D'you know what I've noticed watching these reruns on TV Land? (Though *sniffle* I guess that's about to end...) Anyway, I still like the show a lot, but...

I really feel sorry for Roy. Yeah, he's a bit of a jerk, but it seems like the supposed "nice" characters rip him pretty mercilessly. Whenever he opens his mouth, it's open season to get in the best put-down possible. If a bunch of people treated me like that, I'd be tempted to act like Roy does, too...

Am I alone in this?

Not really. Roy is so evil most of the time it's easy to understand why they act the way they do. He's always looking out for himself financially that he steps on other people whenever necessary.

He's like Scrooge, but he never improved.

I think of Roy as the fat kid in school who was bullied mercilessly. His mother was very dominating too. Dealing with trust issues, I think he put up a wall with people. He did this by being such a jerk that nobody would want to get near him, much less love him.

You can't get hurt if you don't let anyone in.

Yeah I agree, I think with Roy it was to act like a jerk and get the first insult in so that you have some control over the situation and things like that. It was a defense mechanism with him.

I tend to feel sorry for characters like Roy and Frank Burns on MASH when the other characters are mean to them, but all they have to do is open their mouths and that feeling usually goes away very quickly. Some people are just jerks. I think they get the treatment they deserve.

I do think at times Roy really wanted to be friends with the gang. He just never learned the proper social skills.

I do think at times Roy really wanted to be friends with the gang. He just never learned the proper social skills.

Yeah-- I'm certainly not saying he didn't do his part to earn the treatment he received. I just think it becomes something of a chicken-and-the-egg argument... were people mean to Roy because he was a jackass, or was he a jackass because he was afraid of people being mean to him?

Sometimes the best thing you can do in a situation like that is repay hostility with kindness and see if things change. That'll probably get you stomped once or twice, but sometimes it works...

The only character I've seen on a show where that perception changed was Margaret Hoolihan on MASH. She went from bad to good.

It's definitely Roy's personality that prompts it from the others, because you don't see them cutting each other down like they do Roy. They have little digs at each other in fun, but with Roy they really insult him. Only because his crass remarks and over-inflated ego about women, money, and his employees. So he basically opens himself up for it. Picked on Fay for her age, Joe for being small potatoes, Antonio for being a foreigner, Helen for her cooking, Lowell because he's...well, Lowell :)

It would be a perfect world if we always had the perfect comeback for people like that in our lives. But at least we get it on Wings.