even europeans must know what that means

[nereemac]

December 30

waltzmatildah: Favourite television character OF ALL TIME EVERRRR.

Comments

[surreallis]

Oh my god, this was glorious. I almost had to stop midway through to get stuff done, because I was taking my time and savoring it. Ahaha. Yes, to all of it. I mean, except for you and maybe a couple other people, most fans on my flist seemed to really hate Chuck. And I get that, I do, but I can also tell by their posts that they were seeing a different show than I was. Not wrong! Just... different.

I also felt, a lot, when reading Tumblr or whatever, that a lot of the haters were sort of... taking away Blair's agency in a way? (Not on my flist, just to be clear, I think you and I were the only 2 posting about them at all.) Like, Blair was this poor little defenseless princess and Chuck was the monster abuser. And I just... I get that they want to vilify Chuck in the worst way possible, but by doing that they are ignoring Blair and her own issues. And the way she is an equal to Chuck. He treats her like an equal despite his worship. And that is one of the biggest things that attracted me to them as a ship. They are equals.

Also, they are very young. It was about them being young and fairly clueless and trying to work through it. Admittedly, I have a hard time taking GG completely seriously and thus have a hard time really meta-izing it, because it was so ridiculously over the top. I mean, clearly the writers were all over the place and looking for the most WTF thing to happen each week, and they really didn't care too particularly much if the characters strayed a bit OOC. I think the character paths each one followed was pretty wide. It was FUN, and it was hot and it was drama and Very Important Lessons, lol.

And you're right. I think Chuck resonated because he was in such terrible pain for most of his life it seems. It's not like he was doing terrible things without consequences. He had TONS of consequences, and he wasn't a sociopath. He FELT them. He did bad things and then savored his victory, and then he felt horrible, because he was being horrible. He just couldn't figure out how to resolve conflict without being a horrible person. But then... he did.

He really did all the things required of redemption, by fandom anyway, which was to get professional help, apologize and mean it, and accept the fact that his actions meant he wasn't owed a thing. He might never get the girl he loved, because he had acted horribly and she didn't want him anymore. He had no one to blame but himself. He did it all and THEN he got his happy ending.

Although, honestly, I feel like if we visited GG in ten years it would be the same. Like, I have this future in mind where Chuck and Blair STILL scheme and fight and get ruthless and miserable with each other, but they will still always be The One for the other. And no matter how many times they break-up, they will never marry anyone else, because they will always find their way back to each other. Always.

Oh Chuck.

[nereemac]

I am so glad you came and read this. The whole time I was writing it I was thinking, god, no one but surreallis is EVER going to wade through all of this.

I can also tell by their posts that they were seeing a different show than I was. Not wrong! Just... different.
Yeah, the one that had me talking to my screen was a commentary on the end of season 4, where Chuck tells Blair to go back to Louis. The poster read it as Chuck waiting until after he'd slept with Blair again and then dumping her on his terms to get back at her for dumping him when she got engaged. And I was just... staggered, because, I mean, that reading exists, so there has to be basis for it, I suppose, but it's just so far removed from what I took away from that episode. After all, the speech Blair gave Chuck about how their love would pull them back in no matter how hard they fought against it was basically the same speech she gave at the start of season 6 to Serena where she told her that they were stuck with being friends with each other. I didn't see people complaining that Serena was out of order in telling Blair to get stuffed, although, of course, I'm sure that there were people doing just that.

And part of me wants to live out that xkcd cartoon where someone is wrong on the internet, and sit them down and say "but no, try to see it from Chuck's point of view". Fortunately the larger part of me is sane and knows that not only is that pointless, but it's wrong. How would I like it if someone sat me down and tried to make me see things from Dan's point of view? Ahaha.

a lot of the haters were sort of... taking away Blair's agency in a way?
There is definitely a lot of that. I read something else complaining about how Chuck had convinced Blair to participate in their shame game in early season 3, and how awful it was that he was roping her into humiliating other women. HAVE THEY ACTUALLY EVER WATCHED AN EPISODE OF THE SHOW? That's Blair's stock-in-trade. Ignoring Blair's negative traits does seem to be a favourite way of making Chuck seem worse, and ugh.

Like, Blair was this poor little defenseless princess and Chuck was the monster abuser.
Right? Like she didn't remove herself from the situation every damned time he behaved badly. God, Blair's a lot of things, but defenceless isn't one of them. The thing that lots of people just don't seem to get is that however badly Chuck can (and does) hurt Blair, she capable of hurting him just as much. That doesn't make it right, and it's not in any way an excuse for the things he does wrong, but Blair is never defenceless.

I have a hard time taking GG completely seriously and thus have a hard time really meta-izing it, because it was so ridiculously over the top. I mean, clearly the writers were all over the place
Eesh, I know. I was going to go into a lot more detail about his relationship with his father, because, to me, that's at least as important as his relationship with Blair, but I was like "which iteration?" because seriously, what the actual fuck? The guy who played Bart did a FANTASTIC job both before he "died" and after he came back, but if there's one storyline I would happily wipe from GG history, it wouldn't be the IP incident, it would be the resurrection of Bart Bass. Even if it did give Lily the opportunity to utter the line "well, the good news is we can do the same thing we did the last time Bart died."

I have a feeling there may be a few more posts coming up. I mean, I'm constantly writing Chuck-centric fic in my head (like, every day when I'm driving to and from work), so it's not like I'm not thinking about him a lot already, but writing this post has got me thinking about his overall characterisation more, I think, and IT'S BEEN SO MUCH FUN.