#endgame rufly

[terrainofheartfelt]

Okay I’ll throw in one last one for the road: Van der Humphreys + children?

VDH + Children

“...so that’s Eric and Jonathan and Jenny and Nathaniel in the east wing, Daniel and Blair and Serena and Vanessa upstairs, and I thought we should put Scott and Natalie in the largest bedroom, since they’re bringing the baby with them.”

“Fine by me,” Rufus says, coming around to set a fresh cup of tea beside Lily’s laptop as she studies the details of their rental in Kauai. “They’re definitely coming? Traveling with a two-year-old is – a lot.” 

“They already RSVP'd,” Lily confirms, lifting her Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington mug to take a sip. “Plus, we’ll all be around, so they should be able to take at least one night off.” 

“True,” Rufus agrees, one of his hands gently kneading her shoulder. 

“So,” she twists her head back to look up at her husband as he peers down at the screen, his own Welcome Back, Kotter mug in hand, “what do you think?”

“Hmmm, I don’t know, Lil,” he muses, “you sure we’ll have enough room?”

“Oh, stop,” she chides as he laughs, dropping into the dining chair next to her and scooting closer. 

“It’ll be great,” he amends, setting a hand on her knee. 

“And this way, every couple will have their own bathroom.”

“That’s smart. Save us from a repeat of the Hot Water Incident of 2016.”

Lily laughs at the joke, but that’s why she chose such an extensive property for this family trip. During their last one in Telluride, Dan and Nate had to physically put themselves between Blair and Jenny. 

“Was that really the last time the whole family was together?” Rufus asks. 

Lily makes a dissenting noise. “Eric’s wedding,” she corrects.

“Oh, that’s right,” Rufus nods, “Nat was pregnant with Dylan.”

(Named after Bob, a fact which they both loved, though Rufus is the only one who’ll admit it). 

“Our numbers have gone up,” Lily says lightly.

“And they’ll keep on going.”

She raises her eyebrows. “Do you know something I don’t know?”

Rufus blinks, puzzled for a second. “Nope, but don’t you think?”

She laughs, tipping her head back. Rufus moves to stretch his arm across the back of her chair, and she settles into it with a sigh, her eyes still on the screen, still displaying all the details of their Hawaiian dream rental. 

“Do you think sometimes maybe we have too many children?” she jokes.

“Maybe,” Rufus props his chin on her shoulder, “but I kind of love it that way.”

She smiles, and reaches up to pat his cheek. “Me too.”

It’s a perfect afternoon in Kauai, though Nate’s not sure there’s any other kind of afternoon here. 

Lily always goes all out for these family trips, and this one is no different. The villa she rented is massive. Hilariously oversized, Jen called it on their arrival, and while that may be true, it’s nice that there’s enough space for everyone in the family to do their own thing. Plus, it means Nate won’t have to hold Jenny back from jumping her sister-in-law for hogging the bathroom, at least on this trip. 

Right now, Nate is parked on the sectional sofa in the main living area, next to a huge set of windows displaying the ocean down in the distance. He’d taken Jenny out on the water this morning, but now he needed to carve out some time with the stack of study materials he’d brought with him. 

“Yikes. You do know you’re on vacation, right?”

Nate looks up from the packet in his hands to see Serena, already twenty percent tanner than when they’d all got here three days ago. She’s wearing the look she and Jenny have both classified as Island Niles: a brightly-colored large and flowy Hawaiian shirt and denim cutoffs (Nate’s in love with a fashion designer, he notices these things now).

“Haha,” he says flatly. “I don’t have a choice. I got a physiology exam the week after we get back, so I can’t let all the information leak out of my brain.”

Serena drops down onto the other end of the couch. “Look at you,” she croons, poking his leg with her foot, “Nate Archibald, the academic.”

He looks back down at his reading, flipping Serena off as he does. 

He hears her laugh, and spots the toss of her head out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t worry, Vanessa’s just as bad, she’s been elbow deep in Final Cut pro all day. So, I came to see what everyone else is doing.”

