Glee: Difference between revisions

** The [[Your Cheating Heart]] trope is used to create drama quite often on ''Glee'', perhaps a little too often, [[Sympathetic Adulterer|but some characters who cheat have been portrayed more sympathetically than others]]. Finn kisses Rachel during a private rehearsal despite dating Quinn in "Showmance", Will and Emma share enough romantic moments that the former's wife briefly becomes the school nurse to keep a closer eye on him since she believes he may be cheating on her on top of the latter's boyfriend also feeling jealous, Brittany is manipulated into continuing her make out sessions with Santana even after she starts dating Artie, and she also kisses Santana despite dating Sam in "Diva". Since Quinn, Terri, Ken, and Artie were all set up to be [[Romantic False Lead|Romantic False Leads]], the writing was heavily stacked against them and the actual romantic leads [[Karma Houdini|suffered no real consequences for their infidelity]] because it couldn't distract from the fact that Will/Emma, Finn/Rachel, and Santana/Brittany had to become [[Official Couple|Offical Couples]]. However, other characters would usually either [[What the Hell, Hero?|get called out on ''their'' infidelity]] - including Quinn (''twice!''), Rachel, Kurt, Blaine, and Jake - or [[Laser-Guided Karma|just have their current relationship go through a break up as a result of their actions]] in the case of Tina, Mercedes, and Blaine (again).

** This is one of the reasons some critics found the bullying storyline which begun in "Never Been Kissed" inherently flawed, as the show had previously treated bullying in a light-hearted manner. To elaborate: Dave Karofsky is revealed to be a closeted homosexual and these feelings cause him a lot of difficulties and confusion, something that Kurt and Blaine try to get him to come to terms with. However, Karofsky denies that anything happened and soon returns to bullying Kurt, which includes threatening to kill him if Kurt reveals his closeted homosexuality. It's clear that the show treats Karofsky's bullying seriously and his [[Villainous Crush]] does not frame him in a positive light just because he is putting himself through confusion and torture being closeted. The issue arises when the show does just that with Santana Lopez's bullying. In "Sexy", she tearfully confesses to Brittany that she is love with her and wants to be with her, but is also afraid of being bullied and ostracized for coming out as a lesbian. She too continues to act like a bitch even after the truth [[Incredibly Lame Pun|comes out]] despite Brittany encouraging her to be true to herself, but she nonetheless still insists that Santana is not a bad person and defends her - it gets especially egregious in "Pot o' Gold" where Brittany's response to Finn merely telling her that leprechauns are not real and that she is being stupid is to tell him that such talk "is bullying and [she] won't accept it" as [[Alpha Bitch|Santana]] is standing ''right next to her''.

** In "Hold onto Sixteen", Quinn is repeatedly told by Rachel that she would be doing the wrong thing by informing people of Shelby's sexual relationship with Puck, which would cause her to lose her job, prove her an unfit mother and allow Quinn to retake her child. Despite Quinn having selfish motives for wanting to reveal the affair, the fact remains that Shelby ''shouldn't'' have gotten involved with Puck, a student at the school she works at and if she had lost the job and the child as a result of this, it would have ultimately been her ''own'' fault.

** In "Jagged Little Tapestry", Santana finds Kurt and unleashes what is undoubtedly her most ''vicious'' [[The Reason You Suck Speech]] in the entire series after Kurt objects to her proposing marriage to Brittany, saying the two are too young. Kurt is framed as the wrong party since he is clearly enveloped in his bitterness over losing Blaine despite it being ''his'' choice, and he eventually apologizes to Brittany for his negativity, [[Straw Man Has a Point|but it's hard to argue that Kurt does kind of have a point]]. Numerous characters spoke out against Finn and Rachel's decision to get married during their senior year with the argument that they are too young to be making such a decision, and the end result is that Finn calls off the wedding because Rachel deciding to defer her admission into NYADA for a year to help Finn reapply for his dream school makes him realize that he loves her too much if it means she has to give up on her dreams. Blaine asks for Burt's permission to propose to Kurt during "Wonder-ful", to which Burt points out how he should know it's a wrong idea seeing how things turned out for Finn and Rachel. Blaine instead proposes to Kurt anyway by [[Grand Romantic Gesture|overwhelming him so much that he can't exactly be in the right frame to say anything else but yes]], and thereby pressures him into marriage, and the end result is that co-habitation does not turn out to be their strong suit and Kurt calls it off with Blaine specifically because they're kids. If other characters object to those couples getting married so young, they are portrayed as sensible people who are correctly predicting potential heartbreak, but those who object to Santana wanting to marry Brittany at such a young age are simply portrayed as jerks who need to be shown up. Go figure.