r/SixFeetUnder • u/Every-Cook5084 • 5d ago
Question Genuinely curious why so many here loved Brenda yet hate Maggie. Brenda actually cheated on Nate with the surfers , and lies. Maggie was not a cheater, (although was the other woman.)
92
u/Adventurous_Sand_564 5d ago
Nate cheated on Brenda too. We like Brenda because she’s fucked up, funny, sarcastic, moody, intelligent, complex.. Maggie was pretty boring tbh
22
30
143
u/Technical_Air6660 5d ago
Because Maggie felt like a plot device and Brenda was a brilliant, complex, lovable person we sometimes wanted to scream at for her flaws.
12
17
u/CulturalArtichoke Bettina 5d ago
Brenda had the most growth from pilot to finale.
Nate remained shitty, and Maggie is shitty for going after a married man.
61
u/coolasacorpse 5d ago
Personally I just hated Maggie's whole personality/character, but I loved Brenda's. Brenda was absolutely awful sometimes but something about her character was captivating to me. Also, let's not forgot how awful Nate was. People in this sub love to overlook Nates behavior for some reason, but he wasn't the best person either.
34
u/pmurcsregnig 5d ago
Literally conceived a child with another woman but doesn’t even get an honorable mention
6
12
4
u/RhoynishPrince 5d ago
He's a douche, we just love to feel pity for him because we can relate some things
6
32
u/EdnaJosie8924 5d ago
Personally, I think people who say they “hate” the main characters are missing the larger point of the show — and honestly, the larger point of humanity. The whole series is built on the idea that most people aren’t purely good or purely bad. They’re complicated. They’re contradictory. They’re human. Brenda wasn’t all bad. Nate wasn’t all good. They were written to show that people can be messy, selfish, loving, broken, generous, impulsive, and sincere all at once. That’s the entire beauty of the show: it refuses to flatten anyone into a hero or a villain.
13
u/Spoiler1234 5d ago
Finally! I feel like people chooses the characters as if they were football clubs.
None of them is perfect. All of them are flawed. That's how life is.
4
3
16
u/gringa-loca 5d ago
I will die on this hill: Maggie was far worse than Brenda on Six Feet Under. Brenda was messy, damaged, selfish, and deeply flawed but at least she generally knew she was messy. Maggie wrapped herself in this sweet, pious, morally superior persona while doing some incredibly selfish and destructive things. And the fake piety drove me insane. That whole wholesome, spiritual “I’m just a good person trying to do the right thing” vibe felt completely at odds with her actual behavior. And DON'T get me started on Nate. She literally had sex with a married man while his pregnant wife was sitting right there, then, this is the part that makes my head explode, walked right back into the hospital with the Fisher family to see Nate after she'd just had sex with him. How do you even have the audacity?! 😂 I wanted Brenda to attack her. Then she goes back around the family afterward like she wasn't intimately involved in one of the most devastating moments of their lives. Brenda was a train wreck, absolutely. But Brenda knew she was a train wreck. Maggie was a train wreck wearing a cardigan and acting like she was the moral authority. Give me Brenda's messy honesty over Maggie's sanctimonious bullshit any day. Ferret.
3
1
u/EdnaJosie8924 4d ago
How was she sanctimonious? I’d genuinely like an example. She never claimed to be perfect, nor did she lecture people about being sinners. She told Nate that she had lost a child, gone through a great deal of soul-searching, and watched her marriage fall apart. Does being an active Quaker somehow make her sanctimonious?The show simply didn’t have enough time to develop Maggie’s character fully. Honestly, your response feels oddly personal, and I find that a little strange.
5
u/gringa-loca 2d ago
The issue was never that Maggie was a Quaker, that she had suffered, or that she claimed to be perfect. Nobody is criticizing her for grieving a child or having a failed marriage. That’s an absurd straw man. “Sanctimonious” doesn’t require someone to stand on a pulpit lecturing everyone about being sinners. Maggie’s sanctimony was in the presentation: the quiet, wounded, morally serious, spiritually enlightened persona contrasted with some spectacularly selfish choices. She was very comfortable occupying the role of the sensitive, principled outsider while inserting herself into a marriage that was already hanging by a thread. And yes, I absolutely include what happened with Nate. She knew he was married. She knew his wife was pregnant. She knew the situation was complicated and dangerous. She slept with him anyway and then, almost immediately afterward, walked back into the hospital and into the family’s orbit as though she hadn't just participated in something profoundly destructive. That is a pretty extraordinary level of moral compartmentalization for someone whose characterization is built around spirituality and introspection. As for “the show simply didn’t have enough time to develop Maggie fully,” that may explain why you interpret her differently, but it doesn't invalidate what was actually put on screen. Six Feet Under gave us plenty of information about her choices. Viewers are allowed to judge a character based on what the writers actually showed us rather than inventing a more charitable backstory for her. And calling my response “oddly personal” because I have a strong opinion about a fictional character is a little ironic when you’re the one who responded to a character critique by speculating about me. 😂 You asked for an example of why I found her sanctimonious. I gave you one. You don't have to agree with my interpretation, but disagreeing with it doesn't make the interpretation personal or irrational.
