User blog comment:RoyallyBella/Official Season 7 discussion blog/@comment-29197449-20160803053055

For some reason, it's not letting me respond to The Oblivious Prattler to explain the whole Nex issue so I'll just make it it's own comment.

The reason why Nex is regarded as a Nabu/Riven replacement is not because of his visual design. His character is just riddled with this. First off, he's made to come off as a jerk who constantly believes himself to be in competition with another character, though, this was more Roy's fault because Nex just thought of his affections for Aisha as his affections and not because he just wanted to beat Roy. However, everything he does she makes him seem like Riven. He's constantly competitive and believes his skills to be superior, even if others think otherwise. This also happened during the season where, for no reason at all, Riven is made to look the absolute worst he has ever been portrayed since the first season, when he was a literal antagonist working as a mole for the Trix. Nex's character is literally Riven's character just take out the jerk part. I could care less about him having an interest in sports because he was made to be Aisha's love interest but it's just that everything he does was basically done in Riven seasons before Nex was even conceived as an idea. He's just Riven minus the big jerk. In Season 7, they even try to make him look like he's always ready to show off how great he is in battle, just like how Riven always is. It's like Riven being put on a bus during Season 6 was like the writers going "We don't need two very similar characters so let's get the jerky one outta here!" And seriously, why the heck was Riven fighting with a BOOMERANG of all things?? Last time we saw him, he fought with that sai attached to a mace. None of the other Specialists' weapons drastically changed. Helia's gauntlets didn't shoot out projectiles but they were radically changed from something like a sai with a mace to a friggin' boomerang.

The reason why I regard him as a replacement for Nabu is simply because the way Rainbow handled Aisha and Nex coming together. For one, after she was mourning Nabu, she just forgets who he was and if he was important as soon as she falls for Roy out of nowhere. I could care less if Aisha moved on from Nabu to Roy as a place for her affections but it was done so unnaturally! Up until we visually see her daydreaming about Roy, the only interactions they have had were him smiling at her at some dance and then her rushing to see if he was okay. That's it. I wouldn't have mind if there was more substance to their growing affections but there isn't. Aisha wouldn't even talk to Nabu until she accidentally locked herself in with him when they arrived at the Red Tower and even then we get to see that Nabu isn't a bad guy with Aisha. With Roy it's just that he smiles at her and she's fallen head over heels for virtually no reason other than he smiled at her and was nice to her. That shouldn't be enough to win someone's affections, much less the affections of someone who had just lost a lover in battle. As for Nex, his execution was handled poorly. He's introduced as a cocky jerk who starts fighting for Aisha's affections and only jumps in to save her as soon as Roy does it first (seriously, that scene where they both turn to stone as Aisha suddenly forgets her skeletal reflexes was annoying to watch). It isn't that "oh, he's Aisha's new boyfriend but she's supposed to be with Nabu even though he's dead." No, she had to move on because the show set itself up in a way that Nabu was never coming back. He died heroically and I will always respect that, especially because it's the show's only on-screen death. It's just that, with how Nex (and Roy by proxy) was written that it just seemed like the writers had to shoehorn in some guys who Aisha could be happy with. Personally, I would've liked it if Aisha just stayed independent for a whole season without falling for a guy, but have her fall for someone, say, in the next season because she's still looking for someone after losing a lover. I dunno, I felt like that would've made Aisha more relatable since this series just loves hooking people up that have lost someone, even in the comics.

I personally cannot like Nex. I feel like he's basically a rehash of Riven except Rainbow decided to take the jerk out of Riven or, at least, not capitalize on it so gosh dang much that it just makes you wonder why Musa hadn't dumped his sorry butt already. I am no fan of Riven but I appreciated his character in the first 3 seasons. Season 4 he became a jerk, Season 5 he was basically romancing it up only for Season 6 to make him the worst has ever been only to give him the boot. They could have sent him off in a better way or just not flanderize him to just make him a jerk. I know that he was acting that way so that he could be strong enough to lead the Specialists and, in actuality, protect Musa but it was just done so ''badly. ''If he wanted to protect Musa, he would've at least been treating her with respect first of all. It... It was just bad. I refer to Nex as a Nabu replacement more because of the way he was handled. He just came off as some guy who the writers just shoved into the story just so Aisha could get a lover. I'll admit that he's progression from jerk who wants to look better than Roy to someone who genuinely cares about Aisha was a lot more natural than Aisha's affections being placed into Roy. I like Nex more as a character than Roy and Roy's character is as flat as paper.