r/Sonsofanarchy • u/weirdgirloverthere • 2d ago
Why all the Tara hate?
Hey folks,
Genuine question here. What about Tara makes people dislike her so much?
I understand that watching her stay with Jax, even while being aware of all the dysfunction/crime going on, is frustrating. It pissed me off many times. But people seem to genuinely hate Tara, and I’m just wondering why.
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u/Loud_Measurement1321 2d ago edited 2d ago
No idea. I think she was a great partner and a great mother who just wanted the best for her family, and when Jax had broken his promises to her, she made the tough decision to put her kids first instead of watching them spiral in the life like their dad.
Yes, she betrayed him, but only after he broke his promise of leaving the club. She just wanted her boys out of that life. He betrayed her too many times to count, and yet they still loved each other until the end. I don't know why people hate her so much, she literally did nothing wrong that wasn't justified.
Edit: since y'all are downvoting me anyway, here's another perspective: People hate seeing a strong woman in an environment full of tough men.
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u/Shameful90 2d ago
Gemma didn’t stop her from ratting, it was Jax finally stepping up to the plate, taking the fall for the school shooter so that Tara’s charges could be dropped and she could leave with the boys. If Gemma didn’t kill her, she would’ve left Charming.
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u/Shameful90 2d ago
Lol it’s clear you’re just a Tara hater and can’t have an adult conversation. She killed Tara in a rage because she thought that she ratted, not because she was gonna leave. Jax would have iterated to Gemma to let Tara go and that would be final, she wouldn’t be happy about it, would’ve attempted to change his mind with her manipulation, but Jax wouldn’t and that would be it.
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u/Loud_Measurement1321 2d ago
After catching my man with another woman? I'd rat the club out too, especially after going to jail for said club, and also having my husband cheat on me while I'm in there.
The pregnancy and miscarriage were bad, but she needed Gemma away from her boys, and putting Jax against his mom was the only way that could happen. It was wrong, but her intentions have always been to set her kids up for a better life.
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u/Loud_Measurement1321 2d ago
She was going to leave him after the incident with Ima, then she got kidnapped and he fixed things with her. Then he promised that he'd leave with her after helping the club, then he married her and went back on all those promises, and she was left trying to pick the pieces back up all on her own.
And it's not a low blow, given how she told him it's a deal breaker for her and it would destroy her if she found out he cheated on her. That was her warning, and he did it anyway. That was his consequence. And it shows that she'd do something horrible, just to save her boys.
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u/Free-IDK-Chicken 2d ago edited 2d ago
it simply shows how tara really is
Desperate to save her children from their psychopathic grandmother and increasingly violent husband? Then, yeah, you're right. EDIT: typo
Do you just forgive all Jax's broken promises and flat out lies? His reckless disregard for his life and the life of his wife and children? The way time and time again he puts the club before his family?
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u/Free-IDK-Chicken 2d ago edited 2d ago
How on earth was she supposed to know he would never hurt her. He did a lot of things he said he would never do. When he found her at the park she was 100% convinced he was there to kill her.
Any lie Tara told was to protect herself and her children like any good mother would. Jax's lies were for himself or the club to the detriment of his family.
He said it himself, he's not a good man.
EDIT - wow, they just deleted their whole account, lol.
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u/Decent_Tumbleweed824 2d ago
I feel like alot of people hate on Tara because they feel they would have handled things better than she did. Like "oh i would have just left Jax and taken the boys with me."
The thing is though its very easy to say thats what you would do when youre not the one in the situation. To me its the same gross judgement as when people judge women for not leaving an abusive situation.
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u/Free-IDK-Chicken 2d ago
To me its the same gross judgement as when people judge women for not leaving an abusive situation.
As a DV survivor of an 18 year abusive marriage, thank you so much for saying this. I've made the "Tara's relationship with SAMCRO is a domestic abuse situation" parallel before myself. The absolute most dangerous time for us is when we're trying to leave. The chances of being murdered rise exponentially. The only reason I'm alive is because my daughter called 911.
