entranceway application
Name: Eri
LJ: zombitard
E-Mail: thejrslayer [at] gmail
IM: thegreateri (AIM)
Character Name: Tyra Collette
Series: Friday Night Lights
Timeline: S03E09, Game of the Week
Canon Resource Link: Tyra Wiki (very incomplete). | FNL Wiki.
Character Background: At first glance, Tyra is the archetypal 18 year old bad girl, which is sad because she's simply a strong female character. She's sexually powerful, loud mouthed, opinionated, independent to a fault and not likely to let you forget it. She comes from a broken home where she lived with her mother and sister, both of whom epitomize small town white trash to a T (her sister's a stripper and her mom, though big hearted, is a major ho). Regardless of their faults, Tyra loves them to death which means she'll let them have it whenever they're being idiots. That's kind of Tyra's thing; she's a major know it all.
Early in the series, she's portrayed as the town bicycle, sleeping with the star running back on the football team in order to get the attention of her then-boyrfriend, Tim Riggins, who's been ignoring her due to the fact that his best friend and quarterback has been paralyzed. Combined with Tim's involvement with Tyra's worst enemy in the whole universe, Lyla Garrity and his seeming lack of empathy for his best friend, Tyra breaks it off with him. The start of the series is the start to Tyra's new path in life, leaving behind the certainty that she would become just like her mother and sister. She accepts that life overall is a rat race and that everyone has to deal with the same bullshit.
Luckily, combined with all of her aggressiveness, Tyra is smart and driven. As the series progresses, she befriends a boy named Landry who's essentially the geek to her hot chick, and they end up dating on and off, finally ending as good friends by the end of her time on the show. He's sweet to her, though he isn't a doormat and he provides her with something she'd never had before. It scares her at first, because that's not the way her life is supposed to go. Men aren't supposed to be interested in you for you, they're always using you for something else. Landry proves her past experience wrong, giving her support and going so far as to actually kill a man for her when she's [to be on the safe side, highlight to see because it's a sensitive subject and I don't want to unwittingly trigger anyone joyreading apps:
repeatedly assaulted by a would-be rapist.]
Along with Landry, Tyra befriends the high school football coach's daughter, Julie Taylor and forms a close bond with both the girl and her mother, Tami. Tami provides Tyra with something to look forward to, helping her when Tyra doesn't ask, and even when Tyra insists that she doesn't. As her newly appointed guidance counselor, Tami starts to take an interest in Tyra's grades and overall well being, giving her a positive female role-model beyond her stripper sister to look up to.
Tyra may be intelligent, but she's been known to make a stupid decision or ten, especially when it comes to men. While she doesn't want to end up like her mother and sister, she sure does follow their trend in hoping to find a man that will aid in her effort to get out of Dillon. She's a bit self-destructive, possibly because of her lack of faith in herself and her willingness to simply not try rather than fail. Tyra is more willing to stand up for someone else who's being hurt than for herself, whether it be someone she cares about or some stranger who's just been wronged. For example, when her mother's boyfriend becomes abusive toward her, Tyra immediately and viciously jumps to her defense, even challenging the man to hit her when he raises an iron fire poker over his head. Unfortunately when she herself experiences abuse at the hands of one of her worse choices in boyfriends, it takes her a long time to finally leave and she's stressed and sobbing when she does.
She transitions through the last season with the momentum from previous years and the positive friends and role models she made to finally accept that she might fail in order to also hope to succeed. She goes on to a four year college after working hard in her last two to bring her grades up and participate in school functions like volleyball and student council. She's shown amazing entrepreneurship, organizing a successful anti-homecoming party, used her winning slut personality to win class presidency and organized her senior prom.
Abilites/Special Powers: BITCH POWERS Zilch!