grizeldarapunzel:

I seriously won’t ever get season 5 of gossip girl and it infuriates me to no end.

“its like he peered into my soul”

It’s like they were begging you to root for Dan just with that scene, with that simple sentence. You had three options.

You had the the guy who treated you terribly and being…

Well put, though Blaine from Pretty in Pink will never, ever, be comparable to Chuck Bass.

Diamonds, dissonance and disillusion: A Farewell to Gossip Girl 

newyorkdarlings:

Maybe our greatest downfall was our all too late failure to recognize that, under the pretense of being a deliciously scandalous and excessively extravagant alternate universe to satisfy our secret Park Avenue Princess desires, Gossip Girl inadvertently become a depiction of the ugliest of truths, the darkest of human characterizations, and the most cynical of worlds - nothing less, and certainly, nothing more.

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A look at 6.02 through questions 

Finally watching last week’s Gossip Girl. Is it weird that I’m liking Steven and Serena? Can Chuck’s mumbling possibly get more worse this season? Will Blair ever become a fully-formed adult? Will she stop revolving her world around Chuck? Will I ever care about these Bass dealings or Blair’s shenanigans? Could the actors look anymore disinterested in their roles? And will everyone wake up and see that Nelly Yuki is the real winner?

Gossip Girl; The End 

I can’t say that I am shedding tears over Gossip Girl’s end. But I will say that I have spent over five years watching the show, and a smaller portion of that time 100% engrossed in the Dair fandom. I regret trusting the writer’s. I regret believing that a man behind The O.C. wouldn’t allow for such a disgraceful couple to be totted as a root-able romance. But I don’t regret being a part of the overall Gossip Girl fandom. Nor do I not cherish the memories I’ve had of the show, as much as the people I’ve shared them with.

And that day when I first watched Bad News Blair I assuredly don’t regret making the choice to ship Dan and Blair as a viable couple. I do however wish I had a crystal-ball to look into Chuck and Blair’s darkest futures because there was once a moment when I believed they could have actually been epic.

But all this said, it was a part of my television life. It taught me valuable lessons in shipping. It warned me never to watch a new project that Stephanie Savage and Josh Shwartz have creative control over ever again. But it gave me one of my best-loved ships and a lot of warm memories.

Here’s to the end!

Two weddings, unearned 

I think what is bothering me in this sea of spoilers, is the laziness of it all. To have nearly all of your early established pairings married off in the finale shows more than mere pandering but a complete lack of ideas. There’s little realism to the characters and a lack of true growth. It’s easy for the writers - but they [these couples] haven’t had the proper back-story, beyond the earliest seasons, to sustain these couples getting married. It hasn’t been earned. I know the season hasn’t finished. That’s a fair statement. But I’m uncertain how all the story that fell between the then and the now could be worked out in such a way this season that would warrant either of this couples to actually wed, ever! That is I can’t think of a way that would rectify the past without ignoring it.

I was just reflecting about the comment in Savage and Goodman’s interview where they suggest that Blair now realizes she needs Chuck. She needed someone to hold hands with; someone who would lover her dark and her light. She needed pure and simple love. And I say these things because they are the very things Blair wanted, or needed.

In the post-apocalyptic mess of the hotel fiasco, Chuck’s anger issues, and even her miscarriage and divorce from Louis, her needs and priorities changed. She wasn’t content on settling for pain and damage in the constructs of love. And she wasn’t content on lessening herself any longer. She knew she had lost herself between being sold for a hotel and selling out for the tiara. So why should she need Chuck - the man who has brought her as much pain and suffering as he has so called love and happiness? Why would she position herself back to one of the instigators of her problems?

It has no logical explanation other than she’s still trapped in her own misery and perhaps self-loathing, unable to see beyond; to see the truth. I can only hope that it all comes crashing, another final blow to her senses, so she once and for all sees that she doesn’t need Chuck. She needs to love herself enough to know she shouldn’t settle for less than what she truly requires and what she herself once claimed to want.

