#annie ask

in order from most adored to least liked:

1 - kate and anthony

2 - michael and frannie

3 - benedict and sophie

4 - hyacinth and gareth

5 - simon and daphne

6 - gregory and lucy

7 - penelope and colin

The digital version of CoG comes out this Friday, no? To which I understood also comes the extended version in digital. That means that deleted scenes will also come in it, will not it? Or I'm wrong and I'll have to wait until March.

I need to be sure not to have a blow of disappointment on Friday :'v

they’re at their best when they’re with each other. they’re different enough from each other so that they don’t lose their individuality and similar enough so they get along.

they’re not afraid to call each other out on their bullshit. i hate to invoke the bald man but 402 and 414 are such perfect examples. jeff admonishing annie for her tantrum in geography of global conflict and annie scolding jeff for putting his interests ahead of others in pillows and blankets. they both correct their behaviour and are all the better for it.

and the thing is that it’s not necessarily about “changing” the other into a better person, whatever that means. they both know the other is a better person than they think they are. (”the world needs more women like you”; “a good guy just saying what’s really in your heart”.)

debate 109 really established their dynamic perfectly; annie helping jeff be more serious and committed, jeff helping annie be more relaxed and laid back. this constant push and pull throughout their relationship keeps them balanced. (”we make an amazing team!”)

they don’t act out of desire of changing each other; personal growth happens organically because of how they feel about each other. they bring out the best in each other simply by..... being.

yes, kate in the show is kate sharma! of course her name could have still been sheffield but from what i understand sharma is a very recognizable indian last name and this way it better reflects her indian identity.

haha, no worries!

i don’t really see both relationships as like in competition with each other. i see jeff and abed as more important than troy and abed in the sense that i see jeff and abed as the most important relationship in the show.

it’s not necessarily “better” than any other other relationship but it is the foundation on which all the other relationships are built on. sure jeff had the idea for the “study group” but abed was the one who actually formed the Study Group.

jeff had abed pegged (as much as anyone can, anyway) from the get-go. from the pilot even. which is, in part, due to them having similar backgrounds. they’re both kids from fractured families who found escapism through movies and tv (as referenced in 1x08).

eventually jeff developed his cynical unattached persona to protect himself from pain which lasted him a few good years and then he meets this kid who’s actually a lot like him even though he really doesn’t want that to be true and all his walls start coming down and the kid has brought all these other people with him and oop jeff winger’s heart is full to burst. (sidenote: jeff loves a lot. you see it so clearly along the show as his shields go down and his love for everyone goes up. he spent decades repressing his capacity to love only for that lid to burst open so violently that he just consumes himself in it.)

going back to the “comparison”, troy had to make an effort to get abed. jeff just got him, precisely because of those similarities between the two of them. i love how in 3x04 jeff is the only one who knows exactly what the indiana jones display is without having to be told. and that’s just one example.

troy and abed love each other very much and i’m not taking anything away or downplaying their connection, which is very special in its own way especially in comparison to the rest of the group. but there is a power imbalance, which is actually addressed in the show, in abed’s favour to troy’s detriment. it’s not malicious on abed’s part; feelings and emotion are not abed’s area of expertise (although he gets much better at it during the course of the show), but it still happens.

this leads to another point that my friend @akaclairetemple mentioned. troy enables abed, even when he shouldn’t. especially when he shouldn’t. jeff knows how to strike that balance between enabling and discipline (which it’s something abed needs) because jeff knows abed. because jeff sees himself in abed. (there’s actually an interesting contrast in the nature of jeff’s actions due to how he sees himself in abed and the nature of jeff’s actions due to how he sees himself in pierce, but that’s a whole other conversation.)

just think of contemporary american poultry. or critical film studies. or intro to recycled cinema.

or jeff’s reaction to learning abed is going to leave in emotional consequences of broadcast television. first he learns the woman he loves is leaving and he barely has time to register that before he hears that the kid he adores and who got him started in the path to self-discovery is leaving. they both started this journey of self-discovery at the same time and now abed’s leaving him behind. dude is devastated.

in summation.... or whatever.... i don’t reject or downplay troy and abed’s relationship at all, but i think jeff and abed’s relationship is more important simply because i think their relationship is the most important.

the study group originated with both of them. and you know what’s funny? jeff is the one with the speeches and the plans (thoughts and logic) and abed is the one with the movies and pop culture (feelings and emotion), but those are not their respective catalysts; those are the roles they fall into once their motivations kick into gear. jeff started the study group because he wanted into a girl’s pants (emotion); abed started it because it made sense to have other people from spanish class there (logic).

so story time. the other day i was completely spiralling in my anthony and kate feelings so i went on youtube to listen to songs by the vitamin string quartet so how i could picture how they might use some of them in season two and i found that they did a cover of i bet my life by the imagine dragons (a song i adore). the cover is AMAZING and i can’t stop imagining anthony and kate’s wedding with it playing.

and when you think about the lyrics....

i think it really speaks to how they’re so uncertain about each other at first but ultimately come together in their love and their respective past traumas and really take a bet on each other and are all the better for it.