I know I said I wouldn't write one but I did. It's not as detailed as the Ian one, probably because I'm more passionate abt him and relate more but idk! Before you read know that these are my thoughts and how I envision her! Envision her how you want! This is just what makes sense to me.
Also the song is born to die which i think is very friday-esqe :)
ty! (also i did not spell check or grammar check lmao)
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Subject: Friday Astrella Barnes
The subject of my analysing today is Friday. In this essay I will mainly be going into how and why I portray her the way I do, her wasted potential, and many other topics. I preface this by saying, I am not bashing R.A Spratt in any way (I am) but this is more my take. I also preface this by saying I love Friday, she's adorable do not get me wrong! Friday is a unique character that was not given the justice she deserves, and I hope to give an insight into how, in my mind, I have tried to rectify that and even make sense of the little we know about her complicated (or meant to be complicated) character.
The wasted potential:
Let's unpack this. . .
So, we all know the trope. Prodigy child that is quirky and weird. We've seen it so many times before, but once have you ever thought what if it were different? She's secluded and doesn't want to be seen the same as everyone while also yearning to be the same. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but the way R.A. Spratt writes it just makes her a very one-dimensional character. I could say it's a shame we never get to see the things she likes besides solving mysteries and reading, but I do believe that was her whole character point; to not be like other girls. But wouldn't it be nice to see a female protagonist that doesn't push aside the things that make her feminine? That makes her a girl? Why does she have to be only like this when she can be awkward, smart and frilly and feminine? The lifestyle and path Friday represent is a lonely one, one of solitude that prevents others from coming close and, likewise, prevents her from reaching out. She's so scared of how people will perceive her and of the fact that something stops her from forming the human bonds she craves. It's a unique experience and could've been so much more impactful if written in a way that showed that was deep and not in the way it was that only showed that Friday was "quirky" and "better than other girls because she's different".
Friday could have been a very complicated character. As she is in canon, she is very one-dimensional, and it is easy to see how her brain works. This isn't a bad thing, but it results in an arduous story. It's a repeating cycle that never ends. The story would only change if another character caused it to. I repeat, the story will only change is someone besides the main character changes it. For a main character, it's hard to be entertained at times when it's only her. Sure she can have her spontaneous moments, but never like Ian or Melanie. Ian could carry an entire book by himself if he wanted, and Melanie has those witty comebacks that never fail to make one laugh. Friday on the other hand can come off as stale. Almost all her dialogue is something scientific, we hardly see a personality from her. Much like the Ian thing, we mainly just see her spewing science bullshit and then leaving. The only time we see a genuine emotional outburst is in book 8 before she kisses Ian.
I would've loved to see a strong female protagonist that can also carry a joke, show her emotions, or even just talk about something that wasn't science related for once. While I do understand her being very socially inept and not as introduced to pop-culture, it doesn't mean she wouldn't develop a personality or know how to joke around. She went to primary school, it's a shame that we couldn't see anything develop. Even now in the later books sometimes I forget she went through a traumatising experience recently. It's as though she isn't allowed to feel emotions and is written to not know them, but really from personal experience I can say being a teenage girl is such a unique, complicated, and emotional experience, the fact that she doesn't get to experience it is disheartening. Friday Barnes had the potential to be a relatable character that we see grow but sadly it was not executed well at all.
How she is portrayed vs how she was intended to be:
Friday is portrayed as a hidden gem betwixt the rocks. A girl who doesn't care for pink or Barbie or boys. No, she likes science, and math, and playing in dirt! She is not at all one for such childish things! Why, she's an intelligent girl unlike the others who just care about their looks! She isn't on a diet (but she's still oh so thin!) and she doesn't care about make-up or clothes. She couldn't care one bit about how she looks or acts yet somehow all the boys are in love with her. Friday Barnes is weird, quirky, not like other girls. She wears beaten up converses and brown cardigans unlike the sluts her age who like to show themselves off! See where I'm going with this
The sad reality is that this is exactly how she is portrayed. Fight me on it, but half of her character relies on the fact that she is different. She is portrayed as some girl who shoves other girls under the rug and deems herself as superior. Sometimes, it's not even her fault considering all the other girls besides the 'nerdy' ones (e.g. Wai-Yi, canonically a bookworm stereotype) are all written as try-hard whorish she-devils who only know how to lust after cute boys and be dumb. For all we know, Friday wears the same outfit every Goddamn day because she's not at all vain. We see her putting down girls a lot of times, one of my least favourite being in book 6 after the food diving challenge where her and Ian speak.
