Defending Arizona Robbins
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Defending Arizona Robbins

Why so much hate towards Arizona Robbins?

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Defending Arizona Robbins
ABC

We first met Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) in season 5 where she was cast to play Callie's (Sara Ramire love interest. Since then Arizona has been through hell and back. Her life has been a roller-coaster with its ups and downs, like every single character in Grey's Anatomy. She has survived an airplane crash, a car accident, a mass shooting and so many more catastrophic events and every time she has managed to come out stronger.

Now let's state some facts; Arizona Robbins is the best pediatric and now fetal surgeons in the world (in the Grey's world of course). She is an amazing and caring mother, a wonderful friend and a supportive and loving girlfriend/wife. She loves and cares for every single patient and always treat them to her best of her abilities. Also, Arizona gets so involved with her patients and cares about them so deeply that in the end she's emotionally bonded with them.

Remember Wallace Anderson in season 6? Arizona was so emotionally invested with him and so eager to save him that she performed an extremely difficult surgery in order to give Wallace a few more months to live. Although the surgery was a success, complications set in afterwards and little Wallace was taken to the OR and died of septic shock. Robbins was a complete mess and burst into tears in front of her friends and girlfriend, Callie while they surprised her for her birthday. This shows how much she cares about her patients and how devoted she is in her job and in them. Even Wallace's parents saw that and despite losing their son they donated $25 million in gratitude of Arizona's efforts.

So why is Arizona gets so much hate from fans?

Let's start from the beginning. I believe it all started when she dropped the bomb that she didn't want to have children. In season 6, Arizona said to Callie that she doesn't want to have kids while Callie wanted so badly to become a mother. Arguing about it for days later Calzona (Callie's and Arizona's ship name) broke up. At that moment, fans started hating on Robbins saying she's selfish and doesn't care about Callie. But the truth is, that it was way too early in their relationship to be talking children and Callie acted like she wanted to have children right away when she could have easily give their relationship time to grow. Arizona however, in the season 6 finale after the mass shooting, realized that life's too short, had a change of heart and said she wants to have children after all. In the beginning of season 7 even Callie realized that she rushed their relationship. This shows how much she loves Callie and how invested and serious she was about their relationship that she's willing to change for her.

Next stop is season 7, when Arizona won the prestigious Carter Madison Grant and had the opportunity of a lifetime to move to Africa and help children in need. As Arizona said, this was bigger than her and she had to accept the Grant. And I think that anyone else in her place would have done the same. It was an honor and a privilege to get an opportunity like that. Turning down the biggest opportunity of her professional career because of a relationship would have been immature and she would have definitely regretted it. Fortunately, in order to be together, Callie decided to go with Arizona to Africa. From that moment forward and all the way to the airport however, Callie started complaining, being miserable and whiny because as she later admitted didn't want to go to Africa. So Arizona left Callie at the airport and went to Africa by herself (Yes I know you all cried like a baby in this scene).


The hate towards Dr Robbins grew after this and everyone was saying once again that she was only thinking about herself and didn't care about anything rather than her career. Once in a while however people must think about them selves for a little and take care of their future or else they'll be lost. They'll loose their uniqueness and they'll be miserable. It's not selfish to want that. It's understandable and completely normal. Arizona tried to do something for her self. She tried for once to put her self first but failed because a couple of episodes later she returned from Africa. She came back for Callie. She came back because she was in love with her and couldn't live without her. She had to go away and be alone to realize that.

All this time though, no one thought to blame Callie because she was the only one we saw being hurt. We didn't get to see how Arizona was doing. We only found out after her return that she was constantly crying and missing Callie. I believe that the fan reaction would have been very different if we got to see a little bit of Arizona's life in Africa. How she dealt with the pain and how she came to the decision to come back. It would have been nice to watch her side of the story. And yes Jessica Capshaw was pregnant at the time and had to leave the show for a couple of episodes but when she came back all we needed was a flashback.

Callie eventually forgave her and confessed tha she was pregnant with Mark's baby. Calzona got back together and everything run smoothly, drama-free full of smiles and rainbows. But in Grey's Anatomy things don't stay drama-free for long. In the finale of season 8 the plane that was transferring Meredith, Derek, Mark, Lexie, Cristina and Arizona crashed which led to Arizona's leg amputation.

After that everything went sideways. Everyone from the crash including Arizona developed PTSD. She was in a dark dark place and wouldn't even get out of the house or even her bed. She was constantly angry, blaming Callie for cutting off her leg, after Callie had promised that she wouldn't. Callie is a doctor and she should have known better before making these kind of promises. Although Torres didn't personally amputate Arizona's leg, which she didn't know until season 11, in her eyes Callie was to blame. Her life changed dramatically and she had to learn how to walk and move all over again. She had to learn how to live with this disability. Every day she had to face and move past a new obstacle.

