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vintagecoldcases · 3 years

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Story of Ted Bundy

TW: execution photos, details of deaths

**a more detailed victim list will be posted later, beware of this post if you are sensitive to blood/gore/other oddities of true crime as it will have crime scene photos**

Theodore Robert Cowell, was born on November 24th, 1946 to Eleanor Louise Cowell at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers. Eleanor was known by Louise and Ted’s father’s identity is unconfirmed. His birth certificate states Lloyd Marshall, a salesman and Air Force veteran, as his father. Louise claims his father to be an old war veteran known as Jack Worthington, this is who the King’s County Sheriff’s Office has listed as such. A few family members believe that Louise’s father, Samuel Cowell, could’ve been Ted’s father but no evidence has been found to support this claim.

Ted was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by his maternal grandparents for the first three years of his life. He, family, and friends, were told that his grandparents were actually his parents and that his mother was his older sister in order to protect them all from the stigma of birthing a child out of wedlock. There are variations of how Bundy found out his true parentage. A past girlfriend was told that Bundy was shown his birth certificate by a cousin, Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth (both biographers) were told by Bundy that he found the certificate himself. Anne Rule (biographer and crime writer, who knew Bundy personally) believes he did not find this information until 1969. In 1950, Louise changed her surname from Cowell to Nelson and left Philadelphia to live with cousins Alan and Jane Scott in Tacoma, Washington. In 1951, Louise met Johnny Culpepper Bundy at an adult singles night at Tacoma’s First Methodist Church. Johnny and Louise later married that year and Johnny formally adopted Ted. Johnny and Louise went on to have four children together, and whilst Johnny tried including Ted on family trips and outings, he remained distant.

Teenage Ted Bundy

In 1965, Ted graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School and enrolled in the University of Puget Sound where he spent a year before transferring to the University of Washington to study Chinese. In 1967, he became involved romantically with a UW classmate, most commonly known as Stephanie Brooks in biographies. In 1968, he dropped out of college and worked at a series of minimum wage jobs; even working as Arthur Fletcher’s bodyguard and driver during his Lieutenant Governor campaign. Brooks then ended their relationship due to Bundy’s lack of ambition. He also took one semester at Temple University after returning back to Arkansas and Philadelphia to visit family. In 1969, Ted moved back to Washington where he met Elizabeth Kloepfer (also known in Bundy literature as Liz Kendall, Beth Archer, or Meg Anders).

Ted Bundy & Elizabeth Kloepfer

In 1970, Ted re-enrolled at the University of Washington as a psychology major. During this time he became an honor student and was well regarded by his professors. In 1971, he took a job at Seattle’s Suicide Hotline Crisis Center, where he met Anne Rule who noted nothing disturbing or abnormal about Bundy. In early 1973, despite his average law school admission scores, he was granted admittance to UPS and the University of Utah. In 1973, he rekindled his relationship with Stephanie Brooks. He also continued to date Elizabeth Kloepfer. Neither woman knew of the other at this time. During this time period, Brooks had flown in several times to stay with him in Seattle. He had discussed marriage with Stephanie and had also introduced her as his fiancee at a point. In 1974, he abruptly broke off all contact. He did not return phone calls or letters. After a month of trying, Brooks was finally able to contact Bundy by phone, asking why he had so abruptly ended the relationship without an explanation. He responded with, “Stephanie, I have no idea what you mean.” and hung up the phone. She never heard from him again after that. He had just wanted to prove to himself that he could marry her in retaliation of her ending their former relationship before.

Ted Bundy and Stephanie Brooks

Ted had been skipping classes in law school by this point and had stopped attending all together by april when the first series of murders were reported. Circumstantial evidence points Ann Marie Burr, an 8-year-old girl, as one of Bundy’s first victims in 1962.

Ann Marie Burr, age 8

Washington/Oregon Murders

College aged young women started to disappear at a rate of about one a month in Washington and Oregon. On January 4th, 1974, shortly after midnight, Bundy snuck into the basement apartment of 18-year-old Karen Sparks (also known as Joni Lenz, Mary Adams, or Terri Caldwell in Bundy literature). He bludgeoned her with a metal rod from her bed frame and then sexually assaulted her with the same rod. She was unconscious for 10 days but survived. She sustained major permanent physical and mental disabilities. In the early morning of February 1st, 1974, Bundy broke into the basement bedroom of Lynda Anne Healy. He beat her until she was unconscious, dressed her in a white blouse, blue jeans, and boots and carried her away from the scene. On March 12th, 1974, Donna Gail Manson, a 19-year-old student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia went missing as she left her dorm to attend a jazz concert that she would never attend. April 17th, 1974, Susan Elaine Rancourt disappeared from Central Washington State College, on her way back to her dorm after an advisors meeting. Two female students later came forward with encounters with the same man. One was on the night of Susan’s disappearance and the other was three days before that. The man had his arm in a sling and had asked the girls for help loading his books into a brown or tan Volkswagen beetle. In Corvallis at Oregon State University, on May 6th, 1974, Roberta Kathleen Parks, left her dormitory to meet friends for coffee and she never arrived.

Police precincts were growing more and more concerned with each abduction. As they had no evidence or connection between each of the girls besides they were all young, attractive, college-aged, white women with their brown hair parted down the middle. On June 1st, 1974, Brenda Carol Ball, disappeared from the Flame Tavern in Burien, near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. She had last been seen in the parking lot with a brown-haired man with his arm in a sling. Not too long after that, on June 11th, 1974 Georgann Hawkins disappeared walking down a brightly lit alleyway between her boyfriend’s dormitory and her own sorority house. After Georgann’s disappearance was made public in the media, witnesses came forward reporting that they saw a man that night in an alley behind a nearby dormitory. He was on crutches with a leg cast and was struggling to carry a briefcase. Another witness had said that the man actually asked for her help. At this time Ted was working in Olympia as the Assistant Director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission. He wrote pamphlets for women on rape prevention here. He also later worked at the Department of Emergency Services (DES), which helped look for the missing women. This is where he met Carol Anne Boone, and began dating her (as well as Elizabeth Kloepfer).

Carol Anne Boone

Pressure was immense on law enforcement at this time. This was very frustrating as panic spread through young women of the area, with six disappearances and one brutal beating. Rates of hitchhiking in young women dropped drastically. Police could not provide reporters with what little information they had because they did not want to compromise the investigation. Similarities between the victims were noted by the police in their investigations: The disappearances all took place at night, each disappearance was usually near ongoing construction work, also within a week of midterm or final exams. Every single victim was wearing slacks or blue jeans; and at most crime scenes, there were sightings of a man wearing a cast or a sling, and driving a brown or tan Volkswagen Beetle. On July 14th, 1974, five female witnesses on a beach at Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah, Washington, described an attractive man in a white tennis outfit with his arm in a sling. They also described him speaking in a light accent, possibly Canadian or British, and was introducing himself as Ted. He asked for their help in unloading a sailboat from his Volkswagen beetle. Four of the girls refused but one accompanied him to the point of the car in view. When she did not see a sailboat, she fled the area. Three other witnesses saw the man, now known as Ted, saw him approach Janice Ann Ott. He fed her the sailboat story and she was seen leaving the beach with him. Four hours after Janice’s disappearance, Denise Marie Naslund, vanished after leaving a picnic to use the restroom.

Idaho/Utah Murders and Kidnappings

In August 1974, Ted moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, after receiving a second letter of acceptance from the University of Utah Law School. He continued to call Elizabeth Kloepfer as he lived in Salt Lake, but dated at least a dozen other women at the time. On September 2nd, 1974, Ted abducted, raped, and murdered a still unknown hitchhiker in Idaho. On October 2nd, 1974, Ted kidnapped 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox from Holladay, a suburb of Salt Lake City. On October 18th, 1974, The daughter of the police chief of Midvale, Melissa Anne Smith, vanished after leaving a pizza parlor. Her body was found nine days later, nude, in a mountainous area. Postmortem reports say she may have remained alive for up to seven days after her disappearance. On October 17th, 1974, Laura Ann Aime disappeared after leaving a cafe around midnight. Her body was found by hikers, nine miles northeast of American Fork Canyon on Thanksgiving Day. Both, Melissa and Laura had been beaten, raped, sodomized, and were strangled with nylon stockings. November 8th, 1974, Ted approached Carol DaRonch, introduced himself as Officer Roseland and used the story of someone attempting to break into her car and to accompany him to the police station to make a report. When Carol pointed out that he was not going to the police station, he immediately pulled over to the shoulder of the road and tried to handcuff her. In their struggle, he accidentally handcuffed both cuffs to the same wrist. Carol was able to throw the door open and escape because of this. On the same evening, Debra Jean Kent disappeared after leaving a theater production to pick up her brother. The school's drama teacher and a student told police that "a stranger" had asked each of them to come out to the parking lot to identify a car. Another student later saw the same man pacing in the rear of the auditorium, and the drama teacher spotted him again shortly before the end of the play. Outside of the auditorium, investigators were able to recover a key that unlocked the handcuffs on Carol DaRonch’s wrists.

In November, Elizabeth Kloepfer called King County police for the second time, after reading about the string of disappearances and murders in the towns surrounding Salt Lake. Bundy had risen considerably as a suspect among the King County Police, but the most reliable witness from Lake Sammamish could not identify in a photo lineup. In December, Elizabeth called the Salt Lake City police with her suspicions. Ted was then added to their list of suspects, but there were no credible forensic links to put him at any of the Utah crimes. In January of 1975, Ted returned to Seattle and stayed a week with Elizabeth. She did not tell him she had reported him to the police on three occasions. She also made plans to visit him in August of 1975 in Salt Lake. Unfortunately, Ted’s crimes moved to Colorado at this point.

Colorado/Utah/Idaho Murders

January 12th, 1975, Caryn Eileen Campbell disappeared walking down a well lit hallway between the elevator and her room at the Wildwood Inn in Snowmass Village, Colorado. Her body was found a month later on a dirt road next to the resort, nude. On March 15th, 1975, Julie Cunningham disappeared while walking to a dinner date with a friend from her apartment. April 6th, 1975, Denise Lynn Oliverson vanished while riding her bicycle to her parents house. Her bike and sandals were found near a railroad bridge in a viaduct. May 6th, 1975, Ted was able to lure 12-year-old Idaho native from Alameda Junior High School, Lynette Dawn Culver, to his hotel room in Salt Lake City, where he drowned and raped her. He disposed of her body in possibly the Snake river north of Pocatello. In Mid-May, three of Ted’s coworkers from DES came to stay with him for a week. This included Carol Anne Boone. They stayed for about a week. Subsequently, Ted visited Elizabeth Kloepfer in early June. They discussed getting married the following Christmas. She again made no comments about her talking to police on several occasions. Ted also did not disclose his ongoing relationship with Carol Anne Boone or his relationship with a Utah law student known as both; Kim Andrews or Sharon Auer. June 28th, 1975, Susan Curtis disappeared from the campus of Brigham Young University, forty-five miles south of Salt Lake City. In August of 1975, Ted was also baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints although he did not follow any of the religious practices and was not an active participant in services.

On August 16th, 1975, Officer Bob Hayward of the Utah Highway Patrol, arrested Ted in Granger. This was another suburb of Salt Lake City. Hayward had observed him cruising the residential area in the pre-dawn hours. Ted then fled the area at high speeds after seeing Hayward’s patrol car. After noticing the front passengers seat was removed and placed on the back seat, the car was searched. Hayward found a ski mask, another mask fashioned from pantyhose, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, rope, an ice pick, and other burglary tools. Ted had said that the mask was for skiing, he found the handcuffs in the dumpster, and the rest were household items. Detective Jerry Thompson remembered a similar looking suspect and car description from Carol DaRonch’s attempted kidnapping. Police then searched Bundy’s apartment and were able to turn up a guide to Colorado’s ski resorts with a checkmark next to the Wildwood Inn. They were also able to find a brochure for Viewmont High School play in Bountiful where Debra Kent disappeared. They although did not find enough evidence to detain Ted and he was released on his own recognizance. Ted claimed later that investigators missed his collection of polaroid photos of his victims and he destroyed them after his release. Salt Lake police placed Ted under a 24 hour surveillance.

Detective Thompson flew to Seattle with two other detectives to interview Elizabeth Kloepfer. Elizabeth told them that in the year prior to Ted’s move to Salt Lake, she had discovered things that she "couldn't understand" in her house and also in Ted's apartment. The items she found included crutches, a bag of plaster of Paris that he had admitted stealing from a medical supply house, and a meat cleaver that was never used for cooking. Additional things she found included surgical gloves, an Oriental knife in a wooden case that he just kept in the glove compartment of his car, and a sack full of women's clothing. Ted was so far into debt, that Elizabeth suspected that he had stolen almost everything of significance that he owned. When she confronted him over a new TV and stereo, he warned her, "If you tell anyone, I'll break your fucking neck.” Elizabeth then mentioned that she would find Ted looking at her body with a flashlight under the covers on more than one occasion, and that he would get very upset if she mentioned cutting her hair. Which was long, brown, and parted in the middle. Detectives interviewing Elizabeth were able to confirm that Ted was not with her on any of the nights where the Pacific Northwest disappearances occurred. This is where Elizabeth learned about Stephanie Brooks and their brief engagement in 1973. In September, Ted sold his beetle to a Midvale teenager, but Utah police impounded it and dismantled it. They were able to find matching hair samples from Caryn Campbell. They also found “microscopically indistinguishable” hair strands from Melissa Smith and Carol DaRonch. On October 2nd, 1975, Police put Ted into a lineup and Carol DaRonch was able to identify him as Officer Roseland. Other witnesses were able to identify him as the stranger from the auditorium at Viewmont High School. He was able to be charged with aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault in Carol DaRonch’s case. He was released on $15,000 bail, which was paid by his parents. He continued to live with Elizabeth Kloepfer during this time.

In February 1976, Ted stood trial for Carol DaRonch’s kidnapping. He waived his right to trial by jury because of the negative views surrounding the case and opted for a bench trial. After a four day trial, and a weekend of deliberation, Ted was found guilty of kidnapping and assault. In June he was sentenced to one to fifteen years in the Utah State Prison. In October, he was found hiding in bushes in the prison yard carrying an "escape kit". This included road maps, airline schedules, and a social security card. He spent several weeks in solitary confinement for this. Later in October, Colorado authorities charged him with Caryn Campbell's murder. He waived his right to extradition and was transferred to Aspen in January 1977.

June 7, 1977, Ted was transported from the Garfield County jail in Glenwood Springs to Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen for a preliminary hearing. He waived his right to a court appointed attorney and opted to serve as his own, and as such, was excused by the judge from wearing handcuffs or leg shackles. During a recess of the trial, he asked to visit the courthouse's law library to research his case. While out of view from his guards, behind a bookcase, he opened a window and jumped to the ground from the second story. He managed to injure his right ankle in the process as he landed. He shed the outer layer of his clothing. He walked through Aspen as roadblocks were being set up on its outskirts after noticing his disappearance, then hiked southward onto Aspen Mountain. Near the summit of the mountain, he broke into a hunting cabin. He was able to steal food, clothing, and a rifle. The following day he left the cabin and continued south toward the town of Crested Butte. Although, during this time he had managed to get lost in the forest. For two days he wandered aimlessly in the mountain forest, missing the two trails that led downward to his intended destination. On June 10th, 1977, he broke into a camping trailer on Maroon Lake, taking food and a ski parka; instead of continuing southward, he walked back north toward Aspen, eluding the roadblocks and search parties along the way. Three days later, he stole a car at the edge of an Aspen Golf Course. He drove back into Aspen, where two police officers noticed his car weaving in and out of its lane and pulled him over. He had been a fugitive for six days.

Back in jail at Glenwood Springs, Ted again ignored legal advice to stay put (not to try to escape again). It was said that the case against him, already weak at best, was deteriorating steadily as pre-trial motions consistently resolved in his favor and significant bits of evidence were ruled inadmissible. A quote stating, "A more rational defendant might have realized that he stood a good chance of acquittal, and that beating the murder charge in Colorado would probably have dissuaded other prosecutors... with as little as a year and a half to serve on the DaRonch conviction, had Ted persevered, he could have been a free man.” had shown that. But instead, Ted assembled a new escape plan. He acquired a detailed floor plan of the jail and a hacksaw blade from other inmates, and collected $500 in cash. This was smuggled in over a six-month period, by visitors, Mostly Carol Boone. During the evenings, while other prisoners were showering, he sawed a hole about one square foot, between the steel reinforcing bars in his cell's ceiling and, having lost 35 pounds, he was able to wriggle through it into the crawl space above. In the weeks that followed, he made several “practice runs”, exploring the space. Multiple reports from an informant of movement within the ceiling during the night were not investigated. By late 1977, Bundy's impending trial had become very high flying in the media in the small town of Aspen. Ted then filed a motion for a change of venue to Denver. On December 23rd, 1977, the Aspen trial judge granted the request, but he was sent to Colorado Springs, where juries had historically been hostile to murder suspects. On the night of December 30, with most of the jail staff on Christmas break and nonviolent prisoners on furlough with their families. Bundy piled books and files in his bed, covered them with a blanket to simulate his sleeping body, and climbed into the crawl space. He broke through the ceiling into the apartment of the chief jailer, who had been out for the evening with his wife. He changed into street clothes from the jailer's closet, and literally walked out the front door to his freedom.

Florida Murders and Assaults

Ted arrived in Tallahassee, Florida on January 8th, 1978, and rented a room under the alias of Chris Hagen at the Holiday Inn. Here Bundy tried to find work and leave his criminal past behind, thinking he’d be able to remain free if he didn’t bring police suspicion onto himself. He then was forced to leave his only job application after being asked to provide identification. He reverted to shoplifting and stealing credit cards from women’s wallets out of shopping carts. On January 15th, 1978, he entered Florida State University’s sorority Chi Omega. Starting at 2:45am, he bludgeoned Margaret Bowman and then garoted her with a nylon stocking. He moved on to Lisa Levy’s bedroom, who was beaten unconscious, strangled her, tore one of her nipples, bit deeply into her left buttock, and sexuallly assaulted her with a hair mist bottle. In the bedroom adjoining Lisa's, he attacked Kathy Kliener. He had broken her jaw and had a deep laceration on her shoulder. Karen Chandler was also attacked in her bedroom, she suffered a concussion, loss of teeth, a broken jaw, and a crushed finger. Kathy and Karen both survived and attributed their survival to the attacker being scared off by headlights illuminating through the window. The whole attack happened within fifteen minutes with thirty witnesses in earshot who seemingly heard nothing. Shortly after leaving the sorority, Ted broke into the basement apartment of Cheryl Thomas, eight blocks away. He dislocated her shoulder and fractured her jaw and skull in five different places during this attack.

On February 8th, 1978, he approached the daughter of Jacksonville chief of Police, 12-year-old Leslie Parmenter, introducing himself as “Richard Burton, fire department”. He only backed off when challenged by Leslie’s older brother who had shown up to pick her up. That day, he backtracked to Lake City. February 9th, 1978, at Lake City Junior High, 12-year-old Kimberly Dianne Leach was summoned to retrieve a forgotten purse in her homeroom class and was never seen afterwards. Her mummified remains were found seven weeks afterwards in a pig farrowing shed near Suwannee River State Park. It appears she had been raped (her underwear was found near the body with semen in them) and her throat had been slit. On February 12th, 1978, Bundy could not pay his rent and had the growing suspicion that police were closing in on him, he decided to flee Tallahassee. Three days later he was apprehended by Pensacola officer, David Lee, near the Alabama border. In Miami, June of 1979, Ted stood trial for the Chi Omega killings and assaults. The jury deliberated for less than seven hours before convicting him on July 24, 1979, of the Bowman and Levy murders, three counts of attempted first degree murder and two counts of burglary. In January 1980, six months after his first Florida convictions, Ted stood trial in Orlando for the kidnapping of Kimberly Dianne Leach. After less than eight hours of deliberation, Ted was found guilty again. During the penalty phase of his trial, Bundy took advantage of an obscure Florida law; providing that a marriage declaration in court, in the presence of a judge, constituted a legal marriage. As he was questioning former Washington State DES coworker Carole Ann Boone, who had moved to Florida to be near Bundy, had testified on his behalf during both of his trials, and was again testifying on his behalf as a character witness, asked her to marry him. She accepted, and Bundy declared to the court that they were legally married. February 10th, 1980, Ted’s was sentenced to death by electrocution for the third time. In October of 1981, Carol Anne Boone, gave birth to a daughter and named Ted Bundy as the father.

Ted Bundy died by the Raiford electric chair at 7:16 a.m. EST on January 24, 1989. Hundreds of revelers sang, danced and set off fireworks in a pasture across from the prison as the execution was carried out, then cheered as the white hearse containing Bundy's corpse departed the prison. He was cremated in Gainesville, Florida and his ashes scattered at an undisclosed location in the Cascade Range of Washington State, in accordance with his will.

#ted bundy #bundy #true crime #crime #serial killer #killer

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fanfic-corner · 3 years

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Darling, So It Goes

Happy holidays, @slothbaby424! I may not have had as much time as I would like to have had to work on your @destielsecretsanta2020 fic, but I hope you enjoy it anyway (so sorry but it has not been proofread. At all). And a big thank you to @exmintha for the idea when I was struggling!

Again, here’s the playlist. It’s not necessary, but I like listening to music while writing and it’s got a load of Christmas bops on as well!

And, here’s the fic! It is 4639 words, and here’s the link on AO3 if you prefer.

{o0o}

“Pretty please?”

Dean huffed in annoyance, shifting from foot to foot. He really didn’t want to spend a day being pestered by demanding young children and their parents, but when Donna asked like that… well, he wasn’t a monster. “Fine. But if anyone gets any kind of bodily fluid on me, I am out.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine, sweetheart,” she replied, grinning wildly, and Dean had to smile back. And so, that was how Dean Winchester found himself decked out in the full Santa outfit - beard and hat included - for the Wayward Sister’s Christmas party.

Ever since they had set up the girl’s home, Jody and Donna had insisted on a big Christmas party. The first year, it was just a way to entertain the kids for the day, but since then it had evolved into an affair of epic standards. Practically the whole of Sioux Falls would show up at one point or another, usually with presents in tow. One year, Jody had confessed to Dean that they probably wouldn’t have been able to keep going without the support they got at Christmas.

To start with, Dean was not a good Santa. There were so many children that he had to keep track of, and who all wanted something and asked awkward questions that he didn’t have the answer to, and the hat was itchy and he could hardly see past the beard. By the time lunch rolled around, however, he had gotten into the swing of things, and was actually starting to enjoy himself.

That was when a stranger dumped a litre of chocolate milk over a guest’s head.

{o0o}

Castiel had been very grateful to get an invitation to a Christmas party, especially one from the people who had helped him adopt his son. He had learnt the hard way that society really doesn’t like gay people adopting kids, even if they were single.

Two hours after arriving, however, he was starting to have second thoughts. There were way more people than he expected and he had never been what someone might call a ‘social butterfly’. More like an ‘anti-social slug’, as Gabriel had once called him. The food was nice, but as it turned out, not all the people were.

“So, where’s your wife? Leave you with the kids, did she?” a man - Zachariah, Castiel thought his name was - said, punching him in the arm slightly harder than necessary.

“Oh, no, I enjoy doing things with Jack. And I’m not married.”

Zachariah looked Castiel up and down, and let out an interesting noise. He supposed it was probably meant to resemble disbelief, but to him, it sounded like an elephant stomping on a whoopee cushion. “Divorced, are you?”

Castiel raised his eyebrows. Did this man realise he was asking wildly inappropriate questions? He had half a mind to say ‘widowed’ just to see his reaction, but he didn’t dare. “No, I’m not.”

Zachariah seemed mildly uneasy at that, as if he wasn’t sure what other options there were left. “Well, I’m sure a nice lady will come along soon.”

“Actually, I’m gay,” Castiel corrected. So what if it wasn’t 100% true? In his opinion, this idiot deserved to be made as uncomfortable as possible.

Zachariah’s reaction was a little more… extreme than he was expecting. And, by extreme, what Castiel meant was that the man seemed to go through several stages - disbelief, at first, then confusion, and then his posture turned rigid and his face started turning a deeper and deeper shade of tomato red - before completely exploding into some kind of homophobic rage.

Castiel wasn’t even listening to the man ranting, just picking up words like ‘Jesus’ and ‘disgusting’ and more slurs than he could count. He was more concerned by all the children nearby who could hear the garbage this man was spouting, and he needed a way to quickly shut him up.

So, he took the obvious route, and poured the entire carton of chocolate milk that he had got for Jack over his bald head.

{o0o}

Dean felt, as Santa, he should probably go and sort out whatever argument the two morons were having that led to the waste of a perfectly good drink. He had been concerned about kids getting some kind of gunk on him, but apparently adults were equally messy.

“Hey, hey, what’s going on?” Dean asked, standing slightly in between them even though he couldn’t imagine either of them starting a fist fight. The guy covered in milk looked furious, but he was the kind of jerk who wouldn’t want his suit to get any messier than it already was, and the other dude looked like he was in some kind of shock.

“This- This queer just assaulted me!” Suit Man shouted, and Dean suddenly and rather desperately hoped that that chocolate milk was never coming out.

“Excuse me?” he asked, not entirely sure how to respond to that.