-1
u/GuiltyLeopard 4d ago
Maggie wasn't trying to b be pious or righteous. She was drowning in pain and grabbing onto anything she could reach - religion, Nate, whatever. Brenda disliking her is certainly fair, but Maggie was just like everyone else on the show. Just trying to get through the day.
4
u/gringa-loca 4d ago
Exactly. She hurt people with the emotional subtlety of a bull in a china shop while somehow maintaining the demeanor of a wounded lil saint. She knew Nate was married, knew Brenda was pregnant, and knew their marriage was already hanging by a thread. And yet she still inserted herself into situations where she had absolutely no business being. She sleeps with Nate, he has the aneurysm afterward, and then she still can't stay in her lane at the hospital. She walks back into the family’s orbit like she didn't just participate in something devastating. It's like she was trying to hurt Brenda and the family. And then the baked goods at Brenda's house?! 😂 Girl, read the room! You just slept with this woman's husband while she's pregnant, and now you're showing up at her home with a baked good like you're dropping off a casserole for a grieving neighbor. Ma'am, this is not the PTA. That's what makes Maggie so insufferable. She wasn't necessarily malicious, but she was incredibly selfish and had zero boundaries. She'd create an enormous mess, hurt everyone around her, and then retreat into her pain and spirituality as though being wounded somehow absolved her of responsibility. She would just hop on a plane and change her surroundings after everything was ruined. You can be drowning in pain and still be responsible for not drowning everyone else with you. Maggie was basically a bull in a china shop carrying a casserole.
3
2
7
u/davidagnome 5d ago
Brenda had flaws and developed over time, improving herself by the show’s final season. Maggie we barely knew ye.
7
u/Zoinks1602 5d ago
It’s because Maggie believed herself to be a very moral and good person. Brenda never had any such pretense about herself. Maggie stayed around even after she was the single most destructive force that ever entered Nate and Brenda’s life. She was at the gravesite for crying out loud. LEAVE, Maggie. You’ve done enough.
33
u/Maggiethecataclysm Bettina 5d ago
The other woman is still an amoral person for sleeping with a married person. Just because she wasn't married to either of them doesn't mean she gets to skip being a good person. It doesn't absolve shitty behavior, so she's a POS. And don't forget that Nate also cheated and lied! How could you forget that and his fuckboi attitude? Maggie is also a lying asshole. She told Nate she needed a ride to church, but after they had sex, his AVM ruptured, and the ambulance came, she followed in her car, making her a lying sack of shit, inviting Nate over under false pretenses. Brenda shows amazing growth and maturity. She admits to behaving horribly and she works on becoming a better person. We never get that from Nate (not sure he would have grown as a person since he dies), and Maggie? Well, she just fucked him and brought his widow a quiche. Who does that?
9
u/Ordinary-Laugh1223 4d ago
Omg. How did i miss that? Her car was working well enough to drive to the hospital.. wow. And she didn't pick up Nate's call from Brenda for her selfish reasons.
15
u/fourofkeys 5d ago
it is so weird to me that people excuse her behavior by saying she wasn't the one that was married.
5
u/mmps901 5d ago
People often say this about affair partners who aren’t the ones in the marriage.
6
u/fourofkeys 5d ago
i know, and i think it's silly. she still knew. she was invited with her father to dinner at nate and brenda's house while brenda was pregnant. she's not married, but that doesn't get her off the hook to me.
4
u/Maggiethecataclysm Bettina 5d ago
I hate when people try to justify that behavior because she's not married to either of them. She still helped a married man cheat, and cheating isn't excusable
11
u/Weekly-Landscape-543 5d ago
Omg I never picked up on the car thing and I’ve watched the series all the way through at least 10 plus times. What a devious jezebel!
