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I like chicks with boys names.

@alexkareev-blog / alexkareev-blog.tumblr.com

Dude, you're being weird.
Blog dedicated to Alex Karev where I post my gifsets of him. This is a sideblog, but feel free to ask me stuff!
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Thought I'd log in for the first time in years and saw that my inbox was flooded with hate anons by angry Merlex shippers from years ago because I always insisted that Alex and Meredith were like brother and sister and that their relationship shouldn't be romanticized.

Well, they completely ruined my favorite character with his terrible ending, but I guess I at least ended up being right about him and Meredith? Which wasn't that hard if you know those two characters at all and aren't blinded by some idea that they'd be a good couple.

I just hope that viewers (new or old) will keep being upset about what the writers did to Alex in his last episode. He never would've left his wife the same way Izzie left him, not when that hurt him so much for years. There's so much wrong with his actions in that episode that I could write a whole novel about it and I'm glad that there seemed to be such a big outcry when the episode aired. That shows me most viewers knew him better than I thought.

Yes, I personally liked him most with Jo, but I always expressed my opinions on this blog as an Alex fan, not as a shipper. I still stand by the fact that the writers did a big (in my opinion negative) shift in his characterization after season 10 so he could become Meredith's next Cristina, and that 16x16 is an awful episode that didn't do justice to the man Alex was. Both are examples of the writers thinking more about other characters and therefore sacrificing Alex's character to fit their narrative. If they had done what was best for him and had stayed true to the person Alex was, he probably would've had children with Jo by season 13, making it impossible for Krista Vernoff to send him off the way she did.

I will never understand how the writers managed to write such a complex and interesting character without really caring about him. It was blatantly obvious for years that nobody in the writers' room ever seemed particularly interested in Alex. They either cared more about the characters he was friends with or his love interests. Which is the reason I sadly can't stand behind everything he did or said on the show, because I know a true Alex fan would've never written him the way the writers sometimes did. I still love him so much and choose to pretend the laughable tribute episode for him never happened. But I'm also done with the show. It caused me nothing but annoyance for years, and I genuinely wonder how fans can still be happy with the writing.

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I tried really hard to keep this blog active but I'm a hardcore Alex fan who wasn't happy with the shift in his personality after becoming Meredith's surrogate person. And I was even less happy with how he ended up being reduced to a support system in the past two seasons when there is still so much to explore about his character.

So I'm really sorry for not posting anymore. I wanted to resume that when I would start liking the writing for Alex again, which is slowly happening. But after checking the Alex tag here and reading these TV media sites and their articles I just feel the urge to stay away as far from this fandom as possible.

The fact that people can't appreciate the Alex/Meredith friendship for what it is and have to read more into it now just because Derek died makes me very sad. All of this while Alex is in the most serious and committed relationship he's ever been in. While he sees Meredith like his sister and while Meredith sees him like her brother. While they love each other in a platonic way whereas Alex is deeply in love with Jo. And while IMO the show has made it pretty clear even after Derek's death that Meredith and Alex don't see each other as anything more than friends or siblings. When their history, particularly the one including Alex's romantic past with people who were very close with Meredith - especially Lexie - leaves no doubt that them becoming romantically involved would be so incredibly inappropriate and messed up.

Everyone can ship whatever they want, but I have to really say that this Meredith/Alex talk is turning my stomach. I think it's important to appreciate platonic relationships, more so those of opposite sex, and I was always glad that this fandom could do that with Meredith and Alex before. Turns out that all they needed was for Derek to die to be okay with romanticizing it, completely disregarding that Alex has his own life and own feelings and that being with Meredith is not the best option for him at all. IMO even one of the worst options as being her person has done his character a lot of disservice already. I can only imagine what becoming her next love would do to him.

I'm just glad that Shonda Rhimes has made it clear that she is not interested in exploring romantic Meredith/Alex. That shows me that she knows who her characters are and what is best for them. She may not care about Alex much, but she cares about Meredith and she knows her character well enough not to pair her up with her figurative brother. And it seems that she is not interested in throwing away four seasons of Alex's relationship with Jo for the sake of making him the McDreamy replacement.

Fingers crossed for the writers to give Alex the appropriate focus he deserves. At least now that Meredith told him that she has a whole village I'm hopeful for him to live his own life again instead of constantly worrying about hers or others. There's still so much I want to see for him, which includes more about his past and his family in Iowa, and which also includes him finally settling down and starting a family with the woman he loves. After 12 seasons he deserves that and I'm positive that Shonda will grant him that finally.

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Sooo… who else remembers 6x21 where Alex made a ton of jokes about the obese patient and even started a betting pool on his actual weight?

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drreporting

Sometimes, people make fun of other people who remind them of themselves.

I knew someone would say that. ;)

I think in all those years wouldn’t it have come up at least once that he was a fat kid being shoved into lockers? Wouldn’t he have at least mentioned it to that obese patient he gave a pretty long speech to about hanging in for his wife? A simple “I’ve been there, I used to be fat but look at me now” would’ve been ideal in that situation. He wouldn’t have opened up to one of his friends who wouldn’t have understood. He would’ve told a guy who knows exactly how he felt.