Nate shrugs, tapping the end of his pen on his lips. “Scott and Nat left for a romantic getaway on the big island this morning, so most everyone else is taken with the baby.” He gestures with his pen to the window behind him, to the lawn and the pool where no doubt Jen, Dan, Eric, Jonathan, Rufus,

and Lily were all still entertaining Scott’s little girl, Dylan. (Named after Bob, which Nate and Jen both agreed was a really awesome name).

Serena hums, following his point to look out the window. She laughs lightly, smile breaking over her face. 

“Aren’t you glad Scott finally had a kid?” she asks, propping her head up with her arm on the back of the couch. “Really takes the pressure off.”

Nate narrows his eyes playfully. “What pressure would you be under?”

“Umm, me and Vanessa, that’s two uteruses, so: double the pressure of the rest of you!”

He laughs. “Sure, let’s go with that.”

Serena tilts her head in thought. “Is that even the plural of uterus? Or is it uteri?”

“Uteruses,” Nate confirms. 

She grins. “See? That studying is already paying off!” she pokes him with her foot again, repeatedly this time, until Nate has to swat her away with one of his textbooks.

“Fine, fine,” she relents with a giggle. “But, seriously, tell me how school’s going.”

Nate does, trading his stories from nursing school for Serena’s about her photography and writing freelancing. She’d shied away from it for a long time, not wanting to be like her mother, but eventually, with Vanessa and Blair and Eric’s prodding, she couldn’t deny it’s what she loved to do, even if she still refuses to call it photojournalism. 

There’s always the text chains and emails and errant direct messages on social media, but Nate loves these gatherings because it’s a chance for him to really catch up with his best friend. Blair’s only a couple hours away in Paris, but S and her girl were on the move so much Nate really only gets to see them at official van der Humphrey gatherings. It’s lucky he and Blair both fell for people in her family. 

Their chat is interrupted by a high-pitched shriek of laughter, and they both turn to see Dylan giggling in Jenny’s arms as she twirls them around in the shallow end of the pool. 

“She’s cute,” Serena says. 

“Yeah,” Nate didn’t realize he was smiling until after he speaks. 

“Soooooo,” Serena says suggestively, waggling her eyebrows like a cartoon villain, “does that mean you’re next?”

Nate snorts. “Nope. Not likely.”

Serena lifts an inquiring eyebrow. 

He shrugs. “We’ve talked about it, and neither of us are anywhere near ready.” He drops the packet in his hands and stretches. “Jen has plans to launch her own label by the time she’s thirty, and I just want to survive clinicals.”

Serena nods with a laugh. “Completely understandable.”

“We’ve tabled it indefinitely,” he turns in his seat, mirroring Serena’s pose, hand propped on his arm. “Or at least another ten years.” 

“Yeah. Us too,” she shrugs, looking down, hand dropping to pluck at the fringe of one of the throw pillows. “V would be great at it.”

“You would too,” he says softly. “But you don’t have to want it.” (It’s not too dissimilar from what he told Jenny, but the sentiment remains.)

Serena shoots him a grateful smile, then turns to look back out the window. “So who do you think will be next? Eric or Dan?”

Nate hums thoughtfully. “Well, Eric’s the one who gave your mom the white wedding, so he should at least give Dan the chance to win back some points.”

Serena giggles, and as if she could sense their direction of the conversation, Blair comes padding into the room, in shockingly casual dress: leggings and an oversized, faded NYU t-shirt. Nate would have expected her in one of the resort collections Jen’s been pouring over for weeks now. 

“How are you doing there, B?” Nate teases. 

Blair makes a grumbly noise in response, and sinks down onto the couch between them, putting her head in Serena’s lap and her feet in Nate’s. 

“Hungover?” Serena asks with a pitiful pout, brushing Blair’s hair back from her face.

That’s funny, Nate doesn’t remember Blair drinking at all last night. Or the night before. Or on the flight from Heathrow to LAX—and there are few things Blair Waldorf loves more than a cocktail on an international flight.

