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'True Blood' Season 5: Is Tara's New Journey…

'True Blood' Season 5: Is Tara's New Journey A Huge Mistake?

Mon, June 11, 2012 4:32pm EDT by Andy Swift 24 Comments

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Spoiler alert: Stop reading if you haven’t watched the fifth season premiere of ‘True Blood.’

I’d like to preface this rant by clarifying that I think Rutina Wesley is a fantastic actress. And she’s very pretty. That said, I’m kind of disappointed that Tara managed to survive her should-have-been-fatal gunshot wound on the June 10 season premiere of True Blood. As much as I worship the writers — without them, we’d have no show to enjoy — I feel like they’ve never really known what to do with Tara, and I’m not sure her new life as a vampire will solve that problem.

From the moment she was introduced, Tara has been — for lack of a better term — the show’s most heavily dumped-upon character.

> Season 1: When we first met Tara, she was living with her bats**t crazy mother, who we later learned was possessed by a demon.
> Season 2: She took refuge with with Maryann (a maenad), then fell in love with Eggs, who ended up getting shot and killed.
> Season 3: She found herself in a horrifically abusive relationship with vampire Franklin, who was eventually killed in front of her.
> Season 4: After six months away from Bon Temps, she reinvented herself as a cage-fighting lesbian — then returned to town and became a Wiccan.

And now that she’s been turned into a vampire — the one creature she despises more than anything else — her problems are only going to get worse. So my question for you, fellow Truebies, is this: Will Tara’s new journey make up for her uneven/confusing past, or is this another misguided attempt at giving her character some relevance?

(Real talk: While a good chunk of my disdain for Tara stems from her generally being annoying, I also pity her. The girl deserves some peace, and I doubt she’ll find it with a pair of fangs.)

— Andy Swift

Follow @AndySwift

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I think the previous seasons, Tara was definitely really annoying in my opinion. However this season, she is one of the few characters I can stand. I mean season 5 is an epic failure, there is no storyline, the plot is absolutely haywire! True blood needs to step it up and bring back the old chemistry that was present between bill, sookie and eric:)

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Tara was the conflicted human element of the show. She embodied pain. I feel that her character was fairly consistent through the seasons and always relevant.
When she was shot in the head I knew that she would come back as a vampire. It will be a perfect opportunity for dynamic TV. She is now that which she hates and I look forward to seeing her struggle. My only hope is that she retains her personality and isn’t totally “fuktarded.”

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bitches !!!!tara is the shyt on true blood , an alan an other show producers keep her on …until the show is off the air….we love tara & lafayette they give me life everytime i see them in those episodes , ignore the haters……they are probably racist as fuck anyways ..an who wants too hear a racist rant!!!! tara is a bad azz bitch …when she is in pain i love her more cause she come out swinging ..when she is happy it gives the audience hope for her that it will keep going….when she rough an outspoken she gives it too the kids raw an real …i effing love tara …rutina your amazing!!!!!

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i love tara , i think she is gonna be a bad azz vamp!!!!! the show will not be the same with out the rage an comedy of tara it just shows how diverse the show is an i love it ….i love taras energy on trueblood she brings kaotic spice too that show , without her an lafayette that show would not be the same….

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i dont find her character annoying, i find her character human, disfunctional, and not perfect,and well real; has her story arcs been any more or less great or more stupid than anybody elses i would say NO. and now that she is not a human i would like to see where the writers take her, maybe to become the things she hates most and the conflict of what being a Vamp will bring against her once held humanity. If you hate her or she annoys you well thats life, just ask Arnold Horshack or Screech

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I really did not like Tara for the first three seasons, I used to find her annoying, constantly angry and so on but I really enjoyed her during season 4, from the very first episode. I don’t really know what happened but she has become one of my favorite characters. She seemed more in control of her persona and of her life, dunno. But even though I’m really glad she’s still part of the show (I would have hated to see her go now that I like her), I don’t like the idea of her being a vampire. I don’t even understand why the writers decided to go for such a thing. It’s so illogical to me given all the things that have happened to her so far. Let’s hope that she will be an interesting vampire. I do think that it was a nice twist to have Pam be her maker. Indeed, on top of being a creature that she loathes, she gets to have as a master one of her worst ennemies.