Also I’m pretty sure the timeframe he mentioned in which he was being bullied was around the time he should’ve been in juvie. He talked about toughening up after 8th grade but in 6x19 Aaron mentioned him having been a tough kid in his 17 foster homes so nobody wanted to keep him, and that was when he was around 12. Alex also mentioned how he bulked up when he was around 15 years old and became a wrestler and beat up his dad.

To me all these facts along with the way he used to treat people in those 10 years on the show never made me feel like he was the poor victim who got bullied and couldn’t defend himself. I always imagined that yes. he got probably picked on, for dirty clothes, bruises, being poor etct., but that he would just talk back and start fights with those kids because he was a rough kid like Aaron mentioned. That made a lot of sense to me as to why he was such a jerk to people.

I just don’t find this fat kid story credible for him and IMO it was done to make Alex look even more like a nice guy. I’ve been feeling like that’s what Shonda has been trying to do since last season when he became Meredith’s person. He’s passive, he lets people call him names, doesn’t ever tell anyone when they’re going too far anymore when he always used to praise himself for being blunt and speaking the truth. Whenever someone is unfair to him he just lets it slide, he accepts everyone’s crap and is on supportive friend mode 24/7 with everyone.

The only problem is that Alex Karev always had a sweet and protective side, especially with people he cares about. But he would also call people out on their crap and be harsh when needed. For the past year he’s just become this watered-down version of himself.

I personally always loved him because he was this interesting mix of sweet and asshole-y and I acknowledge that people grow up and change, but I don’t think that in Alex’s case it was for the better. I think he was already mature in season 10. Nice, caring but also nobody’s doormat. I can’t say the same anymore unfortunately.

The only time Alex Karev has ever talked about his own personal struggles with a patient was during the episode with Romy Rosemont and her son being abused, Alex has spent the course of 12 years at grey sloan only really opening up to Mer, Izzie, and Jo. Mer is his best friend, Izzie was his wife, and Jo is his girlfriend/fiancee type person. Other than that literally no one knows Alex past surface value, so yeah, it actually does make a lot of sense that this just happened now.

I agree with that but I watched 6x21 before even writing that post and I rewatched the speech he gave to that obese patient and I think just like he told the abused son about his past because he related to that boy it would've made sense to open up to the obese patient while giving him that pep talk while he was already at it. Believe me I know that he barely opens up to anyone, I've been watching the show mainly for him for years now. I just don't find it credible, and from what I've seen I'm not the only Alex fan who thinks so.

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reblogged

Sooo… who else remembers 6x21 where Alex made a ton of jokes about the obese patient and even started a betting pool on his actual weight?

Avatar
drreporting

Sometimes, people make fun of other people who remind them of themselves.

I knew someone would say that. ;)

I think in all those years wouldn't it have come up at least once that he was a fat kid being shoved into lockers? Wouldn't he have at least mentioned it to that obese patient he gave a pretty long speech to about hanging in for his wife? A simple "I've been there, I used to be fat but look at me now" would've been ideal in that situation. He wouldn't have opened up to one of his friends who wouldn't have understood. He would've told a guy who knows exactly how he felt.

Also I'm pretty sure the timeframe he mentioned in which he was being bullied was around the time he should've been in juvie. He talked about toughening up after 8th grade but in 6x19 Aaron mentioned him having been a tough kid in his 17 foster homes so nobody wanted to keep him, and that was when he was around 12. Alex also mentioned how he bulked up when he was around 15 years old and became a wrestler and beat up his dad.

To me all these facts along with the way he used to treat people in those 10 years on the show never made me feel like he was the poor victim who got bullied and couldn't defend himself. I always imagined that yes, he got probably picked on, for dirty clothes, bruises, being poor etct., but that he would just talk back and start fights with those kids because he was a rough kid like Aaron mentioned. That made a lot of sense to me as to why he was such a jerk to people.

I just don't find this fat kid story credible for him and IMO it was done to make Alex look even more like a nice guy. I've been feeling like that's what Shonda has been trying to do since last season when he became Meredith's person. He's passive, he lets people call him names, doesn't ever tell anyone when they're going too far anymore when he always used to praise himself for being blunt and speaking the truth. Whenever someone is unfair to him he just lets it slide, he accepts everyone's crap and is on supportive friend mode 24/7 with everyone.

The only problem is that Alex Karev always had a sweet and protective side, especially with people he cares about. But he would also call people out on their crap and be harsh when needed. For the past year he's just become this watered-down version of himself.

I personally always loved him because he was this interesting mix of sweet and asshole-y and I acknowledge that people grow up and change, but I don't think that in Alex's case it was for the better. I think he was already mature in season 10. Nice, caring but also nobody's doormat. I can't say the same anymore unfortunately.

[Also I understand if people disagree and didn't have the same image of teenage Alex in their heads as I did. Usually the fat kid comment wouldn't even bother me at all but a. they could've talked about his and Jo's experiences with bullying due to their foster kid past instead of making Alex an obese child and b. it bugs me that they're now trying to turn his backstory around to make him more likeable. Now we can all forget about him having bullied George and April just because he was bullied for being fat.👏 ]

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