remember how in the season 1 finale, harvey was 100% serious and 1000% pissed off that donna dared to go behind his back to sneak jessica the cameron dennis evidence and save him?
his exact words: “i have never once thought about firing you [until now]”
also his exact words: “what did you do? come clean, or i’ll let you go right now without a minute’s thought.”
his exact words, exhibit C: “you and i work because i know i can trust you. never go behind my back again.”
that no-nonsense delivery, donna’s quite limited role in s1, and the pre-existing fact of gabriel/sarah’s longstanding friendship, reeeeeally makes you (me) think about how in s1/s2, harvey/donna were almost certainly intended to go in a specific, Not Romantic direction butttttt the master plan ended up changing along the way, as mike and harvey kept behaving like an endgame couple, and donna became a fan favorite, and the Hetero Agenda started feeling the heat.
i compare the spirit, feel, tenor of dialogue, and narrative weight given to donna as The Only One Who Understands Harvey™️ from season 1 to season 3 to seasons 4-7, and…… it’s pretty jarring!!
and like. of course tv shows always have to evolve past their pilots and first seasons; of course showrunners and writers react to fans, rethink outlines, get each other on the same page as a creative ensemble; of course the whole joy of a long form procedural is to witness the characters change with age and experience and insight.
all i’m saying is— i get more than a whiff of top-down Gay Panic (derogatory) from how dramatically and specifically donna’s characterization changed over the seasons.
especially as, for both mike/rachel and harvey/donna, very persuasive and compelling arguments can be made for those ships succeeding as they did in canon only because mike/harvey mysteriously found themselves in situations where they couldn’t Be Together themselves.
and all the evidence is in plain text, not subtext, btw. see: mike getting together with rachel in the s2 finale because he thought he was all alone, had lost harvey forever, didn’t know where to turn. see also: harvey only making serious moves towards donna as a romantic option after mike left for seattle in s8. (remember that in s7, donna was the one making moves.) see finally: mike returning briefly in s9, and that being the trigger for harvey to decide he’d had enough of living without mike, marry donna at someone else’s wedding ceremony as a weird convenient afterthought, and then drag her with him to seattle in order to get the stink of queer yearning off the proceedings live happily ever after.
suits is. such a weird fucking show i swear to god.
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