Thread:Ttowen/@comment-1037137-20140802192156/@comment-1037137-20140806001437

Darned straight. The underdogs need another chance to shine, and I don't mean just to show up and hang for like three or five episodes just to get an overly comical and abrupt boot just to shift focus solely back on the regulars again; no I mean let them REALLY shine and have a role this season alongside the regulars or even be the stars themselves for a change! Don't tease us this time, give them actual central roles for once, fans will watch them with dedication because these are guys we've been longing to see again. People will watch, and you gotta mix things up in ways like that just a little if you intend to keep things interesting. Bringing a few underdogs back every so often will help renew some interest so long as they are kept balanced and their stories told well. Gotta give at least a few of those other guys at the very least a chance.

And the regulars certainly have been abused, defamed, and written entirely too inconsistently to justify the misguided overexposure they've been given. Again, line them up with some of the other old favorites and actually REDEEM them. Redemption is still the key word here and you can get a good story and the works while working that in, and it is worth working that in, nobody likes seeing their favorites abused, miswritten, and turned inside out like this. You can get your stories and your drama without totally rewriting their personas or flanderizing them just to force a dramatic plot point; that's not smart or clever writing, that's just frustrating. So they must do as Ttowen said, write them in a way that makes them GROW as characters, not regress as characters. Doing what they've been doing the last few seasons has done more harm to all of these guys than good, if you can't keep the characters enjoyable or show respect to their respective fans, then everything else suffers as a direct result of that. That's one element you can never ever screw up.