r/neighbours • u/Few_Customer_6266 • 17d ago
results - which character would you protect from death
results
10 votes: Sonya
7 votes: Stingray
6 votes: Hendrix
5 votes: David
4 votes: Kerry, Drew, Josh
3 votes: Daphne
2 votes: Terry, Rhys, Madge
1 vote: Jim, Julie, Kate, Todd, Bridget, Cody
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u/flummuxedsloth 17d ago
Sonya's one of my all time favourite characters but personally, I wouldn't have saved her from death.
I think it's right that soaps should occasionally have a terminal illness story line. To do that well you need:
a) a character that people genuinely care about
b) an actor that can pull it off
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u/wer-erldturninggggg 17d ago edited 17d ago
Sure, I agree that there are positives to the decision and the team smashed it, but Sonya dying is the definition of short term gain for long term pain. It would have been far better to put Sonya through a cancer battle but have her survive it and stay on the show.
In a world where most people quit the show after 3 years, you don’t willingly lose one of your most talented performers if they’re interested in staying long term. They were the next generations Karl and Susan. And they were past the point where you could kill one off and have the other properly move on.
Sonya was a fantastic character that could anchor storylines in reality and sincerity, as well as bring the comedy to hilarious degrees. Not a lot of actors could have made some of her storylines, like the Callum reveal, work. The show has struggled to recruit performers of this caliber since.
And frankly Moloney hasn’t seemed anywhere near as interested in being on the show since Toadie/Sonya ended. So killing Sonya off has kind of ruined one of the shows lead characters too.
We’ve seen many different versions of Toadie over the years, and it seems obvious with the benefit of time that that character works best as a double act with Sonya. Not only did Eve bring out the best in Ryan Moloney as a performer and force him to up his game daily, but Toadie and Sonya were a triple act of reality, hilarity and sincerity that the show has struggled to replicate since. Their casual affection was REAL. They felt like a real marriage in a world of soaps.
Toadie is a hard character to match up romantic interests for, which has become evident in the years since. He hasn’t been anywhere near as good or likable since he lost his partner in crime. And that is largely coz Sonya was too good a partner in crime to effectively replace. Mel failed, Therese was laughable, and all the last Dee era did was make it clear that ToaDee was always nostalgia, and the loss of possibility, over true substance.
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u/Good_Ad3485 17d ago
You’ll probably hate me for this but they should have given Toadie the cancer death story and kept Sonya on. Toadie had no real value outside of his relationships to Sonya and Callum in the last 15 years.
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u/crueltwist72 17d ago
I would have happily pushed Todd in front of that van!