the curious case of CHUCK and BLAIR

More fantastic essays being sent into E! about the little challenge they possed. Here a couple more for us to share. Good stuff, man - keep it coming!

by Isabelle
It’s is not a matter of pleading a case or degrading another. It’s a matter of what is conceived from perfection constructed out of the realism shown within two characters so morbidly different and so keenly similar that one has to stop asking if they’re right for one another and start asking how can they not be? The relationship between Chuck and Blair started at the very conception of this show. If you go back and watch the pilot these two entities, which what is what they are, share a passion unlike any other. She’s a dark queen who attempts to tone down her true nature under the cover of normality. He is a dark prince who blatantly adores all he can destroy. They are such flawed creatures, creatures of the night – possessed in their own secret desire to be loved and loved for what they are. They come together in the most unexpected of ways. A night of passion under the cloak of leather and too much champagne.

It’s rather poetic if one were to leave it as such. But thus our story evolves into a epoch of denial. A boy who always had it all aches for she who he must not have. A girl who has always been second best becomes the center of this enamored boy’s life. As their story continues through darker and darker paths the viewer suddenly realizes that no one will ever embrace the darkness that lives within each of them like the other. Truly, how can one desire anything else but this beautifully threaded love story? There is no case, anything against it would be a criminal offense against modern storytelling. Anything else would be cheap imitation.

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by Talie
First let me say, when I first discovered Gossip Girl, it was right after Carrnal Knowledge aired. I watched all of the episodes out of order (not the first time I’ve done that with a TV show) but the characters that immediately popped out at me the most were Chuck and Blair. When I eventually figured out the B was originally with N and then fell for C, I was in shock. How could the writers have ever put Blair with someone other than Chuck? From just the first few scenes I watched with them together, I was hooked.

Now as for why. I completely agree with those comparing CB to Heathcliff and Cathy and Peck and Hepburn. Blair and Chuck manage to pack meaningful messages into time together that would otherwise be completely irreverent. More than the hot or make out scenes, I find myself enjoying the scenes where their simply plotting together, or betting on something (case in point, my two favorite Chair episodes, There Might Be Blood and It’s a Wonderful Lie). This is an amazing feature of the couple, as their not doing anything meant to be slightly romantic. Chuck and Blair have both brought maturity to the other character. Chuck going against his Chuck Bass ways more than once when it comes to Blair (the end of Pret-a-poor-J and the “take me now” scene in The Grandfather), and Blair’s vulnerable side was revealed, if only for two episodes, when it came to Chuck’s teen-life crisis.

Now, going back to the Heathcliff and Cathy comparison. In Wuthering Heights, Cathy says that marrying Heathcliff would degrade her. I’m sure Blair feels the same way about dating Chuck, since she has said since kindergarten that she would marry Nate Archibald. This idea could also be intertwined into Freud’s idea of the Id, the Ego, and the Super Ego. Blair might have fallen deeply in love with Chuck Bass, but her Super Ego is saying, “Hey! Wait a minute! Would the social crowd approve of this?” She is afraid to go into loving him so for the same reason she might not stick her tongue under a chocolate fountain at a party. I think this is what so attracted me to CB, and what is keeping me glued through all the horrible downs.

Another thing, with a sly yet mesmerizing character such is Chuck Bass and a bitchy yet deep character such as Blair Waldorf, I believe that them being together as a couple would be the opposite of boring. Let me compare it (loosely) to the Disney show Kim Possible. Usually Disney just ends a show after the two main characters get together, because their afraid they won’t be able to continue to make the show interesting. After many petitions, Kim Possible continued into a fourth season with the two protagonists dating. The season was an amazing success, and if those Disney writers could do it I believe the Gossip Girl ones can, especially since Chuck and Blair are so much more complicated then Kim and Ron.

I’m not even going to get into my whole belief of soul mates, since I would have a serious Eclipse Jacob/Bella/Edward flashback. So instead I’m just going to say, opposites attract, but when two people so similar come together, it’s magic. Something that out dear Penn Badgley said to describe Derena would also fit here. Chuck and Blair are two of those people who keep finding time together when they necessarily don’t need to (Blair asking Chuck to help her take down that Troll, their future partnership against Gabriel).

Overall, Chair’s amazing duet of sexual tango is something that could never be mastered by anyone else. They keep viewers’ eyes glued to them from the second they walk on screen (this is not entirely due to the amazing characters, but also because Ed and Leighton seem to be so aware of their chemistry). This is why I believe Blair belongs with Chuck more than anyone else.

Anyone got anything else? ;)

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