"But you won the supply challenge," said Ian. "All I managed to retrieve is a can of sardines."
"Never mind," said Friday. "The girls in your hut are keen on slimming anyways."
Ian laughed.
Page 144, Danger Ahead.
Do I even need to say anything? The way this part is so vile and indicates so much is horrendous and the fact it's being pushed to little girls is even worse. I didn't even notice this until rereading it when I was older. To me it indicates Friday is making fun of the other girls, practically saying they have eating disorders, and Ian encourages this by laughing. She's making fun of other girls and is getting praised for it by a man. A literal pick-me by definition. Not to mention the multiple other times where she's encountered by a girl who was written to be an absolute bitch with no other personality trait and goes on to insult them to. It's as if it's supposed to make her look better when it just shows the author must not know how girls behave. The way the bullies, such as Mirabella (free my girl PLEASE), act is so 2010's Disney era like hello what! All the girls are written so badly, the only two I can think of that are not just weird are Susan and Ingrid which is crazy considering Susan had like three lines and Ingrid was hardly seen throughout the two books she's mentioned in.
I can see the direction for her and idea that is Friday Barnes (American psycho reference oh my gumdrops!), but it was not executed properly at all. I can tell she was intended to be an intelligent female protagonist that showed girls aren't just ditzy dumb pink-obsessed 'beings. But having her putting down other girls and portraying a 'ideal girl' image is not at all the way to go. The target audience for this series is little girls, aged nine years old, they should not be subjected to a role-model like Friday. What would she teach them? To hate being feminine? To put down others? To fall in love with a person that treats you like shit? I read her dialogue and cringe. If this is what the author thinks is a good role-model for little girls I'm quite terrified. She has much room for development and while she has gotten better, it's still very disappointing.
The unnecessary mistreatment she faces:
It's just a fact that this girl gets dogged on the most. She is constantly tormented throughout the series for no reason. She get's bullied because she wears a brown cardigan, she gets told she's ugly multiple times even by herself, and her own family doesn't love her! Not to mention she already has enough on her plate from the amount of shit she gets from Ian, it's crazy the amount of unnecessary backlash she gets from her surroundings. Isn't it enough her peers don't like her, but her family too? Even the fact that there are multiple situations where she is referred to as ugly is just bizarre considering she's canonically a conventionally attractive white girl. Look at the covers and tell me she's ugly, you can't! She's a petite (insanely thin) brunette white girl, nothing about her is ugly. Sure, her style is weird (the same striped top, jeans, cardigan, and weird hat on repeat is definitely something) but it's not totally off-putting. So, there's no reason for her to be called unattractive! It's almost hilarious when in the 6th book Mirabella says Friday is 'crushing' her when she falls on the other girls lap as if Friday isn't described to be pencil thin. It adds nothing to the story since it is never touched on besides a constant reminder that we should feel sorry for Friday and that she is different from the girls around her. Everything about her serves as a reminder that she is not the norm at Highcrest, which sucks! It sucks for her and the reader having to read through the dreary self-hatred. It's especially dreary when it doesn't make sense either! It's just a ploy so she can moan about how she doesn't understand why the 'hottest' boy in school likes her. It's as if she is portrayed to be the only girl at Highcrest with a brain and that is what attracts Ian. Not her deeper personality or their interactions, but the fact that she isn't some dumb blonde that get's plastic surgery at the ripe age of twelve. There's also the fact that she's mentioned to be one of, if not, the poorest kid at Highcrest which makes no sense. The ranging salary for a physicist in Australia is around $140,442, and considering her mother was a Nobel Prize nominee, that must mean they're all pretty good at what they do. This means their salaries would be even higher. Altogether, they're millionaires! It doesn't make sense. Unless I'm missing something, Friday is just the same as all those rich kids.
