#tori vega defense squad rise up

[hyperfocus-museum]

Tori Vega

As someone who is very new to Victorious, having just watched it for the first time at the end of February and nearing the end of a third re-watch now, I have a lot of thoughts about Tori. 

When I watched the show for the first time, I’ll be honest. I hated Tori. I went into the show as a Jade stan, having watched plenty of compilations and listened to others’ opinions on her which, as a very suggestible person, definitely influenced the way I saw her. Then I read a lot of stuff on both sides of the debate and decided to re-watch the show objectively. 

Y’all.

Y’all. 

Tori Vega doesn’t deserve all of the hate she gets. She doesn’t deserve hate at all, as a matter of fact. This is going to focus in mainly on Jade and Tori since most of the hatred for Tori seems to stem from her treatment of Jade which, as I’ll show, has its’ reasons.

To start from the beginning: the stage kiss with Beck in the pilot. 

The first thing one has to remember is that Tori literally did nothing to Jade. She accidentally bumped into Beck and was trying to make up for her mistake by attempting to get the coffee stain out. Sure, she had a brain glitch at the cute boy smiling at her, who wouldn’t, especially when you’re touching their chest? 

Jade completely overreacted, as she often does; making Tori play a dog should have been punishment enough, but pouring coffee over the head of a new girl in her first minutes at a new school is just cruel and unnecessary. 

The stage kiss? Not Tori’s finest moment but it was her standing up to a bully. It was her way of telling Jade that she wouldn’t be pushed around and, if we want to point fingers, what about Beck? Tori owed Jade nothing at that point; nothing. She didn’t even know anything about her but her name and the fact that she was overly possessive of Beck. 

Beck, however, has been dating Jade for almost two years. He should know her insecurities, how jealous she gets, and he could have easily refused the kiss because he should have known that it would hurt Jade.

But instead, Jade and most of the fandom seem to lay all of the blame at Tori’s feet. I’ve only ever seen one person (publicly, at least) point out that Beck is really the one at fault in this instance and that’s really sad, honestly. And it’s a recurring problem throughout the series, people blaming Tori for things that either aren’t her fault or that she tries to make amends over as soon as she realizes what she’s done. 

In fact, there’s only one instance I can remember where she was in the wrong but didn’t apologize, and honestly, even it’s understandable. Let’s skip ahead and talk about Prome Wrecker, shall we?

Prome Wrecker is a really misjudged episode, in my opinion. People act as though Tori deliberately set out to ruin Jade’s performance, but she didn’t. Honestly, Jade sabotaged herself. Imagine being a playwright and gathering tons of supplies and putting loads of preparation into a performance, including printing out flyers, but not booking the space. 

Now, I’m not saying that Tori was in the right to insist on having her prome, but I’m sure we can all agree that the experience taught Jade something about responsibility. 

And, the truth of the matter is, sometimes Tori fights back and it’s usually when Jade comes in, guns blazing, demanding that Tori do something. Just off the top of my head, I can give you this episode and Brain Squeezers as an example. Tori has anger problems, this is canon. She hulks out sometimes and does things she’ll later regret, this is also canon. This episode is one of those times. 

Jade comes in, even more antagonistic than usual, and orders Tori to cancel her prome. Tori gets pissed and refuses and then Jade does everything she can to sabotage the actual prome.

Where am I going with this? Simple: the reason that Tori never apologizes to Jade about this is because Jade never gives her a chance to feel bad about it. Rather, Jade is constantly pushing the issue and stoking the flames of her anger without giving her a chance to settle down and think about it rationally. 

They’re both at fault here. 

Honestly, I could go on and on but this is probably long enough. 

But I do wanna say one more thing. 

Tori Vega coming to Hollywood Arts is the best thing that could have happened to Jade West.

“No one talks to me like that!” 

“Obviously someone should.”

The truth about Jade West is that, as much as she hates it, she needs someone to challenge her, to call her out on her bullshit and to fight back. 

She is surrounded by yes men; even her own boyfriend is frustratingly patronizing and lets her get away with murder. Everyone is too scared of her to fight back and so she stays bitter and cruel and mean and with no one she can really count on... until Tori comes along. 

Tori isn’t afraid to fight back; she doesn’t just sit there and take Jade’s abuse, but she doesn’t try to change her either. She accepts Jade the way she is but still believes she can be a better person. 

And that, my friends, is why it’s Tori that Jade chooses to go to in Jade Dumps Beck. She’s hurting and in desperate need of help and she chose Tori. Ever wonder why? Well. 

Tori is the only person Jade’s ever pushed who didn’t go. She’s the only person who fought back against her cruelty with kindness, who dared to tell Jade West that she could be nice to her sometimes. She’s the only person who hasn’t met Jade’s intimidation tactics with fear but with kindness and understanding instead, even when she has every reason in the world to hate her. 

Jade knows that she can go to Tori and be herself in a way that she can’t with anyone else because Tori’s proven that she can be trusted, whether Jade likes it or not. She can take off her mask with her and still feel safe. 

And, by the end of the series, the better person we see Jade becoming? 

That’s all Tori’s influence and encouragement and the way that she believes in her. 

Tori Vega is absolutely, 110% the influence Jade West needed in her life and the entire show really is about their journey. I’m just forever sad that it was cut short. 

In conclusion, now that this has turned into my usual ADHD mess of a ramble, Tori Vega is no angel but she doesn’t deserve 99% of the hate she gets for being the protagonist of a kid’s show. She makes mistakes, sure, but she almost always apologizes and tries to fix them. So much of what she gets blamed for is misplaced blame at its’ worst and it feels like Jade blaming her for them getting locked behind the lasers in Wanko’s Warehouse to me. 

Try watching Victorious through objective eyes next time, paying extra attention to Tori. She just might surprise you. 

And, all of this being said, if you just don’t like her because you think she’s boring or any other reason, that’s fair. This post isn’t directed at you.This post is for the people who will see Beck kiss a girl in front of his overly jealous and possessive girlfriend and blame the girl. This is for the people who think Jade West can do no wrong even though she almost (and should have, realistically speaking) killed Tori over a stupid lead in a play. 

I love Jade, I really do; she’s my favorite character but she’s a terrible human being. I’m just sick of her getting away with all the shit she does to Tori and the second Tori fights back, she’s getting hated on. It’s not fair. 

Victorious isn’t made up of perfect characters, far from it. Tori has her faults as much as the rest of them, but somehow she gets all of the hate and I just had to say something. 

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk, please help yourself to cookies and Wahoo Punch on your way out.

[hyperfocus-museum]

There's also the fact that Tori ruining Jade's play happens after Jade literally tries to murder her twice over getting a role in a play so even if Tori was in the wrong during prome wrecker the fact that Jade isn't in prison more than makes up for her play. Also on the subject of the stage kiss another factor is they're at a school for acting and if you can't handle your boyfriend stage kissing another person then you're not really cut out to date an actor but that's just my opinion on that

You are so right. I barely touched on TGS because it really bugs me. There's a whole post by @wasabiduckies about how Tori is, quite literally, a walking miracle. It also is pretty OOC for Jade IMO; the girl is pretty messed up, but she's not really deliberately malicious outside of this and the pilot.

And I completely agree about the last point too. Beck pushed the issue by asking Jade if "the new dog could sleep in our room" too, so I think that plays into it. She doesn't seem as crazed about it in Tori the Zombie, so I don't know if I'd necessarily say she's not cut out to date an actor, but maybe not an actor who's going to deliberately push her.

[hyperfocus-museum]

Cat Valentine: BABY

Jade West: BABY

Tori Vega: BABY

Trina Vega: WO-MAN!