@piggydom: As much as I agree, please understand that this is not a thread for discussing things that bother you (All rants will be done by ME, as you'll see below) and that you are welcome to stick around as long as all posts are on topic. Should I bring any of the stuff you mentioned up, THEN you can rant about it.
I think I'll go into Seddie to begin, but first, let's dive into the psyche of the parties involve.
Sam Puckett
If the iCarly team could be described as Freud's three Personality Structures, Sam would represent the ID: Pleasure-seeking, selfish, demanding, and without the EGO (we'll use Carly here), completely out of control. She's been arrested countless, hits, bullies, is a terrible role model, and just plain mean. She occasionally has limits, but it's rare. To the point where ANY sort of human emotion out of her is seen as an "Out of Character" moment by her haters. Because obviously, she must be irredeemable, evil, and therefore any kind of happiness she gets is undeserved and she should die.
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I'm sorry, but the pure bias about how she's unlikable and has "No redeemable qualities" just pisses me off to no end. The majority of this post will be my defense.
On TvTropes especially, everyone seems so despicably biased towards Creddie and against Sam. Not just Seddie, SAM. Because she's a one-dimentional little (bleep)bag. Because she gets away with anything. But mainly because every single other main character besides her and most other characters are so nice and flawless and should not be around her.
... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JPGJ1h7tY
Perhaps you haven't noticed, but iCarly is set in a very mean-spirited world. I think I mentioned on an old thread that the web show was like this but no, it expends to the entire (bleep)ing universe. Hobos are mocked. Nerds are mocked. Children are cruel. Bad guys win. Bad guys never change. (MLP had two redemption episodes featuring previous villians, and one is particularly glaring as the guy makes his Heel Face Turn within the last 10 minutes. Meanwhile WE get a Nevel episode where we get to see him feel remorse and become a better person... and then snap back to the same ol' crazy bully he was before. THE @#$%!?!?!) Good people are taken advantage of. People can crash parties from different states, and SO ON. Oh, yeah, and if you so much as hint that you don't worship a celebrity everyone else likes, said celebrity will turn the world against you.
Did I mention that if I didn't hate iMeet Fred before, I certainly do now!?
Oh, and I'm not saying this as a (former) seddier, this is for Sam in general. And even if I was, don't you think I'd be dis-acknowledging that she has flaws and does bad stuff, or calling Carly a Mary Sue?
Which brings me to this: Carly Shay is NOT a Mary Sue. That would imply that she is without flaw and pure beyond all reason. I refer you to the above YouTube clip.
Carly is seen as a "good Guy" because unlike Sam, she doesn't hit anybody. She respects elders. She steps in where others are harming other people- OH WAIT.
Let's use iMeet Fred again as an example. We all remember Sam beating up Freddie with a racket, but did either Carly (or Fred for that matter) try and stop her? Nnnnope. They just stand there and watch Freddie succumb to more torture than Winston from "1984" Remember in "Mean Girls" where they say that-
Janis: There are two kinds of evil people: People who do evil stuff and people who see evil stuff being done and don't do anything to stop it.
Guess who falls into the latter?
Carly knows that Sam is violent and supposedly is her morality chain. If so, why does Sam beating Freddie continue at all? Why is Carly willing to go along with illegal activities that Sam suggests like hacking into the school website or into petshops? Granted the former is an example of Sam using her impulses for good rather than "evil", but I digress. Carly is no better than Sam, she just has to do less than her and be none physical in her sins because she's our protagonist and therefore has to serve as a role model and look better than her peers.
But wait, you say, can't one argue that Sam's just been a bad influence on her? Well, yes and no. While it's certainly a possiblilty, in fact Carly was probably still a decent kid before then, like I mentioned above, children are mean in this world (Seriously, who beats up a guy just because they didn't give you halloween candy??). You'll remember that CARLY pushes SAM in retailiation to her taking a sandwich, instead of, oh I don't know, walking away, or getting the attention of an adult? See, Sam metaphorically pushed her, but she's always had the potential.
Alright I may have dipped into Troll logic in that last paragraph but you get the idea. No one in this show is a victim, it's black and grey (if not black and black) morality. The way I see it, Sam figured out what kind of world this was a long time ago and adjusted her personality accordingly. The only reason she apparently sticks out like a sore thumb in all this is because this is a kids show and any physical bullying is more likely to stand out than people standing around and LAUGHING as it happens. "Simpsons" does it. "Big Bang Theory" does it. (and I LOVE that show!) No one calls out any characters there!
Oh, and on South Park, you know that one kid? Cartman? The one who does stuff like Sam only on bigger scales (Sam, from what I remember, never actually killed anybody or forced Freddie to let her suck his balls out of humiliation)? The one who's considered one of the show's most popular characters EVEN THOSE HE IS IN WAYS WORSE THAN SAM, BUT SHE'S THE LEAST POPULAR CHARACTER EVEN THOUGH SHE ISN'T AS TERRIBLE!?!?
This is either Double standard, or because the target audience is different and moral guardians get less up in arms about this kind of behavior on SP because it's adult stuff... nah, I'm gonna go with Double Standard, FUUUUUUUUUU--------------------------------------------------------
(Real post delayed until Pixar recollects herself)