Dallas Character Afton Cooper - the snake in the grass.

[pete lashmar]

Afton, in my opinion was a very nasty character, full of self interest and motivated by power and greed. But she also had the kiss of death.

On arrival she sleeps with J.R, drugs Cliff to get J,R out of the revolution court case, she is then the one that tells cliff about a deal J.R is doing, resulting in Cliff being set up and committing suicide.

If that's not enough, it's her sleeping with that sleazeball to get Cliff his refinery, which resulting in Cliff storming out and his mum getting on a plane and crashing.

And it goes on....she was one of the nastiest characters ever to appear in the show.

And then there's the singing....NASTY!!!

 

[Sarah]

She’s horrid. Shows no remorse for sleeping with JR, then accuses Sue Ellen of trying to steal ‘her man’ (Cliff).

She’s nothing but a vile little hypocrite with a nasty mouth. Her loving Cliff doesn’t change that. He deserved better.

Well said @pete lashmar

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

She learned the right lessons. I wanted her to marry Bobby instead of shrill April.

 

[Barbara Fan]

from an old thread, saves retyping lol

Afton started out as a gold digger who saw $$$$ when her brother married into the Ewing family
But as time evolved and she developed a relationship with Cliff, she changed and she really did love and care for him and looked out for him, despite the fact he treated her dreadfully at times.
She was perceptive, could see though Katherine, sussed that Clayton had feelings for Sue Ellen and after she slept with JR could see that he used and abused people for his own enjoyment

 

[Chris2]

I liked what she evolved into. She was this cynical voice of reason who was able to see things that the other characters should have, but didn’t. Didn’t like her on the reboot, though.

 

[CeeCee72]

I never really cared for her, but I think she was good for Cliff. I softened towards her because of that.

Of course,then when I learned she'd been keeping Cliff's daughter a secret from him for years,I hardened right back up.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I really liked Afton.

Yeah she made a few mistakes in the beginning but she got the measure of JR & was possibly the only character to see through Katherine Wentworth.

I missed her when she left. Great character, but yeah I wasn't a fan of her singing either.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

I really liked Afton.

Yeah she made a few mistakes in the beginning but she got the measure of JR & was possibly the only character to see through entworth.

I missed her when she left. Great character, but yeah I wasn't a fan of her singing either.

Yeah, I liked Afton too. She was one of the wiser characters and remarkably perceptive. She saw through Cliff's act and told him "Compared to you JR Ewing is a saint...You played right into Katherine's hands...You are the coldest man I've ever met."

Before leaving Cliff she realized what he did not and asked him if he thought he placed his trust in the wrong crew. Being the kind of man he was, Cliff said that was ridiculous and that he had one of the best crews around. Naturally, as soon as she steps out of the condo, Cliff calls Jordan Lee and begs him for some help in finding a new crew. Jordan found him new People and that made all the difference because they struck oil. He didn't give Afton any credit because, again, that's the kind of man Cliff was. I was happy for Afton when she left Cliff and only felt bad for her in that she had bothered with him at all.

Afton was also the one who told Pam that Katherine was trying to take Bobby from her. Pam wasn't bright enough to see that Afton was telling the truth. Pam did come home from vacation and lecture Bobby over what he was doing with Katherine. Pam actually had the gall to ask Bobby what Christopher was doing with him. Too bad Bob didn't reply: "I figure at least one of us needs to act like a parent, so yeah, I'm keeping him here."

Had Bobby had the judgement to realize that leaving his son with a woman who tried to jump off the roof of a building, spent time in a mental hospital and then blamed Bobby for her mother dying in a plane crash, was poor judgement at best and irresponsible at worst, he would have kept Christopher.

Afton also helped JR see that Clayton was getting ready to make a move on Sue Ellen. JR had a talk with Clayton and maybe Clayton saw that making Sue Ellen Dusty's stepmother wasn't the brightest idea. As JR said, Clayton sure did have a thing for Ewing women because he went on to marry Miss Ellie. I guess Clayton was satisfied with having gotten at least one of the Ewing women to say "I do."

It's amazing just how much more perceptive Afton was than the rest of the characters. Compared to the other ones, Afton was clairvoyant.

 

[pete lashmar]

Whether you like the character or not, within weeks of arriving in Dallas she was the main instigator of a marriage break-up, an attempted suicide & slept with a businessman so Cliff could close a deal. That's not a person with any kind of moral compass.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

Whether you like the character or not, within weeks of arriving in Dallas she was the main instigator of a marriage break-up, an attempted suicide & slept with a businessman so Cliff could close a deal. That's not a person with any kind of moral compass.

