(no subject)
Tonight--BROS. Tomorrow--HOS. And, um. Kurt.
FINN AND JESSE
SO THE SEASON ENDED AND THE WHOLE CAST JUST THREADED, LIKE, EIGHT TIMES OVER THE COURSE OF A WEEK. Feels good, man. Anyway Juri wrote me a tremendous essay about Jesse's copious amounts of completely platonic feelings for Finn, so I figured I owed her something approximately HALF THE SIZE with approximately half the homo. Because I love her.
Generally, Finn likes Jesse. He's bemused in all senses of the word by Jesse's (ha) theatricality; Jesse is a dirty enabler; Jesse makes him laugh; Jesse mildly disapproves of nearly everything he does. Basically their personalities are pretty comically compatible and Finn consciously enjoys their interactions. Jesse is a guy who can lecture him about the importance of good soft-shoe technique in one breath and then yammer with him inanely about fast food in the next. They tip cows and go for midnight swims. It's all entertaining! Good ol'-fashioned guy love is something Finn has sort of desperately missed from his pre-Babygate and pre-glee life, and this odd dynamic with Jesse is bizarrely removed from nearly all of the pressures he feels at home. Jesse isn't a jock. Jesse isn't from New Directions, either. Hell, Jesse is graduating soon. Prior to the canon update and all the Vocal Adrenaline drama, Finn didn't feel as though he had a lot to lose by cultivating this friendly rivalry for Rachel's heart.
Post-update, Finn beat the crap out of Jesse because--well, for one, he deserved it for hurting Rachel. For another, Finn felt kind of bizarrely personally betrayed. He's aware of the fact that back home they weren't close at all. He also knows that in camp, despite spending a peculiar amount of time together, they weren't necessarily close by standard definitions of closeness. But Finn at this point is pretty much done with taking bullshit from anyone, so he sat on Jesse and demanded answers. By way of response Jesse told him everything about Shelby! Which did a lot to fuck with Finn's perception of the entire conflict, yeah. He doesn't know what to make of it at all, but he did start to see that Jesse's intentions weren't wholly evil. But then Jesse also let on that he was perhaps a messed up guy whose life was basically a caricature of the idiom "lonely at the top," and it clicked with Finn almost instantly.
Peer pressure is actually a big fuckin' deal for Finn Hudson, and as I've said a hundred times before his successes and failures re: leading his peers are the focus of his character arc. It hit him that Jesse is popular at Carmel, yeah, but then he remembered: trying to stay popular has kind of been this horrible uphill struggle for him all year, and just because Jesse depicts himself as a badass doesn't necessarily mean he's exempt from those pressures. Far from it. And while Finn can't fathom ever directly hurting Rachel by, say, egging her--he knows he's personally humiliated other people. It's only as a result of being in New Directions that he now feels crappy whenever he submits to that pressure and makes an otherwise stellar person feel like garbage. Jesse might seem as though he's from a different planet sometimes, but at least in this regard Finn gets him.
Jesse also told Finn that Finn was basically his first real friend, which totally blindsided him and--this alongside every other revelation in that thread made him realize that Jesse is a HOT DAMN MESS. And. Finn doesn't know how well-equipped he is to deal with that. But, much to his own surprise, he wants to deal with it. Because he actually actively enjoys Jesse's company and is kind of strangely worried about him. He wants New Directions to give Jesse a second chance because everyone keeps giving HIM chances that he's never sure he deserves but that he wants to deserve. He knows how it is to feel like there are some important, fundamental things everyone else seems to grasp effortlessly but you can't. He knows how it feels to feel like you've always got something to prove or make up to somebody else. It might be necessary, and Finn might be ready for it, but it is kind of lonely business and something about Jesse's LONE WOLFISHNESS tugs at his stupid heart.
So he kind of empathizes with Jesse, yeah, and it's weird empathizing with a guy because the last guy Finn would've said he was close to is--uh. Puck. And while he and Puck shared everything at one point, they still have problems getting past that dude barrier; on top of that, they will never really perceive those problems as problems. The dude barrier is less of an issue with Jesse because Jesse for whatever reason has fewer blatantly alpha dog tendencies than Finn's sporty acquaintances and has fewer obvious pretenses. And this actually works out really well for Finn because he himself is trying to be less of a dude and more of a--good person, and he hasn't really had a guy to relate to in that sense.
