Why I Like Dan/Blair-- A Pointless Post by Roch
If I am going to spend so much time dissecting them, then I figure I should spend a little time explaining my love for them in the first place. Join me, while I ramble on poetically about the relationship between two fictional characters in a CW primetime soap.
I have made comparisons to Anne and Gilbert from the beginning. That's one of things I love so much about Dan and Blair. They are so reminiscent of these great love stories that have happy endings: Darcy/Elizabeth, Emma/Knightley, Anne/Gilbert, and I would even throw in Jane Eyre/Rochester (though that one is slightly different in the fact she felt herself inferior to his his wealth, intellect, breeding).
These characters all had these preconceived notion about what the perfect mate would be, so they were able to become vulnerable around these people whom they had no interest in pleasing. I mean the constant theme running through all these relationships is character judgements based on outer appearance and first encounters being shattered by deeper understanding and acquaintance, and often, it takes the resistant party being heartbroken before they start see how this "unwanted" person is in fact, just what they need.
There is a fine line between this type of tension and self discovery in stories and the will-they, wont-they type of storytelling. A lot of the other couples on this show *wink wink* have been implemented using the "will-they wont they" method, so all the story is built up on the unrequited sexual tension and the angry spats. Once the characters get together though, that tension is gone, so there is nothing to keep these characters interesting (with regards to their relationship at least), so the writers have to throw drama at them to keep it "alive" but after a while, there is only so much you can do before you start bordering on melodrama.
The other type of angsty, opposites attract, type of story telling that the GG writers are implementing with Dan and Blair has so much more potential because it is based less on the external forces and "fate" keeping them apart and more on their own ideologies and how well they understand their own needs.You don't need a cat and mouse game for couples like this, because each character is just as important as the couple they are apart of.
This is the type of romance that relies on the journey and the destination is just a sweet little bonus, while the other is focused completely on the "endgame," and the journey is left to rot and because of that, the destination itself is a shell of what it could had been.