Then there's her own family who outcast her. We see multiple instances where both her parents and siblings mistreat her and make her feel bad. Such as when Orion and Quasar told Friday their parents wanted her with them in Switzerland but failed to mention it was only for the visa and they'd just stick her in a soulless boarding school. Or when her father didn't even say goodbye when he left Highcrest. Even in the later books they don't even care about her, not one of them showing up after she got released from jail and none of them ever checking up on her. Not only does it tear my heart to pieces, I can't imagine the torment Friday is going through, yet we hardly see it. The fact that we hardly see it diminishes the entire plot point and it's as though it never happened at times. It's as though she only went to jail as a cheap scape-goat for the author to not create a more detailed story, and yes, I understand she didn't even want to make more books, but it doesn't mean she can traumatise Friday and then never elaborate on it. She constantly gets told her behaviour is off putting and even then, the author refuses to let her develop. We hardly see any development from these characters at all which can get repetitive and boring. A main character that is boring is just doomed to be a disaster. She cannot continue without bettering herself and the people around need to become better as well. I'll go into her family more into my redesign and the next part but they're just heart wrenching to think about.
Why her family problems are unfair, unutilized, and just sad:
I don't need to be the one to tell you she has a fucked-up family, it was evident enough in the first chapter when we found out she was never even meant to be born and was treated as such.
Friday's family is complicated yet simple at the same time. We hardly know anything about them besides their names and the fact that they're all self-absorbed mindless scientists. We know that her siblings, Quantum, Quasar, Orion, and Halley are all physicists like their parents. We don't know their genders beside Quasar and Orion, or ages either but we know they are older than her. Even being her older siblings, it seems like none of them care about her at all. Either they're all diagnosed with NPD or the author wanted her to have some tragic backstory and then never acknowledge it. We see multiple situations where they treat her like dirt, such as when her father came to Highcrest. He arrived and not once tried to spend time with her. He then got arrested and Friday got him out, and then he didn't even thank her! To top it all off he never said goodbye, and her mother never greeted her nor say goodbye. Then we see them only want her to come to Switzerland so that they can secure a visa! This can sometimes provide an insight into why she is the way she is, but it's also forgettable in the sense it's hardly linked back to. We see Bernie (who has his own problems) as her only family that cares about her and we see her latch onto the Headmaster as a father figure. Bernie, we can tell, does care for Friday but it's not the same as parental love. He's her uncle but an uncle will never replace a father. Friday might find herself wishing Bernie was her father instead and it would've been great to see that. Even when her father left, we didn't see her show much emotion, but we did see some and that is an improvement. Albeit, we hardly hear her talk about him in the middle of the book which is disappointing since it would've been great to see more chapters where they interact.
We also hardly see her interact with her mother, but we do know from when she was 'kidnapped' that Friday does harbour feelings of love for her parents. She says while she's still not the best mother, she's still her mother and it is quite sad knowing her parents don't feel the same love.
Redesign:
· Personality
My main issue with Friday's personality is that it is bland, almost robotic even. We know she's abrasive and smart, but what else? She's confident and has a sense of justice. We know she likes to imitate the detectives she reads about, but I like to think she develops a personality from the sarcastic jokes and strong personalities she sees when reading. She's a confrontational person and does not fear authority. Her sense of justice allows her to stand up for what's right and punish those who are in the wrong. She's very abrasive and doesn't understand boundaries, which while yes, it adds to her character, it can still be dreary to read and is hardly enjoyable to imagine. I envision Friday as a sweet girl, she's quite sensitive and the littlest remark causes her to lash out. She doesn't quite understand empathy but she does understand sympathy. She finds herself enjoying more childish things as she grows older due to growing up to fast. Her own childhood was taken away from her by the unexplainable urge to stuff herself into books and gain some sort of validation from her parents. She latches onto cute childish things such as Sanrio/San X (Hello Kitty and friends), Monster High, and teddy bears/plush toys. They provide a deep comfort similar to her brown cardigan. I like to imagine when she was younger she'd watch HK and friends on Quasars phone while eating dinner.
