Holland Fan Forever

I was someone who never envisioned seeing Holly J stay in Canada after she graduates because to me she's ambitious and it would be a slap in the face to see all of the ambition and potential not be fully realized and I think that happened a lot with the older cast and it was sad and unrealistic at the same time for me. To me the storylines for the characters who did stay behind were more often than not a slap in the face to both the character and the audience and I think it would be one thing if a character realistically would still be on the show from time to time but on this show it's generally been nothing other than awkward. I could see Sav coming back for an episode or two because of his sister but, other than that I would like to see and hear that this senior class has left "Degrassi" and left for good. I also think that while Holly J like it or not seems to get most of the focus I would like to at least see and hear about what Zane, Anya and Chantay will be doing next year, but, I don't expect much to be honest.

Holland Fan Forever

I just saw the senior's Now or Never Promos and I have a feeling that once again that Holly J will upstage the other seniors and their storylines and I would like to see the promos live up to what we exactly see on screen but, I won't be surprised if these promos are overly dramatic and misleading.

kaleidocat

We need to start posting now and then screen caps of the seniors in here. Who do you think has changed the most? When I saw those Now or Never promos I was stunned by how much Anya has changed. Not that Samantha has ever been unattractive but this season she is just simply stunning. Riley might be the one who changes his hair the most often .

Nekoshoujo

^ I was thinking that! Anyone have any HQ season 7 promo shots?

Samantha has really grown up on this show. She went from a very youthful girl to a beautiful young woman. I think it's actually quite fitting for a high school character. Is that a case of art imitating life? Or vice versa?

LsK101

Character-wise, I think it's a dead tie between HJ and Anya. They both portrayed the Queen Bee/Shadow so well throughout the seasons. Starting off the way they did, then Anya breaking apart and learning to be somewhat independent (more like dependent on guys) and forming into her own personality. Same with HJ showing maturation over the years and getting over her insecurities and becoming a nicer person without sacrificing her fiery personality.

Looks-wise, these two still come out on top. My jaw dropped when Charlotte and Sam both started wearing their hair down regularly. After seeing HJ in her debut episode in season 7 with her hair down (episode when she smacks Darcy's lunch tray into the ground), I was upset seeing her with her hair tied back for her first two seasons as a regular character. They nailed the high school transition stage perfect (doing their hair, makeup, etc.).

Aside from the show, they both over the years just matured from teenagers to women. If I remember right, both of these girls were 17-18 when they started and they're 20-21 now.

kaleidocat

Here's my seasonal promos folder: Season 8 - Seasonal Promos pictures by kaleidocat - Photobucket

They were all saved from TeenNick.com, I'm guessing, because they are 320 X 240. But on the upside there's just 243 of them. There's a couple larger ones in there from degrassi.tv but only a handful.

Just for fun I'm going to post a few of our grads:




And I just noticed you asked about season 7. Or I thought I didn't have any. But I'm lurking in my archives right now (LOL) and I found:

(click to make bigger)

I never uploaded my HQ resolution pics to PB due to account limitations. I was actually stuck and couldn't upload because I was at 99% of my storage space. Now PB says I can upload how much I want after years of being frugal. So I'm trying to upload what I have to my account but this is crazy...I have stuff I didn't even know I had.

JustMe2000

Just two weeks left for this group.

mellifluouscloud

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! (I was just about to ask when the summer episodes end because I had no idea.)

What legacy will they leave behind? Let's see...
- Holly J officially jumped the shark (can a character do that? whatever, they can now),
- Sav decided he loves Ms. Oh more than cereal,
- Anya became addicted to coke and possibly has no future,
- Zane (most likely) vanished,
- Riley is (pretending to be) straight again, and
- Chantay got zero storylines for the 7th season in a row.

It's almost like the writers are trying to make us NOT miss them.

But Fiona gets to stick around for another season!

Holland Fan Forever

I guess I was one of the few people here who accepted the fact that the Coynes were always going to help Holly J if she needed it. However, I do think Holly J has had better storylines before but seeing her strong friendship with Holly J saves this storyline for me. I think that unlike the rest of the seniors Holly J consistently got storylines and character development all along and didn't have to wait until her time was almost up in order for the writers to actually stay with a storyline. I am hoping that Fiona's friendship with Eli will allow her to have more storylines other than focusing solely on her being a lesbian like what they did with Marco, Zane and Riley next season. I think for some people that it's hard to miss someone when they haven't gotten many storylines or much screen time but, I do feel that this senior class had a lot of potential that in the end they deserved to have more storylines and character development as a whole. I think that it would've been better for the seniors if some of these storylines had started a bit earlier or if a decision had been made one way or the other earlier.

mellifluouscloud

No, it's not that. We all knew it would happen and that's the problem. It made the storyline highly predictable, extremely unrealistic (most of us don't have friends with unlimited funds), and therefore boring. The storyline fell flat because we all knew exactly how it would be "resolved."

