botherd | Once I had a love and it was a gas

Sophia's gotten under my skin too! Okay, actually, I think it started before Emily's episode; it was back when we first started getting the episode summaries. Even though I immediately disliked her, I couldn't stop thinking about her. And now it's the same, except I actually like her! Oh, my heart. It is madness.

Also, YES, I love the Blondie parallel between Emily and Sophia. Definitely well done by the writers right there.

I need a Sophia icon.

For me it started when I first watched her trailer on E4.com, which wasn't until after Thomas's episode. (In his episode I didn't care about her at all.) And then we got more about her in Emily's episode and, God, she's such a tragic figure. I never thought I'd say this after the first episode, but she's a really wonderful addition to the story.

Oh, I totally forgot about her trailer. Yes! That was definitely when my interest in her began; I was totally creeped out by that trailer, and then watched it about 30 more times that day. :D And yeah, I know what you mean; I never expected to like Sophia this much.

I feel like she's just so relatable. She's a lot like Emily without being exactly her, which is what makes her story so sad, because she's wasn't brave like Emily.

She is quite a lot like Emily, but somehow I feel a lot more sympathy for her than I ever have for Emily. (Not that I don't like Emily, but she's probably only my fifth favourite at this point.) Maybe it's because, like you said, she's not strong like Emily.

I really want to write fic about Sophia and Emily but it would probably have to be some sort of ridiculous ghost!fic for it to work.

See, Emily is and will always be my favorite. I can't hate someone who's almost exactly like me. Everything she does and feels hits so close to home. But, it's the same with Sophia, so without even trying, she's managed to become one of my top four favorite characters.

Oh, that would be cool. Maybe you could write it from alternating perspectives of early!Emily in S3 and Sophia in S4? If that makes sense.

I liked and related to Emily a lot more at the beginning of series three, and then I think as her confidence grew I stopped relating so much and shifted to Naomi. And that's probably why I relate to Sophia more, because she's like early s3!Emily.

I'm not really sure how you're envisioning the fic, but it sounds like you have a good idea. You should probably write it. :D

I don't really feel like Emily's confidence has grown that much. I think getting the girl helped, but I think that Emily's still pretty much a pushover. Which is okay, because I like her like that. But, still.

Lol, I actually don't know if I could write it. /lame

matt totally should've opened the box, i didn't get that either. and i didn't understand how naomi could be so incredibly rude as to say "can't we just leave it? she's dead. let it go." i mean come on.

i'm intrigued by sophia, but i don't think i can manage to like her whilst people are still justifying the cheating (i have to read the fic, though, haha). i'm just taking this all a leetle too personally, it's kind of disturbing. it's a show! D:

I think Naomi's in a double bind there, because she desperately wants Emily not to find out (hence why she says that) but she's only incriminating herself when she says it. I just think she's really, really desperate and scared.

You have to take things personally in fandom! It's just how it works. ;)

but i don't want to be hurty! wah.

man, even if she scared, though, that's such a horrible thing to say. naomi doesn't seem to be the kind of person who thinks before she acts though, so, haha.

I think Sophia is a fascinating character and I'm sad that they used her life and the sad incident that was her death mostly as a plot device.

However I do not agree that Emily made Sophia's death all about her. Unlike Naomi, Emily didn't even know her and she still managed to show more sympathy toward this girl and her family than Naomi did. I think she and Matt were merely looking for different things in the same objects, and investigating it together made them both feel stronger (I especially love when he tells her that he made the wooden box for Sophia, and then continues to give Naomi the death glare). That Emily would concentrate on Naomi's betrayal once the truth is out is only natural, since she had no relationship at all with Sopia, and it had already been disclosed that she killed herself (her obsession with Naomi only being one of the things that made her do it), so the final reveal WAS more about the affair by default. They (the brother and her) both found their answers - Matt actually got his with the suicide note already - and it was to very different things, so I thought their scenes were well done.
I had more problems with Naomi tbh, telling Emily to 'leave it, because the girl is dead anyways' would be bad enough had it just been the two of them, but considering the brother was present as well this line left a bad taste in my mouth. Emily didn't make Sophia's dead about her, Naomi made Sophia's dead about them. I still hope that we get to see a scene where Naomi we get to see her feel sorry for what happened, because she came across as decidedly cold in ep 2.

