#I THINK it could be possible for Betty and Armando to get together in a normal-ish way because | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

youwontlikethisblog · 3 years ago

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I Understand You Part 1

Phew! It has been a while!

How is everyone?

I've had to go back and read a few of my own post as a sort of recap. Family left, which is a bummer, but now I can watch YSBLF lol.

Anyway that's not why you're here so lets get into it :)

I've been thinking a lot on the last few post that I've made. There's overall a huge understanding of where Armando is coming from and what motivates him and pushes him. In these next couple of scenes we really get a feel and understanding, finally a clear portrayal of Armando's journey to figuring out his feelings towards Betty. the absolute mastery in the writing, the directing, and the acting is..a loss of words.

Now while Betty's past relationship is something I bring up a lot to clarify where she's coming from, this night that doesn't really hold much significance, in terms of behavior.

This night in some way was a teaser to the possibilities of their future. It's a night that is suspended in the air, not going north or south but in the middle with no real direction. Betty was finally being an active member of the relationship, Armando is finally learning to accept and encourage his feelings for Betty and especially what she means to him.

You're probably thinking "yes we know this, get on with it already!" I need you to exercise more patience with me :)

Maybe I want to torture you all because I am putting off writing this post for two very specific reasons: One It is a post that will be loooong. Two: it is a post that requires so much detail and so much back forth that I've had to go and read my posts and notes to really show the evidence of this theory of mine so it requires so much time for me to write it but as promised, I said it would be a good post and worth the wait and it has been.

I hope y'all enjoy this post :)

While I haven't been an active member of this fandom that interacts with many people, even off of tumblr, I do follow a few accounts on IG related to YSBLF content. One account I follow shared on their IG stories another account that brought to my attention a theory of Armando and his glasses/vision problems and it got me thinking a lot.

It does play a role in these scenes, which is why I bring it up. Armando in the future tells Betty that in the darkness he feels her better and I never quite understood this. I understood it as a "I don't think about how ugly you are but I can feel how much I love you without prejudice" and I always found it so insulting. Like saying "Hey you're not fat, you're beautiful. Some men like meat." it's really a backhanded compliment, like what?

There's a lot of...small details now that are vital! Just like in the past.

Alright now we'll really jump into it!

We last left off on Armando and Betty finally making up and they both leaned in for a kiss. This kiss was different, unlike before, where their kisses were heavy and intense(and tender), this time this kiss is slow and tender HOWEVER Armando's behavior is different. While before(After they slept together) these kisses left him content and even wanting more, this night, this man plans to get more. He pulls away from her and suggest they go some place else even though their kissing wasn't really all that heavy.

Betty suggest a bar or a restaurant but Armando declines and tells her that they can't go anywhere public because of Marcela. After Betty asks where then Armando turns and looks away from her and suggest in a very comedic tone "Mario's apartment."

Betty reacts as expected: How could he suggest that and that he had promised her that Mario would never find out?

In the past I've pointed out how Armando can't really lie to Betty, whenever he does he can't really hold eye contact with her because of the guilt he feels. Armando seems panicked. While Betty is going off, panicked herself, Armando is trying to find a way to calm her down.

What is his end goal here? His end goal is to hook up with Betty before he leaves to Miami. That's it. His end goal is to spend this night with Betty and he wants to get laid. He knows that he'll have both his emotional and physical needs met and he's eager for it. Again in past posts I've mentioned that while Armando at first only felt an emotional attraction to Betty, at least it was a lot more powerful than his physical attraction to her, after they did fornicate together the night of her Birthday, he's learned that he also has a physical attraction and that he is okay with that attraction now. While before he was in denial of it now he accepts it and encourages himself with it so he tells Betty that Mario doesn't know and that he will never know.

Again, his body language is telling here. He makes eye contact with her as he tells her this, his voice is rushed, which means that he blurted it as it came to his head but he maintains eye contact and quickly tries to explain things.

I know I'm reading too much into this but it's fun and we all enjoy it so lets go! Is Armando lying to Betty here?

Not entirely and you could ask yourself "how is that possible? Mario does know, that's like the whole point!" and you're right but really how much does Mario know?

Lets take a break from this particular scene and talk about Armando and Mario.

Both Mario and Armando are manipulators. They are both womanizers, whore bags, and morally questionable beings. However they both use their abilities differently. While Mario uses his manipulation in extremely subtle ways and for all aspects of his life, Armando is very bold and theatrical with his manipulation. Unlike Mario who gets a rush out of screwing up peoples lives and exercising control over them Armando uses manipulation for two reasons: self preservation and because he enjoys the theatrics of it(ego), not the effects(unless it's for self preservation). He feels an immense guilt for manipulating people but when he screws up it's what works for him. So while one uses it as a coping mechanism and an ego boost, the other uses it just out of cruelty. Both are wrong in this but Armando is the lesser of both evils.

So you have two manipulative people. Two individuals who don't show emotions and who are extremely controlled with their emotions to achieve manipulation. Cool, cold, and composed best friends sitting in a tree, staring at each other, trying to manipulate each other.

It's very obvious that Mario has been manipulating Armando from the get go and why he does it. We see his true feelings when Armando is finally being open about his feelings regarding the plan and what he's doing to Betty and when he talks about Betty showing him with actions her love for him, his reactions allows Mario and us to know how he truly feels about Betty and this intel is what Mario uses to manipulate Armando, however Armando too has manipulated Mario.

I know! We all expect him to always be a poor idiot! But surprisingly he's not always an idiot(emotionally yeah).

Let's consider this: When Mario asked Armando about the list of qualities he named so Betty could believe that he was crazy about her, Armando acted like an emotional idiot and mumbled, without saying a word and Mario bought it. Mario interrupted him and congratulated him and asked him for Betty's reaction. When Mario "joked" that Armando was starting to like the kisses Armando compared it to boxing and said he was numbed to it. When they talked about the first kiss they shared and Mario started to make jokes Armando was visibly furious and worried but he acted very composed and mechanical towards Mario. When Mario said "that kiss affected you more than it affected her." Armando quickly said that it did but because Betty didn't deserve to be used that way because he felt like he was betraying an angel, someone who had always helped him and he felt guilty for it.

I point this out in mostly every post I make: Armando never really goes into detail or is specific of what goes on with Betty and him when they go out on dates. He always holds off on giving too much information unless it's to get Mario off his back and even then he's very controlled with what he does say. He never talks about the emotions, how he feels about what Betty shares with him. He doesn't talk about how he really feels about the kisses(when Mario jokes about her braces, mustache etc... and other instances, he complains that he doesn't like the kisses but the reason being is his own guilt and what those kisses mean to him. (If you haven't yet I suggest you go to the very first post I wrote: Yo Soy Betty, La Fea and go on from there because I have broken down certain sides of Armando's character that I won't talk about here anymore so it will help you understand better as well as writing, the way scenes are presented, certain details and patterns que en fin, bring us to this post, so if you haven't yet, please read those so you can get caught up:)) or anything in regards of that. While yes he does complain about having to kiss her(His obsession with perfection, his guilt, and the fact that they affect him) he doesn't make fun of Betty or insult her like Mario does, which gets him half a point.

And I realize this doesn't quite add up with what I've said about Armando being in denial of his feelings because in order to manipulate Mario, he'd have to be aware of his feelings, right? I'll talk more about it in a bit.

What does this all mean?

Armando uses his manipulation to throw Mario off his scent and keep him confused and on the edge regarding his feelings for Betty so here it is.

Here is the truth: While Armando has lived in denial and confusion regarding his true feelings for Betty, he knows what he feels for her is unlike anything he's felt for somebody else and it becomes a lot more apparent the night of Betty's Birthday. So while on the stages of his denial he threw Mario off his scent because he too wasn't even sure of what he felt, Mario as well lived in speculation. He[Mario] could never truly manipulate Armando regarding this part of him because he never shared that part of himself and because of this, Armando too manipulated Mario. This gives him the space for him to give him the benefit of the doubt meaning that while Mario understands that Armando is emotionally affected by what they're doing to Betty, he trust Armando's words more than he does his actions, even if his actions when narrating the dates with Betty indicate that he cares for her, he chucks it out as guilt. Armando tells him this himself and whenever Mario is doubtful of this he then uses Armando's words against him for manipulation. He doesn't use his actions but his words.

The problem about knowing somebody in and out is that our own perception of that person blinds us when it comes to the true nature of the person, that's why many people end up feeling betrayed. It's what keeps Mario and Armando as friends because though they know the nature of each other, their own understanding and perception of the other blinds them to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Often times this is what Mario uses as an advantage to manipulate Armando. He knows that Armando has an easily bruised ego, that he feels like he has no real control over his life, that he wants to be a good person, somebody that is worthy of good things, that above all he wants to make his parents proud, that he has a strict taste for women, and that Armando is emotionally stunted but he also knows that Armando's true weakness is his ego and before he admits to do wrong or commit a mistake Armando will find a way to "Fix" said problem even if it means he has to manipulate those he cares about, even if the burden is an immense guilt for it. However up that point their theatrics and plans had never really held much importance or significance. Basically it was all child's play.

However now the plan has too many risks and too many consequences.

Armando also knows that Mario is detail oriented, that he is smart in what he does, that he has no moral compass, that his ego is big but not as easily hurt and when it is, he's like Teflon, it won't stick for long. He is very aware of Mario's tactics of seduction with women(it's why he often asks Mario for advice on his affairs and enlist him to have an affair with Patsy Pats.) and that most importantly Mario is really good at lurking in the corners of rooms to read a situation well(an example of this would be the night that Mario pushes Armando to interrogate Betty regarding Nicola's role in Terra Moda, once the interrogation is over and Betty leaves Armando drops the act of mistrusting Betty and quickly asks for Mario's feedback regarding what Betty said.). Therefore Armando begins to have a very mechanical and controlled behavior around Mario regarding the affair with Betty.

Mario's knowledge of Armando blinds him to give him the benefit of the doubt so while he speculates that maybe Armando could care for Betty he takes Armando up for his word that it's only guilt he feels for her, that his ego is bruised because some loser has more control over a woman as "ugly" as Betty, that he won't ever admit Daniel was right about him, he won't risk disappointing his parents at this scale, and that Armando, through guilt could want to treat Betty better but even if he did feel something outside of guilt that Armando is too much of a coward to ever fully admit what he feels and be public about it so he ridicules him, insults Betty, uses his ego against Armando, his fears, and vendetta with Daniel to push him to continue with the plan because at the end of the day if the plan does work Mario loses nothing and he does not end up having to deal with the consequences of destroying a person like Armando would.

