User blog comment:TheDipDap1234/Scott - a Good or a Bad Character?/@comment-31556666-20150828011834

I think Scott was a great and consistent character. For haters of him, that may come as a shock. I could even say I sort of liked his ROTI performance, which I'm sure even a lot of his fans would disagree with me on

Scott was the main antagonist of his first season, and would usually cost challenges so he could get rid of someone. People genuinely thought this was a dumb move by the writers, but I could sort of understand it. The season acknowledges that it's a dumb idea such as some moments where his team glare at him for obvious lack of trying. His words were sometimes hard to believe too; "How about we take the one on the right cause it's the RIGHT path?" which would leave people confused. From the start, I really couldn't see why anyone could call Scott somewhat smart, or at least book smart. Was he a failed antagonist? No. He had street smarts and even the dumbest of educated people can be slick talkers. All I'm mentioning becomes more important once I bring up AS, so for now I'll just bring up the claim that people thought that team killing was the only thing he did in the pre merge. I wouldn't really agree with this. In Runaway Model he manipulated Zoey after all. Plus, even when he was costing challenges sometimes it did make sense as it was very easy for him to hide it.

The next question is, why would he cost challenges in the first place? Well look at what he does besides be villainous. Scott isnt too skilled in a few areas so would make up for it with this risky edge. To be fair to Scott, it's not like it would be realistic for anyone to figure him out. He could pin blame on anyone and a team that had Lightning, Sam, and Brick could believe him. Do I feel he got too lucky with the team he was on? Of course, and that's why he's above average for me more than anything else. However, I still found him to be impactful enough for me. What's more is that I liked how he had a variety of things during episodes. He could say a dumb line, or get hurt in a confessional, or manipulate people.

Finally there's the fact that Scott managed to manipulate people despite not being smart himself. Well, there's people who exist that are pretty dumb yet can be very snide. From Scott's poorer and more materialistic background, I thought it added up. His tear in the finale was also a nice touch for me as it proved that he wasn't some kind of horrible person and was instead arrogant. I mean remember the line "I'm like a kid in a candy store full of suckers. And I'm gonna um, like break em and stuff". Sure there may have been 1 or 2 villain stu moments, and he had his flaws this season but other than that I thought he was fine.

AS on the other hand is what makes Scott split in opinions overall. Seeing as how I like Scott, it's obvious I like this incarnation of him. The first complaint made about him with this season was that his ROTI characterization is forgotten about, and that he was ooc. Scott was a top ROTI strategist, yet this season he's completely dumb with no common sense. To that I completely disagree. Like I mentioned, Scott already was established as being pretty lacking in brains in his previous season in certain areas. All this season was was just that aspect of Scott being more emphasised. Personally I found it to be the right decision. Before AS, Scott was almost unanimously disliked, and with this season he got more love from people. In terms of overall fanbase, isn't this a good thing? If Scott didn't get some traits more capitalized on, he'd remain a pretty disliked character. All in all in the grand scheme of things, I thought this was a great way to make an otherwise unpopular character gain recognition. Sticking exactly to who he was before would just end up making Scott more hated than he already was?

If people aren't complaining about Scott being dumb, then they'd be complaining about how he is around girls this time. He likes to be ordered by them and he has trouble speaking to them. But I fail to see how this is in any way inconsistent. He was already established prior to have poor social skills, and there was never a time in ROTI where a girl ordered him around. I mean there was Dawn in Backstabbers Ahoy, but he specifically said he likes bossy girls and Dawn isn't the bossy type. He also already shown signs in ROTI that he idolised his father, so that could work too with this new side to him in AS.

Next is his relationship with Courtney and many call it rushed. This is something I'd agree with due to the season's length, and is probably my biggest gripe with Scott this season. It added dimension to him that otherwise would've been lost.

My favourite thing about AS Scott though is that, unlike basically the entire cast, his more emphasised characteristics stated the same for the whole season. AS Scott remained consistent with AS Scott so I liked him because I took him at face value. If he was the same villain stu he was before, he would be detested by most people and would be called boring. Sometimes the show has taken certain characteristics of someone and simply capitalize on this, with them acting like this for their entire season run. Examples of this that pop in my mind are TDA Courtney, and TDA Justin, and although both were pretty polarizing, it is what made incarnations like these stand out more and without more characterization added, they would just get stale. The same can be said for Scott. Him being an antagonist in AS would've actually been really poorly received, considering everyone already knew he was a challenge foster and he usually wasn't good at much else.

I don't really mind if he's dumb despite being smart in some areas in ROTI. Like I said, he was still kind of dumb in his previous run, and there's also a difference between street smarts and book smarts. All of AS Scott's dumbness is attributed to book smarts- "Wedge of cheese?"

Now that I've explained why he acted like this, why am I drawn to him? Well as I mentioned, he was really the only completely consistent AS, at least for the characterization they gave him. While everyone else struggled at one point or another, Scott would always be there for humour. I like his jokes just for how innocent his idiocy is, at least with me using the logic that he's in-character. In the midst of the hatred I had towards the season, Scott kept me watching. Maybe it was his girly screams, maybe it was running helplessly across a bridge, maybe it was eating dirt off his ass, and maybe it was him eating dung when he's sad. No matter what, his new characterization really entertained me and the best thing was how unexpected it all was. This was coming from the least popular antagonist at his time. It was coming from the guy with intentional flaws in his strategy. It came from someone who got lucky while being an antagonist too many times. That's what made him special for me. There was never a dull moment with him.

I'm not saying I love him for previous season flaws, his relationship being somewhat rushed, and him lasting long despite only having one plot. But for the purpose he served, I've been pleasantly surprised since then and will continue to be.

Thanks for the birthday wishes though<3