u/This_Objective_1344

I’m sorry this extraordinary long but i want to share my thoughts and thank you if you read the whole thing. I started watching it right after the first few episodes of the testaments, after I realized it was a prequel to the show. It is truly a heavy show with heavy topics. I had to stop after season 4 and watch an ice breaker of some sort cause it really does take an emotional toll especially since so many thing are not really far off from reality, not my reality at least. I’ve cried countless times (my throat is made of steel from all the concealing of tears lol)and felt so much rage and hate. I’ve had strong opinions that i felt like i wanted to post many times after so many episodes but felt like i would get banned from spamming so I’ll try to remember the important bits.

Serena and June’s relationship. I feel like their relationship is the true definition of trauma bonding that seems to alternate between the two on who’s the victim and who’s the abuser. It is not black and white as many people want it to seem. I hate Serena as much as the next person but she is a very complicated character that i feel like this fandom can’t handle. I saw alot of posts and opinions on here that people want to categorize the characters as either good or bad, no in between. That is not possible, especially with a show that has this type of plot, especially when the main arc is women’s oppression. Either be it a wife, handmaid, martha, jezebel or aunt. ALL OF THESE WOMEN ARE OPPRESSED. None have power and i feel like Serena stated it perfectly in the last season on how she felt powerless so she took it out on those lesser than her. I shall not excuse her or defend her as she is a pioneer for Gilead and she seems to be in a religious psychosis most times where she never really learns but i do believe she did try to change. That was after she truly almost experience what it would’ve been like for a handmaid but nonetheless she did try. You cannot love Lawrence but hate Serena. Yet again forgiving a man for being even slightly helpful and holding a woman accountable to death. Their crimes are equal in creating Gilead but Lawrence was a commander who had more power to help June but Serena did what she thought was gonna be better with the power she had as a woman. She was always hungry for power and she was a fascist, they all were but i do believe that is not what she envisioned Gilead to become with the oppression of women. I do understand the hate for her, I really do cause if i was in Gilead and found out that the women who advocated so hard for this nation and made this happen got out, i would be livid and fuming just like all the refugees who encountered her on the train. Also correct me if my memory is wrong but i do not remember Serena ever turning in or telling on anyone if she saw wrong or what would be considered a crime. My point is, she’s a very complicated character and i feel like she embodies those women who advocate for these traditional values,societies and the patriarchy and when they realize they wouldn’t be exempt from those rules, they play victim. It’s sort of like how all these tradwife trend and how people romanticize the 50s or eras before where women didn’t really have rights and believe that those were better times until they live the oppression. June couldn’t hurt Serena cause she saw a woman like her, she saw a mother like her. Bravo to the actress, she did a phenomenal job.
I think it was very obvious from the beginning that Nick did not care about anything but June. He had no values, he just needed a secure job and life and when the commander approached him about the Sons of Jacob and being an eye, he accepted on his own terms, he knew what their goal was. He was not a good person like many want to believe he is. He is never really shown any emotion besides what he felt for June. He’s seen Waterford abuse 2 handmaids, one which committed suicide and he still didn’t report or care about it until his feelings for June got stronger and she was with his child. He was an Eye then a commander. You don’t get there by being against Gilead and their morals. He had many opportunities to leave but he always stayed because he liked the life they had offered him. He was in authority and he had power after being a nobody all his life. We see him struggling for a job and how he opened up about his mother abandoning him and the complicated relationship with his father and his struggle with poverty. The only few times we ever see him do anything good or help out the resistance is if it involves June. I don’t think he’s a bad person cause he really wasn’t but i do think he was just neutral in it all. He wasn’t a saint but we are seeing things from June’s perspective and that is what she perceived him for so long until he finally chose Gilead over her and the spell broke. I saw alot of criticism of June,Nick and Luke situation. I thought it was very obvious that when June first started to get together with Nick it was a couple or few years after Gilead and she thought Luke was dead. She was in a place all alone being abused and raped and Nick was the only light or control she had. And for the longest time, for what 7 years, it was really just them. Even after she found out Luke was alive she was still in Gilead for a few more years. She did see him as this knight in shining armor in a place that was hell to her. Of course she is gonna love him. Her relationship with Luke isn’t gonna be like nothing ever happened. Almost a decade was lost between them, their whole family torn apart and June going through unimaginable events while Luke was safe in Canada (which is neither their faults). Luke was a good man and i know many people were mad at June cause he waited all those years but she was a trauma survivor that he couldn’t understand truly until he went into Gilead and got a glimpse of how she was treated. Through her trauma she had Nick. Again this isn’t a black and white situation and i do think they did a good job of navigating how difficult their relationship became and how survivors don’t just snap back into the past like nothing happened. I do think Luke did what he could from where he was and how it was justifiable to think he wasn’t doing enough or it was nothing compared to havoc his wife was doing but he got there and it wasn’t about him.
