The conclusion is in the comments because it was too many characters.
Okay I know no one here cares or will have any idea what I’m talking about but I’m thoroughly annoyed.
Part of my point is that Hollywood needs to stop hiring adults to play teenagers (or in this case 17 year olds playing middle schoolers) but that’s not really important, it just makes the whole thing feel... off and destroys the writer’s supposed point.
The series finale of Andi Mack really disappointed me. The writing was never particularly great, but Andi as a character fell off a cliff whenever Jonah was involved. I never cared about him, he was always useless and just got in the way of more serious plot lines. But he's pretty so that obviously makes up for it all.
Not to mention the conclusion of her final arc made no sense. She isn't moving away. She's going to a different school in the same place. This is not the end. It being an end makes no sense. This is like a thousand tons of contrivium to circumvent the fact that the actors won't be able to realistically play characters that young for much longer (this was really a problem a long time ago) and/or the writers didn't have any ideas for another season. The end wasn't a logical end, it left too much open and the show had good ratings. No other explanation makes sense.
I should probably say something about Buffy, but I honestly didn't feel terribly strongly about her. My impression was positive, it's just she's a good role model for young girls and that's all there is to say. Her point of appearing in the show isn't relevant to me or my arguments.
I also want to mention Amber. I like her as a character. But of course she was just dropped at the end of the series and ignored. She deserved better. All the characters deserved better.
My real point is with Cyrus. I think he's a well written character. All the elements fit together and make sense. He's relatable and likable. Unfortunately, my thoughts are not that simple. His relationship with T.J. was horribly written. It was subtle, but in the nice obvious way that everyone who doesn't know how to write romance does it. Short story long, by like the second scene T.J. and Cyrus shared, it should have been obvious they were going to end up in a relationship. That is not a dynamic any straight guy has with another guy. How T.J. felt was never really addressed. The idea that he might be gay was never really brought up and acknowledged by the show or any character except that he's the tough guy and they never care for anyone but love interests. That's a rule. Plus, dude had no idea how to talk to girls. Cyrus was handled well in that regard. Except the fact that he took a disturbing amount of time to come out to Andi (don't even think that was on screen like when he came out to Buffy) because of course she was dating Jonah for like the 274309th time at the time. And like I said, he had the personality of a piece of cardboard so he existed simply to get in the way of Cyrus... And Iris happened. Not important, she never showed up again. But then T.J. was introduced. The first verbal acknowledgment was when Buffy comforts Cyrus upon seeing T.J. with Girl of No Plot Importance Besides Being a Romantic Foil #8 and he then said "I was really deluding myself" (couldn't catch the rest) and T.J. saying 'Cyrus never made me pick' (which could be interpreted many different yikes ways).
So the only direct development their relationship received was a couple of throwaway lines that could be missed or misinterpreted and came at the eleventh hour. Great.
Half way through the final episode this romantic tension that had been going on since (either the fifteenth or seventeenth episode, it has been a while since I saw them and I'm not going to check, whatever) out of fifty seven episodes and they just drop the damn ball. The two have a heart to heart and hold hands. They had to spring for kisses for the other characters, but not these two. The writer's apparent reasoning is that this is just too much for the middle school characters (but not too much for the others, who have surprisingly emotionally mature relationships for 13 year olds, except when it is the protagonist).
Why exactly is this a problem? Subtext isn't deep. When you start something with subtext, you have to go big in the end or it just feels like you're being lazy and trying to avoid it. The argument that the characters are in middle school falls flat in such a fantastic manner I can’t even. I genuinely forgot the characters were supposed to be 13 because the actors don’t look thirteen anymore. Not shocking considering several of the actors (including the actors for T.J. and Cyrus who are 17 now… How the hell does anyone think that’s believable? They’re almost adults!) were too old to play the characters two years ago, much less now.
Garbage Writer: And then T.J. doesn’t even appear after they held hands. Seriously? He was really more important than Jonah (who appears for a while after that, no one even acknowledging T.J. past this point, or Amber which is not really fair to her as a character). Congratulations to Terri Minsky for writing the first gay Disney character and the first gay relationship. Hopefully the next gay character is written as well as Cyrus. Hopefully their relationship is handled better though...