Emily Jones: Arguably the Most Controversial Character

Whit's wiping down the counter, Connie's mopping the floor, and the kids are sipping on their milkshakes. If you want to talk about Adventures in Odyssey the radio drama, this is the spot to do just that!
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Emily Jones: Arguably the Most Controversial Character

Post by Pound Foolish »

"Situations often come up that require someone to restore a logical order to things."
~Emily Jones in this month's Clubhouse mystery

She's funny. She's charming. Witty, smart, and spunky. So one side says. The other side objects she is none of those things. The most common objection by "Emily Haters" is that she is "annoying." But annoyance is just your personal emotional reaction, not a critique of the character herself.

So, if you do like Miss Jones, why? And if not, what are your real reasons? Thank you all.
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Post by TigerintheShadows »

To be honest, I'm warming up to her a bit (though warming is in comparison to being frozen solid, so that might be more relative than anything else ;) ). I guess part of the reason why I disliked her so much was because of how her overbearing, bossy, know-it-all behavior was never called out in-show, when anyone who acts the way she did in real life would get instantly called on it. But that was in Album 51, and thankfully she's developed considerably since then. Her insecurities have been brought to light more ("Emily the Genius", "Great Expectations") and she's starting to sound more like an actual person than a ten-year-old Hillary Clinton/Nancy Drew wannabe. I still get this vibe that her behavior sounds so much more high-school-ish than her current age (and I can't really explain it without hearing some of her episodes, which I'm currently too lazy to do because it's 11:20 and I'm tired—it's more of a gut feeling than anything else), and I hope that she can appear in more episodes alongside her peers instead of just Matthew so we can get more of a well-rounded feel from her, but overall I think her character is being taken in a positive direction.

(But I've said it before and I'll say it again—her voice still grates on every nerve. But maybe that's just the vocalist in me talking. ;) )

And I have to dispute the title of the thread; Emily cannot be the most controversial character solely because Robert Mitchell exists and he is a massive, massive Base Breaker.
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Post by Jonathan »

TigerintheShadows wrote:And I have to dispute the title of the thread; Emily cannot be the most controversial character solely because Robert Mitchell exists and he is a massive, massive Base Breaker.
Heh.
And don't forget David Harley. A more accurate title would be the most controversial character since the relaunch.
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Post by Marvin D. »

TigerintheShadows wrote:To be honest, I'm warming up to her a bit (though warming is in comparison to being frozen solid, so that might be more relative than anything else ;) ). I guess part of the reason why I disliked her so much was because of how her overbearing, bossy, know-it-all behavior was never called out in-show, when anyone who acts the way she did in real life would get instantly called on it. But that was in Album 51, and thankfully she's developed considerably since then. Her insecurities have been brought to light more ("Emily the Genius", "Great Expectations") and she's starting to sound more like an actual person than a ten-year-old Hillary Clinton/Nancy Drew wannabe. I still get this vibe that her behavior sounds so much more high-school-ish than her current age (and I can't really explain it without hearing some of her episodes, which I'm currently too lazy to do because it's 11:20 and I'm tired—it's more of a gut feeling than anything else), and I hope that she can appear in more episodes alongside her peers instead of just Matthew so we can get more of a well-rounded feel from her, but overall I think her character is being taken in a positive direction.

(But I've said it before and I'll say it again—her voice still grates on every nerve. But maybe that's just the vocalist in me talking. ;) )

And I have to dispute the title of the thread; Emily cannot be the most controversial character solely because Robert Mitchell exists and he is a massive, massive Base Breaker.
I just generally quote Tiger on most issues because she saves me the trouble of typing up stuff \:D/ I do have some other reasons but this'll do for now.
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Post by Jimmy Barclay Fan »

Emily was horrible , at her worst , during the GRC. She was rude throughout , especially to Matthew. I was not sure why he was friends with her. He has the right to other friends without her acting jealous and rude. That is when I found her the most unlikable. She is better now.
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Post by Pound Foolish »

Thank you all for you feedback, I especially enjoyed your post, Tiger.

