Gossip Girl/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Abandon Shipping: while Chair have been steadily losing fans since the start of season 3, Chuck whoring Blair out to his uncle Jack in "Inglourious Bassterds" really put a vast number of people off the once golden couple of the show.
    • They are still the most talked-about part of the show, however, whether it be positive or negative...
    • Many fans still seem to be die hard on board the ship. I think the jury's still out on this one, but the writers sure are taking a gamble.
    • As of the season three finale, Chuck did nothing to try to win Blair back except give her an ultimatum, slept with Jenny, tried to keep it from Blair and thought it was completely appropriate to try to propose to Blair in that very same night. Yup, the Chair ship is sinking and showing no signs of bouncing back.
      • It's pretty much a Broken Base at this point. A large number of fans hate what they have done with the pairing and feel like Chair have lost their appeal. An equally large amount of fans are as passionate as ever, refusing to give up on the couple no matter what the writers come up with. It seems to be a fairly even 50/50 split, although the people who have jumped ship tend to be a tad more vocal.
    • It now seems to have been revived by Chuck's S5 apology to Blair and his redemption arc.
  • Actor Shipping: Ed Westwick and Leighton Meester have quite the following of little shippers, most of them on LiveJournal. Jessica Szohr gets the Die for Our Ship treatment. Of course, it doesn't help matters that there is a video up on YouTube where Westwick curses like a sailor over Meester leaving a party with her boyfriend.
      • Questionable. More and more fans are jumping ship to the sweeter Dan/Blair pairing while the Ardent Chuck/Blair fans seem to becoming louder with twitter campaigns and such.
    • Also doesn't hurt that Meester is infamous for ad-libbing lines in their scenes together. Including "If I were you, I would have rode me harder."
    • And Westwick's recent comment in an interview: he hopes Chuck and Blair will get back together because "I like kissing Leighton".
    • On the flip side, actual couple Penn Badgely and Blake Lively get practically none of this.
  • Adaptation Displacement: If you hear somebody talking about Gossip Girl, there's a pretty good chance they're talking about the show, not the books.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Blair and Serena whenever they are in an argument. Half of the fans will consider Blair an immature, self-absorbed bitch and Serena wronged and misunderstood, while the other half feel Serena is the bitch and Blair is misunderstood.
    • Some fans look on it as Blair at least being honest about what she is - she doesn't pretend to be a great friend. When she's on Serena's side she'll do whatever she has to to help her, and when they're fighting she'll do whatever she has to to crush her. Whereas Serena has no problem pretending to be Blair's friend and stabbing her in the back, as the end episodes of Season 4 shows.
    • Chuck. Heroic great guy who's just been acting out to get attention from his not-too-loving father, or villainous sociopathic pseudo-rapist, depending on who you ask.
    • Louis talking to Blair during their wedding dance. Showing his true colours? Or has he been broken by the Upper East Side and has become like them? Or someone who still loves Blair enough to say the only thing he could think of to make her run away to cancel the wedding?
      • Since he forced her to remain married to him by threatening to bankrupt her family, we can in fact conclude that he is simply a Jerkass of epic proportions.
  • Anvilicious: Chuck and Blair belong together. Anyone foolish enough to doubt this will be hit over the head with it on a regular basis.
    • As much as Alternate Show Interpretation.. but as Gossip Girl says herself, "The more things change the more they stay the same." The characters aren't going to develop. They aren't going to change. Chuck is always going to be a mysognist Jerkass. Blair is always going to want to be a 'powerful woman' but will never stop throwing herself at Chuck despite the way he degrades, abuses and uses her for his own purposes. Serena is always going to sabotage herself and her relationships, and Dan will always be the outsider. And Nate will always have pointless storylines.
  • Ass Pull: Nate's reappearing love for Serena in season three and, a few episodes later, Serena's very sudden love for Nate.
    • The reactivation of feelings between Serena and Dan in the last episodes of season 3.
  • Badass Decay: Blair, in season 5
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Arguably Chuck's attempted rape of Serena in the pilot. By episode two, both seem to have forgotten all about it.
  • Broken Base: About half of the audience now wants Blair to end up with Chuck, half with Dan (this was stated by Producer Josh Safran "here").
  • Cargo Ship: Chuck and his scarf.
  • Complete Monster: Juliet, being bound and determined to destroy Serena's life with no apparent motive or Freudian Excuse. After failing to blackmail Serena for her affair with her professor, she eventually teams up with Vanessa and Jenny and in one evening gets her kicked out of Columbia, disowned by her mother, and hated by all her friends.