Dan Humphrey; Blair Waldorf 

Having just re-watched the one lone Dair scene in the Gossip Girl finale, I have to affirm that I totally understand where Dan was coming from. {Just in this moment. I’m still completely bewildered by the Serena scenes.} Call it a ultimatum if you must, but that negates the point. He’s not trying to force some confession of love out of her, or even a simple I love you. He’s forcing her hand to be honest. He just needs to know for his own sanity where she stands and the ramifications of it all before he gets in deeper. Why would he want to spend the entire summer with a woman who is still questioning and processing her love for Chuck. What would that say about him if he just willfully ignores the disconnect Blair had with his, “I love you” and goes to Italy with her with this looming question over his head, and the possibility of Blair being only half-present? Whether or not she loves Dan is almost irrelevant to the fact that she’s still hung-up on Chuck. And it’s irrelevant to the fact that she can’t even be open and brave enough to tell Dan the truth, whatever that truth is.

Dan was strong enough to face their issues head-on, never skirting away even when she tried to, while Blair was nothing more than a coward. And it was proved again by her inability to tell Dan to his face she was breaking up with him to go chasing after Chuck.

He had been the one to be a coward by sleeping with Serena, but it’s clear Blair wanted it all and was too scared to take the consequences. She wanted to affirm her still alive feelings for Chuck, and not lose her best friend. The shame is that above all this, all the things she’s lost, she lost herself. But perhaps she’s been lost along - and no Dan or Chuck can bring her the happiness and contentment she’s constantly searching for and running from all in the same stance.

Season 5 Finale recap: I had to watch that torterous episode 4 times to write this so somebody better read it and comment. :) please? 

tellmewhatwouldmakeyouhappy:

I don’t know what there is left to say since I went on a bender and wrote like 10 mini recaps/rants, but here I go anyway. This took a while to write because I had to stop every now and then and wait for the nausea to subside so I could continue writing.

This has a little of everything, character analysis, a little rant about CB abuse, about DB cheating, about DS sex, some theories/spec for next season. Some graphics to pretty things up that are not mine. Mostly, it just tries to rationalize what the f*** happened in this episode. It’s not as pessimistic as you might think. And it’s also longer then usual.

FYI, in the five stages of grief, I seem to be spanning anger, bargaining, and acceptance all at one. So I guess, keep that in mind when reading. I seem to go back into denial from time to time, no surprise since it is my go-to coping mechanism, but that’s neither here nor there.

On with the craptastic show!!!

Under the cut as usual.

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This gives me hope! Hope of all things. Hope, the one thing I don’t need because this show will crash and dash once again come next season and I’ll be left with a mending heart broken once again.

That aside, this was wonderfully written. So spot on, aside from it possibly giving the writers too much credit.

Kindly shut your mouths, Dair fandom. 

chairtomytable:

Gossip Girl is a television show, it is fictional, and you don’t need to get your panties in a twist because Dair didn’t last. Your pseudo-feminism is disgusting.

• Every 9 seconds in the US, a woman is assaulted or beaten.
• Around the world at least 1 in every 3 women has been beaten in her lifetime. Most often, the abuser is a member of her own family.
• Nearly 1 in 5 teenage girls who have been in a relationship said a boyfriend threatened violence or self-harm.
• Domestic violence victims lose nearly 8 million days of paid work per year in the US alone - that’s the equivalent of 32,000 full-time jobs.

Most of these women never seek help.

Fight for them. Petition for them. Try to change their lives.

Don’t try to change fiction. Change fact.

I won’t speak for the whole fandom, but this is exactly what I’m trying to do.

I never asked for Dan and Blair to ride off into the UES sunset with wedding bands, holding their new born baby. Further more I never asked for them to be endgame, or other such nonsense. I’m not even mad that they are telling Chuck and Blair’s story. I’m mad because they are selling it as some root-able love story, that somehow Blair groveling for Chuck’s love is somehow romantic. It’s irresponsible. And it was irresponsible to not show a PSA with the events of late season four.

Daytime soaps opera are further removed from reality than most of primetime soap operas, but I’ve still seem more care and regard to such issues. And yes, they’ve aired countless PSA’s for a number of issues, including rape, abuse, etc.