He's also worried about Jesse in camp because Jesse, to be frank, reminds him of Rachel in his desperate need for CENTER STAGE. But Rachel, in her mostly unbridled optimism and sunshiny personality, is accustomed to existing outside of her ideal element; Finn does not get this vibe from Jesse. Finn has a pretty healthy outlook on camp and wonders if he can help :|b LET'S SEE HOW THAT GOES.
WHAT AM I MISSING? Oh, yeah, he doesn't know how strong Jesse's feelings for Rachel are anymore and frankly he's trying not to care. He doesn't want to compete with Jesse. He just--doesn't want to address the very real possibility that Jesse is still in love with her and may want her back one day, because he's pretty goddamn thrilled with where he is right now with her and having that directly threatened at this point will send him into a horrible tailspin. That said, he's incapable of perceiving Jesse as a real threat right now because things with him and Rachel are pretty much perfect.
In sum: Finn just. Likes Jesse. A lot. They get one another more than they're willing to admit. They're headed very quickly down I LOVE YOU, MAN lane. In the CHEBROLET. They will honeymoon in BROHANNESBURG.
FINN AND PUCK
I will start by saying that Finn and Puck have been friends since childhood! It is very plausible that they have done everything together. They probably hardly ever fought before high school. They epitomize this trope. They looked out for each other. Very--err. Spartan? I would say Babygate was the first real and nearly irreparable rift to form between them in all their years of friendship. Finn was genuinely angry: he went most of the spring semester without talking to Puck at all. And without Puck, Finn is oddly disconnected from that world of dudes and jocks.
As of the finale, I'm going to say that for all intents and purposes Finn has forgiven Puck. He can't forget the weight of Puck's betrayal and I wouldn't call that a completely closed chapter in their relationship, but he also acknowledges that Puck went through a lot over the course of sophomore year and respects how he shouldered his burdens.
BUT WILL THEY EVER BE CLOSE AGAIN? That is a funny question because I would maintain they've never been close in a standard sense. They didn't talk about how they felt about Babygate and they probably never will. Puck has never really apologized to Finn and Finn doesn't expect him to. They are protective of each other in ways that do not make sense to anyone else. Finn probably knows and will always know Puck better than he knows himself, and while his worldview has expanded exponentially over the past school year he and Puck maintain an implicit understanding.
So Puck isn't his best friend anymore, but Puck is his closest friend and things will probably stay that way for the forseeable future. Finn figures there is a difference.
FINN AND JESSE
SO THE SEASON ENDED AND THE WHOLE CAST JUST THREADED, LIKE, EIGHT TIMES OVER THE COURSE OF A WEEK. Feels good, man. Anyway Juri wrote me a tremendous essay about Jesse's copious amounts of completely platonic feelings for Finn, so I figured I owed her something approximately HALF THE SIZE with approximately half the homo. Because I love her.
Generally, Finn likes Jesse. He's bemused in all senses of the word by Jesse's (ha) theatricality; Jesse is a dirty enabler; Jesse makes him laugh; Jesse mildly disapproves of nearly everything he does. Basically their personalities are pretty comically compatible and Finn consciously enjoys their interactions. Jesse is a guy who can lecture him about the importance of good soft-shoe technique in one breath and then yammer with him inanely about fast food in the next. They tip cows and go for midnight swims. It's all entertaining! Good ol'-fashioned guy love is something Finn has sort of desperately missed from his pre-Babygate and pre-glee life, and this odd dynamic with Jesse is bizarrely removed from nearly all of the pressures he feels at home. Jesse isn't a jock. Jesse isn't from New Directions, either. Hell, Jesse is graduating soon. Prior to the canon update and all the Vocal Adrenaline drama, Finn didn't feel as though he had a lot to lose by cultivating this friendly rivalry for Rachel's heart.
Post-update, Finn beat the crap out of Jesse because--well, for one, he deserved it for hurting Rachel. For another, Finn felt kind of bizarrely personally betrayed. He's aware of the fact that back home they weren't close at all. He also knows that in camp, despite spending a peculiar amount of time together, they weren't necessarily close by standard definitions of closeness. But Finn at this point is pretty much done with taking bullshit from anyone, so he sat on Jesse and demanded answers. By way of response Jesse told him everything about Shelby! Which did a lot to fuck with Finn's perception of the entire conflict, yeah. He doesn't know what to make of it at all, but he did start to see that Jesse's intentions weren't wholly evil. But then Jesse also let on that he was perhaps a messed up guy whose life was basically a caricature of the idiom "lonely at the top," and it clicked with Finn almost instantly.
