tversky

I haven't been here in forever but I thought whatever.
Here's my favorite Chuck and Blair picture at the moment



It's my sexy, classic Hollywood glamorous sophisticated UES power couple
Love his sexy smirk and her regal beauty. They look effing amazing together.
She looks disdainful and he looks bemused. It's perfect!

JonStewart4President

That is an amazingly pretty picture. They both looked so good during the entire sequence. And they looked amazing in B&W as it was shown, and in colour promo (?I think) shoots.

And yes, they both well suited in their looks to really pull of that Old Hollywood glamour.

*sigh* for early S3 with the power couple they were then. Caring for each other at turns, and scheming for each other (most of the time, and the times it was against each other...it was resolved). With their great clothes, that matched a lot of times in cute ways. And then....3-17. never will forgive the show*. I know for many that was the never being able to forgive Chuck like Chuck/Blair again (well obviously not here ) But I just never forgave the show, because it was such an obvious, and STOOPID screw job. But enough ire...must sooth the savage JS4P by looking at that picture again...

*that had to be Safy's work. Just had to.

QueenBee

That pic is the best evidence EL should so an Old Hollywood BW ad campaign.
For a very classy brand...ie Harry Winston.

Blairღ

YES! Come on Harry, phone deLeightEd up!

ChrisM

Im usually against remakes but Id watch any remake with them in it in like any period. I swear them as CB proved they are not of this world so effin beautiful!!

tversky

Warning: Long rambling essay ahead

As much as I loathed S5 the one thing I'm grateful for is how they handled Chuck's growth and maturation that season. The main reason I can unashamedly ship Chuck and Blair and not just ship their potential or what they could have been if Safran had not ****ed with them is how Chuck's story was handled that season:

The writers didn't ask us to just FORGET what Chuck did. They didn't brush it under the rug or rationalize it. They did something BETTER than that. They spent an entire season SHOWING Chuck grow, change and become a better person and then later they showed how solid, strong and dare I say it HEALTHY (omg!) Chuck and Blair's relationship was in S6. They effectively took them back to what they were in early S3...



but much sexier:



and later with an adorable son to bond them forever




Chuck in S5:
1) We saw Chuck
- Sincerely unreservedly apologize and take responsibility for his actions (5.06)
- Go to therapy
- Do yoga (haha)
- Learn to love and care for a living thing in a healthy way (Monkey!)

2) We saw him do selfless things for Blair's happiness like
- Encouraging Louis to not leave his pregnant fiancee simply based on Dan's fiction in 5.04 (I think)
- Kissing Blair so she could move on in 5.07 (I know it was stupid but you know his intentions were noble )
- Stopping Dan from ruining her engagement party in 5.08 and then later taking care of Dan afterward even though he knew Dan was in "lurve" with Blair too.
- Initially encouraging Blair to try to make it work with her baby daddy Louis (5.10 phone conversation) because he thought it was what she really wanted/was the non-selfish RIGHT thing to do - i.e., not break up a family.
- Stopping the priest from ruining her wedding in 5.13
- Refraining from going after Dan simply because Blair asked him not to. (And Dan definitely deserved Chuck's ire for his lying, machinations and betrayal. Dan was hardly an innocent).
- Anonymously pay Blair's dowry so she could be free to chose who she wanted to be with.
The fact he did that anonymously is absolutely key. Regardless of whether his actions were responsible for Blair being in that position (I'd argue the majority of the responsibility should lay with Blair but whatever) his actions were by definition selfless because he engaged in them anonymously. This is actually something that differentiates Chuck from all Blair's other suitors. He often does things for her happiness anonymously and from afar so he get's no credit for them. People call him selfish but he's done a tremendous amount of selfless things (from the perfect prom to sending her application to Columbia to paying that ****ing dowry) than anyone else on the series.
Sorry I digress. My "Chuck has done selfless things for Blair" rant is for another post.

3) We saw Chuck TESTED by things that previously made him act out badly and we saw him react completely differently this time.
- Insane family problems
The lunacy of his mama drama in S3 and Bart is a murderer shyt in S4 lead to the IP (3.17) and 4.20. In S5 he handled both with grace, dignity and maturity.
- Losing/being rejected by Blair
In S2 he schemed against Marcus, in S3 he issued fatwas and fell into a spiral of casual sex and drugs, in S4 he declared war and tried to throw himself into other relationships instead of waiting for Blair to do what she needed to do to be ready, etc.
But in S5 he stepped aside when Blair rejected him. He didn't react angrily and with hurt the way he had in the past. He was actually more justified to that type of reaction in S5 than ever before: She had jerked him around almost the entire season and she rejected him despite him becoming a better man (5.17). But he was gracious. Hurt but gracious. He sat back and waited for Blair. He didn't try to mess with her relationship with Louis. It was actually BLAIR that kept dragging him back in. Nor did he try to mess with her relationship with Dan. Once again, he sat back and let it play itself out. He did what he failed to do on top of the Empire State Building - wait for her.

Chuck and Blair in S6:
-We saw Chuck support (6.01, 6.02, 6.03) and encourage (6.03, 6.07) Blair
But it's not as if he had never done that in the past (e.g., early S3 at NYU, the many times he's told her she's powerful and strong, his pride in her achievement at W magazine, etc.)
-We also saw Blair be there for Chuck (6.08-6.10)
Once again, it's not as if we haven't seen her do that in the past too. Importantly, they have a healthy MUTUALLY supportive relationship
-We saw them working perfectly as a team (6.04)
-We saw Blair hang around an ex all day long and Chuck react maturely and without jealousy (6.05). That is, we saw that he TRUSTED Blair. This is a contrast to how Dan reacted to Blair innocently hanging around Chuck in late S5
-We saw Chuck once again try to put Blair first.
He was ready to give up everything and leave for Moscow (I know I know. STUPID storyline ) to keep her safe.
He later insisted she get a decent wedding surrounded by the people she loves- even at the risk of him being arrested without the protection of marital privilege.
-We saw them having awesome SEX lol (6.01)
Sex that was so amazing they didn't leave their Monte Carlo bed for days. She didn't eat and almost became feverish.

