Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality 2lunarblue21December 10 2014, 00:57:02 UTC
(I have a lot of thoughts/feels on the eps in S5, okay? Please excuse my long rambly meta posts and how many they are lol)
Britta's line: "Don't listen to me, or anyone. Just listen to yourself, and tell yourself the truth," feels more like writerly foreshadowing for Basic Sandwich, especially considering how any J/B motivations in this episode are shown as purely materialistic and Jeff treats Britta like a trophy (GAG) in his interactions with Duncan but he eventually will have to listen to himself and TELL THE TRUTH, and whilst there was no J/B fallout in this episode, in all honesty it came later when Basic Sandwich sunk J/B for good and Jeff tested himself with Raquel and told himself the truth about what feelings he does have and who he really has them for.
Jeff's saying he likes Britta because she was popular kinda skews the perception of S1 though, but I guess Britta was arguably kinda popular then too? But Jeff doesn't even like Britta romantically during Anthro 101 when she humiliates him again and again in front of the entire school and he only goes along with "being in love with" her to win their sick competition. Did the writers ever truly understand where they were trying to go with J/B??? Because it's moments like this plus the other seasons that make me question that they had no idea how to write J/B or even lessen how gross and disgusting it at times can be (mainly because of Jeff, but Britta adds her own problems into it).
The Hickey/Abed bonding storyline is rather decent. Hickey is right that the group has spoiled Abed in a way because they hide him from consquences, and that's allowed Abed to grow more selfish (I kinda view Abed's story arc throughout the series as him becoming more old! Jeff whilst Jeff matures into a new, more selfless Jeff) and uncaring about others' feelings/personal space etc because the group gave him that free rein. Hopefully S6 can let Abed grow and make selfless decisions since he was rather dislikable in S5 (and that was building up from S3) and he needs that growth, and hopefully Yahoo will order more episodes so we can get to see all of the Core Four grow in areas that they need to next season.
The fact that Jeff says that he likes Britta because everyone liking her "turns him on" is in a way really disturbing and I feel like it reflects how Jeff struggles to see Britta as a person (He sees Annie as a person just fine. Britta, on the other hand, well....) since he apparently still sees her as something of an "object" for him to possess (YUCK) going by this episode at least.
"She was mine first." *Rolls eyes* Wow, Jeff, how sexist. And another reason why I don't like J/B because it makes Britta an object for Jeff's enjoyment and Jeff Britta's punching bag.
However, Jeff does stand down for an hour and that alone is pretty fascinating. Here's a meta I found about it: http://lunarblue21.tumblr.com/post/101269894260/awesomethingsandsuch-so-has-anyone-considered and note my tags as well since I think it's possible, since Jeff was feeling so envious in regards to Britta all because her being popular turn him on, it's likely that he set an hour for himself to rid himself of any temptation to make a move on her and he actually holds to it!
I theorised in my tags for that reblog that Jeff is able to hold himself to that so easily because Annie's in his heart, and whilst there was a momentary reignition of his attraction to Britta, he's not even really interested in Britta anymore besides petty things like her popularity "turning him on."
Oh, and re Britta's observations about herself in this ep, I've always felt that the show/Britta herself was very much defined by her love interest role, and when they tried to pull her out of that the transition was clumsy and not very well executed.
However, since Annie was never in the love interest role originally (in S1), she is not defined by any of her romantic relationships (or her friendship-relationships, which Britta feels like she is). She's just Annie. I find it fascinating how Bondage illustrates/points that out.
RE: Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality 2cgkm2099zDecember 10 2014, 18:13:22 UTC
Combining a couple thoughts from your two posts:
It's clear that he wrangles Jeff into coming along so that Jeff can be his wingman (lol).
