Ariana was a guys' girl until it affected her

I was one of the people who got into VPR after Scandoval. The first time I went back and watched from the beginning. I was shocked how much I didn't like Ariana.

I am on my 2nd rewatch and Ariana never thought her or Sandoval were wrong. She helped fuel the ego that went and betrayed her. Did she or anyone deserve what happened to her? No, absolutely not. But did she help Tom skirt accountability for years on end? Yes, absolutely yes.

When anyone had a problem with Tom, she defended him to the death. There was no gray area, Tom was always absolutely right and everyone else was wrong.

I love the woman Ariana is NOW, but I wish she would have pulled her head out of her ass and not blindly defend Tom and a lot of the men over and over again. Don't get me started on her defending James when he was aggressive towards women repeatedly.

And I am by no means saying she deserved to be cheated on or lied to. I am just shocked at how different she was from this idea of her I had in my head. She was blindly in love and maybe it took something as big as Scandoval to snap her out of it. She was also battling depression for years, so I hope this new life she created is giving her the fulfillment she always wanted. She does deserve to be happy.

Also, I do think Sandoval started getting super egotistical after TomTom. I think that is when he started feeling better than people, even Schwartz. Saying things like "Schwartz doesn't even know how to clock in" when the whole Stassi book signing drama happened. (Why would an owner need to clock in?) Tom seemed a lot more empathetic in the first seasons, even though he was cheating on Kristen constantly. Maybe he was just able to hide the ego more because it wasn't as inflated yet. TomTom gave him justification to act holier than thou.