Tbh we give a lot of shit for the mischaracterization of Garroth in mystreet and while I definitely think there is merit to that idea because of how VASTLY different he is from his diaries self, but I actually enjoy it. Mainly because, I like the idea that given the chance, Garroth is a light hearted silly guy, who doesn’t have to have his walls up 24/7. The idea that Garroth, not threatened by war or marriage, military and lordship, is just a happy go lucky idiot— allowed to be who he wants to be. If things were different, and life was kinder to Diaries Garroth, he’d be the same guy he is in Mystreet.
Mystreet Garroth is totally different because he has a totally different life from Diaries Garroth. While I don’t think anyone was really disputing that or anything, I rarely see anyone saying this, but it’s something that routinely rots my brain.
I'd argue it's more complex then just reverse Laurance treatment.
It's either reverse Laurance treatment or the mystreet Zane treatment
As I have seen many people attempt to redeem Zane, despite no basis for doing so. And making him pathetic for a while to then redeem him.
Completely neglecting the harm he caused and all blaming it on Garte.
People refuse to see a middle ground, and understand he isn't all likeable and isn't all unlikeable either.
I feel the trait of Zane that gets erased the most is his sass though, the "toodles".
I'd argue mcd Zane is pretty charismatic at first-
But I have yet to see anyone portray this at all
ah true. i wrote that at like 2 am. i just saw laur in the post and made shit up. but yeah mys zane applies more to zane redemption stories whereas reverse laur is very much villian zane territory.
i think redeeming zane is possible, but i've rarely seen it done well. making him kind of pathetic isn't inherently a bad move, but canon zane at his most pathetic is also zane at his most resilient. weakness just makes him more desperate to succeed by any means necessary, bluffing his little heart out to keep himself a threat. bro literally got murdered and jumped right back into negotiating with his murderer's reanimated corpse he is not a pity partier.
the garte thing is annoying but unavoidable as zane is fictional white pretty boy with a shit dad. canon also has a tendency to do the opposite, blaming zane for everything garte did and turning him into a poor old sick father who was a manipulated by his evil son by the halfway point in s2 (a theory presented by aph, who has never met garte in her whole life, usually used to explain away events that happened while zane was stuck in a different dimension) so it could also be an overcorrection for that.
ever since mystreet aired there's been this weird attempt to seperate mcd zane and mys zane as if they're two different characters, and revoking mcd zane's sass privileges was part of that. which sucks and is bad. zane's unwavering sass is his most consistent character trait throughout every series he's in removing it is like removing his dumb emo bangs or that stupid mask. not the same
he was!! i think it gets missed bc aph doesn't find him charismatic/mys zane but his charisma is actually pretty crucial to his plans succeeding so getting rid of it is a weird choice (looking at you Rebirth)
S3 had a lot of terrible writing but lets be real it also had what is possibly the funniest incarnation of garmau that could've happened.
Garroth is 1) the second primary caretaker of Aphmau's children 2) having the most personal and honest interactions with Aph that we've seen in the entire show and 3) almost appears to be living with her??? maybe this is wish fulfillment but in ep 2 Garroth left the guard keep (the only place we've ever seen him live) at night after interrogating Zane which makes me think he was probably living somewhere else. Then I remember both Levin and Zoey's old rooms being vacant and long story short I can totally imagine Garroth just kind of. seamlessly moving in to help Aphmau after Alina was born and without any fanfare or discussion he just fuckin... stays there. It starts out as a friend helping a friend and then it turns into unspoken common law marriage and both of them deny any type of romantic nature to their relationship meanwhile Aphmau is wearing the ring he gave her back in s1 and her two daughters have drawings of a big armored man over their bed with the caption "Best daddy in the world" and no one bats an eye at it.
I can only imagine the whiplash Katelyn felt after being gone so long and coming back to her friends co parenting in the world's healthiest situationship and completely refusing to acknowledge that their is anything different between them.