And it's not just about Fiona being the fairy godmother to Holly J's Cinderella. It also makes it seem like it's okay to pay someone for an organ, which the show already told us is illegal. What if Holly J didn't have a rich friend to bail her out? What if she had to scrape together a ton of cash, lie and cheat and steal to get it, or go into massive credit card debt? Maybe then we'd see the direness of this situation and it'd be more obvious that paying someone $20,000 for an illegal transaction is not okay.

Lastly! There is something off about this entire plot with Holly J being adopted. It is very much a "jump the shark" cliche to have a long-lost relative reappear out of nowhere. And instead of getting to see Holly J cope with the realization of being adopted (which I imagine to be very psychologically unsettling), it's all about her one-track mission to get a kidney.

So, in conclusion: of course I accept that the Coynes would bail Holly J out. That was a no-brainer. And it's also what sucked all the drama and anticipation out of a storyline that might have otherwise been compelling if given to a different character. Holly J should be going out with a bang instead of a whimper. Instead her final storyline is predictable, unrealistic, and does her character absolutely zero justice. It's a really disappointing way for her to leave the show.

(Sorry for the rant.)

Holland Fan Forever

This show is not known for good storylines for the seniors to begin with and so I guess I've learned not to expect much here. At least Holly J had previous storylines and character development and she at least gets a farewell/exit storyline because to me most of the seniors who are leaving either didn't get to do much until right before they were leaving for good or they don't get much of an exit storyline. Holly J is lucky because while her storyline is predictable she at least gets a farewell/exit storyline. As soon as we saw her preview for this season I think that it was obvious even then how it was going to end up. I think that it would've been more dramatic if the kidney and or adoption storyline had been given to another character or if Holly J actually had to look for her birth father but, to me Holly J's storyline was really more about her strong friendship with Fiona. I thought that if any storyline got hyped up and didn't live up to the hype it was Anya's storyline. I thought that was an even more rushed ending and she was someone who really didn't get her own storyline until her time on the show was almost up and so to me Anya once again got upstaged by Holly J. I also think that this show is really not known in the first place for having the seniors go out with a bang because look at last year's seniors and the originals there from Season one, day one when they left. These two groups of seniors didn't get to do much and so it was unrealistic for me to expect this group of seniors to get better storylines because of how seniors are treated on this show.

mellifluouscloud

I wanted more of the Anya storyline too. The only substance abuse storyline that was done reasonably well, I think, was Fiona's. Now, Anya's was better than the last time we saw a character addicted(?) to coke because we saw more of the factors leading up to it, but as usual it was resolved waaaaaaay too quickly. And was she addicted? Degrassi has never really done a good job of defining addiction (except, again, with Fiona). It's like every character becomes "addicted" and has no choice but to go to "rehab" after only one or two episodes (Ashley, Craig, Peter, and I guess Emma). I wish Anya's coke habit had started late last season and we could have seen the full extent of her self-sabotaging behavior. The storyline was decent, but not nearly as great as it could have been.

kaleidocat

Fiona's was an improvement...but when you think about the timeline for the character if she were real, how long was she abusing alcohol? Because of the fact that she started in Purple Pills, there was a hiatus, and then the show format shifted back into it's weekly airings it gives the audience the impression that it went on longer for it actually did. I'm not going to be anal and try to figure out the actual timeline but I'd say she was only a heavy drinker for a few weeks or months, tops (keep in mind there was a time when Mama Coyne cracked down and dumped out all the booze). Season 10 and 11 overlap in the school year.

I agree how we need to see an addict long-term. It would actually help if the character was introduced as a drinker and as we learn more about him or her, we find out there's much more going on and maybe he or she is getting into heavier stuff.

But I do like all the factors that led up Anya's coke use, like you Christine. Also wish it went on for longer.

Holland Fan Forever

I was someone who wanted to see Sav stand up for himself earlier because to me once again it's Alli who gets what she wants and Sav just has another love interest and it's already so obvious that it's just basically paying homage to the Paige/Mr. O storyline. I do wonder who tells Mr. Simpson about the relationship and I don't think Holly J or Anya would really care about who Sav dates because I keep in mind that Holly J dumped him with no real second thought and Anya is over Sav.

mellifluouscloud

I don't think it's a total rehash of Paige/Oleander because Mr. O was forced to resign. I kinda doubt Ms. Oh is leaving. So maybe the rumors really are just that -- rumors. And I don't think Sav is aiming to get a reaction out of Anya or Holly J; I think he genuinely has a crush on Ms. Oh. But yeah it would have been nice to see him get a heavier storyline in his final days. Although if this is the alternative to a "heavy" storyline like having kidney failure, finding out you're adopted, and paying $20,000 illegally for an organ transplant... then I guess I'll accept this meaningless lighthearted story for Sav. It does seem rather stupid to throw him in a relationship that he'll be forced to hide from everyone, when he just came to terms with the fact that he doesn't want to hide his relationships from his parents. But I'm hoping this week will be the end of the Ms. Oh crush/fling/whatever it is, so next week can be all about the seniors saying goodbye.

Anyway. Sure Sav is almost always in a relationship, but then again, isn't that true for just about every character? As opposed to Craig, Eli, Drew, etc., I actually understand why Sav is such a ladies' man -- he's not a jerk!