Was Bobby Self-Centered, Naive Or Both?

Jock Ewing Fan

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First of all, it was delusional and naive of both Bobby and Pamela to believe that they could end the Barnes-Ewing feud by them being married. Jock cheating Digger and refusing to do right by him is the cause of the feud in the first place.
There seems to be an inconsistency thru the series about what Jock did. I tend to think there was some in-between going on.
I wondered if the other possibility was that Digger was JR's father
 

Chase Gioberti

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I'd say self-centered and self-righteous.

He was the favorite son and horrible spoiled. Bobby thought the world revolved around him. He treated both Pam and Jenna horribly through the years. He was a bad husband, because he always put his needs first (not to mention there were multiple times when he was less than honest about his own actions and feelings).
All three of the CBS shows had that. Chase and Mack on the other two were lthe Bobby’s of their shows.
 

Laurie!

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I think he let Pam get away with far too much - Pam was far more self-centered than Bobby.
I would make the argument that the entire premise of the show was based on Pam not being self-centered enough. Which is in large part, why the show was nothing but shambles and without the necessary cohesion of characters when she was written out after Victoria's departure.

What self-centered woman, repeatedly moves into her husband's childhood home with...not only her mother/father in-law but also with a vile brother-in-law, sister-in-law and spoiled niece???? The irony is that Pam gets called self-centered when she did the smart thing and left Southfork in the hopes that Bobby would finally leave with her like a grownup.
 
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Snarky Oracle!

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they should have had a crossover with Mack and Bobby having a shouting match followed by a brawl ending in a draw and them becoming buddies and having beers together

Oh, those endlessly indignant Pisces dudes.... Bobby, Mack, Ray, Adam & StevenNumber 2, Dex Dexter ... it's just exhausting!!
 
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Toni

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Oh, those endlessly indignant Pisces dudes.... Bobby, Mack, Ray, Adam & StevenNumber 2, Dex Dexter ... it's just exhausting!!

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We are NOT indignant!​
 

Jock Ewing Fan

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Sometimes context matters. I think JR once referred to Bobby as everybody's All American
Another time Jr said something like Bobby's a good fellow, just sees things in black and white sometimes
Given that Bobby was handsome, athletic, intelligent, wealthy and successful, he was about as
reasonably fair-minded as someone in that position could be. Yes his relationships with women were
sometimes one sided, but again, he was probably better than others in his situation.
Yes he could be self-centered and as ruthless as JR when he had to (Ie Walt Driscoll), even hot-headed (which I never liked about him, although given what he was surrounded with...)
but at least he seemed to have some self-awareness
about it. He did try to befriend Cliff, at least at the beginning of the series, and even tried to be peacemaker at times.
He was unfairly blamed for Rebecca's fate, and he had no prior knowledge of JR and Calhoun
(what was he supposed to do when he learned? The damage was done no matter what he did)
He had every right to compete for Ewing Oil, as per Jock's will.

On balance, Bobby was basically a good man who had flaws, probably magnified by being a Ewing
 

Karin

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I think the Bobby we meet in the mini-series and the Bobby we see 30 years later in the TNT version are two very different characters. I'd say they were both self-centered and entitled though. But the young Bobby was a bit naive. He was acting like a spoiled brat at times. But his boyish charm made up for it and he was mostly a good guy. The old Bobby was more cynical and bitter. I guess losing his wives and also not being able to raise his son did that to him. Life has a tendency to change people. It's pretty amazing that we get to follow the same characters for such a long period of time. We got to see them evolve with time.
 
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