katharienne:

crindywithclubsauce:

I’ve been thinking about Gossip Girl a lot during it’s hiatus; in particular, why I’m not enjoying this season. And I think I’ve finally pinpointed the reason.

I never thought I’d say this, but my problem with Gossip Girl is Blair Waldorf. Today on my dash, someone posted something, complaining about the Dair fans that were insisting that Chair fans didn’t care about Blair as an individual.

I read this and immediately wanted to disagree, but when I thought about it, I realized for me, personally, this statement was right. 

If I’m being totally honest, I don’t care about Blair Waldorf as much as I used to. Her characterization this season has been awful, and I have been finding it very hard to be sympathetic towards her. I’m not endeared to her anymore, which means I can’t really enjoy her.

My sympathy for her vulnerable side, allowed me to turn away from every bad thing she’s done. For instance, when she hazed a teacher, I could ignore it, because she was messed up after putting her heart on the line, and being rejected by Chuck.

However, this season I’ve seen her as a self-centered, immature princess - literally. Her storylines have been more unrealistic than ever, and I can’t relate to her, or even feel sorry for her.

Blair vs. Happiness

Everyone on the show is always talking about “Blair’s happiness” and how important it is for Blair to be happy. But what about the other characters? What makes Blair - the manipulative, materialistic Queen B - so special?

I don’t understand why everyone thinks it is so important for this character in particular to find happiness, when there are five other main characters, and some of these characters are actually much better people than Blair.

Take Serena, for example. Yeah, she had a hard time when she was mixed up with drugs and booze, and thought she killed a guy, but she’s only human. People are allowed to make mistakes, and when you’re a product of Serena’s environment, you’re likely to make more mistakes than most.

Her only real flaw is her flakiness. She flits between friends, boyfriends, jobs, cities, whenever she feels like it. She often hurts people with her decision-making, but she always tries to make amends. She hasn’t banished people from New York, hasn’t hazed a teacher - she slept with her best friend’s boyfriend one time, but that’s ancient history. Other than Nate, she’s probably the nicest person on this show; certainly the nicest female.

So, why does no one care about Serena’s happiness? The last time I checked, the show was supposed to be focused on both of the girls, but it seems that everyone is so concerned with Blair’s happiness - Blair included - that no one stops to think about how Serena is feeling. And that is a huge flaw in the writing.

I think that after 5x11, people wanted Blair to find happiness more than ever. She’d lost Chuck and she’d lost her baby, but because of the lazy writing, I once again, felt no sympathy for her. We didn’t see her grieve for her child, but we did see her drinking and partying and getting arrested.

The GG writers can do death; they handled it very well in season 2 when Bart died, but this tragic loss wasn’t given any screen time. In fact, it was almost as if Blair hadn’t been pregnant at all.

OLD HABITS DIE HARD

Problems also arise when you think about Blair’s behavior this season. She has schemed against Chuck, while pregnant and engaged, just to prove to Dorota that she was right about him. At this point in the season, Louis was still the more sensible option for her. He was the father of her child, and he could offer her stability. She loved him and wanted to marry him - so why couldn’t she just be happy with what she had?

In my opinion, this scheming was pointless, as she gained nothing from it. She risked her relationship, and completely ignored the fact that she was about to be a mother - and should therefore, be more mature - just to prove herself right. If she does this, why should I feel sorry for her when Louis also schemed in 5x08? He was only doing something that she was also guilty of.

THE END OF THE AFFAIR?

The pact with God while always go down as the most ridiculous storyline in GG history. At least when Serena thought she had killed someone, we got a damn good episode out of it. 5x11 was abysmal, and this SL truly killed the Waldorf we once knew and loved.

In 5x10, Blair actually told Dan that she would rather stay in an unhappy relationship with Louis, than be alone. This was a very similar conversation to 5x02: Convinced that she was going to “be alone” if she did the paternity test, and would only have Dan to depend on (what about Serena, your best friend for the last decade?), she cried on his shoulder and refused to open the results in the following episode.

What the hell happened to the strong, independent Blair Waldorf, of seasons 1-4? Did she lose all of her self-awareness in Monaco, over the summer? She is a New York socialite, with a maid and a trust fund, not a single mom with little money and  low-paying job. She could raise a child on her own if she really needed to, and the former Blair was strong enough to do it. It made no sense for her to feel this way. 

After being involved in a car crash, that occurred after Blair made a decision about  the men in her life, she made a pact with God. This is the stupidest thing that has ever happened on GG, not only for the story, but because of Blair’s OOC actions.