This is something that becomes evident to Armando the longer the affair goes on. While before he manipulated Mario so that he wouldn't suffer through the ridicule that Mario would surely put him through the more he felt like he needed to protect himself, his feelings, and what he had with Betty from Mario's preying hands.

The quick eye glances, the controlled composure and masking of his emotions in front of Mario is Armando self-preserving and knowing that if he doesn't [do that]that Mario will use what he feels to fully manipulate him and he knows that Mario will succeed because Mario knows that he will always, above all, feel the need to people please and the guilt he feels when he lets those he cares about down. Armando is fully aware of this and he has for so long allowed people to manipulate him(I've talked about this in previous posts regarding this aspect of his personality).

For the first time ever in his life, Armando does not want Mario to have the full control to manipulate him which lets us know that he has been aware of this behavior of Mario towards him for a long time. It isn't only the ridicule that he'd face from Mario if he ever found out how true his feelings are for Betty and it isn't only because he's afraid of the public humiliation he'd face either(it does mean a lot to him, I'll get to that I promise!) but because he knows just how much control Mario would have over him with this information and because in the past he wasn't able to even accept or want to begin to understand his feelings for Betty, he self-preserved by manipulating Mario.

I hope this is all making sense. I know it's a bit confusing.

Basically it's this: Armando actively withheld a lot of information regarding his dates with Betty so that Mario wouldn't use this to manipulate him and whenever he'd let his guard down and give Mario the benefit of the doubt and try to explain how he felt, Mario always used his words against him later on and though Armando always responded and followed through, it wasn't solely based on what Mario was telling him but that Armando already feared those things.

For example this night when Mario is telling him to go looking for Betty, we know that Armando did want to fix things with her. We know he was worried about it. However towards Mario he pretends that it's no big deal. He says he'll fix it the next day but you can tell he is nervous. His body language is him holding his fingers to his mouth, him walking around behind his desk, not being able to stand still and when the emotion of how hurt Betty felt for what he did with AA that day finally translate to him and he understands it he says that he is now really afraid because of what Mario is telling him.

Mario didn't do jack squat in manipulation this night, except he thinks he did. This night Armando is free of his manipulation. This night Armando is only motivated to go searching for Betty but everything else comes from his own desire to be with Betty.

You're probably wondering: Okay, well what does this have to do with the scene?

When Armando tells Betty that Mario doesn't know and he will never know he makes eye contact and holds said eye contact with her, translating that he isn't lying to her. Mario only knows what Armando wants him to know. Truthfully when it comes to the matters of the heart: Mario doesn't know anything. Had he known he would have used Armando's true feelings against him and Armando knows this and because of that he withholds truths and allows Mario to think he has the upper hand in the situation. Mario though aware of the mechanics and even his confused ego, isn't aware of Armando's true feelings and his true dilemas and fears, giving Armando the upper hand, for once, when it comes to mind games, on Mario.

Finally Armando can claim victory here and ironically Mario becomes aware of this.

Now how would it be possible for Armando to manipulate Mario regarding his true feelings for Betty and just feed him the right amount of information? When he himself has lived in denial of said feelings?

Easy peasy; he self-manipulates.

In the past I've talked about Armando's denial and how he emotionally stunted he is therefore he runs away from any emotion and because of this he doesn't understand his own emotions or other people's emotions which is why when he has some sort of clue to what he could possibly be feeling for Betty he runs away from it because he doesn't understand it, prejudice, and so on. So if Armando is telling himself that what he feels for Betty is only based on guilt and if he has a doubt that it isn't only guilt: he tells Mario all he feels is guilt, therefore he affirms aloud this emotion both to Mario and himself but because of this clue he has, the knowledge of Mario's character, he withholds enough information from Mario to affirm guilt out loud and deny any other feeling to himself.

Let's take a look at what Manipulation is.

Mariam Dictionary: to treat or operate with the hands or by mechanical means especially in a skillful manner manipulate the fragments of a broken bone into correct position. 2a : to manage or utilize skillfully. b : to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one's own advantage.

Wikipedia: Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the behavior or perception of others through indirect, deceptive, or underhanded tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at another's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative and devious.

WebMD: People who manipulate others attack their mental and emotional sides to get what they want. The person manipulating — called the manipulator — seeks to create an imbalance of power, and take advantage of a victim to get power, control, benefits, and/or privileges at the expense of the victim.

A manipulator will actively lie to you, make excuses, blame you, or strategically share facts about them and withhold other truths. In doing this, they feel they are gaining power over you and gaining intellectual superiority.

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/signs-manipulation

We often rave about how good of a manipulator Mario is because he lurks in the corners of dark rooms to inspect situations, find weaknesses and how detail oriented he is but we don't talk about just how manipulative Armando is as well.

While yes, in his relationship with Marcela we see how he uses gaslighting to manipulate her and how he used Betty's idolization of him to gain control in the relationship(yes he did feel guilty for it) we don't talk about how manipulative he is of Mario after he starts the affair with Betty at the start of it and I didn't touch on it much in the past because it wasn't something that was required to breakdown to understand those episodes until this night.

Mario, hours into the future writes a letter in which he tells Armando that he doesn't tell him everything anymore, not like at the start.

When he'd talk about the mechanics of his dates with Betty to Mario he wasn't eager to share and only shared enough information to keep Mario off his back and for Mario to give advice on how to continue ,when Mario would insinuate that Armando cared he always denied it and said he just felt guilty for what he was doing to Betty and explained how special she had been with him and how she didn't deserve it, that of course that would make him feel guilty but specifically the day we see Armando clear as day manipulate Mario is the day after he first slept with Betty. I broke that down in the post The After Math Of Their First Time so I'll recap by saying that Armando actively tried his best to refrain and withhold information, even when he was desperate to understand why he felt the way he did and why he had enjoyed it so much. When Mario mentions that Armando had never said he cherished Betty, Armando retracts and "explains" that he only cherished her as his secretary, just like Mario cherished Sandra and Roberto cherished Susana.

Every time Mario tried to point out how different he seemed Armando always came back full force, excusing and justifying why he felt the way he felt, never truthfully venturing into the reality of his feelings that now he was desperately trying to understand, however, deep down he knew what he felt. In that scene you see just how freaked out Mario is because he doesn't have the upper hand and can't control or manipulate Armando anymore and we see him react out of frustration until he finally finds solid grounds and begins to once again manipulate Armando. However since then Armando hasn't been easily manipulated.

Now the question is: How does one behave when being manipulated?

We know what manipulation is and we know the tactics that are used by manipulators but how does one behave and feel from being manipulated?

I can say this by personal experience: You feel out of control. There's moments of lucidness where you look at yourself inwardly and the situation and you understand what the reality is but your emotions are at full speed that you cannot control the way you behave. It's almost like an outer body experience where you're begging yourself to be rational and to be objective and clear but all you're doing is watching yourself react out of this fear, anger, sadness, and rage that somebody else has sowed in you.

For example: When I was in middle school my toxic BFF would constantly gaslight me. I could have all the witnesses and evidence to prove their betrayal but it was never good enough to prove it. They warped my reality so much that I questioned all my friends and didn't trust anyone. When they'd show their true colors they'd use my feelings against me, they would guilt trip me, a campaign would be launched of all their close friends telling me I should forgive them, that I was harsh on them, that I was the one that made them cry(I called them out and they cried about it), that they were a good person and I was being... unfair so I'd forgive. I didn't have control over the situation. Not even a little bit. Every time I attempted to I was the bad person.

Armando has been the same in the past. Marcela emotionally manipulates him by guilt tripping him, threatening him, and he feels like he has no control over his life. Then professionally his best friend begins to manipulate him. Though in the past Mario always persuade him to go out with him and some models, Mario begins to manipulate him at work with the panama thing, and especially when Eco Moda falls into Betty's hand.

Mario in many ways is like the toxic ex best friend of mine. In good times they give you all the praise you want. They shower you with attention and compliments and when things are not playing to their advantage they guilt trip you. At the start of his affair with Betty Armando was very easily manipulated by Mario because of this. Mario knew that he could use Armando's ego, his vendetta with Daniel, his standing with his parents with the deep desire of his to make them proud, and lastly the huge responsibility Armando felt towards everyone at Eco Moda so he'd praise him when he did good, he was his guru and when Armando didn't want to do it he would guilt trip him heavily and when he saw that didn't work he'd use his ego against him.

Then all of a sudden neither the guilt tripping with his parents, him, the employees of Eco Moda, Marcela, or his ego are working on Armando and all Mario has left is to use Armando's relationship with Betty against him. Had Mario known all along, for a fact, how Armando truthfully felt, Armando knows that Mario would have made his life a living hell. Not only because Mario would make fun of him for liking Betty but because he'd use this relationship as a token to make Armando do whatever Mario wanted. Though Armando stopped caring about his ego in regards of seeing Betty as a human, a person he cared about, he still didn't want to deal with the public ridicule he'd face for caring about Betty and Mario would use that to his advantage had he known this from the get go and Mario does begin to pick up on this because though Armando has withheld a lot of truths and kept his composure with Mario the one thing he failed at was that he showed he no longer was allowing Mario to manipulate him.

This all plays into the letter and understanding what the hell went through Mario's head when he wrote it.

In conclusion to this first part: Mario knows nothing in regards to the validity and the truth behind Armando's motivation and feelings for Betty and their relationship so Armando did not lie to Betty when he told her that Mario knew nothing and up to that point, Armando planned on Mario never knowing.

Obviously things change later on that night.

Again this night, even in Betty's wardrobe and how she behaves in her relationship with Armando leave the doors and windows of their future fully open. This night is a night that is suspended in the air, no real rhyme or reason to where it could lead them in the future until the next day. It seemed like everything was written and destined to only go up and grow but these small details foretell a different future.

This is the first part of the breakdown of that scene and episode and I know it didn't really hold much in regards to the romance of Betty and Armando but it's importance to understand this part of Mario's and Armando's relationship and how much it's changed because that letter is such an important part of the downfall of Armando and his relationship with Betty.