“No,” Blair insists. “I’m just exhausted. Must be jetlag.” 

“We’ve been here for a few days now, B,” Serena says gently.

“Well, it’s delayed jetlag,” Blair snipes. 

“Does that exist?” Nate asks. 

Blair scoffs, rolling onto her side, kicking Nate in the process. “I need a nap.”

“I thought naps were for the weak,” Serena teases.

“Yeah, isn’t that what you’ve said at every other van der Humphrey family vacation?” 

Blair kicks at him again, but Nate knows he’s right. His best friend has never been one for sleeping in the middle of the day, unless she was pulling a Camille, or when she was…

“B,” he says firmly. 

She turns to look him in the eye, and he meets it. He’s been Jenny’s partner too long to be cowed by a withering stare, and known Blair too long to fall apart from hers. 

“What,” she asks flatly, challenging. 

“B,” he repeats, matching her tone, arching an eyebrow.

Her eyes widen, caught, and then he knows. 

“Okay,” Serena waves a hand, interrupting their staring contest. “One of you needs to start talking.” 

“Blair’s not hungover,” he says gleefully, “because she hasn’t had a drink all week.”

Blair pushes herself into sitting up. “Nathaniel Archibald –”

“Because,” he drops his voice to a stage-whisper, “she’s pregnant.”

Serena’s squeal nearly breaks the glass behind them. “Really?” 

“I – how –” Blair sputters at him. “How did you know?”

“I am a medical professional now, remember?” he picks up the course packet he was reading earlier and waves it in her face. 

“You’re a student,” she snarks back, swatting a hand at the book, “you aren’t a professional anything yet, Archibald, don’t be so braggy.”

“Oh, I’m gonna brag a little.”

Serena bounces in her seat, clapping her hands together. “Oh, this is amazing! Congratulations!” She playfully shoves Blair’s shoulder. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” 

“I can’t believe Dan hasn’t told everyone on the island,” Nate jokes.

Blair shushes them both. “That’s because I haven’t told Dan yet,” she whispers forcefully. “So you two better keep this secret, because if he hears it from one of your girlfriends first, I swear to god, I will end you all.”

Nate meets Serena’s eye over Blair’s head, the both of them grinning wide. 

“We’re going to hug you now,” he announces, serious. 

Blair’s long-suffering sigh is muffled by the two of them wrapping their arms around each other, squeezing Blair in the middle. After a breath, her hands slip out to settle over their arms. 

“Whoa,” Nate hears another feminine voice come from the stairs’ general direction, “did I miss something?”

Serena pulls out of the hug first, then Nate, who turns to see Vanessa entering the room, straps of a swimsuit top peeking out from beneath her sundress. 

Nate shares a glance with Serena, still bubbly with excitement, and Blair, who’s eyes may as well be flashing WARNING and DANGER. 

“We – uh…plead the fifth?”

Serena bobs her head in a nod, and Blair slumps back into the couch. 

“Okay…” Vanessa drags out the word. “Well, I was just gonna walk down to the beach, so…” she trails off, and shoots a meaningful look over her shoulder at Serena before slipping outside through the sliding glass doors. 

Serena blinks, then smiles wide. “Bye!” she chirps to her best friends before dashing out the door behind her girlfriend. 

Nate turns back to Blair. 

“Not a word,” she points a finger at him threateningly. 

Nate solemnly draws a cross over his heart, just how they used to make promises to each other when they were kids. He holds his arms open after, and she obliges, throwing her own around his neck in a hug. 

“Congrats, B,” he says sincerely, without an ounce of jealousy or regret. They now both had everything they ever wanted. 

“Thank you,” she says back, equally genuine.

[ilsafaaust]

.

[strideofpride]

our problematic milf lily rhodes van der humphrey

First impression

I think I was intrigued by her straight from the jump. I think I've said this before but Rufly was my favorite ship from the early seasons <3

Impression now

My problematic gg fav <3 I am a Lily apologist okay? She did so many things wrong but I still love her <3

Favorite moment

When she tells Rufus in that hotel room that she can't handle him being mad at her because she's still in love with him <3 and then they bone :)

Idea for a story

I would've liked to have actually seen Lily and Scott reconnect. And form some sort of relationship. And it makes me really insane how the writers wasted Scott. Anyway...

