User blog:CF12/Why Katie and Sadie Should Not Return

If you've ever viewed my character rankings before, you may have noticed that Katie and Sadie are my bottom two, and if you've ever talked to me about these two characters, you can tell that I really, really don't like them. Despite the fact that I was fairly certain they were all around unpopular characters, they seem to be some of the most heavily requested returnees.

I just don't understand why.

My issues with Katie and Sadie aren't just limited to the fact that I find both of them incredibly annoying; I also feel like their return value is almost nonexistent because of the way their characters are setup. As of right now, Katie and Sadie are more or less the same character and are completely defined by their friendship. Some would say Amy and Samey are similar in that they are defined by their interaction, but Amy and Samey also have the exact opposite personalities, which means that if they were put in a similar situation they'd probably not react the same way. They clearly have individual character traits, and their interactions with the other contestants vary, so I am of the belief that you could split them up team-wise and still find success, partially because they don't get along and wouldn't miss each other. Katie and Sadie, on the other hand, have the same personality and the same interactions. They literally couldn't go on without each other without sobbing uncontrollably or being unable to not be on the same team. So basically, in order to not make it awkward, by bringing Katie back, it just would seem necessary for Sadie to come back as well and they really just couldn't not interact with each other until one of the two was eliminated. If they are split up, they have a carbon copy of that type of character on each team. As we have seen in the past, one not being there doesn't add anything.

While some people would argue that Sadie got something from the episodes she had without Katie, I just don't see it. In those five episodes, she only spoke in two of them, and in the second one in particular the only thing she did was lose her part of the challenge, which is a role I feel that any contestant remaining on the show could have done with similar execution. That means, other than Phobia Factor, Sadie didn't actually do anything that explored her character, meaning that more often than not she was just taking up space. Even then, I don't really think she got anything noteworthy out of Phobia Factor. I mean, she talked to Lindsay during after her dare was completed, but that's really it.

This combines into where the problem comes in - if you want to explore Katie's character, then Sadie will probably have to get eliminated for it to happen. If you want to explore Sadie's character, then Katie will have probably to get eliminated for it to happen. There are other friendships on the show that have been developed over time, and both characters have more clear cut differences, so you can have something like that happen while not having a necessity of keeping the two together, and they could still distinguish themselves. Because of how they entered the show, they kind of remind me of an RR pair that isn't going to be eliminated simultaneously.

On a related note, some people wanted them in RR, but this wouldn't seem like a great idea to me either. The problem is that we already know what to expect out of these two, and their interactions with each other do not offer all that much variety. We'd probably just see them acting like their normal giddy selves for most of it, and if they inevitably don't get along, it is probably just a rehash of what we saw in both The Sucky Outdoors and TDDDDI, since those were more or less the same argument they had. We have already seen the progressions in their friendship, and it really doesn't need to happen a second time.

Point is, just because they haven't appeared in a long time doesn't mean they need to come back. They just aren't very good characters and they aren't fairly unpopular for no reason. They were not good in TDI in my opinion, and I really don't see any reason why that would suddenly change. Give someone else a second or third chance instead.