Thank y'all for being patient and waiting! I hope y'all enjoy this and hopefully I haven't read too much into it lol.

'Til next time! :)

#armando mendoza #armando ysblf #don armando #betty ysblf #betty pinzón solano #beatriz pinzón solano #beatriz pinzon solano #betty la fea #betty #mario calderon #mario ysblf #yo soy betty la fea #analysis of ysblf

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postguiltypleasures · 6 years ago

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Romancing the Fiction/Fictionalizing the Romance

[I know it’s incredibly narcissistic, but there are so many things on that used to be online that I can no longer find, so I have decided to re-post entries from my old LiveJournal, portiaslegacy, here. This is the entry I mentioned finding referenced in an online debate.]

Originally published Apr. 21st, 2009 at 1:46 PM

I have been meaning to write the piece on romance in fiction for a while now. I promised it way back, last October. It is occasionally on my mind but getting down to writing is something is something I have to force myself to do. Part of me wants it to be all encompassing, but I think I need a dialogue to be responding to, so please comment.

It is going to start with the slightly embarrassing confession that Ugly Betty changed my life. Before the show came on refreshing my Spanish was something that I meant to do, but never got around to. Then when the show came out I had to familiarize myself with the original from Colombia (Yo soy Betty, la fea. The American version also debuted around the same time as the Spanish one (Yo soy Bea) and the Mexican (La fea más bella). I really liked la española for a while, and hated la mexicana.

Besides expanding my taste in pop music forever (for which I am grateful) it also forced me to think about how romance is portrayed. I generally don’t like, and therefore do not see, “romantic comedies.” So after watching enough and my ability to understand Spanish improved and eventually my euphoria at improving my language skill lessened and a bitter after taste was left. A lot of this has to do with the plot and then the whole why and how it is recycled, what is amended, what is augmented etc.

The basic plot is that Betty is un-presentable and has difficulty finding work. Her lack of grace ironically helps her get work as the secretary, for which she is very over qualified. Her boss is a recently engaged womanizer, whose fiancé wants her best friend as his secretary to curb his ability to fool around. Hiring both women allows him to “appease” his fiancé while buffering former conquests. It also helps when the business gets so fucked up under him that he gets his masters of economics ugly secretary to fix the books. I did not mention before that as Betty is the ugly secretary she is relegated to a former storage closet. It’s small and dark and speaks of neglect and secrets. For what ever reason Betty is madly in love with her boss, Armando in the original. She exclaims “¡tan divino!” (“how divine”) after anything happens between them and flagellates herself over any abuse he may cause her (and there are a few). Armando and his best friends/sounding board/business partner Mario get nervous that Betty will betray them. Mario catches wind that Betty is enamored of Armando and decides Armando should seduce her to ensure her loyalty. It is not hard, and during the mix of humiliation, being adored, and actually consummating the relationship, Armando falls for Betty. She finds out his betrayal, and reveals the corporate illegalities they engaged in to the board. It humiliates Armando in front of his father, and is painful for her too. Naturally, her next step is to run away to a new job in a exotic local, and get that amazing make over. She returns to the company to lead it out of the financial mess. Everyone is amazed by her make over, mostly hostile, board members. Armando is amazed by the transformation, and eventually they reconcile, marriage, baby, less successful sequel. There is an old article at Salon that covers of what is wrong with this. So I will diverge into certain things that bother me that are not so well addressed.

First despite the title, the show is really about Armando. He drives the plot and his commentaries mark changes in the plot, while Betty’s diary underscore things we already know. He also pushes the limits of bad behavior, regularly throwing temper tantrums, berating the secretaries and his fiancé. The fiancé, Marcela, is not the most sympathetic of characters, but she puts up with a lot abuse. Considering this is the longest he has ever been in a relationship it is hard to believe that Armando will ever behave better in a relationship. And the show just does not convince that Armando has changed for the better with Betty’s love. During one scene where Betty is dangling him by his insecurities he stalks her while drunk and picks a fight with her best friend (who he thinks may be her secret paramour) and severely beats him. One of the major points leading to the reconciliation is that he steals her diary! Apparently both of those events should be forgiven and swooned over as they show how seriously he is taking Betty, their relationship, whatever. It is still is an entirely male ego-centric view of what the romance is supposed to be.

A related problem is how Armando’s relationship with Mario defines his with Betty. Not only does Mario forge letters from Armando as part of the “courtship”, Armando tells Mario everything even those post coitus confessions. The show (and some of the fans) makes a big deal over how Armando is not sexually involved with anyone (including Marcela) after sleeping with Betty. But Mario is the only one he treats as an equal. While they fall out in the original’s ending, the sequel involves a reconnection of their friendship. Most of the versions find it important to have these reconcile long before the happy ending. In some, the Mario character would become involved with one of Betty’s friends. It basically says the whole trash talking, womanizing, support group for emotionally abusing others was a pinch in a brotherly relationship, and not the whole damn thing.

Betty does not have anyone she can confide in nearly as much as Armando does with Mario. Nicolas is not only a fake boyfriend he is madly in love with Armando’s other secretary and they engage in their own affair that parodies the main plot. (The storyline generally takes a less forgiving view of this couple than the main one. How much of it is because of the gender reversal?) Betty is kept apart from the other secretaries in the company both by the location of her office and her office secrets. They may be the first group of friends she ever has, she needs to be kept from them to show her superiority from their constant gossip and general femaleness. She cannot be one of them and be special.

While Betty’s looks degrade her as being unwomanly, her discretion and devotion set her apart- for Armando. Also despite her financial intelligence, she is naïve to the point of stupidity in regards to everything else. Despite working in fashion she has no idea how to dress herself or improve herself. And of course the worst bit is that she does not see what kind of heel she is working for. Like she is relieved that he beat her friend up over personal jealousy and not because he was worried they would clean him out financially (which they could do, with impunity). Also, after the second time she sleeps with Armando it is revealed that she has basically lived through this entire seduction plot before. The first time it was with a neighborhood guy who bet that he could get her in bed. It was not hard. She never received much attention and is instantly flattered. But it does make her look like an idiot both for Armando, and because she let the guys who set her up with this creep set her up again to be stood up in the beginning of the series. During those early episodes we also see her flagellate herself over some prior mistake that she has punished her self for ever since. By the time we know what it is, it make it seem like she is incapable of introspection or growth. (At least not without the help of her fairy godmother.)

Basically this is the exception that proves the rule to why there are a lot of hot woman with not so hot men onscreen pairings, and not many of the opposite. Guys can be funny; whatever makes women funny comes with/from humiliation. There are exceptions to this; one of the main reasons I will forever love Gilmore Girls is how the girls could all be really funny without it coming from a point of humiliation all of the time.This led me to think; why in most romances does the guy get to sleep around, be rude and violent while whatever faults the girl has are magnified to the point of making her impossible to be with and every other thing about her must be perfect? Why is whatever shit he pulls okay if he really likes her? Here is a little perverse thing, I am fine with members of a couple sleeping around while not together as long as they treat their other partners with as much care and respect as possible. Never be an ass. It is not about treating the “true love” as special, it is about noticing people. In stories that involve a magical make over that means he (or she) should not be surprised by the change. Impressed is fine, (see “Colonial Day” of Battlestar Galactica for an example), but if he did not believe it, he never saw her. Call it the Sabrina Fairchild rule. Linus Larrabee recognizes Sabrina at once because he always knew her as a person. David Larrabee only sees women he is attracted to is not going to believably fall in love with Sabrina.

While being annoyed by this I remembered that medieval romances were about a man’s quest for closeness to God as represented by a virginal, cloistered woman. I don’t think we ever really got over this no matter how our ideas of God and Love have changed. (Maybe our ideas of God and Love linger in this time period). The way romance is set it is still a holy quest for the male, but it is the reason de entre for the female. Love is supposed to redeem the man, but it just is in her nature, so its not like she gets anything holy out of it. Rejecting love in any form is bad for the woman. It makes her less than human, even if the form “love” takes is demeaning. But I think the biggest problem with this type of romance is that it blinds the couple to each other’s faults while allowing them to just hate everyone who is not them, or on their side. Going back to YSBLF, Armando never really respects Marcela. In their break up scene he says he really loved her but she was too paranoid and demanding, basically a shrew. As much as I hate the love of the bromance, the fact that part of the climax involves Armando picking a (hypocritical) fight with Mario demonstrates the lack of character growth. It is still a battle of proving superiority- through the ability to love. Considering the Christian origin is a particularly perverse form of idol worship.

And the comments section:

ellecain wrote:

Jul. 14th, 2009 09:46 am (local)

Followed the link from the discussion postWow, I did not know about the original telenovela plot. This is really interesting.

Why is whatever shit he pulls okay if he really likes her? Yes, this! Guys get away with the most outrageous behaviour onscreen (especially romantic comedies) and at the end any questionable decisions on his part are excused or forgiven. Even if it's deception or sleeping around or destroying personal property, he just has a magically clean slate at the end! And I think you're spot on in that last paragraph - often women are only in the script to redeem the hero, often the only roles actresses get are where they're cast as love-interests - love is literally their raison d'etre onscreen. And I think it's kind of disturbing that the obligatory love interest is a tool for the hero to gain moral credibility or something. It reminds me of numerous films where the man's decision to leave behind the cut-throat amoral money-making job or sinful lifestyle is somehow re-affirmed by his falling in love with a good virtuous country girl. It's this bizarre idea that a woman's love is enough to make you a good person and erase your sins.

Rejecting love in any form is bad for the woman.One of the reasons I was happy that Betty rejected both Gio and Henry in the S2 finale. :-) I loved that she wanted to concentrate on herself first (um, although that didn't last long)Oh, and the bit about Gilmore Girls just brought the biggest smile to my face. I'm such rabid fangirl! *points to icon*

portiaslegacy wrote:

Jul. 14th, 2009 10:40 pm (local)

Re: Followed the link from the discussion post

First I am so thrilled that you replied! I wrote this to have conversations because really most of the time if I watch something sold as a "love story" makes my skin crawl.

When I was watching YSBLA and YSB and following the fandom at the now defunct telenovelas latinas boards made me a little disturbed. There are so many WTF things that are accepted because of being "romantic". I need some affirmation that I am not alone about it.