  • Creator's Pet: Vanessa, according to some. The vast majority of the fans loathe her and any episode she doesn't appear in is immediately hailed as being so much better for her not being in it. Yet she keeps getting storylines, is the only girl who has been romantically linked to all male leads and is constantly talked about as being a great person with high morals even though she behaves just as badly as Blair, Jenny and Serena. On the other hand, she is the only main character who is missing from several episodes each season and while she gets storylines most of them directly involve one or more other main characters rather than Vanessa and guest stars.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: See the separate page.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: See the separate page.
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Loads. See the separate page.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Sum 41's "With Me" in the infamous limo scene.
    • The Kills' "URA Fever" playing as Serena infamously declares, "I killed someone." Too bad it ended up being the lamest 'death' possible by accidental overdose
    • Bloc Party's "Signs" at the end of "Oh Brother Where Bart Thou"
    • Turin Break's "Dark on Fire" at the end of "Pret-A-Poor-J"
    • The Virgins' "One Week of Danger" playing the morning after the limo scene
    • Death Cab for Cutie's "The Ice Is Getting Thinner" in the season one finale
      • Given that it's a Josh Schwartz show, DCFC is pretty standard fare.
    • "Shove it" by Santigold during the climax of 'The Ex Files'
  • Designated Protagonist Syndrome: A lot of people feel this way about Serena, especially in season 3, and wish the show would focus more on Blair and Chuck (and Eric, who is sadly not a regular).
  • Die for Our Ship: A rare instance of the show itself playing into this trope - Bart Bass seemed to be killed off at least in part to allow Lily and Rufus to become an Official Couple, given how quickly the latter happened after the former.
    • Elle, Chuck's two-episode season two crush, earns this treatment from the Chair fans. Those who even admit to her existence in the first place, that is.
    • Eva... Hooo boy...
    • Dan and Blair... ehem Though not even official, the minions established shippers are already on the attack.
    • Jenny gets this from both Serenate fans and Chair fans.
  • Double Standard: Rufus is perfectly fine with his son having sex with his girlfriend Serena and will give him sage advice about it, so long as no pregnancy results. More than two years later, when his daughter is the same age or possibly older, it is unthinkable and way too early for her to have sex, even with a boyfriend who is in fact no more unsuitable than Serena once was (and in fact seemed to have gotten most of his ideas from Serena in the first place). And if she seduces a drunk, slightly-older teenager, that teen is clearly a bastard who should burn in hell for taking advantage.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Chuck
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Dorota, Eric, Georgina and Carter all qualify, as all of them are extremely popular among the fans (even more popular than some main characters), despite being only recurring or guest starts.
    • To the extent that all have come to play a bigger role as the show has progressed.
    • Let's not forget Chuck Bass, who was originally supposed to be a guest character and who assaulted two of the female characters in the pilot. Now he and Blair are king and queen of the show.
    • Cyrus Rose, full stop.
  • Fanon: It's almost universally agreed by fans that Blair slept with Jack Bass at New Years so that he would agree to go and find Chuck. There is nothing in the show that hints to this being true.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: The "Eyes Wide Shut" storyline in season two, which most fans ignore completely.
    • Everything that points to Elizabeth Fisher being Chuck's biological mother.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • Carmen Sandiego - Serena and Eric's father.
      • Now that he's :no longer missing he's been re-nicknamed Dr. Veedubs.
    • Pilot Inspektor - Scott.
    • Granderbilt - William Vanderbilt, Nate's grandfather.
    • Manbangs - Nate.
    • The van der Basses - The van der Woodsens and Basses after Lily and Bart got married.
      • Now referred to by some as the Bass der Humphreys.
    • Evil Uncle Jack - Jack Bass.
    • E. Fish - Elisabeth.
    • The Awesome Foursome - the NJBC.
    • Docteur House - Chuck Bass in season 3 (it's only a matter of time before this nickname becomes official).
    • Waffle Central - Rufus' domain.
    • Archibot - Nate's mother.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: As of the season 3 premiere, a lot of people prefer Carter/Serena over any other Serena pairings, including the original alpha couple.
    • In the early episodes of the first season many fans preferred the combo Chuck/Blair-Nate/Serena-Dan/Vanessa to the then Official Couples Nate/Blair-Dan/Serena, but never thought the writers would abandon Nair or Darena. Fast forward to season 3, and Chair-Serenate-Danessa are the current pairings.
      • Justified, especially with Blair/Chuck, as Nate is generally considered to be Too Dumb to Live and didn't treat Blair very well, whereas in contrast Blair and Chuck had some pretty intense Belligerent Sexual Tension.