Unpopular opinion

Lily's very much Not a good mother. Like I get it. But idk...she's not a good mother because she never had one? And I doubt that if she felt the choice was entirely her own to make, she would have had kids. And so when I analyze her mothering choices, that plays a lot into how I see her, in a way I don't think other people really consider? Like I really do think at the end of the day, Lily thought she was doing Her Best. Her best was bad, but I do think she had good intentions, she just had no idea what the fuck she was doing. Because she just did not have the right skillset to be a mother.

Favorite relationship

Rufly duh. I love them so much and once again, of all the horrendous storytelling decisions, what really really gets me is that they're not endgame???? It makes no sense????

Favorite headcanon

Will forever love the idea of Lily getting the fuck away from the Upper East Side and getting into photography again and finally becoming her own woman instead of someone's wife <3 and I do think the show was building to that in s1 and then they just...decided to force Rufus into the UES instead cause Chuck Bass took over the narrative

send me a character and i'll tell you

[blairwaldcrf]

out of curiosity, which gg pairings (canon or otherwise) do you think would have been the most likely to have a happy endgame, and why?

1. All of them need therapy first in my biased opinion (whether or not they'd actually do it.)

2. Dan ships genuinely depend on whether you choose to believe Dan is gossip girl

but! let's say past 6x01 is someone's filmed for tv crack!fic and go from there

canon

dair: just their compatibility and ability to communicate and talk through things is genuinely the greatest indicator of how they'd fair long term. they have that foundation of becoming best friends. I do think they'd be able to work through 5x23 with time.

serenate: foundation of friendship, deep love for each other, similar personalities, similar struggles with how they're viewed by society. They'd have some trust to rebuild, but definitely not as much as other couples. (they'd even be able to stay in the canon jobs they'd hate!)

Eric/Jonathan: enough said

jennate: while it's not my personal cup of tea, they do have that foundation of being good friends who confide in each other and communicate, and i can see that carrying them into happiness. @terrainofheartfelt has a beautiful fic of them as adults

natessa: as @strideofpride would say, Nate is literally a Boyfriend™ guy. they had a lot of happiness and were able to communicate through most of their issues. it wouldn't work if nate stayed in politics in my opinion, but that's also a product of me hating nate living the nepo baby life and projecting that onto vanessa.

rufly: when they worked, they WORKED. i don't remember enough of their storyline post mr. VDW leaving after being caught (I think because it got sadder and sadder and i blocked it out) but I think the love was there and they'll always be in each other's lives with how intertwined their children are anyways that I can see them winding up trying again. it's not like they haven't pulled each other back in after decades apart before to begin with lol

non-canon

serenessa: hear me out. they just have so much chemistry in the early seasons if nothing else, and i think they could work together in film/writing/directing so easily?? like... Brown and RISD are on the same campus. Secondly, they clearly have the same taste in boys and there's plenty of people who see Serena as the female equivalent of Nate with Vanessa to Dan. (mostly joking there but)

dan/nate: they have mutual respect for each other, even handled Serena's indecision together fairly well all things considered and i think that's pretty huge tbh. they have a foundation of friendship and communication and they complement each other. nate has a stillness to him that Serena doesn't and I can see him better fitting a life together with dan.

dairthaniel: i mean. I'm about one third of their tag on ao3, so.

[tophsazulas]

Since you're always up for asks and I'm too Covid-ridden to go anywhere lol - tell us why you love Barchie more than you like Bughead and Varchie! I bailed on the show in season two so can't contribute anything to this discussion but am always so interested in why all of us do or don't ship certain pairings!

With Varchie, I was never a huge fan. Felt more like friends to me and I preferred Valarchie (you can imagine my shock when my cousin told me Varchie would get together lol). But I don’t mind them being endgame simply because my ship was.

