Alright, if you think I've been unpopular in the past, wait till you see what I have to say THIS time around!

I think Jacob Young DESERVED his Emmy for Best Younger Actor. There. I said it. And no, I am NOT being sarcastic; I'm dead-freaking-serious!

Before I go on, here's a HUGE disclaimer, and if you can make sense of it, more power to you!

I'm not a fan of Jacob Young but I don't hate him either. I think Jonathan Jackson ultimately left GH to pursue greener pastures and in their infinite wisdom, TPTB decided to recast what many of us considered to be an UN-recastable role. JJ had amazing chemistry with both Anthony Geary AND Genie Francis, to the point where I "bought" that he actually was their son. In the long run, I think TPTB should have either NEVER recast Lucky or they should have waited for JJ to come back for a brief period to reprise the role and tie up the kidnapping/brainwashing storyline, but they chose to recast and imho, Jacob isn't any better or worse than anyone else would have been.

That said, if I'm thrilled that Jacob won the Best Younger Actor Emmy, it's for a variety of reason.

Jacob was the only cast member to be nominated and by the time the nominations were read, Lucky was already on a massive downward spiral. My secret hope is that his win will remind TPTB that Lucky needs to have more to do and say than "Yo Sarah, wanna make out?"

Also, I knew his win would piss a LOT of people off and I've never made a secret of the fact that the more something aggravates the masses, the more I enjoy it >:-)

But most importantly, I'm thrilled Jacob won because, as I said earlier, I genuinely believe that he deserved that Emmy. Now, if you started watching GH recently and know Jacob ONLY as the blustering, bellowing, neck-vein-popping idiot that his Lucky has degenerated into, I wouldn't blame you a bit for asking yourself if THIS is really the best that GH has to offer and if so, WTF already?? However, I'd be stunned if Jacob submitted NuNULucky in any part of his Emmy reel. I'm betting that he's as embarrassed by the writing for Lucky as we are watching him act it out.

When Jacob first appeared as Lucky, I was as taken aback as the next person. Like so many others, I had watched JJ grow up as Lucky, from a cute little kid at the diner in Vancouver to an increasingly handsome young man. It was pretty freaky to suddenly see Lucky being portrayed by an actor who absolutely DID NOT LOOK like a teenager, who looked NOTHING like Luke or Laura, who looked nothing, well, nothing like the kid I'd seen grow up on my tv for all those years.

But despite the initial shock of seeing such a new face playing such a beloved character, I was impressed. Initially, the writing for Lucky was very good. In fact, TPTB seemed to have made some sort of effort to keep Lucky an actual SPENCER, rather than drastically re-invent him. We knew he had been kidnapped by Helena and we knew he had been brainwashed, therefore we were EXPECTING him to be DIFFERENT. Yet in those early scenes with Helena, as much as we sensed that Lucky had CHANGED, we could still see some of that Spencer sass in him. The way he stole money out of Helena's wallet. In Texas with Helena -- him all excited to be visiting a part of his past, her panting at his side in heels and silk. Those early chess games with Helena where we were being given clues to this and that and the other, but couldn't figure out how it all tied in to his brainwashing.

I credit the inimitable Constance Towers for making it easier for me PERSONALLY to accept the recast, but I also tip my hat off to Jacob. I think he understood just how loved JJ was and he took things slow. He eased into the part; he NEVER came on with both guns blazing and that definitely helped me accept him as Lucky. More importantly, despite a few predictable lapses, the writers DID know how to write Lucky and there WAS some sort of direction for the character to take.

Look at Lucky now: yelling, screaming, enraged, pathetic. He's a character whose every emotion is worn on his sleeve. No shades of grey with this guy. Lucky be ANGRY! Angry all the fricking time!

But this is NOT how Lucky was written for the better part of Jacob's tenure. When he first came back to Port Charles, it was clear that Helena had messed with his feelings for Elizabeth. Whereas Lucky was once deeply in love with her, he came back uncertain, afraid of hurting her and yet nagged by a feeling that he was supposed to feel something more for her than he did. One of the sweetest outcomes of Lucky's return was seeing him develop feelings for Elizabeth -- not remember the OLD ones so much as develop NEW ones, as if even Helena and Faison's mind control couldn't sever the bond between them.

I loved this angle, and I have to admit that I saw a lot of potential for Liz and Lucky, even though the dynamic was nowhere NEAR the same as it had been between Rebecca Herbst and JJ. I liked it that they hung around with one another and Lucky got to know Elizabeth all over again. I'm all for corny old romance, and the idea that these two people were bonded to one another on a deeper level than even brainwashing could mess with definitely appealed to that side of me. And when they went to the rave and Lucky took Elizabeth back to her studio after she'd taken a hit of Ecstasy remains, to this day, one of my all-time favorite GH scenes.

Elizabeth, high and uncensored, was finally able to admit to Lucky all of the things she'd been feeling but was too afraid to mention. Lucky, knowing that Liz would remember nothing in the morning, finally admitted that he loved her. To hear him say the words, "I love you" after all that time was a GREAT moment. To see two people talk to one another openly, freely and full of emotion was especially powerful at a time when romance was at an all-time low on GH. And I remember when Liz and Lucky finally kissed, it was a kiss that even *I* felt. It was a kiss she'd been waiting for, a kiss he'd been wanting to give her but couldn't, until he could convince himself that doing so wouldn't hurt her. To see all that longing fulfilled was, for me, a great moment -- and one that we see SO danged rarely on this show.