My understanding of the situation was that Jeff gave Duncan the tip on how to get Britta to go to an event with him, and then the rest was up to Duncan. But then Annie, Shirley and Chang get involved too. Duncan can't very well tell them not to come because that would blow his cover for why he was doing it. Jeff is trying to stay out of it because he was going to let Duncan take his shot with Britta. But Duncan has to pretend to want Jeff to come because ostensibly he's doing it to benefit starving children with cleft pallets, not to get with Britta. Jeff asks Duncan for help because he's getting ripped by the group for not going to the benefit (and he wasn't going because he was trying to help Duncan get alone with Britta). But Duncan can't think of an out for Jeff and can't break cover, so he piles on the guilt trip, but he's shaking his head no while saying it because he wants Jeff to stay out. Jeff gets upset that he's getting crapped on for trying to help Duncan, who then didn't help him out, so he decides to go.
LOL why does Duncan say "God bless you"
It was delivered sarcastically, because really he's frustrated that Jeff is coming along. He didn't want the potential competition. And it was keeping with their cover story on why he's doing it. But the whole exchange is hilariously awkward, leading to Annie's confused: "Cool... so... 7:30?"
Jeff's saying he likes Britta because she was popular kinda skews the perception of S1 though, but I guess Britta was arguably kinda popular then too?
I didn't take his line as meaning this is how he's always felt about Britta. I thought of it as sort of how things had settled between them after their friends-with-benefits relationship ended. And that after they stopped hooking up, he basically didn't have any romantic feelings for her anymore (not sure if I'd even qualify his S2 feelings as romantic). The exception to this seems to be the case of everyone liking her (in this episode and the end of Herstory of Dance) and when he's facing the fear of ending up alone (Basic Story). But even these aren't really romantic feelings, it's Jeff's emotionally flawed reactions. One has to do with his fear of being alone and this one has to do with his vanity/need to be liked.
RE: Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality 2lunarblue21December 10 2014, 18:26:23 UTC
lol, is it just me or are you and I the only ones discussing here really this week? :P Also, thanks for your reply!
Duncan can't very well tell them not to come because that would blow his cover for why he was doing it. Jeff is trying to stay out of it because he was going to let Duncan take his shot with Britta. But Duncan has to pretend to want Jeff to come because ostensibly he's doing it to benefit starving children with cleft pallets, not to get with Britta. Jeff asks Duncan for help because he's getting ripped by the group for not going to the benefit (and he wasn't going because he was trying to help Duncan get alone with Britta). But Duncan can't think of an out for Jeff and can't break cover, so he piles on the guilt trip, but he's shaking his head no while saying it because he wants Jeff to stay out. Jeff gets upset that he's getting crapped on for trying to help Duncan, who then didn't help him out, so he decides to go.
oooh, good point that Jeff was trying to stay out of it as much as he could but then Duncan slipped up and Jeff was roped into it against his will. It almost makes me wonder what he might've done had not Annie persuaded everyone else to come, too. Sure, he says he was just going to stay home, but maybe he would've tried taking a chance with Annie whilst Duncan/Britta were doing their thing but Duncan Britta'd it, as it were.
It was delivered sarcastically, because really he's frustrated that Jeff is coming along. He didn't want the potential competition. And it was keeping with their cover story on why he's doing it. But the whole exchange is hilariously awkward, leading to Annie's confused: "Cool... so... 7:30?"
LOL and it was Duncan's own fault, too, so no wonder he was frustrated, especially since he feels he can't compete with Jeff (as illustrated by the cold open) and then it gets even more awkward with Annie's trying to set the date for it.
I thought of it as sort of how things had settled between them after their friends-with-benefits relationship ended. And that after they stopped hooking up, he basically didn't have any romantic feelings for her anymore (not sure if I'd even qualify his S2 feelings as romantic). The exception to this seems to be the case of everyone liking her (in this episode and the end of Herstory of Dance) and when he's facing the fear of ending up alone (Basic Story). But even these aren't really romantic feelings, it's Jeff's emotionally flawed reactions. One has to do with his fear of being alone and this one has to do with his vanity/need to be liked.