      • Although at present (late season three) most people seem to be preferring Vanessa with Rufus.
    • Dan/Blair has gotten a nice following which almost rivals the Chuck/Blair ship.
  • Fetish: Blair dressing up for an Anna Karenina sex roleplay with Chuck.
  • Foe Yay: Some fans speculate that Chuck's previous experiments with other guys included Carter Baizen. It's neither been directly denied or implied on the show, but it certainly is plausible.
    • There is also quite a bit of implied sexual tension between Georgina and Serena in season 1. Georgie even drugs her, and who knows what happened in that hotel room...
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Not exactly hindsight but in season four Blair dates a prince and the designated roadblock between them is that she's a commoner and he is heir to the throne. It's pretty much taken for granted that a royal prince could never marry a commoner. Probably was a safe bet when the episodes were written. But the episode in which it is brought up aired mere days before heir to the British throne Prince William married commoner Kate Middleton amidst a media frenzy spectacle and the union was celebrated by pretty much everyone everywhere, including William's family members.
    • Blair's nickname Queen B after she becomes a princess
    • Also Nate's relationship with Catherine after Chace Crawford began dating Erin Andrews who is 8 years his senior
  • Ho Yay: In the first season, Nate sleeps at Chuck's an awful lot. Blair and Serena have their moments, too.
    • It doesn't help Nate's case that, in the novels, Chuck was bi.
      • That's hinted at during the early episodes - Blair doesn't want to know what Chuck did to get a replacement suit after being stripped naked and locked on a roof.
        • And in a more recent episode, where Blair tricks Chuck into kissing a guy as part of their "game." His response: "You think that's the first time?"
    • Chuck to Dan in "The Serena Also Rises" - "Are you gay?" A lot of fans wish the answer could be yes, for both of them.
    • It's also heavily implied in the novels (with several scenes that sort of just 'fade to black'-- i.e. Blair inviting Serena slyly to join her in the tub when she was living with Vanessa) that Serena and Blair have a physical relationship on top of their friendship. Oh, it's also implied that they're both Gossip Girl.
  • Idiot Plot: The books. There are so many idiot balls, conflict balls, and general Forgot About His Powers that it's hard to suspend one's disbelief. It's as if the Gossipverse is plotting against Blair by doing everything in its power to piss her off by giving everything she's ever wanted to Serena.
    • Half the plot of Season 3 relies on the fact that Lily will lie to everyone, including especially her husband, about anything and everything which might even remotely inconvenience her, or embarrass her in the slightest, even when those lies cause a hundred times the trouble that whatever she's lying about possibly could.
      • Though that is pretty much in character for her.
  • Jerk Sue: As from mid Season 3, Chuck can definitely be described as such. Despite doing unspeakably awful things such as emotionally abusing Blair, selling her out for a hotel to his Uncle, and physically assaulting her in Season 4, all the characters on the show continue to ignore his mistakes and forgive and support him. Not to mention Jenny Humphrey losing her virginity to him in the Season 3 finale even though he had tried to rape her in the Pilot. Blair also seems to be unable to get over him and continues to forgive him for everything, in a way mirroring the way all his fangirls act towards him. The show has also become taken over completely by Chuck's angst, Chuck's business storylines, Chuck's daddy issues... it goes on and on, basically.
    • Arguably, Blair qualifies as well, if to a lesser extent. She still has Alpha Bitch tendencies, but they're typically handwaved as part of her quest to become Queen Bee.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Chuck is definitely the most depraved, cruel, and morally ambiguous character of the bunch. At the same time, if something gut-wrenchingly horrible is happening on Gossip Girl, it's a safe bet that it's happening to Chuck.
    • Same goes for Blair. She's snobby, manipulative, cruel, petty, and treats everyone around her like dirt. But those big eyes let us know the girl does not have an easy life.
  • Jump the Shark: in mid-season 4, when scheming and plotting stopped driving the plot and we got a lameass excuse for a plot with Blair's wedding.
    • The end of the 22th episode of season 5 led to this reaction on a lot of forums: Bart Bass, still alive? Really? Wha-Why-Who-Wher-I don't even--- WHAT?!
    • A Base Breaker: But a couple of episodes later with the Season 5 finale having the entire Dan/Blair relationship in the space of 20 minutes turn into a prop to setup Chuck/Blair yet again. This includes half a dozen examples of Blair showing exactly why she doesn't love Chuck, or why they shouldn't be together.
