#serena asks

I honestly think she deserves more credit for picking herself up in the beginning of s6 and becoming more stable and healthier than what we saw of her at the end of s5

People in show and the audience overlooked it so much because it involved a relationship (not that Stephen wasn't weird)

oh i think i disagree when it comes to s6.

like i think the entire thing with s6 was looking at the characters in s1 and going what are the worst possible outcomes for them. it was about how they’ve all turned into the people they most wanted to avoid turning into at 16. and i think that’s true of serena’s storyline at the beginning too.

Thank you Chelsea ❤️

I hope you'll feel better soon

i did this once here but my opinions have changed and also i’ll include non-canon ships this time and also i really like ranking stuff.

serena:

nate. they <3

vanessa. i smile literally every time i think about them. they had so much potential.

blair. i have very complicated feelings about them and i don’t think had were a particularly healthy relationship but i find their relationship very interesting and i think they loved each other more than anything and i think that through it all they were soulmates.

carter. forever obsessed with the ‘who is he not to want you scene.’ i think they were very similar people and they’d have so much fun together but also understand each other.

nate&carter. talked about them here. (ok and this ends all the ships i like. six and onwards are her the rest of her canon relationships and i dislike them all to varying extents.)

dan. i have an anti der/ena tag.

that guy from s6. it was literally so weird. he was so old and he slept with her mother???

tripp. he was literally just a dick. who leaves somebody unconscious in a car after getting into a crash???

ben. i. despise. him. i literally hate him so much. so so so so so so much.

ok in terms of canon relationships this is all i remember. i think there were definitely some i’m blanking on. also there is a big drop form 5 to 6. i love my entire top five so much and dislike the rest so much.

nate:

serena <3

serena&carter. talked about them here.

dan. i don’t really have strong feeling about them but i was writing about nate the other day and about how he didn’t take action particularly often but there was one person who he always took action for or rather who convinced him to take action and change his own life. dan. like leaving the dartmouth rep, getting into the bus with dan instead of the limo with chuck. also i liked their scenes in s1 a lot.

vanessa. i will forever love that scene in s3 where nate’s doing something not great with regards to tripp and politics and then vanessa is like this isn’t the person i used to know. the person i fell in love with. and that’s what inspires nate to do the right thing. i think they were cute. but like with natedan, i’m not super invested.

blair. i don’t ship them at all. their relationship was them trying to conform to other people’s expectations and about their internalise feelings of inadequacy. i think their breakup was so necessary for both of them to grow and it showed that they were working on letting go of these people they were trying to be and instead deciding to live for themselves. but i do think their relationship is super interesting. like one of my favourites to talk about. and because it took place mostly in s1 and s2 i think it was well written.

carter. nate had a huge crush on carter in s1.

raina. they had some very genuine moments.

lola. all i remember about them was that they spent a lot of time talking about serena. last nate dynamic that i don’t dislike.

ivy. idk?? i always forget they have a thing and i don’t remember it at all.

jenny. no. just no. he treated her like a sister. they were so badly written in s3. just no.

chuck. there was a huge power imbalance in their relationship.

diana. so so bad. she was so much older than her. it was not good.

bree. i don’t remember anything except that i disliked her and she was much older than him.

catherine. no no no no no. he was a child! she was an adult. it was so bad. she manipulated him. also she was sleeping with her stepson.

sage. i’m going to quote my last ranking post because i agree with myself. ‘literally just what the actual fuck she was a HIGH SCHOOLER’.

blair:

dan. they <3

vanessa. talked about them here <3

serena. i have very complicated feelings about them and i don’t think had were a particularly healthy relationship but i find their relationship very interesting and i think they loved each other more than anything and i think that through it all they were soulmates. also i have so many thoughts about blair’s feelings for serena pre-series and in s1.

nate. blair. i don’t ship them at all. their relationship was them trying to conform to other people’s expectations and about their internalise feelings of inadequacy. i think their breakup was so necessary for both of them to grow and it showed that they were working on letting go of these people they were trying to be and instead deciding to live for themselves. but i do think their relationship is super interesting. like one of my favourites to talk about. and because it took place mostly in s1 and s2 i think it was well written.

carter. i wish they had interacted more. this is the last blair dynamic that i actually like.

jenny. idk i think they could have had potential but blair was so so so terrible to jenny so in canon definitely not.

louis. i think the blairlouis plot line was pointless but they weren’t completely terrible until their wedding.

marcus. ew.

chuck. i have an anti ch/air tag.

dan:

blair <3

nate. i don’t really have strong feeling about them but i was writing about nate the other day and about how he didn’t take action particularly often but there was one person who he always took action for or rather who convinced him to take action and change his own life. dan. like leaving the dartmouth rep, getting into the bus with dan instead of the limo with chuck. also i liked their scenes in s1 a lot.

vanessa. i like danessa! i think they loved each other so so much. they didn’t work romantically but they understand each other perfectly as friends.

carter. yes i ship carter with all of them. i think if they had significant interactions in canon it would have been a very interesting dynamic. like dan was pretty fascinated by how ch/uck lived but with chuck, every time dan wasn’t punching him in the face it was out of character. and i feel like with carter dan would’ve gotten the whole stay up all night feeling alive experience with somebody who isn’t a horrible person.

vanessa&the character played by hilary duff. literally all there interactions at nyu were so good. they were so much fun.

