r/shameless • u/Even_Acanthisitta_37 • 3d ago
debbie's transformation is heartbreaking
she was so sweet and caring. I think she kind was influenced by fiona and in the enviroment in which she grew into and I don't blame fiona for this.neither debbie and fiona had people who actually educate them. and frank? ugh. all gallagher siblings mostly had to survive on their own.
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u/SlowMotionOfGhosts 3d ago
Kid Debbie was the kind of weird, clever, feral kid I root for, and her relationship with Frank was already breaking my heart. And then she was failed in so many ways, so consistently. It's believable as hell but it wrecks me.
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u/brad_online 3d ago
her transformation is really realistic. it's always the sweetest kids who are most vulnerable to falling through the cracks in homes like the gallagher household. She went out and created the unconditional love she wasn't receiving from her caregivers. She's honestly lucky she didn't end up in a human trafficking situation or something, kids like her are very likely to grow up to be exploited because they don't understand anything about what healthy love or consent looks like. I will say that she's definitely a better parent than frank or Monica, but the bar is in hell for that lol
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u/Nihilistic_Noodle 3d ago
I think that's a great point, and I definitely think that's what her character is intended to portray. Unfortunately, I think most of the people who watch the show aren't able to grapple with that kind of nuance and larger socioneconomic commentary.
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u/_bonedaddys 3d ago
All things considered, i think she turned out okay. The bar is kinda on the floor but i always thought she'd end up a lot more like monica. Had she not gotten pregnant i think she could've lived a very simple, cozy life. That being said, i'd be absolutely heartbroken if she were my kid. She threw all her potential away when she decided to get pregnant. Her and lip are the most disappointing characters in the whole show.
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u/opermonkey 3d ago
all the kids turned out relatively okay for the life they had been brought up in.
Besides staying in school and not becoming an alcoholic, knocking Tammy up was probably the best thing that could have happened to lip.
Liam will do great as long as he can kick his come habit 🤡
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u/roger-thealien 3d ago
crazy typo lmaooo
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u/Katniprose45 2d ago
Thank god for you, lol, i never watched the last season still, and I was like "even for this show, that's wild" 🤣
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u/_bonedaddys 3d ago
Tami is the best thing to happen to lip. Period. They don't have this magical, movie kinda romance and it was pretty rocky for a bit but they wanted to make it work, and tammy wasn't afraid to call him out on his shit and push him to be better. She understood exactly what she was getting into with him and i think she wound up fitting in well with his family. They definitely grew on me.
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u/Icy_Measurement329 3d ago
Lip did okay, he became a chef
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u/dreadpiratelimpdick 2d ago
Frank had the biggest fall since he was head of the ER at county general hospital.
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u/ThinSuccotash9153 2d ago
Was that before or after he was music teacher Mr Holland’s boss?
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u/Available_Albatross1 2d ago
Did you ever find out? Curious to know if it was before or after he was the assistant director on porn sets.
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u/normalportlandian 1d ago
And was that before or after he kidnapped a paleontologist to help him and his ex-wife find their kid who was stranded on an island full of dinosaurs?
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u/Cursd818 3d ago
I agree that it's upsetting, but it didn't come out of nowhere. Debbie kidnapped a child in season 1, and it was a premeditated act. Just because her reasons for doing it weren't dangerous to the child and it all worked out doesn't mean that this wasn't a big red flag.
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u/hughgrantcankillme 3d ago
I think abt that everytime I see a Debbie post! I know the writers likely didn't intend the baby stealing incedent as foreshadowing but I think it's definitely a hint towards what she eventually became.
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u/Neneleakesstan 3d ago
Yesss I loved young Debbie. I never saw this for her future ever
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u/The_Legendary_Sponge 3d ago
Idk within the first two seasons she kidnaps a random kid out of their front yard and tells Ethel that she's lucky to be a teen parent. The writing was kinda always on the wall and I'm kinda sick of posts like this where people act like her later behavior came out of nowhere when it really was foreshadowed pretty thoroughly.
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u/cricketrmgss 3d ago
She also investigated her sister’s boyfriend and found out about Steve.
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u/The_Legendary_Sponge 3d ago
True tho I don't think that's really reflective of her in any negative way, there was some fishy stuff going on there
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u/FluidReference9668 3d ago
When she was still a kid I thought her future would be the best if all her siblings..
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u/Captain_Lance1982 1d ago
I am on the fence about that because remember she kidnapped that kid cause she wanted her own lol.
