#debsava

Ah thank you!!

8. What was the first thought that came to each other’s heads the first time they met?

-Ooh man I think Ava's was a little bit of confusion--she thought she had this "Deborah Vance" character down pat ("crazy muumuu lady," total hack, arsonist), but then she's walking around her sitting area and seeing these photos of her testifying in front of the legislature and performing at these massive festival crowds and palling around with comedy legends, and I think she's intrigued. (Of course, it goes to shit immediately, and Ava's right back to typecasting her until that night in the basement archives, but still!) And I think before they actually talked, Deborah might have been willing to give Ava a chance. I think there was probably a twinge of pity for Ava mixed in with an overriding annoyance at Jimmy and anger at Marty. One of the things that struck me on first watch (and continues to do so) is how decent and friendly Deborah is to her staff and the other employees of the Palmetto in the pilot. We don't get something like the DWP "gird your loins" scene; we get her knowing people's names and teasing them about their family and asking about their hobbies and complimenting them. And so even though she does end up becoming something of a nightmare boss to Ava for a few episodes, I don't think anything had to go that way, even though she was primed to be in a shit mood upon first meeting. I could actually see that "favorite joke" question having been a lifeline--an opportunity for this young comic that flew all the way out for a job that doesn't exist to impress Deborah, to show her that there's some kind of respect. (Obviously that's not what we got, but ya know, potential!)

19. What words have they said to each other that stuck with them the most?

-Going canon again (because I can, which is still wild to me haha), but I think, "You can make anything funny," and "You're too good to quit," are two things that both mark how far they've come in their relationship toward respecting one another not just as people but as creators and comics (after both shitting on each other's jokes as hacky or humorless for so long).

20. If/When they get engaged, what would the ring look like?

ayy you and @trying-to-get-somewhere-real both shared the brain cell on this one so here goes with some (potentially hot) takes!

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most)

if it's not clear by the profile pic, ava damn daniels. we're incredibly similar people at times and she's the kind of queer disaster representation i've been missing all my life. scarily relatable, unnervingly attractive, and overall attainable loml.

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped)

if i wasn't committed to choosing different characters for each of these, it would also be ava, but because i am, it's gotta be deb. mainly bc even when she's scary she looks scarier than she is, and gives such like, loyal, protective, caring vibes? (for proof of cuteness aggression, see new eyes at 26:50)

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

josefina!! she's so dry and witty and seems to be very close to deb and i want to know more about how long she's been running the house and her opinionated gay niece.

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week)

was gonna go for cute casino waitress but it's probably gonna be ruby tbh. she seems like a really cool person! it's clear ava likes her a ton and as much as they didn't work, she seems to get ava pretty well. i really hope she's in more of season 2 so we can flesh out more of what went on there and get more color about Ava's LA life. also lorenza izzo is beautiful and she and hannah look very good together and i personally would love to see more of ava kissing women

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave)

honestly marty. the side of deborah he brings out is fascinating and kind of neat. he feels very much like deborah's "devil you know", and regardless of how much i like him as a human being, he's an interesting, well written character with complex motivations and is clearly at least half as endeared by deborah as the rest of us are. it's obvious he's in love with her and i want to know why when he could've had deborah for the past twenty-plus years, he's had a revolving door of twenty-somethings that haven't come close to challenging him the way she does. it's clearly a complicated and mutual denial but sometimes i want to bop him over the head with a rubber mallet and just give his dumb, rich, money laundering butt a stern talking to.

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason)

a solid tie between lemony snicket and the hotel concierge who refuses to give ava her well-deserved toothpaste. they seem like they would scream in an amusing way.

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell)