does this count as meta? idk
WARNING: spoilers up to 2x10 in the body of the text, and possible spoilers in the comments.
NOTE: Please, no bashing of any ship in the comments. Thinking before commenting would be much appreciated. :) A good explanation of what constitutes bashing can be found here.
You know what? I'm tired of these ship wars - especially between Kummers and Klainers. Maybe I'm biased, but from what I've seen on Tumblr and twitter, a bunch of Kummers have decided to give their ship a bad name by badmouthing Klaine, Blaine, Dalton, Darren and Klaine fans, and Klainers have been reacting badly. Rather than just yelling about it on Tumblr and Twitter as I originally felt the urge to do, I instead figured that it would probably be more useful to organise my thoughts about the matter into something semi-coherent. And so this was born. :D I hope I've covered most things; I originally had a whole load more links with articles and interviews, but I ended up taking some out as they were just clogging up the post massively. xD
Will Darren Criss end up being Ryan Murphy's new darling?
At the moment, Darren is pretty much rocketing. He's being interviewed and photographed here, there and everywhere; he's been confirmed as a regular not only for the rest of the current season but for season three as well, as well as being confirmed for the Glee UK Live Tour. RM and co have seen how much money Darren can bring to the table; not only has "Teenage Dream" sold better than any other Glee song yet (selling 214,000 tracks in just its first week, compared to "Don't Stop Believin'" with 177,000), but "Baby, It's Cold Outside" has sold better than any other song on the Glee Christmas album, placing at #57 on the Billboard Hot 100. RM, Matt Morrison and Max Adler also all attended one of Darren's recent concerts at the Roxy - if that doesn't scream that RM thinks Darren's important, then I don't know what will!
Added to that, Darren seems to be the media's sweetheart in relation to Glee at the moment. What with more interviews than the rest of the cast are getting, Darren is getting a lot of exposure, which can only bode well for Blaine and the Klaine relationship. E!Online even started the twitter campaign #kurtblaineKISSalready and AfterElton.com has had Kurt and Blaine winning multiple polls.
The power of the fanbase
A lot of this is down to the fanbase Darren brought over with him from Starkid and "A Very Potter Musical". And for shows like Glee? Fans = money. Darren has a bigger fanbase than Chord does; ergo, Darren makes them more money. No wonder the current predilection of Rm and co is towards Klaine; put simply, it's making them more money than Kum does.
Chris Colfer and Darren Criss
As for the actors and their take on the Klaine relationship? Well, Chris Colfer and Darren Criss have both mentioned how much they like working together (Darren on Chris here) and how they'd like to see a Klaine relationship - Chris Colfer has all but confirmed it with his latest comments about it developing like "a slow photo, not one-hour photo development". Darren has said (in his Rolling Stone interview-in-song) that he is perfectly happy to go along with what RM wants, but that, if a Klaine relationship happens, then he wants it to be earned, natural and sincere.
"I really like Chris a whole lot, we get to geek out a lot of musical theatre things and I think we enjoy a lot of the same things in general. I think both of us strive to be generally fabulous on a day-to-day basis, so that’s something I like to relate to Chris about. [...] He’s like a really playful wood nymph. A wood nymph that’s caught in Chris Colfer’s body. That’s what I would say, because he loves - he’s a really positive, playful guy." -Darren Criss on Chris Colfer
Dalton, the fan reaction and Pavarotti
A key part of making or breaking a character or relationship is the fan reaction, and Blaine appears to be getting both love and hate (although the flack appears to mostly be from Kummers or Kurt-haters). Blaine and Dalton were originally greeted after 2x07 "Never Been Kissed" with open arms and a few shouts of "GAY HOGWARTS!" From the few minutes that we got of Dalton, a whole new subgenre of fandom was created: fanon!Dalton. With fanfics like infraredphaeton 's Spah!Verse and CP Coulter's "Dalton" leading the way, so was born fanon!Wes'n'David, along with LAN parties, Dalton sleepovers and OCs such as CP Coulter's Reed, Dwight, Logan, Shane, Ethan and Evan, and infraredphaeton 's Eric, Liam, Pratik and Harry. The slo-mo hallway became infamous. Discussions about Dalton sprang up everywhere - is it a boarding school? What are the classes like? The teachers? The other students? Unfortunately (for some people, anyway), the reappearance of Dalton in 2x09 "Special Education" led some people to feel let down by the cage-like presentation of canon!Dalton and the distinctly un-Weasley-twin-like Wes and David.
However, 2x09 and canon!Dalton also brought with them Kurt's new pet, Pavarotti. Pavarotti has somehow managed to turn into a Klaine ship mascot despite initial fears that Pavarotti would be accidentally killed by Kurt. Indeed, Pavarotti now has his own twitter, starting up speculation as to the identity of the person behind it and managing to bring to fandom's attention the twitter hi-jinks of the boys behind the Warblers. With this, fandom's love for Dalton was rekindled.