It's not possible to instigate the break-up of a marriage that isn't yours. Afton could flirt with JR, even proposition him, but it's up to him: Does he value his marriage or not? If the answer is "no", what kind of a marriage is it?

Whose suicide did she cause? I don't remember her being involved with one.

She helped Cliff close a deal that he didn't have the wherewithal to be able to close on his own. That she would think so highly of Cliff, that she would make the sacrifice of sleeping with a man she despised, shows low-self esteem on her part more than it shows immorality. If you're arguing that a truly moral woman would never be Cliff's girlfriend for any substantial length of time, then sure Afton's guilty of that.

Still, I find Afton more moral than Cliff, Pam, JR, or Sue Ellen. It's to her credit that unlike many characters, Afton shows an improvement in her morals from her arrival in Dallas to her leaving Cliff when she finally realized that there was nothing any woman could ever do for Cliff that would ever be enough to stop his continual whining and criticism. Cliff was a man devoid of even one consistently displayed redeeming quality.

 

[pete lashmar]

How can she improve her morals when she hid Cliff's own daughter from him for years, that makes no sense at all.

She drugged Cliff to get the court documents for J.R's resvolution trial, which in turn led to a chain of events that brought Cliff down. Then she gets back with Cliff when he has his mother's company, which then turns sour because she she tells Cliff about a deal J.R is doing, leading to Cliff getting the deal, which leads to a chain reaction which results in Cliff attempting suicide.

But at no time does she ever own ownership of anything she's done. She blamed Sue Ellen for the attempted suicide, but she started that chain of events.

The woman has no moral compass.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

How can she improve her morals when she hid Cliff's own daughter from him for years, that makes no sense at all.

She'd been off the show for so long, I forgot about that. Did she return for long? I haven't watched that part of Dallas in a long time. I can only guess, but maybe she was protecting her child from such a negative influence that she thought that justified it.

Looking at how Afton changes from her debut season on the show to her departure in season eight, I see a lot of positive change in her character.

She drugged Cliff to get the court documents for J.R's resvolution trial, which in turn led to a chain of events that brought Cliff down. Then she gets back with Cliff when he has his mother's company, which then turns sour because she she tells Cliff about a deal J.R is doing, leading to Cliff getting the deal, which leads to a chain reaction which results in Cliff attempting suicide.

Cliff wasn't supposed to have those documents because he was working for Bobby then. Bobby was Cliff's boss at the time and when he found out what Cliff did he told Cliff he was finished in politics (which he was), so I see it as Afton righting a wrong and bringing things back around to where they should have been. Remember, that country stole property from American businesses so they were our enemy. JR got the American property back which was something nobody else had been resourceful enough to do.

Afton got back with Cliff after he had been given a new job, so I guess that impressed her. His job turned sour when he embezzled. Afton couldn't have stopped him from embezzling and she sure couldn't make him embezzle. Cliff then betrayed Afton and made a move on Sue Ellen. I don't see Afton has having any responsibility to Cliff after that. Cliff lost the money he embezzled. Sue Ellen wouldn't marry him or bail him out financially, his mother disowned him and he tried to kill himself. I just don't see Afton as the culprit. In fact, despite seeing Sue Ellen behind her back, Afton still saved his life. I guess you could say Cliff owed his life to Afton after that.

 

[pete lashmar]

I see it the other way around, I see a woman who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. A woman who will beg, cheat and steal. A woman with no moral compass and who will sell herself in the process.

But never once did she ever take responsibility for anything she ever did.

Oh...and another thing she's responsible for are batteries for my remote control...her singing forced me to fast forward and run down the batteries on fat too many occasions.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

But never once did she ever take responsibility for anything she ever did.

I think Afton was just being humble and didn't want to be seen as bragging about saving Cliff's life and then saving Bobby's life too.

She did take responsibility for sacrificing herself in that way so that Cliff would get the refinery deal. I think her heart was in the right place in wanting to help her boyfriend, but ideally she'd have come to the realization that if the loser she was with could only put a deal together if she had sex with the refinery owner, then he wasn't the man he claimed to be. If Cliff was so bad at his job that Afton had to go that extreme so he could make a business deal, Cliff needed to find a new line of work.

I see it the other way around, I see a woman who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. A woman who will beg, cheat and steal. A woman with no moral compass and who will sell herself in the process.

I see a woman who heroically helped regain stolen American property from a corrupt country.

I saw a woman made a tragic mistake in selecting Cliff as her boyfriend. Afton was still growing as a woman and had not yet realized that her man was not the man he claimed to be. While she spent more time with Cliff she found out what he was: a self absorbed, ice cold man with no loyalty or integrity.