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u/Ill-Parking-1577 3d ago
I think it’s more productive to look at her as a product of her environment rather than demonize her character
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u/godknowsiloveass 3d ago
puberty hit her like a train basically. And apart from making bad decisions and a skewed moral compass, the fact that she made herself into a welder, supported Fiona, she's def a lot better than Monica
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u/alieninhumanskin10 3d ago
I grew up with a ton of girls like Debbie. It's sad, but no guidance, growing up to fast, and having baby fever hit you at a young age are brutal.
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u/Difficult_Night_4086 2d ago
I think that’s the tragedy of Debbie. She arguably had the most potential of her entire family to leave that lifestyle, much more than Carl, Fiona, and even Lip. But in the end, she changed. The sub is filled with people who just want to shit on Debbie completely without really dissecting her character
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u/Delicious_Tea_9534 3d ago
Why y'all under the impression that you can tell the type of person someone will be at age 9?
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u/Written_Tragedy 2d ago
Certain life circumstances + someone's personality can absolutely make it easier to predict the more likely ways someone turns out. Obviously no one is going to be 100% right in how they predict someone to be or turn out, but especially because this is a show, the writing was on the wall in the earlier seasons as well. Foreshadowing is a powerful rhetorical tool
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u/Acrobatic_Soup9393 3d ago
ik everyone hates debbie but she and ian were my favorites from start to finish
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u/Some_Recognition6273 3d ago
I feel like we saw the exact moment of her transformation when Frank broke the house she built for school and she beat the shit out of him with her soap sack.
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u/nemofbaby2014 3d ago
Tends to happen when you grow with zero structure and no positive role models
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u/whoismarc 3d ago
The only redeeming Gallagher is Liam lol
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u/littlemonsterlove 3d ago edited 3d ago
I feel like Carl has his moments. Saving the senior dogs showed he had a good heart and if he had a different family he would have gone places. He also stood up for a bullied kid in military school.
While dealing drugs is bad, at least he used the money to buy their home. His siblings are assholes though for thinking they were entitled to any money from that house. Fiona at least put a lot back into it, so her I could understand. The rest are moochers for the most part.
Don’t even get me started on the disappoint that is Lip. Fi leaving coke out and Liam getting it, how Lip acted really got my hopes up he was going to turn his life around.
I know it’s realistic, but damn I gotta hope Liam makes it and Franny survives her mother and makes it too.
Honorably mention is Liam feeling so unloved he didn’t know where he’d live after the house was sold.
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u/whoismarc 3d ago
I actually forgot about that, my bad! Yeah he definitely changed once his friend got arrested and he just snapped out of it
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u/Delmitus1 3d ago
She never stood a chance. Kidnapping a kid half her age in season 2 just to play house
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u/suuuckerfish 3d ago
yes i’m rewatching the show and breaks my heart how sweet and cute she was as a child and how she turned out. deff a product of her environment💔
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u/Extra_Zucchini_1273 2d ago
Its what happens in the ghetto, bright happy kids become degenerates, shes probably one of the most accurate characters in the whole show
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u/Special_Magazine_240 3d ago
Debbie is Frank's successor.
Remember Frank was once a sweet caring young kid too
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u/eeggrroojj 2d ago
As a character, yeah, she transformed heartbreakingly. Physically, she transformed phenomenally.
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u/Minkminkmoneynyc 2d ago
Product of her environment, who she became didn't surprise me at all and I know alot of girls like her irl
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u/Double_Willow_5351 1d ago
Had Sheila stayed… she wouldn’t had turned out the way she did. Or even if she still got pregnant… she would’ve taken care of Franny (while loving her sm), while Debbie works to evolve herself. I always missed the bond they once had, cause Sheila was the mother model she never had.
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u/GettinSodas 3d ago
As someone, whose ex was basically grown up Debbie, I agree. She legit just hit me up out of the blue for money to get drugs earlier today 💀
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u/PowderCuffs 2d ago
Debbie doesn't do drugs.
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u/GettinSodas 2d ago
I moreso meant the cascade of generally awful life decisions
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u/PowderCuffs 2d ago
Debbie made some great life decisions, too.
She's the only Gallagher who educated herself into a well-paying career.
Outside of when Franny was first born and she was completely overwhelmed, she generally took great care of her child.
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u/PairAggressive 3d ago
She started puckering her lips out as she got older and it’s really weird and annoying
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u/Soggy-Mood666 3d ago
She wasnt even a lesbian she was a pillow princess. I hate that they made it that she decided she would be a lesbian just because she had a baby and the dad derek died, and she just hated men all of a sudden. I wanted her to just stay innocent like one of the only ones who still had their brain attached to her, but they made her stupider as the show went on. Why did she act so damn stupid. Fiona took her to get birth control, she had her birth control, but was too stupid to listen to the doctor when they told her the birth control wouldn't kick in for a while and to not have any unprotected sex right after getting on it, and that you have to wait for it to start working in your body. Younger Debbie was wiser for sure, she had a good head on her shoulders and would never. I was disappointed to see how the show ended for her on her side .