· Ethnicity and why I envision her as Arab, Lebanese / looks
Okay so it may seem random, but I promise I have reasoning for this. At first it was something I envisioned when I was much younger and would never see any female protagonists like me (it's still a problem but...) but it's developed. Arab, in this case Lebanese, parents are very traditional and strict. They're the Asian parents forcing their kids to become doctors and scientists, the parents who hold high expectations for their kids. I feel as though Friday would relate to this, as would her siblings, as coming from parents who are immigrants or just are not white. She feels a sense to prove herself and prove them all proud. This also affects her social aspect as growing up like she does, she's quite different to what is seen as the stereotypical norm of Arab children and how they should 'behave' which causes her to not quite fit in with kids like her. This seeps into her skills with bonding with other kids and eventually causes her to become quiet as she is younger, which leads to her finding comfort in books. Her having ethnic features ties into my point above how it makes no sense when she is called unattractive. The simple fact is, she's not. She's a pretty, petite, white girl who wears weird clothes. That's it. But, if she was a woman of colour, it would make sense why some might perceive her as looking bad when she does not. Arab features include prominent features, big eyes, full lips, thick, long hair (eyelashes, eyebrows and body hair included), and dark features such as hair colour and eye colour. WOC are much more likely to be called 'unattractive' in our white dominated world. Although, Friday is beautiful so it's obviously just white people bullshit! 😊
Now onto looks. I preface this by saying this is just how I envision her, I do not care how you envision her <3. She's described as having brown hair, 'muddy' brown eyes, pale skin, and she is very thin. I envision her as having dark brown hair, to her mid back and it's wavy with curls. A straight, slightly curved nose she get's from her father (her mother has a big nose). Hazel/brown eyes, more olive/tan skin, and honestly, my personal preference is to not hear about how thin she is every sentence so instead I imagine her just average, if not, a bit chubby. I still like her being short! It's cute! Just not as short because I'm pretty sure she's like 4'11 in canon and Ian's back must be breaking from bending down, so she's around 5'3, 5'4 but has a growth spurt once she gets older. And don't get me wrong, she's very pretty, just not appreciated by society.
· Family
They're dog shit I can't say anything else tbh. But fr, I won't go into how bad they are, just read the books, instead I'll go into how I redesign them. Her siblings are described to be so beautiful they look like models (which once again makes it so weird that Friday is described as unattractive?? Like stfu it annoys me) so why not say they are models. A little side job that accidentally grew a bit big. They still all do their little science work but their modelling is just another aspect that Friday finds annoying because they are just so much better than her. Despite this, they all do love her! A lot! It's hard to spend a lot of time together though because of their big age differences and busy lives. Her parents also love her, but they do find it hard to show it with them also being busy. Uncle Bernie isn't her uncle, instead her dad's best friend and also Friday's guardian as of sorts. Also, I envision her parents and siblings fly around a lot for work so she's left home alone or with Bernie quite a bit for long periods of times. Friday feels a sort of resentment towards her parents but also an impossible desire to be loved by them. Once her father comes, she tries her hardest to spend time with him and she can see he's trying as well in his own way. Cutting her fruit, giving her specially made class work that challenges her, trying his best to converse with her are all attempts he makes. I completely cut out the end scene where he leaves from my mind its too sad (although it's great for the story).
I imagine like a big apology somewhere in the middle of the series, say book 4-5, and they all try to build their relationships. I imagine her being the closest to Quasar, her being an almost mother figure while being the eldest sibling and being close in general with her siblings.
Throughout, we see Friday as a complicated character, but also one who is dwindled down to her simplest aspects. I try to cut through and dissect that the best I can. This is it and I do remind you all again, these are my thoughts, I do not care if you disagree! And I see her how I see her, go ahead and see her differently!
Fin!