Heh, I wouldn't ever qualify his S2 feelings for Britta as romantic because they weren't at all, honestly. Like I said above, Britta's relation to him during S2 was arguably that of a mistress and that's why the "relationship" dissolves so quickly after it's found out because there is nothing deeper underpinning their reasoning for getting together since it's just to have sex. It's not to share their lives, or their fears, or their struggles with each other. (Again, so shallow.)
And hmm, fascinating how you point out that Jeff seeing Britta so liked hits home because he desperately wants people to like him and so when that happens with Britta, he almost wants to sponge off of it for himself, which, like you said, is very emotionally flawed.
RE: Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality 2cgkm2099zDecember 10 2014, 20:12:54 UTC
lol, is it just me or are you and I the only ones discussing here really this week?
Not sure about anyone else, but I've been having trouble with LiveJournal this week. Yesterday I couldn't get it to load at all until later at night. Monday was spotty. Today seems to be ok though. Not sure what's up.
RE: Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality 2lunarblue21December 10 2014, 20:18:31 UTC
Not sure about anyone else, but I've been having trouble with LiveJournal this week. Yesterday I couldn't get it to load at all until later at night. Monday was spotty. Today seems to be ok though. Not sure what's up.
Well, it hasn't been just you. Not sure about anyone else either, but I've been having "possible service trouble" with Livejournal for the past three days. I'd load a page and the html would be all screwy and all over the place, and just not look right, but it looks like everything's finally returned to normal today and I hope it keeps up.
And another reason why not many people might not be around is because the holidays and people are preparing for Christmas etc.
RE: Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality 2briefan1972December 10 2014, 23:45:26 UTC
Yeah I've been having problems with LJ on and off for almost a week. I'd have a whole bunch of stuff typed up and then it wouldn't load. So I'd copy and paste and it would look weird..... Not sure what was happening there but it SEEMS to be back to normal
RE: Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality 2lunarblue21December 11 2014, 16:21:14 UTC
That's what was happening to me last week! I'd write up a whole post, but then it wouldn't load/send and so I'd have to re-open the same thread I was working on in a new link and retype everything up. It was very vexing.
It seems to be back to normal anyway, and I hope we get a lot of people discussing the last three episodes today and tomorrow since i have lots of thoughts on them (if you want to know more, check out my Twitter lol.)
RE: Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality 2cgkm2099zDecember 11 2014, 22:52:00 UTC
Yeah, I've started typing up all my responses in Word first, then copying them over to avoid having to retype them. Unless it's a short post like this one haha.
RE: Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality 2lunarblue21December 11 2014, 22:56:58 UTC
haha, my workaround for that is typing my responses in the LJ comment box first (except for my In Defence of Jeff Winger meta) and then copying them over to Word as a fallback.
However, I didn't realise that was the best idea at first (since earlier on when the comments wouldn't send I wasn't able to copy-paste them into a new LJ comment) but now I'm falling back into that since it works best and I have experience with saving them to Word because Tumblr's inbox system is preposterous.
Britta's line: "Don't listen to me, or anyone. Just listen to yourself, and tell yourself the truth," feels more like writerly foreshadowing for Basic Sandwich, especially considering how any J/B motivations in this episode are shown as purely materialistic and Jeff treats Britta like a trophy (GAG) in his interactions with Duncan but he eventually will have to listen to himself and TELL THE TRUTH, and whilst there was no J/B fallout in this episode, in all honesty it came later when Basic Sandwich sunk J/B for good and Jeff tested himself with Raquel and told himself the truth about what feelings he does have and who he really has them for.
Jeff's saying he likes Britta because she was popular kinda skews the perception of S1 though, but I guess Britta was arguably kinda popular then too? But Jeff doesn't even like Britta romantically during Anthro 101 when she humiliates him again and again in front of the entire school and he only goes along with "being in love with" her to win their sick competition. Did the writers ever truly understand where they were trying to go with J/B??? Because it's moments like this plus the other seasons that make me question that they had no idea how to write J/B or even lessen how gross and disgusting it at times can be (mainly because of Jeff, but Britta adds her own problems into it).