“It’s disgusting. They shouldn’t be able to raise a child in that lifestyle. It’s appal-”

“Shut up,” Dean said, rather forcefully and uncomfortably aware of the entire room’s eyes on him.

“What did you just say to me?”

“I said, shut up. What is really disgusting here is your behaviour. You think it is okay to be horrible to another human being just because of who he loves? Now that is bad parenting.”

If anyone asked him later, Dean would say that he was fuming. That his anger was clouding his judgement. That this dude was being an asshole at Christmas in front of kids. Maybe that’s why his brain spotted the teachable moment - no one argued with fucking Father Christmas - and leaned down, slowly pulling the other man towards him and kissing him gently.

To be honest, Dean was sure that he would pull away. In fact, he gave the stranger plenty of time to do so. But instead, he kissed back. Maybe he was in shock. Maybe he also saw what Dean was doing. But they kissed, and Dean knew, somehow, that it was the beginning.

{o0o}

Castiel went to that stupid party because he thought it would be a good way to entertain Jack for the afternoon, and instead left feeling simultaneously embarrassed, with the bonus of a random man’s number. Who he had kissed. In front of a room full of people.

To his continued surprise (although Castiel thought that perhaps there was a limit on how many surprises he could process in one day), the man - Dean, he said his name was, seemed genuinely interested in going on a date with him.

The Roadhouse didn’t look like a particularly romantic spot, but he was not backing out now.

“You must be Castiel.” A stern-looking woman looks him up and down before nodding in approval. “I’m Ellen. You better not hurt my boy,” she warned with a threatening smile, gesturing towards where Dean was sitting in a booth in the corner. He was clearly not reading the menu, his eyes glassy and unfocused, but he fiddled with it anyway, his leg restlessly bouncing under the table.

“Hello, Dean,” Castiel greeted as he sat down, hoping he was hiding his nerves as well as he thought he was. Remember, fake it ‘til you make it, Meg’s voice reminded him. She had been so excited when he called her about his date, threatening him with unspeakable violence if he didn’t show up. Although, Meg could threaten unspeakable violence about anything. She once left the entirety of his cutlery drawer under Castiel’s duvet just because he forgot to feed her cat once.

“Hiya, Cas,” Dean replied, grinning at him. Even though he was clearly nervous, he still seemed sincerely glad to see him, and it warmed his heart. “You don’t mind if I call ya that, right? Oh - before I forget, you should totally get the Elvis burger. It’s absolutely amazing.”

The meal went remarkably well, considering that Cas usually avoided dates like the plague. First dates were the worst - the annoyance of getting to know each other, and the inevitable awkwardness at the end - and he rarely saw anyone more than once. After a particularly bad night, which had ended with Meg having to come and pick him up from a park during a thunderstorm, Cas had sworn off dating. Yet, here he was, and he couldn’t deny he was enjoying himself.

Just as they had finished eating, two girls bounded up to the table. They clearly knew Dean somehow; one was skinny and blonde and Cas could swear that he could see a knife peeking out from her apron, and the other had flaming red hair and a t-shirt which proclaimed ‘the internet is broken, so I’m outside today’.

“Wanna decorate cookies with us?” they exclaimed at the same time, and before he could process what was happening, Cas had been dragged over to the kitchen where there was already a tray of perfect biscuits cooling on the counter.

The next half an hour was spent in a whirlwind of icing and sprinkles and sugar, and Cas loved every minute, although he really hoped that none of the cookies ended up being given to customers, because he had seen Jack make mud cakes more hygienic than this. Charlie sat in a corner on her phone, blasting Christmas music while focused on texting and taking pictures, whereas Jo was thoroughly entertaining herself by drawing inappropriate designs on her biscuits. Dean and Cas’ actually ended up looking okay, but neither of them were artists, so the cookies still looked like they had been decorated by a toddler.

When they were finished, they left Charlie and Jo to clean up and went back into the main area of the now empty restaurant. A new song came over the speakers, slow and enchanting, and Dean offered Cas a hand. “A dance before you go?”

Dancing with Dean, Cas decided, was magical. They swayed together, gradually getting closer and closer until their chests were pressed together and Cas’ head was resting on Dean’s shoulder. For a minute, Cas could forget everything but this moment. He allowed himself to simply be lost in the music and the warmth of Dean’s body, listening to the steady thump of his heartbeat and feel the gentle rise and fall of his chest.

As the song ended, Dean carefully pulled apart just enough to lean down and join their lips in a tender kiss, and Cas thought that he could be in heaven.

But the kiss only got deeper and suddenly Cas’ mind flickered back online just in time to remind him what a ridiculous idea this was. Red flashing lights screamed and wailed and reminded him of what always happened, and the sudden warning jolted his body into action, pulling away from Dean in a panic.

Dean looked down at him with a lazy smile, only frowning when he realised something was wrong. “Cas? Wha- did I do something wrong?”

Cas was shaking his head and reversing all at once, all higher functioning processes having been thrown out of the window. He was babbling, apologising and saying it wasn’t Dean and all the while he knew he was on the edge of some kind of embarrassing meltdown, so in the end, he let his feet do the talking, and fled.

{o0o}

Dean didn’t think the fact he hadn’t left his house in two days had anything to do with the best date he had ever been on ending with the other dude running out on him, but apparently Charlie did. She had been pestering him all day, asking if he wanted to help her decorate for Christmas or go and get milkshakes or watch a film. No matter what she suggested, Dean always declined. He wasn’t feeling it, and if it had anything to do with the trenchcoat staring at him from across the room, he wasn’t going to admit it to anyone.

It wasn’t the first time someone had run out on him, of course, but usually that was on a particularly awkward date or if something bad had happened. He just couldn’t understand what had sent Cas running out of the Roadhouse like that, so panicstricken that he forgot his coat which he came with. Dean didn’t think he had read the situation that badly; in fact, he had been sure that the other man had been enjoying their date.

He sighed and pulled the pillow over his head, trying to ignore his phone as it pinged constantly. Yeah, it was probably Charlie spamming him, but there was always the chance it could be Cas…

Charlie: What about we just go on a really long drive?

Charlie: You can pick the music

Charlie: You shouldn’t be cooped up on Christmas eve eve!

Charlie: Dean Winchester, you better not be ignoring me

Charlie: Dean???

Ellen: You still coming to the party tomorrow?

Oh, shit. Dean had totally forgotten about the Annual Roadhouse Christmas Bash. It was the perfect opportunity to distribute the presents and cards he bought, there was plenty of delicious (and free!) food, and it was generally the highlight of his Christmas. Everyone would be there - Ellen and Jo, Bobby, Charlie, and practically everyone else who lived within a hundred mile radius.

No matter how down Dean was feeling, he wouldn’t miss it for the world. In his opinion, family came before everything.

Dean: course i am

{o0o}

“Come on Clarence, it’s Christmas!” Meg encouraged, nudging Castiel’s shoulder. “I’ll go with you, and Claire can watch Jack. She already agreed.”

Castiel looked down at the napping toddler, one thumb in his mouth and a teddy clutched tight in his tiny hands. It felt like he had barely spent any time with his son in forever, even though he knew it wasn’t true. He knew that if he really didn’t want to go, Meg would let him weasel his way out of this particular social gathering, but he couldn’t help but think that it might be good for him.

“An hour’s all I’m asking,” Meg begged. He was surprised she hadn’t threatened him with Nair or something yet.

“Fine.” Just one hour, and then a quiet Christmas. What could possibly go wrong?

{o0o}

Dean had busted out his favourite leather jacket, and (at Charlie’s desperate begging) was even wearing just a bit of eyeliner. He was determined to not let his failed date ruin his favourite thing about Christmas, and he would be damned if he spent another minute thinking about Cas.

(So, maybe he had brought the forgotten coat along with him, but that was just so he could give it to Ellen in case Cas came in the Roadhouse again! She was much more likely to see the dude again than him, anyways. It wasn’t Dean’s fault that - because of Charlie’s enthusiasm to get inside - he had left the thing in the Impala's trunk.)

For the first hour, his plan entirely succeeded. He was distracted by the gift exchanging and the procuring of food and catching up with old friends and avoiding people he didn’t like (namely that one girl who delivered food for Ellen sometimes who he could swear was a demon). It was only after the hour mark when he swore he saw a familiar mop of dark hair, but he immediately dismissed the thought. No way.

He went into the kitchen and chatted to Benny for a while, enjoying catching up on his old friend’s life. Perhaps he got a bit distracted when he heard a familiar gruff voice in the hallway, but other than that, he was sure that his mind was playing tricks on him. Besides, Jo was always up to something. Just because she had a glint in her eye when she came into the kitchen, it didn’t mean anything special. Probably just that some poor fool had a whoopee cushion on their chair somewhere.

It was about halfway through the party when Dean’s plan really started to fail. The music suddenly seemed too loud and the once friendly crowd suddenly made him feel claustrophobic. The smell of burgers and chocolate - no matter how delicious Dean knew they were - was making his stomach roll. The best course of action, he decided, was to step outside for a few minutes, to get some fresh air.

He didn’t expect to find Castiel already out there.

{o0o}

Meg - being Meg - had absolutely insisted, upon their arrival at the Roadhouse, that she didn’t know that it was the location of Castiel’s failed date. Apparently she had been invited (with a plus one) because she occasionally delivered food for them or something, but Castiel smelt a lie in there somewhere.

It would be fine. One hour, free punch and food, and he could go home. He could avoid Dean for one hour. He might not even be there.

An hour in, and Castiel was sure he wasn’t there, in fact. He politely greeted Ellen (who glared daggers at him, which he felt he deserved) and Charlie (who apparently knew Meg). He had a conversation with Jo outside the kitchen (which mostly consisted of him asking where the toilets were and Jo asking if he had called Dean). In fact, he was actually having a fairly pleasant time when he realised that they probably wouldn’t make it home in time to relieve Claire of her babysitting duties, so he quickly rushed outside to call her, but she didn’t pick up.

God only knew where Meg was, but she was - as she put it - a ‘big girl who could handle herself’, so Castiel didn’t bother waiting up. He simply called a taxi, hoping it would get there before he froze to death. He still hadn’t managed to find his favourite coat, and he had deeply mourned his loss.

He was so caught up in hopping from foot to foot and thinking about how much of a tip he was going to give Claire that he nearly didn’t hear the voice coming from the doorway.

“Cas?” Dean Winchester asked.

Fuck, he thought, slowly turning around to be met with the sight of the gorgeous man with a handsome jacket and eyes like a forest. Oh, he was so fucked.

“Hello, Dean,” Cas replied instead, not sure what else to say.

The younger man walked up to him tentatively, as if any quick movement he made might scare Cas off. “Uh… what are you doing here?”

“Meg convinced me to come,” Cas answered, his eyes never quite meeting Dean’s.

“Meg? She- Is she your girlfriend?” Dean looked hurt, but Cas couldn’t help but laugh.

“God, no. She’s my neighbour,” he chuckled.

“Oh, sorry,” Dean mumbled.

It was a lot quieter outside, but even with the background noise - wispy notes of music and the occasional growl of a car’s engine in the distance - their silence seemed deafening. Neither of them was quite sure what to say, and even though Cas knew that it was him who owed Dean the explanation, he did not have the energy to explain himself. In all the twenty two years in which he had understood his sexuality, he had never once been able to describe his experience succinctly, or even in a way that wasn’t babbling nonsense.

Of course the taxi was taking its sweet time to show up.

“I’m sorry,” Cas blurted out, at the same time Dean stammered, “why did you leave?”

They are silent for another moment. “It’s hard to explain,” Cas hesitated.

“Well, I’d kinda like to know,” Dean snapped, wincing as the words came out of his mouth. “Sorry, ignore me. I’m being a dick. You don’t have to explain if you don’t want-”

“I’m asexual,” Cas declared abruptly, cutting Dean off.

Dean opened and closed his mouth for a few seconds, trying to process this. Cas knew, he just knew from the look on his face that this conversation was going to be as horrific as it is every. Single. Time.

“I’ve not heard of that before,” Dean eventually stated.

Cas sighed. He liked Dean, he genuinely did, but it was usually The Talk that scared people off. “I’m not sexually attracted to anyone.”

“Oh,” Dean mumbles, sounding disappointed. “So, the other night…?”

“Romantic and sexual attraction are two different things. I enjoyed our date, but I… panicked, at the end. People tend to, uh… expect things, and I didn’t want to lead you on. Sorry, again. I should have handled it better.”

“S’okay. So you don’t have sex at all?” Dean asked, deadpan. Suddenly, he realised what he said, and he clapped his hands over his mouth. “I am so sorry. That is such a weird question. Don’t answer that.”

Cas huffed out a laugh, watching his breath disappear into the night. Looking up, he watched as the stars winked at him against the inky backdrop, and he took a deep breath. “Would you like to go on another date?”

Cas finally allowed himself to look at Dean, and he was greeted with a warm, sincere smile. “I would love that.”

The moment was broken when Cas’ phone rang, and he fumbled to pick it up with his frozen fingers. “Claire! Sorry I’m late, I’m on my- what’s wrong? Claire, slow down. The hospital? Shit, I’m on my way.”

Cas glanced up at Dean, barely registering his concern, only managing to choke out, “Jack is in the hospital.”

{o0o}

Dean didn’t even hesitate. There was no way in Hell he was gonna let Cas wait for a cab when his son was hurt, and he was bundling the distressed man towards his car before he could even protest. “Which hospital?”

Cas stood by the passenger door completely rigid, his brows furrowed in confusion. “Dean, what are you doing?”

Dean looked at him incredulously, one eyebrow raised. “Giving you a lift, dumbass. Baby is way faster than any taxi.”

“Baby?” Cas asked, but he got in the car anyway.

Luckily, the Roadhouse was only a twenty minute drive away (if you went by the speed limit, and Dean most certainly did not) but even that seemed like an age when he was trying to simultaneously not crash the car and comfort the man in the passenger seat. Dean didn’t have any kids of his own, but he could imagine that this was the worst possible thing that could happen to Cas; to have your own child in danger and not being able to be with them must be torture.

Cas was opening the car door before they had even come to a full stop, and by the time Dean had parked, he was already inside. By the time Dean caught up, he was already deep in conversation with Jody’s daughter, who was distraught. It was almost scary; Dean remembered her as the girl who had thrown a full grown man out of a second story window because he groped her, and every interaction he had ever had with her had made her seem like a badass.

“What’s going on?” he asked, gently shepherding them towards a seat in the waiting room.

Cas wasn’t listening. He had already stormed off and was in a heated discussion with the receptionist, who kept shaking her head more and more forcefully.

“A dog attacked him,” Claire hiccuped. “Just came out of nowhere and started tearing at him.”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Dean assured her, bringing in a hug. He didn’t even care that she was probably getting snot all over his favourite jacket.

Cas stormed back over, looking like he was ready to level a city. “They won’t let me see him until they’ve operated.”

“Shit,” Dean replied, a plan forming. “Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. Claire, you go outside and call Jody and ask her to pick you up, ‘kay? I’m gonna call someone at the Roadhouse to bring some supplies so we can camp here overnight if we need to… Cas, do you have a spare key or something? I can get someone to pick up some stuff from your house that you might need?”

“Meg has a key,” he sniffled.

Fifteen minutes later, everything is as sorted out as it can be. Bobby - the only person left who is safe to drive - was giving Meg a lift to Cas’ place to pick up their things and to bring some food, and Jody was there to pick up Claire.

“It’s not your fault, kiddo. Go home and get some rest, we’ll keep you updated,” Dean reassured her.

An hour later, the doctors agreed to let Cas in to see Jack, assuring them that he will be absolutely fine. When Cas finally untangled himself from Dean’s side, he seemed reluctant to leave him, but Dean just smiled gently at him and squeezed his hand. “I’ll wait right here,”

In the end, Jack gets discharged the very same night, coincidentally right as Bobby and apparently an entire ensemble from the Roadhouse show up. Jo is there with enough leftovers to feed an army, and Charlie and Meg had enough blankets and bags of clothes with them that Dean winced when he spared a thought for the state Cas’ house was going to be in.

It was a little awkward when Cas walked out of the hospital with a sleeping Jack in his arms, bundled in one of the many blankets, but Bobby just huffed and offered to give them a lift back home. Charlie clambered into the Impala without a second word - it would not be the first time she had slept over at Dean’s while drunk - leaving Dean to say goodbye.

“Night, Cas. And Merry Christmas,” he said, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly.

“Thank you, Dean,” Cas replied, and they both knew he wasn’t talking about the holiday wishes.

{o0o}

The next time they actually managed to see each other was New Year’s Eve. Dean had shown up on Cas’ doorstep with chocolate, an armful of fireworks, and his usual lopsided smile. Obviously, he was not going to be refused.

They set the fireworks off as soon as it went dark, Cas holding Jack a safe distance away while Dean lit them, his silhouette dancing in the darkness of the garden. The bangs elicited excited squeaks from Jack, his eyes open wide in awe. He had never seen fireworks up close before.

After Jack had been tucked into sleep, Cas returned downstairs to find Dean lounging on the porch, two glasses of champagne poured. They sat outside for hours, watching the explosions of colour mix with the stars until it was impossible to tell them apart.

Cas couldn’t help but think that Dean was beautiful in this light; mellow and golden, his eyes sparkling underneath a halo of sparks.

Before long, it was a minute to midnight. “I… can I kiss you again?” Dean mumbled, his eyes flicking over to Cas nervously.

He smiled reassuringly. “I think I would like that.”

“Oh, uh, awesome.” It was hard to tell, but he was sure that Dean was blushing furiously. “I just wasn’t sure if you were, like, aromantic or something.”

Cas’ eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You know what that is?”

“I googled it all after you told me. Figured I should probably learn all the terms, y’know?”

All of a sudden, Castiel realised that he might be falling in love. No one had ever bothered doing anything like that for him before.

A chant started up in the distance, a thousand voices all counting down at the same time.

Ten

Nine

Eight

Dean gently cupped the back of Cas’ neck, pulling him closer until he could feel the warmth of his face.

Seven

Six

Five

Cas smiled up at him, lost in the forests that he called eyes.

Four

Three

Two

“Happy New Year, Cas,” Dean whispered, and their lips collided, better than any firework.

#i hope you enjoy #destiel #my writing #fanfic #destiel secret santa #christmas

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filmmakerdreamst · 4 years

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‘Boy Meets World’ Re-watch (as an Adult)

‘Girl Meets World’ doesn’t count as a sequel. Not because of the writing/tonal choices but because in the original show - despite continuity issues - the characters felt like real people e.g. the way they spoke/acted/dressed was the way people behaved in the 90s where as in the spin off, they were Disney characters e.g. hyper versions of themselves especially Cory and Eric. And the transition between both shows didn’t come naturally. It’s not an objectivity badly written show but it was pretty much a re-do of the old show with the same storylines/tropes without continuing the story. (I say the same thing about ‘The Incredibles’. vs ‘Incredibles 2’.) Also there were too many cooks in the kitchen pushing one way or another. You could see Micheal Jacobs style, all the aspects were there, but he was also creating a ‘DISNEY’ show at the same time. I don’t know about you but the one message I took from the original show was ‘finding out that life cannot be packenged into a lovely little present ’ which kind of contradicts everything that the new show is. If anything GMW is an AU universe (and it really felt like that, rewatching it right after BMW e.g. it felt flipped) almost like Disney’s version of ‘what happened next?’ The primal difference between both shows is BMW is portraying what is real and GMW is based on what is real.

Going off my point, I will however be always thankful that it exists because I probably wouldn’t of found out about ‘Boy Meets World’ otherwise. Although saying that, I never thought that the original show needed a continuation of any kind (a lot of things make sense about the spin off if you acknowledge that Disney requested it - I think it would of been much better off on its original platform) ‘Boy Meets World’ was very much a product of its time i.e. when tv shows were still relevetivley new and had no rules - like there is stuff in there that not even adult shows today have. Plus there was something about it that felt very personal (such as the characters and setting) as if the creator based it on his own childhood growing up and I think that was part of its charm and why it had such a big effect on pop culture - I’m not so sure you can repeat that.

BMW is big on meta I’ll tell you that. I love how it’s so aware of itself. The amount of depth that it has never ceases to amaze me. It’s whole universe is so dense and huge. Every quote/storyline is so unique it sticks in your brain forever. (I swear the humour got more and more deranged every season). The show was also incredibly queer and progressive. It didn’t give a crap about sexuality. Much more than I remember. Proof to never use ‘but it was made in the 90s’ excuse.

I loved how the show kept reinventing itself every season as Cory grew up so you really felt you were growing up with him and all the characters. The Character Development on this show was so natural/authentic. Every single character got a chance to shine. No one changed their look in one episode and no one had an intervention every time someone had an identity crisis (GMW) My favourite development was Shawn Hunter. He went from a cool kid to a ladies man to a poetic soul. It was so satisfying to watch.

I realised that Cory Matthews is actually my favourite character (before it was Eric or Shawn) I already have a special soft spot for ‘annoying’ characters because they tend to be the most memorable/real. For example, Karma Ashcroft from ‘Faking it’ was my babe while everyone was hating on her. I really related to his anxiety/self hatred about being average and I loved that he constantly made mistakes. It was very refreshing. He’s also incredibly queer-coded. I found that alot of his mannerisms make sense if you see him with extreme compulsory heterosexuality (because identity’s such as bisexual or gay couldn’t exist normally in the 90s) There are moments in the show where he literally mimics his best friend’s behaviour around girls e.g. when the class pretty much gets brainwashed by the sex ed video in ‘Boy Meets Girl’ Shawn gets asked out by a girl, making Cory jealous - which pushes him to ask out Topanga.

It’s funny how a few years of life experience can change perspectives completely because when I was sixteen (aka the same age as Cory and Topanga) watching BMW for the first time, I was mad at Amy for ‘not understanding that they were in love’ (in ‘A Walk to Pittsburg’) but now that I’m older I’m actually agreeing with her. Yeah, what do they know about love? Because all season long they were acting quite superficially.

Cory and Topanga became somewhat of a toxic couple in seasons 5 -7. Reminded me of my parents relationship because my mum gave up her chosen university to be closer to my dad and they aren’t together any more. Topanga’s love for Cory was very conditional and Cory cheated on her multiple times/openly begged for sex (Again like my parents) And you should never be in a relationship with someone who makes you say “You make me think not so very much of myself” There are arguably much more signs of emotional abuse than love in their relationship especially from Topanga’s side. Plus their story was altered so many times to give it more basis (they retconned Shawn and Cory’s friendship to do this) I could write an essay on how Kevin and Winnie’s love story on ‘The Wonder Years’ is much more believable because it actually addresses how toxic it was and they grow apart in the end. If GMW was a realistic continuation, they would be divorced with a little girl - leave them in the 90s where they belong.

Alan and Amy were couple goals! Cory and Topanga wish that they could have what they have. Literally the definition of ‘a healthy relationship on tv that keeps thriving and over coming obstacles without big drama’. Best TV parents ever.

I loved the Matthews family; how they all had individual arcs and developments of their own. One of my favourite arcs was in season 5, when Eric and Cory were both jealous of what they ‘didn’t have’ with their dad, so Alan made an effort to give them both that they needed. Honestly, I had never seen so much healthy communication on TV before. Alan is the best father around. His whole personal arc of giving up managing a supermarket because he wasn’t passsionate about it anymore and buying a mountain store was so inspired. I found it funny that the family had more of a relationship with Shawn than Topanga.

Shawn Hunter never caught a break. It got a bit tiring. He was never allowed to be happy for five minutes. Every time he laughed or smiled, 5 years were added onto my lifespan. Why didn’t Johnathan Turner adopt him? I loved their dynamic. Why did he let him go back to his abusive father who just dumped him anyway?

Jack and Shawn’s complicated dynamic was possibly the most unique/interesting arc of the entire show and no one talks about it. I don’t care what y’all say - despite them being very different, Jack was the only one who fully took care of Shawn without second thoughts (Turner and the Matthews family had doubts)

I liked Shawn and Angela. I thought they were much better suited than Cory and Topanga. I honestly wouldn’t of minded if they ended up together even though I always had a feeling they wouldn’t. (Like I’m glad she went with her dad in the end) And considering how important they were as a interracial couple in the 90s, GMW handled that very poorly.

Shawn and Cory should of ended up together. And before you come at me with ‘it’s important to have m/m friendships without toxic masculinity’ (which is an important arguement to have) - yeah no shit there’s an entire Industry based around that/pitting women against each other. While it is important to have those friendships between men that are close and even intimate (take Chandler and Joey, Schmidt and Nick, Isak and Jonas and Jake and Charles for example) there was also another layer to their relationship which the narrative played off sometimes as them “going out” or “in love”. I actually recently found out that a writer - who came into the show in season 3 - confirmed that she wrote gay undertones into their relationship on purpose ‘In my opinion as a writer, they thought they were “straight”, they both didn’t realise or understand their feelings for eachother’ but couldn’t deliever because the producers wanted to keep the show “kid friendly”. Kind of like Xena and Gabby. I know people prefer Jack & Eric (I love them as well) but everything got ruined for me as soon as they introduced the ‘love triangle’ and I always tend to prefer emotional tension over sexual. They were just so unconditional with each other/ their friendship was so good and healthy and now I’m so bitter that it never happened.

I never understood why Shawn and Cory had to stop being best friends after he got married. He’s not Topanga’s property. I always hated how Topanga tried to interrupt/interfere with their dynamic — although now I realise it was because the two of them purposely left her out. Looking back at it, If it really was just a intimate friendship then why would she get so easily jealous if she didn’t sense there was something else deeper going on? You should never marry someone who puts you second.

