User blog:Gumball2/The "Sister"

I've used this term a few times in passing, but I wanted to use this space to discuss more about this topic.

The "Sister" refers to the ten sisters clumped into a single entity. Sometimes they will be dispersed in different places, but usually they'll all be in the same room (or less than arms length apart from each other). When this happens, all ten sisters come to an agreement and will express it with the same passion as everyone else. Lisa will buy into superstition even when she would know better, Leni will stop pulling punches even though she wouldn't hurt a fly, Luna will spit in Lincoln's face even with their close relationship, Lori will conform to the mold even when she yearns to be special, Lucy will beat up Lincoln even when she relates to him. You get the point. There's no disagreement within the "Sister". No debate, no sliding scale of feelings, no doubts, and no introspection occurs either. Any lines of dialogue the sister characters say are practically interchangeable.

This apparatus is rarely used effectively because it excludes Lincoln. Lincoln vs "Sister" is a lazy conflict because it dehumanizes the sisters and leaves the impression that Lincoln isn't as included as what the show runners would like. Lincoln might as well live in a haunted house laced with booby traps and you would basically the same about any one of these sisters. When this is used as the conflict in an episode, Lincoln is often left to fend for himself even when there are sisters that would certainly take his side (and believe me when I say that it doesn't reflect well on those sisters). Because the episode doesn't want to focus on individual sisters (and when you have ten of them crammed on screen, you don't have time), the conflict isn't as interesting because we can't explore how any of the sisters see the situation; we're deprived of character development and we're forced to shovel down the notion that Lincoln is always gonna be wrong and that his mistakes and shortcomings will always be met with retribution (while the sisters are protected from that fate sheerly by their numbers).

Examples of the "Sister" at work include "Heavy Meddle", "Making the Case", "Sleuth or Consequences", "It's a 4x Loud House", "Cereal Offender", "Study Muffin",and "No Such Luck". The apparatus is not limited to the listed episodes and if you want to debate anyone, feel free to do so.

The only time these broad scope episodes are decent are when Lincoln is included with the clump. Even though episodes like "Lock N Loud" and "Pulp Friction" lack character development for the Louds, they make up for it by integrating Lincoln with the group rather than segregating him. By doing this, the show is demonstrating the theme of family (that it includes everybody) and isn't bent on hurting Lincoln.

Why does the "Sister" happen? The real reason is lazy, misguided writing. My headcanon, though, has developed a more in-universe explanation. In it, all the sisters are afraid of being alone, to not have others in their corner. In a House this big, being forgotten is a concern and none of the sisters want it (even if they don't constantly think about). Their first instinct is to cling to their roommate, who they'll always have just by geography. But then sometimes, they turn to all those of the same sex because to them, that meets a certain threshold of what they have in common. Subconsciously, they see Lincoln as an easy target. Sure they love him, but what does he have? He doesn't have a roommate and he doesn't have a brother. If he gets hurt, who in the House is gonna be mad, so the subconscious thinks. And so they think little harm will come from some of the events you see in the mediocre episodes. And why don't some of the sisters break off? Because they're afraid that the apparatus will turn on them and, given its strength, is not something they wanna cross. So that's simply it.

To wrap this up, let me pose this silly question. If you think it's bad when you have ten sisters to one brother, imagine what this dynamic would have been like had the bunny idea gone through?