#lovecomedy

Dan & Blair are actually much more neutral to each other in the early seasons than people tend to remember! (I also think c/hairs like to play into this narrative that Blair "always hated" Dan before the writers "forced them together" which is just completely untrue)

From the end of 1x04 on, Blair is actually pretty decent towards Dan, inviting him to her birthday party, taking him and Serena seriously as a couple because she knows it's what Serena wants, etc. They're not friends by any means, but they've definitely accepted that they're going to have to deal with each other for Serena's sake and are mostly pretty fine around each other (Blair's occasional light-hearted bullying of him aside).

They have this begrudging truce that carries through season 2 up until all the Rachel Carr/Yale stuff which turns them against each other, but even then they seem to get over it quickly enough by 2x24.

Season 3 I think is kind of a reset for both of them. Dan and Serena are done for now and Chuck and Blair's game is only sort of on pause because they're together, and now they're both at NYU together away from everyone else besides Vanessa (and Georgina I guess but she's gone pretty quickly). So I think it's kind of a reset on their relationship too. Dan isn't Serena's boyfriend anymore, he's just Dan, fellow classmate and I think since they're not competing to be Serena's favorite person anymore, that takes some of the edge off. Personally, while I don't think they're actually friends yet (although they should've done that imo!) this is the very beginnings of the friendship that really starts in season 4.

I think the reason people think of Dan and Blair as having hated each other up until the W arc is because of all the Jenny stuff at the end of season 3/beginning of 4. This, imo, is when Dan and Blair get along the worst (other than the second half of season 6 but that doesn't count shh). But again, they never could've turned on a dime from enemies to working together on Serena's behalf to secret friends so quickly if that foundation from seasons 1-3 hadn't been built up, where they set it up that there's trust and honesty and a kinship between them, even before they were actually friends.

Do you think Bobby felt attraction towards Carlton? The story focuses a lot on the grin Carlton gives to his brother and how that makes Bobby feel, and later Carlton says it was an experience they had together, like they both had their fist time. And he wants to be there when Bobby loses his virginity with a girl too

I’ve read some analysis but no one mentions this

good question! i think it's possible, but i would hesitate to label it romantic/sexual attraction, at least straight-up. i've been in two fiction writing classes now where we've read this story, and each time, people have been incredibly uncomfortable with the lack of boundaries in bobby & carlton's relationship. my interpretation is that bobby is an incredibly lonely kid, he sees how popular and how "cool" his big brother is, and he wants to both emulate that and is attracted to it, as if carlton's the sun which he orbits around. carlton takes advantage of this, introducing things like hard drugs and sex to bobby that no nine-year-old should be doing. now do i think carlton is predatory? no. but he's in turn attracted to the full force of his baby brother's singular attention, he basks in it, and he allows it to cloud his senses. and it's this loop of positive feedback where they just keep blurring the lines of what's acceptable, further and further.

rather than incest, i think this story is about chaotic intimacy, just like "you are jeff" by richard siken. michael cunningham is extremely aware of the boundaries that are being crossed, probably most acutely so in the scene you mentioned, when bobby watches carlton have sex under the angel. most of all, i think bobby is too young to fully understand what he feels, so the distinction between platonic/romantic/sexual attraction becomes irrelevant (this isn't to say you can't have crushes or be attracted to things as a kid--i certainly did, but the specificity of it isn't fully fleshed out yet). so even if bobby literally has romantic/sexual feelings for his brother, while something might feel "wrong" about it, i don't think he would understand why, because he wouldn't get that it was beyond the usual feelings one feels for a close sibling.

if carlton hadn't died, perhaps bobby might have figured it out. maybe he would have deemed his feelings attraction, maybe not. but because he doesn't know, we don't know--that is one area he as a narrator refuses to take the readers. but because bobby narrates from an "older" perspective of himself, he likely knows, or else has chosen to shut the feelings away from himself after carlton's death. and so that lack of information is kind of damning. do with that what you will. i do know that "white angel" was later a chapter in michael cunningham's novel a home at the end of the world, so it's possible that it's addressed there, but i haven't read it yet!

So here’s what I’m thinking: years after season 6, Milo (or maybe Dan has another kid) is in love with Blair’s son Henry. So Dan tries give his kid advice saying “you know I dated a girl that was like Henry once. Actually a lot like Henry”

Bestieeeee

:)

listen at some point in the course of the show, they ALL wanted to fuck Dan. Serena: self-evident. Blair: had a psychosexual fascination with Dan that you can trace to Victor/Victrola probably.

Nate's crush on Dan began probably in the summer btwn s1 & s2 when he had to hear from Serena about how great Dan was, and then it became a full blown Thing in "New Haven Can Wait" when he encountered a half-naked Dan tied to a statue. We're supposed to believe Nate grew up sailing, so why couldn't HE untie those knots? Hmmst?

Like she’s used to taking care of her boyfriends and having to be strong all the time but with Dan he won’t hold it against her if she just wants to be held

It reminds me of taylor’s Sweet Nothing a little bit

Plus, it’s very Blair to not be used to a good relationship like this and want to fight it. “I wannna argue, but there’s nothing to say”

I feel like I’ve always been very public about the fact that I am not a swiftie lol so I really can’t comment on any of the Taylor Swift stuff (I mean I could I guess but I don’t care about her and I never will!)

lol, you have made better choices with your dashboard than I have, friend. There seems to be a lot of excitement right now out of both a) excitedly building up something into more than what it is, and simultaneously b) mean-spiritedly dragging down something into less than what it is.