I didn’t like Topanga when she was with Cory (or vice versa) Especially after they got married. She was a great character on her own. Feminist before her time. Hermione Granger before her time. I always felt she deserved a lot better than him in a way e.g. if someone I considered a friend speard a rumour around high school that we slept together - I would never speak to that person again. SHE SHOULD OF GONE TO YALE GOD DAMN IT. And as someone pointed out the other day, if the roles were reversed some of the stuff she does or says to Cory would be considered domestic violence. ‘She’s always blaming Cory on shit that isn't even his fault or makes him feel bad or shuts down his emotions and turns it around so he's comforting her instead.’ There was even a moment in GMW (not that I consider that show a continuation) where she locks him out the house for a few days after he insulted her chicken, and his son Auggie had to bring him spaghetti. If Cory was a woman, that would not be played off as a joke - that would be considered abuse. They were however a better couple in GMW ironically.

Angela Moore is now one of my favourite characters on BMW. She was beautiful. Her friendship with Rachel (and Topanga) was the best. And I frickin’ loved her and Cory’s friendship development - when they could of easily not played into that. I hate that she got villiaized in GMW.

My favourite seasons are 4, 5 & 1. My least favourites are 3 & 2 & 7. And even then the show was still pretty darn good.

The back and fourth clash between Turner and Mr Feeny in season 2 was very entertaining.

Mr Feeny and Eric are my favourite relationship on ‘Boy Meets World’. I love how Eric was the only person that Feeny directly told that he loved him. Also, why didn’t Eric become the new Mr Feeny? He showed more traits of becoming a teacher in the show than Cory did.

Eric and Tommy was probably the most heartbreaking plot line in season 6. (That season was an emotional train wreck) I cried for a fourth time. The world doesn’t deserve him.

I loved the development of Shawn and Topanga’s friendship. Even though there was a silent competition over Cory, they eventually became good friends. I found out that the song ‘She will be loved’ was inspired by them which is awesome but it’s also proof that people ship for less if it’s an m/f dynamic - just sayin’. I however see a more convincing potiental romance with the two of them than Cory and Topanga sometimes.

On Cory and Topanga again - they weren’t a bad couple overall. I liked them in s1 - 3. They had some great moments. But upon my rewatch (getting out of that 90s idealised headspace) I found them to be too similar at times - chafing as another person put it - to the point where they cancel each other out. A lot of people pointed out that Riley and Maya paralleled them and I was thinking “That’s not nesserily a good thing.”

‘Dream. Try. Do good.’ is on my mantelpiece.

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porcupine-girl · 4 years

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Untamed Fic Rec List

Look, most of these are reasonably popular fics already, so if you’ve been in this fandom for a couple months you’ve likely read them. Which is not how I normally do rec lists, but I’m new enough to Untamed that I’m still reading through all the fics by authors I know from other fandoms plus ones that have been personally recced to me, so I haven’t made it into the deep dive of underappreciated fics that I normally like to rec.

It doesn’t help that one of these recs is 445K, so for like two weeks straight it was basically all I was reading.

BUT if, like me, you are rather new to this fandom and its fics, here are some good ones:

The Same Moon Shines Series by sami

This is the 445K behemoth, made up of 23 works, and is technically made up of three interrelated series. The first fic, which establishes the whole universe/multiverse, is 139K on its own. Basically, decades into the canon future, WWX invents time travel.

He goes back to being born, but is reborn with all his memories intact. And he fixes, like, fucking everything and it’s so, so fucking satisfying. Everything’s not perfect though - for example, he like lowkey (highkey?) traumatizes LXC by showing him his previous life via empathy and that has some consequences eventually. Featuring ace poly JC/LXC/WQ triad.

Then in a cracky subseries, appropriately called “ridiculous future bullshit”, we assume that the main six from this universe (WWX, LWJ, JC, WQ, LXC, JYL, & Lan Sizhui) all achieve immortality and find out what they’re up to in the modern day, where they’re revered in the Five Nations (this does a great job of staying in the canon world instead of ours) but of course white Western assholes do things like try and make a disney movie called Hanguang-Jun and the Yiling Patriarch where they marry LWJ off to a girl.

And then in a third subseries, which so far has only one WIP fic, we go back to the canon universe, find out that JC and LWJ were stuck there watching WWX disappear in his time machine array (so WWX actually split off into another universe, he didn’t rewind his own), and so they get into the array having no idea what it will do but wanting to chase down the asshole they love. And so a third universe is born, where they are both born with their memories but WWX is not. I absolutely love seeing how different their priorities are from WWX’s in terms of what they want to change in their new life.

(Also: This is technically a MDZS fic that usually goes with novel canon over show canon if there’s a discrepancy, so if like me you haven’t read the whole novel you might need to look up some plot points now and then.)

The Vermillion Ribbon by @unforth

AU where Wei WuXian was taken in by Wen Qing and Wen Ning’s parents instead of the Jiangs. LWJ (who is the POV character) is a super DUPER dick to him at first, like even moreso than in canon, but the speed with which he regrets his choices is breathtaking and extremely satisfying.

LWJ is a VERY unreliable narrator. He has absolutely no idea what is going on with himself or anyone else at any point in time. Eventually he at least becomes self-aware of this fact, and can at least go wait am I missing something? I think I’m missing several somethings but fuck if I know what. Wei WuXian not understanding this about him leads to some miscommunication, because WWX doesn’t get that LWJ needs absolutely everything spelled out to him in single-syllable words with crayon drawings and y’know, WWX isn’t going to be straightforward anytime he can pretend he’s TOTALLY FINE :D :D :D instead.

LWJ’s friendship with NHS is magical, and NHS in general gets 810% more opportunity to scheme and plot pre-time-of-NMJ’s-canonical-death than in canon and is honestly living his best life. It’s also valuable for LWJ to have a scheming friend because, aside from realizing he misjudged WWX, this is how he starts to figure out that he’s a dumbass who has no idea what is going on ever. But he can count on NHS to always be ten steps ahead, so it’s okay.

(ETA: I’m sorry, I made unforth feel like maybe LWJ was too dense, and no, he’s very much not stupid in general. Like, honestly the fact that he becomes so self-aware of the things he’s bad at, and does things like trust NHS to always understand the stuff he’s missing, makes him come off as very intelligent. It’s just in the specific realm of understanding anything that people say or do that isn’t 100% honest and straightforward that he is just entirely hopeless in a rather relatable way, and like I said, WWX’s go-to is hiding any and all pain so that is a bad combo.)

The Fire Lapping Up the Creek by notevenyou

This diverges from canon when WWX is on his way to Jin Ling’s one month celebration, but doesn’t bring Wen Ning along. So when Jin Zixun attacks it goes very poorly for him, poorly enough that Jin Zixuan thinks he’s dead and it’s reported back at Carp Tower as such. Sending LWJ into a dissociative state. He manages to break through to reality just long enough to find out that Jin Zixuan took WWX’s body back to the burial mounds and left it with Wen Qing, and to get on his sword and go directly there. Thankfully, it turns out that WWX is not dead, but only just barely so.

So LWJ stays there, because now that he spent some amount of time (he isn’t really sure if it was like five minutes or two hours, because dissociation) thinking WWX was dead he now knows that he should never, ever be anywhere but with WWX.

Honestly, it almost feels like a spoiler to say WWX doesn’t die, but there’s no major character death warning while there IS one for graphic violence so it’s not a chose not to warn either, so that’s technically not a spoiler. But things are touch-and-go for him for a very, very long time. And the romance is a slow burn with pining galore. And you get to see LWJ teaching A-Yuan to play the guqin, so like imagine being WWX and you wake up from almost dying to see that going on in your cave.

Velle: to will, to wish by @aerlalaith

This one is actually canon-compliant, and as it’s both quite a bit shorter and more straightforward, plot-wise, than the others, my writeup will be short but that doesn’t mean I loved it any less. Basically, it’s the process of LWJ deciding to adopt A-Yuan in the aftermath of WWX’s death. It starts just after he’s been beaten for turning against the other cultivators, and at first it’s mostly his grief and both physical and emotional pain. A-Yuan starts slipping in to visit him. and LWJ isn’t sure if he’s really okay with that at first.

Of course he becomes very okay with it, but the Lan elders and Lan Qiren and all aren’t just going to be like “ok sure you can barely walk you should def adopt a four-year-old of unclear origins who may or may not have something to do with your demonic dead boyfriend and the evil people he helped, that’s cool,” so it’s not that simple.

There’s a followup fic where, years later, LWJ chooses the courtesy name Sizhui and Xichen gives him shit for it.

save a sword, ride a socialist by sysrae / @fozmeadows

Continuing on my grand tour of Untamed fics by my fave writers from other fandoms, I get to enjoy having overlapped with foz on a third straight fandom which is just fabulous. I totally thought I wasn’t gonna read AUs and then this asshole comes along and writes AUs, which is not playing fair.

I especially love this because it’s modern day but much like ridiculous future bullshit it’s modern day in (more or less) a canonish world, not our world. So like, they fly on swords, but not long distances because it’s easier to take a train or drive rather than use up all that spiritual energy.

Lan Qiren and Jin Guangshan miss the old ways, though, and they think the best ancient tradition to bring back is arranged marriage! Because that will go over well with today’s youth. They try to make LWJ marry Mianmian but he’s like “um I’m gay” and LQ throws a hissy fit about that so Jin Zixuan (who is LWJ’s bestie and is fucking hilarious) hatches a plot for LWJ to cause LQ to stroke out by bringing WWX to Lan Xichen’s birthday party as his fake date.

But when LWJ and WWX meet up to talk this over, LWJ is instantly fucked because WWX has a small child with him and it turns out that this small child is the orphan he adopted. He doesn’t notice he’s fucked until a few days later, though, when WWX comes over for “kissing practice” and they fuck and he calls Jin Zixuan all “I think I caught a feel, what do?” and JZX is like idk, you’re a moron, don’t ask me to clean up your moron messes. And the next day LWJ buys a car seat.

Lan Wangji heard about Jack 110% Zimmermann and said “challenge accepted,” is what I’m saying here. And now I’ve written as much about this 33k fic as I did about the 445k, so I’ll shut up before I just recount the entire plot.

#the untamed #fic recs #wangxian #if I haven't recced your fic I probably haven't read it yet #literally this is most of the fics I've managed to read so far #when I say the same moon shines took up all of my reading time for 2-3 weeks I am being entirely serious #and then vermillion ribbon is 220+k so it took a week or two too #so like i've got ao3 emails waiting in my inbox for fics by tippy and moosefeels and through_shadows_falling and a few others #I promise I will get to them!

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legxllyblxndc · 3 years

Photo

quinn || facts

name: quinn elizabeth campbell

nicknames: n/a

age: 18

from: london

lives in: london

sexuality: pansexual

occupation: college student & waitress

relationship status: single

financial background: working class

family: parents are deceased. foster child.

mental health: PTSD

build: slim (UK 8)

body modifications: lobes pierced x2, nose pierced, helix pierced

intelligence: low intelligence. Ds in most subjects, Cs in a couple

drinking/smoking/drugs: socially/habitually/often

studied: drama, film studies, pe & sociology

bio:

elizabeth and george campbell had the true love story. they met when they were teenager, fell in love when they were 14, got married at 18 and had quinn just one year after that. they were completely in love and felt like they had the world at their fingers tips. life was good for the three of them - for a while. but when quinn was 5, she and her parents were going shopping. quinn was so excited because her parents told her that she could pick out anything that she wanted. on the way there, however, quinn and her parents were in a horrific car crash - head on with a lorry. when quinn woke up - just over a week later - she was told that her parents had died and it was basically a miracle that she was awake, that she was - relatively - unharmed. quinn doesn’t really have many memories of her parents, she barely even remembers what they look like.

for a little while, quinn was taken in by her fathers parents. they were kind and they did their best but they were old fashioned and had strict rules - rules that did not gel well with quinn. she was never allowed to talk about her parents, she was never allowed to come out of her room after dinner and, when she got a little older, she was never allowed friends over. her grandfather was also very old fashioned in his discipline. whenever quinn did something wrong, she would get smacked, whenever her grandfather was unhappy, he would take it out on her. she could never win around him. when he died and she was placed into foster care - at 13 years old - she thought that, that was the start of things getting better.

despite being an older child when she went into foster care, quinn was adopted pretty quickly. at first, she thought that it was good. they were kind and they looked after her, for a bit. until quinn started causing trouble. until quinn started to realise that her new adopted father was a drunk and that her adopted mother did nothing but stand by and watch as he hurt his ‘children’. they painted a perfect picture when they were visited by the adoption agency but behind closed doors, they were terrible. her new ‘mother’ terrified quinn when she mentioned about saying something. she told her how lucky she was to be adopted by them, how she would just be left to rot. she has been too scared to ever say anything. she’s still in that house now.

due to her trauma, quinn has quite bad night terrors. she could scream the house down and hit out and it’s hard to pull her out of it when she is in that state. quinn often tries to stay up late, to stay out of the house, to put off sleep for as long as possible because she knows, nine times out of ten, that her dreams will be full of nightmares.

all of quinns life, she has been told that she is a ‘problem’ child. she was forever getting kicked out of classes because she was making a fuss, she had detention almost every single night after school. she never really learnt much in school. really, she’s a pretty intelligent person but she was never given the chance to excel. she was never given the chance to be the best that she could be because she has never had someone who actually believed in her. so instead, she plays up to what people expect from her. she causes trouble, she messes around, she doesn’t pay attention. it’s easier for her to play that part, than to actually face up to the person that she is - because she doesn’t really know who that person is.

although she may come across as being a very cold, mean spirited person, quinn is also a very passionate person, she is all or nothing. if you’re in with her, you’re in and she will do absolutely anything for you - even if it might get her into trouble. she has a very small group of friends, who are everything to her. they are the people that she considers her family and like most siblings, quinn and her friends are forever bickering, forever arguing but they always have one anothers backs.

the only light in quinns life was her first boyfriend, jack littleton. the pair started dating when they were fouteen and he quickly became everything to her. she spent so much of her time with him and they were basically inseparable for three years. when his parents announced that they were moving away, though, things changed. although they both said that they would try long distance, it didn’t work out. on the night of her 18th birthday, quinn went out with a couple of her friends. she got completely drunk and ended up going home with one of the boys on the football team. she didn’t even remember what had happened but she woke up beside him. when quinn told jack, he broke things off then and there and left her completely heartbroken. this was a couple of months ago now and quinn has just started to feel better about it all.

#quinn || facts #abuse tw

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misha-moose-dean-burger-lover · 4 years

Text

Baker of All the Cookies in the Universe

Summary/Spoilers: Dean and Cas cry in their kitchen because they love their son too much, and Dean would like to be called Deanathon.

***

“I love you.”

Cas feels warm, familiar hands turning him around, and then Dean wraps them around his waist, pulling him closer with twinkling eyes. His entire face is lit up with a bright smile, and it’s doing wonderful things to Cas’s insides.

“You’re back soon,” Cas says, mirroring the smile, and slinging his own arms around Dean. He likes indulging Dean’s good spirits whenever he can, and Dean makes it easy anyways. His husband is not prone to a grumpy disposition, but he’s rarely hug-his-husband-hello-in-the-middle-of-the-day happy.

Kissing’s different, though.

“I had to be,” Dean answers, the smile seeming to seep into his voice. “Once I’d dropped the little munchkin off at Jody’s, I drove straight home. I had to tell you about this.”

If his voice weren't so joyful, Cas would've worried.

But he just raises his eyebrows, and Dean lets go of him, only to start prancing around the room as he speaks.

“Baking, Cas. That’s all I was up to!” He absentmindedly puts a knife out on the counter back in it’s stand, as he passes the slab where Cas had been making lunch. Babyproofing has become a muscle response. “And it’s not even like I planned it out! I wouldn’t have Jack’s first cookie-bake without you.”

Cas agrees, Dean wouldn’t, and nods. Dean’s been incredibly thoughtful about these things. Jack’s firsts, each one of them.

Cas loves that about him, more than he can express.

“I swear, all I did was think of baking a batch of chocolate chip for him to take to his playdate. Gentlemanly, and sweet. You’ve gotta get these values in at a young age, you know,” Dean rambles on, happily wandering off topic, until Cas urges him to proceed with the story, with an insistent tilt of his head.

Because as much as Cas’d like to hear Dean go off on the importance of chivalry being instilled in their son at the age of four, on any given day, he wants to hear what happened next, with his two favorite people in the whole world.

“I didn’t even know he was looking at me the entire time, Cas!” Dean excitedly declares, stopping right in front of his husband. “I thought he was playing with his word blocks, you know, those large unswallowable ones Sammy got him for Christmas! But guess not.” Dean beams, looking proud of himself. “Kid was more interested in watching me bake!”

“Did he help you?” Cas contributes, dimpling. Dean’s enthusiasm has always been contagious. Something about the eyes.

“No,” Dean waves his hand, dismissively. “I was already done, when I realized. Was taking out a tray, when he suddenly pipes up like, ‘Dean, are those cookies?’” Here, Dean slips into his best impression of Jack’s childish, high-pitched treble. “And I go, yeah buddy, you want one, and he goes, ‘but wasn't it all just white stuff in bowls before’, and I swear, Cas, he sounds so wonderstruck, like it’s magic, and I just -” Dean makes a giddy sound. Cas waits for him to at least finish the sentence, but all Dean manages is a sigh. “He’s perfect,” he ends up moving closer to Cas again.

This time, Cas does the hugging, tugging him close. “Oh, Dean.”

“And that’s not even the best part!” Dean gushes, and that’s the only word that can describe it.

His eyes still twinkle, and Cas wonders if they’re shining with happy tears. For the millionth time, Cas thinks about how incredibly lucky he is. He loves Dean so much - this breathtaking, kind man who can keep his calm through the worst things in life, lose so much and not break down, but also have tears in his eyes from a moment shared with his son. Cas is so, so grateful to have him in his life.

Dean goes on, unaware of how he’s making Cas’s heart sing with just his perfectly euphoric smile. “And when I tell him that that’s just how baking tends to go, he just goes, eyes all wide and baby blue like yours,” He does his Jack-voice again, softer. “‘Dean, do other people know about this?’ And I’m just like - I just - fuck, Cas, I love him so much.”

For the second time, Cas is robbed of the rest of the sentence, as Dean cuts himself off to bury his face in Cas’s shirt. Cas, in turn, gently puts his chin on Dean’s head, morphing it into a hug again. As Cas starts to fondly card his fingers through Dean’s hair, blond in the light of the kitchen, he keeps speaking.

“I don't know exactly why, but it just got to me, Cas. It hit home.” He mumbles, refreshingly confessive. “Maybe it was how he genuinely thought I was the only person who could bake, ever, or - you know what, I know he’s had cookies before, so just the fact that he had no idea how they’re made! He’s just - he’s so little, Cas, he’s so young, and he didn't even hesitate to think that I baked all the cookies in the entire world, and he’s just going to grow up to be so wonderful, Cas,” Dean’s voice seriously begins to quiver. Cas squeezes, tighter. “And we get to see it happen, Cas, and we get to make it happen. We’re going to raise him! We get to raise a kid, and we -”

He suddenly goes completely silent, and then there’s a mortified muffled choking sound, and Cas is almost entirely sure Dean’s trying to hold back a sob in his throat, and it’s just such an emotional moment, that all Cas can do is squeeze his own eyes shut and hug Dean close. If anyone ever did, he knows what Dean’s feeling.

“I had no idea before, did you,” Dean starts, with new resolve. His voice is a little garbled, because his words are uttered right into Cas’s sweater. “Mostly I was just excited for you, Cas. And of course, it'd be nice to have a little kid, someone who’ll call me dad. But I never realized all the other moments I was going to get, and all the other times he was going to make me happy - happy enough to cry, goddammit -” And his voice trails off again, swearing under his breath till he’s only just shaking in Cas’s arms, the overpowering emotion of crying subsiding, and Cas thinks he can hear Dean wiping his face with Cas’s sweater a moment later, but it’s okay.

Everything’s okay.

In fact, he’d even go as far as to say that everything’s perfect.

“Thank you for making me realize how much I wanted this, Cas,” Dean says, in a relatively mellow tone now, having shed off the high with the tears. But he still sounds blissed out, and peaceful, and it’s heavenly to hear. “Thank you for suggesting we adopt. And to be completely honest, I won’t ever thank you for convincing me to do it, 'cause I may be a dumbass in general, but it hasn't gotten to the point where you’d have to convince me into being the happiest man on the planet.”

“Dean,” Cas breathes out, pressing a kiss on his forehead as Dean pulls away, and straightens.

“But thank you for reminding me of what I’ve always, always wanted,” Dean repeats, staring into Cas’s eyes with such unbridled love, that Cas feels himself start to blush. “And thank you for getting it for us.”

“It’s my pleasure,” Cas returns, earnestly. “The two of you are the best things that ever happened to me, Dean. And I’m very thankful to the Universe too, and to you.” He has to pause, starting to feel his throat clog up as well, and Dean seems to sense this and puts a hand on Cas’s arm to comfort him, but it ends up wrecking him weaker because Dean cares so much, and just like that, a tear slips from his eye and Dean’s eyes are glittering again.

Crap, they’re so goddamn soft. They’re tearing up in the kitchen of their house in th suburbs, about cookies and children.

It doesn’t get any more domestic than this.

“And I’ve got to say,” Cas adds, after a beat, when they’re both more composed. “I’m sorry for you, that Jack doesn’t call you dad, if that was the primary driving force in the first place.” Dean tries to deny it, but Cas keeps going, half kidding. “On my part, I’m perfectly content with him calling us by our first names, but we could try to get him to call us dad if you’d like -”

“I don't need him to.” Dean laughs out, breathlessly happy. “He can call me Dean, or he can call me Dad, it doesn’t matter to me anymore. We don't have to get him to do anything about that, Cas. I love things the way they are.”

“If you’re sure,” Cas grins.

“Plus, if I got promoted to Dad, and you were Cas, it would totally seem like you were Jack's gorgeous single parent's boyfriend, and -”

“Excuse me,” Cas interrupts. “I don't think you get it. If you become Dad, I’m totally becoming Daddy.” He pauses. “Or wait, let’s consider this. What are your thoughts on being married to Jack’s Papa, Dean?”

“Hard pass.” Dean throws back, and Cas rolls his eyes.

“In any case,” He adds, shrugging, and still grinning. The heavy moment is all but gone, but the happy stays. “The only reason he doesn’t call either of us Dad, is only because our names are too easy. Dean, Cas, and Dad have equal number of syllables.” He crosses his hands on his chest. “So, I’m choosing to blame you and your obsession with shortening my name for the situation we’re in.”

Dean hums, pretending to be thoughtful. “Well, if that’s the case, I’m okay with calling you Castiel if you call me Deanert. Or better, Deanolas.”

Cas bursts out laughing at the latter, and pulls Dean back in, this time for a kiss.

“Don't like it? Fine, guess you get the right to veto.” Dean chuckles, right before Cas closes the gap. “What about Deanathon?”

And then Cas does the equivalent of shutting him up with a kiss, cupping his face and closing his eyes till the residue of Dean’s laughter has dissolved into a grin so wide it splits his face, and Cas gets to taste his happiness - and he gets to wake up next to him, and be married to him, and raise Jack with him, and he doesn’t need anything else to be happy.

So, Cas finally replies to the statement Dean had begun with, in the first place, just shifting the emphasis.

"I love you."

They move things out of the kitchen eventually, and end up making out on the living room sofa until Jody and Claire come to drop Jack back home.

The first thing Cas says to his son, when he enters, is that his Papa can bake too.

#destiel #deancas #destiel fluff #fluffy destiel #dean winchester #castiel/dean winchester #castiel #jack kline #jack is destiel's kid #adoption #married destiel #just so soft #fanfiction fluff destiel #supernatural #not spoilers #destiel hug

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homeforchristmas-au · 4 years

Text

Character bios pt 2!!

Decided to continue the bios for the rest of the fam squad, the full extended family!! Might change things around a bit, we’ll see!!! Here’s part one in case you missed it :3

Emile Sanders (formerly Picani):

Age: 46

Pronouns: he/him/they/them

Height: 6’1”

Curly medium golden mahogany brown hair and sky blue eyes, subtly tanned skin covered in freckles, red framed rounded glasses, likes dressing like a cartoon character or just wearing cartoon merch (his prized possession is his Mabel pines jumper) but wears a brown cardigan over a white button down shirt with a pink necktie when he goes to work

A big goofball that has a lot of love to give, but he still knows when to be more subdued and calm and when to activate “serious picani”. He’s always loved helping people work through their issues which is why he’s a therapist

Like patton, he’s excellent at reading emotions, though he’s a bit better at it since he’s a professional

Has ADHD, but has developed the necessary coping skills to help keep his symptoms under control

Has two siblings; Catarina (Patton’s mother) and Leonard (Patton’s other uncle). Emile is the baby of the family while Leonard is the oldest

Emile met Thomas when they were both in college. They shared an ASL class and quickly began getting along, and frequently practiced sign language together and feelings developed from there

It was quite some time before they got married, but it was well worth the wait

Thomas Sanders:

Age: 43

Pronouns: he/him

Height: 5’10”

The standard character Thomas look; floppy medium brown hair, chestnut eyes, fair skinned, wears the same three shirts periodically for five years until he buys three new shirts, the usual stuff

He’s a sweet, down to earth guy. Loves cartoons almost as much as Emile does, has a passion for pizza, theatre, and the cats of the world he’ll never be able to pet without dying. He can be impulsive at times, but his heightened anxiety oftentimes outweighs that

Has three brothers named Christian, Patrick, and Shea, but I won’t describe them in depth cos I don’t wanna get any facts wrong since this is based on Thomas himself oop-

I’m literally just describing the canon character Thomas except slightly older im-

There’s like nothing else to add to make this fun and unique it’s just character Thomas welp

Thomas and Emile’s kids:

Anton Sanders:

Age: 16

Pronouns: any/all

Height: idk uh ??? 5’7” ???