hilary duff character. fun! also this is the last dan ship on the list that i don’t dislike.

chuck. okay listen. i obviously despise chuck. and in canon i think every interaction where dan isn’t punching chuck in the face is out of character for him. but also if you watch some of their scenes in s5 and also that one episode where they get arrested and you pretend that chuck isn’t chuck and literally evil, they have a very interesting dynamic. also i feel danchuck is the one chuck relationship without a huge power imbalance.

i think dan’s is clearly words of affirmation. i mean he writes (nice) stories when he’s in love. short stories for serena in s1 and inside starring blair.

i actually think blair’s is words of affirmation too. like the way she reassured serena she’ll always love her and her speech to dan in crazy cupid love.

i think serena’s is quality time. like when she loves somebody, she spends so much time around them.

yeah!! paris was associated with blair way more than serena on the show. and yeah it’s like, serena broke up with nate and left new york to find herself at the end of s3 but in s4, that was completely dropped. nothing changed in her life when she went to paris which is why i think it would have made more sense for the s5 opening where serena actually was making changes to come after s3 instead of after s4.

i think with dan it defini would have been ooc to cheat on blair in any other scenario. he really adored her and he was so so in love with her. but under those circumstances - him believing that blair had chosen chuck and it was over - it was pretty in character. i think he was completely heartbroken, more than he had ever been in his life. and i mean dan taking comfort in whoever’s in front of him after a relationship ends is pretty in character (serena/georgina in s1). and i also think the fact that it was serena, someone who he had completely fictionalised and idealised as this person who he use to reall want to want him exarcebated that fact. like i think dan cheating on blair would be ooc if he had had even the slightest amount of hope that it wasn’t over (though it wouldn’t be ooc for him to cheat on anyone besides blair). that entire episode was a complete mess but in terms of ooc i’d say it was more ooc for serena and blair than it was for dan.

and then with serena, i also don’t think it was that out of character. to be clear though, i really don’t think serena did it to hurt nate or because she was angry at him. i think she mostly did it because she was completely heartbroken over her dad leaving. she was in so much pain, and there was dan who was looking at her like he wanted her and she wanted an escape. so they kissed. i think serena running is very in character. she does it throughout the show, escaping when her feelings are very real and very difficult to deal with especially regarding her father. so i think her getting drunk and using dan to avoid dealing with her sadness at her father leaving was pretty in character. and i don’t really think that kiss had much to do with nate. she wasn’t really running from him, she was running from her pain and dan was right there and an easy escape. like i don’t think serena was thinking about or trying to hurt nate at all. she would never consciously do that.

ok so i’m only giant to do canon romantic relationship and i’m going to do the ones i remember which won’t be all because i find a lot of them to be very unmemorable.

Blair:

1. Dan (i feel like that’s obvious) 2. Nate (i really love platonic nair and i think they had some cute romantic moments) 3. Louis (a very distant third and i really did not like them together or think they loved each other but the last two are still much worse) 4. Marcus (a very distant fourth and i obviously hate him - he was sleeping with his stepmother) 5. Chuck (i obviously really really despise ch/air) (blair really got screwed over in the romance department she had some very terrible romances)

Dan:

1. Blair (again, obvious) 2. that person from s3 played by hilary duff (i thought they were cute) 3. Vanessa (they weren’t perfect together but i think they cared about each other a lot and as friends understood each other) 4. Georgina (ok i know their actual relationship in s1 was problematic for so many reasons but their interactions in s6 were really fun) 5. Serena (i don’t hate d/erena as much as i hate ch/air but i still dislike them) (also doing this list made me realise that dan actually had some pretty fun romances also i feel like i’m missing some and i’m sorry)

Serena:

1. Nate (obviously) 2. Carter (again, obvious) 3. Gabriel (distant third - i remember literally nothing about him like all i remember was that they thought they got drunk married) 4. That guy from s6 (that romance was so weird and he was so much older than her and literally slept with her mother but still somehow better than the other guys on the list) 4. Dan (ok you know serena had horrible romances when i’m not putting d/erena at the bottom of the list) 5. Tripp (he was such a dick imagine getting into a car crash and just leaving your unconscious girlfriend ???) 6. Ben (I HATED BEN SO MUCH and it’s probably irrational to put him above tripp but i really hate him) (serena truly had terrible romances)

Nate:

1. Serena (obviously) 2. Vanessa (i literally always forget they dated even though i’m pretty sure they dated for longer than danvanessa or serenate they were very unmemorable for me but whenever i’m reminded they dated i remember that they were really cute and i liked that moment in s3 when she told him what he was doing with tripp’s campaign was wrong and that he was a better person than that it was a sweet friendship moment) 3. Blair (again, i really like platonic nair and romantic nair had a few cute moments) 4. Raina (they had some sweet genuine moments) 5. Serena’s half sister whose name i’m completely blanking on (all i remember about this relationship was that most of their conversations revolved around serena lol) 6. Ivy (i remember literally nothing about their relationship all i know was that i thought it was random) 7. Jenny (so so bad he treated her like a sister) 8. Diana (this is where it starts getting truly horrible literally) 9. Bree (please just let nate date women his own age) 10. Catherine (so so so horrible he was an actual child and she was an adult and also sleeping with her stepson) 10. Sage (literally just what the actual fuck she was a HIGH SCHOOLER)