Glee Finale; thoughts on the season

[narceus]

So I wasn't going to bother, because most of the instant thinky thoughts I had RE: the finale were the same ones that exploded all the heck over the internet ten minutes before I finished the episode.  But hey, I have never been one to jump on a bandwagon before it's already half a mile down the road and on its way out of town, so, some things that

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[crown_of_weeds]

Nonono, you got EVERYWHERE.

(I have no need to write my real episode reaction now.)

YOU NOTICED WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE UNHOLY TRINITY TOO!

they managed to take an after-school-special inspiring kids' cartoon trope and make it kind of work.

Yes exactly. They just...over two seasons, slow and careful, in all the ways you mention, they made an After School Special that worked, and subverted, and homigod.

Sam auditions singing "Billionaire".

Exactly my thoughts on Samcedes.

I'm sorry, it's like ninety degrees in my house, but oh my god this is amazing. Every detail.

The writers write the stories they want to tell so fucking well. They just aren't the stories we expect.

[narceus]

Oh man, I feel so incoherent about this, and I was mostly only focusing on Santana, but no, you're right, when you start unpacking the parallels with all three of them--Quinn and Santana's divergent-intersecting redemption journeys, and how this is sort of the first time they've found their way back to each other. And Brittany, who always looked like she was following Santana but may have actually been leading all along, because Brittany was never trying to redeem herself from being the mean cheerleader, she was the other half of the stereotype--the dumb, slutty blonde, and "When did you get so smart?"

(Santana started out on her redemption journey without having been broken down first, that never happens, I should not believe it happening, however many hardships she encounters on that journey later, but it works, it works without ever making her less than herself, and I don't even know how because I don't think there is a trope for what they just did there.)

And an "oh, ow, Sam" on "Billionaire", because yeah. That boy my heart

[crown_of_weeds]

These writers play the long game. Sometimes I think the actual plot is literally the least important part of any single episode.

Glee started making sooooo much sense when I looked at it that way. And I think it explains a lot of the hate, too. People apologize for watching Glee, "I love Klaine but the rest makes no sense," sort of a thing. Well, yeah, duh. The episodes don't come wrapped up in pretty bows--they're actually subversions of everything associated with that.

Marry me? This is awesome.

[narceus]

I think, instead of the 'three shows' model for Glee, I subscribe to the 'two shows' model: there's one that's purely episodic and works fine out of order because there's not always cohesiveness from one episode to the next, that's about flashy song numbers and flashier Teen Draaaaama. And that show isn't very good, but it's very popular, because it has attractive actors and Teen Draaaaama and flashy song numbers and occasionally controversial content. And then there's the other show, that's such a slow build it's still not carried over from one episode to the next, it's carried from three or four or ten episodes back, and it's extremely deliberate, and it's so much richer

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[roseblight]

I have nothing constructive to add, but this is AMAZING. Thank you, especially for articulating everything about Sam and Mercedes.

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[narceus]

Welcome by! And thanks so much :D

[mary_flanner]

So, so, so tired but must stay awake long enough to express how wonderful I think this is. I love your I Love You analysis. It made things make a hell of a lot of sense for me.

[narceus]

Thank you! I'd actually been thinking about your post re: the I Love You (because I lurk the hell out of your journal, okay, and then feel awkward piping up out of nowhere), which helped prompt this. I'm really glad it worked for you.

[wthis_pattys]

Just eeeeing here so much about your Samcedes. I was kind of iffy about the idea at first because it's so such a pair the spares but like you said, they're pairing themselves, and that's why it works so well. I don't think they're gonna have epic loves, but they're definitely gonna make each other happy for a while, just by paying attention to each other. eeee.

It's also really interesting imo how that relates to her relationship with Kurt. I think we can all agree that Kurtcedes considers themselves best friends, but they do a lot of crappy shit to each other. They don't always have each others backs. And to me, that made it interesting because they have that friendship chemistry, but they also have that very realistic kind of high school friendship. The kind that lets you down and gets you into fights and you basically just have because nobody else would want to be your friend.
Mercedes already pair the spares'd herself with Kurt before in a friendshippy way: if nobody else wanted to be her friend then they would be

[narceus]

Oh, that was you! Yeah, I remember reading that and everything just clicking into place. And I think a lot of Mercedes' self-perception makes sense there, too. Everyone succumbs to the weight of stereotypes, after all--Mercedes is large and Black and sings like crazy, so she's supposed to be bold and brassy and proud of herself and declare how she's happy with her body and she doesn't need a man. She's not supposed to be understated and insecure and a little shy. If she's loud and confident, then she's a diva. If she's quiet and needy, or even if she's just sort of quiet, if she's nice instead of pushy, says things instead of Making Statements, then she's just the fat girl over there who can sing pretty well. And it's like she keeps remembering this over and over again, because she naturally falls into being kind of quiet and not very pushy, and then she has to remind herself of who she's supposed to be being all over again

[wthis_pattys]

Yeah, and you can also see that in her definition of Diva: having Attitude, versus Rachel's definition: Feeling SO MUCH. And in Jesse comments: you're just a girl who sings really well.

Because, yeah, that is what she is. And she's damn scared of being just that, even if it's actually really okay to be.
...
and Mercedes is the one who brings in the choir when needed, which exactly is about blending together to be one voice and singing. Huh.

I'm wondering how many of them really were just "Look at me, you're going to pay attention to me and love me" set to music
All of them, I think, except for her Grilled Cheesus songs. There's no way I'm living without you? Check. Bust you Window? ...not entirely, but it's WHY the hell don't you love me here let me wreck your car because you really should. Then she has that 4 minutes scream of attention with Kurt, and so on...
Heck, the whole reason she collabs with Santana on River Deep is because apparently Santana like her voice and they'll be the undisputed top bitches of school. YAY

[narceus]

They probably just need to not see each other for a year and then get back together and discover THAT WOW HOW AWESOME ARE YOU.

This is the kind of thing that makes me really, really want a college season or two, because some of the particular types of insecurities these kids have are so high school that they shouldn't get solved there. You know? Because in real life Mercedes would go off to school all by herself and be scared and alone for a while and slowly start getting to feel good about herself for things other than singing. And with the lessening of the weight of stereotyping that always comes with leaving a high school situation (it never goes away, of course, but...), that's when she'd probably start to get a handle on who she actually wants to be instead of who she thinks she should.

High school might be the time when you start trying to figure yourself out and find a place for yourself in the world, but I don't actually know anyone who resolved most of those questions before they hit 19 or 20. You could start wrapping a