A lot of what I wrote is primarily based on fan reaction. The bit about how there is always some element of being aghast is a female character do not reciprocate any love was partly inspired by the reactions to a scene in the \ season 2 finale of Mad Men (the fandom I spend the most time on). I don't know if you watch it so I am going to be vague about I thought it was weird that some people had to believe that Peggy was still on some level open to a relationship with Pete or being mean to him. It was not really either of those, and I felt like the reaction had to come from some kind of conditioning from other stories.

Yeah it was awesome ho Betty decided to leave both Henry and Gio. At least while indulging her crush on Jesse she did not loose her perspective. And I kind of like Matt as a character if not a love interest.

And Gilmore Girls will always hold a special place in my heart. (Except for the last season (hated that they got Lane pregnant after bad sex and acted all isn't-this-cute!--Everyone-loves-babies!!!!) Rory's high school experience is actually the most relatable one I've seen (though idealized). I love the music (like a vindication of my own taste in music), the dialogue, the wit... it is a show I wish would get knocked off a bit more if only to have more strong matriarchal centered families on tv.

ellecain wrote:

Jul. 18th, 2009 01:10 pm (local)

Re: Followed the link from the discussion postHeh, you're not alone. A lot of so-called romantic behavior I see onscreen is just plain creepy. That's why you'll often find me yelling stuff at my TV like "Aaargh, what are you thinking, dump the guy," and people just look at me like I'm crazy. :-) I haven't seen Mad Men at all, I keep hearing rave reviews about it but somehow I never got around to seeing it. I keep hearing it has a lot of sexist themes so I'm afraid to watch...

Yes, exactly! Matt as a character is interesting but as a love interest for Betty he's just boring. Maybe he'll get better next season. I can't wait for him to be all mean and vindictive as her boss (even though I'll miss Daniel - I secretly crush on the character)!

I loved that Gilmore Girls was centered around smart, strong female characters (and yes, I hated the Lane having kids part too!). I love that they can make shows that were marketed at women - like the soap opera part of Ugly Betty, the fast-talking family dynamics of the Gilmores - and turn them into hilariously funny shows with intelligence and warmth. Male- centered shows that have guns or action are unappealing to me and it's so difficult to find a good tv show with strong central female characters... I think that's why Ugly Betty had me hooked from the pilot!

portiaslegacy wrote:

Jul. 19th, 2009 10:59 pm (local)

Re: Followed the link from the discussion post

First I highly recommend Mad Men. It portrays sexism's prevalence, but it is not a sexist show. More than any other tv show I know it clearly sees sexism as damaging to all involved. Also the main female characters are able to be cool in ways that do not involve guns* or being the chick who does kung fu. And while there have been some weapon wilding kung fu chicks I've loved especially on shows focused on them like Buffy, Alias, or Sarah Connor, right now I am a little tired of it.

I agree with everything about Gilmore Girls and Ugly Betty. I started watching both shows at the beginning and am glad I did. I love how they navigate the in between world of pure fantasy and reality based satire.

* There are a couple of gun appearances on Mad Men. They are memorable but no one dies, and it is doubtful that one is loaded at all.

cloakedhestia wrote:

Apr. 11th, 2010 08:31 pm (local)

I followed your link from Fanforum...

Oh snap, I did not know all that about the Spanish telenovelas the pre-dated Ugly Betty! You've hit upon a lot of ideas I share and just so you know, Ugly Betty had a huge impact on my life, but probably for kind of different reasons than yours.

I feel like the Spanish culture, as a whole, clings more to the idea of the man being dominant and the woman being submissive. Not to say other cultures don't do it too (or even carry it to a more extreme level) but upon reading your summary of Colombian version and comparing it to our American version, I praise our lucky stars we got the changes we did. An unattractive doormat is nor my idea of a role model, and a misogynistic womanizer is libel to make me wanna strangle someone with an XY chromosome.

I really like your ties to Medieval romance and the first thing that came to mind (okay, the second; the first thing was that Renaissance restaurant in the episode Secretary's Day!) was Hamlet. I'm a huge fan of Hamlet and my favorite character was Ophelia but good God, that poor girl. She is valued by her brother for her virtue and chastity, she gets treated like crap by Hamlet, and she goes insane because of heartbreak (though, her father dying probably didn't help, even if he didn't seem to pay much attention to his daughter).

So, yeah, good post! (And I don't think I'll ever watch the Colombian version. Or any Spanish version. For all its writing faults I'll stick with Ugly Betty.)

#Livejournal repost #Livejournal archive #livejournal #portiaslegacy #Ugly Betty #Yo Soy Betty La Fea #YSBLF #betty la fea #Todas Las Feas

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spotlightsaga · 7 years ago

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Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews… GLOW (S01E07) Live Studio Audience Airdate: June 23, 2017 Ratings: @netflix original/Privatized Ratings Score: 9.5/10 TVTime/FB/Twitter/Tumblr/Path: @SpotlightSaga

**********SPOILERS BELOW**********

The greatest thing about pro-wrestling is that it’s literally a live show, anything can go wrong (or horribly right). Even shows like NXT, Lucha Underground, ROH, PWG specials, shows that are filmed, then edited, then sent out as a television series or a digital copy (since DVD’s & even BluRays are becoming obsolete) can go way off script. When improvisation is introduced into the wrestling show, that’s when the magic begins. Recently a troll on FB attacked one of our articles on A&E’s ‘60 Days In’. After a well pieced together article that covered what we thought were 'producer pushed situations’ vs what was occurring naturally in the series (it’s kinda hard to fake an entire REAL jail, considering they need the space), he simply skipped over everything I had written from the heart and wrote one little line, “You know this is fake, right?” He clearly didn’t read it. After my retort, he brought up pro-wrestling… Ah, he done did it now! Any tried & true fan of professional wrestling will defend their sport or 'Sports Entertainment’ (whatever you want to call it) to the death. Of course everything is planned in advance; the moves, the winners, the storylines… But it’s the pageantry, the training, the real risk of physical injury, the freedom that some wrestlers have in their promos, and an array of other variables, that make pro-wrestling so damn great and have seen it survive for well over a century.

'Live Studio Audience’ captures all of that AND MORE. As a matter of fact, we want to go ahead and nominate this very episode as one of the best of the year for a 30 Minute Comedy or Drama. We get it all… The thrill and excitement of the very first GLOW Live Show ever, the anxiety & stage fright that comes with it as we see Machu Picchu (Britney Young) run for the hills without even getting inside the 20x20, a overworked and panicked Bash (Chris Lowell) abandoning the possible financial future of the show to console Carmen in her 'emotional distress’, two women taking a chance - Cherry Bang (Sydelle Noel) & Tammé the Welfare Queen (Kia Stevens) instinctively changing the direction & storyline of their match without anyone else aware of their scheme besides the newly 'white sheet wearing’, transformed 'Beatdown Biddies’, Stacey (Kimmy Gatewood) & Dawn (Rebekka Johnson) - who’s main concern is if Bill Cosby will be mad at them… Literally changing the match from the uber-cliché, women of color beating up on the elderly to two bad ass, strong Black Queens taking on two racist KKK members, signifying the ongoing battle of racism in the United States! The latter had to be one of the best, most outrageous scenes of GLOW to date. And like Sam said, 'I guess you’re never too young to know about this country’s racial history’.

Sam (Marc Maron) was apprehensive of Cherry & Tammé’s surprise changes at first… But by the end of the match he had gained confidence in the women after hearing the crowd of 30 or so erupt into roars the likes of a full house in the broken down gym would sound like. He even hilariously referred to them as 'The Black Panthers’ in what was ironically riveting commentary. All of it accompanied by the same solemn keyboard tune for the entire show thanks to Sheila the She-Wolf (Gayle Rankin), as it was the only song she knew. Suddenly a show that was hitting every pitfall and taking every wrong turn was lighting up all the faces of the rather 'eclectic’ crowd that had turned up for GLOW’s free show. Suddenly everyone from Sam to all the women in the locker room knew that this crazy idea, one that felt like it would never work, could and WOULD come together. They could actually succeed at what they had set out to do!

By 'Main Event’ time, the crowd was literally eating out of the amateurish palm of GLOW’s outstretched hand. The electricity and excitement running through the building that connected the women with their audience was not only palpable, it can literally be seen worn on the faces and demeanor of everyone in the building. Even all of us at home could feel the tv radiating with the GLOW! Truly!!! It all came down to Liberty Belle, the 100% 'sweet as American Apple Pie’, confident and poised symbol of the 'American Way’, Miss Debbie Eagan (Betty Gilpin) vs 'Zoya The Destroya’, the 'Dirty Russian’, who wants to drain your swimming pools and fill them with Borscht, 'Accidental Homewrecker’, Ruth Wilder (Alison Brie). And yes, if any of you are wondering, I totally said that last line out loud as I wrote it in my best Russian 'Zoya The Destroya’ voice. I can’t help but ponder if Alison Brie was inspired by not only the real GLOW Girl she is portraying, Colonel Ninotchka (Lori Palmer), but also WWE’s own modern version, Lana (CJ Perry)… And that just maybe, Lana is inspired by Palmer herself! It fits, that’s for sure… Even on the heels of Rusev, The Bulgarian Brute.

The match is going well, unexpectedly well. Unbeknownst to the other women, Carmen had taken Ruth & Debbie to visit her brothers… Big Kurt (Carlos Colon Jr aka WWE’s Carlito) & Mighty Tom Jackson (George Murdoch aka WWE’s Brodus Clay, TNA’s Tyrus, and even a part-time, humorous, FOX News anchor). The two headlining women had gone to the brothers for help. They wanted to dazzle the crowd and give them more than just basic moves and the great wrestling tradition of Heel vs Babyface, Good vs Evil… They wanted a match that would elevate both GLOW as a show and themselves as performers. After some hilarious misfires, they were ready… And they ran that ring just like they had intended to, just like they had practiced so hard for. Unfortunately, just as 'the unexpected’ can elevate a wrestling program, it can also add unwanted chaos and ruin. Suddenly, Debbie’s soon to be ex-husband and Ruth’s casual, shameful partner in a secret affair, Mark (Rich Sommer) peaked his head out of the crowd and into Debbie’s field of vision. Debbie freezes and runs off into the back to allow Mark to browbeat her while she misses one of the biggest and best opportunities of her career. Obviously, there’s going to be more for Debbie, but this is going to hurt. Dump the douche already, Debbie!

