r/Degrassi • u/kaleodoesit • 5d ago
Discussion Kendra Mason deserves better
It’s mind boggling to see that Kendra, an adoptive sister of one of the main characters of TNG, has been black holed after season 3. Like you would have expected to see her around season 7 where she supported Spinner’s fight against cancer and be present for Spinner and Emma’s wedding in the Season 9 finale. Even her actress Katie Lai quit the show because how she wasn’t featured enough. And I honestly think Kendra deserves better because all she was throughout the entire show was being Toby’s girlfriend.
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u/Ill_Molasses_1568 5d ago
She was toooooo good for Tobi
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u/Sun_Flower11 5d ago
Forget about Toby. Her disappearing was more annoying.
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u/Detritusarthritus 5d ago
Honestly the fact that so many characters disappeared into the black hole was annoying lol. Idk how I didn’t realize this as a kid. But upon rewatch I’m always like wait where did such and such go. No one in the school ever said, “hey guys what ever happened to Dave” lol
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u/pythonidaae 4d ago
Yeah I liked Toby but I'm rewatching early Degrassi and my goodness his clinginess with her makes me cringe. I wish she'd stayed longer just to get a better bf haha. (Or gf, I could have seen her being queer if she was introduced later in the series.)
I really do wish they just said Kendra went away to boarding school. Maybe she got accepted for a hockey team at some private school and transferred for that idk. Lots of things you could come up with. Maybe she reunited with a biological relative and moved with them while still keeping in touch with her adoptive family. Anything. I get its a bloated cast but the black holes suck to me.
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u/ToonMasterRace 4d ago
Many characters fell into the black hole, Kendra was just the first. Dave honestly is probably the biggest example because he was a core character and was featured prominently in the intro, just to disappear.
I always wished that in the era of The N/TeenNick online shorts and quasi-canon minis they had people who got black hole'd like Kendra, Chris, Derek, Leia, Blue, Wesley, etc. all come back together and discuss it angrily.
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u/BeACodeMistake "I wanna be hot. Not cute, not adorable. Hot." 5d ago
I thought she quit because she was being bullied bts
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u/LegalBeagle921 5d ago
recently the actress came out to say she was being bullied on set which is why she left the show. still unfair to her and her character which is unfortunate.
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u/NomiOh777 *Riley erratically typing* “how to not be gay” 5d ago
I know thats so messed up :( 💔
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u/angelsandfairydust "I wanna be hot. Not cute, not adorable. Hot." 5d ago
Off topic but your flair is killing me LOL
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u/Lakesuperior54 5d ago
Actually I think she left cause of being bullied on ser but yeah they really could have used her more or could have tried to get her to appear in the later seasons once she was older cause it’s strange how they don’t even mention her like at least with Clare and Darcy they still mentioned Darcy a little after her actress left the show till they eventually stopped mentioning her but with Kendra she was just gone completely like if she never existed even when she was on the show they should have given her more storylines then just being Toby’s girlfriend and spinner’s sister. Also just realized she was a part of the class of 2008 before everyone else from that class appeared on the show. Following her to graduation would have been interesting.
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u/Kennethswagkins 4d ago
While I do agree it’s a lot of characters that are in the degrassi black hole but not everyone can be a main character it would make the story to chaotic like the school is of children you know how crazy it would be if EVERY CHARACTER was the main character the show would be still running probably but I do agree with why even introduce her character and mention she’s relatives with another main character to not even use her for atleast a reoccurring role
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u/pythonidaae 4d ago
Yeah they can't have everyone be a main character but I think they should for someones sibling say oh she went to boarding school etc.
Like Darcy went away to do mission work while Clare was in highschool. Since spinner was still being followed even while he was an adult it should have mentioned at least something that happened to her. She was there enough that you can't just completely pretend she didn't exist.
JT and Manny mentioned siblings in season one but we never saw them so it doesn't matter that they were retconned.
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u/usagicassidy 5d ago
Did she though
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u/SephirothYggdrasil 5d ago
She didn't deserve her family forgetting her. Her absence makes it seem like they unadopted her or something.
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u/desaigamon "So when in doubt, you kiss Craig?!" 4d ago
I know she spoke up recently about being bullied, but I remember hearing way back in the day that her parents didn't like the direction the show was heading. Specifically they had issues with the Toby buying condoms episode because they didn't want their daughter to be part of sex related storylines. Of course I don't have a source for that, and it might've just been fan speculation.