The Hickey/Abed bonding storyline is rather decent. Hickey is right that the group has spoiled Abed in a way because they hide him from consquences, and that's allowed Abed to grow more selfish (I kinda view Abed's story arc throughout the series as him becoming more old! Jeff whilst Jeff matures into a new, more selfless Jeff) and uncaring about others' feelings/personal space etc because the group gave him that free rein. Hopefully S6 can let Abed grow and make selfless decisions since he was rather dislikable in S5 (and that was building up from S3) and he needs that growth, and hopefully Yahoo will order more episodes so we can get to see all of the Core Four grow in areas that they need to next season.
The fact that Jeff says that he likes Britta because everyone liking her "turns him on" is in a way really disturbing and I feel like it reflects how Jeff struggles to see Britta as a person (He sees Annie as a person just fine. Britta, on the other hand, well....) since he apparently still sees her as something of an "object" for him to possess (YUCK) going by this episode at least.
"She was mine first." *Rolls eyes* Wow, Jeff, how sexist. And another reason why I don't like J/B because it makes Britta an object for Jeff's enjoyment and Jeff Britta's punching bag.
However, Jeff does stand down for an hour and that alone is pretty fascinating. Here's a meta I found about it: http://lunarblue21.tumblr.com/post/101269894260/awesomethingsandsuch-so-has-anyone-considered and note my tags as well since I think it's possible, since Jeff was feeling so envious in regards to Britta all because her being popular turn him on, it's likely that he set an hour for himself to rid himself of any temptation to make a move on her and he actually holds to it!
I theorised in my tags for that reblog that Jeff is able to hold himself to that so easily because Annie's in his heart, and whilst there was a momentary reignition of his attraction to Britta, he's not even really interested in Britta anymore besides petty things like her popularity "turning him on."
Oh, and re Britta's observations about herself in this ep, I've always felt that the show/Britta herself was very much defined by her love interest role, and when they tried to pull her out of that the transition was clumsy and not very well executed.
However, since Annie was never in the love interest role originally (in S1), she is not defined by any of her romantic relationships (or her friendship-relationships, which Britta feels like she is). She's just Annie. I find it fascinating how Bondage illustrates/points that out.
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It's clear that he wrangles Jeff into coming along so that Jeff can be his wingman (lol).
My understanding of the situation was that Jeff gave Duncan the tip on how to get Britta to go to an event with him, and then the rest was up to Duncan. But then Annie, Shirley and Chang get involved too. Duncan can't very well tell them not to come because that would blow his cover for why he was doing it. Jeff is trying to stay out of it because he was going to let Duncan take his shot with Britta. But Duncan has to pretend to want Jeff to come because ostensibly he's doing it to benefit starving children with cleft pallets, not to get with Britta. Jeff asks Duncan for help because he's getting ripped by the group for not going to the benefit (and he wasn't going because he was trying to help Duncan get alone with Britta). But Duncan can't think of an out for Jeff and can't break cover, so he piles on the guilt trip, but he's shaking his head no while saying it because he wants Jeff to stay out. Jeff gets upset that he's getting crapped on for trying to help Duncan, who then didn't help him out, so he decides to go.
LOL why does Duncan say "God bless you"
It was delivered sarcastically, because really he's frustrated that Jeff is coming along. He didn't want the potential competition. And it was keeping with their cover story on why he's doing it. But the whole exchange is hilariously awkward, leading to Annie's confused: "Cool... so... 7:30?"
Jeff's saying he likes Britta because she was popular kinda skews the perception of S1 though, but I guess Britta was arguably kinda popular then too?
I didn't take his line as meaning this is how he's always felt about Britta. I thought of it as sort of how things had settled between them after their friends-with-benefits relationship ended. And that after they stopped hooking up, he basically didn't have any romantic feelings for her anymore (not sure if I'd even qualify his S2 feelings as romantic). The exception to this seems to be the case of everyone liking her (in this episode and the end of Herstory of Dance) and when he's facing the fear of ending up alone (Basic Story). But even these aren't really romantic feelings, it's Jeff's emotionally flawed reactions. One has to do with his fear of being alone and this one has to do with his vanity/need to be liked.