      • To be fair, there were also half a dozen or more examples in previous episodes of Blair showing exactly why she DID love Chuck and how she was wrong about why they shouldn't be together
  • Large Ham: The dream sequences usually have the actors really hamming it up. Special mention goes to Ed Westwick in Chuck's late season three nightmare.
    • Some also feel that Ed Westwick was incredibly hammy in the episodes dealing with the aftermath of Bart's death. Others think it's his best work yet.
      • One example seems to be Chuck's raspy whisper Batman voice. Some think it is Ed's inability to keep an American accent and some think it adds to Chuck Bass allure.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Serena, in-universe. Blair in fandom
  • Magnificent Bastard: Two Words: Chuck Bass.
    • Georgina Sparks tends to have half the cast wrapped around her little finger at any given point in time, and no matter how many times they get rid of her, one way or another she always comes back. Like any good MB, she plays the game well, she is her own best piece, and you just can't keep her down.
    • As it turns out, Doctor Van Der Woodsen, the Big Bad of Season 3. Just about everything that happened over the course of the season, from Lily's fake cancer diagnosis to Rufus' supposed infidelity, turned out to be part of his convoluted scheme to drive Lily back into his arms. He even gets away in the end.
    • Juliet, who started out as The Dragon of Season 4, but wound up usurping her brother Ben as the Big Bad (before being revealed mid-season as more of an Anti-Villain). Her ability to be a set the regular cast at each others throats, turn defeat into victory, and stay one step ahead of everyone else would impress Machiavelli.
    • And Diana, from Season 5, has everyone wrapped around her little finger, playing with nearly every protagonist with amazing ease, and she doesn't seem to stop anytime soon, especially when you realize that she's in fact Nate's Grandfather's, William, Dragon. What he is up to is yet to be revealed.
  • Mary Sue: In the books, Serena was inhumanly gorgeous and had everything handed to her on a silver platter. She became a supermodel overnight, a muse to several designers, starred in a major motion picture despite having no acting experience, got into every college she applied to despite her mediocre grades and lack of extracurriculars, and practically all male characters who ever appeared were in love with her. She did have some particularly nasty gossip surrounding her, but that was Handwaved with everyone just being jealous of her beauty, awesomeness, and success.
    • This is toned down in the TV series, but she still has a wide enough Mary Sue streak to her for Blair to comment on it.
  • Memetic Mutation: I'm Chuck Bass
    • XOXO
  • Memetic Sex God: Everyone wants Chuck.
  • Mind Game Ship: Chuck and Blair spend a better part of the second season competing over who could invoke this trope the most.
    • This trope is also the reason for Chuck and Blair's season 3 break up.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Many viewers feel that "Inglourious Bassterds" is the moment when Chuck Bass crossed the line from Magnificent Bastard to Complete Monster.
    • if he hadn't already crossed it Chuck's behaviour in "The Princesses and the Frog" caused him to cross it big time and caused massive Abandon Shipping
    • And in "Touch of Eva," Blair finally sunk to his level.
    • Georgina crossed the line from Magnificent Bastard to Complete Monster when she deceived Dan Humphrey into thinking she was pregnant with his son. He was there when Milo was born. He spent the summer supporting Georgina and helping her take care of the baby. Then as soon as she didn't need him anymore, she ditched Dan and took Milo out of his life forever. Unlike all of Georgina's previous antics, which revolved around inflicting (albiet excessive) comeuppance for past indiscretions, this was a clear-cut case of exploiting and hurting an innocent person. Specifically, the one person who had always been the first to trust her and give her a second chance.
  • Narm Charm: The dream sequences. The actors are often free to ham it up and chew as much scenery as they want.
  • No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Played straight and subverted.
    • Played straight when Chuck has the cops raid his own pub opening. Also in the next episode, with this comment:

Chuck: Do you think people go to the Mercer for the maid service? They go to see Russel Crowe throw a hissy.

    • Subverted later in season three when Chuck is accused of sexual harassment and ends up having to sign over his hotel to save it from the bad PR.
    • Played straight by the show itself. When a reviewer called the show: "A parent's worst nightmare" the publicity department put that quote up on huge posters and used it for advertisement.
  • One True Pairing: Still Chuck and Blair for some fans.
    • As per Base Breaker, some have jumped to Dan/Blair, as it's free from the whole stepsiblings issues that the Dan/Serena ship has, and well, Dan hasn't whored out Blair yet.
      • The fandom seems pretty evenly split between Dan/Blair and Chuck/Blair.
  • One True Threesome: The show tried to market the Dan/Vanessa/Olivia threesome as such. The fans still didn't like it.
    • Some fans ship Chairenate. That's Chuck, Blair, Serena and Nate together.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: Most common is Chair (Chuck and Blair).