Medium length wavy black hair, electric blue eyes, fair skinned with a beauty mark on his right cheek beneath his eye, usually wears fashionable clothes and declares himself an eleven, often wears scarves and turtlenecks (almost exclusively black) as well as his round mirrored sunglasses

Can and will kill you with a single look. Especially if you mess with his family. He’ll never admit it but he loves them with everything he’s got, even if he never acts like it for even a moment

Especially adores Remy and respects that they’re discovering themself and exploring new possibilities. He knows from experience how tough that is and how much of a challenge it can be

Was adopted at age three after his parents were busted for child abuse and heavy drug addiction. It took quite some time for him to come out of his shell but Emile and Thomas were nothing but patient and loving and kind. He still has a lot of trust issues but he knows he can trust his family

Will never admit it now but became insanely jealous when remy was adopted into the family. He did not want a brother because he knew that meant he was being replaced and he wasn’t loved anymore

Eventually Thomas and Emile sat him down and they all talked through it and assured Anton that he was still loved and he was not being replaced

It still took a very long time for Anton to trust Remy, even if he was only a baby

His heart was won over when Remy said his first word to him

All he said was “no” but Anton admired his defiant spirit

also yes this is the Critic how did u know

Remy Sanders:

Age: 12 (birthday January 16)

Pronouns: he/him/they/them/it/its

Height: damnit how tall are 12 year olds

Shoulder length hair dyed dark purple at the roots that fades into magenta at the ends (hair colour changes periodically depending on what it feels like having), chocolate brown eyes, fairly dark skinned but not heavily so, gender expression changes at the drop of a hat but it often wears leather, skirts, beanies, and a heck ton of earrings (when it turns eighteen it starts getting a lot of different piercings like angel bites, nostril, and industrial piercings, etc) (that’s worth noting)

Almost always sarcastic but that’s its way of showing love really. It’s a helluva punk that can and will fight anyone to the death if they deserve it (or if they hurt someone Remy likes). It’s actually a huge nerd but doesnt usually show that side of itself. It loves reading, watching shows like doctor who, and doing puzzles with Logan

Was diagnosed with adhd after Emile noticed it experienced similar symptoms for quite a while

Was adopted by Thomas and Emile when it was a baby (and Anton was four), having been found by Emile when it was left in a box in an alleyway, which was a long and complicated process but one hundred percent worth it

It has a trio of male rats named Holmes, Watson, and Splinter. Thomas was a bit reluctant to let it adopt rats but they all went to a rat breeder and when Thomas saw them all and even held one he realised it wasn’t so bad and they were actually kinda cute

When it was nine years old, it nearly died in a nasty hit and run. A truck had swerved into it when it was by the side of the road. It was fine after a lengthy recovery except it had to use a wheelchair after some spinal cord damage left it immobilised from the waist down. The driver was never identified

It probably wasn’t a coincidence that this event occurred not long after remy started talking about how much it loved boys just as much as it loved girls, but that teas a bit too hot for this post

Logan’s sisters:

Ellen Adams-Waterson:

Age: 26

Pronouns: she/her

Height: 5’6”

Light auburn hair going just barely past the shoulders, honey eyes, fair skinned though mildly tanned, covered from head to toe with freckles, red framed rectangular glasses, usually wears clothes for comfort and especially likes turtlenecks

She’s a determined, steadfast kinda gal who fights for whats right and gives everything she has for her loved ones, especially her immediate family. Although she can be pretty blunt with her words she’s also kindhearted and wants whats best for everyone

She’s an avid writer, and has actually published a novel. She also dabbles in fanfiction and is unashamed about it

She’s married to a wonderful wife named Elizabeth and they have a daughter named Kaylee (15)

She’s also been trying to quit smoking but so far that has yielded no results

Ashley Fletcher (formerly Adams):

Age: 24

Pronouns: she/her

Height: 5’10”

Long light ash brown hair that reaches her tailbone that she keeps parted to the right, electric blue eyes, fair skinned and a face full of freckles, black rectangular glasses, tries to be fashion forward but mostly just wears T-shirts and denim jackets

She’s a trans woman and has been transitioning for a few years now with lots of support from her family. She’s a nice person but let’s people walk all over her a bit. She doesn’t like confrontation much because of her anxiety disorder, but she’s trying to get better with that

Loves acting and wants to pursue it as a career, but her anxiety makes it difficult to put herself out there

Married to a trans man named warren and they have a son named jack (11) and a daughter named Emma (6)

She met warren at a pride event with Logan and Patton, and it was actually Patton who met him first (although at the time he went by a different name and didnt know he was trans yet) and then introduced him to the others

They actually talked about adopting a child long before even considering marriage. Although they realised it would look better to adoption agencies if they were married, and that was the main reason they even went through all of that

Renae Adams:

Age: 21

Pronouns: she/her/he/him

Height: 6’8”

Short wavy hair dyed bright pink, amber eyes, fair skinned, a black *dabs* styling pair of Warby Parker’s, often wears high neck shirts and suit jackets, basically always business casual because she can, and loves wearing hoop earrings

There are two sides to Renae; either stone cold businessperson or happy go lucky memelord with a heart of gold. She’s a lot like Logan in that regard, although it’s harder to predict what side of her you’ll see at any given moment. She can either be a super soft bean or the scariest person on the planet

Has been dealing with OCD her whole life, and sometimes it gets particularly bad (especially the intrusive thoughts) but she has a therapist and psychiatrist she sees somewhat regularly

She runs her own coffee shop called Real Bean Café and it does fairly well. She’s always thinking about how she can improve her business

She’s aroace so she isn’t in a romantic relationship but she is in a queerplatonic relationship with a beautiful enby named Pigeon

They actually met in her coffeeshop. Renae saw Pigeon’s Attack on Titan T-shirt and was immediately compelled to talk to them

And that is it for part two of the character bios!!! Might make another post talking about Logan’s sisters’ kids and partners but idk we’ll see 👀

I just really like character designs man lmao

Lemme know if I need to tag anything else my brain box isn’t generating the required tags rn lmao

#ts home for christmas #thomas sanders #sanders sides #sanders sides au #thomile #thomas x picani #thomas x emile #emile picani #adhd picani #adhd emile #character thomas #remy sanders #critic sanders #it/its use #car accident mention #hit and run mention #injury mention #ocd mention #long post

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mwolf0epsilon · 4 years

Note

Headcanon ask! Which of the Joey Drew Studios crew are married/dating/have big families? Also thoughts on ShawnXWally?

ShawnXWally isn’t my cup of water (my Shawn has a grudge against Wally due to the latter involving him in his petty despute with Thomas). As for headcanons, I’ll just drop mine for everyone:

Joey Drew - He’s single and unwilling to mingle, as he never got over Henry. Comes from an average sized family with at least a few cousins, but he’s a single child;

Henry Stein - Married and father of two lovely daughters. Comes from an average sized family, with one older sibling and at least one mischievous cat that partially inspired Bendy;

Sammy Lawrence - Single, previously dating Susie before things started going down in the studio. His family was small, and it got smaller after his mother, father and step-mother died. It’s just him and his younger step-sister now;

Jack Fain - Married to a loving husband and sharing a house with his best friend and her wife. Jack technically has a bigger family, but both sides disowned his parents when they got married due to racial controversy. Growing up it was just him and his parents;

Susie Campbell - Single, previously dating Sammy before things started going down in the studio. The Milla tapes weren’t entirely fabricated, she did live most of her life alone with her mother and an absent father;

Norman Polk - Married (although it’s a little complicated) with four children (two girls and two boys). His family is absolutely massive, with three older siblings and two younger siblings to contend with (An older brother, two older sisters, a younger sister and a younger brother). He also has several nieces and nephews, two of which he often babysat on his free days since his younger brother lives in the same apartment complex as him;

Allison Pendle - Married to Thomas, was looking to adopt since she couldn’t have any due to health complications. She grew up with just her mother and father, rarely having contact with any extended family;

Thomas Connors - Married to Allison, was looking to adopt with her as well as get at least three more dogs. Has zero contact with his family due to having been cast out;

Wally Franks - Married after leaving the studio, definitely has a lot of children and grand kids. He grew up with his folks and two younger sisters;

Shawn Flynn - Single but had been looking to mingle. His family all stayed in Ireland and it dwarfs Norman’s in size. There are generations of Flynns living under the same roof, so he gets a bit lonely at times;

Grant Cohen - Single, too stressed to give a shit about his sex life much less finding a partner who’d tolerate his compulsive behaviors. Tiny family but god were they overbearing... He cut contact as soon as he was of age;

Buddy Lewek - Single, never gave it much thought but definitely had crushes. Average sized family. Wanted a dog but couldn’t afford to take care of one;

Bertrum Piedmont - Single, not looking to change that. He has so many cousins, and they are all just as much of a bunch of showoffs as he is. It was always a thrill on get-togethers to show who’d accomplished the biggest achievements thus far;

Lacie Benton - Married to her beloved wife. She isn’t in speaking terms with her family due to a few personal reasons, but in terms of size her family is quite average;

Emma LaMonte - Single and definitely ready to mingle with people outside of this studio full of ill-mannered buffoons. Her family used to be bigger but now it’s only her and her younger sisters. She doesn’t talk about it.

#Bendy and the Ink Machine #BATIM #Headcanons

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wallofweird · 4 years

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This Is Us Q&A

Thanks @madsdefencesquad for tagging me. :)

1. The first character I first fell in love with:

Dr. Nathan Katowski. He just seemed to be such a charismatic, generous, wise and kind person and the way he comforted those two nervous young people (Jack and Rebecca) who were entering parenthood for the very first time was simply beautiful. Specially because nowadays some doctors are so arrogant and cold that make you feel so bad to the point of almost apologizing for needing their care (not most though, we have real life heroes out there on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic and I’m forever thankful for them!). Anyway, it was pleasant to see a character with so much heart. Now the first regular character I fell in love with was Randall. He was just so relatable and Sterling and the writers really managed to show all the affliction he kept inside from early on. All the things he had accumulated through the years, with the questions about his biological parents, his identity, finding out that William was dying the same day he met him and everything... Even before we got to dive into that story, you could see it in his eyes. And I empathized with him immediately.

2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Kevin. I used to find him very annoying and self-centered and now I’m eating my words, but I guess that’s always been the writers intention: to show a character that came off as really shallow and immature and slowly change our minds about him. It definitely worked. My opinion about him started to change on the ‘Number One’ episode. It broke my heart to see what he was going through, specially when he lost the only thing he had left from Jack. That was hard to watch. And now that I’m rewatching the show, I can get his actions a lot better now and see that a lot of the stuff I used to hate came from his insecurities. So I’ve changed my mind about his behavior on the first episodes and I’m enjoying seeing him back then as well. I can see the bigger picture now.

3. The character everyone else loves that I don’t:

Cassidy. I don’t really believe there’s a consensus about her, it looks like the opinions are pretty balanced, but I’m not a fan of her. I wouldn’t say I hate Cassidy, but I don’t really like her. Like, the other characters can get me to laugh and cry so easily, but she doesn’t make me feel anything? She looks kind of cold to me, which I can understand it probably has something to with being in the military and the things she had to experience and do, but even with the whole drama with her son and husband... It's just never given me the same emotion I use to get from the other characters. Also, I really wanted the first half of the season to be only about Kevin and his uncle, but they threw a stranger in it and played with the idea of putting Kevin and Cassidy together the whole time. I just wanted to see their dynamic without anybody’s interference, specially because I haven’t got the point of her presence yet. I believe Kevin and Nicky would’ve done just fine in their journey to sobriety without her and I don’t really think the woman will marry any of them. I hope there’s something bigger planned for her that will explain her addition to the show, because I don’t really get it. So far it just looks like she’s there to mislead us with the whole “who is Kevin’s wife?” mystery.

4. The character I love that everyone else hates:

Madison. I wouldn’t say everybody hates her, for me the public has mixed opinions about her? I’ve seen people who hate her, who are indifferent, who like her and think she’s funny and people who love her. However, I do believe she deserves more praise. I think she’s kind of in the same situation Kevin used to be a few years ago. A lot of people have a pre-fabricated idea of Madison and see her as someone shallow and immature. Madison has always been there for Kate, even when she was nothing but rude to her. When Kate hit her car (I know it was accidentally, but still), Madison got over it the second she learned Kate was pregnant. She immediately forgot about her car and was filled with nothing but joy after hearing the news. Madison also helped Kate to enjoy the process of finding her wedding dress, staying positive with her second pregnancy after the previous miscarriage... She’s been there through thick and thin. And she is so loving, selfless and strong that was willing to raise her twins and go through all of that by herself to avoid getting in the way of Kevin finding his great love story. How can somebody not admire that? Even if you don’t like her, because that’s understandable and sometimes a character just doesn’t resonate with us, there’s absolutely no reason to hate or criticize her personality and actions. Madison is very underrated, but she is an amazing person. I just don’t understand why people have changed their minds about Kevin after seeing his struggles and evolution, but won’t do the same with her. The only difference here is the amount of screentime they have and the gender, because they’re both great people. I really don’t get it.

5. The character I used to love but don’t any longer:

One of the great things about this show is that I’ve never stopped loving any of the characters. There are characters I don’t really like, there are characters that have grown on me, but the opposite has never happen. However, I am a little angry with Randall and Kevin after that fight. I won’t defend any of them. They were both terrible to each other.

I get where they’re both coming from when it comes to how they deal with Rebecca’s health. It’s understandable wanting to save your mother. It’s understandable wanting her to enjoy the time she has left. There is no right or wrong decision in these situations. And a lot of how they deal with it comes from their personalities and traumas. They both have this hole in their lives because of losing Jack. Randall blames himself and thinks about what life would’ve been if he hadn’t died every single day. His anxiety also plays a role in how he process everything. It’s consuming. On the other hand, Kevin regrets not having spent as much time with his father as he could’ve had. He’s also already gone through therapy, is a year sober and attending the AA meetings regularly... He can see things more clearly than Randall right now. So I don’t judge either of them for how they approach to the situation. Still, Randall should’ve respected Rebecca’s decision. Period. He was selfish and I can’t defend what he did. I can understand why he did it and I didn’t really see it as him manipulating his mother, for me it was more of a desperate moment, when he was telling Rebecca he cannot handle losing her. Not that Kevin and Kate can handle losing their mother, but he’s clearly overwhelmed with the whole situation, while Kevin and Kate are at a better mental state and looking at things with more serenity.

However, regarding their fight, Kevin’s got some fault too. I’m sure they didn’t mean anything they said to one another, they just happened to know each other’s deepest wounds and wanted to rub them. It was painful to watch. Kevin knows Randall feels guilty for letting Jack walk back into the house. Randall knows Kevin feels guilty for not being there. Kevin knows Randall have never felt liked he completely fitted in, because he was abandoned by his biological father and adopted only after Rebecca and Jack lost a child. He’s always felt a little lost or as a replacement to Kyle. And Randall knows Kevin is self-conscious and feels like people don’t take him seriously or believe he can be responsible. It was heartbreaking and cruel. And I’m rewatching season 1 and recently saw the episode where they finally begin to grow closer and there is this scene where Randall says:

“[Mom] showered me with attention. Took my side more often than not. And I ate every bit of her love up. Ate it up like Pac-Man. You know why? Because the one person I wanted it from the mo..

[...]

You know, back there with those people, it's the first time in 36 years you've said the words, ‘he's my brother’, [as] claiming me.”

I’ve also just finished the episode where it shows young Randall having a nervous breakdown and Kevin ignoring him. Kevin and Randall did have some good moments growing up, but for most of it they weren’t close and Randall was the one who tried the harder to change that. It took them over 30 years to get to a place where they finally acted like brothers on a regular basis and now they have both ruined all of that progress. So I can’t really pick sides and blame one of them when it comes to that fight. They were both terrible. However, I’m just a little more disappointed with Randall because he interfered in Rebecca’s decision.

6. The character I would totally smooch:

Kevin. Justin Hartley just happens to be on my Male Celebrity Crush Top 2, so...

7. The character I’d want to be like:

Beth. She’s smart, successful, funny, wise and beautiful, I’d like to have at least 30% of that awesomeness.

8. The character I’d slap:

Marc.

9. A pairing that I love:

Jack and Rebecca. Their love story, even with its ups and downs, remains epic. One for the ages, indeed.

Still, I really miss a slowburn ship. We’ve had Jack and Rebecca, Kate and Toby, Randall and Beth since the very beginning. They were all love at first sight. They got together pretty quickly. I miss a ship that I can see go through all of those basic stages, like meeting, becoming friends and falling in love. I miss seeing a character pining for another and being a little bit jealous of them. I miss watching the scenes with the lingering looks, deep breaths, both staring at each other when the other isn’t noticing... All this tension building up until the moment it just explodes. Like, give me angst scenes! Give me a scene where they are hugging so tight and not wanting to let go and Character A can’t resist it anymore and kisses character B as if their his/her depended on it. Give me rain kisses. Give me character A pining for character B, but doubting that B feels the same way. Give me B being just as insanely in love as A and feeling frustrated whenever they’re around someone else. Give me character B being unconsciously jealous and fighting with character A. Give me A blurting out that he/she is in love with B and a passionate kiss. I know it’s cliché, but there is a reason why everyone loves scenes like these: they work. And This Is Us needs stuff like that. Hopefully Kevin and Madison can fill this gap, since I’m already in love with their potential. ;)

10. A pairing that I despise:

Kevin and Sophie. I genuinely have nothing against Sophie, she is a good person and she deserves happiness. If anything, Kevin was the one who wronged her. However, I can’t help sighing and rolling my eyes whenever she shows up or her name is mentioned on the show. I’m just tired at this point. I’ve never saw the appeal of it. I’m usually a slowburn kind of shipper, but I still have my ‘love at first sight’ otps. This one, however, never really convinced me. First, I don’t see the chemistry at all (in any timeline). Second, he’s cheated on her twice. Plus, the second time they were together, Kevin had fallen back into drinking and she didn’t even realize the seriousness of the situation. I’m not saying it was her fault or responsibility, because that’s a real problem and what Kevin needed was professional help. Also, he lied to her and broke Sophie’s heart again in the process, so I can empathize with her. Still, the fact that Sophie couldn’t see what was going on and they were never able to go through it together, whether it was his treatment, or the long distance or any real obstacle just proves to me they don’t work. They simply couldn’t work together. And Kevin has moved on. He moved on from her and genuinely fell in love with Zoe. They broke up because they wanted different things, but their relationship was real. So, the way I see it, the fact that he suddenly wants another ‘crack at it’ with Sophie, it’s just a result of his frustration. Kevin is so desperate to have his own great love story and children, that he is trying to get it from strangers on coffee shops or any ex-girlfriend that will reach out to him. He’s not thinking things through, but hopefully he will let life takes it course and find find them naturally, without forcing anything or insisting on relationships that have proved multiple times that weren’t the right fit for him. I also don’t really like when characters appear with the solely purpose to be someone’s love interest, I like seeing them in their own element and their dynamic with other characters. Like, even though each Pearson has their immediate family, we’ve seen bits of Beth and Rebecca, Toby and Kevin, Beth and Zoe, Kate and Madison (who at this point I’m pretty sure is Kevin’s fiancée)... Sophie wasn’t fully integrated into the family during their second attempt at a relationship, so that’s another reason for me not to like this ship.

I don’t wanna tag anyone specifically because I’m afraid I might forget someone, so anyone who wants to do this thing, just go for it. I’d love to see your answers. :)

#this is us #randall pearson #kevin pearson

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timeless-hollywood-classics · 4 years

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Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, singer, playwright, screenwriter, comedian and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades. She was known for her lighthearted, bawdy double entendres and breezy sexual independence, and often used a husky contralto voice. She was active in vaudeville and on stage in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry.

West was one of the most controversial movie stars of her day; she encountered many problems, especially censorship. She once quipped, "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it." She bucked the system by making comedy out of conventional mores, and the Depression-era audience admired her for it. When her film career ended, she wrote books and plays, and continued to perform in Las Vegas and the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and recorded rock 'n roll albums. In 1999, the American Film Institute posthumously voted West the 15th greatest female screen legend of classic American cinema.

Mary Jane West was born on August 17, 1893, in Brooklyn (either Greenpoint or Bushwick, before New York City was consolidated in 1898). She was delivered at home by an aunt who was a midwife. She was the eldest surviving child of John Patrick West and Mathilde "Tillie" (later Matilda) Delker (originally Doelger; later Americanized to "Delker" or "Dilker"). Tillie and her five siblings emigrated with their parents, Jakob (1835–1902) and Christiana (1838–1901; née Brüning) Doelger from Bavaria in 1886. West's parents married on January 18, 1889, in Brooklyn, to the pleasure of the groom's parents and the displeasure of the bride's parents and raised their children as Protestants, although John West was of mixed Catholic–Protestant descent.

West's father was a prizefighter known as "Battlin' Jack West" who later worked as a "special policeman" and later had his own private investigations agency. Her mother was a former corset and fashion model. Her paternal grandmother, Mary Jane (née Copley), for whom she was named, was of Irish Catholic descent and West's paternal grandfather, John Edwin West, was of English–Scots descent and a ship's rigger.

Her eldest sibling, Katie, died in infancy. Her other siblings were Mildred Katherine West, later known as Beverly (December 8, 1898 – March 12, 1982), and John Edwin West II (sometimes inaccurately called "John Edwin West, Jr."; February 11, 1900 – October 12, 1964). During her childhood, West's family moved to various parts of Woodhaven, as well as the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods of Brooklyn. In Woodhaven, at Neir's Social Hall (which opened in 1829 and is still extant), West supposedly first performed professionally.

West was five when she first entertained a crowd at a church social, and she started appearing in amateur shows at the age of seven. She often won prizes at local talent contests. She began performing professionally in vaudeville in the Hal Clarendon Stock Company in 1907 at the age of 14. West first performed under the stage name "Baby Mae", and tried various personas, including a male impersonator.

She used the alias "Jane Mast" early in her career. Her trademark walk was said to have been inspired or influenced by female impersonators Bert Savoy and Julian Eltinge, who were famous during the Pansy Craze. Her first appearance in a Broadway show was in a 1911 revue A La Broadway put on by her former dancing teacher, Ned Wayburn. The show folded after eight performances, but at age 18, West was singled out and discovered by The New York Times. The Times reviewer wrote that a "girl named Mae West, hitherto unknown, pleased by her grotesquerie and snappy way of singing and dancing". West next appeared in a show called Vera Violetta, whose cast featured Al Jolson. In 1912, she appeared in the opening performance of A Winsome Widow as a "baby vamp" named La Petite Daffy.

She was encouraged as a performer by her mother, who, according to West, always thought that anything Mae did was fantastic. Other family members were less encouraging, including an aunt and her paternal grandmother. They are all reported as having disapproved of her career and her choices. In 1918, after exiting several high-profile revues, West finally got her break in the Shubert Brothers revue Sometime, opposite Ed Wynn. Her character Mayme danced the shimmy and her photograph appeared on an edition of the sheet music for the popular number "Ev'rybody Shimmies Now".

Eventually, she began writing her own risqué plays using the pen name Jane Mast. Her first starring role on Broadway was in a 1926 play she entitled Sex, which she wrote, produced, and directed. Although conservative critics panned the show, ticket sales were strong. The production did not go over well with city officials, who had received complaints from some religious groups, and the theater was raided, with West arrested along with the cast. She was taken to the Jefferson Market Court House, (now Jefferson Market Library), where she was prosecuted on morals charges, and on April 19, 1927, was sentenced to 10 days for "corrupting the morals of youth". Though West could have paid a fine and been let off, she chose the jail sentence for the publicity it would garner. While incarcerated on Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt Island), she dined with the warden and his wife; she told reporters that she had worn her silk panties while serving time, in lieu of the "burlap" the other girls had to wear. West got great mileage from this jail stint. She served eight days with two days off for "good behavior". Media attention surrounding the incident enhanced her career, by crowning her the darling "bad girl" who "had climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong".

