[ooc - character study] it's always been the watchword
I just read the most fabulous character study of S2 Veronica versus S1 Veronica (well, less versus and more how she really is the same girl we always thought she was; she just wants to be a girl she used to be instead). It reminded me that I wanted to articulate some things both about Veronica and my view of her.
As a student of her character, I emphatically feel Veronica is at her best when romantically unattached. With Keith, Wallace, and Mac to back her up, she has emotional support; she doesn't need a boy for that. And when single, she's not limited by who she's dating. By that, I mean the following:
Dating Logan, she was caught up in a mystery moving at breakneck speed as well as figuring out her emotional situation. Dating Logan was confusing for Veronica. He was Lilly's boyfriend first, and Veronica was, in some way, fighting to bring Lilly back, since solving Lilly's murder wasn't so much Veronica's method of getting closure, whatever she may have called it, as it was an effort to regain the past. She had spent a lot of time hating Logan, largely, I would say, because he left her behind. When the investigation was going on, instead of standing by her as friends do, he turned on her, and betrayal is among the highest crimes in Veronica's eyes. Suddenly this kiss happens and her world is radically changed, because the guy she thought was her enemy - an old acquaintance at best - is now surprisingly attractive, trying to protect her, and giving her what was definitely high on the list of the season's hottest kisses. And she liked it. For a girl struggling to return to a state of normal defined by the past, this is uncomfortable, even without considering his previous role as her antagonist. The past means dating Duncan, being with Lilly and following her, and Logan as Lilly's boyfriend. It doesn't mean discovering new attractions on the balcony of a seedy hotel on the wrong side of the tracks.
Dating Duncan returns Veronica to a passive role she's long since vacated. By returning to that relationship, both Duncan and Veronica are trying to return to who they used to be especially since they're doing so without acknowledging the huge issues tangled up in that relationship, because all of those problems cropped up (or became noticeable) after Lilly's death. (Well. Um. Except for the incest thing. But, uh, they already had their little battle over that, even though I don't think that really settled much of anything since . . . they turned out to be misled. Mm, pseudo!incest.) The thing is, they've both been through a lot. They can never be those people again. Duncan may be better at pretending, but they're both lying to themselves. She is an active person now; prior to Lilly's death, she was a follower. And Duncan doesn't know how to deal with this new Veronica, except to pretend she is who she was before.
[As a sidenote from her TR canon, I have issues with what will stem from 2x11 "Donut Run." Once again, Veronica is left without any real closure and will continue to mourn a relationship that was doomed anyway.]
This is why I portray Veronica as remaining deeply loyal to Duncan, aside from previously listed reasons. She is very much someone who wants to go back to before. Slowly, she's been learning that this isn't possible, but a full realization will take a long time. She's in love with Duncan. Unfortunately, I think she's in love, too, with the past he represents, and she can't reconcile who she is with who she was. She wouldn't want to, on some level. But who she is doesn't work well with who Duncan Kane is, not anymore. That's the reason for the disconnect: Duncan Kane is the kind of boy Veronica used to date. Boys like Troy, Leo, and Logan are a little (or a lot) edgier, which appeals to a Veronica who was, in some ways, learning to be Lilly. (By the way, how excited was I by what they did with Troy? So excited.)
As a viewer, I will admit, I ship Logan/Veronica. The thing is, it's a ship with reservations. They are so screwed up individually, and together they're even more messed up. But it worked somehow. I don't know that it would have lasted, but for a little while, they were happy. Logan loved (yes, I think he loved her) Veronica as she is now. And some of that was probably mixed up with the fact that she'd become a lot more like Lilly, and that she was Lilly's friend, but I think he also sees who she's become and accepts that. Veronica was more herself with him albeit a happier self than she's been with Duncan this season.
Logan, unlike Duncan, is the kind of guy who won't let issues disappear. He will fight and argue, and he'll voice the problems. Veronica needs someone who'll force her to confront issues instead of letting them sit quiet or pretending them away. He was betrayed last season, and Veronica resents him because, among other things, he reminds her of the betrayal she committed again, a high crime to her. Even so, she hasn't yet learned to balance clues and instinct, reason and emotion. She tries too hard to run her life on reason and the emotions that fuel her: anger, resentment, determination.
On the show, I think Logan is her best chance for breaking with that past and moving on. Unfortunately for her non-island self, she'll have difficulty running against disappeared damsel in distress Hannah. (I really think a huge part of why Logan chose to go back to her, other than that the scriptwriters needed it for plot, is that she voiced a trust in him that no one else has, even Logan. It's a trust he wanted from Veronica and didn't get, and he needs that in his life.)
On the island, it becomes much more complicated. While hooking up with Logan would still provide a disconnect from the past with Duncan (she needs to move on), it would now become another of Veronica's attempts to cling to the past. After all, on the island, Logan will represent the only connection she has to Neptune outside of herself. He will be the only living reminder of her other life; as such, he may well come to stand for the normalcy she craves. That might even be enough to push her back towards him. So although he would help her reject one past, he would still be helping her to cling to another.
