what is my unpopular opinion for this character i'm rly obsessed with in this show i don't watch??
hmm. i don't think i need to say i think it's p bogus to vilify her for "not doing shit" abt neil's abuse. like...what? u want susan to tackle neil like a pro football player??
pfft. it's *extremely* unlikely she's gonna emerge victorious from the physical altercation that ensues. lbr, she's prolly gonna get destroyed. personally, from looking at the flashbacks on youtube, i'm not sure if neil was physically abusive to billy's mom throughout or if he only escalated to that when believing she cheated on him, but either way, we saw him decking her ass with no hesitation so there's no reason to pretend he wouldn't do that to susan. susan goes at him like that, she prolly gonna get wreaked af. so cool, max gets to see her mom with all these fancy new bruises!!! that's awesome. tackling neil sure was a great idea, huh? v helpful move, totally solved errything for erryone.
on the *extremely* slim chance susan somehow gets lucky and does come outta this one match without being destroyed (if ppl are right abt neil having combat training, susan's already slim chances drop p much to zero). that doesn't necessarily mean there won't be any consequences for her. neil could use that as an excuse to abuse her later on-- that's a thing abusers do, my friend. they use ur self-defense against u. let's run with the idea susan doesn't get destroyed, which itself is the generous scenario. let's say her defense is effective, she gets in a good elbow to the throat maybe, and she proceeds to call the cops. believe it or not, it could end in her arrest, that is also a thing.
as for why else susan doesn't call the cops, um??
thinking calling the fuzz is a simple, obvi solution presumes calling for help will be 1) timely and 2) effective. look, i'm not saying susan shouldn't report neil-- she defo should --but i am saying the reality is, u can't always count on the help u call for. the reality is, things don't always work the way they should. it sucks!!! it rly sucks!! but unfortunately the fuzz are not necessarily ur allies, not always timely even if they want to be, and not always effective deterrence against an abuser. could v well even have the opposite effect if neil gets a slap on the wrist and emerges from his brush with the law more pissed off and looking to take it out on someone.
this brings me to my second unpopular opinion: the default assumption susan's response to neil beating on max would be identical to her response when it's billy. look, this character has two scenes of screentime and no discernible personality. i don't necessarily believe she would step in canonically bc i don't think we see enough of her to get a gauge on it!! i don't believe we know enough abt her to pinpoint what she would or wouldn't do in canon bc she's barely in canon at all!! BUT i think how widespread that default assumption appears to be is a lil odd??
like, ppl mentally make risk/reward assessments when confronting precarious situations. i find it odd to assume susan's risk/reward assessment when it comes to max, her own flesh and blood daughter (and one of susan's two scenes is her sharing an affectionate moment with max, preening her hair), would automatically reflect her risk/reward assessment when it comes to billy, her stepson who more likely than not is just as shitty to her as he is to erryone else. to be fair, again, this character canonically has no personality so it's rly anyone's guess. but i just find it odd to assume her response would be identical when it's v doubtful her relationship with max is identical to her relationship with billy.
