I do think a lot of what is considered Faberry queerbaiting was, in actuality, just super clumsy love triangle writing. The Glee writers were always in this weird space with Quinn, where they both only cared about her as a Finchel roadblock, but also didn't want anyone to really be concerned about her as an actual threat. So they'd throw in these Fuinn crumbs, that just frankly never landed, because they never actually wanted them to have any impact. I fully believe in S3, we're meant to think Quinn is conflicted over the Faberry marriage because of FINN. But absolutely no one but the writers bought it. And I'm including Dianna and Lea as skeptics here. Because by then they had two and a half seasons of playing scenes where Fuinn was never given a real chance and they were repeatedly pushing that Finchel were soulmates. S2 prom? That's about Finchel, it's about Rachel's pain and selflessness...from helping Finn with the corsage to brushing off the slap and comforting Quinn. A lot of Faberry scenes are much more about propping up Rachel than they are Faberry as a relationship, imo. S3 Skanks scene, the writers thinking Rachel is the voice of reason in talking Quinn down from turning in Shelby, etc. And on Quinn's side? Her giving Rachel prom queen is her mea culpa for being an EVIL, TREACHEROUS Finchel saboteur, both in regards to their wedding and almost ruining their prom night.
Anyway, did it work? Not really. And I'd say it's 75% because the writers hated/feared Fuinn too much to even half-ass sell it, 5% legit queerbaiting, and 20% because Dianna took matters into her own hands. Bless.
I think you're right on the money.
So true about Fuinn because I just don't buy that anyone actually shipped them. Precisely because so little thought was put into it, they were so bad for each other from the beginning and a parallel to the Will-Terri marriage. You could argue that they try to turn Fuinn into more of a threat and "genuine" thing in season 2 but it starts off by cheating (on Sam) and then it largely feels insincere and like it's under constant threat from Rachel. I never bought that they had feelings for each other. Quinn more obviously so didn't but do you really think Finn loved this girl and hesitated whether to be with her or Rachel? No! He just thought she was hot.
And you're so right that this is why the love triangle stuff doesn't work and it just makes moments that are supposed to be about Fuinn/Finchel seem fruity between Faberry. Rachel telling Finn what to give Quinn was, in the writers' mind I'm sure, a gesture towards Finn and them saying Rachel loves him so much she'd break her own heart by giving him good advice. But of course we consider just how exactly Rachel knew what went with the colour of Quinn's eyes, etc. And I appreciate that despite moments of rivalry the Faberry relationship had this air of wanting the best for each other from very early on, despite the writers' best efforts at centering Finn in all this.
As always, they wanted to have their cake and eat it. But you can't dangle Quinn as a legit threat while developing Faberry a lot more than Fuinn. And, romantic aspects aside, I think it's hard to deny that Faberry was overall a much more engaging and well-developed dynamic. I do disagree on the topic of the wedding partly because of this, because I think by season 3 the writers gave up on Fuinn and instead legit wanted Quinn opposing the wedding to off as a her caring for Rachel thing. Which it did, though I don't think they intended for it to come off as fruity as well.
I see your point about Faberry scenes being about propping up Rachel and to a degree I agree. I think it's about showing how forgiving and gracious Rachel is, but it comes across as genuine to me and I love that about her, plus I think it was well acted enough, at least, for their concern about each other to be mutual. Faberry scenes land (and land with those looking for shipping material) because there's much more of a genuine emotion behind them than Fuinn ever had. Rachel has always been highly forgiving towards Quinn and in return Quinn quickly learned to care for her and urge her towards a larger destiny, which also happened to be away from Finn. That doesn't mean a romantic interpretation between the two of them was intended but it certainly was capitalized on in terms of advertising. Don't tell me that notorious twitter troll Ryan Murphy wasn't aware of Faberry's popularity in the year of our lord 2011. So despite my earlier post on the topic of queerbaiting, I do agree that 5% of it legit was exactly that.
It's so funny that yeah, ultimately it didn't work. A lot of things they intend with Quinn in particular didn't work. But after a point the writers really don't have anyone to blame but themselves because you can't have someone go through what Quinn did and not elicit sympathy. And you can't half-ass Fuinn the way they did and then do all those Faberry scenes and not expect people to be more invested in the latter. So many funny things about this complicated world of the Fuinnchel triangle.