Now to the NAME. In the first place, everyone, I said she is ARGUABLY the most controversial character. You know. As in not IN-arguably. But anyhow, I'm guessing even Mitch doesn't have so much talk dedicated to him. If you put the ERK (Emily RULES Klub) on the Soda Shop together with KRE (Klub Rules Emily, the anti Emily club) there's been 150 pages talking about Emily thus far! That's not counting various other topics, such as a quizz and an Emily related contest. Plus the ERK blog. So yeah. Emily probably wins. >:)
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Post by TigerintheShadows »

At this point in time, probably, but I also note some discussions on the SS about Mitch—namely, the thread about whether or not he's a jerk. (Personally, I don't believe he is, being as it was a mutual decision and he had no reason to expect that Connie wouldn't move on—but I digress). If there had been popular message boards at the time of the Novacom saga that are still easy to find, I think we would see a variety of opinions of the time—not so much on Mitch himself, but on Mitch and Connie's relationship. Roughly half the fanbase still thinks it was the best thing that happened to Connie, but the other half has described it as "tainting" the show at best and is glad that the "Mitch residue" has left the show.
Pound Foolish wrote:I said she is ARGUABLY the most controversial character. You know. As in not IN-arguably.
I did notice that and thought about addressing it as I wrote my post (which was at least partially written in jest), but I was, as I say, tired at the time. ;)

I think that if we were to compile a list of controversial decisions and elements of the show, Emily Jones's character would be up toward the top, along with the relaunch, Wooton Bassett, and Pamela Has A Problem. (I would have added the split episodes, but the general hatred of them by the fandom says that they were Scrappies, not Base Breakers.) But if I were to pick a number one on that list, it would still be the Mitch/Connie relationship, by virtue of the fact that people still haven't gotten over it on either side. If you bring up Connie dating anyone, no matter who it is, Mitch will be brought up and people will restate their opinions about him. So while I agree that Emily's character is highly controversial at this point in time, I don't think that she's the most controversial overall—though we could only really measure this if we accelerated time to about ten years from now to see if people were still tearing into each other over her. ;)
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Post by Pound Foolish »

Emily is the most controversial by virtue of there of there is controversy about her being controversial.
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Post by ~JCGJ~ »

Pound Foolish wrote:Emily is the most controversial by virtue of there of there is controversy about her being controversial.
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Post by Leonard Meltsner »

It should be noted that last I checked, Robert Mitchell had the third-most visited AIOWiki page, which says something, considering he's only been in 20 episodes.
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Post by Marvin D. »

Leonard Meltsner wrote:It should be noted that last I checked, Robert Mitchell had the third-most visited AIOWiki page, which says something, considering he's only been in 20 episodes.
Preach.

Only twenty? It feels like a lot more :p
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Post by ~JCGJ~ »

What are the first two, Connie and Whit? :mrgreen:
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Post by Leonard Meltsner »

~JCGJ~ wrote:What are the first two, Connie and Whit? :mrgreen:
Irrespectively, yes.
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Eugene-"Well, the sequence of events occured with extreme rapidity, but I shall attempt to recall them. I was powering my two-wheeler along this concrete pathway, when your personnage suddenly appeared directly in front of me blocking my course. My reflexes immediately sprang to life in an attempt to navigate an evasive manouveur around you while still maintaining course and speed, but I evidently over-compensated, and my Schwinn careened off the hardened path, taking me with it, and up-ended us both in this shrub, a Rhododendron of the heath family I believe, deducing from the leathery evergreen leaves, as distinguished from the deciduous Azalea, which as we all know is..."
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Post by Mrs Jason Whittaker »

I like Emily because she's annoying.

I work with kids regularly. There are sweet, agreeable kids. There are loud obnoxious kids. There are bossy, know-it-all kids. Odyssey has the boldness to portray a bossy, know-it-all kid and they named her Emily.

The thing about Emily is that she's believable. She's annoying, just like a real kid.

But after making that case I would also argue that her character has redeeming qualities, too. She's intelligent, maybe not genius level, but still smart. She's perceptive, she's protective of her brother, she's a hard worker.

Also, she has been called out on her behavior--by her father in When You're Right, You're Right, and in Emily the Genius. Also by Matthew in When You're Right, You're Right, in The Green Ring Conspiracy.
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Post by Pound Foolish »

Excellently said, Mrs. Jason, and fascinating.
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