Reply
Duncan can't very well tell them not to come because that would blow his cover for why he was doing it. Jeff is trying to stay out of it because he was going to let Duncan take his shot with Britta. But Duncan has to pretend to want Jeff to come because ostensibly he's doing it to benefit starving children with cleft pallets, not to get with Britta. Jeff asks Duncan for help because he's getting ripped by the group for not going to the benefit (and he wasn't going because he was trying to help Duncan get alone with Britta). But Duncan can't think of an out for Jeff and can't break cover, so he piles on the guilt trip, but he's shaking his head no while saying it because he wants Jeff to stay out. Jeff gets upset that he's getting crapped on for trying to help Duncan, who then didn't help him out, so he decides to go.
oooh, good point that Jeff was trying to stay out of it as much as he could but then Duncan slipped up and Jeff was roped into it against his will. It almost makes me wonder what he might've done had not Annie persuaded everyone else to come, too. Sure, he says he was just going to stay home, but maybe he would've tried taking a chance with Annie whilst Duncan/Britta were doing their thing but Duncan Britta'd it, as it were.
It was delivered sarcastically, because really he's frustrated that Jeff is coming along. He didn't want the potential competition. And it was keeping with their cover story on why he's doing it. But the whole exchange is hilariously awkward, leading to Annie's confused: "Cool... so... 7:30?"
LOL and it was Duncan's own fault, too, so no wonder he was frustrated, especially since he feels he can't compete with Jeff (as illustrated by the cold open) and then it gets even more awkward with Annie's trying to set the date for it.
I thought of it as sort of how things had settled between them after their friends-with-benefits relationship ended. And that after they stopped hooking up, he basically didn't have any romantic feelings for her anymore (not sure if I'd even qualify his S2 feelings as romantic). The exception to this seems to be the case of everyone liking her (in this episode and the end of Herstory of Dance) and when he's facing the fear of ending up alone (Basic Story). But even these aren't really romantic feelings, it's Jeff's emotionally flawed reactions. One has to do with his fear of being alone and this one has to do with his vanity/need to be liked.
Heh, I wouldn't ever qualify his S2 feelings for Britta as romantic because they weren't at all, honestly. Like I said above, Britta's relation to him during S2 was arguably that of a mistress and that's why the "relationship" dissolves so quickly after it's found out because there is nothing deeper underpinning their reasoning for getting together since it's just to have sex. It's not to share their lives, or their fears, or their struggles with each other. (Again, so shallow.)
And hmm, fascinating how you point out that Jeff seeing Britta so liked hits home because he desperately wants people to like him and so when that happens with Britta, he almost wants to sponge off of it for himself, which, like you said, is very emotionally flawed.
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Not sure about anyone else, but I've been having trouble with LiveJournal this week. Yesterday I couldn't get it to load at all until later at night. Monday was spotty. Today seems to be ok though. Not sure what's up.
Reply
Well, it hasn't been just you. Not sure about anyone else either, but I've been having "possible service trouble" with Livejournal for the past three days. I'd load a page and the html would be all screwy and all over the place, and just not look right, but it looks like everything's finally returned to normal today and I hope it keeps up.
And another reason why not many people might not be around is because the holidays and people are preparing for Christmas etc.
Reply
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It seems to be back to normal anyway, and I hope we get a lot of people discussing the last three episodes today and tomorrow since i have lots of thoughts on them (if you want to know more, check out my Twitter lol.)
Reply
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However, I didn't realise that was the best idea at first (since earlier on when the comments wouldn't send I wasn't able to copy-paste them into a new LJ comment) but now I'm falling back into that since it works best and I have experience with saving them to Word because Tumblr's inbox system is preposterous.
Reply
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