#gg: 5X04

[cerisia76]

I think I never felt as sad as I’m doing now for Dan

Dan Humphrey is literally my Gossip Girl male crush since the first episode and now that I just finished 5x04, I think I can say I never felt as sad for him as I’m doing now. And the way the writers wrote this episode to make him end all alone reminds me of what is going to happen when he’ll be revealed to be Gossip Girl (it makes so less sense. Like in 5x03 he’s LITERALLY alerting Chuck (I promised myself I wouldn’t write about him but in this episode ALAS, he was actually essential) on the fact that Gossip Girl spy all of his moves and that he doesn’t want him to end up on the site.)

What makes me sad here is that we realize that deep down, Dan has no friends who will put him first like Serena and Blair can do for each other despite the toxicity of their relationship. Dan can finally enjoy a bit of success and light that isn't due to the fact that he dated Serena. He was afraid of being abandoned by his friends because of a satirical book. And as incredible as it may seem, Chuck Bass is the only one who understands the meaning of this word. Dan NEVER said that this book was an autobiography, it was even an "inspired" novel of his life, as he kept saying. And instead of having the support he should have from his closest friends, he reaps an anger that he had seen coming in the book and that he had written in the hope that it would allow them to understand that he had no bad intentions. And since each of them is selfish and self-centered, all of them have made the choice to focus on "their" character and not read the book in full. I suspect that this will change in the next episodes but here, Dan was there, desperately seeking the support of his loved ones and receiving none.

And can we talk for two minutes about the toxicity of Rufus' words? This is not the first time he has ripped out the heart of one of his children with the worst words they could hear. What could be more horrible for a child than to hear that his father is ashamed of him? And Dan and Jenny can confirm that nothing is harder to hear. But I think it's worth another post. Here I focus on Dan and the 5x04 because I'm not quite done.

In this episode I think the attitude that disappoints me the most is Nate's. Nate didn't even pretend to be interested in the novel. And for good reason, it is not in his interests. Dan only repeated throughout the novel that all this was not necessarily true to reality and everyone seemed ready to accept it. Nate had no problem with a character inspired by him being gay. On the other hand, while he does not even know what the novel is about, as soon as he learns that he is not "alone" to have inspired his character since he shares that of Eric. And then, instead of doing what any BEST friend would do, which is read the book or call Dan to ask him if he should see a problem with it, he calls Dan to call him a false friend. What makes no sense is that Nate does NOT know what he is talking about since he has NOT read the book. It leaves me quite speechless that we could have made everyone's best friend act like this. Especially when that day was so important to Dan.

For Blair, let's say that with her pregnancy we can possibly understand her mood swings but she is supposed to share the same intellectual level as Dan and they like the same novels as a rule. I find it hard to understand that she holds Dan to account for writing false things about her relationship with him. I mean... He NEVER said that everything was true, they were the ones who imagined it. Except that Blair's reaction is probably the hardest for him to hear. Of course, as blind as she is, she doesn't see how much he is in love with her. But I still have Dan's lost and confused look in mind when she tells him that their friendship is over for good. She broke his heart when it was not necessary at all. After... it's Blair but after everything he did for her in the previous episode and... actually since they are friends, it's terribly unfair to throw a sentence like this at him. Not to mention how she keeps reminding him that he's far off her priority list. In fact, I think the biggest problem with this story lies there. This book showed how far Dan was on everyone's list of priorities. So far away, that the idea that he can be successful without having been perfect in the image they had of themselves makes them cruel.

Serena probably has the most reason to be hurt I guess. She was the one who had the worst portrait after all. But it's also based on facts and the way she seems to think he has to see her the way she wants him to see her is very toxic. Of course I can understand her pain by reading this especially since Serena and self-mockery are not great friends. But the acts she had in the episode are only a reflection of what he was describing. The Serena of the book exist as much as the amazing Serena, always there for her friends, that she wanted to see. Except that instead of accepting her bad sides, she blamed Dan for them. So I wouldn't dwell on her reaction because on the one hand I conceive and understand it perfectly. But on the other hand, she acted in the most selfish way I would say. Because she is the one who knew the most what writing and a publication meant to Dan and she still ruined this event. As for Lily's transparency, let's not talk about it. The writers never wrote a relationship between Dan and her so I can conceive of it.

