Talk:Little Graduation/@comment-44763533-20191231171440

I'm non-binary/trans, and I Hate Shep's character, and feel it made the whole episode the weakest in the season so far. I consider their inclusion to be awful. There are many reasons for this.

First, I find Shep's inclusion to be insulting and pandering. This is LGBT tokenism at its finest. They're not a strong character, and have no personality other than being tolerant and accepting to the point of touching Mary-Sue levels of perfection. They have no personality of their own. Being non-binary is an attribute, not a personality. This is no different than those shows that start pandering to the gay audience by creating a token gay character who has no other personality besides being flamingly flamboyant.

In a show where LGBT issues have been handled well with good characters over many episodes, this is a remarkably ham-fisted attempt at inclusion. It is clear that Shep was deliberately introduced to cause tension and division, and were only included for the shock value of sinking the Sadie/Lars ship. They're not a character, they're a plot device. Shep only exists to cause conflict. If the writers had truly wanted to introduce this character as a character, they would have written them in long before this episode.

The blossoming romantic relationship between Sadie and Lars was there for 5 seasons. It was obviously rocky but both characters went through some real development, and by "Change Your Mind" they had both worked out their issues and had become better people all around, which meant that it was possible for them to be good for each other. Sadie's development over the previous seasons was to remove her insecurity and codependence. Lars overcame his cowardace and jealousy. There's no reason why a Sadie and Lars relationship would not work now, other than the writers wanted to shock the audience. It's not good writing. For a sub-plot this developed, the viewer expects their relationship to be handled delicately, and with respect within the show itself.

People keep commenting that it's "realistic" for characters to change "off camera." This is true in the real world... but this is not the real world, it's a TV show. When things like this happen in a TV show it's not being realistic, it's just bad writing.