A Ryan/Taylor fan essay

[ficangel]

TITLE: Everything Little Thing She Does Is Magic, or Every Good Girl Wants a Bad Boy
AUTHOR: Mari
FANDOM: The O.C.
PAIRING: Ryan Atwood/Taylor Townsend
SPOILERS: Series

Comments

[evilgeniuslady]

I agree so much with your analysis. I remember that feeling of "since when do I ship Ryan/Taylor????" - it just sort of snuck up on me, and suddenly it made so much sense to have those two together.

One of the things I liked best about the ship was that it allowed us to see another side of Ryan. Ben McKenzie has excellent comedic timing, but sadly we never really got to see that side of Ryan with Marissa.

Excellent essay. :)

[ficangel]

One of the things I liked best about the ship was that it allowed us to see another side of Ryan. Ben McKenzie has excellent comedic timing, but sadly we never really got to see that side of Ryan with Marissa.

It was so amazing to see that Ryan could really be happy. That he could have a normal, low-key, drama-free relationship where the issues were issues that normal couples went through, and not attempted rape and surprise relatives and Marissa's substance abuse issues of the season. I mean, as much as I liked that Taylor had such a strong sex drive and mourned the way that it was shooed out the door once she became a Core Four member, wondering if they were moving too quickly and if Ryan thought that she was a slut was painfully real. I really do think that Ryan and Taylor wound up going the distance together, albeit after seeing lots of other people in college. And I love that they were able to do that, rather than having Big, Epic Love.

[evilgeniuslady]

It was so amazing to see that Ryan could really be happy.
As cute as I thought Ryan was during the first three seasons, it wasn't until he started being actually happy that I found him irresistible. I mean, really. I was always more about Seth, but once Ryan started smiling as if he wasn't afraid the sky would fall on him any minute now, it was sort of magic.

I loved that he seemed to be finally over the issues with his mom - Taylor may need rescuing from time to time, but not from abusive husbands or the like. She only needed him to swoop in and kiss her, not beat up a villain or give up his life for her. That's the wonderful thing about Taylor - she's strong and proactive, and really only needs saving from being lonely and/or overthinking the situation. (I love Taylor. Out of all the women on the show she was the one I actually identified with, with her loneliness and weird ways of trying to connect to other people.)

I really do think that Ryan and Taylor wound up going the distance together, albeit after seeing lots of other

[crouton_crouton]

This was a great read. I always loved Ryan/Taylor over Ryan/Marissa.

[ficangel]

Thank you! So did I-I was never quite able to warm to Marissa, with or without Ryan.

[venetia_sassy]

And this is why I fell in love with The O.C. in S4. Fabulous manifesto.

I had tried to get into the show earlier but it just wasn't happening. I thought Ryan was great, Seth was fun and Ryan with the Cohens was great but I never did click with Marissa and there was just too much melodrama and not enough humour.

But I tuned in for S4, curious to see how they would deal with the loss of Marissa. And there was cage-fighting. I was giving up. But then I happened to see Taylor. I vaguely recognised her as a rather chattery, possibly psychotic character from S3. And suddenly, there's this fabulous, definitely insane character who has terrific chemistry with Ryan and makes him smile. Ryan can smile! And laugh! Who knew?

I fell so hard for both of them in S4, together and separately. There was a lighter side of Ryan alongside the angst (and that wonderfully cute smile) and Taylor, with her incredibly adorable crazy, quickly became one of my favourite TV females.

They make almost no sense until you see them in action together, but they

[ficangel]

Thank you! I was a huge fan of the OC through its first season and into its second, though I had to stop once the writing took a severe downhill turn. S4 was really where Ryan would have been if Josh had taken the kid from the first season and actually written him consistently dealing with his past. I am totally willing to fanwank that he was dealing behind the scenes, and that crazy forgotten siblings nonsense just kept us from seeing it.

I fell so hard for both of them in S4, together and separately. There was a lighter side of Ryan alongside the angst (and that wonderfully cute smile) and Taylor, with her incredibly adorable crazy, quickly became one of my favourite TV females.Taylor was just so...not the kind of woman that Ryan normally fell for, and in a good way. The show prior to her had him constantly falling for these women who were emotionally invested in their own victim status to the point where they would just lie there and not even attempt to help themselves (Marissa being the finest example of this right until

[profshallowness]

Oh joy7! Thought-provoking ryan/Taylor meta that reminded me of how great they (among other things) made season 4. I completely agree on the blind-siding rightness of Ryan and Taylor, and your analysis of why they worked. It was great to see a mostly functional relationship with such high entertainment value for Ryan of all people. I didn't really see the ambiguity in The Look at the end - I always took it as Ryan and Taylor reaching an place where they were ready to be next down the line, but I brought my full-blown shippiness glasses on.

Oh, and

When Taylor Townsend decides that she wants something, armies tremble.

[ficangel]

I didn't see any particular ambiguity in it until Ryan/Marissa shippers started to talk about how much they appreciated Josh doing that for them, and then on the commentaries he says the same thing. Okay, it's his show, he can do that, but I still think that it wasn't necessary that he do it-eighteen is awful damned young to be mourning for the love of your life forever and ever.

I lllloved the conflicts that Ryan and Taylor ran into, because they were so normal and, as you said, Ryan was actually having fun! I had never seen him have fun in a relationship before.

[profshallowness]

I didn't know that about the Ryan/Marissa 'shippers or the commentary - I'm in the UK so I deliberately missed out on fandom as the show was airing, and I haven't got the DVDs. Oh well, the way the moment was played, not to mention the context of the entire episode, meana that the shippy interpretation I made at the time stands, I think :) Authorial intent, especially when it's romanticising a dysfunctional mess I never liked, be stuffed ;) I like Ryan! I want him to spend his adult years happy!!

[tattooedsiren]

Great read. Ryan/Taylor were the best damn couple on this show.