It’s people on Shuri Udaku’s internet who really think Shades DREADED Mariah’s… anything. I can’t relate. That man climbed into her personal space at every opportune moment.
Shades been sweating Mariah from moment he laid eyes on her. To the point she actually called him out about his thirst. Or do they not realize what that exchange meant when she asked Cornell , ‘Does your guard need a drink of water?’
And you’re right he almost always initiated physical contact. Intent on making sure she wasn’t distancing herself physically or emotionally.
This man has done everything but literally drool on her and people still convince themselves he was not interested in her sexually.
i don’t know the original context, but i do know there’s a significant number of people who have a gut-level negative reaction to m/f femdom or anything like it–the other side of the coin of the gut-level positive reaction society trains us to have to m/f relationships where the sexual and/or emotional power dynamic goes the other way–and “compliment” the man by imagining he has the “right” feelings about it and refusing to see what’s actually going on
That may play into it, since she’s much more overtly sexual. I tend to think her age and complexion account for MOST of the problem, either separately or combined.
There are seriously dummies out there who ended this season thinking he wasn’t really into her? Dude was in love. He says it when he has no possible ulterior motive for doing so.
Yes. A true sympathetic villain, which is very hard to do by Hollywood writers. In the episode where she is talking to Mama and Pete made it clear she is a victim of environment. And the fact that Mama knew she was being raped by her own brother, and did nothing to help.
She is evil yes. What she said and meant about Tilda were horrific but understandable. And Tilda being the one to kill Mariah AMAZING. Anyway, I can see why many won’t like her, hell I don’t, but I see her evilness as deep seeded pain more so than Bushmaster. There is something about a girl being raised in a whorehouse being raped by the only one who said she was pretty is something I am sympathetic to.
I could write a whole thesis on why Mariah is one of the most sympathetic villains to date & why the audience will cape for everybody above her. I already see the slanted twist woobifying Shades. Why? When he was at the scene of the crime every damn time! And I love that twisted dynamic! Equals to the End! Mariah is just too much for a lot of people. They want to lay the crimes of her family at her feet since they’re all dead – and when she doesn’t behave like a shrinking victim they then feel justified to brow beat her into submission and defeat. Isn’t it just another off shoot of the ways women pay for not being ‘the perfect victim’. She’s a villain and a victim. The 2 things can coexist and Alfre does it beautifully!
THIS. This season, the characters blamed everything on Mariah, acting like she’s this ancient evil that’s been destroying Harlem for hundreds of years, when she’s actually only just come into power. Aside from Bushmaster laying the entire family’s sins at her feet, the most most egregious instances of #BlameMariah were:
– Luke blaming her for his punching a hole in Claire’s wall. Misty actually co-signed this shit.
– She reveals this tragic history of abuse/neglect to her daughter, the product of said abuse, and this daffy bish Tilda responds by calling her a monster. How could your heart not break for Mariah after that? Of course she could and should have made better choices, but she literally never had a chance at a happy, functional life
I know certain people find themselves incapable of sympathizing with black people, but it really fucks me up that people can’t see how broken she was.
Yes! @ghostridetheship it was really excessive and overboard. Like they felt we didn’t get she was a villain last season. Or they felt she wasn’t a compelling enuff villain as is and had to really lay on the point that on a chessboard of villains Mariah’s the worst of the worst. Crazy or not – when Mariah says Shades made her there’s a lot of truth in that. After killing Cornell she was in such a state she was done for. Maybe an attorney could have gotten her by with a self defense charge. But Shades intervened with his own agenda. And everytime she tried to grieve and move on he popped up and threw her to the sharks and waited to see if she came out alive. That kind of intense continued trauma would unravel the strongest mind. Then he says she lost her heart – but thats how Mariah has always coped with trauma. She turns off a part of herself just like she dealt with her rape, the child of that rape and her guilt over killing Cornell. But we can’t find a smidge of sympathy that would be lavished on her if she were male? Remember how people were capping for that lunatic Cornell cause Mabel didn’t let him pursue his music. And now Shades (god love him) led astray by his love for an ungrateful Mariah (hahaha). Yes I sympathize with both – it just irks me too see the crumbs of empathy thrown Mariah’s way from the seeming unending buffet laid out for the other villains of this show and others. As long as they’re male of course.
I just have to say that Alfre Woodard and Gabrielle Dennis put on phenomenal performances in the new season on Luke Cage. When Mariah was showing Tilda around the Family First Building, she told something that really stood out to me for a variety of reasons: “You don’t need to be bullet proof to be a superhero. Black women have always had superpowers. Turning pain into progress, nothing into nurture.”
The scene where Mariah told Tilda the truth about her who her father is/was…. really shook me.
In my opinion their storyline, as individual characters and together, was one of the strongest aspects of season 2.
So Shades saw Mariah murder Cornell, which probably means that he overheard their conversation.
So he knows why Mariah killed Cornell, but he never brought it up to her or told her that he knew. He just reassures that she was in the right in killing him.
Shades grew up in the streets of Harlem, went to prison, and even he KNOWS that it is NEVER the victim’s fault.
And he lets her know that, in his own subtle way.
Also, in their last scene together when she kisses him, he gives her that control and doesn’t make any moves other than that big smile.
This means everything to me.
Given what we now know about him I wonder if he can sympathize because he’s had people use his sexuality to victim blame him for similar situations.
Should I be happy that another one of my villain faves is bi or annoyed that it’s yet another example of the Depraved Bisexual trope?
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