I guess I didn't really feel like Emily was all that sympathetic towards Sophia. I mean, in the previous episode she was bitching about the police wanting to talk to them instead of understanding that they were trying to investigate a girl's suicide. Not very sympathetic.

In the second episode there's this scene where she's crying over the flowers that have been left for Sophia, but that comes right after she found the picture of Naomi and Sophia in the prospectus so it seemed like she was crying over that instead of her death. And then she proceeds to lie to Sophia's mother so she can poke around in Sophia's things and steal stuff from her! I'm sorry, but just because she's decided to play detective that doesn't make it okay. It's not her place to rifle through Sophia's life like that.

I didn't think Naomi was cold, I thought she was scared and desperately trying to stop Emily from finding out. It doesn't mean she wasn't affected by Sophia's death.

But you could argue that Emily's comments were meant to be more foreshadowing than anything. I though it was more the writers saying 'Meh! We are so smart!' than something Emily would actually voice, because I do agree that they seemed off and I actually can't picture her saying it, seeing as she's the one who played matchmaker for two random neighbours last season because that's just who she is.

And I dunno, I think it's weird that people have sort of started justifying Naomi's actions, while being harsher towards Emily at the same time. Emily is far from perfect, but I don't think it's fair to judge her by higher standards than Naomi, just because she's the 'better' person and we don't expect her to be a complicated bitch like we do with Naomi. I'm actually glad Naomi was the one to screw up. Not only makes it more sense to be her, I also have the feeling people would react a lot more unforgiving had it been Emily.

I didn't think Naomi was cold, I thought she was scared and desperately trying to stop Emily from finding out. It doesn't mean she wasn't affected by Sophia's death.

Couldn't the same be said for Emily? She surely wouldn't have snooped around had her girlfriend not given her reasons to be supspicious and had the dead girl's mom not thought Sophia was apparently chummy with them. Emily didn't do it because she was nosy and had nothing better to do than find out why a young girl killed herself, she did it because her girlfriend was lying to her and she wanted to know the truth. It doesn't mean that she wasn't affected by Sophia's death either, because I do think she was once she started to look into her story.

And I'll believe that Naomi feel more than nonchalance when I see it. We didn't in this episode, which I think was mainly the writers fault, since even someone who's good at hiding things and is scared could look more conflicted at times, and they didn't suceed at showing us this.

Well, I guess that's the question: which parts do you take as truth and which do you handwave as being out of character? If you handwave Emily's comments in Thomas' episode as being out of character, can't you say the same about the parts in this episode that make you think Naomi was being cold?

I don't know about other people, but I'm not trying to justify Naomi's actions. She did a terrible thing. But people keep characterising her as this cold, unfeeling bitch and that makes me defensive, because I don't think that's true at all. I know I've been pointing out Emily's flaws but it's not about holding her to a higher standard, it's just pointing out that she's not perfect. I don't think people should stop criticising Emily just because she hasn't done anything as bad as cheating.

I get why Emily did what she did, but I still don't think it justifies her snooping around and stealing things. Sophia left the note and the key for Matt, and I really feel like Emily was violating her privacy by going through her stuff like that.

Well, I guess that's the question: which parts do you take as truth and which do you handwave as being out of character? If you handwave Emily's comments in Thomas' episode as being out of character, can't you say the same about the parts in this episode that make you think Naomi was being cold?

I agree with this, and I DO blame the writers for often favouring style over substance, and sometimes it seems like they are way too enamored with their ability to hint at things while totally forgetting about characterisation. But at least Emily only had to deal with one or two ooc comments, while Naomi came across as uncaring the whole. But like I said, I do look forward to see more from her point of view in the coming episodes, and I really hope it explains some of her behaviour.

And yeah, ~~Emily~~ Nancy did go to a few lengths so she could find out the truth, and I agree that she shouldn't have stolen things, but it makes sense for her to do it, as Naomi wasn't really in a sharing mood. So I don't approve of her actions, but Emily was always a characters who'd do almost anything if it involves people she cares about. At least she called Matt in the end, I'm positive she could've just pried it open all on her own.

