The Luna, RJ and Zende storyline is raising some serious eyebrows. In a landscape where consent is everything, the Bold and the Beautiful writers cannot seem to grasp that we live in the 21st Century, not the 20th Century, where television glamourised sexual assault to the nth degree. Not to mention, this whole storyline is happening during Black History Month.
One of the more aggravating aspects is how the show seems to fall into the same trap. This “rape” storyline shows that the writers are willing to weaponise one of its two black characters against one of its three Asian characters to get the audience to tune in. For those who don’t know, Luna, her mother, Poppy, and her aunt Li are the only three characters of Asian descent on the show.
Also, Zende is one of three black characters, the other two being Carter Walton and Paris Buckingham. Not to mention, they’re making Zende out to be the villain. We’ve seen on Twitter (we’re not calling it X) that people are Team Zende and hate RJ, calling him a spoilt brat all because his father is Ridge Senior. No one complains about Rick being Eric Junior, though we haven’t see him in years so it doesn’t matter at this point.
Are The Zende Stans Blind?
Anyway, there are also people saying that what Zende did, wasn’t rape. What, because black people don’t know what rape is? This conversation has nothing to do with race and has everything to do with behaviour. Those who use the race argument are making it appear that all black people are innocent and cannot do anything wrong, while Luna is a naive Asian girl. No, Luna was under the influence of a drug she mistakeningly thought were her mints, and she hallucinated that Zende was RJ. That is not consent as Zende thought she wanted him because she showed up, due her being passed out at the guesthouse.
This is typical of Brad Bell’s writing team. Why did he approve of this storyline? Did he not think about the stereotypes and the response people would have? How would rape victims respond if they watched it? While we give the actors props for having to film such heavy subject matter, it still doesn’t change the story.
Zende Should Have Known Luna Wasn’t Herself
When you look at The Bold and the Beautiful‘s almost 40-year history, this storyline has popped up before, though no one complained because it was between white people. Again, that is not important. What is important is the ignorance that seems follow the male characters around. Anyone with a brain knows that if a woman doesn’t act like her normal self, something is wrong. Even RJ noticed something was wrong, but he assumed she was tired from the big day they’d had with Eric and Donna’s sudden wedding.
Now we have Luna waking up to realise she hadn’t slept with RJ, but his dear ol’ cousin, Zende. When you look at the storyline so far, there was every chance this would happen. The reason we say this is look how he has pursued Luna since she arrived, especially since she and RJ got together.
Zende has harped on about how RJ is “the golden child” since he is Ridge and Brooke’s son. This complaint comes in response to their grandfather, Eric, asking RJ, not Zende, to help him while he was sick and on the verge of “dying.”
There Is NO Favouritism
If anything, Zende is ticked because he was one of the last people to find out about Eric’s sickness… whatever it was. He also harps on about how he went to the best design schools and blah, blah, blah. Who cares?! Ridge wasn’t the one who asked RJ to help his grandfather. Eric was the one who wanted RJ’s help, and in addition, wanted his illness kept under wraps.
RJ had to do what Eric wanted because nothing was worse than his grandfather being upset. Also, RJ helped Eric out of the goodness of his heart. His decision had nothing to do with his parents, let alone his jealous cousin. If anything, you’d think his brother, Thomas, would’ve had issues with it. Though, to Tommy Boy’s credit, he was more than fine with it when the truth got out.
Another point is, didn’t Zende get back together with Paris? They broke up for a bit and got back together, and now their relationship is non-existent? Okay…
Zende Shouldn’t Been Thinking With His Todger When He Saw Luna In His Bed
Returning to the Luna/Zende consent issue, it is our opinion that Zende was thinking with his todger rather than with his brain. He claims “he is crazy for Luna” despite knowing she is RJ’s girlfriend. Sure, he can have a crush on her, but she is – was – off limits. Luna sees him as a friend and colleague only. he took advantage of that because he is envious of RJ’s life being sunshine and rainbows at the current moment.
What’s more, Zende has been married before to Nicole Avant, whose cousin, Xander, just returned to the scene for his revenge tour against Thomas. His pursuit of younger women is nothing new. He’s been with Zoe Buckingham and, of course, Paris. Now, Zende wants Luna, but not because she’s interested in him. Oh, no, it’s due to RJ having her as his girlfriend.
The Contempt
Zende has felt for a long time that he is being overlooked for RJ when that isn’t the case. Again, RJ had no interest in design when he returned to Los Angeles after years abroad. He only got involved in the family business when his grandfather needed help, as we’ve said before. It had nothing to do with Ridge or Brooke. They wanted him involved with the company, but they never pushed him. Also, if Thomas is okay with it, you’d think Zende would be to.
This whole situation with Luna and Zende could turn nasty when the truth gets out. Sure, Poppy told her daughter not to tell RJ anything about the accidental drugging or the bedhopping, but this is a soap. The truth gets out eventually. It has already started getting terrible, with Luna claiming her Aunt Li was right and that her mother is just a druggie.
RJ might be forgiving towards Luna for sleeping with Zende, but he might not feel the same way with his cousin. There have already been issues between them. Zende has already tried to crack onto Luna, and RJ saw straight through it. Let’s remember that Zende tried to kiss Luna, and she rebuffed him. You would think that a man in his 30s would know better.
Been Done Before
An article that we linked at the beginning of this article is from Soaps.com, which explores the five reasons why the whole ‘yes or no consent’ storyline is a problem. Two points it references are the ethnicity stereotype and the age factor. The one we want to focus on is the repeated story aspect.
Soaps.com is right on the money. The Luna and Zende story is not the first time a rape storyline has come up. It is a recycle of the Thomas and Caroline storyline from years ago, which ultimately led to Douglas’ conception.
Here’s a rundown of the other examples of consent storylines. These will be in no particular order.
- Thomas sleeps with Caroline after misreading her advances towards him after she’d taken pills she wasn’t supposed to take. This led to a storyline where Caroline claims the baby she is carrying is Ridge’s rather than Thomas’s because she knew he would become obsessed. That baby has since grown up and is now Douglas, who was adopted by Hope.
- Speaking of Caroline, Caroline’s namesake, late aunt and Ridge’s first wife, Caroline Spencer I, had a similar experience in the early days of the show. She got drunk and thought she was sleeping with Thorne, whom she was dating at the time, only for Ridge to jump into her bed instead.
- Then we have Brooke. She mistook Oliver, Hope’s boyfriend at the time, as Ridge wore the same costume. However, Oliver mistook Brooke for Hope, too.
- There was also another storyline involving Brooke, where she showed interest in some guy who later raped her. Stephanie had told the guy to pursue Brooke to keep her away from Ridge. When Brooke rebuffed him, he attacked her. He was later electrocuted to death.