June oh June. I know many have said it but holy plot armor. Honestly if she wasn’t the main character, she would’ve been dead ages ago or she would’ve escaped with so many deformities or a couple of severed limbs. I truly hated her at times cause she was so selfish and reckless but then i had to remember that she wasn’t painted to be a hero. She was just another prisoner trying to survive and doing whatever she can to get her daughter back. Her bullying of Natalie was really cruel but when she was this close to getting her daughter and it was ruined by her and got her daughter moved so far away, i would be livid too, especially being betrayed by another handmaid, a woman in the same situation as you. She did eventually realize that Natalie was also just a woman trying to survive even if it meant she had to gaslight herself into believing Gilead’s way of life. People don’t process trauma the same way which again i think the viewer’s are not grasping that. June is not a trained soldier or a born hero. She was a woman. You can’t expect her to be smart and so calculative of everything. Even before Gilead she was shown to be a bit selfish and not really considering and consequences to her actions. It was right for her to be so stupid and reckless many times until she got a grip on herself and thinking properly. In the beginning, her only goal was Hannah. In the end, Hannah is still her main priority but also trying to save and rescue as many as she could with all that she knows and use her power and rebellion to good. I like one quote from the show that said something like “when a man does something he takes pride and credit but when a woman does it she excuses it by luck” (not exact wording but it was something like that).
This point is extremely sensitive. I see alot of people saying how America is becoming Gilead in real life but look around, look outside of America. It already has happened and perfect example in Afghanistan. As someone who has lived in the west and now lives in a religious third world country, you have no idea the amount of times i had to pause cause it felt like i was watching a documentary. It may not be painted clearly like Gilead but the stories have happened numerous times. The concubines cause the first wife can’t get pregnant or it isn’t enough for the man, the killing of girls for speaking up or wanting a choice, the cutting of girl’s education cause that is no use of her,her job is to obey her husband and be of servant. Young girls,so so so young who have no idea or choice what they are being forced into. The banning of women from so many different activities in society. The voiceless and powerless women cause of their husbands,brothers and fathers. It is such a confusing society i live in because in one house you have a free woman who has a job,education,freedom and choice but literally the neighbor is a woman out of Gilead. No rights,no job, no life, and no choice is made without approval of the man. The free woman also couldn’t live her life without the approval of man be it her father,brother or husband but she has gotten lucky with have good men or having none in her life and the other one unlucky. Worse of all,is this is all normal, no one questions when you are a grown woman (20,30,40s) who has to ask permission. No one questions it when you get punished or abused for speaking out or going against the norm. No one questions anything as long as the word of approval or dismissal came from a man. Yes i live in this society and it is as suffocating and oppressive as it sounds. Pick out a plot from the show and i can tell you a girl i have met or befriended or is from the are who has been in that situation. The show points out very well “it wasn’t Gilead, till it was”. It didn’t happen overnight, it happened slowly. These third world countries weren’t like this, it happened slowly till it felt suddenly. Unfortunately I feel like the world is heading back towards oppression of women and it’s starting off with small countries from third,second till it reaches first. The worst part is the women who advocate for the patriarchy and misogyny and teach it for girls of next generation, that’s how the cycle always continues, just the exception of it.
Janine,my baby Janine. I love how they showed her mental state from regressing to being always optimistic to this sweet and innocent human being to anger and hate and rage and bravery. It is understandable how everyone felt so protective of her but also she is a strong woman. She didn’t need to be hateful or mean or be like anyone else. She was a kind,sweet soul and she was still a warrior. I feel like i have more to say but I’ve been writing for an hour and a half and kinda forgot many things but yeah need to get this off my chest thanks if you made it this far.

Phone works perfectly but screen won’t open

Is there something wrong with the site?

I just finished the entire series and wow what a toll of emotion.

Why didn’t Eden become a handmaid?

I feel like I’m being censored on this sub