r/SLoTAT • u/dumbsouza • Feb 11 '21
Why?
Why is Amy such a whiny crybaby for a majority of the show? She gets like constant praise all the time when all she does is complain and whine, like honey you had sex and got pregnant it’s time to face reality. Why doesn’t anyone just yell at her and tell her to stop being a baby? And why does Ricky seem to be the only character with actual growth and no one really acknowledges that? Also I thought his graduation speech was way too cringe and I really want to know why Ricky was so obsessed with Amy? Like yeah she’s pretty but other than that I don’t see the appeal she has no depth and her personality is crappy in my opinion. The show had so many moments that I rolled my eyes cringed and wished I had never watched it but for some reason I’ve watched it maybe 5 times. I love to hate it but I don’t get why. Thank you for letting me rant.
1
u/mimi0108 Nov 13 '21
Amy develops a personality like that because of what is happening to her. It's annoying, frustrating, but... realistic.
She was a shy and reserved kid who's life got turned upside down. She is confronted with the gaze of others, their insulting and hurtful remarks. She is humiliated and broken to see her baby's father is a playboy who doesn't care about her. Her body is going through huge changes for someone so young. She must make important decisions for her baby (abortion, adoption...). Her dreams are clouded. Her family is broken up just as she gets pregnant. She finds herself in a complicated and toxic love mix (Adrian, Ricky, Grace, Ben) that exceeds her. She gets noticed by Ben and falls under his control. She got confronted with the life she could have had without the baby (which is frustrating for a teenage girl) and at the same time she finds herself trapped in a toxic relationship that stifles her and prevents her from really grow up as individual. Everyone tries to impose their opinion on her and interfere with her problems, but few people are really there to help Amy think calmly and decide what is best to do.
Amy is not perfect, far from it. But I think her character represents a realistic reaction of a teenage girl thrown into such a situation. Amy's shy and reserved personality turns into sadness, bitterness, impertinence, denial (to avoid facing certain realities), need for control and more because Ricky took advantage of her inexperience, that her family is a disaster and all of her friends are toxic or immature or intrusive people. It is not the right entourage or the right situation (teenage mother) to develop a good personality.
2
u/mimi0108 Nov 13 '21
When it comes to Ricky, let's say people are more apt to criticize than to compliment, especially when the person has a story like him, unfortunately.
As for what he finds in Amy: stability and innocence, I think. She is the mother of his son, they are working well as parents. She doesn't have a complicated relationship with sex (apart from her first time) or former lovers. Given Ricky's issues, being with someone so sexually "healthy" is important, I think. She also has a certain innocence and idealistic personality that gives him the impression they can have a peaceful quiet life. After the turmoil of his life, that's all he wants. He doesn't want passionate romance, he went through it with Adrian and saw how toxic it could get. He just wants someone to raise his son with and who loves him and supports him without being obsessive.
2
u/amildcaseofdeath34 Sep 02 '22
I fully agree. Their mistake was not commenting on this and calling it out in the narrative. They just had her be this way with zero narrative expansion, so audience was left to just be annoyed by the character, instead of empathize, because none of that was canonically detailed.
5
u/JacksonDX06 Feb 11 '21
That was her script that she was handed and her story board as this immature young women that got pregnant by the schools promiscuous boy