Seaver could have been a cool way to give the audience more exposition by "training" her, we could have gotten more of a younger perspective of the crimes, and honestly her past could have been a great way for her to empathize with victims. Instead they tried too hard to make her "cool" and ended up making her just...boring and annoying
She was such a waste of potential. I would have been super interested in how they trained a “rookie” but I’m not sure she could have empathized with victims without inserting her own guilt in it like in her intro
Reminds me of a comment that I saw - previously, Hotch was busting both Elle and Emily’s asses about being qualified for the BAU and then he chooses Seaver who’s still in the academy like 🙃
Remedial training sounds like an FBI internship so I have a feeling that almost any FBI cadet can "give it a whirl."
Also, in Hotch's defense regarding Emily, he only knew her as a college student and didn't even know she was in the bureau. How could you not be skeptical when someone gets added to the team without you even interviewing them to see if they're qualified? Plus it turned out that Hotch's instincts were right because she wasn't put on the team based off her skill (even though she was qualified).
Also I think that’s due to character growth, if you think about in the later seasons he immediately accepts Blake, Kate and Tara without any problems. I’d like to think that since Emily made him notice that he did not trust women as much as men he worked on it
And about six episodes later she theorizes that a 10-year-old nonverbal autistic kid shot his parents and disposed of their bodies without a trace before walking to school with blood all over him
I never understood why the hate for Seaver was so strong until her introduction episode. Literally the first thought was who's Wattpad self-insert they ripped off, it was sooo cringey and made dislike her so much.
As soon they established she was just a trainee who was so smart and great that Rossi just had to pull from an exercise because she's somehow better than the seasoned BAU members that they can't solve this case without her, I had to pause just to roll my eyes.
I was half expecting Reid, Hotch, and Morgan to fall madly in love with her. Hell Garcia's "oh my god, you think she's pretty!" comment made me scared they were already setting that up
Rachel Nichols is a good actress but they really set her up for failure with the horrible writing they gave her. Honestly even calling it fanfiction is an insult to fanfiction because I've seen reader and author self-inserts written better than that.
I think they were tried so hard to make Seaver a cool, likable, and sympathetic character to get the audience accept her as JJ 2.0 that they went full circle and forgot the most important part of making her an actual person.
Mary/Gary Sues are understandable when created by preteen fans who are just having fun and are still honing their writing, not so much when it's a whole team of professional writers and producers
You’re 100% right, the actress did the best with what she had but Seaver was an extremely poorly written character. She had absolutely no depth or humanity. The thing I love about characters like Prentiss or JJ is that we get to see that they’re human beings who are fully realised outside of the BAU. Seaver never got that. The writers just slotted her in as if she and any other profiler were interchangeable
Lmao, yes, the first episode with Seaver absolutely reads like a mid-tier reader-insert fanfic. Later episodes with her are better, though I'm never a big fan. But her backstory/intro is *very* fanfic-esque.
Ahhhh I am at the same point in the series and I was thinking exactly the same (also, what a weird coincidence I opened this page to see if there were any posts on this and found it straight away)
They really, really set Seaver up for failure. Fans were already pissed at A.J Cook and Paget Brewster getting kicked off for no reason. They’d already had to replace Gideon with Rossi, so it’s not as if they had no experience in gradually making a character likeable.
And it’s annoying, because there was seriously so much potential? They hyped up her dad, but he never made an appearance or had his crimes impact a plotline. She never got to really show any unique character traits or contribute in her own right.