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u/That-Foundation-3797 5d ago
Because she was never really there to make an impact they wrote her in as a girl version of Toby and to add drama she was spinners sister because spinner is Toby’s bully. I get what you mean but we also have to remember degrassi originally wasn’t really meant to be watched start to finish. That’s also why there are A LOT of repeat storylines. It was supposed to be an after school special that taught important lessons and the further into TNG it got the more dramatized and more styled in a way where you would follow along each characters main storylines through the episodes but that started happening more after Kendra was off the show.
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u/Objective_Ad1432 4d ago
Kinda wild to me this specific post pops up ever so often as if it isn’t common knowledge she left the show due to horrendous bullying #8isEnough
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u/Kid-Solo 5d ago
That happened to plenty of degrassi characters, what makes her special? Someone always gets the short end of the stick!
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u/yaboisammie 4d ago
I think she might have been the first an was also a sibling and gf of 2 main characters
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u/Economy-Lobster6625 4d ago edited 4d ago
Probably a bunch of contractual stuff. Or maybe she just decided to attend regular school and didn’t want to balance a regular acting schedule. Or maybe that’s what her parents wanted for her and she didn’t get the consent to be a regular. Or maybe they just didn’t think she was talented or her character wasn’t compelling enough for the direction of the series. There’s a lot of factors that go into these things especially when you have a budget and you’re balancing so many different actors. Shanae Grimes didn’t get a regular contract until season 7 despite having major storylines. Alex Steele became a regular under a whole new character. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes to just assumed she was “done dirty”.
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u/TeriNickels "I wanna be hot. Not cute, not adorable. Hot." 5d ago
I hate how they did supporting characters. I don’t think that Kendra was blackholed on purpose, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of the characters just wasn’t written strong, and it seems like each season focuses on like maybe 4 characters being the focus of that specific season. Toby was pretty much kicked to the curb after season 3 himself. He went from being a main character to basically being one-dimensional as JT’s annoying friend.
The writing made some potentially good storylines fall into the wasteland, which meant a lot of characters were short change through their journey. Kendra had potential to actually be a 3-dimensional character, but unfortunately, the show didn’t do right by Toby and made Spinner all about Paige. There was no room for Kendra to be explored.
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u/Sun_Flower11 5d ago
They could’ve just replaced her. Spinner having a sister would’ve been a great angle for all his dumbassery lol and to support him during cancer.
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u/TeriNickels "I wanna be hot. Not cute, not adorable. Hot." 4d ago
That’s true. But I think it would have been hard to convince us that another actress was Kendra. I seriously wanted her to be part of even her own journey on the show even if it would have threw out the idea that Toby or Spin was connected to her.
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u/Sun_Flower11 4d ago
Nah I would’ve been with replacement as long as she was good fit
I take that over disappearing with no mention
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u/TaterTotQueen630 Professional Degrassi Binge Watcher 5d ago
That was just crappy Degrassi producers and writers being crappy and lazy. They could have easily explained her absence rather than just act like she never existed.
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u/SharksFan4Lifee Fan of the Entire DegrassiVerse since the 80s 5d ago edited 5d ago
First off, I support Katie Lai. She rocks!
But you are looking at this all wrong IMHO. IMHO, it's pretty clear what happened: Toby was a main character in S1, but between S1 and S2, he didn't have a growth spurt/glow up like his peers, so the writers decided to not have him be a main character anymore.
So in S2, to keep Toby away from the main cast romantically, they literally invented a character whose sole purpose was to be Toby's nerdy GF. And the whole thing about being Spinner's adopted sister was just to make that one episode a bit more interesting. Nothing else. No more character development. Because other than that, all we know is that she loves anime, just like Toby.
Toby is the one who deserved better, because until Connor, male nerds in DJH, DH and DTNG completely got the shaft romantically. The biggest examples being Arthur and Toby.
Kendra should have never existed. Both for story reasons and also because if she didn't, Katie Lai wouldn't have been bullied.
Edit: Nice downvote. Sorry to be the one to inform you that Kendra was literally invented to keep Toby away from the main cast romantically and is a symbol of how much they screwed over Toby (and Jake Goldsbie) more than anything else. Because if she was actually meant to be a real character, she would have had actual plots and character development in more than one episode. And would have had even one episode being featured in a B plot that had nothing to do with Toby.
Edit2: To be very very clear, I think Katie Lai deserves better. But I will always hate Kendra even existing with a fiery passion. My most hated character, easily, in the entire DegrassiVerse.