As for Rufus' attitude, it makes me very uncomfortable because in addition to reacting like a child when he is an adult and an artist who is supposed to differentiate between reality and fiction, he sees his son suffer, he sees him drown in a universe he doesn’t know and lose all his friends and what does he do? He pushes his head under water. Rufus is presented as an incredible father but here, he voluntarily chooses to smear Dan's evening by specifying

last night it was the launch of your career so I didn't want to say anything but...

a phrase that is enough to destroy what was supposed to be a beautiful memory for his son. And Rufus knows it.

Which brings me to the worst part of this little essay. Chuck Bass. The fact that this character that I hate with all my heart (except with Vanessa and Eva and his dog) is the only one who has been mature enough to support Dan (in a way he did not be too cruel he at least has this merit) because he knew how to distinguish fiction and reality makes it all the more difficult to see this episode which once again shows all the sides of the Upper East Side.

So I think I'm going to go to bed because this episode really put me in all my states. Dan Humphrey deserved better.

[rogersstevie]

honestly lane’s confession of feelings to zack is one of my faves on the show it’s just a moment where she’s like i’m so sick of hiding this and she’s completely straighforward and then just walks off i love it

[berezneva12]

[bartonclinton]

CB + underappreciated scenes | 3/?

This is the episode right after Chuck discovers the crushing revelation that Blair is pregnant with Louis’ child. It’s this discovery that finally awakens him from the bubble of self-destructive lack of emotion that he put himself into in order to cope with the pain of his breakup with Blair and everything that followed. Still, when Chuck and Blair run into each other on the street the next day, they fall back into talking like they always do. Chuck literally stops her in the street to seriously ask if she’s okay. Even though he was shaken by the news, he’s more concerned about Blair’s well-being. How she is and whether she’s okay is always what’s most important to him. I think that’s a big theme for them throughout the series. Even when they’re not together or they’re at their lowest, they’re always there for each other and concerned about one another. There’s also an ease to their relationship that shows how comfortable they are with each other. I love this little scene because it demonstrates the support and comfort they always find in each other, whether they’re together or not. 

[strideofpride]

dan being gg is an obvious crock of shit, but that specific gg post in 5x04 does sound like something dan would write about himself under the guise of an insult lmao. like, on the surface it's demeaning, but then it also makes the point that "humphrey has been hanging out with talented, interesting, and influential people!" the vibe is very much "that LOSER dan humphrey (who has super cool friends btw) is successful now?? i bet that DWEEB made tons of money, what a (massively hung) FREAK!!!"

(massively hung)

[gossipgirls]

sorry if you’ve answered this before, i couldn’t find it.. but do you have a list of summer or spring gossip girl themed episodes or any episodes that have those vibes? thank you!!

it’s okay, i’ve never answered any questions like this at all! gg is such a ~seasonal~ type of show; it’s so much fun to rewatch based on the time of year. generally, if you’re looking for spring/summer vibes, stick to the first 4-5ish eps of a season and the last 1-2 eps of a season! i’ll list the ones that i personally heavily associate with the warmer weather.

some eps i’d consider “spring” episodes: 1x02 (does not at all take place in the spring but the pastel colours of this are very april/may for me), 1x15, 2x21, 2x23, 2x24, 3x21, 3x22, 4x22, 5x23, 5x24

eps i’d consider “summer” episodes: 1x18, 2x01 (of course), 2x02, 2x03, 2x04, 2x05, 2x25, 3x01, 3x02, 3x03, 3x05, 4x01, 4x02, 4x03, 4x05, 5x01, 5x02, 5x03, 5x04, 5x05, 6x01

[austennerdita2533]

How would you fit the revival into your ranking of the GG seasons? Also, what are the 5 best GG episodes and the 5 worst ones?

The revival I’d tie for last with s6 because I was disappointed with it overall. I watched it twice when it first dropped and have had no inclination to watch it since. Idk if I will watch it again, tbh, whereas I watch the OG series over and over and over…

5 Worst Episodes:

It was far easier for me to list these than it was to choose my favorites, seeing as how I have so many of those.

-5x04 Tippecanoe and Taylor, Too (*but there’s a cute L&L scene in it!*)

-6x04 Always a Godmother, Never a God

-6x15 A Vineyard Valentine (my least favorite episode of the series–I kind of hate it?? haha)

-7x07 French Twist

-7x09 Knit, People, Knit

5 Best Episodes:

-1x10 Forgiveness and Stuff - LOVE LOVE LOVE

-2x13 A-Tisket, A-Tasket

-3x09 A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving

-4x21 Last Week Fights, This Week Tights

-4x22 Raincoats and Recipes

**And I feel like 3x07′s They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They absolutely needs to be on this list as a bonus because it’s just AMAZING**

What about you? How/where would you rank the revival and which episodes would you choose?