Bughead, I thought was cute at first but looking at metas and idk…it’s meh. I wish Falice was endgame (they’re my Rufly lol.)

As for Barchie, there are so many reasons why I love them. For starters, their chemistry was AMAZING. KJ and Lili were AWESOME at their roles. Plug the next door neighbor element along with childhood friends to lovers is the CUTEST thing. I love how much Archie cherishes Betty. And I love how strong Betty’s love and belief in him was there. She didn’t seem to make jokes about Grundy taking advantage of him (I love V, but those were not her finest moments, but she was young too so I can maybe give her pass. Idk it’s just fucked up to me lol.)

I really want to watch the later seasons for these cuties, but I’ll have to skip the ch*ni parts lmao

[fearsomeandwretched]

Rufly is endgame to ME

[maya-matlin]

rufly should've been endgame :(

Agreed. I wasn't that invested in them, but I still can't believe Gossip Girl decided to sacrifice Rufus/Lily just so Dan and Serena could end up together.

[xoxowaldorfbass]

If dan apologized to Serena in season 6, i probably would be less mad at them ending up together but still probably mad but like less, the apology could go,

“I’m sorry that i wrote terrible things about you in my books, and my blog, gossip girl. Yes I’m gossip girl. I’m your cyber bullying stalker and I’m sorry. I’m also a judgemental hypocrite and I’m sorry. And most of all I’m sorry that because of terrible plot devices I dated your best friend Blair.”

[letitbx]

My thoughts on the finale of Gossip Girl and the show as a whole:

OK. SO.

I’m going to start by saying what everyone is expecting me to say: Rufus and Lily deserved endgame. The writers DESTROYED them later on in the show, and it wasn’t fair to the fans at all. That was a relationship that the kids should’ve modeled themselves after, a relationship that showed that two grown adults can make it through trials. Like, you’re seriously telling me that 20 years and a love child counts for nothing? And they hated each other by their third year of marriage? Sounds fake but okay. BUUUUUUUT in my mind present day Dan and Serena are divorced and Rufus and Lily realized they’re soulmates and are back together. (They kissed on the lips at the wedding they’re endgame I said what I said). But yeah. Everyone knows I’m a sucker for middle-aged couples with long, complicated love stories and it took me a hot minute to really get into them but oh, when I did. 😩 I still think they were the best relationship on the show; even when it got messy.

Dan being Gossip Girl is so WEIRD, but it makes all kinds of sense tbh. He was the one no one even suspected, and all of the stories on him were light blows compared to the horrible stuff he posted about Serena and Blair. I don’t really /get/ where the inspiration for that reveal came from but 🤷🏽‍♀️ we’ll roll with it I guess whatev.

I L O V E Chuck and Lily’s relationship. Oh my word. Chuck had /such/ a hard go at it with his parents, what with his father being who he was and not even /knowing/ who his mother was, he deserved a motherly figure in his life who truly cared about him. And even though it took him until Lil adopting him to actually come around to the idea, he cared about her so much and went great lengths to protect her. It was SUCH a sweet relationship, probably my fav on the show tbh. “He’s my son too.” Like BYEEEE.

Chuck’s my second favorite character bye. (Guess my first 😁)

I had my moments with Dan and Serena tbh. Serena’s really dramatic and Dan’s just whiny so I almost felt bad watching them, and tbh we all know who the superior Van Der Woodsen/Humphrey relationship is but when they /were/ together they were good so, eh, I could’ve done without them but their ending was sweet too.

Finally, Chuck and Blair. This ship took me a LONG. TIME. to get into. It was hard to watch a lot of the time because it was up and down and back and forth and eventually started getting annoying by like, season 4 1/2 and honestly I was just ready for them to get together, but they’re so sweet. Chuck almost /died/, on multiple occasions, for her, and he almost died on multiple occasions without her. I’m glad they got their happy ending though, it was so sweet to watch.

