Characters change through their time on Air weather its growing, aging, to having personality, actor and character changes. But among these changes there are characters that slip through the cracks and appear to make no noticeable change. Why don’t they change? If they do is it noticeable? If noticeable, is it necessary?
Cat Valintine portrayed by Ariana Grande, first appeared as a recurring character in Victorias on Nickelodeon. Running for 4 seasons between 2010 and 2013.1 Cat was known for her Quirky, cheerful, and very Ditzy personality. Cat, just like her costars on Victorias, was a student at Hollywood arts high school and was a singer and actor within the show following the same Talent as singer and actor Ariana Grande who played Cat Valintine from 2010-2014. Cat was a close friend to the main Characters. Despite not being on every episode on the show Cat quickly became a recurring character and a very recognizable one with her dyed bright red hair becoming a signature character trait of Cat Valintine that would follow her throughout the series and the spin off series after Victorias called “Sam and Cat”.2
Cat Valintine in Victorias was a Sidekick character providing comical relief with her eccentric behaviors and unique ideas and views Aswell as stories about her past. She had moments to shine with singing and acting and moments where she would find herself in situations due to her childlike wonder and lack of common sense but was a returning main side character throughout Victorias. 3
“Sam and Cat “was a spin off series made of 2 main characters Cat Valintine from Victorius and Sam Puckett from I Carly played by Jennette McCurdy. The show follows the 2 characters in building a babysitting business in Los Angelas as a partner sitcom. Sam Puckett is a hard exterior, rough tomboy character while Cat was a girly ditzy character. Pairing as a opposite due stereotype. Cat’s character retained her cheerful, ditzy personality from victorious the only change was her Acentric and childlike personality, habits and stories were further exaggerated for Sam and Cat. Her catchphrase “what’s that supposed to mean?” became a recuring saying in the show, truly emphasizing her ditzy personality in situations within the episodes. Despite her ditzy demeanor her love for singing and her close bond with her friend Sam remain central to her character.4
Cats Character transition from Victorias to Sam and Cat saw her character transition from a quirky sidekick to a Co-Leader role where her eccentric traits were amplified, while her core personality remains, being a sweet naive and full of childlike wonder. With her personality being amplified for Sam and Cat’s new comedy type and storyline.
Although Cat stayed the same through both Victoria’s and Sam and Cat. Cat Valintine is your average Ditzy kind female character; one created to be a sidekick but pushed into a starring role. Because of this and due to Sam and Cat being a children’s show. The producers could not change Cats’ personality or character too much to assure she would still be recognized by children to keep them watching. Although they did not change her physical appearance or character traits Cat was made Dumber in the 3rd and 4th seasons of victorious and this trait would be carried into Sam and Cat5. This change would receive backlash from viewers commenting things such as “cat is the most annoying character” and that “I used to love her but Shes so unbearable now”. Cat went from being a loved character in the first 2 seasons on Victorias to being disliked for her dumbed down change in character.
Media invites a lot of Love and hate opinions and views whether its tv, movies or objects around us or online. The most popular things draw the most attention. Shows such as victorious drew attention on the new generation of children and younger people. Overtime love turns into nostalgia while cats were and still are hated by individuals those who didn’t care or notice the change in cats brain power, cat is now a part of a nostalgia from one’s childhood, letting those trait changes be overlooked. 6
Most characters change, have noticeable character and plot arches. On the popular end these changes are good and push the story forward, but Cat Valintine had an awkward change and reviews showed how much they disliked the change in character. Cat Valintine is a character that did not need to be changed, despite it being a minimal change it was unneeded and not well received by Fans of the show and the old lovable character.
References
Wiki, Contributors to Victorious. “Victorious.” Victorious Wiki, n.d. https://victorious.fandom.com/wiki/Victorious.
Wiki, Contributors to Sam and Cat. “Sam & Cat.” Sam And Cat Wiki, n.d. https://samandcat.fandom.com/wiki/Sam_%26_Cat.