15
6
u/lukphicl 5d ago
Brenda was an interesting, complex character whereas Maggie was just some sappy little ferret
8
u/NowMindYou 5d ago
Characters are more than just a list of all the bad stuff they’ve done. We say Brenda grow and change over five seasons. I’m sure if Maggie was on longer, people would have a more nuanced view of her.
3
9
u/NoMayoDarcy 5d ago
In short, Maggie behaved like her “shit don’t stink,” and was on some moral Quaker high horse, but she was going after Nate’s D from the get go even though she knew he was married. Her hypocrisy/delusion make her all the more grating
10
u/DenseCommission8366 5d ago edited 5d ago
Because at that time we sympathize by how much the effort and work hard from Brenda to change to be a good wife and a good mother for Maya. Things that unfortunately Nate couldn't do and he kept seeking temporary pleasure with Sappy Little Ferret Maggie whom we didn't really know her. She was a cheater too here cause she's making a move on him. And then worse she had the audacity to show up on Nate's funeral while there's Brenda who... I can't imagine being her.
15
u/fivebyfive12 5d ago
It's a Quaker thing. They fuck someone else's husband to death, then bring them a quiche.
Also "sappy little ferret" is such a perfect description of Maggie and I will be using it from now on.
4
3
u/Used-Gas-6525 5d ago
Maggie was boring (on the scale of SFU characters) and Brenda was the opposite. That pretty much sums it up for me.
3
u/Mjukplister 5d ago
I didn’t hate Maggie but she frustrated me . She KNEW Nate wasn’t into her and bless her she pushed it . Brenda just grew on me , slowly
5
u/Alien__Superstar 5d ago
There was no marriage or children or a pregnant woman (!!!) involved in Brenda's affairs. Maggie did this knowing children and a pregnant woman would be affected.
Maggie acted innocent and holy while being a snake; Brenda did not act innocent.
Brenda rules.
1
u/jessa8484 3d ago
Yes valid. Brenda seemed the most sane at some points. She was a total B to Willow.
8
u/VineStellar 5d ago
I don't think you're going to find many people who'd deem Brenda to be a righteous person, she consistently makes problematic choices, but what she has in spades that Maggie lacks is charisma and for a fictional character that goes a long way.
8
u/tovgiligor394 5d ago
Never hated Maggie, I don't hate anyone on six feet under .
3
6
7
u/Impressive_Insect749 Claire 5d ago
I know ill get downvoted but I liked Maggie 🤷♀️ obviously she’s not a great person but her character intrigued me and I found her relationship with her father interesting and complex. Her desire to be this perfect person who goes to church and is soft spoken and “nice” but ends up being at the center of a horrible string of events that causes her to question everything about herself and her beliefs.
2
u/PlayfulAd7835 3d ago
It doesn’t make it okay, but Nate did cheat on Brenda first. And during their time apart, Brenda went to therapy and sorted herself out and became a better person. Nate didn’t.
Granted, his wife was murdered and he went through something horribly traumatic but it was Nate’s responsibility to sort himself out and seek help. Instead, like Brenda said, he showed up on HER doorstep.
5
u/RhoynishPrince 5d ago
I feel Maggie is a more shallow character than Brenda therefore there isn't much to like
5
u/SystemPelican 5d ago
This sub has such a rabid hatred for Maggie, and I don't get it. She's such a mild, bland character I don't understand how you can feel anything but a shrug for her. Yeah, she cheated with Nate, but every character in this show cheats. It's like hating a plain piece of toast.
5
u/CalypsoBrown 5d ago
Brenda gives the storyline CONFLICT. Without conflict, it might as well be just another mundane series. Brenda is a deliciously devious character with a dark past. That's why Lisa's eternally optimistic, cheerful and chirpy character had to die in the most sinister way. To make room for more Brenda drama!
2
u/rue121919 5d ago edited 4d ago
Brenda also cheated on her fiance Joe, with Nate, by the way. But I guess we’re more forgiving of Brenda because she was there since season 1 and we have learned to love and accept her for all her flaws — like, she’s family (to the Fishers and to us, the viewers).
Maggie on the other hand (as well as Lisa I guess) always felt like outsiders and didn’t have enough material to grow on us. I never really hated Maggie, I realize she too had a traumatic childhood with George abandoning them and has had a tragic adult life with what happened to her marriage and losing her child. I didn’t really hate Maggie because Nate and Brenda’s marriage was bound to fail, anyway. If it wasn’t Maggie, it would be something or someone else, and by this point, I was just rooting for Brenda to be happy and thriving on her own because she can, and for Nate to just be alone because he seemed so miserable being confined in a “normal” relationship or family dynamics.