In an attempt to save the main event, or at least stall until Debbie possibly made her triumphant return (which she never did), Ruth continued on in character yelling out hilarious, typical Russian stereotypes at the audience, who actually ate it up for awhile. As it was bound to happen, the audience started to turn on Ruth. They rightfully wanted a big finish to the show that had unexpectedly turned them from bored passerby’s that were sucked into the building in promise of a free show, to GLOW’s first diverse group of fans. Rhonda (Kate Nash) saw her moment to shine. She had been practicing a 'GLOW Rap’ with Sam’s stolen camera that a jealous, vindictive (yet somehow still relatable and sympathetic), Justine (Britt Baron) had stuffed in her locker in an attempt to set her up and get her fired, all for sleeping with the boss. Rhonda climbed in the ring and started to do GLOW’s now infamous pre-show rap that they were notorious for on their real life tv show. First Ruth followed suit, then the rest of the women stormed the ring and joined in… And GLOW was officially born!

I know I’ve taken a lot of your time and should probably end there, but it’s important for me to give credit where credit is due. Not only did Director Jesse Peretz (thank you so much for HBO’s 'Divorce’, Jesse, and btw 'Our Idiot Brother’ is criminally underrated), but 'new-to-the-game’ writer Rachel Shukert was flawless in her writing, dialogue, and scene transitions… You too, Emma Rathbone! Also, this episode was dedicated to the memory of Chavo Guerrero Sr, the father of Armando Guerrero, the man who trained the wrestlers of the original GLOW as well as the world famous Chavo Guerrero Jr, who trained all the actresses of the series… Except for Kia Stevens, y'all. You think WWE’s Kharma or Independent Scene & TNA Knockout Wrestler 'Awesome Kong’ needed training by the great Chavo Guerrero Jr?! Psssh, that woman is talent personified! Thank you, Liz Flahive & Carly Mensch, on behalf of Spotlight Saga and the French-born, now worldwide, burgeoning community of TVTime.com, we LOVE GLOW!

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el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle · 8 months ago

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Hiiiii again, how are you ???

I completely agree with your response regarding the comment I made about Daniel and Patricia!!!

I also really liked the theory about her, I really believe that she grew up surrounded by luxuries, that somehow her mother "taught" her the things she knows today (like her obsession with money and finding a rich husband to pay her bills and things like that), and at some point she passed away and Patricia was left with this "souvenir" of her. I really would have liked to have met Patricia's father, to see their dynamic together.

And about Daniel: Oh, I just know that that man has serious problems. In addition to being a criminal for the things he did to Patricia, he is also a terrible person.

When I went to rewatch the ysblf again, I noticed that in the scene where Daniel calls Patricia (in that chapter where Mario cheats on her with Aura Maria and her finds out), he (Daniel) speaks to her (Patricia) as if he was sure that she had enjoyed their first “meeting” (in her apartment), and that she wanted it again. The same thing when she goes to his apartment (I think 1 episode after this one), and as we know there's that blackmail scene and at one point in their conversation he says something like: "there's no need to deny it, Patricia, I know you liked it .", and when she is reluctant, he manipulates her and says things like: "so if you liked it, let's continue enjoying it". I could be wrong, but in those scenes it made me seem like he's sure the things he does to her are wrong, but somehow tries to believe that she likes it, so "it's okay", which makes me believe that Daniel has done this before and not just with her.

Even though I don't sympathize with Patricia, it's impossible not to feel sorry for her in the scenes with him. Deep down I think she just felt very alone, that girl needed a hug!!!

By the way, I was looking for news about this continuation of ysblf that will be released this year, did you see that a photo of the script was leaked and it looks like Patricia will be pregnant? And from what I understand, it is from Nicolas. I don't know if it's fake, or just a character's dream, but I wouldn't want Patricia to come back and get pregnant, I think it wouldn't make sense and also, it would end the character's arc, but that's just my opinion .

Helloooo! I'm good, thank you🥰🥰

Thanks, I'm glad you liked my answer!! The characters' backgrounds would have been a great addition to the show definitely!!

For what we know through Marcela about Daniel's past, he was a womanizer much like Mario and Armando. Marcela says that Daniel simply now is too busy for that so he became very picky about it. There's the strong possibility that Daniel actually believes that Patricia enjoyed it and she simply has too much ego to admit it. After all, he knows Patricia was initially attracted to him, he thinks he's good in bed, and knows Patricia is practically walking ego. I think he believes what he says about her liking it. So it's hard for me to say whether he has done it before or not.

Yes, that's the thing with Patricia!! I find her incredibly annoying and by the time Betty returns from Cartagena I can barely stand her scenes. She's annoying and pretty empty by that point. But I definitely felt pitty for her at those specific moments. I think it's part os this novela's charm, that it can get you to feel sorry for characters at specific times before it reminds you they still suck as people lmao. Like Sofia, I dislike how she's always talking shit about Marcela even though she helped her a lot, and then I feel bad for her in specific scenes, like the Jail scene. Or Hugo, that I generally dislike how he's extremely arrogant and borderline misogynistic at times, but then I feel for him when Armando threatens him and insults him over his sexuality in front of everyone back in the firdt collection.

Honestly, Patricia is jut the kind of person that it's just nearly impossible to help. More than loneliness, she's probably mentally unwell. It's not normal to just prefer starvation over letting go of her gym subscription or her cellphone lmao.

Perhaps she needed to hit rock bottom, and I mean REAL rock bottom. Homelessness, disease. The thing is that if Patricia's story had been taken seriously, it could have been amazing and very heart wreaking. I mean, we are literally told that she doesn't eat for DAYS straight. Rhat definitely has to leas to some consequences.

Oh I haven't seen that! Definitely agree, I wouldn't like to see that, either. Nicolas and her ending up together sort of makes sense considering thay there were certain points in which it seemed to lead to that before being abruptly cut off, but I don't like that pair. Well, they definitely fit in together by bith being arrogant and superficial and always bragging about what neigher of them actually had lmao. But for them to end up together as A REAL COUPLE in love, there needed to be much more work. But well, it's been over two decades, perhaps those two finally reached maturity lmao

Thank you for the ask!!🥰

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el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle · 2 years ago

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I was watching the episode in which Armando forces Betty to kiss him. I was wondering what would have happened if Catalina wasn't there? In this AU neither Margarita, Patricia and Marcela'd have been there.

Ufff lord!! That episode FREAKED ME OUT like you have no idea the first time I watched it!!

If none of the people that interrupted that day came, I can see it going two ways, and neither would be happy!

Given the situation that is likely to happen, I'll put a trigger warning: the following possibilities lead with dubious consent, SA, and regret after sex. These topics will be explored relatively explicitly and so I'd recommend caution and to stop reading here if these topics bother you.

With that out of the way, let's start with Possibility One: Betty's will breaks

As we know from Betty’s diary, Betty never stopped "being weak" to Armando’s charms

She still felt the same as always, deep under layers of anger, pain, and feelings o betrayal

So, I think that if Armando had been persistent thay time without interruption, it could have gone similar to how it went in the Meson: Betty fights back until her will breaks, and she cedes.

She corresponds the kisses, momentarily forgetting everything she knows of the betrayal and getting lost in the heat of the moment

Since it's been so long since the last time they were together, the kisses would quickly scalate in intensity, even more than those from the night of Armando’s last collection launch

Now, don't get me wrong, this IS very very heated, but it's also full of love. It isn't aggressive anymore, because they both want and need it very badly

Hands and kisses would go all over the place, and it would likely lead to that much-wanted sex scene in Betty’s office

Again, even though it comes from very carnal need, it also comes from a soul-deep yearning for the other. It's desperate, but not the type of desperation that Armando and Marcela had

It's a tender desperation, full of kisses and silent "I love you"s

It's quick, tho. It's way, way too quick.

And as soon as the after-glow is gone, Betty’s realization of what happens kicks back in

And she cries

She cries because of how weak she is. She cries because of how much she needed that. How much she missed his kisses and his skin. How much she loves him... and how little she thinks he cares about her

She cries thinking that he's repulsed. That in his head he's picturing someone else. That to him she's nothing.

She cries in shame and repulsion for letting him use her, and for wanting him to use her. For having had enjoyed it.

Betty immediately wants to shake him off. To get him off her.

She pushes tries to push his weight off her, hating how much she had missed to feel it.

Armando, absolutely unaware of Betty’s internal struggle and regret, is taken aback when she’s suddenly once again trying to fight him to push him away.

His breath hasn’t even calmed down from what just happened

But when he gets his face off her shoulder to ask her what was happening, his heart seems to skip a beat when he looks at her face, red, and full of tears

Armando immediately panics and gets up, quickly follewed by Betty trying to fix her clothes, which weren’t even fully taken off before

Armando asks and begs her to tell him what happened, why is she crying, if he hurt her in any way, to please just talk to him!

But Betty is utterly silent but for her sobs, and when he tries to take her in his arms she flinches away

It breaks Armando’s heart

His face goes blank in absolute horror when he thinks for a second that perhaps she never wanted what they did. That he took advantage of her

But she kissed him, brought him closer to her, whispered of her love for him on his ear

Armando just begs and begs to know what happened, for her to look at him, and then grabs her by the arms and turns her towards him

That’s when Betty explodes

She just yells forf him to not touch her. That he’s disgusting. That he’s a pig.

They fight, but Betty never tells the truth. She can’t handle the humiliation of letting him know that she let herself be used even knowing the truth.

And so, she leaves.

The rest of the story you can imagine: Betty found a way to hide until she was eventually legally forced to come back, Armando is hesrtbroken and scared of having hurt her, and honestly, very unlikely that this will end well.

Possibility 2, which I think is more unlikely but I also wanted to discuss it: Armando stops

Starting just like with the last Possibilty, this scene starts with no one interruptong Armando’s harrassment.

Here, however,, Betty doesn't cede

In it's stead, Armando keeps harrassing her.