FreePavarotti: Well, what did I tell you? @DarrenCriss tweeted today and it was not the chirping kind of tweet. Clearly we're not the same person. #freePav (9th Dec)
FreePavarotti: You'd think my friend would eventually run out of glitter, and yet somehow it makes its way into my birdseed every morning. #freePav (8th Dec)
FreePavarotti: Giving Blaine boy advice. Poor thing hasn't left his room all afternoon thanks to tonight's #glee episode. I trust you all saw it! #freePav (8th Dec)
That's not to say that everybody loves Dalton. Even those who say that they like Dalton will sometimes express discontent with the current canon!Dalton, and a lot of other people claim that Dalton is a gilded cage and that Kurt needs to get back to McKinley, where he can express himself freely. Personally? I think that that's rubbish. Dalton reminds me a fair bit of my old school, just as Blaine reminds me of myself, and although one of the main qualities of Dalton is conformity and unity, it also gives individual students a chance to shine. It's about getting those who usually shout for attention to speak normally so that others can be heard. I think that Dalton will be a learning experience for Kurt; although I don't doubt that Kurt will go back to McKinley (who does?), I think that he'll go back the better for his time at Dalton. He'll have learnt to express himself without needing to scream or dress quirkily; and although I would never wish for Kurt to stop being his fabulous self, I also think that he needs to stop being so reliant on the shields that his clothes and attitude afford him.
How does Klaine serve the storyline?
That's all very well, I hear you say, but what about the actual storyline? Well, for starters, we already have confirmation of romantic feelings on Kurt's side of things, and are currently waiting for verbal confirmation from Blaine. We have evidence of a strong friendship between the two of them from 2x07 "The Substitute" - they clearly do things together a lot (things that might usually be construed as date-like by some - going to a musical together, anyone?) and their conversation in the restaurant with Mercedes certainly didn't lack animation, even if it bored Mercedes. At the moment, Blaine is playing a mentor/friend role to Kurt and - like Darren has said - that is what Kurt needs right now.
Some people have said that Kurt's feelings for Blaine are purely because Blaine is the first openly gay guy that Kurt has met and, in a way, Blaine was Kurt's knight in shining armour, sweeping in with a charming smile and "rescuing" Kurt from McKinley and Karofsky. I agree that that is most likely to be a large part of it, just as I as I agree that Kurt probably doesn't see much beyond the suave charm quite yet. But I do believe that he will - Blaine has quite a few issues of his own that he needs to work out, and I think that Kurt can help him just as I think Blaine can help Kurt. I think that, once they've got to know and understand each other a bit better, their relationship will be a very supportive and beneficial one, even if that relationship remains platonic.
On the other hand, we have Kum
Sam is portrayed as being a sweet, chivalrous nerd with a love for Avatar and astronomy and who has some body- and image-related issues. At this point, I don't think that Sam needs image-obsessed Kurt and I don't think that Kurt needs somebody who throws himself into fights on Kurt's behalf. It's a sweet idea, but having Sam there to "protect" Kurt isn't going to help Kurt grow; although he's already a very strong person, Kurt needs to understand how to be himself without "yelling" quite so loudly as he currently does. I think that Dalton and Blaine can help him in that respect.
I like Sam. I really do. I think that he's sweet and, if I were into guys, he'd be exactly the sort of guy I would want to date. I agree with people when they say that Sam isn't 100% straight, but I don't think that he's 100% gay, either. Putting it bluntly, making out with Quinn gets him hot. Even if we overlook that as simply teenage boy hormones, I don't quite see what plot purpose it would serve to have Sam 100% gay. By having him not completely straight, we have him there as a "back-up" for Kurt, but if he were completely gay it would a) make it the fourth gay male character this season (which I hasten to add is okay by me personally, but if people are already calling it "the gay show" then adding yet another gay character isn't going to help. Not to mention, where are our fully-fledged lesbians? Even Brittana aren't together any more, and they're considered more bicurious/bisexuals than lesbians) and b) it would add to the idea that only gay men and straight women can have body-issues. At this point, FOX stands to lose more viewers (and therefore money) than they stand to gain by making Sam gay.
I think that Sam was originally planned to be The Boyfriend and that Blaine was just meant to have a short arc, playing the role of mentor and friend to Kurt whilst the Kum storyline developed. I honestly think that that was the starting idea - it's why Sam has always been portrayed as very protective of Kurt and why we got the flirtatious scenes between them in 2x04 "Duets". However, I don't agree that that remains the case; I think that RM and co originally underestimated the draw Darren (and Blaine) would bring. As a result, I can quite honestly say that I don't see Kum happening in the near future. That's not to say that it will never happen; if the Klaine storyline ends up backfiring in some way or if Chord suddenly manages to rise to attention a la Darren, then I don't doubt that RM will use the Kum storyline he had originally intended. But until then, I think that RM recognises the value of Darren and Klaine, and isn't going to be letting go of that any time soon.
Why does it even matter?
I have one last quibble with the whole Kum vs Klaine ship-war thing: why does it even matter? Either way, we're still getting a teenage gay relationship on mainstream, primetime television, which isn't exactly something to be sniffed at. This isn't like the Janto vs Gwack ship-wars of Torchwood, where slash fans stood to lose an iconic gay relationship. No matter who wins, a milestone has still been passed. I am a gay teen and I can promise you that whatever relationship Kurt ends up in, it is going to make a difference to gay teens everywhere. By bringing to our screens not only a gay relationship, but a teenage one as well, they are also being brought into our lives. Whereas gays were just a faceless minority for many people, now they not only have a presence but a face and a voice; the character of Kurt alone and his storylines have done so much already.
So I guess my final point is: stop being so picky. Just appreciate how amazing it is that we can even have this debate. If we're allowed to be picky, then my vote is for Klaine, but I'm not going to throw a temper tantrum if we get Kum instead, as long as Kurt ends up with someone.
NB: AfterElton.com have just released a fantastic article which I feel sums up my feelings pretty well.
Fist-pumping Dan thanks you for your time.