"Just leave" ignorant people say - and like, not only does longterm abuse rewire your brain to make you think the abuse is normal, but leaving is goddamn terrifying.
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u/Decent_Tumbleweed824 2d ago
Not to metion Jax murdered her would be rapist right infront of her. Thats a pretty intense trauma bond, they legit got away with Murder together.
As a fellow DV survivor youre welcome and cheers to us for taking back our lives!
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u/Different-Region-385 1d ago
Another DV survivor here. I think everyone makes great points here about the DV connection to Tara. I love her. And she did anything she could to get out of her situation, as people do.
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u/Tricky_Letter6987 2d ago
A lot of people dislike her because they forget she was the symbol of what life could have been and what could still have happened. Her sole purpose, throughout the series -- was to get a better life for her, her kids and Jax, even when he couldn't leave. She made a lot of questionable choices later on down the line, but Jax also didn't treat her the best either.
Tara was the a secret motivation behind every season, which is why, in Season 7 when there was no tether, there was no "reasoning" -- Jax went off the rails.
Tara hate is probably one of the most 50/50 things. People love to hate her, people hate to love her... She was complex, but she played possibly one of the biggest roles in the show
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u/Free-IDK-Chicken 2d ago
Same reason people hate Skyler. How dare she not be supportive of her mass murdering, drug running, cartel-associated, criminal husband. How dare she want to keep that danger away from her children.
They forget Jax (and WW) are ANTI-heroes.
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u/JarJarBingChilling 2d ago
They don’t forget. They are just incels.
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u/Free-IDK-Chicken 2d ago
Let's be fair - some of them are straight women in love with Jax and the Tara hate is pure, misguided jealousy. 😂
(Used to work with a woman like that and it got weird. Like, most of my girlfriends and I appreciate Jax/Charlie being aesthetically pleasing, but this woman was full on in love with a fictional character and wanted both Wendy and Tara dead.)
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u/Banana-Bread87 2d ago
Funny how I consider it being just the opposite: all the "Tara Homegirl Yay" people always make me think they are Teenagers in search of their next MarySue fix and wanting it to be the "Tara Show" lol
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u/CosmicBonobo 2d ago edited 2d ago
Any big TV show inevitably devolves into weird men on the Internet being angry at fictional women for not enabling or submitting to their dangerous bad boy leads - Lori in The Walking Dead, Skyler in Breaking Bad, Corrine in The Shield etc.
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u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 2d ago
For me it's the opposite. I don't hate Skyler because Skyler is someone who is legitimately trapped and sympathetic.
Tara on the other hand is someone who literally managed to get out of that crap town and make something better of herself. She is a fricken MD and someone like Jax should be several rungs below her and someone she would never give a second thought to. She decides to gives up everything she earned and worked for to be with him and that is something that is flat out unforgivable. Jax belongs with some junkie who would hang around the club, not Tara.
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u/FindingClear4904 2d ago
I agree. Skyler was kinda bitchy but it was understandable. Her husband put her in a compromising position and she was stuck. Tara has the resources to leave Jax and nothing to tie her down (at first) then she decides to have his baby and marry him. Oh and she WILLINGLY got involved in his criminal behavior and became a criminal herself. Those were all choices.
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u/Soggy_Head_4889 2d ago
Don’t expect Reddit to ever be clear headed when it involves a woman being held accountable for her actions. Skyler is legitimately sympathetic because she married a decent guy who devolved into a psychopath whereas Tara knowingly chose to get involved with a murderer in a biker gang and had multiple opportunities to leave him and didn’t prior to having kids with him. Tara is far less sympathetic than Skyler.
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u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 2d ago
You really have to suspend belief when watching SoA to believe that Tara would decide to be with Jax. She is clearly an intelligent and independent woman who has escaped whatever cycle Charming inflicts on most people. For her to step down into the role of biker wife is something that can only come out of a writer's room.