Her next play, The Drag, dealt with homosexuality, and was what West called one of her "comedy-dramas of life". After a series of try-outs in Connecticut and New Jersey, West announced she would open the play in New York. However, The Drag never opened on Broadway due to efforts by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice to ban any attempt by West to stage it. West explained, "The city fathers begged me not to bring the show to New York because they were not equipped to handle the commotion it would cause." West was an early supporter of the women's liberation movement, but said she was not a "burn your bra" type feminist. Since the 1920s, she was also an early supporter of gay rights, and publicly declared against police brutality that gay men experienced. She adopted a then "modern" psychological explanation that gay men were women's souls in men's bodies, and hitting a gay man was akin to hitting a woman. In her 1959 autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It, West strongly objected to hypocrisy while, for surprising and unexplained reasons, also disparaging homosexuality: "In many ways homosexuality is a danger to the entire social system of Western civilization. Certainly a nation should be made aware of its presence — without moral mottoes — and its effects on children recruited to it in their innocence. I had no objection to it as a cult of jaded inverts... involved only with themselves. It was its secret, anti-social aspects I wanted to bring into the sun. As a private pressure group it could, and has, infected whole nations." This perspective, never elaborated upon by Mae West in other books or interviews seems inconsistent with the Mae West persona. In her 1975 book Sex, Health, and ESP, Mae West writes on page 43, "I believe that the world owes male and female homosexuals more understanding than we've given them. Live and let live is my philosophy on the subject, and I believe everybody has the right to do his or her own thing or somebody else's -- as long as they do it all in private!"

West continued to write plays, including The Wicked Age, Pleasure Man and The Constant Sinner. Her productions aroused controversy, which ensured that she stayed in the news, which also often resulted in packed houses at her performances. Her 1928 play, Diamond Lil, about a racy, easygoing, and ultimately very smart lady of the 1890s, became a Broadway hit and cemented West's image in the public's eye. This show had an enduring popularity and West successfully revived it many times throughout the course of her career. With Diamond Lil being a hit show, Hollywood naturally came courting.

In 1932, West was offered a contract by Paramount Pictures despite being close to 40. This was an unusually late age to begin a film career, especially for women, but she was not playing an ingénue. She nonetheless managed to keep her age ambiguous for some time. She made her film debut in Night After Night (1932) starring George Raft, who suggested West for the role. At first she did not like her small role in Night After Night, but was appeased when she was allowed to rewrite her scenes.[45] In West's first scene, a hat-check girl exclaims, "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds", and West replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." Reflecting on the overall result of her rewritten scenes, Raft is said to have remarked, "She stole everything but the cameras."

She brought her Diamond Lil character, now renamed "Lady Lou", to the screen in She Done Him Wrong (1933). The film was one of Cary Grant's first major roles, which boosted his career. West claimed she spotted Grant at the studio and insisted that he be cast as the male lead. She claimed to have told a Paramount director, "If he can talk, I'll take him!". The film was a box office hit and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The success of the film saved Paramount from bankruptcy, grossing over $2 million, the equivalent of $140 million today. Paramount recognizes that debt of gratitude today, with a building on the lot named after West.

Her next release, I'm No Angel (1933), teamed her with Grant again. I'm No Angel was also a box office hit and was the most successful of her entire film career. In the months that followed the release of this film, reference to West could be found almost anywhere, from the song lyrics of Cole Porter, to a Works Progress Administration (WPA) mural of San Francisco's newly built Coit Tower, to She Done Him Right, a Betty Boop cartoon, to "My Dress Hangs There", a painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Kahlo's husband, Diego Rivera, paid his own tribute: "West is the most wonderful machine for living I have ever known – unfortunately on the screen only." To F. Scott Fitzgerald, West was especially unique: "The only Hollywood actress with both an ironic edge and a comic spark." As Variety put it, "Mae West's films have made her the biggest conversation-provoker, free-space grabber, and all-around box office bet in the country. She's as hot an issue as Hitler."

By 1933, West was one of the largest box office draws in the United States and, by 1935, West was also the highest paid woman and the second-highest paid person in the United States (after William Randolph Hearst). Hearst invited West to San Simeon, California. "I could'a married him", West explained, "but I got no time for parties. I don't like those big crowds." On July 1, 1934, the censorship of the film Production Code began to be seriously and meticulously enforced, and West's scripts were heavily edited. She would intentionally place extremely risqué lines in her scripts, knowing they would be cut by the censors. She hoped they would then not object as much to her other less suggestive lines. Her next film was Belle of the Nineties (1934). The original title, It Ain't No Sin, was changed due to the censors' objections. Despite Paramount's early objections regarding costs, West insisted the studio to hire Duke Ellington and his orchestra to accompany her in the film's musical numbers. Their collaboration was a success; the classic "My Old Flame" (recorded by Duke Ellington) was introduced in this film. Her next film, Goin' to Town (1935), received mixed reviews, as censorship continued to take its toll in eroding West's best lines.

Her following effort, Klondike Annie (1936) dealt, as best it could given the heavy censorship, with religion and hypocrisy. Some critics called the film her magnum opus, but not everyone felt the same way. Press baron and film mogul William Randolph Hearst, ostensibly offended by an off-handed remark West made about his mistress, Marion Davies, sent a private memo to all his editors stating, "That Mae West picture Klondike Annie is a filthy picture... We should have editorials roasting that picture, Mae West, and Paramount... DO NOT ACCEPT ANY ADVERTISING OF THIS PICTURE." At one point, Hearst asked aloud, "Isn't it time Congress did something about the Mae West menace?" Paramount executives felt they had to tone down the West characterization or face further recrimination. This may be surprising by today's standards, as West's films contained no nudity, no profanity, and very little violence. Though raised in an era when women held second-place roles in society, West portrayed confident women who were not afraid to use their sexual wiles to get what they wanted. "I was the first liberated woman, you know. No guy was going to get the best of me. That's what I wrote all my scripts about."

Around the same time, West played opposite Randolph Scott in Go West, Young Man (1936). In this film, she adapted Lawrence Riley's Broadway hit Personal Appearance into a screenplay. Directed by Henry Hathaway, Go West, Young Man is considered one of West's weaker films of the era, due to the censor's cuts.

West next starred in Every Day's a Holiday (1937) for Paramount before their association came to an end. Again, due to censor cuts, the film performed below its goal. Censorship had made West's sexually suggestive brand of humor impossible for the studios to distribute. West, along with other stellar performers, was put on a list of actors called "Box Office Poison" by Harry Brandt on behalf of the Independent Theatre Owners Association. Others on the list were Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, Dolores del Río, Katharine Hepburn and Kay Francis. The attack was published as a paid advertisement in The Hollywood Reporter, and was taken seriously by the fearful studio executives. The association argued that these stars' high salaries and extreme public popularity did not affect their ticket sales, thus hurt the exhibitors. This did not stop producer David O. Selznick, who next offered West the role of the sage madam, Belle Watling, the only woman ever to truly understand Rhett Butler, in Gone with the Wind, after Tallulah Bankhead turned him down. West also turned down the part, claiming that as it was, it was too small for an established star, and that she would need to rewrite her lines to suit her own persona. The role eventually went to Ona Munson.

In 1939, Universal Studios approached West to star in a film opposite W. C. Fields. The studio was eager to duplicate the success of Destry Rides Again starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart, with a comic vehicle starring West and Fields. Having left Paramount 18 months earlier and looking for a new film, West accepted the role of Flower Belle Lee in the film My Little Chickadee (1940). Despite the stars' intense mutual dislike, Fields's very real drinking problems and fights over the screenplay, My Little Chickadee was a box office hit, outgrossing Fields's previous film, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) and the later The Bank Dick (1940). Despite this, religious leaders condemned West as a negative role model, taking offense at lines such as "Between two evils, I like to pick the one I haven't tried before" and "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"

West's next film was Columbia's The Heat's On (1943). She initially did not want to do the film, but after actor, director and friend Gregory Ratoff (producer Max Fabian in All About Eve) pleaded with her and claimed he would go bankrupt if she could not help, West relented as a personal favor. Censors by now, though, had curtailed the sexual burlesque of the West characterization. The studio had orders to raise the neck lines and clean up the double entendres. This was the only film for which West was virtually not allowed to write her own dialogue and, as a result, the film suffered.

Perhaps the most critical challenge facing West in her career was censorship of her dialogue. As on Broadway a decade before, by the mid-1930s, her risqué and ribald dialogue could no longer be allowed to pass. The Heat's On opened to poor reviews and weak performance at the box office. West was so distraught after the experience and by her years of struggling with the strict Hays censorship office, that she would not attempt another film role for the next quarter-century. Instead, West pursued a successful and record-breaking career in top nightclubs, Las Vegas, nationally in theater and on Broadway, where she was allowed, even welcomed, to be herself.

After appearing in The Heat's On in 1943, West returned to a very active career on stage and in swank clubs. Among her popular new stage performances was the title role in Catherine Was Great (1944) on Broadway, in which she penned a spoof on the story of Catherine the Great of Russia, surrounding herself with an "imperial guard" of tall, muscular young actors. The play was produced by theater and film impresario Mike Todd (Around The World in 80 Days) and ran for 191 performances and then went on tour.

When Mae West revived her 1928 play Diamond Lil, bringing it back to Broadway in 1949, The New York Times labeled her an "American Institution – as beloved and indestructible as Donald Duck. Like Chinatown, and Grant's Tomb, Mae West should be seen at least once." In the 1950s, West starred in her own Las Vegas stage show at the newly opened Sahara Hotel, singing while surrounded by bodybuilders. The show stood Las Vegas on its head. "Men come to see me, but I also give the women something to see: wall to wall men!" West explained. Jayne Mansfield met and later married one of West's muscle men, a former Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay.

When casting about for the role of Norma Desmond for the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, Billy Wilder offered West the role. Still smarting from the censorship debacle of The Heat's On, and the constraints placed on her characterization, she declined. The theme of the Wilder film, she noted, was pure pathos, while her brand of comedy was always "about uplifting the audience". Mae West had a unique comic character that was timeless, in the same way Charlie Chaplin did. After Mary Pickford also declined the role, Gloria Swanson was cast.

In subsequent years, West was offered the role of Vera Simpson, opposite Marlon Brando, in the 1957 film adaptation of Pal Joey, which she turned down, with the role going to Rita Hayworth. In 1964, West was offered a leading role in Roustabout, starring Elvis Presley. She turned the role down, and Barbara Stanwyck was cast in her place. West was also approached for roles in Frederico Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits and Satyricon, but rejected both offers.

In 1958, West appeared at the live televised Academy Awards and performed the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" with Rock Hudson, which brought a standing ovation. In 1959, she released an autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It, which became a best seller and was reprinted with a new chapter in 1970. West guest-starred on television, including The Dean Martin Show in 1959 and The Red Skelton Show in 1960, to promote her autobiography, and a lengthy interview on Person to Person with Charles Collingwood, which was censored by CBS in 1959, and never aired. CBS executives felt members of the television audience were not ready to see a nude marble statue of West, which rested on her piano. In 1964, she made a guest appearance on the sitcom Mister Ed. Much later, in 1976, she was interviewed by Dick Cavett and sang two songs on his "Back Lot U.S.A." special on CBS.

West's recording career started in the early 1930s with releases of her film songs on shellac 78 rpm records. Most of her film songs were released as 78s, as well as sheet music. In 1955, she recorded her first album, The Fabulous Mae West. In 1965, she recorded two songs, "Am I Too Young" and "He's Good For Me", for a 45 rpm record released by Plaza Records. She recorded several tongue-in-cheek songs, including "Santa, Come Up to See Me", on the album Wild Christmas, which was released in 1966 and reissued as Mae in December in 1980. Demonstrating her willingness to keep in touch with the contemporary scene, in 1966 she recorded Way Out West, the first of her two rock-and-roll albums. The second, released in 1972 on MGM Records and titled Great Balls of Fire, covered songs by The Doors, among others, and had songs written for West by English songwriter-producer Ian Whitcomb.

After a 27-year absence from motion pictures, West appeared as Leticia Van Allen in Gore Vidal's Myra Breckinridge (1970) with Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Farrah Fawcett, and Tom Selleck in a small part. The movie was intended to be deliberately campy sex change comedy, but had serious production problems, resulting in a botched film that was both a box-office and critical failure. Author Vidal, at great odds with inexperienced and self-styled "art film" director Michael Sarne, later called the film "an awful joke". Though Mae West was given star billing to attract ticket buyers, her scenes were truncated by the inexperienced film editor, and her songs were filmed as though they were merely side acts. Mae West's counterculture appeal (she was dubbed "the queen of camp"), included the young and hip, and by 1971, the student body of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) voted Mae West "Woman of the Century" in honor of her relevance as a pioneering advocate of sexual frankness and courageous crusader against censorship.

In 1975, West released her book Sex, Health, and ESP (William Allen & Sons, publisher), and Pleasure Man (Dell publishers) based on her 1928 play of the same name. Her autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, was also updated and republished in the 1970s.

Mae West was a shrewd investor, produced her own stage acts, and invested her money in large tracts of land in Van Nuys, a thriving suburb of Los Angeles. With her considerable fortune, she could afford to do as she liked. In 1976, she appeared on Back Lot U.S.A. on CBS, where she was interviewed by Dick Cavett and sang "Frankie and Johnny" along with "After You've Gone." That same year, she began work on her final film, Sextette (1978). Adapted from a 1959 script written by West, the film's daily revisions and production disagreements hampered production from the beginning. Due to the near-endless last-minute script changes and tiring production schedule, West agreed to have her lines signaled to her through a speaker concealed in her hair piece. Despite the daily problems, West was, according to Sextette director Ken Hughes, determined to see the film through. At 84, her now-failing eyesight made navigating around the set difficult, but she made it through the filming, a tribute to her self-confidence, remarkable endurance, and stature as a self-created star 67 years after her Broadway debut in 1911 at the age of 18. Time magazine wrote an article on the indomitable star entitled "At 84, Mae West Is Still Mae West".

Upon its release, Sextette was not a critical or commercial success, but has a diverse cast. The cast included some of West's first co-stars such as George Raft (Night After Night, 1932), silver screen stars such as Walter Pidgeon and Tony Curtis, and more contemporary pop stars such as The Beatles' Ringo Starr and Alice Cooper, and television favorites such as Dom DeLuise and gossip queen Rona Barrett. It also included cameos of some of her musclemen from her 1950s Las Vegas show, such as the still remarkably fit Reg Lewis. Sextette also reunited Mae West with Edith Head, her costume designer from 1933 in She Done Him Wrong.

West was married on April 11, 1911 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Frank Szatkus (1892–1966), whose stage name was Frank Wallace, a fellow vaudevillian whom she met in 1909. She was 17. She kept the marriage a secret, but a filing clerk discovered the marriage certificate in 1935 and alerted the press. The clerk also uncovered an affidavit in which she had declared herself married, made during the Sex trial in 1927.

In August 1913, she met Guido Deiro (1886–1950), an Italian-born vaudeville headliner and star of the piano-accordion. Her affair, and possible 1914 marriage to him, as alleged by Diero's son Guido Roberto Deiro in his 2019 book Mae West and The Count, went "very deep, hittin' on all the emotions". West later said, "Marriage is a great institution. I'm not ready for an institution yet."

In 1916, when she was a vaudeville actress, West had a relationship with James Timony (1884–1954), an attorney nine years her senior. Timony was also her manager. By the time that she was an established movie actress in the mid-1930s, they were no longer a couple. West and Timony remained extremely close, living in the same building, working together, and providing support for each other until Timony's death in 1954.

West remained close to her family throughout her life and was devastated by her mother's death in 1930. In 1930, she moved to Hollywood and into the penthouse at The Ravenswood apartment building where she lived until her death in 1980. Her sister, brother, and father followed her to Hollywood where she provided them with nearby homes, jobs, and sometimes financial support. Among her boyfriends was boxing champion William Jones, nicknamed Gorilla Jones (1906–1982). The management at her Ravenswood apartment building barred the African American boxer from entering the premises; West solved the problem by buying the building and lifting the ban.

She became romantically involved at age 61 with Chester Rybinski (1923–1999), one of the muscle men in her Las Vegas stage show – a wrestler, former Mr. California, and former merchant sailor. He was 30 years younger than she, and later changed his name to Paul Novak. He moved in with her, and their romance continued until her death in 1980 at age 87. Novak once commented, "I believe I was put on this Earth to take care of Mae West." West was a Presbyterian.

In August 1980, West tripped while getting out of bed. After the fall she was unable to speak and was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, where tests revealed that she had suffered a stroke. She died on November 22, 1980, at the age of 87.

A private service was held at the church in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, on November 25, 1980; (the church is a replica of Boston's Old North Church.) Bishop Andre Penachio, a friend, officiated at the entombment in the family mausoleum at Cypress Hills Abbey, Brooklyn, purchased in 1930 when her mother died. Her father and brother were also entombed there before her, and her younger sister, Beverly, was laid to rest in the last of the five crypts less than 18 months after West's death.

For her contribution to the film industry, Mae West has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood. For her contributions as a stage actor in the theater world, she has been inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Mae West among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

#mae west #golden age of hollywood #classic hollywood #classic cinema

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redeadepression · 5 years

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Hello, I hope you're feeling good today! Umm I was curious if you want to share some HCs about modern John and Arthur. What aspects would change if they lived in our present days? Or if they woke up a day and were here? :)

Modern AU | Arthur Morgan | John Marston | Headcanons

~~~~~

OMG yes. So I think about Modern AU Arthur and John A LOT. Both in the sense that they actually grew up in modern AU and that’s all they have know and the sense that they have just woken up in a modern world and have to come to terms with what the world is like in 2019.

I’ll just do a set for each of the boys on Modern AU because this post was getting SO long. But pleaseee if you want to hear about 1899 Arthur and John in a Modern world, send me an ask!

John’s HCs are MUCH more fleshed out than Arthur’s and really more of a narrative where as for Arthur I have a huge bunch of ideas as to who he is as a person but nothing super solid for his actual story.

I have SO many more headcanons about these guys and also Modern AU Abigail. If you want to see more, just ask. ♥

~~~~~

A little background on Modern AU Arthur and John. John’s Father died when he was They were both placed in the Foster-care system where they were taken in by Dutch and Hosea; an older couple that decided to foster instead of adopt. Arthur is still 10 years older than John. He is placed with Dutch and Hosea at around the age of 10 and then seven years later John is placed with them as well at the age of 7.

Arthur isn’t an orphan but he was taken away from his bio Father due to abuse and after that his Father spiralled and found himself in prison. His sentence kept getting extended due to bad behaviour and eventually Arthur writes him off when he reaches adulthood, realising he isn’t going to change. Dutch and Hosea adopt Arthur with his Father’s consent right before he turns 18. His mother died due to illness when he was a toddler.

John’s Mother died in childbirth and his abusive Father was killed when John was 6. He goes straight in to Foster-care and is bounced around from house to house due to his troublesome nature. His Foster parents find him challenging and he continues to be replaced until eventually he lands with Dutch and Hosea at the age of 7. After Arthur, they find John and his anxieties/acting out to not be all that much of a handful.