It becomes... too much. I won't go into details, but it borders on SA if not straight up being SA. It's just... hands going where they don't have permission to be

But then Betty cries, or hits him, even if just slightly, and Armando stops

They would definitely not get back together

There's just some things that simply cannot be fixed, and them being interrupted was truly a blessing for their relationship. I really hate both of these scenarios, and I think none of us Armando lovers would ever want to think of him falling that unforgivably and horribly low... but really, I think they could both be likely given that we know from the Meson scene that Betty still sometimes cedes to her love for Armando, and from the scene where Armando beats Nicolás that he can lose himself on negative and strong emotions when in his lowest points...

Even Calderón says "you have to control yourself or there will be a catastrophe here" and given what had just happened, that warning has pretty dark implications...

Sorry for how long this took, it's been a couple of difficult weeks!

#ysblf #betty la fea #yo soy betty la fea #armando mendoza #beatriz pinzón solano #beatriz pinzon solano #betty ysblf #armando ysblf

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youwontlikethisblog · 3 years ago

Text

How Was I Supposed To Know!

When Betty got her new look Armando had to place her feelings before his own. He had to make himself not only think about his own interest but also Betty's and learn to talk to her as a person instead of just his assistant that he confides in.

As both Betty and Armando said they had a cerebral relationship so their topics of conversation didn't go into the personal, at least Betty's didn't. Armando has always been open about his commitments to the family, Marcela, and Eco Moda and the struggles that come with that to Betty. He has tried to resonate and explain his side of things and as he says, he likes explaining himself to Betty.

So far their relationship has always been one sided. Betty is the one that is constantly giving in terms of emotional support and time while Armando doesn't really sacrifice much, in fact he doesn't sacrifice at all(And saying that he sacrifices himself by kissing Betty etc. isn't a sacrifice he's doing selflessly, but selfishly so it doesn't count as one). He was trying to to be careful of his temper way before he was aware that he could have feelings for her. He didn't always stick by that but there was an attempt at it but that's not enough.

The day Betty went to get her Make-Over Armando was already busy thinking of her. When Freddy asked him to not fire Aura Maria for being tardy again Armando said "Look Betty" looked confused, shook his head and then proceeded to talk about the subject at hand.

When Betty arrived to Eco Moda and he saw her he didn't react on the spot, in fact when he got mad that she had interrupted(honestly it's funny because when they end up sleeping together she ends up interrupting his entire seggs life.) his make out session with Marcela when he saw her reaction all of a sudden the anger vanished and a guilty and concerned expression sat on his face. When Marcela started to make fun of her Armando got angry at her and didn't even continue the flirtatious conversation he had been having with Marcela or make a move to return to kissing her. He gave her his back while in the past he went after her when she'd stop the make out when Betty would interrupt them. This time it's he who doesn't want her.

This starts as a snowball effect. The night before he witnesses people making fun of her and disrespecting her which caused him to get so upset and furious that someone would do that to Betty, again he starts slowly thinking about Betty's feelings before his own.

The next day that carry's on when Patsy Pats, Marcela, and Hugo make more fun of her and it contrast with a previous scene(You Betrayed Me! post and Betty's New Look post). He once more gets angry at them, shows his disapproval and visibly shows that he is on Betty's side on something so personal, even when he doesn't like it because he's thinking about how Betty must feel and he gets upset that people dismiss her or as he says; disrespect her.

What does all of this even have to do with this episode(The morning of Betty's B-Day)?

Armando shows up telling Mario that the previous night Betty was very passionate and that he had to stop her three times, that she said he loved him, that this and that. Y'know classic complaining.

Mario celebrated that Betty said she loved him, that it's what they had been working towards(I've always found it so gross how Mario does feel like he shares in that relationship and in turns Betty(this is a foreshadowing of the future). However, Armando has allowed this and he has welcomed Mario into that relationship and made him a third participant, even if it's by living through it vicariously). I will emphasize that Armando doesn't really go into detail in the scenes we get, he mostly only goes into it when he is being clueless about what to do next or when he's frustrated. Most of the times he withholds giving Mario too much detail, but he still does. It's like one moment he's doing good and I'm cheering him on and then the next he trips and falls backwards like ten steps back and I'm yelling at my screen!

Anyway lets get back to this.

Mario once again makes fun of him and tries to make him uncomfortable with telling him that he needs to put out or tell Betty that he'll do it through telepathy or artificial insemination. Armando tries to explain that he won't ever do that with Betty.

I know I keep explaining this little by little and because of it I keep bringing up stuff that I've already addressed in previous post but this is a slow burn so it's worth it.

Armando has always only ever felt physical attraction with women. What is physical attraction? Physical attraction satisfies the human body's desires and wants. As Armando said in the past; with the models he had been hooking up with he did want to sleep with them but as soon as it was over with he didn't feel anything. This correlates with his borderline s. addiction. We understand how and why he sleeps around with models. He is superficial(obsessed with perfection, especially when it comes to women's body), he has no "real" control over his life or future so he does it to feel like he does have control in choosing who he sleeps with and for escapism of his reality. We understand that so lets move on to the next topic of this subject.

He feels physically satisfied with the models and Marcela but emotionally he no longer does. So when it comes to Betty he deflects all attraction to her because he physically isn't attracted to her(I stress this out in mostly every post lol). However, Armando has a very strong emotional attraction to Betty, one that moves him and motivates him behind the curtains.

What is emotional attraction? Emotional attraction is to satisfy the human's emotional and spiritual body. In other words; one feels a satisfaction when all their emotional, spiritual, cerebral, and none physical needs are met and because of this their attraction continues to grow with that person.

While Physical Attraction is fleeting and not reliable; Emotional Attraction is stable and reliable.

Due to the fact that he has been a man who has only experienced physical attraction to women he ignores his emotional attraction to Betty and because of this spends most of his time confused about his feelings.

I don't want to always be repeating myself so I recommend you guys read(in case y'all haven't yet) my posts Betty, My Betty parts 1-3, Tonight A Dream of Mine Has Come True, You Betrayed Me!, Betty's New Look(I will edit this list in case I missed a post, I've been writing a lot of them lol).

In my post: Betty's New Look, I explained a lot more about Armando's seggsual behavior.

To a certain degree Armando does view Betty as a woman but not to the point where he is eager to jump her bones and it isn't until after they do(😏) that he does become eager for her and because it's all been based on an emotional attraction what he feels for her is something that makes him feel completely satisfied, both physically and emotionally.

Take notice of the previous episodes, when Armando and Betty were having emotionally charged conversations Armando was a bit more welcoming to kissing Betty. Before he fought Roman and Co. they were about to start a make out session(Roman make a joke that they were going to have a free 3x showing and the next day Mario said that if they were making those comments that it meant he and Betty must've been really busy) However days later when they're at the club Armando isn't all that eager to kiss her. He does kiss her but they're half honest kisses. It isn't until later that he's dropping her off, after they've somewhat had a conversation that involves their feelings that Armando welcomes and even initiates the kiss with Betty but when she starts getting eager he pulls away(I Don't Believe He Desires Me Part 2 post) and tells her that they can't get carried away and they have to be careful.

Since Betty tried a new look that same day Armando had to finally accept that he was her boyfriend and in a relationship with her but he also had to learn to take into account Betty's feelings and notice them as well. In that same episode he also had to begin to accept the idea of entertaining the idea of physical interactions with Betty.

This carry's on to the next few episodes. Armando is now somewhat aware of Betty's emotional needs and her desires and he is now personally affected when they are not met, especially when Betty is treated poorly, he takes it very personal.

In a sense one could say that Armando is coming around to the idea that he could possibly be feeling an emotional attraction to Betty.

As Mario and him continue to discuss how to go about cooling off Betty or whatever they hear a commotion outside of his office. The employee's are singing Las Mañanitas to Betty. They exit the office and Armando stops on his tracks as he realizes that they're singing that song to Betty. He visibly starts to breath rapidly and touches his forehead.

Now ironically both Armando and Mario share the exact same expression when they notice that Betty is the one being celebrated(although Mario had that same expression since he left the office lol).

Mario tells him "Ah, Betty's Birthday." Armando looks at him with his mouth opened.

"But I didn't know, she didn't tell me anything." (*1)He seems a bit angry and is still breathing rapidly.

"Well go on, congratulate your girlfriend."

Armando gives him a quick glance but his expression remains the same. He then stares at Betty who is across from the room. He swallows hard and clears his throat.

He no longer wears an expression on his face, even his voice is very professional.

"Betty we didn't know it was your birthday."

Bertha gasps and says "Sir you were the only that wasn't aware because everyone here knew or no?" Everyone agrees with her. Even Mario who is next to Armando says that they all knew. He's lying though because he too had the same surprised expression and now he's doing it to mortify Armando. Armando turns to look at him with wide eyes and his mouth open, he's surprised.

Could you imagine how he feels? His best friend who is a complete and total sleazbag "remembers" that it's Betty's birthday and that he knew all along but he, who is supposed to be the morally gray and better version of Mario, wasn't aware of his assistant's birthday, who so happens to be his girlfriend? He had two very important reasons to remember it. He must feel like crap.

"Listen Betty, allow me to cordiality extend a happy birthday greeting to you." He takes a few steps towards her and it looks like he wants to say and do more until he stops himself and notices everyone around. Betty too took a step or two forward but stopped as well. He slightly bows down and says "Happy Birthday." Betty smiles and nods once. Everyone starts chanting for him to give her a kiss. Armando turns to look at Mario and swallows hard and they awkwardly start to dance.

Betty leans her head up and moves from left to right while he licks his lips and he doesn't know where to kiss her but goes for the top of her head, well her bangs(it honestly looks like he was going to go for the lips for like a brief second lol).

Everyone starts to clap and Freddy, being the life of any party starts to go on a speech.

"Long live the party and the atmosphere of Eco Moda! Sir. Mario Calderón are you going to manifest yourself with another small kiss?"

Mario's expression is with wide eyes and a mouth hung open; shock. Armando looks at him with the same expression he always has in front of the employee's. Poker face however when Mario agrees Armando arches his brow at him. As Mario steps away to go give her a kiss and congratulates her, Armando is looking down and shifts.

After watching this exact same scene many times I find it interesting to say the least. Maybe I am reading too much into it but for the sake of this we'll say I'm not. Remember how Mario reacted when Armando said that Betty told him she loved him? He said that it was what they had been working for. To some degree, because Armando did somewhat share about his nights with Betty, Mario and Armando have been sharing Betty. Mario is incharge of the mechanical/details department and spelling things out for Armando so he can be successful in the relationship while Armando has been incharge of the mental, emotional, and physical department of the relationship. They are both Betty's boyfriend, except she is only aware of one. Mario is very aware of Betty's emotional and even physical needs because of Armando and he is incharge of hyping him up to commit to the plan, though on his part he does it for the sake of his money and his reputation, Armando does it for his ego, his confused feelings and lastly the company his parents funded and started(which involves Marcela and Daniel too and that's a whole other thing).