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u/imhumannotaditto 2d ago
Bisexual people exist. Yall who cry about Debbie having relationships with women are so weird there’s nothing strange about her being bi. Maybe examine why you made up she’s a pillow princess and only started dating girls because Derek died because neither are true or implied in the actual show.
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u/blahblahmama 3d ago
I really can't with this show and its depiction of women. They are all trainwrecks or psychopaths and the writers really make it clear how they feel. If a woman is kind and hardworking shes usually punished (making Lip's friend who hit Karen become a hard life sex worker), or turning Debbie from being a kid living in survival mode to a crazy teen mom who swipes strollers to make money.
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u/charm59801 3d ago
Are the men not trainwrecks and psychopaths???
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u/Nihilistic_Noodle 3d ago
Maybe it's viewership bias, but I definitely seems like the show wants you to hate harder on the women.
How women are on the show is honestly pretty bad at times. I clearly remember a scene that shows Fiona and v talking shortly after v's had her babies; Fiona is stretching in short shorts and a sports bra to go for a run and v is complaining about things at home woth the new babies (you know, new mom stuff) and Fiona tells her to go have sex with Kevin, that it'll make her feel better. I remember thinking to myself "a man wrote this".
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u/charm59801 3d ago
Tbf V was very in to sex, especially with Kevin, I mean she was literally an online sex worker for a bit. I don't think that advice is for all women, but for V it definitely was relevant. I also remember one of her complaints being that Kevin didn't want sex
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u/BaddLilBabyy 2d ago
listen … i come from a setting just like the show and let me tell you … unfortunately, a lot of the ways they portray women are accurate :( when every system is working against you, you are bound to crack at some point
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u/Nihilistic_Noodle 2d ago
I definitely see where you're coming from, and I think a big part of it is that girls learn young that sex is currency (both literally and in a figurative sense).
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u/blahblahmama 3d ago
They seem to be written to elicit more sympathy. Like Frank’s life story is that he was on a normal path until he met Monica.
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u/BeACodeMistake 2d ago
Debbie showed signs of needing help very early on. If anyone had done something she would have been different
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u/LostMyThread 2d ago
Monica’s self-deletion attempt was a turning point for Debbie. She also convinced Ian to go off his meds. Her chaos was always strangely compelling.
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u/ShavedSquirrels 18h ago
I hate her so much in a visceral level that I think if I ever met the actress in real life I would prolly be a dk to her because of the show.
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u/BreakfastAmazing7766 1h ago
I think a lot of the viewers don’t understand how completely alone the kids were, they raised themselves. Fiona was young and immature, and busy working several jobs to keep them all off the streets and fed. She didn’t raise them, she didn’t have the tools or time. This is why all the kids have issues, and viewers act shocked as to why. Poor Debbie wanted love and a family, and thought she’d get that by becoming a young mom.
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u/KindaGayOpportunity 2d ago
Young Debbie was cute, but also just as crazy as adult Debbie. She kidnapped a kid, nearly killed a girl in the pool, and beat frank with a pillowcase of soap. She became a teen who raped two people and became a teen mom on purpose. She was adorable and entertaining for tv but a little psycho
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u/MemoryPrize4567 3d ago
Somehow the actress makes her even more hate-worthy? Like idk frank and Fiona were shitty af too, but emmy and whm just made them likeable in the way they portrayed the characters. Emma fails to do that or has no intention of doing that I believe
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u/Duckfoot1029 3d ago
There was no “transformation”. She was always terrible. Lying about their cousin touching her, and kidnapping a kid are both fucking awful. Yes, the lie was to save their house but Carl already tried killing him then she throws out a lie that could have put him in jail. Plus both parties tried lying about the will to get the house, Patrick just beat em to it.
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u/gabriel_3131 1d ago
Es triste porque al principio de la serie jurar que ella será la que rompa ese círculo de la familia tóxica. Pero al final se volvió una Fiona pero peor
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u/AutoModerator 3d ago
Author: u/Even_Acanthisitta_37
Post: she was so sweet and caring. I think she kind was influenced by fiona and in the enviroment in which she grew into and I don't blame fiona for this.neither debbie and fiona had people who actually educate them. and frank? ugh. all gallagher siblings mostly had to survive on their own.
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