As I've been watching Rubi, my impressions have been that wow… Rubi is evil. She manipulates everyone and anyone to get what she wants (which is mostly money), maybe even the audience too because you still find yourself rooting for her in a way. There are the classic cinderella tropes but with a twist. Rubi’s friend Maribel is the cinderella in that she is very naive, goodhearted- especially towards Rubi, pure and has been through struggles after losing her mom and suffering an injury to her leg. Rubi has some elements of cinderella in that she’s beautiful and comes from a poor background but ultimately she is the evil “stepmother”/antagonist in her own story. Hector, Maribel's love interest, follows the tropes of the prince: he's rich, attractive, and is easily influenced/not the best decision maker. Of course, his wealth attracts Rubi and you can slowly see the foreshadowing of her seducing him. She also has another love interest Alejandro who is Hector's best friend, making for an even more complicated dynamic. Almost all of the other characters, except for her poor mother who is constantly worried about her (for good reason), seem to be super naive to Rubi’s tricks which makes her seem that much more calculated.
Ultimately, I am very interested to see all of Rubi’s schemes play out even further and see how the different tropes develop.
Hi Alaina! Great post analysing some of the character representations in Rubi! You mentioned that in Rubi you can find some of the classic cinderella tropes but with a twist which is similar to my telenovela of choice, The Marked Heart. In a traditional telenovela the antagonist is usually the female counterpart of the main female protagonist or the “cinderella” character, but in The Marked Heart, the antagonist is represented as the male counterpart of the “prince” character. These twist of traditional character representations was not something I was expecting to see in alot of telenovelas. However, its very interesting to know that my personal telenovela of choice is not the only one that decides to use a twist on the traditional tropes.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Alaina!
Hi Alaina, I'm watching Rubi, too, and omg episode after episode, I am shocked at all the schemes that Rubi plots. Like how mean do you have to be to come up with half of the things Rubi's done. I don't want to spoil it, but the last couple of episodes had me speechless!!! But, anyways, do you also find Saul, Lorena's boyfriend, so annoying omg. Every time he's on the screen, he always says something infuriating. There are so many people in this telenovela that make me so mad haha, but my favorite person had to be Cristina, Rubi's sister. Rooting for her!!
ReplyDeleteHey, Alaina! I'm very intrigued to watch Rubi now just to see how the plot of what I would describe as a "love square" between Rubi, Maribel, Hector, and Alejandro plays out! I think it's cool that the writer of the telenovela wrote the show to be a twisted version of the Cinderella trope; it gives the genre more vibrancy and paves the way for more "out of the box" ideas for shows to be produced. Great blog post! :)
ReplyDeleteHey Alaina, my first thought was that this telenovela has a lot of complexity to it, and is straying away from the simplistic features of a drama, such as having a female protagonist who is the "cinderella" character and the male falls in love with the beauty and naivety of this woman. This complexity intrigues me, and similar to what Sab said, I would love to see how this "love square" dynamic will evolve as you progress through the show. I also am curious to see if Maribel will learn to see through the deceitful nature of Rubi, and that she produces some character development into the show. Perhaps, she can become more than a "cinderella" character? I'm definitely particularly interested, just like you, in seeing Rubi's later deceitful methods because that will bring in a more captivating plot to the show.
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