"For over a year, since the plane crash, all I have been thinking about is myself. I had to figure out how to be me. I used to be someone who was always happy. I woke up happy.[...] and then this happened. And everything was hard and everything took thought and planning and my life felt like it didn’t fit me anymore and I just wanted to tear it all down and start over; just throw it away and find a life that fits who I am now." Arizona said to Callie on season 10. This beautiful and emotional speech sums us up what was going on inside Arizona's head after the plane crash. She couldn't handle it because she couldn't be her true self. It's understandable to feel loneliness, anger and uncertainty after such a traumatizing event. I don't get why people can't understand this. It was a truly devastating time for Arizona and only a few tried to get in her shoes and see it from her perspective. The majority of fans started hating her because she was treating Callie like crap. This wasn't right and if it was Meredith or Derek or Cristina fans wouldn't have reacted the same way.

After a while everything seemed as normal as possible for Calzona. In the finale of season 9 however, Arizona shockingly cheated on Callie. When Callie found out, they got into a huge fight unleashing their unfiltered feelings. It turned out that Arizona still had a lot of anger over the plane crash. It pissed her off that Callie was acting like she was a part of it when she wasn't even there. "I lost Mark and you almost died," Callie shouted. "You weren't on the freaking plane!" Arizona screamed back. She was also still angry over the fact that Callie cut off her leg. "You wanted the street cred, the badge of honor, the warrior wounds. Then great! Stick out your leg and I will go grab a bone saw and let’s even the score!" Arizona said. "It always comes back to the leg." Callie replied "I trusted you more than anything. More than anyone in my life and you decided to cut it off…" Robbins said bursting into tears.

Once again in this scene I can understand why Arizona did this. I do not support her decision to cheat but I can see why she did it. She was in a dark place and she made a mistake. Everyone makes them. Nobody is perfect yet everyone was judging her like they are and still till this day they hold it against her. I don't see anyone holding it against Owen (Kevin McKidd) when he cheated on Cristina (Sandra Oh) or Callie when he cheated on George (T.R. Knight) or Derek (Patrick Dempsey) when he kissed his colleague in D.C. Every single one of them have made a mistake and yet they are somehow forgiven by the fans. Why is it any different with Arizona? Why is it okay for Owen, Callie and/or Derek to cheat yet Arizona, who actually was in a really dark and emotional phase, it's not?

Arizona later on explained to April why she did it. "Callie is trying so hard to forgive me and take care of me, and it's driving me crazy. I love her and I want her back and I broke us and I want to fix it, but she wants to fix me. The reason that I cheated that night - someone was attracted to me, and she never knew me before, she only knew me after. And I was enough for her. And Callie she knew me before and she loved me before, and now I feel like I'm not enough. It's not fair, it's not her fault, and I hate feeling this way. And Callie is trying to fix everything, and I'm finally feeling okay the way that I am now. And I'm not sure that Callie will ever make me feel that way," she said.


Last but not least, let's jump to season 12 and the custody battle. Callie decided out of the blew to move to New York with Penny, her girlfriend, and take Sofia with her. "It's a six hour flight and you'll be able to see Sofia whenever you want and we will figure it out" Callie said to Arizona. Callie wanted to uproot her daughter's life, move to the other side of the country, give up her career and take Sofia away from Arizona, over a woman she's only been dating for a couple of months. And she made all of these decisions without consulting with the mother of her child. In the next episode, Callie gave Arizona brochures from schools in New York and see which is a better fit for Sofia. Callie had her mind made up so Arizona decided to fight for her parental rights. The custody battle rightfully ended in favor of Arizona. She might have left the courtroom to save another baby's life but the judge saw that Arizona was the stable and not impulsive mother who does what is best for her child.

How can people hate Arizona after what Callie made her go through? It's unbelievable how people till this day always defend Callie and hate on Arizona. Sure Arizona has made some mistakes along the way but so does Callie. It's important to remember that life in not always black and white, wrong and right. There is so much grey into every story and every action. Arizona has fallen down many times and every time she manages to get back up stronger. And in the season finale she proved that by giving Callie plane tickets to take Sofia to New York to see Penny. That's Arizona for you guys. She put aside her personal feelings and did what was best for her daughter.

With Callie gone next season, Arizona will finally be having a new love interest. It would be interesting to see her with someone other than Callie for once. I, for one, cannot wait to see how things will turn out. Do you think Arizona will be able to let go of Callie and be with someone else? Or do you believe that Calzona in the endgame? Also, why do you think Arizona is getting so much hate? Hit me up in the comment section below.

Grey's Anatomy season 13 premiere's this Thursday 8|7c on ABC.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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