How will Jeff and Annie Get Together?: Discussion and Fic Challenge

[nevr0s]

We all know it's going to happen. Five years of sexual tension and character development have led up to it. Jeff and Annie will (hopefully) end up together in season six. But how will it happen?

[Spoiler (click to open)]

• Will Jeff switch roles with Annie, hopelessly pining over her?
• Will he continue trying to deny his feelings for her, only to reveal them in an extremely

Comments

[thesicko1012]

Oh yeah, I am definitely writing a fic for this (or at least formulating idea for a fic that will never be published because I suck at sticking to fics). It's a Jeff pining one. :)

At this point I don't really know what to expect the writers to do. Probably none of the above even though you covered a lot of bases, besides J/A not happening at all. They are gonna throw us for a loop, I'm pretty sure.

[nevr0s]

Yeah, I have no idea what to expect either, which is why it's fun to theorize! Though I'm pretty sure that it will be in some cray plot-line, just like most of their other moments (debate, model-UN, conspiracy theories, alternate timelines, ass-crack bandit). And Abed will have something very meta to say about dragging it out so long.

[briefan1972]

I'm not sure I want to attempt writing a fic based on this, but I'll sure as hell read what anyone else throws out there

[jmunney]

Well, we know of at least one occasion when Dan was inspired by shippers...

So, surely, he's aware that the shipping community exists, and I'm also sure he's aware that J/A fanfiction exists. Whether he's read it is anyone's guess. I get the sense that the online venues where he has most often interacted with fans would be Reddit and Twitter. There's some shipping on the former, and there's definitely shipping on the latter. Ultimately, I think Dan is inspired by shippers' enthusiasm, though probably not too much by fic or anything of that nature. And I think that's a good thing. While I think TV writers should take note of fan reaction, fic should generally remain its own thing outside of the show itself.

[jmunney]

There seems to be a sentiment among a lot of people that if Jeff immediately confesses his feelings to Annie, she should play hard to get for a bit. And I get that; what with how much he's denied, she'd be well within reason to be skeptical. But let's remember that they've never actually been a couple, so Jeff pursuing Britta and just generally not pursuing Annie can't legitimately be considered betrayals. So I think Jeff deserves some guff, but within reason. Ultimately, I would want Annie's dual nature of tough and romantic to come into play here. There has to be a way for her to still believe that she and Jeff can have a storybook romance without her being a pushover.

[briefan1972]

There has to be a way for her to still believe that she and Jeff can have a storybook romance without her being a pushover.

Yes! I agree wholeheartedly with this! I realize they've never been an actual couple so there has never really been any betrayal here. I just think it shouldn't be super easy for Jeff, like I said, I'd like to see her give him some shit, not all of it! :)

And you're right about her dual nature. She is such a romantic but she also exemplifies what it means for a woman to be both tough and still feminine. I think she can find a way to make it a little rough on Jeff while still letting him into her heart fully.....

The question is can the writers figure out a way to show their relationship progressing without it becoming the overwhelming focal point of the show that Dan and many fans (myself included) want to avoid? Short answer: I think they can. This is a smart and talented group of writers and exec producers and who knows who could be added to the writers room before the season....

[drunkencarp]

My fear is that they'll plan on pulling the trigger on J/A in the last episode, then swerve to plan on doing it in the movie, then there is no movie. Or they delay further to a hypothetical s7 or second movie, the theory being that the show ends as soon as they're together.

But what I think is more likely is that the season premiere will play some lip service to a new status quo of Jeff being into Annie but not acting on it, while Annie is making a conscious effort to move past Jeff. There's a handful of beats of this spread across multiple episodes, and in or near the finale -- maybe the A-story of the 11th or 12th episode -- Jeff makes a play, is rebuffed b/c there's no way to sell Annie immediately accepting his advances, then makes another play that works, they embrace, the end.

[drunkencarp]

That said, what I'd like to see is a reveal around the 8th or 9th episode that they got together between the end of the fifth season and the start of the sixth and have merely been very low-key about it. Not even trying to hide it particularly, but nobody noticed they were a couple b/c them as a couple versus them as platonic hot-lava partners is 95% indistinguishable.

Ideally I'd throw in a smash cut showing how their behavior in past seasons was such that their relationship was totally invisible: they spent the whole time they were high on Glee making out, during the gas leak year they ended up in a confined space for too long and had an extended shared hallucinatory experience wherein Jeff had one arm and Annie was back on pills, when they were high on forest berries with Jason Alexander... throw in a flashback to a nonexistent episode where Jeff and Annie were focused entirely on one another and their own subplot and not noticing some elaborate A-plot involving Abed dressed as Marty McFly or something.

[indirrr01]

Two words: Annie's Mother. I want to think that in whatever fashion Jeff and Annie get together, it has to have story with Annie's mom. Also Dan revealed that season six will come back next year in fall based on his twitter post today.

[drunkencarp]

Tangentially related, but I'm feeling chatty and opinionated I guess. I think there's something interesting in the estrangement between Annie and her mother and Jeff and his father, that they're both from broken homes, and how we hear almost nothing about Annie's father and Jeff's mother. Though the impression I get is that Annie's father pretty much vanished from her life after the divorce.

Not that that's anything remarkable; every character whose family we know anything about is from or part of a broken home or an abusive relationship. AFAIK Britta sprang fully-formed from the mind of Zeus.

A line of Annie's cut from Mixology Certification: "I love surprise parties. I mean real ones, not the kind where your parents forget your birthday and then three days later, surprise, a really small teddy bear with a card that both parents signed in Daddy’s lady friend’s handwriting."

[tattelatte]

I'm like 90% sure that is how Britta came to be. She is Athena, hear her roar!

[nevr0s]

It would be really cool for Annie to confront her mother in the same way Jeff confronted his father, except Jeff would play Britta's role. There was a fanfic that did that type of thing, and it would be wonderful to see it in canon.

[supercapo]

It really depends on if they follow through on what the season finale set up. If they do then it's all pretty much mapped out or at least greatly hinted at

[indirrr01]

Well they can always cast Liz Gillies to play Jeff's niece to shake things up. This is basically what is playing out in my au fic so don't mind this post.

[thesicko1012]

The fans will get to see even more of the independent Annie that was so awesome in s5 and have Jeff actually trying to get with Annie but it not working like he thought it would.

This is pretty much exactly what I am hoping for.