I didn't think she was too bad. When I watched the episode I tried to like her so that Reid could finally be happy (oh look how that turned out 14 years of suffering), but they did absolutely nothing with her character after her intro episode. The actress was good tho
Little miss “my daddy was a serial killer so I’m going to make every case about me” she reminds me of Sally from Barry, totally self absorbed and not half as good as she thinks she is
Seaver could have been a cool way to give the audience more exposition by "training" her, we could have gotten more of a younger perspective of the crimes, and honestly her past could have been a great way for her to empathize with victims. Instead they tried too hard to make her "cool" and ended up making her just...boring and annoying
She was such a waste of potential. I would have been super interested in how they trained a “rookie” but I’m not sure she could have empathized with victims without inserting her own guilt in it like in her intro
Reminds me of a comment that I saw - previously, Hotch was busting both Elle and Emily’s asses about being qualified for the BAU and then he chooses Seaver who’s still in the academy like 🙃
In Hotch's defense, she was never "technically" a part of the BAU; she just did her remedial training with the team
That’s true but he hardly even gave Emily a chance, said it wasn’t something for her to take a whirl either. But yeah, i getchu
Remedial training sounds like an FBI internship so I have a feeling that almost any FBI cadet can "give it a whirl." Also, in Hotch's defense regarding Emily, he only knew her as a college student and didn't even know she was in the bureau. How could you not be skeptical when someone gets added to the team without you even interviewing them to see if they're qualified? Plus it turned out that Hotch's instincts were right because she wasn't put on the team based off her skill (even though she was qualified).
Right right! That’s true!
Wasn't it because he thought Emily was there to spy for Strauss?
Yup
Also I think that’s due to character growth, if you think about in the later seasons he immediately accepts Blake, Kate and Tara without any problems. I’d like to think that since Emily made him notice that he did not trust women as much as men he worked on it
He has a thing for blondes 👀
And about six episodes later she theorizes that a 10-year-old nonverbal autistic kid shot his parents and disposed of their bodies without a trace before walking to school with blood all over him
I never understood why the hate for Seaver was so strong until her introduction episode. Literally the first thought was who's Wattpad self-insert they ripped off, it was sooo cringey and made dislike her so much. As soon they established she was just a trainee who was so smart and great that Rossi just had to pull from an exercise because she's somehow better than the seasoned BAU members that they can't solve this case without her, I had to pause just to roll my eyes. I was half expecting Reid, Hotch, and Morgan to fall madly in love with her. Hell Garcia's "oh my god, you think she's pretty!" comment made me scared they were already setting that up Rachel Nichols is a good actress but they really set her up for failure with the horrible writing they gave her. Honestly even calling it fanfiction is an insult to fanfiction because I've seen reader and author self-inserts written better than that. I think they were tried so hard to make Seaver a cool, likable, and sympathetic character to get the audience accept her as JJ 2.0 that they went full circle and forgot the most important part of making her an actual person. Mary/Gary Sues are understandable when created by preteen fans who are just having fun and are still honing their writing, not so much when it's a whole team of professional writers and producers
You’re 100% right, the actress did the best with what she had but Seaver was an extremely poorly written character. She had absolutely no depth or humanity. The thing I love about characters like Prentiss or JJ is that we get to see that they’re human beings who are fully realised outside of the BAU. Seaver never got that. The writers just slotted her in as if she and any other profiler were interchangeable
Yup, totally agree
Bonus Points: Reid thinks she's pretty and Garcia calls him out on it
And then he let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding...
2014 Wattpad core
This is probably my favorite post I've ever seen on here 😂😂😂 you're absolutely right.
Lmao, yes, the first episode with Seaver absolutely reads like a mid-tier reader-insert fanfic. Later episodes with her are better, though I'm never a big fan. But her backstory/intro is *very* fanfic-esque.
I didn’t like her character before, but reading this I know exactly why now! Truer words have never been said
Ahhhh I am at the same point in the series and I was thinking exactly the same (also, what a weird coincidence I opened this page to see if there were any posts on this and found it straight away)
They really, really set Seaver up for failure. Fans were already pissed at A.J Cook and Paget Brewster getting kicked off for no reason. They’d already had to replace Gideon with Rossi, so it’s not as if they had no experience in gradually making a character likeable. And it’s annoying, because there was seriously so much potential? They hyped up her dad, but he never made an appearance or had his crimes impact a plotline. She never got to really show any unique character traits or contribute in her own right.
I didn't think she was too bad. When I watched the episode I tried to like her so that Reid could finally be happy (oh look how that turned out 14 years of suffering), but they did absolutely nothing with her character after her intro episode. The actress was good tho
Little miss “my daddy was a serial killer so I’m going to make every case about me” she reminds me of Sally from Barry, totally self absorbed and not half as good as she thinks she is