[gilmoremovies]

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Date Watched: 17th October 2016

Referenced in: 1x10, 1x13, 2x07, 2x17, 2x19, 3x04, 3x05, 3x08, 3x17, 3x21, 4x01, 4x04, 4x08, 4x19, 4x20, 5x04, 5x22, 6x01, 6x03, 6x10, 6x11 and Fall (this is referenced 5 billion times so forgive me if I miss one and let me know if I have!)

Rating:  ★★★★★

SPOILER-ISH

I’m the last of 4 kids so if my older siblings didn’t like a film, I didn’t watch it. This film is an example of that so at the age of 21 I watched Wizard of Oz for the first time. It’s obviously a very popular film so it’s not like I didn’t know the story or the songs but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. The whole witch melting by accident was a bit shit though but other than that Judy you talented thing and her little comrades too #squadgoals. Also Toto is the same dog as Bright Eyes and I loved him even more than I did before.

(Other GG Movies I’ve watched so far)

(Full references under the cut)

1x10, Forgiveness and Stuff (2000) Lorelai says that she needs the Scarecrow to help her when she and Luke are lost in the hospital. LUKE: Ok, we’re supposed to follow the blue line, around the corner and then we should be - LORELAI: Where’s the scarecrow when you need him? LUKE: Ok, we have to ask someone else. LORELAI: No! No! We just have to pick one. LUKE: Ah, well can’t just wander around here aimlessly.    

1x13, Concert Interruptus (2001) Lorelai says, “I’m the good witch of the …” and is cut off. LORELAI: Think fast [throws them a t-shirt each] T-shirts for all the girls because I’m the good witch of the - hey, aren’t you missing a couple of kids?

2x07, Like Mother, Like Daughter (2001) Rory mentions a famous line from the film when asking to sit with the Puffs. FRANCIE: Hey. RORY: There’s a bad draft over there where I usually sit. It’s kind of like a big downward gust. It’s not exactly ‘Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore’, but it’s still pretty darn uncomfortable, especially when you’re just gotten your hair to behave. So can I sit here? FRANCIE: Uhh, yeah.

2x17, Dead Uncles and Vegetables (2002) Kirk mentions his dog named Toto when talking about disliking Louie. KIRK: He kicked my dog when I was a kid. SY: He hit on my wife repeatedly. KIRK: Toto was always different after that. SY: My wife was much affected as well. KIRK: I’d toss her something to fetch and she’d start to run after it and halfway there she’d forget what she was doing. SY: She never enjoyed her soap operas the same after that. KIRK: She’d just lie down and go to sleep. LUKE: This is an exaggeration. BERT: We’re not exaggerating. We threw a big party when he left town! SY: I made love to my life that night like I never have. KIRK: My Toto barked a happy bark, then quietly stopped breathing. She was old.  

2x19, Teach Me Tonight (2002) Lorelai suggests it as a Movie in the Square Night contender.

3x04, One’s Got Class and the Other One Dyes (2002) Lane mentions a song the scarecrow sings from this movie after bleaching her hair.  LANE: It’s weird. RORY: Like straw. LANE: I feel like I should be singing ‘If I Only Had a Brain.’

3x05, Eight O'Clock at the Oasis (2002) Lorelai mentions the name of Dwight’s old house. RORY: ‘First of all, thank you for this very kind favor you’re doing me. I still can’t believe that any one person would be so kind to someone they just met.’ LORELAI: Yeah, apparently Dwight’s last home was Oz, and not as in ‘The Wizard Of.’

3x08, Let the Games Begin (2002) Lorelai and Rory quote the “lions and tigers and bears” chant when walking into Yale. RORY: Wow. LORELAI: Lions and tigers and bears… RORY: Oh my. RICHARD: It’s impressive, isn’t it?

3x17, A Tale of Poes and Fire (2003) Michel mentions the Good Witch when looking for spare rooms to house the guests after the fire. MICHEL: Everything is booked. LORELAI: You checked the Cheshire Cat, the Maiden’s Teacup, the Cookie House, the Sugarbear Inn? MICHEL: Every place that sounds like Glinda the Good Witch threw up, yes – all booked.

