Scott was a squeeky-clean and traditional soap character. Compared to Tony's Luke, he was boring. There was something about Tony's connection to Genie on camera that was electrifying to watch. He was sexy and bold to her innocence and sweet. They balanced each other. Everyone about their screen chemistry was must-see TV. Neither of them has had that with another partner.
So, what choices did Gloria and the writers have? Dared they lose Luke with this? The idea that a woman would fall in love with a man who had violently raped her is just awful. They were fortunate that they had left a way out...the fact that the audience did not actually see the event. So, it really doesn't matter how the actors played it. Soaps are driven by audience response. When the audience was outraged by the idea of falling in love with a rapist, the best option was to take that way out.
As for the sailboat seduction scene, that was strange moment. One of their sexiest scenes by far, it seemed to totally reverse itself in the middle. When she realized that she had been tricked, it really changed the dynamic between them. It took a long time for her to trust him after that.
I suppose that there are better-written love stories out there, but none captured my imagination more than the love story of LnL. That is largely because of the screen chemistry between Tony and Genie. I don't think anyone else could have pulled it off better than they did. Fantastic acting, and a medium that allowed them to slowly unfold a story that was almost in real time.
Tony gave a passionate rebuttal to the “seduction” of L&L. It’s good to get unequivocal confirmation that L&L’s rape scene was directed and acted as a rape. No ambiguity, no seduction. All that came later, and he acknowledges that.
I’m obviously glad it wasn’t enough to destroy the possibility of them, but I fully understand why they needed to revisit the rape during “my” GH era. I was a teenager during the rape revisit and something some longer time fans might not get is that a lot of newer GH fans who fell in love with 90s L&L were clueless about the rape. Or if we knew, the consensus seemed to be that Laura just suddenly fell in love with her rapist. It was inconceivable.
Of course we didn’t see the rich, complex story that unfolded after the rape. That was excellent writing. But the writers back then ruined all of that with the Sailboat Seduction scene. It’s ironic that one of their sexiest scenes contained some of the most irresponsible writing they ever got. It was reiterated later when Laura tells Luke at the Floating Rib that that night at the disco was the first time they made love. The look on Luke’s face when Laura said that tells me that Tony was just as incredulous about that rewrite as I was hearing it.
Revisiting the rape nearly 20 years later required some fudging of the original story. How could it not? You can’t explain to a modern audience that two characters fell in love after a rape, and then subsequently called their own rape a loving seduction. At least the revisit was well written, and at least it worked to correct the original sin of the seduction rewrite.
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