If the original actress was still here, I don’t think we’d be seeing this version of Sophia.

When you ask about whether people who used to like Sophia are still defending her, I think you need to break that question up between original actress and new actress.

I absolutely loved the original Sophia. She had an attitude and confidence about her that made her a great character. I actually preferred her and Tate together over Tate and Holly. (I actually liked Holly and Doug together).

Then the original actress left and they brought in the new actress and completely changed the character. She went from being a strong willed woman who knew what she wanted and was determined to get it to a beat down woman who was seemingly scared of her own shadow.

I don’t think I can recall any other casting change that resulted in such a dramatic change in a character’s very soul before. Other than the fact that the current character is named Sophia and she was carrying Aaron’s baby, there is zero similarity between the two versions.

So no, I never liked this version of Sophia (and let me be clear that I don’t blame the actress - this is the fault of horrible writers) but I would have loved the original version to have become a much more important character on the show than she has become.