3x21, Here Comes the Son (2003) Sasha describes the scene between Dorothy and the gatekeeper at the Emerald City. JESS: I just wanna see Jimmy, okay? SASHA: Hey, did you ever see The Wizard of Oz? JESS: Yes. SASHA: Remember when they go to the Emerald City and they ring the bell and the guy with the beard stuck his head out and they said that they wanted to see the wizard, and he said no, and they said, 'She’s got the ruby slippers’, and he said 'Well, that’s a horse of a different color. Come on in.’ JESS: Yes. SASHA: Well, I’m the guy with the beard and I’m saying the no unless you can come up with the ruby slippers. JESS: I’m his son. SASHA: His son? JESS: Yes, his son. SASHA: Well, that’s a horse of a different color. Come on in.

4x01, Ballrooms and Biscotti (2003) Rory pretends she’s had a dream and quotes Dorothy’s “you were there, and you, and you” line. RORY: [to her clothes] I had a dream about you in Copenhagen. You were there, and you, and you, and you.

4x04, Chicken or Beef? (2003) Rory’s response to Lorelai laying a path of Post-It notes through the house references the film. LORELAI: We’re good as long as we stay on the path. RORY: So I should follow the yellow stick road? LORELAI: We’ll be here all week, try the veal. Stop.

4x08, Die, Jerk (2003) Paris says that the idea of Rory making somebody angry is as absurd as Dorothy pissing off the Tin Man. TANNA: What about you? RORY: Me? JANET: Made anyone mad lately? PARIS: Oh, please, that would be like Dorothy pissing off the Tin Man. It’s impossible.

4x19,  Afterboom (2004) Rory references the lions and tigers and bears oh my! line. RORY: What are you doing here? LORELAI: Inn stuff. I had to pick up hinges and doorknobs and faucets. RORY: Oh, my.

4x20, Luke Can See Her Face (2004) Lorelai makes a reference to watching Toto from The Wizard of Oz. LUKE: No, Roy, I know what I’m talking about. I’m looking for stalks of wheat, not processed wheat, stalks. That’s putting it another way. I need bare-ass stalks. [to customer] Sorry. [to Roy] I know you can’t eat it like that. I just need it for decoration. No, I’m not going poofy on you, damn it! [to another customer] Sorry. [to Roy] I just need to know whether you have it or not. No? Okay, whatever. Thanks. [hangs up] Is there no wheat left in this country? What happened to Kansas? Isn’t Kansas lousy with wheat? LORELAI: I do recall Toto running through fields of it. Coffee to go, please.

5x04, Tippecanoe and Taylor, Too (2004) Lorelai compares Taylor to the Tin Man, calling him heartless. LORELAI: Come on, Taylor. This is ridiculous. TAYLOR: This issue is not open for debate. LORELAI: This is a nice man who is growing some very nice tomatoes, and you just need to oil your knees and go see the wizard and get a heart and drop this!

5x22, A House Is Not a Home (2005) Zach refers to himself and the other band members as various characters from the film when asked if he’ll come on tour. LANE: Zach? ZACH: Well, geez, Dorothy, if Tinman and Lion are going to go, I guess I have to go too. [He pulls himself up like the Scarecrow.]

6x01, New and Improved Lorelai (2005) Paris jokes about the Lollipop Guild while talking about Doyle’s family all being unusually short. PARIS: I’m meeting more of Doyle’s family tonight. I’ve been meeting people for months. (she goes through Rory’s clothes) He’s got like five hundred cousins, and you know what? He’s the tallest one in the family. RORY: Really? PARIS: Yup. Family get-together is like a Lollipop guild convention. I have to stop myself from asking how it’s going at the chocolate factory.

6x03, The UnGraduate (2005) Michel hums the Wicked Witch of the West’s musical theme while talking about Paris. MICHEL: (runs in the kitchen) She’s back! She’s coming back! SOOKIE: No! LORELAI: Why?! MICHEL: I don’t know why. Maybe she left her phone or her spell book. All I know is she’s heading back toward the Inn, and I’m not going out until she leaves.  

MICHEL: Very well. I’ll leave the….wait. Do you feel that? LORELAI: Feel what? MICHEL: An icy chill as if something sinister is approaching. SOOKIE: What? MICHEL: (hums the witch’s theme from “The Wizard Of Oz”) Ta-ta-ra-ta-ra-ra-Taraaaaaa LORELAI: Gee, Michel, is Paris here?

