This may have been raised before, but since I'm not a die hard fan so I don't really care. Selene's character to me cames off as selfish, and controlling. She is meant to be the hero of this tale but Heros put others before themselves. It takes Alex a lot to undo the wrong. Although she has good characteristics to, to me shes a bad role model of young girls.
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That was the point of her character and the success of the show, she was NOT a goody two-shoes.
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Yes, Alex was kinder and more altruistic than the rest of the wizards in that episode.
But goodness is not judged on a curve. There is an absolute minimum standard necessary to be a good person, and Alex failed to meet that standard in many, many episodes.
I have pointed out that Alex, Justin, and Max committed several murders in several episodes.
So if in this one episode a vicious murderer who may have killed more people than Billy the Kid, and at a younger age, is the only wizard to want to do the right thing, how evil does that make the other wizards and the rest of the wizard world?
Alex could have saved the world just as well without committing any murders in other episodes.
I agree.
shareNO, she was a baddy two shoes.
So you seem to be claiming that any character who should not be arrested and go to prison is too perfected to believable?
Well considering it's a television show.. People should be looking at the actress not the character she plays. Sure she is devious, but she has a bit of good in her heart and she truly knows what is wrong. I mean, if you look at tv shows on Disney channel I wouldn't want my kids to look up to them. I would prefer they look up to the actors and the accomplishments they have made, not what some silly character does.
By the way, it is "Selena" not "Selene".
Selfish nothing, that was just one of her many bad attributes. Alex Russo was a horrible role-model for kids.
She is rude, obnoxious, disrespectful, irresponsible, smarmy, lazy, selfish, self-centered, uneducated; illiterate; and stupid, unreliable, smug, arrogant, bossy, pushy, a bully, an underachiever, a cheater, and a liar, and does the bare minimum to get others to forgiver her until the next time she does something bad. She has done horrible things on numerous occasions, yet quickly became the center of the show.
If you look at the reviews on TV.com, you’ll notice a pattern where most of the positive reviews are by impressionable young kids who don’t know any better (And have been successfully brain-washed into buying whatever is pushed on them), and most of the negative reviews are by people/parents who have actually watched it and realized how awful an example Alex sets.
I wrote a review (http://www.tv.com/shows/wizards-of-waverly-place/reviews/item-671475) of it in which I demonstrated numerous examples of how awful Alex is as well as absurd and outright idiotic (and even some offensive) things that have happened on the show. Not surprisingly, most of the foolish children gave the review a thumbs-down because they don’t like their precious garbage being ctiticised, and most of the people who understand how bad it is don’t want to waste any more time on it than they already have by reading reviews.
Synetech is too kind to Alex and the other character. He praises Alex with faint damns.
The worst he says about Alex is:
"She is rude, obnoxious, disrespectful, irresponsible, smarmy, lazy, selfish, self-centered, uneducated; illiterate; and stupid, unreliable, smug, arrogant, bossy, pushy, a bully, an underachiever, a cheater, and a liar, and does the bare minimum to get others to forgiver her until the next time she does something bad. She has done horrible things on numerous occasions, yet quickly became the center of the show."
Synetech omits to mention and that Alex and the other characters are murderers.
Normal human beings without magical powers are legally required to use deadly force only as a last resort when nothing else will suffice to save their own lives or those of other innocent persons who are being attacked.
wizards in training have tremendous magical powers to stop people without killing them and to get what they want without killing people. They can travel in time, rewind time to over and over again until they finally get things right, tie people up with spells, knock people out with spells, instantly teleport anywhere, including to aliens planets, change people's actions and desires with spells, etc. etc.
But Alex and the other Russos sometimes killed people despite the fact that it would be almost impossible to imagine a situation where a wizard in training would be forced by circumstances to kill someone in defense.
Actually, in my review on TV.com, I mentioned the episode where Maxine had a bunch of his/her classmates over for a sleepover, who were then turned into old men, and eventually into talking fruit. The episode did not end with the young girls being turned back into girls and going home; instead it ended with Jerry contemplating eating them!
What the hell is that?!?! They essentially kidnapped a bunch of kids, mutated them for their own amusement, and are now going to kill and eat them?
Did it not occur to the writers that this would be a massive missing-persons case in NYC with Amber-alerts issued and the police going to the last place they were known to be (the Russo home)?
