Netflix has a delightful, although rare, habit of coming up with a teen show that blows everyone's minds. On My Block is one of those shows. It doesn't deal with demogorgons, puberty, witchcraft, or any of the standard tropes associated with adolescent viewers. Instead, it speaks from the perspective of young teens of color — who spend their time juggling school and dating with the real issues of crime and violence in a rough inner-city LA neighborhood.
With characters of all ages, backgrounds, and temperaments joining in the fray, it is to be expected that their ethical interests would rarely, if ever, align with each other. Taking the moral alignment system used in the popular tabletop game, Dungeons & Dragons, let's have a look at the sheer variety of morality among the characters in this show.
9 Monse Finnie - Lawful Good
Monse is the glue that holds the gang together. When Cesar's in trouble, she rallies the troops and when the boys' plans fail (as they often do), she always has a backup. Even when Ruby and Jamal agree with Cesar's overtly criminal intentions, it is Monse who urges that they find a solution where nobody gets hurt. This generous nature of hers also extends to herself: for instance, when she decides to go live with her mother in a safe part of town, or to a prestigious boarding school where she can stay away from the messy gang politics of Freeridge. Monse always tries to be good and does it in the right way as much as possible.
8 Ruby Martinez - Neutral Good
Ruby, the self-proclaimed leader, has a loving heart. So much so that he sacrifices it to save the love of his life, Olivia. The friends almost always meet at his house, as it is the only place they consider neutral territory since Monse lives alone, Cesar's home is the Santos headquarters, and Jamal is too clingy.
Ruby calls his friends out without holding back, like when he scolds Cesar for demanding respect instead of earning it. He is also the only one of the kids who has the guts to accuse Spooky of not protecting Freeridge as the Santos were sworn to.
7 Cesar Diaz - Chaotic Good
Cesar is one of the central characters in the story, with several arcs designed around his life. Cesar does well at school and is generally a cheerful kid, but his home life is another matter. As the younger brother to Oscar 'Spooky' Diaz, the local leader of the Santos, he is expected to take on a role befitting his status in the gang. As a Rebel, he believes in following his conscience alone, rejecting opinions to the contrary. Through the story, Cesar swings between his drive to protect his friends and his personal convictions.
6 Jasmine Flores - Lawful Neutral
Jasmine is the kindest, smartest, sweetest, and most annoying (new) member of the group. She is a part of the Explorers, a career-oriented program that allows teens to explore careers in law enforcement. Jasmine believes in the law's moral rightness as well as lack of bias. Based on this, she often jokingly places her friends on Citizen's Arrests when she finds out that they have done something criminal.
Being Lawful Neutral, Jasmine does not insist that her friends follow her standards and codes, but ensures her life is organized to a T. In Season 3, Jamal is vying to be the leader of the group based on his discoveries and achievements. Jasmine destroys his ambition when she shows everyone her detailed mind maps (made of multi-colored glitter) proving that she had it all figured out from the start.
5 Marisol Martinez - Neutral
Marisol is Ruby's wise-cracking Abuelita who refuses to forget the ways of her youth. She really cares about the kids, but stays out of the way and lets them handle their own issues without getting herself involved. During Jamal's RollerWorld adventure, she provides him the necessary encouragement to go ahead and hunt for his treasure, while not actually taking part in the actual hunt itself. At the end of Season 3, she is seen stitching up Spooky's knife wounds (caused by his off-screen fight with Cuchillos). She thanks him for what he did, but when he asks why she is thanking him, she simply says, "You know what." There is no character in the show more neutral or impartial than Marisol.
4 Jamal Tuner - Chaotic Neutral
Jamal has always been the clown of the group. Whether it's RollerWorld money excavated from high school football fields or creepy gnomes that appear everywhere around him, Jamal happens to be both the center of mystery and the guy who solves it. Jamal can be too much of a free spirit sometimes, as seen when Cuchillos reveals to the kids that Little Ricky is still alive. Ruby, Cesar, and Monse share the same shocked reactions, but Jamal has a stupid, excited smile on his face — he's just glad that there's another adventure to go on. However, his anarchic personality meets its match in the form of Kendra, an extremely organized and equally strange girl, with whom he forms a romantic bond.
3 Oscar "Spooky" Diaz - Lawful Evil
Spooky has had one of the most convoluted arcs in the three seasons of On My Block. As any lawful evil character would, Spooky dominates the streets of Freeridge, but within the limits of his code. He cares about his heritage as a Santos member, maintaining the order of hierarchy in the gang. However, he is known to play extremely strictly by the book, for instance, when he kicks Cesar out of his own home for failing to complete the mission given to him. As much as he loves his brother, Spooky realizes that his code is built on the foundation set by Cuchillos, and he is unable to get past his own loyalty to the Santos.
2 Cuchillos - Neutral Evil
Cuchillos appears in Season 3 for the first time as the absolute leader of the Santos. She lives in her palatial mansion, protected by a host of bodyguards (and even has LAPD officers working dirty for her). Cuchillos is a neutral evil character in that all her plans are designed to satisfy her needs and nobody else's, regardless of who gets hurt in the process.
This nature of hers is seen when she threatens the children with the murder of their family if they fail to find her ex-lover, Li'l Ricky. When Spooky accuses Cuchillos of forgetting what it is like to be on the streets, she merely laughs in his face, telling him that she owns him, and that he has no option but to follow her orders.
1 Latrelle - Chaotic Evil
Latrelle is one of the youngest, as well as one of the most unpredictable, members of the Prophets (a rival gang of the Santos). He does not care about anything, least of all what people think of him. Latrelle is arrogant and selfish and seems to want all his enemies dead, no matter how long it takes. Even though Cesar spares his life and tells him to run away, Latrelle returns for revenge at Olivia's quinceañera celebration — his aim misses Cesar, but manages to seriously injure Ruby and kill Olivia. His actions follow neither order nor framework, and leave behind chaotic tragedies that innocent people are forced to recover from.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/2WAHaCS
0 Comments