Cowboy Bebop Why Julia doesn't work for me

GVentola posted on Apr 24, 2010 at 02:19AM
RANT: THERE, I’VE SAID IT: WHY JULIA DOESN’T WORK

Julia plays a big part in “Cowboy Bebop”, though she has little screen time. She is the love of Spike’s life. But why should I accept that? It would have been much nicer if he had a slowly developing romance with Faye, one we could see grow from its start as two people in conflict who gradually came to love each other. With Julia, were just told (mostly from sketchy flashback) that she’s Spike’s love, and to just accept it. But I have a hard time doing so. I usually have to see a romance start to like it. We aren’t told enough about Julia. I was shown enough to make me want to care, but all the time I had the opposing feeling of, “Why the hell should I care?”

When I was a kid, I resented going over someone else’s house to play only to have her friends, who were strangers to me, show up and want in on the action, too. I thought it was just going to be me and her! Julia is like that—intruding on the coziness of the main cast. True, the crew isn’t all that tight, but we want them to be. I don’t want to be told, “Oh, Spike does care for someone—but it’s not one of the Bebop crew. It’s this outsider you know nothing about.”

“Cowboy Bebop” is one of the most intense, intriguing, captivating, and high-quality shows I’ve ever seen, so perhaps the Julia issue is a small price to pay for such a great TV series. And I will say at least being true to Julia kept Spike from having a girl in every spaceport (an annoying character trait in many other shows I watch). Yet, the whole Julia romance thing bugs me from time to time. I tried writing a fanfic from her point of view, to make me like her and understand her and Spike’s romance better. But I shouldn't have had to—the show itself should have made me care on its own.

Don't forget to see my pick on whether Julia works for you or not, and vote.

Cowboy Bebop 5 majibu

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zaidi ya mwaka mmoja uliopita Storystuff said…
hmm, I agree some things about Julia, but not others.

Why she doesn't work: She annoys me. Just her as a person and the fact that she's so away with the fairies and the reason why Spike dies. Also, I would LOVE to see more romance between Spike and Faye than we did they are so cute together!!!!
Also, it would have been better if she wasn't vicious's girlfriend previously. I mean, Vicous reacted quite accordingly really!!!! And I too, did not really care about Julia, but I cared for spike as if it wasn't for the julia tragedy, he wouldn't be as badass and awesome and 'carefree' (inverted commas!!!) as he was.

Why she works: I don't want to see more Spike and Faye. Now, I know i've just contridicted myself but: I think Spike and Faye are adorable but they just wouldn't go if they got together you know what I mean? They pretend to hate each other (or at least I think they're pretending... I hope) and I just don't think it'd be a good relationship and it's better when its something you have to pick out (most TV relationships aren't real but we fans just make it so!!!) Yeh so I like Spike and Faye just as they were in the series, no more, no less.
Then she works because it makes spike all the more tragic hero. He's so wrapped up in Julia he never thinks about faye and ends up dying.
And finally she works 'cos it gives spike backstory. A tragic love lost, converting friend into foe and all that jazz. :-)

so i'm in 2 halves, but I agree that we could care more for her, but if we did then it'd have to reveal EVERYTHING and then there wouldn't be the mysterious elements to it (like i don't understand the timeline???)
zaidi ya mwaka mmoja uliopita alyndryll said…
blush
I think what's important is that she made Spike happy (while it lasted, cause she did kinda break his heart...?). As for Faye and Spike, I don't think Spike really felt anything for her romantically. But maybe that's cuz i always kind of liked (loved) Faye and Jet's interactions. But the relationship between Spike and Julia was (dare i say it) beautifully tragic, and when she said "It's all a dream" when she died just made me sad. and i love sad love stories. And i think it also helped to make the ending so epic.
zaidi ya mwaka mmoja uliopita MrsSpooky said…
smirk
Julia wasn't in it enough to like or dislike her. I was curious about why, in RFB1 when Spike finally opens up to Jet about Julia, he was talking about his feelings for her in the past tense.

"She was" and "I thought" - huh? He doesn't think that way any more? I'm sure he still loved her, but why talk about his feelings for her in the past tense like that?

There's no telling what Spike was feeling about Faye. In the beginning, it was pretty much contempt (can't blame him there, the broad rips them off then goes and just moves with with them - she's lucky they didn't just space her). It was interesting that she shows up in his dreams of Julia as he's waking up in Jupiter Jazz part 2.

Something was developing. Whether it was romantic or not is impossible to say, but after Jupiter Jazz, I got the feeling that maybe Julia WASN'T his reason for living.
zaidi ya mwaka mmoja uliopita xloveXghoulx said…
I am such a Faye/Spike person myself, hehe. BUT I don't hate Julia. I just don't care for her. The relationship between her and Spike is very important but I didn't really connect with her character. And as Storystuff said, her relationship with Vicious...really? I mean I know he turned crazy after the war and all, but he was a wierdo and then she goes and cheats on him with his best friend. Yeesh talk about drama waiting to happen. =P
zaidi ya mwaka mmoja uliopita Gerox said…
I've watched Cowboy Bebop about 3 years ago and I don't even imagine that some people could thinking abot Spike and Faye after such an Great Masterpiece. We know the history it's just about Julia even when she just appear a little bit. I think we can't get confused, if Julia doesn''t worked Cowboy Bebop wouln't be the Masterpiece that it is.

Now, Faye and Spike were just good friends, pretending to hate each other, but inside they had understood each other. We see through the history how they care for each other. At the end Spike died when Julia died... who knows? The story love is not told completely and even we don't know so much about early Spike life; he said he thought it would be irrelevant if he die and that he wasn't afraid of the death before to meet Julia but when he met Julia he was afraid of death and he couldn't die while she were beside him.