Chicago Fire Could Have Had a Perfect Female Lead, But Gave Us Stella Kidd Instead
If you're sticking around the Chicago Fire fan community online, you know there's a very distinct pattern in character discussion.
Every once in a while (more like "every day"), someone starts trashing Stella out of the blue, and many people join in.
And it only got worse this season. Do you ever wonder why? There are quite a few reasons for that.
After Casey left and Severide went on a break, Stella was left under the spotlight. Without the other two, she's the main center of attention, and most of the time, the focus is on her.
Most other characters feel like they're doing their little side quests, and the writers don't want to give them that much time. Look, Stella's over here!
It doesn't help that in this season, pretty much her entire main story is Carver, and Carver's storyline is… Yikes. The fact that Stella's story is so closely tied to his bland and useless one doesn't make Carver interesting; instead, it drags Stella down.
One of the main fans' concerns about Stella these days is that she's written to be a Mary Sue. The writers wanted to have a female lead, and they found the perfect actress for it, who would've handled this role flawlessly… And then they messed it up.
Instead of making Stella feel like a living person who makes mistakes and can be wrong — like the others — they wrote her as the purest, perfect, always-right demigod who knows better than anyone else.
And to finish it off, the writers found no other way to highlight Stella's perfection than having her always be stuck in someone else's business, making her look better by making others look worse.
Fans largely admit that they loved the old Stella: she felt like an actual human. She was badass, imperfect, and nice, and that made her interesting and believable.
But apparently, the writers decided that was not enough for a female lead, so they butchered her character to fix non-existent issues. It just became more apparent this season since all spotlights are on Stella.
Now, instead of the cool and appealing old Stella Kidd who was definitely more than capable of being an amazing leader just the way she was, we have a character that's mostly hated by the fans.
It's a massive shame: not only did we lose one of the best characters and a great female lead, but it's also a waste of Miranda Rae Mayo's outstanding acting talents.