#uggghhh look all of these characters can be so much more complex if youd just let them

[amber-angel]

So cruising through the Stand tag (which I do sometimes, because I have no self control), I saw a post sympathizing with Harold, talking about some kind of attempted consolation from the Boulder crew that I can only assume happened in the latest episode that I haven't bothered to speedrun yet, and how they didn't deserve to try and comfort him. They were talking about how shallow Frannie was to suddenly want to care about Harold when she's never been interested in him, and only went with him in the beginning because everyone else was dead, even though honestly, if I were Frannie, I would have just gone on my own, like... Harold in this version is so much worse, I would not trust that guy to sleep next to me at night.

Anyway, I'm making this post to say that this is what happens, Boone, when you decide to center your shitty remake around a character that a) you decided was not a good person to begin with (the peeping, the obsessive behavior, the general 'nice guy' attitude with several unsubtle hints at violent tendancies) and b) by the end is so far corrupted (it was a short fall though) that he was completely willing to kill at least seven people just because a girl he liked snubbed him. This is what happens when you decide that you're going to take that asshole and make him a main, and give him the roster of (frankly overdone) 'feel sorry for this dick' tropes: 'mean and uncaring family,' 'emo lonely boi,' and 'but he was bullied!!!!!' in some misguided attempt to humanize him. Like seriously, what the fuuuck were you even thinking??? Was this what you wanted? And why???? I don't even have a witty remark anymore, just why????

Also, can I say that from what I remember of the book, and from the 94 series, the whole thing with Harold wasn't that he was a really bad guy (I say while cringing) to begin with, but that he fell to Flagg and gave in to that dark side of himself. He started his journey more or less in the middle, and kind of fell over the more things went on, because he wasn't willing to put in the work of being good.

But no, because Boone is a moron who obviously sees too much of himself in Harold, we get this utter mess of a setup that's ultimately going to crash and burn (jesus, I swear that was not an intentional connection) and collapse in on itself once he does the deed. Unless King's rewrite means that Harold won't blow up the meetinghouse, you've written yourself into yet another corner, locked yourself into a character direction that cannot happen, because unless you want to somehow make killing Nick out to be a good thing (and I swear to fucking god, that'd better not be your fucking angle), you cannot reconcile the two halves of Harold that you've created, or somehow redeem him after this. Partially because fuck you, but mostly because this is an act that isn't meant to be redeemed! You want to have your goddamn kin cake and eat it too, but congruency and character consistency are sticky plates, and if you try to take a piece off, it's going to have gluey shit on it and taste accordingly.

Look, Harold can either be your uwu sad boy who should be pitied, or he can be the way King wrote him. You cannot have both.

Tldr; Harold is not a character that was meant to be pitied, and Josh Boone is a worthless fuck

#greeks watch tragedy #also its late so this might not be totally coherent #i just.... boone's decision to make harold the central character has never made sense #and after that scene happens i don't know what he's going to try and do to fix his mistakes #no one is going to sympathize with someone that malicious #i say knowing full well that they still will #uggghhh look all of these characters can be so much more complex if youd just let them #but making harold a sad muppet man who turns to arson because he feels excluded is fucking stupid and weak #you could have done something so cool with him! you could have shown his descent into evil instead of making him a bastard to begin with! #you could have shown his struggle between good and evil and maybe given him a better reason to fall than just #boohoo my crush doesnt like me and fell for the suave texan #but no :/ you went the boring route #im not surprised but i am disappointed #also someone who actually watched the series can you tell me if they showed the sign painting thing at any point? #its not relevant to this post but i am curious