I know all the campaigning in the world against abuse is not going to change the writer’s choices or creative decision about Dair. This isn’t even the point. But if this campaign can impact the real world positively in any capacity than that is a good thing. If it also leads to the writers to take the messages it’s sending out to it’s viewers about abuse more seriously too then fine. But I’m not holding out for it.

Forget the writers, what message are we sending as viewers about abuse? 

I’m deeply sadden by those claiming to have experienced abuse in their relationships, are not calling out Chuck and Blair’s canon relationship for what it is.

I’m not denying she never appeared to be happy with Chuck. I’m not denying their chemistry. I’m not denying that he at times had led her to feel powerful. But how does any of this negate all the time she wasted in tears over being hurt and degraded? Forget that he tried to sell her for a hotel. Let’s remember that she felt low enough of herself to whore herself out for Chuck without even yet knowing what Chuck was working with Jack. What is healthy about Blair coming back to a relationship that led her down her lowest points?

And you can hold your arguments, because nothing you say will convince me that Chuck wasn’t physically abusive in the near end of season four. He violently shook her, threw her off, then with all the rage in his eyes, nearly struck her, but instead hit a stain-glass window that could of done far more damage to Blair then a mere cut on her cheek.

And so he went to therapy for a brief amount of time with a woman who was being paid to manipulate him I might add. And so he apologized. But it’s been made clear in the finale, and a number of other times outside of that moment in all seasons that he can’t control his temper. How long till he’s screwed over again by his father? How long till he doesn’t get what he wants? How long till Blair disappoints him? How long till any of these things before he lashes out for no other reason than he’s Chuck Bass. And no I’m not making light of his family issues or the poor picture of love he had as a child up in to the present tense. But this is not an excuse. It’s not a justified cause for outright abuse. The only way I could even be remotely sympathetic is if he suffered from mental illness, like bi-polar disorder. And even then I’d suggest he get treatment before entering into any relationship.

If you have an attachment to a Chuck and Blair that only existed in brief for the early part of the series, or are trying to hold on to some ideal of who you want them to be that’s fine. But for someone who had endured abuse, and even for those who haven’t, how can you seek to root for them in the canon of the show’s last season?

You don’t have to ship Dan and Blair - you just have to want Blair to be loved without pain and suffering - without being demeaned and made to feel worthless.

dair-you-to-love-me:

What I get from this still, and from pretty much every Dair scene since ‘It Girl Interrupted’ is that Blair loves Dan. Saying I love you is one of the hardest thing for a girl to do. Giving yourself to someone completely is scary and it puts you in a vulnerable position to have everything taken away from you. For Blair, when she says I love you. She means it and she means it with all her heart. Her relationship with Nate wasn’t meant to be and when she first told Chuck she loved him, he rejected her at first. For them I love you was a game. With Dan, she’s already bared her heart and soul to him. Dan knows her. Every bit of her and for Blair that’s more then anyone and its one of her ways of saying ‘I need you. I love you’. When Dan told her he loves her and she didn’t say it back, it wasn’t because she doesn’t love him. Its because she wants to be completely certain this time when she says those three little words. With Dan the simple words I love you isn’t a game to Blair. With Dan, I love you will be the most important words she’s ever said to anyone. Dan has been in love with Blair for over a year so for him, it was the right time to tell Blair he loves her but it wasn’t the right time for Blair to say it back. She will get there. She will tell Dan she loves him too and when she does it will be even more special because of the fact that she waited for the exact right moment. Just look at it like this. Every episode since they got together Blair has never looked more happy, radiant or beautiful and that’s all because of her relationship with Dan. Dan did that for her. So really, how could not love him? How could she not choose him?

The DB relationship is moving slowly 

msclockwatcher:

They are tackling little things in a very honest manner and while imo, the issues last week were dumb given that DB have known each other intimately for a year and it hasn’t been a problem for them at all, I do like that the writers are showing how they try to overcome them. In a way, it looks like they haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the DB romance so I hope it means we’re in for the long haul. 

