I'm still working on putting my thoughts on NCIS Tony & Ziva into a coherent analysis but one thing I know for sure is that I love how much character work was accomplished in just 10 episodes.
The last time we saw Ziva was before she returned to her family and she was terrified. Ziva has always been strong, even while broken; someone who cared deeply, but pushed everyone away.
But here, we saw a healed Ziva. One who knew she had hit bottom, and worked hard to be the person she wanted to be. We see a Ziva who is calm even in her anxieties, one who breathes before she jumps, and one who readily listens to and accepts the help of others.
At first I was skeptical of the flashbacks but in hindsight, I think they were a perfect method of character development by giving us direct material to compare and contrast present actions with.
And that leads me to possibly my favorite aspect of Ziva's (and Tony's) development - how we finally get to see Ziva taking on some of Tony's troubles, and Tony letting her!
In the original series, the majority of Tony's emotional upheaval arcs were directly tied to Ziva (Somalia and the farmhouse bombing being prime examples). She couldn't support him and he couldn't ask her to. It's habit for him to hide his interpersonal fears from her because she is his biggest one. But through the red notice and death of his best friend, he finally gets to experience what it feels like to be held up by her, supported by her, open with her. Of course he's still Tony who cant resist throwing humor in, but we see him slowly share more of his burdens with her as the story progressed. He saw her strength when he was drowning and allowed her to pull him back to shore.
And this all culminated in their resounding mutal trust of each other in the last 2 episodes. Communication and trust were the cornerstones whether they were together or separated and it was beautiful to see how far they've come.
I dont know, maybe it's just me, but I found it very special to finally see a healthy in spirit, body, and mind Ziva supporting a grieving and stressed Tony.
I will thus forever love the NCIS Tony & Ziva spinoff for the character development they gave us 🖤
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when i got to sit down and actually think about what i wanted to talk about in the last chapter of anyway don't be a stranger i thought about how a third person would be able to dissect her character and flaws from the outside better than both of them being blind in the middle of the hurricane
i thought about how clear that is throughout the entire series: how the love they have for each other is so obvious to everyone seeing them from the outside, but not to either one of them, and how much a therapist (thank you spinoff for being evolved enough to add that) would be such a great tool for them to finally see that and for me to giddily speak through his voice explaining 'see?? this is how i see these characters'
which made me think about how i don't think i'll be able to do this from tony's point of view, simply because i don't think he would believe in therapy (okay, there's that scene in 1x07, but idc. in my head he is still very cynical about that) but that also takes away my opportunity to break him down in a way that i could with ziva
hence this long ass post
ziva's martyr complex
for years i had a hard time trying to understand the multiple layers of someone who was displayed as this 'wonder woman' kind of character until the errors of writers and character arcs through the years (let's not talk about the omg she's dead omg she's alive shitshow) got me to the point of 'i get it now. it's that she doesn't want to be wonder woman. it was forced upon her,' which solves a million questions as to how i see her. why would they always show her hiding emotions and then not being brave enough to make her human because of that? (i know it's an unpopular opinion, but i love 5x16 for that specific reason) why is she still seen as strong, as brave, and even sees herself that way, but that loses its meaning when she's put as 'someone normal'? what are her flaws, her fears, and so on?
and i think one of the main things i like most about the character of ziva is that yes, she is this strong 'i can face death and get over it even if i'm crawling out of hell' kind of woman, but also that she's not different from all of us who have this inadequacy, this constant questioning of 'did i do the right thing? was that the right choice?' which brings me to the martyr complex
how she has to control things because she lacks answers to questions she thinks are obvious to everyone else ('am i loved? am i able to love? can i be happy? can life be peaceful? how can i act normal?') and if she lives through guilt and holds onto that pain, places herself in those tragedies, then she has those answers and she doesn't feel guilty saying 'see, i don't belong here,' when in fact she's just lying to herself
i think i made more sense in that chapter because i literally spent weeks breaking that thought down, but among the complexes i see in her, that one, at the moment, is the most fascinating to me
which brings me to
tony's savior complex
amazing how i think he's the one that was best written, and I understand him a lot more (although maybe that's why my stories are mainly focused on ziva now) but now i'm starting to drift toward ziva more because i think they did a great job already displaying his strengths and flaws. this is a man who will look anyone in the eye, make you laugh, and ask himself in bed every night, 'am i actually a good person?' and go through the flow of life in a way that mirrors hers exactly: 'i am not capable enough to own this,' when he is
again, personally fascinating to me that they are complete opposites because tony reacts in this 'i need to make this persona very big, very loud, so that it can be big enough to hide what i'm truly thinking' way, while ziva closes herself off so much that no one can actually see her past the 'killer' side of her. and he's the clown. and in the mothership we see a lot more of his side of things (let's not talk about why), but it was broken down in a way that made it clear to me who he was, whereas with ziva it was harder. (that is very personal too. i think i relate to him more, idk)
but while her complex is martyrdom, his is 'i need to make these grand gestures of devotion so i can show the people i love that i love them, but i need to be silent about it because love is a weakness and a capability i do not have,' in the ways he shines at being a savior and carrying these great contradictions of being selfish most of the time but loyal as a dog. loyal to an inhuman degree. loyal enough to be selfless when it matters
they mirror themselves so beautifully and blame my frontal lobe for being fully developed now, but their flaws are what made me stay writing about them because i'm constantly rooting for them to display those flaws, to make mistakes, and to heal, to find each other. and i just think they're the most complex and beautiful characters i've ever found
that said, i just wish i had a way to channel these observations like i did by putting ziva in a therapy session from hell LOL but as i believe it will take some time until i can do this with tony (it might take some time, but i will search for it and i will see it DONE) but i had this urgent need to scream and discuss these specific complexes in this lovely tiva community on tumblr dot com
i feel like a lot of people connect with and see them the way i see them, and even though there's a lot more to be talked about, i just wanted to shout this into the void