Quora. “What Kind of Personality Does Cat Valentine From Victorious and Sam and Cat Have?,” n.d. https://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-personality-does-Cat-Valentine-from-Victorious-and-Sam-and-Cat-have.
VK. “Wall Posts,” n.d. https://vk.com/wall-58027494_72.
Staff, Distractify, and Distractify Staff. “Why Is Cat so Dumb on ‘Victorious’? Ariana Grande Defended the Character.” Distractify, August 7, 2020. https://www.distractify.com/p/why-is-cat-so-dumb-victorious.
Nabila, Kafa Bella, and Ouda Teda Ena. “The Analysis of Interjections Types and Emotional State Used in ‘Sam &Amp; Cat’ Sitcom.” Rainbow Journal of Literature Linguistics and Cultural Studies 11, no. 2 (October 31, 2022): 9–15. https://doi.org/10.15294/rainbow.v11i2.55333.
Författarna. “Fritt Från Fältet Om Medier, Generationer Och Värden.” Book. Edited by Peter Jakobsson and Fredrik Stiernstedt. Södertörns Högskola. Vol. 2019:1. Södertörns högskola, 2019. https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/60666984/FULLTEXT01-libre.pdf?1569135514=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DFritt_fran_faltet_Om_medier_generationer.pdf&Expires=1730163882&Signature=FFm4C6zRPgjx540m~bJLy3oIqBcs~orrQTdtaayClQ3uMA~RRYitVXeuipX5-ElZHfCXw-oiiqN9vx7NOusWq3SxQ0fo2empTTFWmuDDJ5GXL9mN2H0ADqmOovSOwummlUDgiJsVHmjD74dxi9XlErp-VKQilWwoxLTY1vvBiF6HU5SGOJjreKDpzYyg-pYCRJiauRgQ-Wewn1uzUBrZeji1GQi0PvT4RvgQUvboaIZYXptQhUBrf-ewwFklYMn5GNUPSkEAFYK-EqiVW7lURts4i8NkfCbGPK7Xc-UDe-gliFOUBn28cigoz7-5KkKfbnZDbxoDSJfgKlaxfsHmVA__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA#page=38.
Adesire Ajayi-Smith
Hi Emma,
I appreciate that you chose to speak about Cat Valentine for this analysis. The assignment was to focus on a media character that had been “moved from the margins of visibility to a more central role”, and that was exactly Cat’s arc during her time across the two series, so I thought it was a brilliant choice.
You explored how Cat’s characterisation changed over the course of multiple seasons and a spin-off TV show. While she was eccentric, “ditzy”, cheerful and childlike from the start, you acknowledged that these traits were greatly exaggerated in the second series, Sam and Cat. You painted this picture vividly, and I appreciate the added context of general audience reactions and complaints.
Though your essay is really well done, there are a few ways you could have played more to its strengths. For instance, it would have been great to interrogate what Cat Valentine represented to her audience. Did she represent unabashed femininity in young girls, for example? Or, could she have represented neurodivergent kids interested in art? As she is moved from the margins to a lead role, these representations are also centered, and the impact of this centering would have been a really good avenue to explore.
You touched on it partially when you wrote, “Cat [Valentine] is your average Ditzy kind female character; one created to be a sidekick but pushed into a starring role.” Here, your train of thought seems to be that these stereotypical depictions of women were finally given the space to be centered in a narrative, as opposed to just being on the sidelines. Centering of this sort could offer levels of nuance and depth not typically given to side characters, but it may also wither them to the point of charicature. I would have loved to see this expanded further.
Overall, I enjoyed reading your essay. Your research was thorough and exhaustive, though I would have loved to see a few more scholarly sources. I think the visual image, though nearly identical in their depiction of Cat, support your point. We can see subtle changes, like the more feminine appearance of the later Cat Valentine, which help drive home your overall argument.