Sacrifice - A Poor Man's Desperation

11 . 26 . 00

We all have our limits. We all have moral lines that we won't cross in life, for whatever reason that helps us sleep better at night. I am hardly one to judge another person's decision, but sometimes I will question it. Maybe if only to garner a greater understanding for their motives or to possibly give them the chance to explain their reasons only for them to realize that there is no reason at all.

This situation has reared its ugly head in regards to Manny. What has been so amazing in the last two years of Manny, perhaps more than the story itself, has been the groups of people they brought together, from all parts of the world and from all walks of life. Manny had the ability to bring these people together, some of which will share lifelong friendships. Along the two-year-long road of Manny fandom, what I came to love and actually be proud of was the deep respect that all the Manny fans held for them and all they represented as well as the appreciation for what created that respect. I loved this so much because it spoke volumes as to why Manny was so special. That quality is hard to put into words, but when you looked at the fans, they became a reflection of this couple. We upheld the sanctity of this relationship to a higher level. We expected more because Manny deserved more and because we were not groveling just in hopes of seeing them on our screen in any way, shape or form. This is what made Manny, and their fans, special.

Not any more.

What I had to watch over the last few months on screen was bad enough. But now, with this story going even further south, I see all of this support for this couple without nary a worry as to how that very support could ruin Manny even more. How, you ask? Because if you tell whoever's running the show this month that you love Manny and will watch as long as they're on your screen, then they have no reason to even try and honor these characters and the story on which our love for them was based. I understand that some people simply watch for "entertainment", but how far is that supposed to go? Is it still entertainment when the couple's union makes no sense whatsoever? For those of you who think Danny and Michelle's actions in the last 3-4 months is truly within character, then more power to you. But I know I wasn't hallucinating the last two years when I saw infallible proof of the diametric opposition to that point of view.

I guess what it comes down to is truly and genuinely not understanding how people who say they loved Manny over the last two years can idly sit by and allow them to be destroyed. Or even worse, support this new and amazingly unrecognizable Michelle just because you'll do anything to have your "Manny" together. These are two characters who have been close to ruined and for the first time since I can remember, I have no idea why I would want them together at all. They have effectively caused me to hate Michelle, a character who I once respected and adored. As well, I can only think of Danny as a soulless creature who has only two ways of getting what he wants – crying and yelling. Where's the depth? Where are the layers? They're gone. They left when writers came along and screwed with something good for their own amusement.

I used to say that that there's no way to honestly say that one person loves a couple more than another. But this recent chain of events, and the reaction from some of these "fans" really causes me to stand up and reconsider that. If you just want Manny together just because they've always been together, then what you'll get is an incredibly watered-down version of the real thing. But if you demand that TPTB treat Manny the way they deserve to be treated – with some kind of care – then you can stand up and say it's not ok. If you keep telling them you want them together, they'll simply throw them together with no real reason. Or even worse, they'll continue to change each of them until even those who insist on supporting this Pod Couple will even be hard-pressed to recognize them.

I honestly don't know if there's any way to salvage these characters and their story without someone from GL coming out and pointedly asking us to forget the last four months never happened. Can everyone do that? And even if you can, what's the point? Doesn't that completely disregard not only those four months, but the two years before that? I'm not going to wait for that. I'm going to hold GL responsible for what they've done wrong. They had a precious gift – one of the best love stories to cross daytime in decades - and they ruined it. Manny used to mean something. They used to be special. But now they've turned them into a run-of-the-mill couple, and the people who continue to support it are going to continue to get just that.

The magic is gone. Standing up for Manny doesn't mean the same thing anymore. It doesn't mean blindly sitting by and accepting anything they'll throw at us just as long as Manny is "together". It means standing up and forcing TPTB to honor the two years that they built this story on, the two years of moments that deeply touched our hearts, the two years the profoundly changed our lives. Because if we don't stand up for that, we're telling them that they win. That they can come in and do whatever they want with Manny and we will support them. They can turn Danny into a cold-hearted pie maker or turn Michelle into a gun-toting nun and as long as they are together, we won't blink an eye. To stand up for Manny means to make them respect what they created, and simply live up to the standards that they themselves set for us. It was a high bar, and perhaps not one that can be reached in the near future. But by turning Danny and Michelle into people that we don't recognize, it gives them carte blanche to do it over and over again because they know that we will continue to support and follow like lost puppy dogs.

Candy