ripped straight off from the British version, but due to being by completely different writters it fails hard. Because of the actors, and how good most of them are, it wouldn't have been hard to make them feel more unique. Instead they try and copy the original, which often doesn't work for the show (and its intended audience). The British is 100% a recommended watch if you haven't seen it yet, and Debbie is one of the best written and just most enjoyable to watch characters. She brings so much life to the show, much more than the US cast for her (in my opinion). Although I do love both versions,I feel this issue is deeply rooted in the simple fact that they are trying to force character development and moments that happened in the original, onto characters that feel completely different. If they just tried to be more original, this issue wouldn't be so noticiable. But even without watching the UK version it's easy to tell some of these moments are pretty unfitting at times and honestly come off as bad writing, especially in Debby's case.
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