I saw an unusually perceptive woman. She used her unique gift for perception to help Bobby and Pam by exposing Katherine's intentions. I saw a woman who suggested to Cliff that he had hired a bad crew. Cliff used Afton's suggestion and got a new crew which made all the difference between losing his company and striking it rich. Did Cliff ever give Afton credit for her idea? No. Cliff was a thief. He'd steal from Afton's mind, from her heart and even tried to steal from her purse. No wonder she wouldn't want a child of hers to have any contact with such a an absolute fraud of a man. I'm sure she regretted that it took her so long to learn Cliff's true nature, but she did learn and by finally leaving him was showing she was becoming a wiser, more capable, more self sufficent woman.

Afton was developing into a fine young lady who was building her own career in a competitive environment and had the tenacity to continue to pursue her career goals, succeeding only on her own merits. Her moral compass was improving by leaps and bounds and was now leading Afton in one direction: towards success.

 

[Toni]

Afton had no ability to foresee things others didn´t see. She just thought the worst of everybody around her, and happened to be right about Katherine. When she said that Clayton was in love with Sue Ellen, she was just bitching around. B*tch please (never better said).

 

[Jock's Ghost]

I was always stumped why her and Lucy didnt fight? Aside from a few snarky comments, nothing. Barely interacted. Those two should have been the younger versions of Krystal and Alexis.
As for Mitch, why wasnt he interesting? Make him a gambler that nearly breaks Lucy's fortunes....

 

[Top Jimmy]

Aside from her goofy singing and start as a trampy gold digger, Afton was an awesome character. Yes, it was nasty of her to sleep with JR at her own brother's wedding, and Sarah was right in that she was hypocritical to accuse Sue Ellen of stealing her man. However, as Kenny pointed out, she was perceptive about Katherine's machinations and was loyal to Cliff and Pam. She made mistakes, but Afton evolved and became less selfish and cared for other people. She also saved the lives of Cliff and Bobby. Rebecca thought enough of Afton and her devotion to Cliff that she left her a sizable amount of money in her will. Afton later used a lot of the money to buy a new home for her beloved mother, a humble, simple woman who probably scrimped and saved all her life to feed her kids and put clothes on their backs. Afton later became Cliff's doormat, but was wise enough to leave him. At the time she left him, she realized that all of the money in the world would not compensate for their toxic, one-sided relationship. I think Cliff later regretted how he treated her and pushed away most of the people in his life.

 

[Rove]

I didn't enjoy the character at the beginning. I think this had more to do with casting and her singing scenes. Personally it felt out of place on Dallas and like Pete...

her singing forced me to fast forward

I think the character of Afton might have worked better if she was replaced by Kristin, as played by Mary Crosby. Mary had this natural flare for playing a vixen.

So picture this. Replace every scene featuring Afton with Kristin (minus the singing) and it all kind of works. Instead of the Cooper siblings we have the Shepard siblings; Mitch and Kristin arriving in Dallas to catch up with their sister Sue Ellen.

 

[Kenny Coyote]

Aside from her goofy singing and start as a trampy gold digger, Afton was an awesome character. Yes, it was nasty of her to sleep with JR at her own brother's wedding, and Sarah was right in that she was hypocritical to accuse Sue Ellen of stealing her man. However, as Kenny pointed out, she was perceptive about Katherine's machinations and was loyal to Cliff and Pam. She made mistakes, but Afton evolved and became less selfish and cared for other people. She also saved the lives of Cliff and Bobby. Rebecca thought enough of Afton and her devotion to Cliff that she left her a sizable amount of money in her will. Afton later used a lot of the money to buy a new home for her beloved mother, a humble, simple woman who probably scrimped and saved all her life to feed her kids and put clothes on their backs. Afton later became Cliff's doormat, but was wise enough to leave him. At the time she left him, she realized that all of the money in the world would not compensate for their toxic, one-sided relationship. I think Cliff later regretted how he treated her and pushed away most of the people in his life.

Afton's start was as "a trampy gold digger" and it worked, because if they'd brought her in as a perfectly nice young lady then there's nowhere to take the character but down. Or just have her character stay the same. The way they introduced her was smart and they used that concept again with April, which worked even better because they had such a charismatic actress for the role.

They introduced Afton the way they did, and because they started with her there, there was room for the character to grow into someone much better. It wasn't perfect, because after all she really loved Cliff and that kind of makes you wonder if she's all there. Overall though, I liked Afton and I liked the way she slowly transformed from who she was when they brought her in to who she went on to become.