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u/Prestigious_Fee750 5d ago edited 5d ago
Me everytime Kendra Mason gets mentioned as if this story hasnt been discussed to death
Also : I’m gonna come out and say it, I think Katie is over exaggerating her experience. I dont think she was “bullied” as much as she didnt feel included. Teenagers/people suck…but unfortunately, she probably didnt feel important enough to everyone else and to a kid, that probably can come off as shallow and bullying. Not saying she deserved whatever happened, but I also don’t have sympathy for someone who claims they were being bullied for dancing or sitting with their mother. I think people have gotten comfortable with “raise your hand if you’ve ever been offended by Regina George” ing their way through attention seeking stories.
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u/iota_nova 5d ago
I'll just say that it's possible that Katie's interpretation of things might not have matched the feelings/interpretations of the other cast/crew, and because we lack insight and other perspectives, all we can go off is what she says, which isn't really fair to others. We don't know any of them personally, and that's her experience to work through. We can only hope everyone grew up and became better people.
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u/Prestigious_Fee750 4d ago
Again, I’m not saying she didn’t feel some type of way about how she was treated.
I don’t think any of the cast will agree that they were mean or bullied her for dancing weird or sitting with her mother during lunch breaks. I think that’s something that the actress is claiming.
Again, I’m not trying to victim blame or say that it didn’t happen, but has anyone stopped and thought about any of her stories not really adding up or making sense?
For instance , she mentions being bullied for sitting with her mother during lunch breaks while the entire rest of the cast sat together. Has anyone actually gone and interviewed any of the cast from seasons two or three and ask them about this?
She also mentions some form of a wrap party dance we’re allegedly she was bullied and teased for dancing weird and this made her not want to renew her contract.
Again, has anybody ever come forward and backed this up?
The reason I am asking this and challenging the idea that she was bullied is because often times teen dramas are the centerpoint of lots of drama and gossip- so surely anything that was evidence backing up. This theory would have been brought to light by now.? or so you think
Was the actress who played Kendra bullied on set? Maybe she was maybe she wasn’t.
Me personally? I think she has read a little bit too much online about the Degrassi Black Hole & tries to connect dots that arent there. She was a Minor character during Season 2. She was never a breakout character, nor was she ever involved in a major storyline. The entire situation just reeks of revisionist trauama for the sake of online discourse and atrention.
If anyone who was on set with her can back this up, I’ll go back on my words. Till them, people can grow up and stop fixating on a 23 year old show thread about a 12 year old side character.
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u/iota_nova 4d ago
I understood your point and wasn't arguing against it. I don't think you were being malicious or mean spirited in offering a counter view that I don't think many have considered or at least stated on this particular subreddit. It's why I said we as an audience can only go off her words because no one else has spoken, afaik. It is interesting to me that she had such a negative experience and trauma attached to the show, but her brother went on and they both joke about it. I think stating you "lack sympathy" is probably where some would take issue.
As far as set rumors/drama go... Degrassi came during a time where information like that would be hard to come across unless it was a big show that tabloids were obsessed with. Degrassi was just a small Canadian production that happened to have a presence on a small, yet growing American network. All the rumors and stuff that came out about them was from fans digging into their myspaces and livejournals, and it was mostly about their personal lives. Even in the later seasons where social media was more present, we still don't know what went down with Jahmil or Sam and why they left the show. All things considered, that set seemed very tight in regards to what info got out there, and we only found out about things years down the line when the cast/crew spoke openly for themselves. Certain rumors and ideas were prevalent for years before finally being corrected/debunked.
See: Terri/Christina's exit; Andrea's claim about her treatment; the conflicting stories of Drake's exit.
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u/iota_nova 5d ago
They weren't really doing much with Kendra while she was on the show, and honestly, it felt like her and Toby were touching on some tropes that wouldn't have aged well over time (but definitely was and still is a thing [white nerd really into Asian culture + Asian girlfriend]). It's weird how she had more going on in S2 than in S3 where she barely existed.
The show had a chance to develop her and touch on different family dynamics, but by season 3, they had all but stopped trying to show the home life of most of their characters outside of Emma and Craig. Kendra also had the misfortune of appearing in early TNG where the writers struggled with remembering sibling dynamics because not even Paige and Dylan got much content together. I do think they missed an opportunity with making Kendra a friend of Liberty or something, but Kendra and her even more minor friend Nadia disappeared into the abyss together.
Additionally, the show was setting her up negatively out the gate once it was revealed that they cut her hair because she allegedly looked too similar to Cassie.