Unlike the author of the article, I never felt that the writers did not know what to do with her, on the contrary, she had interesting storylines, I like the fact that each and every character has a life of their own and that’s what was done with Tara.

I do hope that she and Sookie will still be like sisters.

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Ten…….whose disdain? troll somewhere else you sad act

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I think your disdain is race related.

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I really like Tara and teh way the ended it last season was a great cliff hanger. We all saw her head get blown off.. I thought they would just give her V and she would heal. But i guess she was already dead. Tara as a Vamp could be awesome. Think of her attitude. She hates vamps. She’ll prob hate it at first.. if she comes to herself. she seems out of sorts on the previews. BUT I have a feeling it could turn out better than before. Tara always had decent story lines but this one is better than her being a witch . that was boring.. I wanna see her get into being a vamp. Maybe even hook up with Eric! LOL

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I can honestly say I for one (as a man) think the fangs are a keen trade for having your neck nibbled and day long bunk up with Pam.
Better still, Pam and Jessica could have a side of neck each, then a each side day long bunk up….mmmm
Back to the show……..WOW! what a season start–best so far imo.
Tara the vamp will be interesting. She’s a moody gal anyway so sure to be a complete bitch as a vamp. Wonder if Sam will be keen to ‘go there’ again??!!
Like the whole look this time round though the Eric’s sister sex blew my stack a bit! Only in the South eh?? lol
Keep it coming I say–thank god for the USofA — I’d have zero to watch without what you produce!

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Baby vamp Jessica was turned a vampire as a virgin, her hymen grows back. Now under this pretense, shouldn’t Tara’s head still be missing half her skull?

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Technically, no. Going by that logic, Jessica’s hymen repairs itself because vampires have advanced healing capabilities, right? So, wouldn’t Tara’s face/head magically repair itself since she’s now a vampire?

Think of the few times that Sookie has ingested vampiric blood (i.e. the pilot episode after the redneck couple kicked her ass).

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Totally disappointed she was turned into a vamp, I dont think Sookie OR Layfayette would have ever let her become one… they would rather her be dead then put her through that. With that said maybe she will have some real power now and be able to show her true strengths in this season. They have already totally thrown her character from book to show off the track so what harm can be done now? Still watching, always a trubie ;-)

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It’s annoying that they’ve been writing her as a victim, so I’m hoping that she’ll find some power as a vampire. She did get part of her head blown off so maybe that’ll be the writers’ reason for changing her up a bit.

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I thought it was predictable. She’s too engrained in the show… but I think this will be a fun turn of events (pun intended) .

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I don’t like what the writers did toTara, she nshould not have been turned, but I like her don’t want her to go either

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They handle her VERY well in the books :) I was flabbergasted to find that she had turned in the show! She did get peace FINALLY in the books…. but nothing like what happened in the show.

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Maybe she will not be a self-hating vampire… the show can pull a swerve and give us what we do not expect.

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Tara is going to HATE Sookie for allowing Pam to turn her, and I don’t blame her. With Sookie’s fairy powers and Lafayette’s witch craft, they could have joined forces to heal Tara. That would have been more believable. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tara. I want her to remain on the show until the end, but a vampire, really? She’s already an emotional human, mix that w/ fangs and you are asking for trouble. Poor Tara. Well,let’s see how her character plays out. Maybe she will join the evil side.

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I said the same thing, I agree with you, I hope we find out this was just a nightmare and we can start ova lol:)

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I hate the fact they’ve turned Tara into a Vampire. She was the resident that MOST represented humanity to me.. All big-eyed, vampire-hating realness. Think it’s like a cheap shot to just keep turning folks to vampires. It used to be fun when distinct sides were set, but now everyone just seems to be crossing over.to any other side. What’s the point? They could just turn every last human on the show into a vamp, but that’d take away resistance and be no fun. I can’t accept it. Just think now she’s going to be this snobby, gothic, goblet-toting, orgy-hosting, fashion conscious, snide, bloody-thirsty vamp. And Tara was not made to be a cliche!!

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