As a student of her character, I emphatically feel Veronica is at her best when romantically unattached. With Keith, Wallace, and Mac to back her up, she has emotional support; she doesn't need a boy for that. And when single, she's not limited by who she's dating. By that, I mean the following:
Dating Logan, she was caught up in a mystery moving at breakneck speed as well as figuring out her emotional situation. Dating Logan was confusing for Veronica. He was Lilly's boyfriend first, and Veronica was, in some way, fighting to bring Lilly back, since solving Lilly's murder wasn't so much Veronica's method of getting closure, whatever she may have called it, as it was an effort to regain the past. She had spent a lot of time hating Logan, largely, I would say, because he left her behind. When the investigation was going on, instead of standing by her as friends do, he turned on her, and betrayal is among the highest crimes in Veronica's eyes. Suddenly this kiss happens and her world is radically changed, because the guy she thought was her enemy - an old acquaintance at best - is now surprisingly attractive, trying to protect her, and giving her what was definitely high on the list of the season's hottest kisses. And she liked it. For a girl struggling to return to a state of normal defined by the past, this is uncomfortable, even without considering his previous role as her antagonist. The past means dating Duncan, being with Lilly and following her, and Logan as Lilly's boyfriend. It doesn't mean discovering new attractions on the balcony of a seedy hotel on the wrong side of the tracks.
Dating Duncan returns Veronica to a passive role she's long since vacated. By returning to that relationship, both Duncan and Veronica are trying to return to who they used to be especially since they're doing so without acknowledging the huge issues tangled up in that relationship, because all of those problems cropped up (or became noticeable) after Lilly's death. (Well. Um. Except for the incest thing. But, uh, they already had their little battle over that, even though I don't think that really settled much of anything since . . . they turned out to be misled. Mm, pseudo!incest.) The thing is, they've both been through a lot. They can never be those people again. Duncan may be better at pretending, but they're both lying to themselves. She is an active person now; prior to Lilly's death, she was a follower. And Duncan doesn't know how to deal with this new Veronica, except to pretend she is who she was before.
[As a sidenote from her TR canon, I have issues with what will stem from 2x11 "Donut Run." Once again, Veronica is left without any real closure and will continue to mourn a relationship that was doomed anyway.]
This is why I portray Veronica as remaining deeply loyal to Duncan, aside from previously listed reasons. She is very much someone who wants to go back to before. Slowly, she's been learning that this isn't possible, but a full realization will take a long time. She's in love with Duncan. Unfortunately, I think she's in love, too, with the past he represents, and she can't reconcile who she is with who she was. She wouldn't want to, on some level. But who she is doesn't work well with who Duncan Kane is, not anymore. That's the reason for the disconnect: Duncan Kane is the kind of boy Veronica used to date. Boys like Troy, Leo, and Logan are a little (or a lot) edgier, which appeals to a Veronica who was, in some ways, learning to be Lilly. (By the way, how excited was I by what they did with Troy? So excited.)
As a viewer, I will admit, I ship Logan/Veronica. The thing is, it's a ship with reservations. They are so screwed up individually, and together they're even more messed up. But it worked somehow. I don't know that it would have lasted, but for a little while, they were happy. Logan loved (yes, I think he loved her) Veronica as she is now. And some of that was probably mixed up with the fact that she'd become a lot more like Lilly, and that she was Lilly's friend, but I think he also sees who she's become and accepts that. Veronica was more herself with him albeit a happier self than she's been with Duncan this season.
Logan, unlike Duncan, is the kind of guy who won't let issues disappear. He will fight and argue, and he'll voice the problems. Veronica needs someone who'll force her to confront issues instead of letting them sit quiet or pretending them away. He was betrayed last season, and Veronica resents him because, among other things, he reminds her of the betrayal she committed again, a high crime to her. Even so, she hasn't yet learned to balance clues and instinct, reason and emotion. She tries too hard to run her life on reason and the emotions that fuel her: anger, resentment, determination.
On the show, I think Logan is her best chance for breaking with that past and moving on. Unfortunately for her non-island self, she'll have difficulty running against disappeared damsel in distress Hannah. (I really think a huge part of why Logan chose to go back to her, other than that the scriptwriters needed it for plot, is that she voiced a trust in him that no one else has, even Logan. It's a trust he wanted from Veronica and didn't get, and he needs that in his life.)
On the island, it becomes much more complicated. While hooking up with Logan would still provide a disconnect from the past with Duncan (she needs to move on), it would now become another of Veronica's attempts to cling to the past. After all, on the island, Logan will represent the only connection she has to Neptune outside of herself. He will be the only living reminder of her other life; as such, he may well come to stand for the normalcy she craves. That might even be enough to push her back towards him. So although he would help her reject one past, he would still be helping her to cling to another.