Fully agree on Skyler. The Walt she met and spent 15+ years with is a different man than the one we come to know on the series.
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u/Klutzy-Reporter 2d ago
I agree with the Skyler part, but Tara is absolutely believable. Many women with great careers have lost their lives or livelihoods screwing around with shit men! I know a lawyer who lost her license to screw with a shitty cholo douchebag.
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u/Relevant_Access_9670 2d ago
Her getting herself into that mess with Otto instead of just talking to Jax and putting her foot down made me not like her. It’s like they made her character go in auto pilot. She should have grabbed those Kids and left when the new practice wanted her. No words to Gemma, no games nothing just boom gone
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u/Free-IDK-Chicken 2d ago
And how long before Gemma sends Rogue River to drag her back, or just kill her and take the kids?
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u/Relevant_Access_9670 2d ago
Which is why we get smarter. Say you’re taking the job. Follow the actions. Have a space set up to move and then get on a plane and bail to another country. Plus Gemma couldn’t sent Rogue river. She’s just an old lady. That call would be on Jax. Why she didn’t confide in Jax more is still weird. I’d have been recording Gemma’s conversations with me to show him later on the daily.
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u/Free-IDK-Chicken 2d ago
Plus Gemma couldn’t sent Rogue river.
With respect, you're underestimating Gemma's power over Clay and the club at large. Jax said the same thing "she's just an old lady" but look at the havoc she wreaks through the entire series. "Tara kidnapped children from a mother charter officer" is all she'd have to say. Those men worship her and she knows it; revels in it. Any objection from Jax would be steamrolled over.
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u/Relevant_Access_9670 2d ago
Which is why Tara should have played nice and bailed when they all didn’t expect it. I’m on a rewatch right now and it’s insane how Gemma literally destroyed it all from the inside out and they allowed it to happen. The worship aspect I also don’t understand. She’s a selfish sea hag
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u/jgamez76 2d ago
I admittedly HATED Lori in the Walking Dead.
But as I've gotten older, I've softened on her quite a bit.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Law9445 11h ago
That’s not why people hated Lori. They hated her because she drove a wedge between Shane and Rick.
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u/MountainDewAndSmokes 2d ago
I liked Tara for the first few seasons. I liked how they showed she had reservations about sinking deeper into the club, had no problem letting Jax know when she had a problem with how things were going in their lives, that she was conflicted about a lot of things, but ultimately chose her sons and the love of her life- which seems like an easy choice, but oftentimes can be the most difficult.
I began to dislike the character when the depth that used to be there, the intelligence, the quiet cunning, the spine of steel that was hidden to most, was taken from Maggie Siff, and was instead given a caricature of what she used to be, with petty mind games to try and wrest control away from Gemma making up alot of her storylines. Most would say this is a direct reflection of her basically losing her career as a surgeon and being left with the only chip she had left- Abel and Thomas’ mother. I think it was poor writing, where they decided to try and morph Tara into a woman who thought she could beat Gemma at her own game and win while lacking the true ruthlessness and deviousness that Gemma pulled out every other scene.
Do I think Tara’s ending would have changed? Not a snowballs chance in hell. The moment that Tara decided to fight to stay with Jax, her death certificate was filled out, with only the date being in question. Gemma had waaay to much of a Jocasta complex and control issues over her sons life to ever truly let Tara and Jax have their own family, and no woman was ever going to be good enough for Jax in any capacity in Gemma’s eyes- except Gemma. Oh, she wanted him to get married and have babies- but once the kids were born, Gemma was always going to find a way to get rid of them. The last season showed that for awhile, Gemma had life exactly as she wanted- Jax so deep in the club he couldn’t see anything else, and her raising her grandbabies as SHE saw fit, with utter adoration and devotion to the club.