John isn’t adopted when he turns 18 and as a result has a strained relationship with the people he had considered his family for over 10 years. He attends family Christmas and other holidays but ultimately feels out of place.

~~~~~

Modern AU Arthur:

Okay so first thing you need to know about Modern Arthur is he’s a serial dater

A romantic always looking for ‘the one’

But total self-sabotager when anyone promising appears

Think Ted Mosby from HIMYM

He is HOT but he doesn’t really know it

Really low self-esteem

But at the same time weirdly arrogant because he can pretty much get any woman he wants

He has a new partner every couple of weeks

Always brings them to events and puts them in the photos which annoys his friends

When he is roughly 25 he has a bad break up and decides to ‘be single’ for a while

He meets Eliza and has a one night stand

She gets pregnant

He tries to make it work with her but in the end they are too different

They break up and Arthur is a little relieved

He’s a good Dad to Issac

But Eliza moves away with him when he is around 3

So Arthur only see’s him on holidays and when he can afford to fly out for a visit

He is an Artist

Actually makes some decent money off his work

But hates the whole ‘art scene’

Absolutely despises rubbing noses with “pretentious art folk”

But despite that, is really good at schmoozing to get his art recognised

His friends like to remind him that he’s actually really pretentious himself sometimes

But he likes to think of himself as ‘Down to Earth’

He loves food

Always has snacks

Lives off coffee

Has drank dirty paint water instead of his coffee many, many times

Arthur has a really good parental bond with both Dutch and Hosea

He gets along with them both really well and often voluntarily spends time at their house where he grew up

Dutch is an enabler to Arthur’s womanising

He instils the belief in Arthur that when he meets ‘The One’ he will know instantly

Hosea disapproves and encourages him to try and settle down

Not every relationship is perfect but they still work out etc

Arthur’s sibling relationship with John turned to more of a friendship when the later turned 18

He invited John to live with him for a little while, while he was setting up his business

They didn’t live together for long as they got on each others nerves too often

Arthur doesn’t have many male friends

He finds it easier to connect with women in a platonic sense

Besides John, his male friends are his friend’s husbands

(i.e Jake Adler)

Arthur likes to go away for a couple of weeks at a time

Sometimes he tells people where he’s going

Other times he just disappears

But his Instagram alerts his family to the fact he’s still alive

He never goes on extravagant vacations

Often saving enough for a flight and a stay at a hostel somewhere

Sometimes he camps

He uses these trips for inspiration in his work

Often has a huge influx of stylised work, based on where he’s been once he returns home

It gradually returns to his usual art-style

That’s when he realises it’s time to get away again

He feels content in his life and genuinely enjoys living

He actively yearns for more but deep down isn’t sure he actually wants it

He could live like this the rest of his life and not have many regrets

Modern AU John:

As a child, John never really had anything of his own

Never had anything new

Always hand-me-downs

So once he becomes a teen he is incredibly keen to enter the work-force

He’s very excited to spend his first pay cheque on something new for himself

He never flourished at school

Found that he was much better at working

Especially with his hands and machinery

He took on a trade and worked to become a construction worker

When he reaches adulthood and realises he’s going to have to live by his own means he takes a business course

Starts his own company at the age of 18, doing handy-man kind of work

Dutch and Hosea offer him money to grow it

He turns it down as he feels it’s out of guilt

This spurs him on to work even harder

He wants to prove himself

Eventually starts to make enough money to hire staff

Starts taking on bigger clients

Bigger jobs

Grows his company until at the age of 22 he’s got his own small business and it’s thriving

He does well for himself

He lives off Energy Drinks and coffee

Fast food is a must

Often eats in his car at lunch or on his way home from work

It’s lonely

He meets Abigail and they start casually dating

Not long in to their relationship she falls pregnant

John freaks out but recovers well

He doesn’t want his child to grow up like he did

Proposes because he’s young and dumb

They get married really quickly despite people trying to tell them it’s a bad idea

He takes a mortgage on a house and they move in together

Things are good for a while

But once baby Jack comes they go downhill

Abigail is a good Mother but very young and selfish

This is a whole other set of headcanons if anyone is interested, I’ll write them

John steps up as a Father because he has to if he wants his child to have a good life

He flails a lot

Almost drowns a couple of times

Eventually falls in to a good rhythm of work and baby

His relationship with Abigail crumbles

They separate with joint custody

He has a few good friends

He leans on them hard in during his divorce

He sells his house and moves in with a friend for emotional support/help with the baby

Puts the profits from his sale in to his business and grows it further

As a human; he has a lot of flaws

But they are very different from his flaws in 1899

He is full of anxieties and mental health issues

But refuses to work on them

As a Father he feels he is unfit

But he takes it on anyway and is actually a natural

As a husband he was clingy, yet distant at the same time

Wanting attention and then space when it suited him

He is resentful of Abigail for ultimately being the one to end the marriage

Despite knowing it was for the best

He starts dating a friend

He realises what a good, supportive relationship is like

He and Abigail fight often about what’s right for Jack

John grows frustrated with her childishness

Eventually fights for full custody because he feels like Jack isn’t Abigail’s first priority

Doesn’t win due to being at work full-time

Abigail settles on 70/30 because she is also working and knows John can afford a better Nanny than she can

He never confront Dutch and Hosea about not being adopted

Figures they just didn’t want him to be permanent in their lives

They were his parents for 11 years

It stings but he moves on

He’s in denial about how much it affects him

Affects the decisions his makes parenting his son

#Arthur Morgan #John Marston #Modern AU #modern au john marston #modern au arthur morgan #dutch van der linde #hosea matthews #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #headcanons #hcs #modern au headcanons #modern hcs

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rocknrollbodhisattva · 5 years

Text

The Ultimate GMW Essay

Introduction, 1990s Issues & Personal Background

During the 1990s Micheal Jacobs birthed a cult classic entitled Boy Meets World following middle child Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and his friend Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong), and Cory's girlfriend, Topanga Lawrence (Danielle Fisher) navigate adolescence. Sevens seasons later in 2001 the show ended and fourteen years later Jacobs created Boy Meets World's sequel, Girl Meets World. A gender-flipped Boy Meets World had more difficulties other than airing on Disney Channel. Cory's daughter, Riley (Rowan Blanchard), and her friend Maya Hart (Sabrina Carpenter) had near impossible expectations to meet. Jacobs' goal was producing a show for teenagers growing up in our technological and politically divisive environment. A laudable goal but Jacobs didn't need to return to the Boy Meets World universe; he returned to it due to nostalgia. "[…] To watch as Riley grows up and Cory and Topanga keep growing up. I can't resist that." Why did Girl Meets World underperform? Simple, it was an overreliance on telling over showing.

I watched the sequel for the Boy Meets World characters, in fact, my expectations were so low that even the okay episodes surprised me by the effort put in them. Every criticism my generation had with the sequel can be summed up with character retconning. Cory was George Feeney 2.0, Topanga was the wife and mother with little mention of her law career. Shawn was demoted from secure young man to broken man. 'Seven the Hard Way's conclusion came true in this show. Cory and Topanga only have a few friends, Shawn and Angela permanently broke up, Jack fell out of contact with Rachel. Original Cory and Topanga would never play favourite among their children and their friends. Shawn wouldn't need a girlfriend to fix him anymore and would prefer his goddaughter before her best friend. I was expecting for Feeney to say, "It's been nice see you all. Next time I'll see you at my funeral" and for Eric to say, "I married a moose. We don't need counseling." Will Friedle is the only actor that looked happy to return to this show.

Personal Background

I loved this show and besides Adventures of Pete & Pete BMW was my favorite show. In order, my favorite episodes are:

And Then There Was Shawn

Chick Like Me

Raging Cory

Cult Fiction

As It Ends

Despite all of this, Shawn/Angela (Shawnangela) retconning I hated the most. In interviews, Rider Strong said that Jacobs begged him to reprise his old role. Rider agreed if he and his brother directed some episodes and Rider appeared in six episodes total. Rider appeared the happiest when he was with Savage, the rest of the time he didn't look like he was trying. Which explains why there was little chemistry between him, the teens, and Katy. Rider also said that he hated Jacobs rewriting Shawnangela's romance for Shaty (Shawn/Katy). Trina McGee, the actress who portrayed Angela, with Strong brought their displeasure up; McGee was never invited on the show after 'Hurricane.' McGee and Strong hated Shaty because of the implicit racism behind Shaty.

Many mixed-raced fans like myself loved Shawnangela since this was probably the first interracial romance we were exposed to in the 1990s, Jacobs even planned that in the original show this and that the fact that Angela was black wouldn't be an issue. Angela Moore was more than just the Black girlfriend, the only time it was brought up was 'Everybody Love Stuart' when she said, "God, I need to get some Black friends." She loved poetry and photography, and like Shawn her mother abandoned her and her father was away in the military so Angela spent a year in Europe to reconnect with her father. To break up a couple we loved just so a little girl can have a father was heartbreaking and Jacobs reasoning that Shawn and Angela "never meshed" and that Angela was meaningless to Shawn. Angela supported Shawn when he became addicted to drinking and when he discovered the truth about his parents then struggled with intimacy, realizing friends-with-benefits wouldn't work for them. Season 6 hinted that they lost their virginity to each other. Shawn's willingness to enter the military for Angela was touching. Sure they broke up a few times but they always found their way back to each other. Why I loved Shawnangela was because their love grew over time instead of instantaneously like Corpanga (Cory/Topanga). Younger fans were indifferent because they didn't grow up with Boy Meets World.

Shaty would've been tolerated if Jacobs showed Shawn and Angela grieve their loss then slowly had Shawn love Katy it would have been better. If they dated of their own choice, they would have been tolerated. Cory and Riley matchmade them; Shawn didn't have a choice in the matter, staying in this relationship only because he cares for Maya. "I care about your daughter," he says to Katy. ('Hurricane') Katy's can't imitate Shawn implying that she loves him but Shawn never reciprocates when he proposes. ('Upstate') As they're saying their vows Shawn admits to Maya – in front of Katy – that he's unsure that their marriage will last. I loved that the writers ended 'Goodbye' with Shawn adopting Maya but what's stopping Shawn and Katy from divorcing once Maya leaves home? By keeping Katy single GMW could've explored single-parent households, and mother-daughter bonds could've deepened since Kermit's departure. Or Jacobs could've written Katy abandon her daughter then have Shawn take Maya in like Johnathan Turner did. With so many possibilities it's disappointing that the writers chose to delete their story's history in favor of a boring option.

But like its predecessor I also had GMW favorite episodes:

First Date

Riley Town

Forgiveness

A Christmas Maya

Belief

Supporting Characters

Isadora Smackle & Isaiah "Zay" Babineuax are the Token minority characters, Smackle was around to be Farkle's third-option love interest while Zay is there to give Lucas' backstory. What do we know about them? Smackle is a Filipino, autistic genius who transferred from a private middle school to a public high school then flirts with Lucas to test Farkle's love for her. When Farkle says that if Lucas ever returned Smackle's affections, he would step back for them. Zay father was transferred from Texas to New York and has a large number of sisters. Aside from being Lucas' second-in-command, Zay is the comedic black best friend. Their actors said that they weren't in the series enough. How do Zay and Smackle feel about being the only minorities in their clique? We never learn anything substantial about them?

Farkle Minkus was the genus best friend of the group, son of Stuart Minkus (Cory and Shawn's former classmate) and Jennifer Basset (Shawn's ex-girlfriend) he comes from a wealthy family and has known Riley and Maya since kindergarten. He was my favorite male character because he was the most consistent, by season 3, I wondered why GMW couldn't be about him since his relationships –romantic and platonic – flowed organically. He struggled with analyzing his emotions vs feeling them. Farkle was agnostic, doubting anything that wasn't tangible and proved by science but was able to quote Revelation ('Belief' and 'New Years'). Farkle discovers his Jewish ancestors barely survived World War 2 and wonders what this means for him in "Christmas Maya." He was bullied in "Flaws" and was perceptive enough to know about Riley's bully. He's possibly autistic ('I am Farkle') and struggles with emotions but realizes Maya's ambivalence over her Lucas feelings. Other than Riley, Farkle was the most complex character.

Prince Charming was the extent of Lucas Friar’s role. Originally the writers planned on giving Riley an older brother named Elliot before scrapping this idea in order to give Riley a love interest. Love interests aren't bad but Lucas had no personality other than that. Any girl given more than five minutes of screen time falls for him so it was a matter of time before Maya and Smackle would.

What do we know about this boy? Texas moved from Texas to New York in the Pilot. In spite being an academic athlete he's never seen playing sports outside of gym class and even in the gym he's not doing anything athletic nor does Lucas contribute much to his and Farkle sports conversation or his and Riley's basketball conversation. ('Cory & Topanga', 'New World') Lucas is strong as a bull and doesn't know why ('High School'). He can't pass football tryouts whereas Zay could. Either Lucas isn't as talented or there wasn't space on the team. Lucas was on the debate team, got two A's, and attends class so he's intelligent. ('Father', 'Commonism') How do we know he didn't cheat like his friends? He was also held back a year, maybe he isn't as smart as he lets on. Lucas believes in God but maybe he's Mormon? Is he Orthodox Christian? A Wiccan? He has a father ('Friendship'), a Mother ('Master Plan', 'Crazy Hat'), and Grandpa Pappy who the teenagers met on their Texas vacation. What's his relationship with them? He was angry that his father wouldn't take him back to Texas and afraid that his mother would put him in the shed. Pappy and Lucas missed each other but what's their relationship like? Does Lucas have siblings? Cousins? Lucas wants to be a veterinarian, birthed a calf, rode sheep and bulls. We never saw him with any other animals but maybe he has a pet? In 'Fish' Lucas said he was a dog person when Riley said she was a cat person. What's his favorite color?

Is there anything to Lucas Friar that makes him interesting? No. Lucas is perfect. His flaws are perfect. Lucas is aggressive in the way all teenage boys are with raging hormones and poor impulse control. He got into one unseen fight which expelled him from school. One fight would suspend a student but wouldn't expel him. Did the assaulted boy wind up in the emergency room and his parents demanded Lucas be kicked out? Whenever Lucas was involved in altercations he's composed during them. He shoves bullies against the wall and backs away. ('Flaws', 'Secret of Life') He breaks free of his dishtowel constraints, breaks the countertop, and crashes through a window barricade. (’Riley town’) Afterward, he is automatically calm, someone with anger issues would need anger management training to accomplish this. If Lucas had this problem his friends would take umbrage with him and not defend his actions as being protective. If he had this problem it would happen at more places than school functions. Lucas wants to manage his anger and improve himself but he already had when he moved to New York. It's a shame because this would make a good story goal for him.

I could look past all of this if Lucas had a story goal. Becoming a veterinarian is a career goal but what does he want to achieve by GMW end? Farkle and Smackle want to understand emotions. Riley and Maya want to mature and understand the world around them. The most Lucas wants is a girlfriend and at one point he gets two! Lucas is Prince Charming because that's all the characters treat him as. The parents treat him as a suitor. Cory chases him out of his daughter's room more than the other boys. Katy and Topanga demand answers to his love triangle choice. His friends just discus dating scenarios with him. Lucas is a blank slate and it's why fans shipped Lucas with every character; they projected their wants onto him. Until he developed a personality fans couldn't know which girl he would be better for. (And it's why I wanted Lesbian Rilaya by the finale.)

Moon and Sun: Our protagonists' odd dichotomy

Night and Day's the expression describing our protagonists. "Riley is the sun, warm and bright and lights up my whole day. Maya is the night, dark and mysterious." Contrary to Farkle's statement, his observation is incorrect. From the pilot Maya's equated with fire and recklessness which are characteristics of sun/day archetypes. Her actions are forceful, almost masculine in quality and is the tomboy to Riley's femininity. What's more, Riley is cheerful and Moon/Night archetypes are viewed as mysterious, but most mythologies depicts lunar characters as a feminine, nurturing presence. Various religions use the Triple Goddesses – Maiden, Mother, Crone – as symbolism for female transformation. Riley is the perky innocent in season one yet becomes increasingly intuitive by season three. Finally, Aztec's god(dess) Metztli was darkened revoking its equality with the sun and forcing her into hiding which could be a metaphor for Maya eclipsing her friend in the series."The moon is always jealous of the heat of the day, just as the sun always longs for something dark and deep." -- Practical Magic. I've used this Night/Day expression in order to explain Riley and Maya's dichotomy; Shawn and Cory weren't as opposed as our gender-flipped characters.

Storytelling, archetypal, and shipping preferences influenced fans' favoritism toward one protagonist – and actress – more than the other. Case in point, younger fans conflated characters with the actors who portrayed them, contrasting to older fans finding Blanchard pretentious for her beliefs and Carpenter approachable since she isn't as vocal. (Celebrity wise, Blanchard reminds me of Emma Watson whereas Carpenter reminds me of Taylor Momsen. The former is famous for activism while the latter chose music over acting.) Following that, shipping preferences were terrible reasons why the fandom hated characters all because the rival girl interfered with their favorite couple. The outcome resulted in fandom wars, claiming that the rival was shallow and sparking theories that one couple was more accepting than the other.

Diverging for a moment fans claimed that Riley and/or Maya was boring because Disney's written these characters before. Riley is every 1990s Disney character – the titular Hercules, Belle (Beauty and the Beast), Lizzie McGuire – she's the straight man innocent. Maya is every Disney Channel best friend – Lily (Hannah Montana), Roxie (Shake It Up) – she's entertaining, troubled, and that's why fans like her. Overall, there are no novel stories or characters, but different ways to tell them. As for this show, Maya's favored because, like Shawn, she received heavier, concise plotlines. Fans considered her character reliable because she was vocal, but unlike Shawn, Maya had no complexity. Despite Shawn's dysfunctional relationship with Riley she shares the complexity Original Shawn had in Boy Meets World. Lastly, Maya's liked more because her conflicts are external compared to Riley's internal problems. Transparent problems appear interesting, like Maya's father issues, but because Riley's problems involve an inner torment, like insecurity, they seem invalid. An outside example is Arya and Sansa Stark; Arya is forceful, blunt where Sansa is secretive using her non-threatening femininity to survive.

Adding to Rilaya's dichotomy are the literary archetypes they represent: Riley is the Ingénue and the Caretaker. Maya is the Orphan archetype combined with the Rebel. Innocents crave dual desires of safety and experience, however, their achievements involve delayed gratification thus audiences find them boring. In the show, Riley wants to explore the world, yet struggles on how to achieve that. Contrary to that, the Orphan is bereft of parental guidance, but they're not always deceased. Kermit physically abandoned his daughter while Katy's emotionally detached from Maya. Obviously, they're different archetypes, yet they reflect two sides of the same person. The Orphan becomes insufferable because of their stubbornness and victimization. Maya's devolvement into the jerk friend annoyed fans because she was unapologetic of her actions. Due to character derailment within the show, Riley's naivete is why fans believed she was unintelligent.

Additionally, Rilaya's secondary archetypes contributed to fan's views on the characters. Riley represents the Caretaker, who's desire revolves around healing their loved ones; Maya is the Rebel or the one who revolts against authority even if they're unaware of what they're rebelling against. "You go too far," Cory told her after she activated the sprinkler system. "Why do you have to destroy the world?" Lucas questions Maya in her daydream. As a result, the Caretaker and Rebel shadow sides are of a dual mind like the Innocent-Orphan duality. If they don't practice self-care for themselves, then Caretaker martyrs themselves or are manipulative. Throughout the show, Riley didn't manipulate anyone but sacrificed her well-being for the sake of her friends, specifically Maya. Yet Riley is Cory's daughter and the Caretaker archetype becomes infringing at times. For example, Shawn didn't ask Cory to find Chet ('I Never Sang for My Legal Guardian') similar to how Maya never asked Riley to matchmake Katy with Shawn. ('Master Plan') Nevertheless, Maya's supposed to be Female Shawn and the Rebel's detriment is their recklessness and inconsideration. Shawn detonated a cherry bomb destroying a mailbox ('The Fugitive') and Maya abducts Katy's rival actress ('Holly World'), understandably Cory and Riley are exhausted from rescuing their friends. Also, because Riley can't physically protect her friends her genuineness is doubted. Her protectiveness is her emotional availability like hugging Farkle when someone's bullying him. Or comforting Smackle when she confides that she is autistic feeling that she's inadequate for Farkle. However, its Maya's guidance that gives Riley practicality and Riley's condolence that gives Maya hope. Essentially Jacabs' correct by describing these girls as an "astronaut on a horse."

Finally the fandom complained about Rilaya's friendship almost as much as romantic shipping; codependent yet sweet describes Riley and Maya's friendship, however, this isn't solely a characterization problem. To explain, Jacobs is an odd mixture of Dan Schidner, JK Rowling, and Seth Macfarlene. Jacobs derails his characters for terrible jokes and aggravates shipping wars (Schidener), erases then rewrites canon history without consideration of consequences (Rowling), and cannot write female characters (Mcfarlene). Most of this codependency stems from the fact that Jacobs can't write developed female characters or friendships, which is something Jacobs struggled with in Boy Meets World. Angela and Topanga were best friends but were rarely shown as such, and Racheal was nothing more than the red-head bombshell for Jack and Eric to compete for. Giving him some leeway, female friendships focus on emotional connection rather than collective connection like male friendships, leading writers to tell two girls are friends instead of showing it. "Our most important relationship is each other" or "You're the only one who's good enough for me," constantly being told this causes fans to view Rilaya's friendship as codependent, especially when they say sentiments like "Maya won't tell me what to feel" or "Riley won't save me." ('Rules, 'True Maya', etc)

The problem with comparing these characters is that we know little about either of them, all that's known is that Riley had more characterization than her best friend. What made Maya likable is that she immediately discovered her talent – art – while Riley hadn't done so. In spite of this, Maya doesn't complete any art outside of school settings after 'Upstate' and rarely displayed interest in pursuing an art career. Writers showed Future Maya receiving a SoHo internship, but her career plans aren't mentioned again. Does she like any artist? Picasso? Rembrandt? Kruger? DeVinci? In'1961' recited a poem, later it's revealed that Riley leads the yearbook committee. Eventually, Riley joined the high school's newspaper indicating Riley's talent might've been photography and/or writing.

Earlier I mentioned the fans believed Riley was stupid yet she loves school. Various examples include her straight A average where Topanga competed vicariously with Stuart Minkus through her daughter's grades. Continuing from that Riley's a voracious reader finishing a novel under three hours. Another example includes 'Bear' and 'New Years' where Riley finishes a novel under three hours and reminded Maya about the purpose of fractions. Riley showed promise during the school's spelling bee, she loves science, arguing with Farkle for not letting her participate in the assignment. And while she’s not as creative as Maya, Riley’s picture of Lucas is quite good. (Maya’s Mother) Counterarguments involved Riley's D- in Spanish class yet throughout the plot she attempts to improve her grade eventually succeeding and beforehand Riley wore her disgraced grade as a scarlet letter. Generally, an unintelligent person wouldn't understand this Nathanial Hawthorn reference. Possibly, Riley loves mathematics since she's able to remind Maya what fractions are, ('Bear') conversely, Maya's lazy and uninspired with half her teachers – Cory, John Turner, their science teacher – demanding she applies herself. After receiving an A in Spanish class she tells Cory, "Eh, quit your blubberin', this will go away." Furthermore, Maya has no qualms in allowing Riley to finish her homework, or cheating on a test ('Commonism') or letting Lucas do the entire project by himself ('Crazy Hat', 'STEM') Not to mention that the only class she puts an effort in is Art class. Book Hermione suffered with applying academic intelligence into practical usage yet she was considered "the brightest witch of her year." Riley has the same problem but is considered stupid because of Maya’s street smarts.

Athleticism is another factor that turns the fandom in Maya's favor. Unfortunately, Maya showed little interest in them afterward such as 'Mr. Squirrels' when she said she received a skateboarding scar as a child or is a talented pitcher in 'World of Terror.' Contrary to that, Riley showed interest in physical activities. In particular, Riley actively tryouts for cheerleading ('Rah Rah', 'Brother'), goes on a Knick rant ('New World'), according to her bedroom calendar and 'Creativity' Riley attends dance lessons. (Witnessing her dance implies Riley's quite talented at it and is possibly why she lost some clumsiness in season three.) Due to Maya's shirt collection, it's believed she loved classic bands, in spite that she never mentioned interest in the Rolling Stones and bought her clothes at thrift shops. Similarly Blanchard and Carpenter are talented singers, obviously, their characters are talented as well. More key points are that both girls represent strawman arguments in 'Belief'; Maya's the strawman atheist compared to Riley who is the strawman theist. Maya disbelieves in God because she doesn't get what she wants, "Maybe I would believe in God if I didn't have a perfect life." Riley believes essentially because the plot demanded her to. A similarity is that both girls consider themselves feminists, but Riley openly claims this role. ('STEM') Also, both girls appreciate nature, Maya through hiking and Riley through its calming influence. ('Ski Lodge').

Maya's likability is her self-assuredness in contrast to Riley's self-doubt. I loved this trait in Maya as well. Including her confidence, I admired that this character wouldn't tolerate bullshit from her peers. Simultaneously Riley's insecurity was a detriment to her popularity, a lack of confidence and desiring to become Maya subsequently led to Riley becoming different personas. During the pilot, Riley's crushed when her classmates named her "Riley Superklutz" then mocked her for being cheerful. ('Yearbook', Rileytown) Illustrating these differences include Riley's Harajuku or Goth phase ('Yearbook'). For this reason, Riley's identity isn't in either subculture, yet inform the audience she appreciates the aesthetics. Using 'New Teacher' Riley loves comics, coupled with 'Popular' perhaps she loves anime and Kawaii Metal. Horrified by Farkle's violent videogame, Riley's nevertheless intrigued by the game. ('Money') Secretly, Riley may love zombie films or loves gaming, yet hides this because of her insecurity. Since Girl Meets World's holiday episodes follow Riley's perspective, the audiences know Riley becomes fanatical during the holidays. True to her nature, Riley's sacrifices her hobbies for another's benefit, like when Riley wanted to give up Halloween for malaria-stricken countries. All in all, I loved Riley's complexity since Maya was never more than the rebellious best friend.

A Cinnamon Roll. Why Girl Meets World doesn't deserve Riley