I know that this is a silly, children’s fantasy show with magic and dragons and is not meant to be realistic, but this is just ridiculous (not to mention sending children terrible messages like it being okay to do bad things to those you consider inferior).
Synetech wrote:
"Actually, in my review on TV.com, I mentioned the episode where Maxine had a bunch of his/her classmates over for a sleepover, who were then turned into old men, and eventually into talking fruit. The episode did not end with the young girls being turned back into girls and going home; instead it ended with Jerry contemplating eating them! []"
I think that I remember this episode slightly differently though not much better for the Russos.
As I recall, all the Russos and Harper were in the living room with the little girls turned into old men turned into talking fruits who were telling jokes. Jerry said if the fruit didn't tell better jokes he'd put them in the blender. A fruit told a lame joke and then I think I heard the blender starting as the scene faded out.
Earlier in the episode the moral compass was switched from good to evil and the characters in the Rssso apartment suddenly started acting nastier. Then the moral compass was switched back to good and the characters in the Russo apartment suddenly stopped being as bad as before. So the moral compass clearly affected their behavior.
the moral compass remained set on good for the rest of the episode. So even when the moral compass was working to make them better people, Harper and the Russos at best cruelly frightened the talking fruit who were really little girls, and a worst killed them for no good reason.
WOWP and other Disney programs sometimes end with scenes which seem clearly intended to be jokes and not taken seriously. Maybe this was one of those scenes.
The typical format is for the episode to end, followed by a commercial break, followed by the brief gag scene, followed by the ending credits.
As I remember, this episode had a serious heart-to-heart talk between Alex and Justin in the lair, which was clearly part of the "real" story and plot of the episode, and then cut to the scene in the Russo living room with with the talking fruit (nee little girls ) threatened with being blended. Then there was a commercial break, and then the ending credits.
So either this episode should get some award for the worst editing ever, or else it correctly showed that the scene with the talking fruit and the blender was intended to be "really" happening in the story and not a gag scene.
Oh SHUT UP!! This is a TV show and it's not real life.
I'm reporting abuse
at least spell her name right it's Selena not Selene
I think you guys are taking this TWEEN/KID show too seriously. As an adult, I would say Wizards of Waverly Place is probably one of the few entertaining Disney shows mainly because Alex is not a good girl and she's not perfect. Honestly the rest of the Disney characters are unlikeable to me.
Hannah Montana - Miley was so freaking boring. She lacked personality and it made the show such a joke. Even as a preteen, I hated that show.
Shake It Up - I only watched this show a couple times with my little cousin and so far, the two main characters (don't even know their names) lacked personality.
Good Luck Charlie - If it wasn't for the parents, the show would be completely boring and honestly, even the parents can't save it.
A.N.T. Farm - Uh just stupid, every character is stupid. The dad is the only funny character.
I don't know any of the other shows so they're irrelevant. Alex to me is a perfect character and Disney needed a character like her. She wasn't perfect. She was mean, a pransker, a trouble maker, and sometimes a bad friend. But she also had good moments and to me she represents a teenage girl better than any other character Disney created.
They did the whole goodie two shoes with Lizzie McGuire and continued from there and it got boring. I don't know if any of you guys remember high school but when I was high school, there were more trouble making teenagers than goodie two shoe ones. That's the point of being a teen. As a teen you are a bit selfish, a bit of a trouble maker, and you sometimes make bad decisions because you haven't really learned much yet and you haven't learned all the tools yet to be a good person.
And to everyone saying Alex is a bad role model for girls, get over yourself. Any kid who looks up to fictional characters are kids may be doing it as a result to bad parenting. I was taught to not look up to entertainers when I was 5.
I couldn't said it better myself leniese92
shareThank you leniese92! Exactly! People are taking this WAY too seriously. And like you said, the fact that Alex is completely flawed and not a "goody-two shoes" is what makes the character great. If she were just a "normal, nice girl" she would have been so damn BORING.
Do you remember the old saying "do what I say not what I do." You may *"remember"* being taught a small lesson at 5 years old... but you cannot beat psychology! Kids emulate what they see. The parents attempt to CORRECT the behavior, but they cannot stop the process.
Grow up a little, get into your 30's before you start acting as if you have seen the world. (And getting pregnant does not make you any more an adult than becoming 18 or getting a degree or your first real job. There are too many immature parents in these days.)
