▲▼ hello sunshine ☆

A Totally Rational Argument Why Chuck and Blair’s Relationship is Healthy for Gossip Girl

Seeing as a new year requires new essays about Gossip Girl, I thought I’d contribute and share some of my viewpoints with Save Chuck and Blair. I feel as if I’m constantly hearing that the only reason I still support Chuck as Blair as a couple is that “it always has been and always will be,” rather than because it’s actually good for the show, so I thought I’d rack my brain for a few arguments.

It’s a love story, baby, just say yes

The most obvious, and least compelling, is that people like love stories – especially ones with happy endings. This doesn’t sway those of you who no longer enjoy Chuck and Blair because, well, their happiness won’t make you happy. But the truth of it is that a good portion of the fanbase is still rooting for them to work it out, and there’s often a comfort in seeing characters overcome great obstacles (and great character defects!) purely for love of one another. It might make some sort of artistic or sociopolitical statement to have Chuck die moments before the finale or to have Blair say she loves Chuck but knows that she is better suited in the long-run to a life with some other dude, but it’s just not quite as satisfying – especially not when both of those things have been shown already and already been overcome.

The thing is, yes, Chuck has done terribly terrible things and has been unworthy of Blair – but he has since then apologized and started on a better path. Now, of course people’s opinions can differ on whether his ‘redemption’ is enough for Blair to take him back or on whether people ever really change, etc. But the fact of the matter is that Blair has forgiven him, and it is no longer a justifiable or even rootworthy ending for Blair to be “free” of her love for Heathcliff – I mean, Chuck – because he’s already proven to her that he can be the light and caring man she needs him to be. Ah, but Blair’s personal happiness isn’t Gossip Girl as a whole anyway, so let’s move on to reason #2.

Blair and Serena, sitting in a tree, g-o-s-s-i-p-i-n-g

As much as some of us may gripe about this friendship that is oh-so-dysfunctional – and as much as Blake and Leighton’s careers and publicists may pull them in different directions – I think we can all agree that Blair and Serena’s friendship is the heart and soul of the show. (Can we agree on that? Is the sky blue? I’m not sure of anything anymore. I mean, 2012 is the end, after all…) Their friendship first fell to pieces apparently over a boy, but more because one girl was too ashamed to confide in her bestie and instead chose to run away when she did something wrong. Well, we all know these writers love their full circles, and now Blair seems to be doing the same thing as she pulls further and further away from Serena and closer to confiding in the love of Serena’s life when she’s in trouble.

Why don’t I think this exciting parallel is good for the show, you ask? Mostly because I don’t think the show thinks it’s a good thing to begin with. Blair and Serena are its self-professed OTP, so when something messes with that, it’s a problem. It’s a problem for fans of Blair/Serena scenes, first of all, because it leaves us without any. And while it provides fodder for the annual aptly-titled BS fight, it can’t last beyond that point because isolating Blair from Serena is like cutting off your heart from your lungs.

Meanwhile, the latest development of Dan loving Blair while Serena loves Dan makes Chuck officially the one main male character who hasn’t come between these two girls – and who never will, simply because he has only loved Blair and has only been loved by Blair. In fact, Chuck can offer more than just not starting World War 5000: he can also be what ultimately joins them forever. Blair and Serena have always been like sisters, but with Chuck and Blair together, they’ll be one step closer to really being sisters.

“It’s the only way we all get laid.”

Yes, traditionally you are supposed to Ignore the Blonde and go for her friends, but since in this case Blair is The Blonde and there is only one friend, we are going to have to rework John Nash’s theory a bit.

Since Gossip Girl has recently changed its title to Everyone Loves Blair, there’s been an outrageous paucity of ships passing through the night in what were once highly populated waters. Pretty much the only thing that’s left is the Not-So-Great Chair vs. Dair War of 2011 with everyone else quietly clinging to the hope that their favorite couple will breathe the same air or look up at the same night sky. (I feel like this in and of itself should be reason #4 that GG go back to the Old Ways, but I digress) In terms of that debate, all I’ll say is that as recently as the last episode, Blair was singing “You’re the one that I want” to Chuck, and he was replying, “Ooh, ooh, ooh, honey,” so I think that after 97 episodes it’s pretty clear where their hearts lie. Considering that this show has at most a season and a half left in it, and that the next person who is going to try to stop Chuck and Blair’s love is GOD, I don’t think it’s really conceivable for the writers to introduce a new Love of My Life for either one of them. And as for a Not-the-love-of-my-life-but-you’ll-make-for-a-comfortable-alternative, see Reason #1.

HOWEVER, there is an unaccounted-for factor here, and that’s Dan’s options. He may love Blair enough to be willing to omit the truth for her, but he has also seemingly forgotten that Serena has declared him to be the love of her life. Now, Dan could probably wear Blair down enough (with God on his side, after all) to get her to be with him, but then he would be trading four people’s happiness for his own. We know Blair loves Chuck most, we know Chuck basically wanders the moors at night with an awkwardly-named dog when he doesn’t have Blair, we know all of Serena’s relationships before and after Dan have been disasters (sorry, Carter and Nate :/)… So that’s a lot of unhappy love stories Dan is creating in order to make his own happy one. And, even then, would Dan really be happy knowing he wasn’t Blair’s first (or second or third) choice? And think of poor Nate, having to take care of Chuck for the rest of his life and only getting the leftover hookers that weren’t expensive enough to bother paying for. Most importantly, Monkey doesn’t like the moors, and he doesn’t want to have to wander them aimlessly as Chuck calls out Blair’s name. THINK OF MONKEY, I BEG YOU.

Have I made my case? Have I made any case? I sure hope so, because it’s time to go to a beach party for New Year’s, so I hope all your 2012s are perfection and that the world doesn’t end! Oh, and that Chuck and Blair are together this year, thank you very much.

Love,
sendtherain