6x10, He’s Slippin’ 'Em Bread… Dig? (2005) Lorelai says she uses the Wash & Brush Up Co. from Wizard of Oz to stay pretty. CHRIS [looking at Lorelai]: I don’t know how you do it, I mean, you always look… LORELAI: Yeah, well, I get the girls from the Wash & Brush Up company from the Wizard of Oz working for me now. CHRIS [chuckles]: Good deal.

6x11, The Perfect Dress (2006) Paris says she hasn’t slept through the night since the first time she saw Wizard of Oz. PARIS: Now, Doyle sleeps very deeply, so don’t worry about the hours. I, as you know, haven’t slept through the night since the first time I saw “The Wizard Of Oz”, thank you Mum, so I tend to do my crafts in the middle of the night, but the walls are very thick. You won’t hear a thing. Oh, now, the hot water in the bathroom…

A Year in the Life: Fall (2016) Several references to this film when Rory says goodbye to The Life and Death Brigade ROBERT: I said he was from New Zealand FINN: Only a man with no heart would say that to me /…/ RORY: Oh Robert don’t cry, your eye will swell up terribly. Here, take your steak. ROBERT: Now I know I have a heart, because it’s breaking. RORY: Goodbye, Colin. I'm going to miss the way that you get drunk and randomly buy things you don't need, like clubs and cars COLIN: And bed and breakfasts? Oh, yeah. RORY: Oh, Colin. RORY: [to finn] You know I think I’ll miss you most of all.  COLIN: Hey, we heard that!  ROBERT: yeh. Thanks a lot!  FINN: Stay photogenic I beg of you.

[sophisticatedloserchick]

If anything, GG wouldn't be subtle. It's not like there weren't enough BA/CS stills to choose from this year. He never posted them though. I think people saw him ignore 5x05 and promote 5x06 and turned it into a "thing". There's no pattern though. He didn't promote 5x07 ( SB baking pies ) or 5x08 ( KF defeats Cicada ) or 5x10 ( CS/CR subplot with minimal Iris ). OTOH, he did promote 5x04 and 5x09, episodes where Iris had a big role.

Basically. It doesn’t even add up when you take a second to think about. If this is his game then why didn’t he promote 5x10 which was also a big KF/CS episode? Why didn’t he use any of the BA/CS episode stills when promoting the episode? Why hasn’t he mentioned DP or CS? Why does he still promote WA family and Iris episodes?

I guess another way to look at it is Grant is also very lazy and inconsistent even when being petty lmao.

[gossipgirls]

Hi! What do you think of how the writers of GG handled Blair's bulimia? It always bugged me that they seemed to bring it up when it was convenient for the episode and ignored it the rest of the time instead of treating it as a mental health issue that can't just be forgotten when its not suitable. Do you think we were to assume she was struggling with it behind the scenes? I know at the time writers didn't care about this stuff, but it comes off as a bit insincere. No shade to Leighton or Blair.

i agree, it was pretty poorly written post-1x09. i think they thought because she was in recovery, that meant they could just kinda drop it, mention its past existence once or twice in the later seasons, but never really deal with the repercussions of it, or the way that having an eating disorder as such a young teen might continue to affect her even if she was recovering by the time we met her. the causes of it were always quite clear in the essence of her character, particularly in regards to the s1 blair/serena/nate relationship and her relationship with her mother, we saw very, very early on just how much she struggles with control and anxiety, and those are issues that never went away... but they still really never dealt with the actual ED at length the way that they should have. she was pretty deeply insecure and anxious throughout the entire show and i think dealing with this aspect of her life/psyche for more than one episode would have been the more responsible path, as well as just fleshing out her character better.

i’m not sure if they expected us to assume she was still struggling with it off camera, that’s a good question! i’ve seen some fans reading into some lines and scenes from certain episodes (e.g. i’ve seen a youtube video compiling scenes from 3x18 which the creator read into to suggest a relapse), but i’m really not sure how intentional those moments ever were. she does also mention in blair waldorf must pie! that she takes lexapro, which i’m sure we should assume she takes for the rest of the series and beyond. she also mentions that she’ll call her therapist, so who knows how long she continued to see him after 1x09. but there were no mentions of either of these treatments after this episode as far as i can recall.

there is that scene at the beginning of 5x04 where she’s standing in front of the mirror, scrutinizing the ways pregnancy is changing her body, and says “i now understand why women used to go into confinement. it wasn’t because of modesty, but vanity. look at my boobs! ugh, i’m huge.” not an uncommon struggle for pregnant women, but definitely feels very notable coming from someone with blair’s history. i think we were always definitely meant to assume that her insecurities carried on, if not her ED which is more up to interpretation. imo, we were never meant to assume that her ED was still active at any point in the series (idk how to word it, but i mean that i think she was in recovery for the entire series), but for many people, disordered behaviours can linger and pop up in times of anxiety or depression even during recovery, and it’s really only realistic that we would assume these issues did not disappear immediately after 1x09 like the writing might make it seem.