I actually had to lol at you saying Emily was violating her privacy, because the bitchy part of me was seriosuly thinking that Sophia violated more than just Emily's privacy (what with shagging her girlfriend and having suggestive pictures of her covering her walls as well as going through Naomi's trash and stealing her bracelet), so it's not like she has any moral ground on her. Oh jesus, can you tell I'm still bitter about what happened? These girls are ridiculously flawed, but I just wanted them to be adorable and cute ~~and have sex~~ while dealing with other problems than cheating.

I think the thing is that I didn't really see Naomi as being uncaring on the whole, but maybe I'm just fanwanking her behaviour because I still love her. IDK.

I think Sophia violated Naomi's privacy by stealing her stuff, but I don't think she's to blame for Naomi cheating. And anyway, as we learnt in the first episode, two wrongs don't make a right. ;)

Nope, definitely not
But a solution to most of these problems would've been replacing the scene where Naomi was on the phone laughing like she had the time of her life with one where she instead looked sombre or thoughtful. Other than fuel the question whether she was actually talking to her mum or not, there wasn't much purpose to it and they could've used this scene to subtly show us what Naomi felt about the situation without having to shift the focus from Emily.

I think Sophia violated Naomi's privacy by stealing her stuff, but I don't think she's to blame for Naomi cheating.

Don't you know that two girls being in a relationship automatically means that they are all over each other's business? It comes right after moving in together as soon as possible and being super-dramatic about everyting on the lesbian to-do list. Heck, they are even called Naomily, so much for individuality. ;)

Oh bb, we care so deeply for this stuff that I feel slightly uneasy that the likes of Jamie Brittain are in charge of breaking or mending our hearts. Why did I get invested in this?

I love the parallels between them.
Is this also meant to be a pun? As in 'Parallel Lines' - Blondie?

I agree on the episodes being better the second time around. I think that perhaps the way they shoot episodes with the end in mind, which isn't always the best thing to do but in this case (Skins) I think it is.

It wasn't meant to be a pun at all!

I almost feel like I should stop trying to form my opinions on the episodes based on the first viewing, because I always completely change my mind when I see them again.

I like... I don't think Emily made Sophia's death all about her.

I think that Naomi did, because she was being so secretive, so Emily's involvement only kick-starts when she realises that Naomi's been lying to her.

IMO, she goes to see Sophia's mum because she feels guilty that it was her girlfriend who played a part in Sophia's death, and it's just better to be anonymous because the police are asking questions... it only becomes about Emily when she finds that picture in the prospectus.

Perhaps Matt should have opened the box, but this episode was called 'Emily' and it has more of an impact if Emily's the one seeing it. By this stage, as well, I think that Matt sort of feels like they're in it together. Like, he knows that Emily is scared of something, and she's said that she needs to know what's in that box. And maybe it's a little easier for him, too, if someone else is doing the opening.

I thought it was sort of sweet of him to let her do it, kind of like 'Here, you seem to need this as much as I do'.

Maybe I'm wrong on all counts. But it's just the way I see it :)

And I'm also not really hating Sophia any more, because she's too tragic a character. Plus Amberley is actually HAWT! Which makes Naomi's actions almost understandable ;)

And yeah - the fact that Jenna was right. Poor Emily! Again, I've been in that situation so just ugh *hugs* for Ems.

Which makes Naomi's actions almost understandable ;)

ugh. i know you don't actually mean this (i hope you don't!), but ugh. seeing people say this the last few days ... i take it personally, heh. no amount of attractiveness will ever in a million years justify that kind of betrayal. ow. :(

I don't think anyone means it seriously, it's just easier to deal with things at times if you make light of them. I know that's what I've been doing. Otherwise it just wears you down, if you're being all sad and depressed about what happened.

Oh course I don't mean it... see my journal for my pain :)

I seriously have taken this VERY personally and am just trying to figure out a way to stop feeling like I've been sucker-punched every time I remember what happened and I have to try to remember that it wasn't ME that Naomi cheated on although sometimes it feels that way <3

Sorry if this offended you bb!!

i did see your journal for the pain, and it was exactly what i needed ♥ thank fuck there are other people standing up for emily, i was afraid i'd have to take a skins break, because all the "naomi's human" comments were seriously taking me back to a horrible, horrible place that i'd like to leave behind me, thanks. D:

i get why she did it, i just cannot put myself in those shoes, i've only been in emily's.

i just hope they have enough time to fix it/give them happiness elsewhere. i just want them to stop hurting, really. owwie.

p.s. can i add you?