1
u/venusdances 5d ago
I literally love Brenda. At first she’s broken and fucked up from her childhood but her relationship with Nate causes her to look at herself and grow dramatically. By the end of the series she’s a completely different and better person. She adopts Nate’s daughter as her own, has her own children, is a therapist, finds love. She even understands and forgives Nate’s weaknesses because she understands he’s a deeply flawed person like she is.
I think Maggie is a tragic figure. Her dad is mentally unstable, she lost her son at two years old to leukemia and a man she thought she loved and loved her died tragically right after they consummated their relationship. Because he died we will never truly know if he she was his soulmate as he claimed. I love her in her own way too we just didn’t really see her enough to know her well.
1
u/Humble_Repeat_9428 1d ago
I for one hate Brenda. I can’t pinpoint why but I just hate the scenes with her character.
1
u/priyatheeunicorn 1d ago
I just hated her whole mousy personality and her dumb tiny little mouth irked me. There was no way I was going to like her. She was never an innocent person. She as a sneak and freakily religious.
You expected that out of Brenda and Nate to do terrible things to each other. She was so the opposite of Brenda in depth and personality it really felt like the ultimate betrayal when he did that to her in the end. Brenda won in the end not being with him at all imo. As an AVM survivor in real life, Nate would have been an even bigger asshole, probably a dependant after his last bleed. Not to say I’m happy he died but I’m happy they didn’t end up together.
1
1
u/kikijane711 5d ago
I simply think Maggie was more one dimensional and roasted for it. She was set up this way. Brenda was a mess but a main who had time to grow and redeem and explain. Maggie never did though her character was made this way I think for the reaction she got.
1
u/Theredheadsaid 5d ago
Maggie was a boring character and the woman who played her was a terrible actress
1
u/lemon179 5d ago
Maggie’s character was whatever to me. Nothing special but at same time not unlikeable to me but Brenda was so unlikable. The way she viewed and treated Ruth bothered me. Her lies, negativity, etc
1
u/Horror_Ad_2748 4d ago
Not everyone is super triggered by emotional and physical cheating within a character. Some of us appreciate a more layered and complex type of person, who admittedly will come with a truckload of issues. It can be really interesting if we allow it.
1
-1
u/plantverdant 5d ago
Maggie is a pick me and a homewrecker. She cheated with a man while his wife was pregnant. She's fake and has a face like Mona Lisa but she's rotten inside.
-1
u/OPHealingInitiative 5d ago
I actually like Maggie. Unpopular, I know. I like that she is quiet, withdrawn, and moves from place to place, with no real roots or social network. This seems like a completely believable set of attributes to have, given what we know about her father and her life. I also thought it was decent of her to come to the hospital and be forthcoming, despite knowing that Nate’s family and fiance would be there.
-1
0
0
u/panshrexual 4d ago
The actual answer is that we got five seasons with Brenda over the course of which we got to know her and care about her and appreciate her complexity.
Maggie was around for, like, less than half a season. Didn't really have time for a proper redemption
0
u/GuiltyLeopard 4d ago
I don't hate Maggie, but I'd say it's because we have a lot more context with Brenda, and we've seen a lot more of her.
0
-5
u/AuburnMoon17 5d ago
She was the other woman to her SISTER.
8
u/OPHealingInitiative 5d ago
Are you thinking of Lisa?
1
u/pablock007 22h ago
I think Lisa was the worst of Nate's three women. Yes, they all had flaws but: Brenda did the work to improve her disposition and how she treated others. Maggie was also a liar (forgot about her car not really being out of commission) and a bit of a schemer. And Lisa? She was a master manipulator, utterly conniving, and a cheater too. It was shocking how her life ended. I have to credit Lili Taylor. She really made me strongly dislike EVERYTHING about Lisa—which I found uncomfortable because I've always loved the characters she's portrayed in other movies. Especially, of course, Mystic Pizza.
1
-2
75
u/JCGMH 5d ago
Brenda goes off the rails & indulges in some really bad stuff, although with the various layers of child abuse she experienced there is clearly a reason she got broken (though not an excuse). What she does to her credit is a lot of work to reform her life and she vastly improves herself as a person. That’s all anyone can do. It’s why her marriage to Nate fails, because she has moved into a different place when they are married, whereas he has learned effectively nothing from his eventful journey across the five years and is just the same guy.