[gossipgirls]

Serena is not morally the worst character in the show but she was the worst in terms of writing along with Nate. I honestly could not find anything interesting about her and her storylines were repetitive until she became a hot mess in s5. I don’t like to hate on female characters at all, but for a character who was supposed to be the lead, she was poorly written and acted in comparison to literally everyone else. It’s not even Blake’s fault, it’s just her writing is so bland.

this made me think of a lot of things about the show and serena that i haven’t yet said on this blog, and my response is SO long that i’m slightly embarrassed, so i am putting it under a “read more,” good luck hahaha.

/ tw alcohol, drugs and eating disorder mention

i agree that the writers definitely didn’t put even a tenth as much time into her as they did blair, chuck, etc. imo, they should have dealt a lot more directly with her clear substance abuse issues, like they did talk about it in that we knew she had a bad past with it, we knew that njbc were very much accustomed to taking care of a drunk/high serena (1x09 even though it was unfortunately mostly written as cute and humorous rather than sad and concerning, big time in 1x17, and the episode in season 4 where she was drugged but everyone thinks she overdosed on her own and when dan says it doesn’t sound like serena to him, blair says something along the lines of “i always forget how new you are, this sounds exactly like the serena i knew”), but they never REALLY delved into it in a satisfactory way that would more explicitly reveal her complexities. same with her abandonment issues as a result of her father leaving. which i think is mostly just a result of her trying to reform and be “good” for the whole show, rather than them writing in a longer period of time where she’s really struggling with sobriety, etc.

gg was great at introducing very interesting, complicated pasts and frameworks for their characters but they rarely fully dived in and explored the complexities of their characters (except for maybe with chuck, but even then it frequently remained quite superficial, like we’d see drugs on the table whenever he was spiralling, but they never… talked about it in a real way or the fact that he has a drink in hand about 90% of the time. even with blair, they dropped her eating disorder so fast that it was straight up unrealistic). for serena’s sake, i’m obviously glad that it wasn’t depicted as that serious, like i don’t wanna see these chars struggle per se haha, but i do think that if these things had been explored in a realer way (as i think they probably intended at the beginning of s1 given how the show was advertised), she would be way more appreciated by the fanbase as a complicated character. so i do fully see your point.

that being said, because it’s in my nature to read deeply into media that i love, i do see so many inklings and i do think that there are lots of scenes that could make her a really interesting character for all of the reasons that i mentioned above. she is a kind, bright person who is constantly fighting her demons, trying her best to keep her head above water and running from the culture that won’t let her grow and move on from her past. she is a woman who is so idealized and put on a pedestal by the men in her life that it’s no wonder she experiences so many identity crises. to so many people she’s never more than a fantasy, a myth of the it-girl or the trainwreck socialite, or a pretty piece of arm candy, but never her own person. she’s a glimmering party girl, living life so fast and so hard that people are constantly expecting her to drop, and tabloids relish in it whenever she does. she’s the sensational beauty who can’t help but wonder what will happen when her skin starts to wrinkle and clothes don’t fit the same - will the people who love her now still love her, do they all actually see the real her, or is this whole world as superficial as she fears? probably a big reason why her favourite book is the beautiful and the damned. also why i’m obsessed with ldr’s song “young and beautiful” for her. i think those fears become really clear as the show goes on, like in 5x04 when she reads her character in the inside and asks dan “do you even remember the girl that you fell in love with?” again, these could very well just be more my observations and analyses, but i do see them here and there in the show.

ultimately, your opinion is totally valid and NONE of this is to say that it’s not because i totally get it. she was definitely paid dust and i think the writers totally could have done more with the above issues in order to fully flesh out her character and reveal all of her complexities in a more explicit and interesting way. the writing often made her seem quite vapid and naive, which i really do not believe she was at all, and she deserved way better than that. i hope that someday there’s a surge of serena love in the fandom, but if there’s not, i get why. i just think it’s a shame, as was the writing, because there’s certainly a lot of potential!