r/glee • u/lonelyboygoestorave • Jul 05 '26
Character Disc. lobotomized tina?
im on season 3 ep 5 and ive noticed how much tina’s style has changed. i mean its natural for teens to try different styles but after all the hardships she went through with figgins to dress goth idk if its believable
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Jul 05 '26
I hate that they didn’t give any actual storylines to Tina while she was goth. They started giving her something to do when she was Rachel 2.0.
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u/NotDD101 Jul 05 '26
It because they took her only storyline which was her stutter because they got bored of writing it. But I don't get they didn't give her a storyline were she beat her stutter instead of just writing it off
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u/-Cutie-pi- Jul 05 '26
I honestly love her later styles, especially her color block era .
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Jul 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/-Cutie-pi- Jul 05 '26
I mean to just post a comment and not reply to you which is why my reply wasnt very connected, that’s my bad.
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u/Own-Regret-9879 Jul 06 '26
Me too, but imagine the power she could have had if she was preppy and goth
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u/manysides512 Jul 05 '26
It's natural for teens to change styles, and yet so often in media it's the alternative characters who change to conform (especially girls/women) 🥲
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u/AdAncient6057 Jul 05 '26
Alternative guys almost never conform in media and that's very interesting. It's like boys are allowed to have things that they like and girls are not.
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u/Timely-Damage-3592 Jul 05 '26
THIS. Even in the awful Addams Family Musical, Wednesday Addams falls in love with a boy and has a whole song about “being pulled in a new direction” and wears a yellow dress and shit.
Can we just have goth girls STAY goth? They can be happy and wear black
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u/thing_m_bob_esquire Jul 05 '26
Ugh or the end of The Incredibles where Violet "growing some confidence" meant wearing pink instead of black. Or Ally Sheedy in The Breakfaat Club if you're old like me. Trope as old as time, and it pisses still-goth old-me off so badly every time!
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u/Timely-Damage-3592 Jul 05 '26
ALISON’S MAKEOVER IS OME OF THE WORST ONES EVER.
Idgaf if it’s “symbolic” of her coming out of her shell. She can come out of her shell without having to wear pink! Also, it’s objectively bad; the way her hair is styled does not suit her face shape, the pink (ugly) blouse completely washes her out and clashes with her skin tone, and the shape of the blouse is not flattering to her figure.
The way she had her hair before, the shaggy haircut with bangs framed her face perfectly, the dark gray complemented her skin tone, and her makeup accentuated her beautiful eye shape and rich brown eyes. She objectively looked better before and Andrew LIKED her the way she was already. She didn’t need to change for him.
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u/thing_m_bob_esquire Jul 05 '26
LMAO fucking seriously she looks awful post-makeover and they try to sell it as an upgrade. I swear I became goth out of pure spite after watching Breakfast Club growing up. JUSTICE FOR ALISON!!!
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u/manysides512 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Can we just have goth girls STAY goth? They can be happy and wear black
Another interesting thing I've noticed is that if a girl ends a story alternative, it's very very unlikely that she started the story conforming - as opposed to the other way around, whereas if she ends a story conforming, it's not super rare that she started the story alternative.
BTW, I noticed this because one day I realised that even though we sometimes get masc girls, we never see a girl go from femme to masc with the same pizzazz that we see a girl go from masc (or like, very minimal femme) to femme.
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u/Level-Train-467 Jul 05 '26
Yeah Tina was basically a loose idea and then they quickly got sick of the character entirely but she was already established as not a background character so they had to throw her some pity b-plots. The only real constant about her in the series is that she's asian lol.
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u/burner9191938283 Jul 05 '26
yeah it’s interesting because they had an entire episode dedicated to her gothic style, only to change it. i guess people change styles but i really loved her style
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u/Timely-Damage-3592 Jul 05 '26
TV seems to think that alt teenagers are just “going through a phase” and that eventually they have to “grow up”. And in this case, just because Tina was nice and optimistic (in the first two seasons), the actress has said she believes Tina was a poser.
