‘Grey’s Anatomy’: Amelia Needs to Stop Blaming Everything on Her Brain Tumor
Grey Sloan Memorial, the hospital at the heart of primetime drama Grey’s Anatomy, isn’t exactly a normal hospital. All kinds of strange stuff happen there. But fans recently noticed that there seem to be a lot of characters popping up with brain tumors.
Fans on Reddit were talking about Izzie’s brain tumor, and how it led her to hallucinate her deceased boyfriend Denny. But there’s another character who had a brain tumor.
Amelia Shepherd had a brain tumor in season
Amelia Shepherd, sister of heartthrob Derek Shepherd, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in season 14. Amelia’s character started out on one of Grey’s Anatomy’s spinoffs, Private Practice.
When Amelia got a job Grey Sloan, she quickly jumped into a relationship with Owen Hunt. This didn’t endear her to Grey’s fans, because Owen was dealing with his own substance abuse issues. His quick and volatile relationship with Amelia was a threat to his sobriety.
But fans of Private Practice weren’t surprised by Amelia’s behavior. She was known for being erratic on that show as well. When she was diagnosed with the brain tumor, it was revealed that the tumor may have played a part in her bad behavior. It was apparently may have affected her decision-making. Fans thought that after the tumor was removed they would see a whole new Amelia, and they were disappointed when that wasn’t the case.
Some fans are over Amelia’s bad behavior, and her excuses
One fan on Reddit wrote that “Amelia has never changed for her brain tumour and she needs to stop blaming it for her choices shes just a bad person and Maggie is actually super likable and sweet.”
Amelia does seem to make a lot of bad choices, and fans are kind of over it. Diehard Grey’s fans have been following Amelia since her Private Practice days, and they think that the brain tumor was just an excuse. She hasn’t really changed since her diagnosis, and it doesn’t seem like she will
As another fan put it, “I can’t see any difference between pre and post tumour Amelia at all. Like they go on about all these spontaneous, crazy choices she made, but like…what?” In fans’ eyes, she is still making the same destructive decisions she was before the tumor. But fans aren’t the only ones calling Amelia out. Even other characters on the show seem to think she puts too much blame on the tumor.
As one fan pointed out, “Even her sisters called her out when she tried to blame it for her behavior.”
Other fans blame the show’s writers for ruining Amelia’s character
While some fans just find Amelia downright dislikable, others think that the show’s writers are to blame. They think that while Amelia was troubled on Private Practice, she was still a more relatable character with who showed real signs of growth. But when she came to Grey Sloan, Amelia became more of a caricature than a real, true to life character like she had once been.
One fan on reddit wrote “I absolutely hate what Greys did to Amelia. Watching Private Practice Amelia was my favorite character and had so much growth. Then she comes to Greys and they ruin her. All her growth from being a drug addict and her super dark past to what??? They did her so dirty and almost made a joke of her character.”
Fans think that the writing on Grey’s Anatomy made Amelia’s pre-tumor behavior sound much worse than it was. They may have gotten away with it if Amelia hadn’t been a character on Private Practice.
Since fans know a lot of her past, making it seem darker than it really was doesn’t really work.