Yeah, I've only been in Emily's too. <3

Please do add me! We'll all try to be less hurty together :)

IMO, she goes to see Sophia's mum because she feels guilty that it was her girlfriend who played a part in Sophia's death

I didn't see it that way at all. It comes right after she asks Naomi, "Don't you want to know why they had our names?" so I thought it was just a ruse to find answers. Hence using Nancy (as in Drew) as her fake name. And then she keeps the key instead of giving it to Matt (who it was obviously intended for) before she even notices the picture in the prospectus. IDK, you're probably right about it being easier for Matt to have someone there with him but I just really felt like she violated Sophia's privacy by snooping around and stealing her things just because she was looking for answers.

Yeah, fair enough dude :)

I guess maybe I just didn't want to see it that way but your point is certainly valid. Maybe it was a bit of both :)

But yeah, snooping around wasn't so cool. But Emily didn't really know what she was looking for at this stage...

Bah, let's just agree to disagree, hmm? <3

Yeah, we can absolutely agree to disagree. I mean, I think it's really interesting that there are so many different interpretations. ♥

I adore Sophia! I love the fact that she portrayed and expressed her life through her artwork and how she depended on it to make her feel something.

It's odd though I see Sophia being very similar to Katie. I think it started off in Sophia's trailer when she said that her brother and her used to be best friends but they grew up and she could no longer talk to him. That reminds me of Katie's and Emily's relationship. Also it seems that Katie feels that no one understands her. And also it kinda worries me because Katie is not as strong as Emily even though she pretends to be and what happened to Sophia could've happened to her...

I had a dream last night that Katie did A-level Art but didn't tell anyone that she could sketch because she feared that Emily would try it and be better than her. And she used to stay late after college and work on her art during lunch breaks and free periods and Sophia would always be there and they would just acknowledge each other and work on their sketches silently or listen to music and then they started to talk to each other, telling each other things they hadn't told anyone else before and became really close. And Katie kept their friendship a secret after Sophia's death but eventually told Matt with Emily overhearing about how Sophia had told Katie she kissed Naomi and how Katie encouraged Sophia's crush to develop because she wanted Naomi and Emily to break up but she realised how happy Naomi made Emily and she wanted Sophia to stop and ended up having a fight and then Sophia took the MDMA and killed herself. My dream ended with Katie and Matt forming a relationship I don't know why but I ship Katie/Matt hard!

It's odd though I see Sophia being very similar to Katie. I think it started off in Sophia's trailer when she said that her brother and her used to be best friends but they grew up and she could no longer talk to him. That reminds me of Katie's and Emily's relationship. Also it seems that Katie feels that no one understands her. And also it kinda worries me because Katie is not as strong as Emily even though she pretends to be and what happened to Sophia could've happened to her...

It's funny you saw it this way, because I saw the exact opposite. I saw it as Emily who could no longer talk to Katie (about being gay, which I think was Sophia's issue too), and feeling that no one understood her (which would also be true for Emily, because everyone always just lumped her in with Katie or shunted her to the side and ignored her).

Oh don't get me wrong I also see Sophia a parallel version of Emily for exactly the same reasons you stated. I can just see it from Katie's point of view like I think she always knew that Emily was gay and was ok with it but she was frustrated that Emily kept on denying it every time she confronted her about it. And I like to think that Katie was protecting Emily from negative reactions of the kiss in middle school and also knew that their mum would take it badly and couldn't face a life without Emily because she depended on her. I think that is Katie is a very complex person and it frustrates me that they newer developed her character in the first series. I think that her whole personality in the first series was just an act to hide her insecurities and she is the actual shadow- not Emily. She thinks Emily is better than her, smarter ect and that nothing she does is good enough and all what people expect off her is to get pregnant young or get married not go to Uni like her parents want for Emily. I think there is a reason why she always has to have a boyfriend and why most we've seen are older I mean Danny was bad enough but Sam? I think Katie used her false confidence and her voice to become someone that stuck out from Emily's shadow and Emily being the shyer twin just let her go along with it until she fell in love and then transformed into who she is today and left Katie behind in the shadows.

Oh, your dream makes me really want fic!