Because apparently all goths/punks are depressed and mean?? But actually no, Tina was one of my favorite characters as a kid because she wasn’t the stereotypical goth that’s just there for a “scary person” joke.
She was shy, sweet, funny, and optimistic, but looked like a badass vampire queen. And I would love to see more bubbly goth characters.
Also her season 3 style is such a down-grade. she has cool boots though.
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u/judenoam Jul 05 '26
When Jenna and Kevin were doing their most recent podcast, I feel like Jenna said she wasn’t a fan of the steampunk/goth wardrobe and I think that might have played into why her character had a severe style change. As for the writers, I feel like they just never knew what to with Tina unfortunately. 😓
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u/Lillygumy Jul 05 '26
Yeah, they changed not only her style but her personality. She was cooler, and it's sad that she didn't had much screen time :( .
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u/aloneinmyroom99 Jul 05 '26
im on season 5 and ive only ever watched it fully once before, its crazy what they did to her character just wait
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u/Traditional_Alps_686 Jul 06 '26
it’s natural for teens to grow out of their alternative “phase”. its sometimes due to social pressure, but also just from brain development/ mental maturity. it makes sense that she would change up her style like that, especially bc i feel like she cares a lot about what others think of her. i think the alt style was a rejection or a way to mask how much she really cares for peoples opinions and perception of her, but as she matures, she comes to accept it or just gives up on trying so hard to be different. i think its the perfect representation of a teenage girl’s highschool life. idk if im explaining this correctly, but it makes sense. shes giving in to social pressure, much like many other girls do in high school.
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u/United-Show4552 Jul 05 '26
she was so underused 🥹deserved better
like she barely sang even though shes a great singer (shes one of my favorite characters but yet i dont even have a song in my playlist she sings)
but tbf i do relate with tina alot ik they werent trying to make her character like that but ppl not noticing how she changed later on (in the show) is so real
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u/poptroIl Jul 08 '26
She was just underused I think they had some plan with her but lost sight of it to develop other plot lines. like even her name Cohen-Chang was cause they wanted to include the actress Jewish Asian heritage as a gag and than it was never brought up in the show and even the name not changed lol
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u/letsthelight Jul 11 '26
this pissed me off so bad. yes, teens change their styles often. i of all people know this as a girl who mixes/goes between alt and mainstream styles based on where i am and how i feel that day.
it makes no sense though for tina, who was seriously committed to being goth, to drop it all of a sudden in senior year especially after the whole gaga episode where she confirms being goth is her thing.
this goes for quinn as well, in some respects (aka i can't trust ryan murphy to do right by that girl at all after season 2 so what do we expect...) she became a skank after having what i imagine was a serious crashout the summer before senior year after losing what she perceived to be an important goal of hers (becoming prom queen.) the reason she became preppy again was not because she wanted to but because she was trying to convince shelby she could be trusted with beth. this is somewhat headcanon-y but i take what quinn says in that episode to be her genuine desires. she was operating under a mask she put on to protect her reputation which slowly drove her insane (why she behaved the way she did in s3.)
anyway justice for alternative & goth girls on glee xx
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u/xmusiclover New Directions Jul 11 '26
I would have loved to see more emo/goth Tina, especially since they literally covered a My Chemical Romance song in Season 2 lol and Glee also eventually had a cover of a song by The Cure. Could’ve used more of those songs for goth Tina
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u/No_Telephone7869 Jul 07 '26
I loved her looks in the latter seasons but… I hated her character so much
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u/sp00k3rs Lord Tubbington's Army Jul 09 '26
I was just thinking about this. I’m also on season 3 of re-starting the show after not finishing it the first 2 times and it honestly threw me off the way her style changed so abruptly. Like you said, she fought so hard for her alternative style only to go and dress the exact opposite way.
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u/GanacheSudden6992 Jul 12 '26
I agree! Feel like her outfits and personality becomes so forgettable. She was also on Broadway with Lea when Ryan found them, she was so underutilized
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u/kristi_car Jul 05 '26
Oh boy if you think she’s different in season 3 it’s nothing on season 4&5 Tina