It also shows us that if Mario had taken Armando up on the plan that he should be the one to make Betty fall in love that he would have done so and even succeeded as he doesn't hesitate, walks towards her with his arms extended, touches her shoulders and gives her a kiss on the cheek all while smiling.

At first I thought, maybe he's amused that Mario now will have to do what he has had to do, or at least get a some taste of his medicine but as one does in body language, lets look at the context.

Before Mario agrees to give Betty a kiss when Freddy asks if he'll give one to her as well, Armando slowly turns to look at Mario with no expression on his face, except his eyes focused on him, when Mario agrees he arches his brow for just a second, as Mario walks with his arms extended towards Betty, he looks down, takes in a breath and closes his eyes.

I'd say there's a mixture of feelings going on here. For one, (*1)he's angry at himself for not remembering or knowing it was such an important day for Betty and two he doesn't like that Mario will kiss Betty, he feels frustrated over it all.

By the next camera frame of Armando we see him giving Hugo his angry face which is squinting eyes and lips on a line. His arms are folded in front of him.

Hugo as always insults Betty but the cuartel starts to chant for him to give her a kiss as well, who says that he won't because he has a cold sore, as he passes by we see Armando keeping his eyes on him, while still slightly squinting them, and his lips in a line but as Hugo gets closer to him his lips get tighter, he closes his eyes for a second or two and when he opens them briefly rolls his eyes and looks at the opposite direction for a second. We know Armando really dislikes Hugo but before at least to he tolerated him, however since the day Betty went and changed her look(for that day) Armando seems to have a special disdain for Hugo.

"Well then Armani, tell me did you give her her kiss already?" Hugo walks behind and stands between Mario and Armando.

Both Armando and Mario share different expressions. While Mario looks like he's throwing himself a self-pity party and wondering where his vanity and ego have gone Armando looks mad.

Marcela has now wrapped a hand around Armando's bicep and with the other she places it on it as well while she stares at him with a smile on her face.

"Yes." he respondes to Hugo, annoyed. His lips are drawn in for a brief moment(pursed lips). Previously he had been staring once again at the opposite direction of Hugo he stands to his left, now he stares to his right, but not at anyone or anything in particular. When he is done responding to Hugo his eyes move to glance at Betty, who looks at Marcela's reaction.

Marcela drops her hands and stares at him with disapproval. Armando once more, stares off to his right, with squinting eyes and lips tight in a line with his hands clasped in front of him.

Betty seems satisfied with Marcela's reaction.

However again, the difference in behavior between Armando and Mario is really interesting. While Mario scoffs but seems amused by Hugo's "jokes" Armando never changes his expression from anger except when he glances at Betty for a second, his eyes slightly widen when he hears Huge say "Ugliness is very contiguous." and then again glances away, squints his eyes, and then glances back at Betty.

Then Hugo proceeds to seggsually harass his bosses by groping their butts. Marcela looks at him amused, Armando widens his eyes but his mouth remains in a tight line and Mario turns surprised at Hugo.

I've got a hate-neutral thing with Hugo if I'm being honest. Whenever he's only interacting with Inesita I laugh at his "jokes", I say "preach" when he lectures Armando and Mario, and sometimes when he interacts with Armando I find him amusing but most of the time he could catch these hands. The actor is amazing. Hugo is a character that I personally don't like but even then I still find some of his scenes crudely funny and I hate that I do.

"Congratulations, Beatriz" Marcela says, Armando glances at Betty once more, his eyes constantly change expression when he looks at her, they go from squinting to softening, but his mouth still remains in a line. Marcela then walks away after Betty thanks her.

Armando then turns to look at Mario who is nodding and looks like he can breathe again,(but his expression that shows the slight smile for a second isn't because he actually does feel relieved, everyone is "laughing" at what Hugo did and he's trying to play it off cool. We know Armando feels uncomfortable with Hugo behaving this way towards him and we know that it affects him deeply(https://youwontlikethisblog.tumblr.com/post/655584505462161408/brutas-la-policia)) however he is still preoccupied with the second problem at hand, Betty's special day(I mean it really is y'all) and him trying to make up for it. However it's him, the not detail oriented at all Armando, who can't remember anything if it saved his life, who isn't very bright when it comes to feelings, he on the spot, in a way that doesn't alert anyone of his affair with Betty, needs to come up with something right there and then without the intervention of his very detail oriented side kick because it would alert Betty that Mario knows.

Armando suggest that they all buy Betty a cake and that they celebrate her birthday later on in the afternoon at the office(going in hand that he wants for Betty to cool off) and looks happy with the suggestion.

"No Sir we already took care of everything." Bertha replies.

"Well in any case, happy birthday, Betty." Armando smiles slightly when he looks at her but as he looks away from her and down his smile falls and he has a solemn expression on his face. He turns and starts to walk slowly.

The girls then start to question Betty about her boyfriend.

"What did he give you?" Sofia asks.

"Nothing yet." Betty replies timidly.

"But I imagine that he called you really early in the morning to sing Happy Birthday my love or no?" Mariana asks.

We get a camera frame of Armando and Mario standing at a distances eavesdropping the conversation. While Mario seems concerned(Remember they still think Nicolas is competition) Armando looks curious and mad as he observes Betty.

"No, minimum he presented himself in the morning and filled you with kisses."

"No, we haven't spoken yet." This implies to Armando that Betty is talking about him, not Nicolas.

"Ay no." Bertha inhales. "What a a downer to have a boyfriend that's not romantic, can you believe that?" While Armando attempts to keep a poker face, his eyes are still focused on Betty and he feels bad. Mario aka Mr. Dimples aka the Love Guru, aka Betty's third boyfriend(if we include Nicolas on the list) looks amused though because he knows he can have a field day with Armando over this.

"Would it be that he doesn't know? But that's crazy, no?"

"Sofia" they gasp.

"Enough Sofia, calm down y'all, don't y'all see that they barely started dating? Lets not ruin Betty's Birthday." Mariana aids Betty.

"Well I think it's really sad. Minimum he should manifest himself later on." Sandra says while Mario and Armando continue to overhear. Armando starts to bite his bottom lip(self soothing) and looks at Mario from the corner of his eyes who gives a slight nod.

They've got their solution!

Armando must manifest himself later on.

The last scenes I'll discuss on this post and will be "brief".

The following scene of Armando and Mario in his office(With the doors closed) show us a very pained Armando who is beating himself up while he gives Mario his back who makes Armando feel a lot worse.

"Did you see? Did you hear? What a disappointing guy." Armando looks pained. He blinks rapidly, grits his teeth and breaths rapidly as well. "See this poor girl finally has a boyfriend and how does he celebrate her birthday?" Armando has his brows furrowed. "with total abcentism and indifference." Armando now squints his eyes and draws in a quick breath while tightening his lips. He now sees that Mario is trying to make him feel worse instead of helping him.

"Enough!" Armando yells at him. "Damnit Calderón!" he walks to the other end of his desk and turns to look at Mario with a sad and defensive look. "I didn't know it was her birthday, I completely forgot(indicates that he actually knew the date) besides it's not like I was supposed to know!" He rebuts. "I was with her 'til midnight and she didn't say anything!" he whispers worried.

"Brother she's a woman. She probably expected that you'd remember. She probably thought that last nights outing was to celebrate her and midnight came around and what happened? Nothing. Nothing" he hisses at the end while squinting his eyes at Armando. "Could you imagine what she's feeling right now?" Armando parts his lips just a bit, he grits his teeth, his eyes squint slightly while his brows furrow and he has his arms folded in front of him. All of this helps us draw the conclusion that he's mad at himself and feels really guilty and worried about it all.

"What happened to your love, you obsession for her?" Mario's tone allows us to know that he isn't really criticizing Armando. He is enjoying his pain and enjoying the control over it.

"Stop criticizing me, Calderón." Armando looks at him annoyed and points at him. He straights up and walks behind his desk. "Stop criticizing me and help me find the solution, yeah? Please." he begs.

Then Mario starts to give him his stupid suggestion which is his version of the Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to Pres. Kennedy. Armando tells him that he prefers that he give him a card and a gift, that he'd conform to that.

"Yeah of course, a [insignificant] gift and card, a pat on the shoulder and done 'I saw you, good, what a pleasure' done no?"

"Well like Freddy says, forgive me but pardon me, I don't have anything else to offer Betty."

"Man what about an invitation to go out to dinner tonight?"

"An invitation for dinner? Sneak away from Marcela? For what? So she can kill me?" He hisses this = his main problem and unlike before by the lack of "worse/worst" we can conclude that that is biggest worry next to the one he names next "beside with the state Betty's in? No."

"Well yes you went out last night but what happened? Midnight came and you didn't celebrate anything. She continued being more Cinderella than ever before and you? Shun her out all night and you want her to forgive you? With an insignificant gift?"

"Do you not remember the fierce state Betty's was in? Do you not remember that...fire she's had lately?" he asks urgently. "Besides it's her birthday. I won't get out of that if I take her out tonight." He tries to defend.

He feels terrible for his emotional callousness towards Betty and how that has to affect and hurt Betty. Armando has gone through a transformation in the past few episodes where now what ever happens to Betty he feels personally, it's called empathy, but it is magnified by the intensity and growth of his emotional attraction to her and while he gets angry when people disrespect her, he now feels angry at himself that he's the one that's hurting her in that moment and guilty for the pain she might be feeling.

However, when Mario again starts to suggest that he needs to take her out despite her fervent state, Armando's lack of(ignorance of) physical attraction to Betty is highlighted as now he cares more about himself than he does about Betty's feelings.

What does Mario get out of this? Well he obviously doesn't want their hard work to be thrown out the window but that's not really it. Since the start he has always been suggesting or insinuating that Armando sleep with Betty. What does that have to do with the plan? Aside from the fact that he's a deprived man? I think he just wants to make fun of Armando for it and hold it over his head to say "See you're not so perfect, you're worse than I am because at least I don't sleep with "exotic" women I find repulsive and do it for money. I do it with women I don't manipulate like you have with her."