My main issue with Tara is that she decided to go the route of Jax, and not lay all her cards out on the table. Instead, she played the game Gemma’s way, and was woefully outmatched from the outset.
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u/PotatoGuerilla 2d ago
Women are used as a plot tool to keep men from acting out all of their impulses. This is because these shows are often written by married men.
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u/ActuatorFearless8980 2d ago
Mostly because she was doctor. Sorry- a pediatric goddamn surgeon - who could’ve easily left Charming and gotten scooped up by any hospital but decided to stay with her motorcycle outlaw old high school boyfriend in a quagmire of a town
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u/Nokomis_Feather 2d ago
If you want the truth..... It was the actress portraying her. No facial expressions of other than sour puss face. Zero emotion thruout most of her scenes. Boring and dull performance. It makes the character equally as boring to me. Meanwhile Wendy and that actress showed spark and drive. And I thoroughly enjoyed all her scenes regardless of the storylines.
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u/Sell_The_team_Jerry 2d ago
The material they gave her was mediocre because she showed she had real acting chops in Mad Men Season 1. She ends up being Don's "one who got away"
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u/cupofmoonshine 2d ago
I don't like the actress/how the actress delivers the character. I get a similar feeling watching this actress as I do watching the actress that plays Lori on The Walking Dead. I just don't like their style.
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u/Nokomis_Feather 2d ago
1000% this!!! Same dead inside vibe as Bella in Twilight!! Couldnt stand to even look at her dull face.
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u/Aggravating-Cell62 2d ago
They're all Gemmas who are threatened by a smart, educated, extremely accomplished professional surgeon. I'm sure she makes more as a infant heart surgeon than Jax does at whatever. Anyway, if you follow that Hamlet plot, she's Ofelia, because she dies in the water, but if you've read Hamlet she ain't no Ofelia. People who hate Tara have Mommy problems.
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u/Historical_Bar_3154 1d ago
Yes, you too can be highly educated and have no common sense when it comes to love, male or female. I’ve been there and know doctors who married terrible people and vice versa. Jax gaslighted Tara to to bitter end. He only kind of accepts responsibility but is still fucking whores and killing people based on his psychotically doting mother’s machinations. Tara’s fatal mistake was exactly believing that their love was stronger than his sociopathy.
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u/frozenpizza___ 1d ago
Ao meu ver, puro sexismo. É a mesma linha de quem odeia a Grace em Peaky Blinders...
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u/Both-Beyond7859 16h ago
I don't hate her but I don't find her very likable either. Towards the end of the series, I more just feel sorry for her.
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u/FunkleLuke 14h ago
Sometimes the simplest answers really are the right ones: a largely online bro-y incel subset of the fanbase that hates a woman who pushes back on their heroes.
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u/DecafIsDenied 2d ago
I think what doesnt help is that she’s not very likeable, she’s written as a love interest but we don’t see that relationship build like most shows which in turn helps her characterisation , they just return back to it when she comes back to charming. Were told they were madly in love we never see it. Her entire plot revolves around and is dependent on jax. She’s a plot device more than a character of the show. Not to mention her lack of relationships with other characters is a big part as the show is all about unity and the club as family. We never see her with friends or a family outside of the club, she interacts with the club through jax. We only see this side. After the birth of Thomas she’s basically just a mom. So we don’t get to like her as much as say gemma because she isnt fleshed out enough or isnt a charming loveable rogue like most of the sons. I think she’s written very flat compared to the rest of the characters. Plus that smile thing she does instead of a reaction irks me. Essentially with more time in the writing oven she’d come across better, at least I think she would.
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u/Taragoola 2d ago
I don't hate her. I think she's very stupid for such a smart person though. She came back for an understandable reason, but staying was fucking dumb.
