maribells.

Anonymous asked: hey! I'm the dair fan who asked you the question about Dan and Chuck yesterday, and I have to say that you make extremely good points. I still love Dair while they lasted though, but I feel like Chuck deserves happiness. Idk why so many dair shippers hate Chuck. But thank you for taking the time to reply! :)

No problem :)

Obviously I didn’t enjoy Dan and Blair’s relationship, haha, but I did like them as friends once upon a time- and assuming Dan’s “vengeance” plan is short-lived, I wouldn’t mind seeing them return to that dynamic. I thought they worked better as friends than they ever did as a romance (in fact, a lot of their romance felt more like a friendship, at least to me). 

You bring up a good point about Chuck deserving happiness, and I actually think that’s true of all the characters. One of my biggest complaints about this season was the over-focus on “making Blair happy”, as if she were the only character whose feelings mattered. It made her act totally self-absorbed and callous, while the guys seemed like doormats who were willing to let her treat them like crap… and that’s not a formula for making any of your characters particularly rootworthy. 

And while I’m obviously kind of irate with Dan at the moment, I wouldn’t say I actually hate him. I liked him at one point, and I could potentially do so again, so I’d like to see him end up happy in the end. And to be honest, I always felt like that was a huge drawback to the Dan/Blair relationship- Dan made Blair happy, albeit temporarily, but what did Blair ever do to make Dan happy, besides grace him with her presence? I never got the impression that his life and his feelings were really a big priority to her, she just loved how much he loved her. If you compare how devoted Blair was to Chuck, as a girlfriend, to her attitude towards Dan, it just felt like there was a huge gap there. 

And although, again, Dan isn’t exactly my favorite character at the moment, I have to think he deserves better than that- better than a relationship with a girl who never really puts him first, who always seems less into him than he is into her, who’s clearly harboring feelings for another guy. No one deserves that, IMO. And in a contest over who loves Dan more, I think Serena beats Blair by a mile.

Anyway, I’ve digressed, but point being, I’d like to see all of the characters end up happy in the end :) 

Thanks for the ask!

Anonymous asked: Yeah but you've backed up all your stuff right?

I have now :)

Obviously I had all of my stories saved as Word documents, but I have a tendency to make edits during the upload process (on the website itself), so they’re not all exactly the same as what’s been published. So I just went back and copied all of my chapters from ff.net back into word. It was tedious and stupid and now I’m annoyed, haha. 

Fanfic Note

So apparently a number of people have had their stories pulled from ff.net over the last day or so, for not meeting content or ratings guidelines. Just to be cautious, I upped the rating on all of mine except “Idea of You” to M. 

And just FYI, when you search ff.net, it automatically excludes M-rated stories unless you specify it in your search.

So, kind of sucks, but better than getting it yanked, I guess.

Anonymous asked: I'm a dair fan and I'm asking bc I honestly want to know: why do you think chuck is so great and hate Dan? No hate haha just wondering

I used to like both of them, actually. It’s funny to think about in retrospect, but I remember when I first joined the online fandom in S3 (posting on the TWoP forums), everyone there thought Dan was this horrible douchebag, and I was the one person who was like *small voice* “Umm, well, I like him…” Because I did, I found him kind of endearingly awkward and charming, and I enjoyed his dry sense of humor. Overall, he was just a pretty good guy. And yeah, he was judgmental, but as long as his flaws were acknowledged on the show, I didn’t mind them. After all, flaws are what make characters interesting. 

But then there was this shift that occurred in S4, where Dan got progressively douchier and the show (and the other characters) just stopped calling him out on it. He was downright horrible to Vanessa, cheating on her, getting back together with her and having her take care of “his” baby, then planning on dumping her for Serena again, and then acting all self-righteous when she (understandably) got pissy about it. And people- both fans and characters- acted like it didn’t happen. Because it’s Vanessa, so who cares, right? And let’s not forget that when he kissed his best friend’s girlfriend, Nate ended up apologizing to him- that was my first real WTF moment where Dan’s characterization was concerned. Then after 4x11, they started rewriting Dan and Serena’s relationship to make Dan seem like the victim, which was downright eyeroll-inducing. Serena was no angel, but half the problem with their relationship was that Dan constantly made her feel bad about who she was and guilty for not “changing” enough. It was an obvious ploy to have Blair and Dan commiserate together over how badly they were treated by their exes- but while Blair had legitimate room for complaint, Dan really didn’t. So that started rubbing me the wrong way.

Then we get to S5, when Dan starts bringing the douchery to entirely new levels. He treats Serena like dogshit, for absolutely no reason. He publicly humiliates Blair “for her own good”, blames it on Chuck- again- and then has the audacity to still act like he has some moral superiority over Chuck. He basically destroys Blair and Serena’s friendship without a hint of remorse. And now that he’s gotten dumped for the very first time in his entire life, he’s vowing vengeance on everyone. So basically- the guy is a judgmental, hypocrital douchebag.

