it’s interesting how eleanor shellstrop acts like she’s lazy when she’s actually incredibly hard working. instead of just running away, she got herself legally emancipated from her neglectful parents and worked to afford her own apartment, (as well as presumably school tuition and healthcare). she was the top salesperson at her job for multiple years. the tech startup she was a temp for wanted to hire her full-time and thought she would make a great member of the team. she threw herself into learning ethics and moral philosophy, reading incredibly difficult books multiple times in order to understand it. when she threw a party for the neighborhood residents, even tahani, who threw huge parties as a living, thought eleanor did a good job.

eleanor puts on a big show about not caring about anything, but in reality she cares so much.

I saw this wonderful video that pointed out how the “soulmates,” while not soulmates, compliment each other very well. Part of this was how, while Chidi is terrified of taking action, Eleanor will jump in and act. On the flip side, while Eleanor doesn’t (or I suppose didn’t) take the time to consider her actions and introspect, that’s ALL Chidi did. As a result, they help each other grow. And Eleanor’s determination ends up being the factor that saves not only herself and Chidi, but EVERYONE, because she refuses to give up and instead completely throws herself into her task and taking the action she needs to take.

For Jason and Tahani, the video just went into how Jason is kind on a personal scale but doesn’t have much regard for the greater social good, while Tahani would strive to make the “community” better while neglecting her own immediate relationships and therefore her intentions. It was super neat and really made me think about how the “soulmates” were supposed to drive the other mad but end up helping them grow as people because they chose to learn from each other’s strengths instead of resenting them or hating them for being different etc.