I'll admit the Girl Meets World fandom influenced my distaste for Maya Hart, but I've always hated her character since 'Maya's Mother' and 'Master Plan'; Maya was entitled and self-victimizing, using her "broken bird" status to her advantage. I realize my statement alienated half the fandom, but nothing about this girl was disadvantaged, and beginning with her home life we're shown she isn't impoverished as implied by writers. With a closet full of clothes and a fully furnished bedroom; the worst thing about her home was a dripping ceiling. Later she revealed that her neighborhood is primarily Hispanic, but she contradicts herself in 'True Maya.' Specifically, two ethnic girls with an African American cop doesn't denote a poor neighborhood, contrary to Shawn who lived in a trailer park with visible,eclectic neighbors. Shawn often wore the same clothes twice, equating Cory's middle-class background with wealth, "Hey, indoor plumbing [means you're] rich." ('I Ain't Gonna Spray Lettuce No More') Maya owned a laptop and Alternate Maya dressed on Hot Topic clothes, these expenses aren't something an impoverished teenager could afford. In all honesty, the Harts are middle class but aren't wealthy like the Minkuses. Other arguments are that Maya struggles academically, "I have no one to help me with my homework" but in reality her maternal grandmother could help her, her friends offer Maya studying help; really Maya just hates school without a reason. An example is that Cory raised her history test grade with an oral exam, however Maya didn't study. ('Father') Lastly, Maya doesn't have family problems; her father abandoned her, but show's little concern about its effects, in fact, she tells the Matthews that Kermit began a new family without her and never buys her presents. (again 'Father') Maya is affected by Kermit's absence in 'Forgiveness' where she said, "It was your job to stay" implying that she blamed herself for Kermit's departure but is apathetic toward Kermit afterwards. Parental abandonment leaves unresolved scars and Maya rarely showed any, as opposed to Shawn who resented Chet and doesn't amend their relationship until Chet was on his deathbed. He was resentful of his half-brother, Jack, because he had a great childhood and non-alcoholic father; Maya's resentful because Katy overworks, not appreciating Katy's overworking herself for Maya's benefit. Specifically to keep a roof over their heads, getting Maya into a proper school, or planning a nice fourteenth birthday for her. (List any episode that Katy appeared in as an example.) Yet Maya's "brokenness" is justification in absolving Maya of responsibility and allowing her increasing entitlement.

Cory bought colored pencils for Maya so she'll pursue her artistic ability, but gives her an iPhone because she had a flip phone, clearly it's not so she'll spy on her best friend and Lucas. Shawn bought her an entirely new wardrobe, even though nothing is wrong with her clothes; they aren't tattered or dirty but because of her "bad life" Maya's allowed to take her friend's moments with Topanga or monopolize Shawn's attention from Riley. After the umpteenth time of insulting Lucas, he fires a zinger back and unleashes her anger on her friends for not defending her. Apparently, Kermit's absence gone allowed Maya to insult everyone even though she can't handle it herself, steal Riley's (unofficial) boyfriend, and absolved of any consequences. Notably, Maya steals a locket from a little girl ('Honesty'), steals money ('Belief'), pulls fire alarms and illegally trespass on a property ('True Maya', the pilot) yet is surprised when her friends disbelieve her that she didn't steal the cash register money.

Emphasizing Maya's lawbreaking, she kidnapped Katy's rival actress and is intent on vandalizing a statue and still gets away with it; the cop says that he'll forget her trespassing happened if she never does this again. If Zay – or any colored ethnicity – attempted Maya's actions, they would've been arrested. Instead, I waited for any of the characters to remind Maya of her privileges, whether it was white privileges or that she wasn't going to bed hungry or abused, and didn't deserve her entitled behavior. Moreover, this was why 'Her Monster' was more appropriate for Maya's character since she always took her loved ones for granted. A great lesson Jacobs could've done was that a harsh background does not entitle one to everything they desire, you have to work for what you want. (Small Note: Cinderella was Walt Disney's favorite film because of how hard work often give's one their desired goals.) Most of all, Maya was a terrible friend to Riley. Was Riley a perfect friend? Of course not. She shouldn't have blurted Maya's love in 'Texas' then proceed in lying about her own feelings, reworded her statements to Kermit ('Forgiveness') and not mocked Maya's home or love life ('Jexica'). These characters are teenagers and are immature, but Riley owned up to her mistakes while Maya did not; Riley has the maturity for considering potential consequences and other' perspectives yet Maya's immaturity is due to her belief world revolved around her.

Realizing these differences between these girls it's certainly clear why Riley deserved better, and we can narrow them into two categories: one, her friends and family sabotaging this brunette, secondly, every character unnecessarily criticized her, usually with no validity for it. In other words, Riley was the Meg Griffin of Girl Meets World in fandom and the fictional world. Original Shawn wouldn't ignore his goddaughter in favor of her friend. Once the series aired 'Upstate' Shawn belittled his goddaughter by saying "Shut up Little Cory!" insinuating that Riley's nothing more than a Cory clone, saying nothing of the fact that Maya's an imitation of himself. What was Riley's crime besides helping her friend? As another illustration is Topanga complimenting Maya as a "fierce Amazon warrior while in comparison Riley was a weirdo with a cute top. ('Mr. Squirrels') Topanga ignores her daughter for Maya, who collapsed on the Matthews' floor, childishly whining about graduation. Even in 'Permanent Record' Topanga called Maya her "new daughter" certainly the Matthews consider Maya like family, wanting to give her every benefit possible, yet it's at the expense of their blood daughter. Auggie and Josh are unique among her family in that they actually support Riley. Remorseful for destroying Riley's teddy bear, Auggie searches for it when it goes missing; Josh develops ambiguous feelings for Maya but this doesn't prevent him from comforting his niece. ('Forgiveness', 'Bear', Home for the Holidays', 'Goodbye') Interestingly, one adult doesn't blame Riley: Katy Hart. Of course, she'll have a preference for her own daughter, but Maya kept pushing Katy away in favor Topanga until season three. From Riley's perspective, she understands Katy's actions are all for her daughter – she even realizes this before Maya does on Christmas Eve. All of this is odd as if the writers confused whose daughter belonged to whom.

I'm certain there are fandom members who consider these points as coincidences, before re-watching the show I thought the same thing, but supporting characters disregarded Riley, background characters overlooked her, even the writers eventually ceased her character growth and proceeded catering to only Maya. A complaint lodged against this character received was that every character loved Riley at first glance which wasn't accurate. Cory's class was largely apathetic toward her – though this could be in part that Cory aimed his class lessons with an emphasis on the core six. Of the core six, Zay was intrigued, but uncertain of Riley with Smackle thinking similar thought. Missy Bradford hated her because Riley "had" Lucas, and Missy desired him for herself. Unknown Girl ('Don't Like Me') and Cashier Aubrey ('Demolition') blatantly dislike Riley, but it's when they see Riley's true character these characters have a change of heart. Yes, Unknown Girl doesn't accept Riley's friendship –Aubrey accepts Rilaya's friendship – but understands her intentions are pure. (I always made the connection that Riley is like Tohru from the manga Fruits Basket.) Nevertheless, her friends blamed her the majority of the time, especially the boys.

Prior to the new school term, Riley promised Maya that none of them will leave her in high school, Riley isn't afforded this luxury when all – excluding Maya – leave Riley in the stairwell ('Bay Window', 'High School'). Lucas claimed Riley was "too much" for him for the sole fact she didn't support his football ambition, but after bull riding, Riley recognizes other sports are potentially dangerous too. Digging the knife deeper in her back was Farkle, who after school blamed Riley for their entire day, "You ruined our first day of high school." Obviously Riley bore some culpability for her actions, however, the remainder of the clique bore responsibility as well and should've taken accountability for their actions. From their desertion until the final bell, it was the clique's duty to improve their day through their own attitudes, yet they didn't seem concerned that day when they reduced Riley to tears. Fortunately, Riley's vindicated, her intuition in the seniors was correct, she just shouldn't have taken their words at face value. Several episodes later Zay overexaggerates when Riley bites his cookie when Maya dared her to "do something evil," reserving his anger for Riley instead. Why was consuming a cookie unforgivable? Is his grandmother dead or her cookie recipe missing? Over the Christmas holiday, all her friends continuously whine about the Secret Santa – Lucas even leaves the state without notifying his girlfriend, Riley, in avoidance of this – regardless of them knowing Christmas is one of the multitudes of ways she shows affection. Only Smackle, like Katy, doesn't chastise her, though that could be because Smackle showed more camaraderie toward Riley than Maya. To iterate, Smackle may have left with Farkle but isn't enraged at her, instead cautions Riley's leadership possibly isn't appropriate for high school. When Smackle's introduced to the group, she's more comfortable admitting her crush, her autism, and much of her insecurities to Riley than her other friends. Of the girls, Smackle prefers hugs from Riley than Maya as well. ('Smackle', 'New Years', 'Goodbye')

What makes Riley sympathetic is Maya was the worst of her friends when it comes to her unsupportive tendencies, namely whenever a peripheral character appeared on screen, they'd berate Riley while Maya allows her to take the insults. It's correct that Maya defended Riley against names like "superklutz" or against Missy ('Sneak Attack') however Maya stays silent when their classmates were adamant that they don't want Riley/Lucas together. (However, it was equally cruel when they said they didn't care if Maya was around.) Art teachers berate Riley artwork then – though her picture of Lucas was impressive – before praising Maya's superior ability. ('Maya's Mother', 'Triangle.') Two episodes before 'New Year's,' Maya claimed Riley was wrong for believing in God despite slacking off on the assignment herself, and not attempting to understand a philosophy other than her own. Subconsciously, Maya sabotaged her friend by beginning the Riley Protection Committee, but that doesn't help her grow, whereas Maya consciously sabotaged her friend by disqualifying Riley from the spelling bee under the guise of cultural appropriation.* Later in 'Rah Rah' she convinced all their friends to make Riley quit by ringing bells, but Maya should've been a supportive, selfless friend for once; Riley doesn't have the coordination for cheerleading, but was determined to try. In both instances, Maya repeatedly insulted Riley with "Every year I have to watch out and tell you're good. Well, you're not good." Why is she making her friend's efforts about her again, and offering no apology for her cruel behavior? Quite a while later on the first day of high school Maya insulted her friend by saying, "How am I in a triangle with [Riley]" showing Maya (briefly) thinks Riley is inferior to her. Why was mourning her sentimental teddy bear insignificant compared to a taco? When was I supposed to like Maya's friendship?

Very few of the show theories were credible and the Maya/Lucaya theories were laughable; posters, bulls, and sheep proved nothing. However, depression theories were the theories I believed in. Counter-arguments for a Riley depression arc were that Riley's life was too perfect for depression, including that depression isn't caused by a single event. ('High School') A depression storyline for Riley would've shown that depression doesn't discriminate; a seemingly perfect life is equally prone to depression just as one of hardship. I don't believe Jacobs wouldn't have tackled Clinical Depression, Shawn's drinking in 'If You Can't be with the One You Love' lasted one episode but a depressive period he could do. That being said, let's look at the hints that may have foreshadowed a depression conflict for Riley.

Western culture places emphasis on positive emotions simultaneously teaching us to repress negative emotions, "Why aren't you happy? Don't cry, there's someone worse off than you." Starting from season 1 we've seen Riley's fear of imperfection (atelophobia) such as her saying that what others thought of her dictated her than her own thoughts. As her classmates mocked her in various episodes her sense of self crashes down, like when she hid in a locker because of Missy. Riley's cyberbully violently threatens her, "No one should be as cheerful as you. Stop being happy or I'll kick you in the face" – what made the episode strange was that her parents didn't comfort her at all in 'Riley town.' Early instants of her atelphobia occur when Topanga's entering labor, Riley's wonders why her parents are having another child, "Why are you doing this? Am I not good enough?" with an extension of these self-criticisms in 'Bear.' When returning to work –possibly after – maternity/paternity leave – Young Riley begged her parents to remain with her, so Cory gave the teddy bear as a symbolic reminder that they'll always be with her. 'Bear' is now linked to 'Bay window' in that Riley's fear is her loved ones abandoning her, and if she is good enough for anyone to stay with her. Compiling on top of this includes 'Cory & Topanga' when upon waking in the middle of the night, Riley eavesdrops on her parents causing her self-doubt that she'll never achieve her potential like her parents have. Whenever her friends champion Maya's causes ignoring Riley's in the process, Riley compares herself to her friend, the "Pretty Brunette" vs the "Blonde Beauty." Compiling onto that is, is that everyone – from her five friends to her family – expect her to fix their problems and ignore her own, in keeping her composure, Riley internalized her own feelings in 'Texas' by pushing Lucas away and by keeping her bullying a secret. Even more interesting is when the puppet perched itself on Riley's shoulder, "Your father trusts you. Your mother trusts you. Your brother lied for you. Everything bad in the world is your fault. [Riley: "What?"] Never mind. That's for later." Having heard this may mean that her caretaker role, her perfectionist tendencies, her self-sacrifice, would be the elements that cause her breakdown.

Repression becomes rumination and exhaustion, from the previous examples – and what we know of her general character– Riley's obsessive, sometimes controlling. (She's Topanga's daughter after all.) In Season 2, Maya commented that she doesn't like it when Riley is calm. American Psychological Association wrote this about depression and rumination, "[People prone to rumination] exhibit personality characteristics such as perfectionism, neuroticism and excessive relational focus-"a tendency to so overvalue your relationships with others that you will sacrifice yourself to maintain them, no matter what the costs." She worried if anyone would befriend her as a child as well. "I sit here and I hope […] For someone to come in and sit with me." ('Bay Window') When seeing Maya dating Lucas, Riley obsesses over her worthiness for him, and when her classmates dislike her, she did the same. Constant thoughts of this can lead to exhausting your energy from overthinking. Four particular episodes convinced me of Riley's exhaustion: 'Rah Rah', 'Riley town', 'Texas 3', and 'High School.' The teenagers' second day of high school is where we receive our first clue Riley make have physical symptoms of depression. Unfortunately, this statement was played for comedy Riley said that she didn't cry all night because "I fell asleep before I could." Episodes 'Riley town' and 'Texas 3' show the audience that she probably had cried herself to sleep before. Cheerleading proved physically straining so it makes sense that she'd say that she was tired. A tonal shift occurs in the third act when Riley doesn't make the team, when she said "I'm really tired, Maya," sounds more like she's emotionally exhausted as well. (Although anyone would if their friends kept discouraging and insulting them.) While she was faking the flu it's not unreasonable that she could've made herself ill from her rumination. Sobbing in Topanga's lap, Riley is conflicted if she made the right decision about her friends and that she regrets agreeing to date Charlie. Topanga comforts her daughter to "Hold on" then Riley begged her mother not to leave, that she is "a little tired." Cut to the next scene, the next morning where mother and daughter haven't moved from their spot, implying that Riley cried herself to sleep.

Storgic Eros vs Ludic Eros: Rucas or Lucaya?

Like many fandoms, Girl Meets World had terrible shipping wars, and though not the entire cause of the sequel's failure, it did contribute to dissatisfaction among the audience. I'm not advocating for either Lucas pairing since the couples I supported were the rival pairings, Polyamorous Rucaya (Riley/Lucas/Maya), and romantic Lucadora (Lucas/Smackle) I understand audience members gravitated toward Rucas (Lucas/Riley) or Lucaya (Lucas/Maya), and why shipping began among these factions. Rucas and Lucaya appear polar opposite, but are alike in several ways as well: the factions claimed that the rival pairing was tedious, unrealistic and that their rival was incorrect by loving the couple. Incredible news is that both warring sides were correct, Rucaya (Riley/Lucas & Maya/Lucas) were all these traits; Disney has written Love-Hate and Friend-Lover romances repetitively since Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and so both couples are predictable because they are both fairy tales. Because these are teenage romances they're unlikely to survive into adulthood. Lucas has always been Prince Charming Maya's is the tomboy princess. Lucaya is a Fabio romance, Disney examples The Little Mermaid (Ariel and Eric), Hercules (Meg and Hercules), Tangled, and Pirates of the Caribbean (Elizabeth/Jack/Will) to name a few. Riley's the feminine princess to Prince Lucas and they are Jane Austen romances. They’re animated Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, and Frozen's Anna and Kristoff. What differentiates the Lucas pairings lis that Disney Channel is more apt to use Friend-Lover relationships.

Adding to Lucaya/Rucas similarities are plot and aggression problems; Maya and Lucas approach situations – and each other – with direct aggression while Riley and Lucas use passive-aggression. Lucaya kept insulting one another, Riley used her internet persona to coax an answer from Lucas, and he used jellybeans to reach a conclusion. ('Triangle', 'Jexica') Plot-wise Lucaya is strange, after several antagonistic episodes Maya develops a crush on Lucas suddenly, and because Farkle revealed Riley's love for Lucas, Lucaya never had any follow through. Rucas, however, had foreshadowing and depth, but after 'Ski Lodge' the writers never portrayed them acting like a couple. And both Lucaya and Rucas fans used fallacious arguments to justify their favorite couple, primarily that Riley or Maya accepted Lucas better, but there wasn't much to accept about Lucas Friar because of his one-dimensionality. Out of the two girls, it's Riley that understands Lucas, not Maya. 'Secret of Life' revealed Lucas' unpleasant Texan self with everyone curious about his past; Maya uncovering attempts fail by using Zay as a third-party, yet it's Riley’s confrontation with Lucas that succeed when she reminded Lucas that friends/couples are honest with one another. "If you say I can trust you, I'll believe you because that's what we do." Later it's Riley who wants to end Lucas' potential fight, mirroring 'Texas 3' in that Cory and Zay pulled Riley back from entering dangerous a situation. (Riley attempted to jump into the rampaging bull's pin to save Lucas before being the first person to jump in when Lucas fell from the beast.) A 'Secret of Life' ends with Riley remaining unaccepting about Lucas' aggression, however, it is her Lucas discloses his fight to Riley; as 'Rules' reached its conclusion Riley vocalized that she doesn't condone Texas Lucas, but understands his Shadow Side is part of his personality inserting the hope that Lucas is able to transform himself into a better person. Finally, in 'Texas', Maya's considered credible because she vocalizes that Lucas shouldn't ride the bull but, contradicts herself immediately by leaving. Her negative statement, "I'll never forgive you if you ride that bull," is interpreted as cruelty toward him because Lucas can't believe Maya isn't being antagonistic which is almost always her natural state. Moreover, theorists forgot Maya was equally complicit in volunteering Lucas for the competition, that both girls were shocked at the bull off screen, and instead of forsaking Lucas, Riley stayed offering suggestions to placate the bull, "Tell the pull you want to become a veterinarian, Lucas." Paraphrasing, Riley told Lucas that if he's sure he wants to ride the bull she'll support him, "Be the hero I know you can be," wasn't Riley ignorance of the risk, it was her understanding why he wanted to succeed. He wanted to regain his honor he had lost before and made his loved ones proud of him, "Thank you for believing in me," he said in 'Texas 3.'

Does Maya know that Lucas can be dangerous? Rarely does she mention his dangerous habits calling doubt on the extent of her Lucas insight, she mentioned Bad Lucas in 'Riley town', "I don't think Lucas will be so calm," but this is through subtext, and when Lucas crashes through their barricade Maya contradicts herself by urging him to lift the bed with a single finger. The next time Maya realizes Lucas' dark side is in 'Ski Lodge' when she wonders why he won't break the rules and Zay must remind her that Lucas lost a year of his life because of that; Maya remains silent. (An argument could be made that it is Riley that accurately judges Lucas because she knows there's nothing underneath Prince Charming whereas Maya needs to constantly provoke Lucas to believe that Lucas has problems of his own.) However neither of them accept this aspect of Lucas, and the only person who does is Farkle since he is the only one who calls Lucas out on his bullshit. In 'Riley town' he ties him up, urging him "Don't turn into Texas Lucas." Episodes like 'New Years', 'Triangle', 'Ski Lodge' Farkle reiterates that if Lucas remains indecisive about the triangle then he'll damage all their friendships.

In order to understand why Lucaya was preferred over Rucas let's look at statistics to demonstrate why Lucas pairings and rival pairings were popular in the first place. This fan fiction site archives over 4500 Girl Meets World stories with Maya and Riley stories representing half of its entirety; no matter how many filters are used, Maya centric stories maintain a slight lead over Riley centric ones. Lucas/Maya pairings – platonic or romantic – rank first with Rucas ranking at a close second, this isn't surprising. Once filtered down to the romantic completed fiction we realize that Lucas/Maya fiction doesn't lead by much, only by 14% (643) with Rucas at 12% (541) of the stories, a two percent difference is microscopic, and the rival pairings – Joshaya (Josh/Maya) and Riarkle (Riley/Farkle) – are tied for third place. Lesbian Rilaya is the only other pairing that superseded all of them, but since this shipping war focused on heterosexual couples we can't include Rilaya. Popularity for these ships is for what romances the girls represented, not the couple as a whole. Maya romances – Lucaya and Joshaya – are instantaneous and playful where Maya often refers to her relationships as a game; Lucaya is their "little game" while Joshaya is the "long game." They're Ludic Eros, or a Love-Hate romance and is why theorists interpreted bickering as flirtation notwithstanding repeated complaints that he doesn't appreciate Maya mocking him. He'll stick a rose between her teeth to annoy her or tell Maya that she can't break him after she mocks his country cowboy heritage. Lucaya is Disney sexual attraction, fire and why everybody can see them as a couple. ('Yearbook') Passion and obsession that embodies Lucaya are what researchers define as love/lust at first sight. What theorists didn't notice is that Lucaya's death hinges on boredom, once either character grows tired of the other their romance dies. In the three seasons, Maya had been the most fickle with her romances, if she doesn't get what she wants or events proceed too slowly for her she ignores it and moves on. First, she's in love with Josh, suddenly she loves Lucas and now loves Josh again and every character has called her out on this. Josh in 'Ski Lodge' reminds Maya that she loves him now, but that could change, pointing to her Lucas infatuation as an example. In 'Crazy Hat' Maya reveals that Mrs. Friar and Lucas' conversation that she overheard and his calf story bored her. ('Texas 3') Ever since Lucas changed he's boring, nor does help that Lucas and Maya couldn't even date one month ('Texas 3' – 'New Years') while Lucas and Riley's second relationship lasted half a year ('Ski Lodge 2' – 'Goodbye'). Lucaya was similar to Seddie (Sam/Freddie) from iCarly, if Lucas and Maya dated it would a physical relationship at most. Over the long-term physical attraction fades first, once the honeymoon phase ends if there's no commonalities between partners then the romance dies.

Riley romances – Rucas and Riarkle – are Friend-Lover relationships. It's Riley complimenting that Farkle's developed into a handsome, young man or how Lucas admits his and Riley's intimate moments are preferable than the few he's had with Maya. Lucaya had passion but Rucas had intimacy. Similar to Riley's character, opposing fans found Rucas boring because there's no instant gratification, love forms from friendship, mutual understanding and affection as well as attraction. One example is Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher from That 70s Show, who after a decade of friendship are married with a daughter. Real love, long-lasting love develops over time, teenagers beginning to date won't realize this yet. Fandom factions doubted Rucas because of a handful of episodes, those being 'New World', 'Spring Fling', and 'Texas 2.' Theorists commented that Rucas barely dated a week ignoring that peer pressure forced their breakup decision. Classmates, like Yogi, pressured them to be the "Perfect Couple," and along with Ruvas' friends and their parents, interrupted any chance Rucas had for any alone time. Boyfriends and girlfriends desire some time away from the public with the episode concluding with Lucas and Riley deciding to resume dating once they've understood each other as people and when they're ready. Rucas' endgame status is cemented when she catches Maya's bouquet and Lucas smiles adoringly at Riley. Theorists also used Riley's comments in 'Texas 3' and 'Spring Fling' against Rucas. Riley confides in Eric and Jack that she's afraid that her and Lucas' relationship would fail and tells the same sentiment to Lucas in 'Texas.' If they dated, then broke up, she and Lucas may hate each other. Eric tells her that unlike Jack, he calls Rachel every day, revealing that Riley would rather have Lucas' friendship than risk not being in his life. Topanga did the same in Boy Meets World and even in season six, breaks their engagement because she doesn't want a divorce like her parents. (Also this tells the audience that although Riley craves a fairy tale love she still doubts that it's a possibility.) And in reality, friend-lovers worry about this outcome too so this is a nice reflection of real-life circumstances.

Both Rucas and Lucaya are similar in that they're instantly attracted to each other, Maya and Riley immediately notice Lucas on the subway and gawk at how handsome he is. Lucaya theorists speculate through her play flirting that she had always loved Lucas and selflessly sacrificed her own feelings, but Maya "flirted" with Lucas so Riley would be comfortable around boys and since then pushed her friends into a romantic relationship. During "Meets Boy" she tells Riley to talk to him, by the end of it she and Lucas are able to have an actual conversation. 'Meets Boy' and 'Legacy' reveals that they've smelled they other's hair. (Weird but cute.) Maya asks Lucas on a date but instead of accepting Lucas proceeds and asks Riley out. ("First Date') Maya's actions are like Shawn's in Boy Meets World. Shawn asked Topanga to the Sadie Hawkins dance so Cory would, Maya is female Shawn so it's possible that she'd do the same for Riley. In 'Belief' Maya says that Lucas need someone to build him and Riley fulfills that role for him. Another example is that Lucas feels comfortable revealing his secrets to Riley than anyone else with show writers on Twitter confirming that "[Riley] is a calming influence on him." 'Secret of Life', 'Meets Boy' are examples like where he says he helped birth a calf and 'World of Terror 2' has the teenagers admit they both love a television show called Cuddlebunnies, later Lucas showed more concern that she missed Red Planet Diaries. And unlike Lucaya, Rucas had intentional flirtatious moments. 'Sneak Attack' has Riley wanting to learn how to flirt so Lucas'll remain attracted to her and not Missy then in art class she flirts with him in French; Lucas reciprocates by saying in French, "Someday we'll go to Paris." Other episodes she'll lower her voice to appear more sexual. During their softball game Riley feigns ignorance over her mitt so she can flirt with him and playfully slaps his ass afterward. (And Maya nods in approval.)

Overall the Love-Hate aspect isn't the entire reason why Lucaya was problematic, Lucaya's failure stems from the fact Lucas and Maya never fought for each other. From 'Texas' until 'Legacy' Lucas is almost constantly fighting for Riley; from that point Riley begins fighting for a resolution and Lucas. During the square dance, Pappy's home, or the campfire, Maya's passivity caused doubt over her Lucas infatuation. Maya sits on the sidelines when Lucas is fighting for Riley. When Lucas confronts Riley's brother statement at the fire, Maya's motionless. On the Lucaya/Riarlie (Riley/Charlie) double date Maya has to ask Riley's advice on how to date Lucas, showing the audience that Maya's never thought of Lucas as boyfriend material before. Lucas never fought for Maya when he's arguing with Charlie during the couple's game on New Year's Eve. It's Riley initiates love triangle discussions about if they still love each other and is one the one who noticed the seniors' – Thor/Nikki/Francesca – own love triangle asking how they resolved it. In Jexica at least Riley tried solving the triangle while Maya rarely made a suggestion. She doesn't even fight for Lucas when she's told to. During the 'Triangle' bay window scene Riley says that Lucas was her boyfriend first and that she was going to take him back. "Maya, if you like Lucas, then you're gonna have to take him from me." Instead of fighting Maya retreats with, "You'd let me do that?" If Maya really loved Lucas than why isn't she fighting for him? 'Ski Lodge' is the only time Maya fights for him, calling themselves the power couple but since this happened in fantasy this means she never fought for him. And if she loved Lucas why would she continuously flirt with Josh at every turn? Why would she immediately surrender her feelings if she really wanted Lucas?

Canonically, romantic Lucaya wasn't mentioned until 'Yearbook' but Sarah – and their class – voted them 'Best Couple' then Maya questions them why anyone would consider them a couple. Lucas adds that they have never considered each other like that. Maya's revelation – "That's why I love you, you're my brother" – isn't Riley's thoughts, Maya is costumed as Riley but since she isn't we can't know if these feelings are genuine. Katy in the prior scene warns her daughter against assuming about others feelings. "[….] Before you become another person, understand that you may learn things about them you didn't know before [...] When you have strong emotions for someone, it's like you're too close to see straight." Maya is too blinded by her best friend to determine if she's correct. Lastly, neither girl discusses their Lucas feelings until 'Texas' so there's no indication at Maya or Riley's feelings have changed. More likely her brother revelation is a red herring for Maya's own affections toward Lucas.