No one makes decisions for Blair Waldorf - not even God.

As a result of this pact, Blair continued with her wedding to Louis. In other words, she used him. She couldn’t be with Chuck, but she didn’t want to be alone, so Louis was her only option. She was prepared to marry a man she didn’t really love, and allowed him to think that she truly wanted him.

Sure, Louis wasn’t a stand-up guy, but did he really deserve to be trapped in a marriage to a woman who didn’t care for him the way a wife should? No, he didn’t. He could have found someone else, someone who did love him, and married them.

Instead, he married Blair, because she was selfish and scared of being on her own. Of course, when it was revealed that their marriage was a sham, everyone hit out at Louis. He got called dozens of names, and will always be the most hated guest star ever.

I hate him, too, and I’m not defending him or his actions, but when you put the situation into simpler terms, he was using her, the same way she was using him. He just found out that his fiancée loved another man, more than she loved him. That has to hurt. I felt a little less hostility towards him when I realized this. 

DYLAN & CLAIRE

I get it, Dair has a strong fanbase and people wanted to see a romantic relationship play out, so the writers went with it. I wasn’t that pleased about the idea, but the storylines aren’t going to make everyone happy. It’s impossible.

The writers had a great opportunity to write a simpler romantic storyline for Blair, when they introduced Dan as romantic potential for her. They failed to do this. With all the chaos in the first-half of the season, what could have been a good thing, has become contrived and actually makes very little sense.

They have written Dair at the expense of the show’s background, and Blair’s character. Why did they re-write history to make Dair happen? It could have happened naturally, on their own terms, without bringing up past events that no one ever saw, and find hard to believe actually happened. It also could have played out, without Blair being so selfish.

She ran away with Dan in 5x13, despite pushing Serena to tell him how she felt earlier in the episode. She insulted Serena - “says the girl in the Constance uniform” - after Dan kissed her in 5x15. And then, in 5x16, she kissed him after she had told Serena that she felt nothing for him, and kissed him again, in front of S, while her grandma was dying a few feet away.

Never, ever, in a million years would Blair Waldorf pre-season 5, have pursued a relationship with Dan, at the expense of her friendship with Serena. The writers tried to wrap it up neatly by having Serena give them her “blessing” in 5x16, but it was bullshit, and so is this characterization of Blair.

I want her to be bitchy and self-centered, but with a heart. It used to work so well. Can’t we get this back? I don’t know what they’ve done to her, but I hope they can fix her, because I miss the Blair Waldorf that I used to love. She was once one of my main reasons for watching, and now she’s my reason for turning off.

“When did everything get so screwed up?” - Blair Waldorf, 2x19

My thoughts exactly.

A great, insightful rant. I think you really try to be objective about all of it - as much as being a shipper allows anyone objectivity - and I love you for it. I especially agree with the part about Dair not being written well in season 5. How did they went through the fun frenemy relationship from season 4 that so many people, even not Dair fans, enjoyed, to this is beyond me. It would be ridiculously easy to take their relationship to the next, romantic level from that point and even though it’s impossible to make everybody happy with the story lines, even I would begrudgingly admit that I saw it coming. Right now, Dair is as nearly as dramatic as Chair but without the tragic past.

I also really like your thoughts on Blouis, since I’ve realized the very same thing. How much can a man take from a woman he loves, before he breaks? I think that we should at least try to look as Louis’ character from that point of view and admit, that it was ultimately Blair who ruined their relationship. And Louis? Well, in the end, he just wasn’t the bigger person, I guess.

The more shit Serena gets from the writers, the more I feel for her. Especially that this year, she really didn’t do anything to deserve this. And really, there were so many ways in which Blair could pursue relationship with Dan without being out-right cruel to her (former, really) best friend. All she had to do was talk to her, really talk and explain things, then give Serena some time to adjust to the thought of Dan not being in love with her any more and in the end, as small courtesy, not flounce her new-found happiness in Serena’s face. Would it be really that hard to not kiss him in front of her? To refrain to holding his hand?

To wrap this is up, I believe that the most important message in you post was: if the writing sucks, the show sucks as a whole. All it takes is to write some characters and story lines a little differently, to make them work. Reading fanfiction for, well, eight years or so, taught me one thing: you can make every pairing and every idea work, if you write it well.

If you don’t, it doesn’t matter if you’re a professional - your stuff is just like the worst of bad!fics.

(Source: cliffpantones)