    • Gossip Girl herself likes to call them Waldass. Never caught on with the fans.
    • Other examples include Darena (Dan/Serena) and Nair or Blate (Nate/Blair).
    • Serenate (Serena/Nate).
    • The Dan/Blair pairing is a rather fun example. Those who ship them tend to call them Dair (as in "we dare to dream") while those who dislike them together tend to call then Blan (as in "they're bland together") or Ban (as in we should Ban them)
    • Not a romantic portmanteau, but the extended Van der Woodsen/Bass/Humphrey family, with Lily's marriages to first Bart and then Rufus, has become the Van der Bassphrey family.
    • Chair has been used as both a positive name or a negative one with gifs of broken chairs or people throwing them.
    • Daircut. Shipping Dan and him getting a haircut.
  • Possession Sue: Happens with Chuck a lot in fanfiction.
  • Relationship Writing Fumble: Nate is often referred to as an older brother figure for Jenny... Until he ends up making out with her. Fast-forward to season 3, and he's back to acting as if he only ever saw her as a little girl. Then why in God's name did you stick your tongue down her throat, dude?
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Happened to Nate in season 3. Fans grew tired of his constant bed-hopping and sheer aimlessness in season 2, so the writers gave him an abundance of family-oriented stories and returned him to his roots by having him be desperately in love with Serena and suddenly interested in his best friend's welfare.
  • Ruined FOREVER: Many fans' reaction to the Indecent Proposal storyline. And Chuck and Jenny having sex.
  • The Scrappy: Vanessa Abrams, especially true among fans of the books when they watch the series. She got better (a little) in season 2, only to get a lot worse in season 3. In fact, the very same author of the books talks about it. But the producers insist on giving her more stories, in spite of general dissaproval. Just visit any Gossip Girl webforums and you'll see rabid comments about Vanessa.
  • Ship Mates: People who ship Chair (Chuck and Blair) tend to be positive of a Serenate (Serena and Nate) pairing since it for one keeps Nate away from Blair and for another means the NJBC is nicely paired off. Dan/Blair fans seem to convenience ship Serena/Nate as well.
  • Ship Tease: Blair and Dan recently. The writers have long said they would like to try a romance between the two because they like their possible "Slap Slap Kiss" vibe. They never did though because of possible backlash from Chair fans. Lately, though, they seem to have said screw it and are teasing them anyway.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Fans of the book tend to think Blair belongs with Nate. Fans of the show tend to passionately believe Blair belongs with Chuck. Cue endless arguments.
    • There also seems to be a great deal of warring between fans who believe Nate belongs with Serena and those who believe he belongs with Jenny, even though there hasn't been much on the show itself to support the latter pairing.
    • Chuck/Blair fans vs the emergent Dan/Blair ship in Season 4. Blair+Dan is either a chance for both characters to be truly happy with someone they understand, or a narrowly-dodged bullet that would have killed it.
  • So Bad It's Good: The poetry Dan writes in the books is just so incredibly awful that it's unbelievably awesome.
  • Stoic Woobie: Chuck.
  • Super Couple: Chuck and Blair.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: Vanessa gets a lot of this, mainly from Blair, who hates her.
    • As of season 4, she's been shipped off to Barcelona.
  • Theme Pairing: Chair and Serenate.
    • Chuck and Blair are Birds of a Feather, two dark, ruthless people who scheme and manipulate their way to the top but who deeply care for the people close to them.
    • Serena and Nate. A carefree, Brainless Beauty duo, both fickle and free-spirited and neither with any real ability to come up with a cunning plan or with any real drive in their lives. Often compared to a pair of golden retrievers (with Chuck and Blair being their masters).
    • Even Dan/Blair who are both Brainy Brunettes who love posh art and cinema.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Serena's Start of Darkness as Gossip Girl last for a single episode before the real Gossip Girl demands her site back.
  • Unfortunate Implications: The show tries very hard to downplay Jack Bass attempting to rape Lily in season 2, but the audience never forgets. So when Chuck sets Blair up to sleep with Jack in exchange for his hotel, he is not only allowing her to prostitute herself, he is also placing her in danger of getting raped according to the majority of viewers.
  • What an Idiot!: Serena spends months doing everything she can to get her father's attention. Most of it consists of getting paparazzi to take pictures of her partying like crazy, appearing topless and sleeping around. Then when her father does appear she doesn't want him to know about her wild past, and pretends like the craziest thing she's ever done is take part in a coco drinking contest. Only to Serena (and possibly Nate) could that make any logical sense.
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