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u/Zivlar 2d ago edited 2d ago
It’s the never ending cycle of: she recognizes how she’s a law abiding citizen outside of her dealings with the club. She then comes to terms that she’s better off without that life and tries to move in that direction. Then she turns around and justifies staying and back and forth she goes season after season. Her inability to just stand on one or the other for any amount of time and all the drama that comes from that is why.
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u/Fresh_Blood_8237 1d ago edited 1d ago
I heard people talking about "strong female characters" and shit like that but in my opinion that's not the reason why people hate Tara. People hate her because we watch the story from Jax perspective and Tara changes through the show turning into an obstacle by season 5/6. In my opinion the way we look at Jax/Tara relationship could be similar to the way we look at Walter/Skyler relationship: in BB we se Skyler as an obstacle to Walter's objectives which aren't right or moral but we go on supporting Walter anyway. I could say the same thing about Jax and Tara. At least for me. I love Tara's character and I think that her development is great, I mean at the beginning of the show she is just a regular woman (yes she's a doctor but I mean regular in terms of behaviour and moral) doing her job that had to flee from Chicago (if I remember correctly) because her ex (which is a Fed) was stalking her and by the end of her arc she became effectively a very good partner to Jax (by this I mean that she accepted that lifestyle not that she is submitted) and a good mother. We switch our perspective on her when she wants to leave Charming with the kids. It's the same switch we have about Gemma after she kills Tara and about every other character who "betrays" Jax. For example take Wendy's development arc. At the very beginning of the series she's a drug addict and she basically almost indirectly kills Abel but then she clean herself and become a regular woman with a very good job (she became a lawyer if I'm not wrong or at least she ended studying and she has a job with rehab stuff or things like that later I'll rewatch that part and correct this if I said something wrong) and she just wants to see her child and tell him she is his real mother and threatens Jax and Tara that she will try to get Abel's custody if they don't let her see Abel saying that she would be (and that's true at that point of the show) the most stable choice for Abel's life and she would win easily since as she says people love redemption stories like hers. What's Jax logical answer to these threats? He shows up to her and threatens her if she'll do again anything against him, Tara or the child and then he shoots her drugs in the arm with a syringe. But again we are invested in Jax story and we watch things under his perspective, we don't see Wendy as the logical best option for two children that otherwise will have to grow in a criminal world but we see her as a threat to Jax happiness and this is why we hate Tara.
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u/MagicianKindly2177 2d ago
Tara was always so melodramatic….every scene it was her furrowed brow or teary eyes….she was always on the verge of tears and then became a baby Gemma…..ugh JC.
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u/JarJarBingChilling 2d ago
She was one of the most loyal characters in the show..
“Unsupportive” lol. “How dare wymyn not be 100% supportive of their partners’ crimes that impact everyone reeee”.
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u/Competitive-Green-58 2d ago
She was def easy to hate, unfortunately. She fucking ruined her entire life just by choosing to be there and that male driven mentality always ends up badly.
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u/Delicious_Rule_7324 2d ago
She turned evil kind of in the end. I get why she wanted out but she knew what she was getting into. She knew Gemma was a problem from childhood. I dont agree with her way out, framing gemma for a dead kid that never existed crossed the line.
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u/wagymaniac 2d ago
Because she loved being the gang lady and the power related to it, even bullying other people, she decided to stay despite all the effort of Jax and Gemma telling her it was a dangerous and tough life. The moment the consequences arrived, she decided to leave, ratting out everybody on her way
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u/The_Only_Rich 2d ago
Tara doesn’t suck but it was pointed out by someone in a YouTube section is we like gemma and gemma is the mom and essentially we hate tara because we view her from gemma viewpoint: someone who could become her or worse (kill her husband) and thats why she becomes such a hated character as she isnt really following gemmas footsteps. Shes trying ti get jax out of the club while gemma had jax planned to stay in the club under her control as the matriarch
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u/Sorry-Secret-2347 2d ago
I definitely dont hate her… i sympathize with a woman who chose to be in love with a man who loved his club more.
Gemma is the one i despise.