Ava Silva Character Study - Tumblr Posts

Ava’s disability has a massive impact on the story line and the theme of the first season. It very much shapes her character and her choices. It also doesn’t go completely away, even with a literal divine plot (mobility) device. I suspect that anyone whose upset at how ‘slow’ the show is went into it with the expectation that the story was “protagonist is chosen, protagonists makes token protest, something narratively happens that forces protagonist to get on board with saving the world/fighting the bad guy, end credits of first episode roll, second episode begins with protagonist fully on board except a pithy one liner halfway through the season that calls back to the fact that they didn’t start on board.”

That’s not the Warrior Nun story. That’s the story that leads to ‘monster of the week’ first seasons (Buffy, Supernatural, Grimm, Charmed, Legacies, etc.). That’s so common that we as an audience almost expect it. We expect the ‘reluctant’ protagonist to get over whatever silly hang up they have so we can live vicariously through them. We wait impatiently for the narrative to plow through that piece so we can get to the ‘real’ story. Because that’s how these narratives choose to introduce us to the world, with the protagonist. 

But Warrior Nun does it differently. It intentionally slows that down and says “wait a minute, our character has agency actually and all she’s wanted was to live a normal life. So she’s going to try her darnedest to do that now that she can.” And Ava knows its not the same. She knows that JC’s friends aren’t hers and this life isn’t hers. But it could be. 

One of the things I love more about Warrior Nun (and Ava) is that she decides to make the choice to fight. It’s not forced on her. They tried forcing it on her and it fails. Her choices matter. Good or bad, right or wrong, her choices matter. And when given the choice, when given the information and space to decide, Ava makes the caring one. Ava steps up not because she was forced to but because she wants to. And I think that just goes back to the theme of choosing who we are that lies at the heart of Warrior Nun. Ava’s disability was something done to her. Ava becoming the halo bearer was something done to her. Who Ava is has always been the person who decides how she handles it. And who she is, is beautiful.

Hmm so it turns out many people consider Ava a bad protagonist and find her annoying??? And that the show is slow??? And that it endorses disability erasure???

I hardly ever fall in love with main leads especially 'the chosen one' types and yet Ava was so easy to get behind and even relatable and I love her so much. And god I wish the show was even slower and it had more episodes like I wanted to see the dynamics between the sisters in depth, Ava and Bea's relationship progressing, little lost moments, their quiet times, their training sessions, them joking around and being normal idk. It still went by too fast?

And I might be wrong here but to me it wasn't disability erasure. Ava's disability is very much a part of her throughout. It's why she spends half the season running away because she hasn't lived yet. It's why she can't give up the halo either. It's why she can't drain the halo too much or can't fight as good as other warrior nuns (minus not being trained yet of course). It's her deepest fear. And it is so fundamental to her and Bea's relationship too like Bea touching her after that fight with Crimson, Bea reassuring her, Bea understanding her fears and hesitance....her disability is a very much constant presence throughout the narrative even though under the surface and ahhhhh I want to scream so bad rn.

I'm straight up not having a good day today and then finding out about these shitty opinions about this beloved sunshine of a character—

Are people allowed to have opinions I don't agree with? Yes.

Do I want to hit them on the head with a stick despite? Also Yes.

Now I'm wondering am I biased because I've read way too many fics and post analysis' and therefore see more depth than there was? Does it even matter?