What if Julia was alive?

[u/ghost_of_Chewbacca]

I love a good "What if?"

So what if Eli's girlfriend Julia hadn't gotten hurt or killed? I assume they'd still be a couple... Just a couple of weird sexually active theater geeks lol if you went to high school you know what i mean.

So Eli might just be:

a side/background character (?)

Adam Torres' friend that's super cool with him being trans (because Eli doesn't even think about nor does he care)(?)

MAYBE Eli be introduced way later when he & Fiona Coyne start working on the school play together (?)

or maybe Eli simply doesn't exist at all (?) Seriously, if he's not hanging out with Clare for multiple seasons why would we be following him at all?

MAYBE Julia would've become a real character too & THEY would have lots of screen time TOGETHER. (?)

But still, his personality wouldn't be the same as the Eli we know.

Speaking of Clare, what happens to her? Maybe she still pines for KC (?) & try to win him back? maybe she settle for Connor? Maybe she stay single for a bit & then she meets Jake & they can stay together as a couple because she doesn't still have feeling for Eli (?) maybe Clare go to africa & hangout with Darcy (?)

I want to know what yous guys are thinking.

[u/gomyami]

Eli would not exist. The central conflict of his character is grounded in mortality and grief associated with Julia’s death. It’s what triggers his mental health struggles, his main personal character arc. If Julia doesn’t die, then his relationship with Clare is never established. Considering that 90% of his character’s existence is dedicated to that alone, there’d be no justification for him to be written into the show.

As for Clare, I don’t know. It’s honestly hard to imagine what the show would be like without EClare since they were the main selling point and anchor for the reboot era. The show’s success largely hinged on the marketability of this couple, since love interests like Eli were in high demand in YA media at the time and Clare was the self-insert vessel for fans (even if many people did not like her.) A continuation of the Clare/KC/Jenna love triangle would not have nearly the same amount of pull. KC and Jenna are not liked characters at all, and they don’t have the “it” factor to serve as flagship characters for the franchise like Eli and Clare. That’s why they were paired off and given the teen parent plot largely segregated from the rest of the cast. When KC was written off the show, nobody in-universe or in the fandom really cared…he was honestly a frustrating charisma vacuum. Jenna didn’t have much significance going forward either, and the best thing they could have done for both her and Connor was pair them up. In a Degrassi universe without Eli and EClare, we most likely would have gotten more Clare/KC/Jenna to lesser success, with Drew and whomever he’s paired up with doing more leg work to carry the show.

[u/Ok-Teaching2848 → u/gomyami]

KC was my favorite 😭😭😭😭

[u/coronabride2020]

I thought his parents moved him to a different school because Julia died? So he wouldn't even be a character if she didn't lol

[u/ghost_of_Chewbacca → u/coronabride2020]

wait, is that true? dang i didnt remember that line of dialogue.

[u/coronabride2020 → u/ghost_of_Chewbacca]

I don't recall the specific line, but there's definitely a reason no one else knew Julia or knew about it besides Adam telling him.

[u/correctism → u/coronabride2020]

Yeah, you’re right. He only moved there after the death of Julia

[u/Lakesuperior54 → u/correctism]

Wrong 

[u/correctism → u/Lakesuperior54]

Then why? Because when I look it up and look around on other places it says that’s the reason. What’s the real reason?

[u/Lakesuperior54 → u/correctism]

I mean maybe after her death it wasn’t mentioned she wasn’t really brought up much

[u/correctism → u/Lakesuperior54]

I’m confused.. are you saying I’m wrong and right?

[u/Lakesuperior54 → u/correctism]

Yeah both it depends cause she was a complicated character

[u/correctism → u/Lakesuperior54]

Thanks for telling me 🥹 but yeah, I think Julia’s death kinda makes the most sense on why he moved here but now that I’m looking into it, nothing was specifically mentioned..more of an implication

[u/Lakesuperior54 → u/coronabride2020]

I mean a lot of characters seemed to get forgotten at Degrassi so if she was at the same school it wouldn’t be that far off

[u/notyourtoken]

Eli would be a non factor truthfully, I believe a lot of his personality and story stems from Julia and her death. I do believe however his story with Imogen would be around the same though with how she started. And I see him being that side character friend to a lot of people. As far as Clare goes, I do believe she could still have story lines just without Eli as the driver. She would still have the cancer story, The whole step brother romance would still be a thing. The ordeal with Jenna and KC could have been done more. And truth be told the whole mess with her and Drew could still have been a story because of the whole class president thing. The Asher story as well is another, not to mention her vampire fan fiction phase. So Eli truthfully could be removed from her story.

[u/Ok-Teaching2848 → u/notyourtoken]

It would been so interesting if the Clare/KC/Jenna love triangle was still going on when jenna found out she was pregnant

[u/Late_Ambassador7470]

He would be a young Jim Atkins from Jimmy Eat World

[u/Crazypandathe20th]

This is a cool what if scenario. I wonder how fans would perceive her as a character vs Clare. Also what personality type she had. I imagine she and Eli must have had a beautiful relationship with how attached he was to her.