Both Jacob AND Rebecca gave wonderful performances and Jacob, especially, did an awesome job at conveying his love for Elizabeth and his deep fear of his own emotions. He loved her, but he was terrified of his capacity to hurt her in ways he didn't understand.

And from that kiss on, Lucky began to admit that he loved Elizabeth. It wasn't so much that he had re-discovered his OLD feelings for her, but that no matter what the circumstances, Elizabeth would always be the one for him, his true soul mate. Wow!

Compare that with now. Lucky sniffing around Sarah Webber -- a woman he's attracted to, though for WHAT conceivable reason, we don't know. Lucky barking and bellowing every two seconds. Lucky saying that he didn't love Liz anymore but would "fake it" to make her happy. This whole scenario screams of WHAT THE FUCK? We saw Lucky fall in love with Elizabeth ANEW; why, suddenly, are the writers dragging up the brainwashing stuff? It was pretty clear to ME, anyway, that Lucky's ORIGINAL love for Liz had been killed by the mind control, but what about the NEW love that he felt for her? What about the NEW feelings he had developed? This was a clear indication that TPTB were going to drop the ball on Lucky.

Then there's Lucky's relationship with Luke and Laura. Before he was kidnapped, Lucky and Luke had a bond that, imho, was at times even greater than the bond between Luke and Laura. Lucky was Luke's pride and joy, his son, his cowboy, his everything. That's what made it so shocking when LnL laid eyes on their son for the first time in MONTHS, thrilled to see him, and Luke being greeted with a punch to the face. Lucky literally hauled off and belted Luke the second he heard the word "Cowboy." Again, the dynamic between Luke and Tony Geary was VASTLY different than the one between JJ and Geary, but up until End Game, there was something interesting between them that was worth watching.

As End Game progressed and all the actors involved phoned in their lines, Jacob was the ONLY ACTOR to put any heart or soul into his part -- NOT by bellowing and yelling, but with subtle, moving reactions to the urge he was feeling and couldn't resist: to destroy his father. Jacob was surrounded by Geary, Towers and Robert Kelker-Kelly -- all vets -- and yet Jacob outshone them all. I thought Jacob handed in the ONLY good performances in End Game. Instead of playing it for high camp (as the others were), Jacob went to Lucky's core and showed us a young man TORMENTED by the fact that he was about to hurt and possibly kill the father he loved and hated.

Lucky cried, but they weren't the glycerine-induced tears of a bad actor. These were real tears, full of shame and pain and anguish. The scenes of Lucky approaching Luke with the syringe, overcome with anguish, and asking his father to forgive him for what he was going to do -- those scenes were the ONLY high point in an otherwise pointless, campy and cheesy End Game. So sue me, but not even JJ could have done it better.

Then there's Lucky's relationship with Nikolas, a half-brother he loves, hates and was once extremely jealous of. It's another area where the writers have absolutely dropped the ball. What used to make the Lucky/Nik relationship interesting was the rivalry between them for Laura's affections, coupled with Lucky having been told all his life NEVER to trust a Cassadine while at the same time learning to genuinely care for his older brother. It was especially interesting that, imho, Nikolas went out of his way to protect Lucky NOT so much out of love for his brother, but out of a dim hope that if he did all he could for Lucky, Laura would love NIK as much as she loved Lucky. But somewhere along the way, the writers lost sight of that.

As I write, Nikolas has been condemned for doing something selfish for himself and Gia -- when we know danged well those same acts would be proclaimed as SELFLESS by everyone had they benefited Lucky instead of Gia. Coltin Scott -- an actor I have always had HUGE issues with -- is now the only interesting character in this storyline, abandoning his useless quest for Laura and Lucky's approval in favor of living his life with Gia. Lucky SHOULD be a big part of this storyline; Laura SHOULD be as well.

But it's painfully obvious that TPTB don't care about Lucky at all anymore. For weeks now, he has gone from a character who was periodically capable of great things to a yelling, screaming Anger Boy with no depth at all. As I said, if this is all you remember about Lucky, you have every right to believe that Jacob deserved that Emmy about as much as Susan Lucflannerucciery did. If, however, you dig back a bit and really view Jacob's work objectively -- up to and including End Game -- you'll see that he has handed in some superior work and really DID deserve his Emmy nod, if not the Emmy win.

I cringe when I see Lucky on my screen now. To see him salivating after Sarah, dry-humping her on a gym floor, not daring to get too close to her lest his loins explode, is particularly painful when I consider how the writers, pre-End Game, had worked so hard to establish a new relationship between Liz and Lucky. Why have Lucky fall in love with Liz all over again just to fuck the story up by dragging the brainwashing into it and suddenly shifting gears by saying that Lucky never regained his love for Liz? We KNEW that, for pete's sake, but what about the NEW feelings he had for her? The brainwashing couldn't touch that, so why are the writers pretending that it COULD?