I've seen this point argued a lot, but I'm not sure it's that simple. I watched Supernatural years after everyone else and had read the Bela Talbot debates, which made me determined to like the character. Instead, I found myself hating her guts.
What really irked me about Bela was that she always won (at least until she was hastily written out of the series). It seemed like the writers never bothered to make her awesome in her own right. Instead, her every shining moment was at the expense of the supposed main characters of the story. It just came off as a tired cliche - make a female seem cool by a) making her sexy and b) having her beat all the boys at their own game. And then repeat it every time she shows up, all the time wondering why this isn't making the viewers love her.
People compare the viewer response to Bela with the response to Castiel, but I think Gabriel is a far more appropriate counterpart. Castiel was always more or less an ally of the Winchesters whereas both Bela and Gabriel kept playing an antagonistic albeit non-lethal role where they always seemed to gain the upper hand. The difference is that no one ever expected the viewers to regard Gabriel as anything but a villain until his character was finally fleshed out (and even then, he stayed rather villainy), whereas Bela always had that romantic interest vibe about her.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-11-12 05:40 pm (UTC)What really irked me about Bela was that she always won (at least until she was hastily written out of the series). It seemed like the writers never bothered to make her awesome in her own right. Instead, her every shining moment was at the expense of the supposed main characters of the story. It just came off as a tired cliche - make a female seem cool by a) making her sexy and b) having her beat all the boys at their own game. And then repeat it every time she shows up, all the time wondering why this isn't making the viewers love her.
People compare the viewer response to Bela with the response to Castiel, but I think Gabriel is a far more appropriate counterpart. Castiel was always more or less an ally of the Winchesters whereas both Bela and Gabriel kept playing an antagonistic albeit non-lethal role where they always seemed to gain the upper hand. The difference is that no one ever expected the viewers to regard Gabriel as anything but a villain until his character was finally fleshed out (and even then, he stayed rather villainy), whereas Bela always had that romantic interest vibe about her.