This show has my heart. I literally haven’t felt this invested in a show or cast since Nashville, and it’s been off the air for seven years 😂😅 (help). I loved the experience of watching it for the first time, but I know I’ll never feel that again unless I wait like three years and I don’t think I’m gonna be able to tbh lmao

So I rate the finale a 7/10 because of extremely obvious reasons but it had me hooked from like episode 3 and I can’t wait to rewatch it 🤠

[trashfordair]

ive never full on talked about my gg ships so here we go

the ones i actively ship in a want them to be endgame to way are dair (obv) and jenate!

ships i enjoy are derena, dan and nate, nate and blair (just think in an alternate universe where they had been allowed to truly fall in love on their own terms they would have made an amazing couple), nate and vanessa, carter and serena, rufly

ships i don’t ship but also don’t mind : serenate, chuck and vanessa (we saw a little bit of that dynamic early on and i thought it could have been v interesting)

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

do you ship rufly? if so, all I can think about is how "Brooklyn baby" by Lana del Rey gives off rufly vibes. Or at least what rufly were when they were younger.

yeah!! i don't really write rufly, but i do think they were great together + should've been endgame. and, god, this song fits so perfectly??

i actually had not heard this before and it gives me chills? it's so full of Something, like, there is an emotion to it, sort of like a sad pining feeling despite being together, which, with lily's family stuff, makes perfect sense.

definitely reminds me of them too, and makes me think of that brief lily flashback we got in S2.... i loved young lily rhodes so much??

liz and i were talking about rufly a few days ago and... honestly, pre series rufly so entirely owns my heart? every time rufus or lily shares anecdotes from their youth together im like !!!! (im trying to remember what that weird collectible mug story thing is that they talk about in S3.....one thing i hope to do on rewatch is compile rufly reminiscing so i can write something about them perhaps. i feel like that's the only rufly i can write.)

thank you for this song rec, it's perfect!!

[terrainofheartfelt]

Why do you think the writers wrote rufly into the show when Derena was the main couple in season 1? Do you think they had an idea who endgames would be? Clearly they broke rufly up so Derena could get married in Season 6

Yeahhhh, I’ve always kind of suspected that’s one reason they broke Rufus and Lily up ultimately, because they wanted to clear the way for Derena, even though they didn’t necessarily need to? But, they established in s1 that if one couple were to thrive, the other couldn’t—a rule asserted by a teenage girl with parental issues galore but okay—and they seemingly drove this summation home in s2 when rufly and derena were dating simultaneously, but, then, in s4 when they toyed around with serena and dan getting back together for more than half a season, their parents’ marriage didn’t seem to matter anymore? 

It’s hard to pin down a reason because even if the showrunners wanted a derena endgame, which – I’m not as well up on behind-the-scenes stuff as others – seems to be the case, there’s still no consistency in the storytelling. If endgame, why were their most profound romantic connections with other characters???

The more I think on it, inconsistency is the thing. The way that good good slowburn rufly got in the first two seasons percolated, ain’t know way they anticipated breaking them up at the end. S has floated on her blog and to me that the main reason they broke rufly up was to further drive home the Great Retcon and the show’s ending moral that: poor bad, rich good! Because the Rufly relationship, arguably more so than Dair, was about two people from different worlds and backgrounds coming together and building something meaningful that didn’t rely on, or give credence to, the machinations of the UES way of life. Rufly broke up because the thesis of the show changed. To prove that “rich good!” Dan could not be allowed to win over the other characters, and that Chuck had to become the hero. And Chuck couldn’t become the hero without tearing Dan to shreds. And the central pillar of who Dan is as a character is Rufus: representational of his Brooklyn roots, an upbringing not based on consolidating wealth and power and abusing women. So Rufus had to be destroyed too, to prove the new thesis of the show.

[andsmile]

watch the blind be about Rufus and lily ending up together again (but then again, that was always something d*rena didn’t want to be while they were in a relationship so either ways serenate endgame?)

ANY gossip girl endgame being changed is a win in my book! But "not sure how the fans will feel" implies a little of backlash and I doubt Rufly would get any. HAHAHa this isn't happening ofc, unless 👀

Serenate is already endgame in my mind, they don't need to tell me anything, but the fact that everyone and their mother think this is pointing to them... I did not expect this to be a topic in 2021 oh god.