The 'Texas' trilogy is the next time Lucaya is mentioned in canon but the plotline is against them from the beginning. Riley misinterprets Maya's emotions of that of infatuation but their conversation shows that they're hurt that the other takes their feelings for granted. At Pappy's home and the campfire Riley friend-zones Lucas*3 whose reaction is that he doesn't think of themselves like siblings. Lucaya's almost kiss is romantic but immediately afterward says, "Don't tell [Riley]." "Of course I like you. Who wouldn't?" isn't a love declaration because Lucas pressured her to. All she admits to is not wanting to lie to Riley.'Texas 3' was about Riley/Charlie (Riarlie) and Lucaya's double date which all four are dreading. Topanga and Farkle discover that Riley lied and she is still in love with Lucas and doesn't want Charlie. Before their double date begins, Lucas marches to Riley telling her that he doesn't want to date Maya reiterating that it's Riley he wants. Continuing from there, Lucas interrupts his own date to interfere with Riley and Charlie's date; Maya kicks Lucas for ignoring her. Then Zay said that Lucaya loved fighting over dating.

Zay: "Well, the thing we all knew about Lucas is Lucas would do anything for his friends. And I never thought there could be anybody else like that, but Riley is."

Farkle: "So you think they are like brother and sister?"

Zay: "No, I just think they have a lot in common. I mean, Riley would do anything for her friends, too."

New Years' is the most telling episode between Lucaya because Lucas interacts more with Riley than Maya. As the party starts he brushes past her just to touch her, sits closer to her when he arrives, and gets into a pissing contest with Charlie over who knows Riley better. Lucas doesn't approach Maya on the rooftop, Maya does, and her comment "I'm glad you're with me at midnight" was said because she rarely complimented him before. Every time Lucas compliments one girl he says the same about the other. He says that he'll always know Riley whenever and wherever they are when he repeats this to Maya her reaction is "You're not even trying." Quoting "[…] nicknames are a name for someone that can be used by anyone, pet names can only be used by one individual." Lucas called both girls beautiful. Riley's the "beautiful brunette who follows the rules" ('Legacy'). Deep down Maya's the blonde beauty but in 'True Maya' he called Riley beautiful as well. Riley's the "Pretty Brunette" but Maya is just physically attractive to him whereas he finds everything about Riley attractive. "The pretty brunette who never gives up on anyone or anything. And no sacrifice is too big for her friends." 'Creativity' can't be used as Lucaya fodder because, one, we don't know the context of the Lucas/Zay's conversation and, two, Lucas' outrage shows that he didn't want the girls to know they were comparing them. Using jellybeans Lucas decides between girls ('Triangle') with both girls driving him crazy and are too much for him. They're funny and they push their loved ones toward positive growth. Maya does so forcefully ('Rules', 'Crazy Hat', 'Pilot') Riley implicitly ('Flaws', 'Lady of New York'). Yet Lucas concludes that he prefers his intimate moments with Riley over Maya, "It's always been Riley."

Lucas likes Maya because of her hu hurr-ing greetings and calling him "Huckleberry," however, it's a better answer than Maya's answer, "I don't know, he's a nice guy. What's wrong with us both liking a nice guy?" First and foremost, Riley dated him first and if Maya didn't fall for Lucas, her and Riley's friendship wouldn't be jeopardized. Second, if her Lucas love is because he's nice then why didn't she fall for another boy? Every time Maya's confronted with this question she can't answer with anything except "I don't know what I want." ('True Maya') "I don't know how I like you." ('Texas') Her body language displays uncertainty during the New Year's couple game. We know why Maya teases Lucas though, it's fun "tearing him down" ('Belief') and she wants to "mess him up." ('Ski Lodge') Maya jokes that she doesn't want him to become conceited ('Texas') but Lucas is humble. He admits that he isn't perfect nor brags about his academic achievements. ('Flaws', 'Father', 'Yearbook') After winning the class election, Lucas awarded Maya an ambassador role despite the fact that she attempted to blackmail him. ('Friendship') Maya loved mocking Lucas but she wasn't in love with him.

I have three theories as to why Maya loves Lucas:

Theory 1: Maya loves Lucas because of Katy's influence Very little of Maya's home life is known, what is certain is that Kermit and Katy constantly fought. ('Maya's Mother', 'Master plan', 'Forgiveness', and 'High School') Maya would never admit to her parents influencing her of anything and blamed Katy for her father's departure in 'Master Plan,' "She does this. She makes men leave. Shawn's probably in Mexico now." For a girl dismissive of her mother Maya mirrors Katy's mistakes with men. Observing Kermit and Katy's dysfunctional marriage distorted Maya's perception of love; love became equated with arguments and insults. Katy smashed a cake in Kermit's face, then Maya repeats this by pouring smoothies on Lucas' head. ('Forgiveness', 'Texas') Minutes later, Maya confesses that she won't forgive Kermit's abandonment comparable to Maya threatening Lucas that if he rides the bull she'll never forgive him before subsequently leaving him. Shawn berates Katy when they're introduced at the diner; Maya mocks Lucas when they're reintroduced at school. Katy falls for partners who don't reciprocate her affections, Maya does the same. Shawn still loves Angela and can't date Katy yet. Lucas pines after Riley and she returns his love, Lucas can't commit to Maya.

Theory 2: Maya loves Lucas because Riley is in love with him These next two theories vary on the extent of how much you believe that Maya became Riley. Maya portraying Riley in 'Yearbook' or wearing similar clothes doesn't mean Maya became her friend. I personally don't believe she suffered from an Ego crisis – clothes and grades don't equal an identity loss – but Maya suffered from a relational identity crisis. Riley always wanted to become Maya, an identity crisis fits Riley's character because she struggled with her identity When eavesdropping on two girls, Rilaya witnesses the girls' friendship dissolve. Betrayed, First Girl demands answers on why Second Girl dated her boyfriend, Second Girl replied that she was aware of that fact. "I actually went after him just for that reason. I didn't even like him. I just wanted to make you feel bad." It's unlikely Maya would purposefully anger Riley, but she desires everything her friend possesses. Jealous of Riley's family, Maya monopolizes her parent's attention away from Riley. Likewise, Maya wants excellent grades, convincing her friend to complete her homework for her. Overall, it's within Maya's character that she'd love Lucas because Riley already does. Of their clique, Maya had no romantic experience and may have developed insecurities over this matter. Examples include Zay's ex-girlfriend, Smarkle (Farkle/Smackle) with the longest romance of one year. ('Smackle' – 'Goodbye'), and Riley and Lucas dating the most people before dating each other. Also, Maya's never been kissed (Farkle/Maya's nose kiss like Farkle/Riley's chin kiss didn't count.) Adding to that, Maya had never dated someone she wasn't forced to date. Namely that Maya dated Farkle so Rucas can date, then dated Lucas herself because Riley insists that she does. Compiling on this that Maya never had a monogamous boyfriend since Lucas calling both girls his "girlfriends" means that he isn't committed to her. In Maya's favour is that, like Riley, is that three boys developed crushes on her. Both friends had Farkle and Lucas date them while they've had third options in Josh and Charlie respectively. Against Maya is her domineering nature causing avoidance in boys – and some girls – meaning they won't consider her girlfriend material. Maya tells Farkle that he can't handle her. ('Pilot') Josh is unnerved by her forwardness in 'Home for the Holidays' before running away. Whenever she and Lucas are paired together, she emasculates him calling him "the lamb Mary left behind." ('Rules') At most Maya is just a friend to them furthering her romantic insecurities. In Maya's perceptive, Rucas is the perfect relationship. Rucas are attentive, protective toward each other, and as Friend-Lovers they listen to each other; Lucas laughs at Riley's fanaticism over the Knicks as much Riley loves hearing his Texas. This couple is willing to sacrifice whatever possible for the other; Lucas was willing to revert into Texas Lucas for Riley ('Rileytown') and she's willing to jump into a bullpen. Observing them further Maya liked their softball game flirting and was aroused by Rucas' kiss ('First Date'). Envious, Maya thought that if Lucas is able to give Riley a fairy tale love, then Lucas can give Maya that love too. After all Prince Lucas and Princess Maya sound nice. Yet Maya is sympathetic toward her friend, fully mindful that by chasing Lucas, Maya is breaking Riley's heart. How does Maya circumvent her predicament? Maya uses Rucas' breakup in 'New World' as evidence that Rucas wouldn't succeed long-term. Through her self-deception, Maya convinces herself that Riley's love is platonic and dates Lucas without a guilty conscious. Inflicting pain on her best friend never crossed Maya's mind, but Maya's jealousy overwhelmed her better judgment. A final obstacle now separates Maya from Lucas-land: Maya isn't his type resolving this setback by becoming Lucas' ideal girlfriend. Next, Maya undergoes a Riley-esque transformation, becoming Riley in femininity, but not personality. Maya dresses femininely and softens her attitude around boys, explaining her fashion change and interest in Lucas. Riley thrives in interpersonal relationships which Maya mirrors this Riley facet to attract Lucas. Maya lost herself in competing for an unavailable boyfriend that wasn't hers. Ultimately, that is why she changed and why she fell for Lucas.

Theory 3: Maya loves Lucas so she can protect Riley Ignoring the Lucaya dalliances isn't possible, especially since there wasn't enough non-romantic hints to discount this couple. Protecting Riley is Maya's goal in the series, but the question remains how does correspond with Maya loving Lucas? How does infidelity protect anyone? Jacobs holds the official answer, but it's probably as nonsensical as the answer we received. In the prior theory Maya became Riley because Lucas wouldn't notice her otherwise – this adds further significance to Maya's James Bond fantasy – enabling her to unearth Lucas' true intentions. He gawked at Maya in her Riley costume, unable to tell the difference between the girls. Bond is a spy which Maya becomes so she can test Lucas. As teenagers, these girls want a fairy tale love, but growing up with dysfunctional parents Maya understands love isn't always forever. With Josh's help Maya realizes why she entered a relationship with Lucas she wanted to make sure Lucas was a safe option for her. When Maya confronts Riley, she tells her "How do I know if he's the right guy for you. How do I know if he's good enough?" Lucas isn't dangerous, but his uncontrollable rage could potentially harm Riley; no one wants their friends in an abusive relationship. Maya knows that aggression is attractive, but is harmful to people. Fire is destructive as well as transformative. This is the character who formed the Riley Protection Squad and wanted to attack Missy in 'Sneak Attack.' Riley is always pulling Maya back from the edge it was long overdue that Maya would repay the favor.

None of this means I hated Lucaya, in fact, I loved their friendship dynamic from the beginning. I've always had more men friends than women friends and Lucaya reminded me of the cross-gender friendships I'm a part of. Whenever they were paired together they had great comedic timing like the card eating scene. Maya grabs everyone – excluding Smackle and Josh – by the collar. Anytime one of the boys had a prominent scene she grabbed them by the shirt. Maya does this to Zay, and Lucas in the bakery ('High School 2') and whenever Farkle is around. That's the exact reason he kissed her nose in 'True Maya.' She grabbed Riley's dress collar in 'World of Terror 3'. Smackle is exempt probably because she and Maya aren't close friends. Josh is exempt because he's the boy she actually likes.

Unlike other girls, Maya doesn't ogle him like Smackle or Missy. She doesn't treat him like a love interest like Riley and Lucas treat each other. Maya interacts with Lucas like the regular boy that he is. The episodes 'Washington' and "Creativity' Maya says that she finally trusts Lucas as a friend and that she is glad that they're friends. "You could never hurt me" from 'Ski Lodge' is an indication of their friendship. Fans aren't wrong for shipping them together, but Lucaya wasn't endgame because after. Girl Meets Sixteen's taping Jacobs told the audience, "If we listened to fans- and we hear about Lucaya, and Riarkle and Rilaya all the time, we see what you say- the story we want to tell would be dissipated."

Could I see them as a couple if they were well planned? Yes. What makes fictional Love-Hate lovers successful is in its foreshadowing when the two characters begin as antagonists, manage to form a friendship – or some kind of camaraderie – and then become lovers. Examples I loved were Zane/Rikki (Nickelodeon's H2O: Just Add Water), Niles/C.C (The Nanny), Draco/Ginny (Harry Potter), and all Xena couples because grow happened between them. (Except for Draco and Ginny since that's a fanon couple.) Niles and C.C pranked and insulted each other but in all five seasons, they became friends, would kiss and have sex, making them fall in love believable. Lucaya became a genuine friendship but not a romance.

Non-Triangles

Opinions further split the fandom with fans debating if a love triangle was warranted, Girl Meets World's story never supported this specific plotline. Removing this triangle changes nothing of the show except Riley and Lucas would've reconciled faster and Maya would've determined her mindset on her own. Jacobs tweeted that Rucaya's love triangle was a "non-triangle" and he was correct.; love triangles need conflict and resolution which his plot never possessed. A successful version was 'Bee True' focusing on Mr. Feeney's relationship with Dean Lila Bolander. Stakes are intensified because if Feeney doesn't speed up his game, Bolander will reconcile with her ex-husband. What's more, 'Farkle's Choice' revolved around Farkle deciding which girl will escort him to an awards ceremony. Conversely, Rilaya's pranking and insulting for the privilege to date Farkle. With friendships splintering apart, Farkle denies them as his dates. Neither blonde nor brunette vies over Lucas, trying to seem forlorn that they love each other. "We'll check again tomorrow," Maya said, indicating that this indecision is a constant thing. It's admirable Lucas worries he'll ruin the girls' friendship but this doesn't happen and a catch-22 develops. If no one fights for him, there are no reasons for his delayed decision hence there's no reason to choose either girl.

Out of the ten love triangle episodes, two contain potential conflict those being 'Triangle' and 'High School 2.' After asking how the seniors resolved their love triangle, their response is that their triangle's lasted four years. Rucaya remained different from the seniors' conflict in that their triangle ended but the audience hadn't known that yet. Therefore Rucaya possibly could've repeated the seniors' mistakes. Continuing from 'High School' was 'Triangle' where our second conflict arises when Rilaya spied on two schoolgirls in the restroom. First Girl – symbolic of Riley – and Second Girl – symbolic of Maya – ended their friendship over their boyfriend (Second Girl: "I wish I never knew you!" First Girl: "I wish you never climbed through my bedroom window.") Implications are clear, if Maya and Riley don't – or won't – discuss their situation, their friendship will end. Like the above example, this consequence never came to fruition but some consequence needs to happen. No character investment translates into the audience not remaining invested with a prolonged triangle.

Technically, the 'Ski Lodge' fantasies have conflict, on the other hand since these daydreams happened in the teenagers' minds, neither girl fought for Lucas. Although the daydream sequences have merit when Maya/Riley intrude on the other's fantasy. Riley's correct in that Maya's Lucas Love isn't reality; flirtation and constant fighting destroy romance. Shortly afterward Maya destroys her relationship literally, and metaphorically, by detonating the bomb. Nonetheless, Maya is also correct in informing Riley of the "death of love" because, without effort, faith won't keep love alive.

Human characters often have tragic flaws, the triangle's Achille's Heel was its conclusion. Everyone dictated and defined the other's emotions; Josh defined Maya's feelings who in turn told instructed Lucas' actions on the matter. Joshaya's conversation is the most believable because Maya admits she doesn't like Lucas like the way she likes Josh. And she says this of her own volition. It doesn't excuse Riley was cheated the most, who had no input in the entire arc. Maya joked that Lucas would choose her – she did the same in 'Upstate' – and to tell Lucas he loved Riley. At each suggestion, Lucas appeared dumbfounded at Maya's statements. "Tell Riley you love her. It will make me happy," Since 'Yearbook' Riley was forced out of her Lucas relationship. Her classmates forced her out, later she'd forced herself out in 'Texas' and her friends doesn't give it a second thought. Half of Riley's other friends are fickle over her relationship. For this reason, Riley is chosen by default even though it's been foreshadowed since the pilot that Rucas were endgame. Couple this with the fact that Riley's the chosen one, but isn't given time to reflect on her feelings that she's who Lucas wants. Still, Rucas' conversation where they agree that what they do for themselves, they'll do for the other is heartwarming. Regardless of the outcome, Lucas fanatics would've been outraged either way. In the writers' defense 'Ski Lodge' had an advantage of moving the resolution in their favor, Josh was the sole character with credibility and unbiased perspective.

The longest scenes involved Josh in this two-parter and due to their duration, his role gains importance here. Actuality, Josh's return was originally in 'New Years' and Legacy' before Uriah Shelton's accident forced writers to alter the storyline. Moving on, the Rucaya trio all ask for Josh's input at some point in the episodes. Riley asked Josh why she and Maya liked the same boy, then Maya asked him why she acted in the ways she did. Not to mention, Lucas asked Josh what it meant that Riley and Evan talked all night. We can conclude that these three respect Josh's opinion and authority, so as the audience we're supposed to do the same.

Second-hand information is all Josh knows about this love triangle, but he's known Riley and Maya since childhood giving Josh some understanding of their personalities. He's aware that Riley's nurturing and open-minded whereas Maya's cynical and headstrong. But they're identical because both crave boyfriends who can broaden their horizons. Specifically, Maya desires an adventurous partner who can take down the world, as opposed to Riley craves a partner she can embrace the world with. Generally speaking, Josh has the triangle pieces, he doesn't have them all, but enough to make a judgment about the girls. Josh's unbiased behavior originates from the fact that no in this conflict has a clear perspective. Rucaya is biased because the conflict revolves them, with the supporting characters being unbiased because of their inconstancy. Zay is as indecisive as Lucas, and Smackle kept flirting with them. Farkle has a bias because he pressures Lucas' choice without grasping possible consequences himself. Also, it's assumed that Farkle wants Lucas to decide not just for his own mental peace, but more for the greater good of their clique. ('Triangle', 'Upstate') To say nothing of Evan wouldn't be fair, except he's only just met everyone, and show more affinity toward Riley. Lastly, the parents aren't unbiased because they will want Lucas for their own daughter. ('Upstate') What separates Josh from those listed is that he has no emotional stake allowing him a better perspective.

How I would've concluded the triangle is by denying Rucas and Lucaya to win because by having the girls reject Lucas, they're given roles of the romantic subject instead of the romantic object. With Rucas and Lucaya broke up, our protagonists learn two significant lessons: one, Maya and Riley learn fairy tale romances don't happen. Most importantly the trio – and audience – learn you are not owed a relationship, a boy/girl isn't a prize. Surprisingly, no one earned their relationship with each other; Lucas doesn't deserve them because he delayed deciding between the two years. Maya doesn't deserve Lucas because she never fought for her relationship, and Riley doesn't deserve it because she kept renouncing her Lucas relationship. By following a breakup outcome, the writers could have explored each characters' perspectives of their breakup. Does Maya eat ice cream, then punch a wall to deal with her heartbreak? Does Riley skip school, and go for walks to deal with her emotions? Maybe Lucas reverts into Texas Lucas before crying afterward. Anything would have been better than the canon ending.

Rival Couples

What makes Joshaya and Riarkle/Riarlie, and Rilaya popular is what made the Lucas pairings popular with the added reason of not wanting Lucas to get the girl. What separates Joshaya from Lucaya is that Joshaya is reciprocated and intentional. Riarkle I platonically and romantically shipped but in many ways I preferred Riley/Charlie over Riley/Lucas.

Charlie Gardner wasn't as creepy except whenever Lucas confronted him over Riley. Charlie asks Riley to the spring formal and thinking he was Lucas she accepts his invitation. A hurt Lucas confronts them both and Charlie rightfully informs Lucas that if he wanted to date Riley he wouldn't have assumed that they were already going. When 'Texas 3' aired Lucas confronts them again with Charlie saying that if he was certain about Riley he wouldn't have agreed to date Maya. Lucas had his chance and Charlie wants his chance with her. This continues up until New Years Eve when Lucas argues with Charlie during the couple game, but Lucas being a creep isn't discussed after Smackle called him out on it. On the rooftop Charlie wants Riley standing with him at midnight then Riley tells him that he shouldn't settle for a girl who can't return his feelings. Charlie's saddened but not angry, and wishes that she find someone who can make her happy. Charlie even sits with Auggie (her brother) during the countdown to show he isn't angry at Riley. Like their classmates he is shocked at Farkle's revelation but nothing more. Consideration is what I liked about this couple even though Riley/Charlie lasted three episodes.

Complaints against Joshaya are: that Josh is a pedophile manipulating Maya's affections, Josh and Maya haven't known each other long enough to fall in love, and that they don't know anything about each other. What these statements mean is that said fans don't like Joshaya because it doesn't support their own pairing.

Using the Boy Meets World timeline Josh is only 2 years, 6 weeks older than Maya. Eric was born June 1978 with Cory three years younger than Eric and Josh born prematurely on Valentine's day 1999 when Cory's approximately 18 years old. Riley was born December 2001 and Maya says in 'Ski Lodge' that there's six weeks between her and Josh's birthdays. If Josh's birthday is 14 February then Maya's birthday falls on the last week of March or January. Technically Josh should only be a senior in high school and Maya a freshman by season three.

Using Girl Meets World's timeline Joshaya's age difference still isn't illegal. When we're first introduced to Josh he is seventeen and has yet to graduate high school, and by season three Maya's fifteen and Josh is barely eighteen. With Romeo & Juliet laws if these two had sex it wouldn't be illegal. This is Disney Channel and the network bleeped out the sex-ed scene. Disney isn't going to tackle sexual relationships.

'Home for the Holidays' showed us that Maya and Josh haven't just met. Amy greets Maya by saying that it had been a while since they've seen her, and Josh says she grew up gorgeous. A stranger wouldn't have this familiarity like Maya and Josh do. Either Cory and Topanga bring Maya along with the family to Philadelphia often or Amy, Alan, and Josh visit New York often. Why the fandom thought this was Joshaya's first meeting was because of audience generations. Younger fans haven't heard of Joshua Matthews and this is their first time meeting this character. 1990s fans haven't seen this character in almost a decade and Josh seems strange because a new actor (Shelton) is portraying Josh instead of Jacobs' son. Jacobs confirmed in an interview that this wasn't the first time Joshaya met just that this is the first time Maya's developed a crush on him. Later Josh tells everyone in 'Game Night' that he'll be spending summer vacation with his brother and his family before beginning college. Maya and Josh will have three months to become more acquainted with one another.

Why I support this ship is that they are perceptive of each other. In 'Game Night' Josh realizing that Maya is maturing and in the ending of 'Tale Tot' admits that he needs to stop treating her like a child. During this episode, Maya says that she loves care caring he is around his family, particularly Auggie, and how he treasures his friendship with Cory. She admires how much he wants success but is afraid of letting his brother down.

“I know you drive from Philadelphia to New York, not even looking if you got into NYU just so you could open your acceptance letter in front of your older brother because you love him, and you want him to be proud of you. And I see the way you are with Auggie. A little kid who looks up to you who you always have time for. And I know that even though you’d rather stay here with these girls, you’re going to walk Riley and me home. Because that’s just the kind of guy you are. I like you.”

Maya's attracted to older boys because she's had to grow up faster than her peers. She wants someone who is ambitious. Finally, in 'Ski Lodge' it's Josh's turn to say what he's noticed about Maya. First off, he is fully aware that her feelings may change, pointing to her Lucas phase as an example, and that he crush on him maybe because she is searching for a father figure in a boyfriend. "Maybe it's because your dad left. Maybe it's because you've never felt that love." What he likes about her is that her experiences have made her one of the best friends anyone could have. He loves that her experiences have given her the warmest, biggest heart he's seen.

If three years are meaningless then why don't they date now? Since they aren't dating then doesn't that mean Josh is manipulating Maya?

No. It's awkward for Josh because he had seen Maya grow up and hasn't thought of her romantically yet. Maya's insecure about this when she sees him with the college recruiter or his roommates. ('First Date' and 'Tale Tot') During family game night Josh isn't unnerved by Maya's love and tolerates her flirting but he is still uncertain as to what it all means. By 'First Date' Josh's rejection by the recruiter allows him to empathize with Maya over her feelings toward him. By 'Ski Lodge' Josh gives his reason why they shouldn't date now. He doesn't want her pining after him for an eventually that may never come and that they should be on equal life levels before they begin dating. He reiterates this to Zay in 'Bear' by adding that whenever he and Maya date it will be Maya's decision in how they proceed. In 'New World' Rucas wanted to wait until they were ready but when Joshaya wants that too it's considered abusive or creepy. (And if the rumors were true the writers always intended to pairing Maya with a Matthews member. Before Elliot was written out the writers said Maya would end up with him.) I loved this because Josh is giving Maya a choice where Lucas never had. This is consent.

Who's to Blame: Jacobs or Disney?

Was Jacobs to blame with his sequel? No, his flaws were authorial intent and planning. Jacobs intended to gender-flip Boy Meets World, but he did not foresee a ship war and a broken fandom. He didn't intend for his new characters to regress into shallow imitations of Cory and Shawn. Over telling was the show's problem but from the beginning Jacobs had an uncertain audience. Generation Z was his targeted audience but teenagers may not be watching Disney Channel anymore and elementary school children comprise the network's audience. Children won't find a teenager's problems relevant yet. The 1990s generation sympathizes with Jacobs' plots but we're at different life experiences - college, children of our own – and we can't relate to them anymore. Who does Jacobs cater his storylines to?

Yet the Disney executive weren't blameworthy either. Hosting Girl Meets World was an intelligent decision on the network's part. Through the 1990s the Disney corporation fought for ABC/ABC Family networks and after Boy Meets World finished on ABC Family Disney Channel hosted reruns on its network. Taking on Girl Meets World would tap into the nostalgic market and help them sell merchandise and celebrities. When the series lost viewership mid-season 2 due to scheduling changes, this might have been why the love triangle was added into the storyline. The show made little income in terms of school supplies and dollar store book tie-ins. It's not surprising that Disney would prematurely cancel the show after three seasons. Consequently, canceling the show cemented the sequel's fate. If a host network can't remain invested in its own show, why should others like Netflix or Hulu invest in this show as well?

Conclusion

Comparing this show to Boy Meets World is unfair, by that comparison of course Girl Meets World is inferior. As a continuation, especially for a the Disney Channel this wasn't a bad show. What this show needed was a few more female writers and maybe another year to finetune Jacobs project, but I definitely would suggest Girl Meets World as a watchable television show.

http://gmw-trashs96.tumblr.com/post/134019376552/riley-matthews-metaish

http://sand1128.tumblr.com/post/157881155125/what-do-you-mean-severe-power-imbalance

https://mackmeta.tumblr.com/post/173838951689/accurate-girl-meets-world-colour-theories

http://fallen-karmacode.tumblr.com/post/132519063506/the-logic-of-love-stories-and-girl-meets-world

http://lewissimon.tumblr.com/post/155083626213/maya-and-lucas-vs-maya-and-josh-click-gifs-for

*1 Negative appropriation involves malicious intent, something Riley doesn't possess. Furthermore no one of Japanese descent offers their viewpoint so 'Popular' can't be considered negative appropriation. 'Girl Meets White Guilt' is an appropriate title instead of 'Popular.'

*2 Greek Loves are Storge, familial love; Eros, sexual love; Agape, universal love; Mania, obbssional love; Ludos, playful love; Pragma, practical love; Philia, brotherly love; and Philautia, self-love. Color Wheel theory of love describestromantic love using primary, secondary, and tertiary colours. For example Stogic Eros or Agapic Mania.

*3 The friend-zone doesn't exist. It blames girls for not reciprocating boy's feelings.

*4 Smurfvlogs is blinded by his shipping preferences to give a proper critique. Whether is Vampire Diaries or Disney programs he condemns opinions differing from his own. Better critics include: Lindsay Ellis (former Nostalgia Chick) who analyzes nostalgic shows without bias. Pop Culture Detective analyzes media that's detrimental to men and women. A great essay is Abduction As Love or Ellis' essay about RENT. The Disney Brain and Twisted Dan review Disney Channel work from Generation Z's perspective. And if you're look for shipping or theory channels, check out Shipper's Guide to the Universe or Game/Film Theory.

*5 plutoandferrett . tumblr post / 147762267190 / if-we-listened-to-fans-and-we-hear-about-lucaya

*6 The GMW wikia states that her birthday is 16 January, 2001. This may be a mathematical error or a continuity error.

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