I definitely think Katie has lots of insecurities but I'm not really sure I see her as being all that similar to Sophia. But now you've gone and made me ponder it! :)

If I could I would convert my dream into a fic but I'm not talented in that department! It's a shame really coz I always come up with ideas but I can never express them into something more.

Feel free to borrow my idea and develop it further and put your spin in it. I think you are an amazing writer and will do it justice! It just demands to be written!

Oh and ponder away- there my not be obvious similarities but there is something there I know it!

Oh man, thank you! I think I might. Except I would probably be inclined to make it Katie/Sophia instead of Katie/Matt, because that's just how I roll. :D

Awesome! See! You have already made a major improvement! Katie/Sophia I ship it! I can't wait this has to happen! :o)

PS I have another idea for it: So they start of in the art room just silently acknowledging each other and sometimes listen to music and dance/draw/paint at the same time and laugh. Then the next day Sophia brings pizza and Katie mentions that she hasn't had pizza in ages coz of her parents being fitness freaks. And Sophia making it sombre by saying that when her father was they used to sit in silence as he had a short fuse and just to lash out at her mother if something was wrong and how he forbade them for having fast food. But once Sophia really wanted a toy from McDonalds so Matt got a Happy Meal for her but their father found out and ended up breaking Matt's arm... I know it sounds dark but Sophia seems to have had a dark past and it could make Katie more grateful for her family.

One of the best things about this is how Emily must see the similarities between her and Sophia, and that that's one of the things that ould hurt her most. Would she have ended up just like Sophia if she wasn't so strong, or if Naomi had held out any longer? And if Naomi can make this random girl do this to herself what damage could she do to Emily?

Love her now, and the animations and shit are just breath-taking. You seen the Naomily Unseen vid, cos that's something creepily gorgeous right there.

i should watch that unseen again. i saw it right after the episode aired, but i think i was too angry about everything being sophia-fied to actually pay attention.

It's hard to past that BIG HUGE THING and see all the cool little details, ain't it? I was really impressed and the music was awesometo, got it as an MP3 if anyone wants it?

I hadn't seen the Unseen vid but now I have and fuck, that's awesome. I think I need to watch it a few more times to make sense of it all.

Yeah, whoever's doing the animations for this is amazing. And I wonder if that's Fat Segal doing teh music again?

I hated (well, that's a strong word, moreso disliked) the episode when I first saw it, and I realized now its because 'Naomily' is the idealistic imaginary partner I've never had, or have yet to find. It's that perfect fairytale idea of love and because the writers and actors made the characters so real - they actually feel like real people to a lot of fans. I think thats why it hurt so much on a first viewing.

Second time I watched it, I liked it. I also picked up on all of the tiny details the writer slipped in. It really made me think this time round, and especially about the mother daughter relationship. Emily and Jenna are more alike than they think. I loved how the writer wrote the entire family - each of them had their own problems that were playing out alongside Emily's drama. I love the Fitch family.

Third time I watched it, I LOVED it. I don't think the episode was any way perfect, after all, no matter what we got (e.g. if it had all been happy) people would have still complained about wanting more than that. Now, I'm happy with the episode. Before seeing it, I wished that Bryan Elsley was writing it as he's the best and most experienced writer of the lot, but Ed Hime, a theatre writer to give us his first tv episode, I thought he did an amazing job. The episode takes you on such an emotional journey. I think people being upset about it is a great thing now, and I'm sure that was the intention they had way before writing it. They wanted us to be upset, because at the end of the day, if we weren't upset we wouldn't care. And it will only make a more fantastic finale where girl gets the girl. Again.

Sorry that was long.

Hee, don't apologise for length! I think this is a really interesting discussion.

I think you're right that it's a good thing people were upset, although most of my initial dislike of the episode had to do with how the story was told rather than the story they were telling, if that makes sense. But it's prompted such a lot of discussion and fic which just shows what a big impact it's had.

I think only episodes that I instantly adored were Pandora's, Naomi's, JJ's (I think the character that was him mum made a big impact) Effy's would have been one but I just wish they focused more on her relationship with her family and didn't have her getting all 6's and 7's over Freddie.

Honestly, it took me ages to get into series three at all. I think the only episode I loved straight away was Katie & Emily's; the first time I watched Naomi's I was like, "Meh. This is what people are so excited about?" Obviously I came to my senses eventually!

Once I had a love and it was a gas

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