[strideofpride]

Rewatching the Rufus/Lily opera scene and the Dan/Blair sleepover scene, I actually feel like that was a purposeful callback??? Dan and Blair were about to make their ~debut~ at the opera JUST like Rufus and Lily did in that episode, but instead they ended up doing their own thing that was as much Dan as it was Blair. It actually felt like they had learned from Rufus and Lily’s mistakes in that episode, and were being set up to succeed where Rufus and Lily were at that moment failing. It’s honestly so weird how hard the writing swerves in 5x22, because in 5x20 it genuinely felt like they were being set up as the endgame couple the audience was meant to root for!

I think they were gonna make their debut at the premiere of a Broadway show (End of the Rainbow, would later go on to become the movie Judy). So I don’t know if that specifically was a reference to Rufly, or just a piece of corporate synergy or doing a favor to a Broadway producer friend or something to get the musical mentioned on GG.

But yes! That storyline was clearly a response to Rufus and Lily and their failing marriage. And while, as a Dair shipper we could clearly see that Dan and Blair worked out their problems and did create their world at the end there, I don’t think the writers were ever intending them to be endgame sadly. Like yes, the way they wrote them, they could’ve been an endgame pairing, but their eyes were closed to that. And they still kept throwing Chuck in there (thinking of the moment in 519 when Blair is like “I feel like singing those papers means I’m closing the door on something” and then Chuck appears in the elevator - it’s stupid, and makes no sense, cause Blair could’ve been with Chuck, could be with Chuck right at that moment, and had rejected him for Dan and yet…I think that was the writers way of still being all “she secretly still loves Chucky!!!!” 🙃 GG has bad writing guys, did you know that?)

But anyway, my point to that was, even though Dair worked out their problems, I still think the writers paralleling them to Rufly who were on the verge of divorce was uh…intentional and very much a part of the whole gross “people from different worlds can’t make it work unless one of them drastically changes themself to do it” narrative aka the whole “Dan and Serena can make it work now that he’s Gossip Girl and corrupted himself” narrative. The writers were simply both too committed to their 🪑 and Serena endgames, as well as their extremely classist take on the world of rich people good poor people bad unless poor people make themselves like the rich people by letting power corrupt them 🙃 (oh look…gonna link that video essay again)

(Also sidenote: I watched a featurette thing they made alongside the airing of the 100th episode, and they only talked about three couples: 🪑, derena and Rufly which was very interesting to me. And goes back to Ivy’s tags on my post this morning about how Rufly was such an endgame pairing????? And it’s so wrong that they’re not. And I don’t really understand at what point in the writers’ room they decided that derena and Rufly both couldn’t be endgame since it felt like that was the direction they were going for a long time. And also again, I think part of the reason the writers broke them up is because they stopped believing in the concept of “our world” and only believed in adapting to join someone else’s)

But also it’s basically been confirmed at this point, that Sara Goodman replaced Safran BEFORE the end of season 5 and clearly rewrote things. I don’t think safran would’ve made dair endgame but I do think he would’ve broken them up in a way that wasn’t just pure and total 🪑 fanfiction like 5x24 was.

[nateserenas]

but i think the fact that rufly were romantically involved proves that a der/ena endgame was never intended. like the show makes it clear that the whole them having dated even though they are step-siblings is creepy by multiple characters calling it creepy and them breaking up rufly before the der/rena wedding. rufly is the one ship that throughlout the show seemed guaranteed to be endgame. and since the show made it clear that rufly and deren/a would not be together at the same time it follows that since rufly was probably a planned endgame, de/rena was not. they only start dismantling rufly when they decided on a derena endgame which was like the last two episodes of season 5.

[tophsazulas]

My ideal gossip girl endgames

Dair

Vanderbaizen

Cheva or Cheath

Natessa or Jenate

Jenny x happiness

Rufly

Eric x Jonathan w/o the cheating