You're defending the show on the business aspect... but the views from PSYCHOLOGY and PARENTING are VERY DIFFERENT from the business aspect.
As a rebellious tween, you're just saying that "My mom is wrong, I'll be a better parent by letting my kids eat candy and watch whatever they want." So you still haven't grasped the whole "Preteen Sex is Bad Yo:"
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur33729366/boards/profile
I mean, seriously, talking about your sex life on imdb.
You don't understand that the PARENTING of a TEEN is different from your EXPERIENCES as one. You don't understand how your WRONGS as a teen have affected you... you aren't even willing to admit how MEDIA (tv, actors, w/e) has affected you. In all truthfulness, you are very much, still just a teen (or tween if it makes you happier.)
Well first off I'm 21, not a teenager. And I may not have children and I may not have lived long but I doubt that the world is doomed because of a Disney show. My teen years weren't that long ago and I was more affected by my environment (peer pressure, my parents, my friends, etc. etc.) then I was by TV. If you say this show affects your kids, you might as well shield them from everything.
If they watch The Princess And The Frog, they may start practicing voodoo.
If they watch The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, they may start thinking climbing on buildings is cool.
If they watch The Lion King, they may think lion's are friendly.
If they watch any Disney princess movies, they may start thinking that men and magic will solve their problems.
Now when I say these things, they sound ridiculous. When I was growing up, I was watching Beavis and Butthead, Daria, South Park, and Madtv. I was playing video games like Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat. Stuff that was way more adult than anything Disney has to show. I didn't grow up trying to get laid all the time like Beavis and Butthead, I didn't curse in every sentence and do gross things, and well, who does emulate Madtv. I also wasn't cop killing like the characters do in Grand Theft Auto or was I trying to rip people's brains and livers out like they do in Mortal Kombat. As far as Daria, I did become an unenthusiastic monotone teenager but that was because it was my personality.
I feel parents need to do their jobs and raise their kids right. Granted as a teen I made a lot of mistakes and a lot of bad decisions but hey, what teenager didn't? And most of my bad decisions was due to either peer pressure or just being stubborn, not because some character on TV said it was cool.
Alex is really not that bad of a character. It's not like Disney is showing her drinking, smoking cigarettes, acting promiscuous, or doing the things that most teenagers do. As a parent, you shouldn't about anything Disney makes. Worry about MTV, that's where all the bad influences are.
And even then, parents need to learn how to parent their children and not allow TV to do it for them. It is not the media's job to parent and raise your children. They are out to look for money, they don't care about your kids so why be upset? If you don't want your kids to watch it, turn it off in your house. They have parental blocks and you pay the bills. You can control what your kids look at. But in my opinion personally, the most sheltered kids become the most crazy. At least in my experience in high school, all the girls with the strict parents were crazier than girls like me who always had freedom.
The defenders of Alex who claim that a teen character who was significantly better than her would be be too goody goody and boring to watch forget that Alex, Justin, and Max committed a few murders in various episodes.
Thus they are claiming that a teenage character who is better than a murderer would be too goody goody and boring to watch.
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Alex is actually a nice person, yes she shows horrible characteristics but she is also a sweet person, she is the best person unlike Justin who is a horrible person Justin is selfish and a *beep* who only thinks about himself, grow up idiot
shareAlex is actually a nice person, yes she shows horrible characteristics but she is also a sweet person, she is the best person unlike Justin who is a horrible person Justin is selfish and a *beep* who only thinks about himself, grow up idiot
This is kind of what the movie The Wizards Return: Alex vs Alex is about. Where you have her evil side and good side. And sorry.. but Alex is at least a character but the Disney princesses.. well in their real life, at times, they are really bad role models too.. Some are still going down, some move on from it and become better. Selena is one of the only ones that is actually doing good and as a person she is a role model. Children are well aware that Alex is a character and just that.. she's funny because she is out of the ordinary and she does get in trouble with her parents.. so children do get a sense of what is wrong.
And if a character (as someone before me said) is only good, that really makes for a horrible show, as there is nothing to make fun of.
And from a kids perspective.. if you had magic, you'd do whatever you wanted with it to.. that's how kids are and that kind of power probably negatively influences your character too.. so it is probably dead on the way that Alex acts.
Children are well aware that Alex is a character and just that.. she's funny because she is out of the ordinary and she does get in trouble with her parents.. so children do get a sense of what is wrong.