In Defense Of General Hospital’s Nina Reeves

There is a lot of hatred directed at Nina Reeves, despite the fact that others have done so much worse.

Nina Reeves is the General Hospital character that receives the most criticism for minor offences compared to other soap opera characters.

Port Charles Is Full Of Unsavory Characters

Although we do not claim that Nina (Cynthia Watros) always makes the right choices or never sins, at best her transgressions appear insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Since this is a soap opera, the anti-hero who flees every crime like the Teflon don he is is a lifetime career criminal who is also now Nina’s lover. A guy who attempted to freeze the planet with his siblings is currently at large and charmingly posing a threat to Port Charles.

Let’s not forget that the soap’s most prominent male character was a rapist, and that the episode about his wedding to the victim of his abuse was the most watched one ever. Although 1981 was undoubtedly a different period than now, let’s take a closer look at Nina’s misdeeds and family history.

Cut Nina Reeves Some Slack

It seems logical that Nina will always be remembered as the one who forced Ava (Maura West) into labour before stealing her unborn child. Although there is no way to excuse it, there has always been a justification for it. Nearly ten years ago, when we first met Nina, she had just emerged from a 22-year coma and thought it was still 1992. She was a young married lady, not much older than Trina (Tabyana Ali) and Josslyn (Eden McCoy), when her own mother accidentally overdosed her on an anti-depressant and left her in that coma.

While Madeline (Donna Mills) simply intended to cause a miscarriage and aid in ending Nina’s marriage, she really brought on a protracted coma.

When Nina awoke from her coma, she was convinced she was pregnant. However, when she looked at the calendar, she discovered it was 2014, her husband Silas (Michael Easton) had left her, and her baby had already died. She gradually had a psychotic break, particularly after finding out that Ava had given birth to Silas’s kid around the time she would have gone into labour and was carrying another girl all those years later. The fact that Nina was insane and deluded and served her time in Shadybrook for stealing Avery while Avery was only a baby was resolved eight long years ago.

Who Nina Became

Nina may not have always acted responsibly after that, but she never committed an act of pure evil. With Michelle Stafford playing the part, we were frequently reminded of Nina’s immaturity and how it gave way to her impulsiveness. Nina still had the maturity of a college student, knew little about the world around her and the changes that occurred during the decades she was comatose, and was still somewhat naive.

Her desire to become a mother has been her top priority throughout everything. Franco did not want biological children, despite the fact that she desired a kid with him. She attempted to adopt a kid but was unsuccessful as well as learning that she was in early menopause. When she married Valentin and became Charlotte’s stepmother, she thought she could finally have it all. However, it is certain that she went beyond with indulging Charlotte and was absurd in her attitude of Willow Tait, the third-grade teacher.

Another fantasy appeared to come true for Nina when she discovered her kid had really lived and that her mother had given a little girl away, especially because she thought the child was Sasha. Nina was almost bankrupt when she discovered that both Valentin and Sasha had deceived her so that Sasha could get some more cash and Valentin could portray himself as the hero in her life.

But Nina has always been able to forgive herself as well as others. Sasha now resembles Nina’s kid, and Valentin is her buddy. She loves Ava more than anyone, and she is her greatest friend. Sonny, the only other person she has actually offended since coming out of her coma, not only forgiven her but but developed feelings for her.

Nina Reeves Made A Big Mistake

Since 2014, Nina has been portrayed by two formidable soap opera veterans, giving the character a variety of characteristics. Stafford gave Nina a quirky and erratic personality, but Cynthia Watros brings out a more mature Nina who can own up to her mistakes—even the most significant ones. She is undoubtedly not the terrible monster that she is sometimes portrayed as being; that immaturity is still present as a result of the coma.

What had Nina actually done to anyone between 2014 when she stole Avery as a result of a mental episode and 2021 when she made that terrible Nixon Falls error other from be a mean PTA parent to Willow when she didn’t want to admit that Charlotte was in fact a bully? Even Carly, Michael, and Willow, the three people who despise Nina the most right now, once looked up to her. In a custody dispute involving Wiley Corinthos in 2020, Nina took the witness stand and spoke negatively against Nelle.

When Carly heard that Nelle was the daughter Nina had been yearning for, Carly opted not to tell Nina that. She argued that she didn’t want to burden Nina with that information, but she had also expressly told Jax that she was concerned Nina would reexamine the events surrounding Nelle’s death and discover that Carly had in fact hesitated before attempting to rescue her. For the sake of Nina and Carly, Carly made a choice. She never fails to stay in character, which is neither a criticism on Carly nor the actress who portrays her, Laura Wright. Carly simply is, that’s all.

Nina’s immediate reaction was to notify Carly that Sonny was alive as soon as she saw him in Nixon Falls and realised he had amnesia, even after discovering Carly had hidden that huge secret about her daughter. She contacted Carly to ask her to come collect her missing husband, but Carly snapped at her, as Carly also tends to do, berating Nina for this or that. To keep Sonny a secret, Nina made a split-second, entirely incorrect judgement, but Carly was also directly responsible. Does a pair of wrongs equal a right? Nope. But what happens when there are three errors?

Nina Reeves vs. Carly In 2023

It became abundantly evident in 2022 that Carly had failed to learn anything from the Nelle secret fiasco and how it had set Nina’s Nixon Falls deception in motion. If Carly had known anything, it would have been that Nina had two daughters and Willow was Nelle’s sister, therefore she would never have withheld the identity of Nina’s second daughter from her.

Carly claims she did it to protect Willow, but it’s simply another instance of Carly meddling in people’s life by hiding the identities of their children from them, one of her favourite strategies. With her own son Michael, she carried it out. She committed the act by keeping Sonny’s paternity a secret from him. When she allowed Nikolas to think Jax was Spencer’s father, she broke the law. Carly carries it out. As payback for giving her up as a newborn, Carly also kidnaps elderly women and has come to town to seduce her biological mother’s husband.

Yes, Nina and Carly both committed errors, but whereas Carly expresses regret, Nina does not. And whereas Carly’s main complaint when she first came in Port Charles was that she was adopted by a mother who loved her, Nina is the consequence of a 22-year coma that her mother forced upon her.

Soap Hub thinks Nina needs a break. Despite their chilly connection and years of hostility, she deserves to get to know her daughter. She certainly does not merit Willow’s unreasonable hatred for her. Why can’t Nina Reeves be pardoned for her decades’ worth of heinous acts if Carly and so many others can?