The thing is, a character can act like a jerk and make mistakes, and still be likable- but the mistakes have to be acknowledged, and the character has to suffer consequences. Dan never admits to being in the wrong, nothing is ever his fault, and he never suffers any consequences for anything. What were the consequences for him humiliating Blair at her wedding and then lying about it and framing someone else? Oh right, she was pissed for like 5 minutes and then showed up at his loft to suck his face off. Whose fault was it when he had sex with Serena in the finale? Serena’s, of course, because she tricked him into it with her magical vagina voodoo. He took zero responsibility for cheating on his girlfriend, which was just so very… Dan of him. 

Contrast this with Chuck, who’s made the biggest mistakes, but also suffered the worst consequences. Chuck is flawed, for sure, but he acknowledges it, the other characters acknowledge it- and he’s shown genuine remorse for the horrible things he’s done. He’s not the stereotypical “good guy” who we’re supposed to believe is some bastion of morality even when he’s acting like a total douche. He’s the screwed-up one, the one who has to fight an uphill battle against his own instincts, his own demons. The one for whom “doing the right thing” doesn’t come easily or naturally, but rather takes concerted effort on his part. 

I’ve always liked Chuck, because he’s a fascinating character (and Ed plays him brilliantly). Much like Blair, he’s a study in contradictions- the heartless playboy who falls hopelessly, irrevocably in love; the unrepentant asshole who’s willing to go to any lengths to protect the people he cares about; the spoiled brat who had everything, except the only thing he really wanted- the love and respect of his father. No one on this show has been more of a dick than Chuck, that much is inarguable- but at the same time, no one has suffered as much as he has. No one, besides maybe Blair, has shown the same degree of vulnerability that he has. He was forced to grow up far too quickly, and never had a childhood as a result- and now, even though he’s a grown man experienced far beyond his years, there are times when he seems like a scared little boy. And the obstacles he’s faced, the lifetime of emotional neglect and abandonment, resulted in the misanthropic 16-year-old we first met in S1, who believed that happiness just wasn’t in the cards for him. I think him overcoming that, and overcoming all the shit that’s been thrown at him over the last five years, is by far the most compelling character development on this show.

And relative to that, Dan is not only hypocritical, but quite frankly… he’s not very interesting. He’s the normal guy who grew up with a loving, supportive family, no real obstacles to overcome besides the horrors of being upper middle class. From academics to career to romance, he’s gotten pretty much everything he’s ever wanted. In 5 years of this show, he was never once rejected by a girl- in fact, his pattern is to dump girls and then treat them like shit afterwards. So why exactly am I supposed to root for him? What’s interesting or compelling about his “journey”?

Chuck’s journey is one of redemption. Of hitting rock bottom and almost losing himself in a morass of depression, addiction, and self-loathing, of being too broken and damaged to even know how to love someone- but against all odds, fighting to overcome his demons and make a real life for himself. To finally achieve the love and happiness he’d never believed himself worthy of.

And that is why Chuck is worth rooting for. 

(So… that turned out longer than I intended, haha. Hope it answered your question.)

Anonymous asked: why was Jenny ''the one thing she can't forgive'' why is Jenny so damn important? And is she important enough to throw her relationship and her future with Chuck away over? She already forgave the empire incident.

Writerly shenanigans? Haha.

I do think Jenny has always been Blair’s sore spot, as her apprentice/rival over the seasons. And she also served as a convenient scapegoat, someone besides Chuck who Blair could blame for the failure of their relationship. 

At the time, I did think it was silly that Jenny was the bigger issue for Blair in S4 (especially since I didn’t even really think Chuck was in the wrong for that). But in retrospect, I don’t think Blair truly forgave Chuck for the hotel incident until this season. She said that she did, but saying it and meaning it are two different things, and it was clearly still weighing on her mind as recently as 5x19. So yeah, I think it took her longer than maybe even she realized to forgive Chuck for that and really trust him again. 

Anonymous asked: Chuck's possessiveness of Blair - where does it come from?

I think they’re both possessive of each other, actually. But regarding Chuck in particular, I think it’s partly because he’s never loved anyone but Blair. She told him in 2x01, “say it and I’m yours”, and I truly believe that’s how he’s always viewed it- that once he was willing to take that risk, to open himself up to her, it meant they belonged to each other for good.

I also think that part of it- the less healthy part- is because no one but Blair has ever really loved him. Combined with his abandonment issues, I think that’s made him very needy and dependent on her at times, because he really viewed her as “it” for him- the only person who loved him, the only person who believed in him, the only person he thought would never leave him. He was so dependent on her, and only her, that the possibility of losing her would make him panic and turn desperate. And that aspect of it, IMO, has been addressed in Chuck’s storyline this season; he’s finally been forced to grow on his own, to let other people in, and to basically take care of himself. So while Blair’s storyline (and characterization) this season was a complete mess, I think what they did with Chuck was definitely necessary before CB could reunite. 

Anonymous asked: don't be offline for so long! miss your gg talk

Sorry, been traveling all weekend, haven’t had much internet time.