Peer pressure is actually a big fuckin' deal for Finn Hudson, and as I've said a hundred times before his successes and failures re: leading his peers are the focus of his character arc. It hit him that Jesse is popular at Carmel, yeah, but then he remembered: trying to stay popular has kind of been this horrible uphill struggle for him all year, and just because Jesse depicts himself as a badass doesn't necessarily mean he's exempt from those pressures. Far from it. And while Finn can't fathom ever directly hurting Rachel by, say, egging her--he knows he's personally humiliated other people. It's only as a result of being in New Directions that he now feels crappy whenever he submits to that pressure and makes an otherwise stellar person feel like garbage. Jesse might seem as though he's from a different planet sometimes, but at least in this regard Finn gets him.
Jesse also told Finn that Finn was basically his first real friend, which totally blindsided him and--this alongside every other revelation in that thread made him realize that Jesse is a HOT DAMN MESS. And. Finn doesn't know how well-equipped he is to deal with that. But, much to his own surprise, he wants to deal with it. Because he actually actively enjoys Jesse's company and is kind of strangely worried about him. He wants New Directions to give Jesse a second chance because everyone keeps giving HIM chances that he's never sure he deserves but that he wants to deserve. He knows how it is to feel like there are some important, fundamental things everyone else seems to grasp effortlessly but you can't. He knows how it feels to feel like you've always got something to prove or make up to somebody else. It might be necessary, and Finn might be ready for it, but it is kind of lonely business and something about Jesse's LONE WOLFISHNESS tugs at his stupid heart.
So he kind of empathizes with Jesse, yeah, and it's weird empathizing with a guy because the last guy Finn would've said he was close to is--uh. Puck. And while he and Puck shared everything at one point, they still have problems getting past that dude barrier; on top of that, they will never really perceive those problems as problems. The dude barrier is less of an issue with Jesse because Jesse for whatever reason has fewer blatantly alpha dog tendencies than Finn's sporty acquaintances and has fewer obvious pretenses. And this actually works out really well for Finn because he himself is trying to be less of a dude and more of a--good person, and he hasn't really had a guy to relate to in that sense.
He's also worried about Jesse in camp because Jesse, to be frank, reminds him of Rachel in his desperate need for CENTER STAGE. But Rachel, in her mostly unbridled optimism and sunshiny personality, is accustomed to existing outside of her ideal element; Finn does not get this vibe from Jesse. Finn has a pretty healthy outlook on camp and wonders if he can help :|b LET'S SEE HOW THAT GOES.
WHAT AM I MISSING? Oh, yeah, he doesn't know how strong Jesse's feelings for Rachel are anymore and frankly he's trying not to care. He doesn't want to compete with Jesse. He just--doesn't want to address the very real possibility that Jesse is still in love with her and may want her back one day, because he's pretty goddamn thrilled with where he is right now with her and having that directly threatened at this point will send him into a horrible tailspin. That said, he's incapable of perceiving Jesse as a real threat right now because things with him and Rachel are pretty much perfect.
In sum: Finn just. Likes Jesse. A lot. They get one another more than they're willing to admit. They're headed very quickly down I LOVE YOU, MAN lane. In the CHEBROLET. They will honeymoon in BROHANNESBURG.
FINN AND PUCK
I will start by saying that Finn and Puck have been friends since childhood! It is very plausible that they have done everything together. They probably hardly ever fought before high school. They epitomize this trope. They looked out for each other. Very--err. Spartan? I would say Babygate was the first real and nearly irreparable rift to form between them in all their years of friendship. Finn was genuinely angry: he went most of the spring semester without talking to Puck at all. And without Puck, Finn is oddly disconnected from that world of dudes and jocks.
As of the finale, I'm going to say that for all intents and purposes Finn has forgiven Puck. He can't forget the weight of Puck's betrayal and I wouldn't call that a completely closed chapter in their relationship, but he also acknowledges that Puck went through a lot over the course of sophomore year and respects how he shouldered his burdens.
BUT WILL THEY EVER BE CLOSE AGAIN? That is a funny question because I would maintain they've never been close in a standard sense. They didn't talk about how they felt about Babygate and they probably never will. Puck has never really apologized to Finn and Finn doesn't expect him to. They are protective of each other in ways that do not make sense to anyone else. Finn probably knows and will always know Puck better than he knows himself, and while his worldview has expanded exponentially over the past school year he and Puck maintain an implicit understanding.
So Puck isn't his best friend anymore, but Puck is his closest friend and things will probably stay that way for the forseeable future. Finn figures there is a difference.