And for all the cries for more passion (they do kiss every episode), I think we need to remember that just because the audience might say this doesn’t mean the characters think this. After all, they had sex like four times in one day and both felt pretty confident that their sex life was fine. So this might be a problem with the writing and the wish to compartmentalize everything instead of having a little bit of everything in each episode. 

Regardless, I’m quite happy with the progress. We are getting to see the happy times before the angst kicks in and something tells me that they are building DB up to be strong enough to tackle anything. 

ITA! - It’s absolutely an issue of compartmentalizing by the writers. We end up with the sex episode. It tells you - shows you - their sex issues have worked out, and thus feel no obligation to further expand on it. We are left to assume they had sex that night in 5.20 or presume they aren’t having sex at all at the Waldorf residence because of Serena (not sure which here) - but either way, we are to just assume they are still having sex (good sex) in the moments left unscripted.

The problem though, is that while I feel it unnecessary to literally show them having sex every week at the expense of everything else why can’t we see more intimacy weaved in to the ordinary moments of their relationship? The final scene with them having intellectual back and forth about art and culture in bed could of easily been infused with some touching, casual flirtations, especially to balance off what came off as domesticated interactions through most of the episode.

The episode unfairly broad-stroked them as the pretentious, intellectual, couple. But they were two people who merged their lives together in the first place because of their love for Serena. There is far more to them - what attracts them to each other - then mere matching intellect. But again this is one aspect to their relationship defined as a theme to one episode. By this Monday we’ll have moved on to another component.

newyorkdairlings:

To those saying Blair has changed - she really has not. Not the core elements of her personality. I mean, of course she has changed in some aspects (as you do when you, you know, grow up) - she’s less uptight, snobby, judgmental and materialistic. You may say that this is what defines her character but that’s a hugely one-dimensional way of looking at it. Blair is not about designer labels and schemes - she’s ambitious, a perfectionist, likes to be in control, likes to be the best at everything and avidly pursues her dreams and happy ever after; the other elements are by-products of these or minor facets of her personality.  It’s so superficial that people think Blair has changed just because she’s now venturing into Brooklyn because god forbid you step foot outside the handful of streets on the upper east side. She’s still Blair, but has realised that her dreams and her idea of happiness have changed.

I don’t understand how people accept and congratulate Chuck and Serena when they changed but it’s just unacceptable for Blair to change in the slightest and markedly for the better. Perhaps it’s because she’s moving further and further away from the angsty, sad, weak, dependent, low self-esteem Blair that she was the majority of the time when she was with Chuck - and Chair shippers don’t like this because they can no longer picture this current, happy Blair with Chuck. Lastly, Blair didn’t change for Dan - she changed because of him.

So about those spoilers … 

1. How awesome is Carolyn? No seriously, I would personally hug her if I ever met her.

2.When first processing the spoilers and the call sheet, all I could take from it is that Dan and Blair will likely have been together for roughly seven episodes if you include 5.17. I needed a moment on that one.

3.Now that I’ve had some time to reflect on everything else. Rome. Dan is going to Rome and wants Blair to come with him. You know, I’ve had this odd fantasy about them running away to Boston for the summer. But I’ll settle for Rome.

4.Dan. Blair. Loft. Morning. - Yes she is sleeping over. Again, I needed a moment. Blair, queen of the upper east side is sleeping over in Brooklyn. But as we all know, it’s not Brooklyn she’s there for.

5.So, Blair’s diary will be released, I’m guessing, initially not having positive impact on Dan and Blair. But I would like to hope, that some where in those pages is a whole lot of Blair writing about having feelings for Dan since season four. You know pretty much everything she was in denial about and kept hidden is in those pages, just like Dan’s feelings for her lied in the pages of “Inside”.

6.I don’t know what’s beyond these spoilers. And I won’t even begin to speculate about all that unconfirmed news floating around. But I’m punch-drunk over knowing they are going to have a fully realized relationship that will last through most of the rest of the season. My unconventional, underdog ship, is happening, will happen, and may even be endgame. Sometimes I still feel like I’m wrapping my head around it. But it brings me great joy.