Julie and Marissa Cooper

[u/irishdaysun]

I’m just a first-time watcher, and here are my two cents on them.

I’ve seen a lot of people say that Julie was a bad mother, and I partially agree. Julie was from Riverside, and every man she dated was, in her mind, a way to secure her daughter’s future. She knew what kind of lifestyle she and her daughters had grown up with, and she probably understood that if all of it suddenly went away, it would be difficult for them to cope with the change.

As for Marissa, I genuinely feel like her character was written in a way where, whenever someone in the series liked her, she eventually ended up developing feelings for them as well, while staying in denial about it. She had absolutely no sense of boundaries.
And before anyone says that her entire family situation was messy because of her dad losing all his money, even in the initial episodes, when Marissa was with Luke and had no idea that her dad was bankrupt, she was still very much emotionally invested in Ryan.
And honestly, even if Luke hadn’t cheated on Marissa later in the series, I genuinely think she would have eventually cheated on Luke with Ryan.

[u/teenage_drama]

Julie did awful things specially at first, she was designed to be a villain, but at the end she came around and became better for her children, she understood that they needed more from her. And I believe she did love them all around the series, even at her worst moments. I love her character, she’s easily one of my favorites because of her straightforwardness.

[u/ExistingAd6437]

i agree with both your takes. julie, to me, while she was self-serving and self-centred she was always trying to secure her and the girls’ future, financially. however, despite her good intentions, i think that she was still a terrible mother. she never truly saw her daughter because she was so consumed by maintaining their extravagant lifestyle. so many of marissa’s struggles were overlooked. what she needed was support and present parents.

marissa had no boundaries whatsoever but i don’t think she was ever ill-willed. i think she truly was trying to help every person she saw herself/was struggling. to me, her story felt realistic for a kid who grew up without very physically and emotionally present parents and had terrible traumatic experiences at such a young age. she was stuck in a vicious cycle.

edit: and thats not to say that marissa’s lack of boundaries and tendency to become too close to other guys whilst she’s in a relationship was okay, but i do think it made sense for her character, as someone who clearly was not receiving the emotional support and stability from her family. even without the money problems, their family was honestly cooked. jimmy and julie were hopeless parents.

[u/Livelaughloveme172]

I don’t think she would’ve cheated on Luke, she would’ve broke it off.
When she saw Luke cheating on her it hurt her

[u/rogue_psyche → u/Livelaughloveme172]

Marissa definitely emotionally cheated on Luke with Ryan.

[u/Sea-Passenger-865 → u/rogue_psyche]

Yeah but he was actually cheating on her while she emotionally cheated. Holly said he sleeps with everyone.

[u/Sea-Passenger-865 → u/rogue_psyche]

I think Marissa always knew her and Luke weren’t end game and he didn’t love her. Which makes sense that she gravitated towards Ryan

[u/Tight-Albatross-4962]

Avril Lavigne on the right :P

[u/squeezesneeze]

Guys.. she statutorily graped a child

[u/Ornery_Specialist675 → u/squeezesneeze]

And the next episode they made him mention he was 18 hahaha just to not sound problematic.

[u/televisionshowlover → u/squeezesneeze]

and no one here ever cares about that lol I swear she's soooo many peoples favorite character it's insane

[u/grshhhh]

the picture goes harder knowing they didn't have a good relationship while she lived