But the flash forward was the coup de grace:
- We saw Blair as a powerful COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT career woman. She earned her power without a man. And given the lessons she learned in S6 we can say she earned that power without scheming and bullying people as well
- We saw Chuck as an affectionate, complimentary father - the total opposite of his own father.
- We saw Chuck and Blair interacting warmly with their in-laws (Cyrus in the case of Chuck, Lily in the case of Blair). This suggests they have a strong, solid familial support system. Anyone that's been married or been in a long term relationship will tell you how that's positively correlated with a relationship's longevity.
- We learned that Jenny works for Blair's company and Dan & Serena were married in Chuck and Blair's home. This is evidence that they've allowed bygones to be bygones. Chuck and Blair have both learned to forgive and move on.
- We saw their happy little boy in a home with lots of toys, affectionate grandparents, a living mother (lol) and an affectionate encouraging father. That is, Henry got everything Chuck NEVER got as a child.
- We saw a happy Chuck and Blair smiling like idiots at each other...



and holding hands. They HELD HANDS! "Chuck and Blair holding hands"



Lastly we saw Chuck appreciate Blair. His last words on screen really say it all.
"It's all Blair"



Just like the Lana Del Rey song they played during his epic apology in 5.06
"It's you, it's you. It's all for you. Everything I do."

He started the series as a sleazy, manipulative, selfish boy Prince that thought "happiness is not on the menu" and ended it as a loving father and husband, a "man in a way his father never was" thanks to Blair. Thanks to that one pivotal night at Victrola which made him discover his heart.

This isn't the fanwank of delusional Chuck and Blair fans. It's CANON.
Everything I listed was shown on-screen.

People are entitled to prefer other Chuck and Blair pairings over them. IDGAF. They can even say they as viewers have a hard time getting past the terrible things that happened between them. But what they cannot say is that Chuck and Blair were terribleabusiveawful. None of the bad things Chuck did or what they went through is relevant anymore He changed and Chuck and Blair changed and grew as a couple. They showed it. It's canon.

Personally the fact Chuck and Blair overcame so many obstacles, both internal and external, to get their endgame makes them an even more compelling and beautiful ship IMO - not less They EARNED their happy endgame. But all great love stories are like this. It's not just a matter of a couple's love passing a test. The process of putting a couple through so much drama and strife strengthens their love. It's like forging steel. It makes it stronger. Nothing truly great comes easy.

One really great thing about Chuck and Blair's story IMO is we actually got to SEE the evolution - especially with Chuck as a character. The writers didn't just wave a magic wand and say "Hey it's all better now!" They showed the means by which Chuck changed (e.g. by having him TRULY experience losing Blair by having her reject him even after he'd grown to be a better man (5.17), therapy, yoga, Monkey , etc) and they provided evidence of that growth (i.e., they showed Chuck react completely differently to his nutty family shyt and to losing/being rejected by Blair.)

Sorry for this super long post.

QueenBee

I love your long posts as much as I love your tweetlongers....which is a whooooole lot.
I haven't read yet. But I'm sure is full of awesomeness
Gonna get me some tea, and enoy this baby.


ETA


Don't you EVER say sorry for your long posts...that was perfection.

ChrisM

love the post Angela, and so true, and them evolving as individuals and a couple is why I love them so. No other characters or couple got that and I so love them for it. I did my posts on the evolution of them and was so happy at seeing how they really did evolve as individuals a did grow and mature, while retaining characteristics that made them them. Like Leighton once said, everything they do is a bit naughty they matured but still were them and as flawed as the story was and as flawed as S6 was I so love showing them as that mutually supportive couple, but together, mind, body, and scheme. Still superior, king and queen, but all in.

tversky

Thanks Bea and Chris.
I blather alot but I feel like some of these points don't get enough attention.

You should post those beautiful gifsets you made Chris about Chuck and Blair's evolution through the series. They were lovely and very insightful!
And provide a link so lurkers can reblog if they have a tumblr.
(Yes I'm pimping Chris's work! )

QueenBee

One of my favorite things about CB will always be their mutual
- Respect
- Admiration
- support

For eachother.
Like I've said before....Blair never showed that to any other man on the show.
Same for Chuck.
And they they never had the need to pretend to be someone else to eachother.
They never needed words to know how the othe felt.
As we saw on the deleted scene from 5.07 Chuck always knew Blair wasn't herself on s5. Something that came back when he told her 'maybe the old Blair'' would know how to help on his plan.
He didn't Blair to humiliate herself on an event and falt out tell him she wasn't herself, so he could realize something was off.

ChrisM

aww thank you, I might post links cause Im too lazy to post the full sets

ireallyamsorry

Angela!

who needs twitlongers when you have Ed's board?

tversky

My fellow Queen of the Twitlonger!

Sometimes I feel a little guilty about my twitlonger abuse. Like "I'm not really using twitter as it was intended" but ya know I ramble. Carter used to mock me for it. People's eyes glaze over reading my posts. So that's one reason I try to pretty them up with gifs now!

meetmeinmontauk

I love your post, Angela!

And for those who were looking for it.. chuck!abuse photosets: x x

And this site let's you upload GIFs up to 11 MB in file size

ireallyamsorry

You can't abuse the twitlonger, Angela, if it WANTS to be abused.

it is, however nice to see the CB pretty, can any of us ever say no to that?

You must post on the other threads so we can insanely dissect everything,

ETA: thanks Kat!!!