User blog comment:ForeverAloneTV/TD Character Review-Rant - Noah/@comment-5221692-20151224071455/@comment-31556666-20151224232629

Ok, CoGreen. I completely see where you're coming from in regards to Noah's change in personality. But that's not why I don't like RR Noah.

RR Noah isn't good for me because he lacks a clear direction in his character. Whenever RR Noah is complained about, it's almost always relating to his relationship with Emma. But the unfocus towards him bothers me much more. For instance, in the first episode, he's really competitive about winning the race. He doesn't have time for joking around with Owen. He's also noticeably harsher towards Owen for the first third of the season which bothered some people, including myself. I get what DipDap said about how they have to show that Noah is more mature, and therefore should rightfully be more annoyed at mistakes Owen makes, but did they really have to have Noah do paper thin things to Owen that are too comical to take seriously?

Despite me already finding issue with Noah, this at least gave me an idea of what the basis for him was for this season. His interactions for the first six episodes are solely based around Owen. If they were gonna develop Noah, I expected it would have something to do with Owen. So as much as I wanted Noah to receive karma for laughing at Owen's obesity in a drawing without ever revealing that to him, or physically abusing Owen with a newspaper, I still had high hopes for his team. I expected that Noah's more selfish ego would lead to him valuing Owen over the race, and being eliminated because of it, or I at least expected something majorly to do with Owen. When that's the only person whom you interact with for the first third of the season, I expect you have somewhere to go with it.

But nope, suddenly he loves Emma after watching her do gymnastics. Now admittedly, I wasn't too bothered by Nemma at first unlike others. People say it's a physical relationship, but I don't have fault with this since even the more popular relationships started due to physical attraction (e.g. Gwent, Gidgette). Technically, Emma wasn't really attracted to Noah until he saved her life. That seems like a good reason to be attracted to someone, not to mention letting someone get 1st instead of him, and putting himself through pain in order to speed both of his teams up. So I guess I can get why she likes him. As for Noah, I don't mind that he likes her for physical reasons. Let's not forget Geoff flirted with Bridgette throughout TDI mostly because he found her attractive. Overall, I thought Noah was actually going in a good direction from Episodes 9-11. Heck, I loved the RTV Pros in Episode 11. It stops me from disliking RR Noah, at least, since his moment with Owen towards the end of the episode is heartwarming.

But then for the last seven episodes, things just go completely south. For starters, Noah says to Owen that he should move on from Emma. But two episodes later, they're still attracted to each other in a prison cell? But again, Nemma is not even my issue her. My issue is that Nemma is all Noah has to offer for most of the season. I can't say the same about Emma since she at least interacts with Kitty about things besides Noah. Practically everything Noah says or does for his last portion of episodes, have something to do with Emma. People were excited for the RTV Pros because for some people, Noah and Owen are a fun duo together. It overall makes Noah a really forgettable and bland character for me. Not because of Nemma itself, but because he's become so blank. The worst part is that this doesn't add up for me at all due to how they set this big story arc in place at the beginning of the season that Noah wanted to win the season. What was the actual point of that since it's never brought up or expanded on again. He's just reduced to a stale, monotonous mess for me.

Plus, from Episodes 15-18, Nemma is just cringe-worthy to watch. You can say Noah developed and that being different isn't bad, a nd I understand that kind of mindset. But that doesn't mean that I don't have to feel really uncomfortable when watching this. Seeing this lovey-dovey talk, or both doing these weird ways of encouraging their first kiss as if they're in elementary school, or seeing Emma sit on Noah's lap as they stare into each other's eyes with no atmosphere are such awkward moments to watch. I'm not even talking about whether or not this is in-character. My point is that this is extremely difficult to sit through.

Unlike practically every other RR team, the RTV Pros had a horrible send off too, thanks to Noah. Throughout the whole season, I got increasingly angered by his stupidity. Even if him saying lines about how much he loves Emma can be called "development", they're still really annoying lines. Noah has no concern for his partner either, ignoring any advice or input Owen gives and also does not help or get any help when Owen gets a horrific eye injury that fyi, I thought was a horribly written moment since Owen did not deserve this at all. So to watch Owen get in tons of pain, while watching Noah watch this unfold as if it's some sort of slash-fic is hard to watch. He gets no comeuppance for his lack of care or gratefulness. There's literally nothing else to Noah's character at this point but being in a relationship. There's nothing elaborate about him and Noah's elimination either, unlike the eight other teams that got to the halfway point. All it is is Noah and Emma being a cringey couple, followed by Noah jinxing his team to lose, Owen getting in pain, and Noah watching without helping him at all. Even all of Noah's dialogue in the farewell footage relates to Emma.

Overall, Noah has a conflicting direction in what's supposed to be done with him. He goes from caring a lot about victory, to being attracted to Emma, to learning to care more about the race and not care about Emma, to caring about Emma 100% more, to giving up on the race completely. There's no build-up with these sharp directions, or reference to previous instance. It's like the production forgot what seemed like really important moments.

TL;DR: Noah can change into a different personality with good explanation. But no matter how good an explanation is, that doesn't mean I have to refrain from calling him stale, forgettable, cringey, awkward, weird, and lacking in a straight direction.