User blog:Walumancer the Wikifather/What I think of: Lori Loud

Alright, here we are again. For those who missed my last post on Lola, you can read it here. For anyone unfamiliar, this is a series I am making where I analyze and give my thoughts on all the Loud children from my personal least favorite to absolute favorite. Without further adieu, here's number nine!

Lori Loud
Lori Loud is the eldest of the Loud siblings, being 17 years old, as well as the only one born in the 1990s and (depending on how you view the range) the only millennial in the family. She is bossy, condescending, territorial, and has the second-shortest fuse after Lola. However, she is also very protective and caring towards her siblings, and always tries to fix any mistakes she may have made. She almost always takes charge of situations and often uses her age as justification for it, though to her credit she has shown time and time again that she is a responsible and mature person...most of the time, at least. She's addicted to her phone and her boyfriend, Bobby Santiago, and can almost always be seen texting him in her free time. She also literally says "literally" a lot. Literally.

Lola Lite
When I think of Lori, as well as how the fandom views her, I see a situation similar to that of Lola. Fans usually dislike her initially and tend to have her grow on them the more invested in the show they become. However, I find that of the three "disliked" siblings, Lori is the one who bares the least hate against her compared to the other two (I'll get to the third one soon enough, don't worry). This is due to the fact that, unlike the other two, Lori has had both a) several good episodes developing her (something "disliked sister" #3 tends to lack) and b) her positive characteristics shown more often in non-Lori episodes (something Lola tends to lack).

However, let's get back to comparing her with Lola. The two have similar traits. Both are very authoritarian, both come across as selfish, and, most importantly, both are very insecure, albeit for different reasons. Lola is insecure  out of shame and the fear of being left out. Lori is insecure of her siblings not needing her anymore and of the responsibilities she feels she bares as the oldest sibling. These reasons, while still selfish, comparitively more noble than Lola's, which may affect how the fandom views her insecurities. She's also insecure of her problems with...gas...but that's more played for cheap laughs if anything.

What I think the key difference between why people are less harsh on Lori than Lola is due to the fact that, in some ways, she has "earned" the right to be mean. Lola tends to want something without doing anything in return, while Lori is shown to be very responsible both for her family and for herself. She keeps everyone in line when their parents aren't home, she usually keeps a level head when the others don't, she drives everyone around (albeit for favors), she has a job, she's a loyal and caring girlfriend, and she, at the end of the day, cares for her siblings above all else. It is for these reasons why I believe Lori is let off the hook more often than Lola.

However, this does not excuse her of the instances where she crosses the line, and Driving Miss Hazy is the perfect example of this, where she deliberately sabotages Leni's driving test so that the others would still always come to her to drive them places in exchange for favors. Not only is this incredibly selfish, but it also could have gotten Leni seriously hurt if not killed. Though she does eventually realize what she's done and tries to fix her mistake, which shows the fact that she does care and is willing to take responsibility for her mistakes, she only realizes it because she slipped up and Lincoln called her out for it. If it wasn't for Lincoln, she would have gone throughout her day feeling no remorse for putting Leni in serious danger. For the sibling who is supposed to be the most responsible and mature, this is inexcusible. Lola can get away with stuff like this because she's only 6 and doesn't know any better. Lori is 17, almost an adult. She has to be held to higher standards.

As the oldest...
While Lori and I are by no means alike, I find myself having somewhat of a connection with her. I too am the oldest of my siblings (though there's only 3 of us as opposed to 11), and I'm currently the same age as her. I, like Lori, find myself being a bit territorial at times, wanting to be alone a lot and telling my brother and sister to leave the room, or leaving myself. I too want my own little living space as I haven't had my own room since I was 3 and a half, but I also don't want to leave my family, who I view as the most important thing in my life at the moment. I too try to act as maturely as possible when the time calls for it and I often try to take charge over my siblings (though unlike the Louds, they never listen). I also feel a lot of weight on my shoulders as the oldest and I feel I have to act as my best self at all times for my siblings in order to set a good example. However, it is there where our similarities end.

Your stereotypical teenage girl
What ultimately kills Lori for me is that she is the embodiment of everything I dislike about every typical girl I've met in the past few years that are my age. Obsessed with their phones, using words like "literally" waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much, loves the mall, cries over boybands, comes across as bossy, etc. If I knew Lori in real life, I probably would do my best to ignore or avoid her and would probably think lowly of her (I am judgemental like that, unfortunately). However, as she is only a fictional character and we have seen her develop, I can appreciate Lori more here than I would if she was an actual person. Ultimately, I place her above Lola because I feel like she has been developed better than her overall, despite a few hiccups, and has a much more balanced display of her negative and positive aspects, as opposed to Lola who is mostly negative.

Conclusion
Despite being someone I would probably heavily dislike in real life, Lori is a good character with flaws similar to those of Lola, with a slight twist for differentiation. As an oldest sibling myself, I feel like I can relate to her in more ways than one, and because of that I can see where she is coming from when she acts a certain way towards her siblings. However, it is because of her being the typical teenage girl I normally dislike as well as her few major hiccups that makes me put her so low on the list, only beating out Lola because Lori is, to me at least, a more balanced and well-developed character.