"Man I don't know." Mario throws his hands up in the air. "This is your decision. You're touching very sensitive points in the soul of a woman." He exclaims and points his finger up as emphasize. Armando now looks at him with furrowed brows and wide eyes while he rubs his lips with his fingers(context clues allows us to determined that he does this to self-sooth because he feels stressed). "You could be throwing everything, all of our work, over the ledge. You could be creating a resentment factory just three meters from where you are." He points to her office. " Like that!" He snaps his fingers and Betty enters the office. "Just like that." He continues to snap his fingers and turns to look at her.

"Yeah bring it immediately, don't forget about the thing I made you responsible of." Armando looks worried.

"Yeah. Count on that." Mario nods and looks determined. Betty looks at him nervously and then proceeds to walk towards her office.

Now Armando doesn't look at her, instead he worries his bottom lip, stares at his computer, fidgets with his fingers and thumb and has furrowed brows, indicating stress and guilt.

"Beatriz." He calls out to her, looking up but not towards her. He finally lets his guard down as he drops his hand and shakes his head and worried he asks her " Why, huh?" he finally turns to stare at her and then spins on his chair to her direction "Why didn't you tell me anything?" he stares at her and stands up. "Why didn't you tell me you were turning years? I'm feeling really awful, I didn't know anything." Armando continues with the worried expression and his tone of voice matches this. He does feel really awful about it all.

"Oh sir... I was just embarrassed to." Betty timidly says and looks down and fidgets. Her behavior is a lot like a kid here where she shifts on her feet and sways around gently and stares down with a shy smile on her face.

"How are you going to feel embarrassed over your birthday, Betty? It's a very important date for me." he tries to reason and explain to her. "I wanted to share it with you." he says sincerely.

"Oh Sir, I know you're a very busy person with too many problems like for me to expect that you remember something that is especially really dumb like this." Armando looks hurt over this and also frustrated.

"It's because this isn't dumb for me, not at all. This date isn't dumb for me, Beatriz." He states.

"But it doesn't have an importance, Sir."

"No, for me it does have importance, your birthday is important to me." He is now moving from frustrated to being mad.

"No it doesn't."

"Yes it is." He tries to "play" along.

"No, Sir." Betty timidly smiles and replies.

"I said yes!" He screams at her. "That for me your birthday is important and what? For me it is!" He yells and stares at her with wide eyes, flared nostrils and lips tight and then he realizes that he screamed and yelled at her. "Your birthday is important.." He widens his eyes and walks to sit behind his desk.

"Yes, Sir." Betty looks down and looks hurt over his reaction. She was simply playing around and in her own way flirting with Armando, who doesn't like it when Betty tries to invalidate his feelings, especially when they are related to how he feels about her.

"How embarrassing, Beatriz, I didn't want to yell at you much less the day of your birthday. It's just that it makes me nervous when you tell me-when you don't tell me things." Betty looks at him and studies him(lemme finish his sentence because it actually holds meaning "it makes me nervous when you tell me that I don't feel what I feel." this is all based on context clues so I'm guessing that is what he wanted to say at first).

"Sir" She takes steps towards his desk "If I tell you it isn't it's not so you don't feel guilty over it. It's because for me it really doesn't hold any transcendence so why would it hold that for you?" She smiles.

"How is it that it doesn't hold transcendence for you? Explain that to me because I don't get that."

Remember how I keep pointing out that Armando has always been curious about Betty's personal life slash her intimacy? Here he is asking her a personal question and for the first time Betty is going to give him a glimpse of it.

"Normally when people turn age they make a huge celebration, inviting their friends over to their house, they sing, dance, but I've never been enthusiastic over that, well the only time that I had a birthday party it was because of my parents because I was turning fifteen but it was so so bad, so concurrent, that I never did anything like that for my birthday again." She chuckles.

What has Armando's behavior been like?

At first he was obviously paying attention to her but as she started to talk about her experience he first seemed surprised in an a "oh my god it's happening, nobody panic, it's happening." kind of way and the more she expressed herself, the more he felt for her as his final expression is one of him being sad. The corners of his mouth are down, there's a slight pout on his lips, he stares at Betty with his eyes slightly squinting at her.

"Don't worry, Sir." She smiles and walks to her office.

Armando follows her with his sight but as she shuts the door he stares off somewhere else with his brows now furrowed and his pouting intensifying.

For one he feels like he finally gets something into her personal life and the fact it's something that potentially has such an negative impact for Betty, at least enough to make her not want to ever have another party again, makes him sad. Though Betty didn't say exactly what went wrong, Armando can imagine what it could have been as he too was fifteen at some point and he knows how cruel people can be, especially fifteen year old's so it makes him sad that she's gone through that.

A few scenes later, the girls go ask Betty out for lunch for her birthday. Armando walks to grab a glass of water and starts to eavesdrop their conversation(He do be liking el chisme too, especially when it involves his fav. person, Beatriz Pinzón Solano.) as he hears the girls basically talk ish on her boyfriend for having yet to ask her out or make plans with her for her b-day.

Mariana again tries to aid Betty against the girls critique of her boyfriend.

"Beatriz." Armando calls to Betty, who was on her way to her office to grab her things after the girls left. "I wanted to ask you a favor and that's that you won't make plans for tonight." He stops looking at the book he head been "reading" when the secs. where at the door, and takes a step towards her. "I would love it if we could celebrate your birthday together." He is honest in asking her out.

"Really Sir?" Betty smiles big. Armando seems content with her reaction.

"Well of course, Betty. This is real." He smiles at her.

"Oh Sir but I don't want you to have problems with Ms. Marcela, we already went out last night." She whispers the final part.

"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of Marcela." he smiles and tries to reassure her.

Betty again tries to invalidate his efforts by saying "Ay Sir I don't want you to get into trouble." and Armando reacts classically'; angry Italian chef hand gesture.

"But I'm telling you no, take it easy, so what do we do then? Huh? Lets go out, yeah? Us together. Or what? Do you have some other plan?" He started off frustrated in an angry way and moved on to distrust.

"Nonono how could you think that?"

"I just wanted to know" we hear him say in a low tone.

"We'll see each other later on."

"Betty." He stops her again from walking into her office and winks at her while sending her a kiss via express mail(same day delivery?). Betty then flutters her right eyes and smiles at him and goes into her office.

His reaction after she leaves his him doing an "Ow" expression but he seems at peace with it.

Now moving forward to a new scene but still in the same time frame, Mario walks into his office and asks for any updates and I'm just mentioning this because I find his reaction funny.

Armando clarifies that he's taking Betty out to dinner later on that day and Mario smiles at him and starts to "clap" silently since Betty is in her office.

Compared to earlier in the day, Armando now looks like he's back on his grove. He looks at peace with his relationship with Betty, that she finally shared some personal information with him, they've set up a date, he doesn't feel bad that he forgot her birthday because she told him she didn't want him know(but she did want him to remember, she said so the previous night when her mom asked) and Mario is getting the gift, all is well.

Marcela in classic style then goes to be a controlling and possessive girlfriend once Armando leaves to lunch with Mario and starts to go through his things and finds AA's picture on his desk.

Aura Maria then tries to hype Betty up about her b-day date with her[Betty] boyfriend and that she'll give her tips later on for it.

Dumb Nicolas calls Eco Moda when Betty's off at lunch so he can talk to Patsy Pats again and because he's dumb like that(I love that character but when it comes to Pats I can't stand him) he starts to pretend like he's rich so he can get her attention

Fast-forward some scenes, Betty is back in her office when her phone rings. When she picks up Nicolas is singing "Happy Verde To You" while Don Hermes looks at Nicolas with annoyance.

"Aw Nicolas." Betty says sweetly and we see Armando slowly pick his head up(he was looking at some papers down on his desk that he was signing) and squint his eyes and turn to Betty's office. "I didn't think you'd remember my birthday. Very nice gesture." She chuckles.

For this next conversation I will omit what Nicolas says so we can view it from Armando's point of view.

"Aw Nicolas." Betty smiles and sounds flattered. "Ah Terra Moda?" She teases. "Oh um, but go out to dinner tonight?" she looks towards the little frosted window in her office, that's indirectly towards Armando's desk. "No it's not because of that, Nicolas." She explains. "What happened is that..." We now get a frame of Armando being nosy, again, and eavesdropping on the conversation, carefully paying attention to what she's saying. "my friends here, the girls from the cuartel have invited me out to celebrate my birthday and I'm already engaged with them." she lies. "Yeah don't worry about it, Nicolas, in any case, thank you so much." she smiles(you can hear someone's genuine smile through their tone of voice) "They'll turn up, don't worry." She teases.

Armando can conclude that Nicolas asked Betty out but she rejected him and lied to him, could be that he believes Nicolas was probably asking Betty if she had plans with another guy or didn't like him anymore, so Betty explains[lies] why she can't go out with him. Then that Betty is trying to reassure him that he'll find someone.

I omitted Nicolas responses because we get Armando's reaction a lot here so it has to mean that we're supposed to draw to the conclusion that it is important for us to know that Armando still considers Nicolas a threat but that he feels like he's winning now.

Now Armando's last reaction is more satisfaction than anything. He feels like he finally scored against Nicolas and he feels good about it.

Betty is now lying to Nicolas and not making plans with him so that she can go out with Armando, making him her number one priority once more and that makes him happy but because he hears Betty's enthusiasm and how comfortable she is while talking with Nicolas it doesn't build his confidence that Betty doesn't have anything with Nicolas.

However problems arise when Nicolas tells Don Hermes that Betty is going out with her friends and makes Doña Julia call her work friends so they can invite them for a celebration party at her house.

When she calls her mom to talk to her about it and when she hangs up Betty now has to find a way to fix this.

Take into consideration that Betty does want to go out with Armando but that after he yelled at her twice for Invalidating his feelings or efforts of him wanting to celebrate her birthday, she now has to consider his feelings and doesn't want to make him feel like he isn't important to her.

She goes out into his office and stands there, waiting for him to acknowledge her.

"What's up?" He asks when he stops typing.

"Sir um, what time do you think we'll be leaving tonight?" Armando has his hands laced together in front of him as he answers Betty.

"Around seven. Why Betty? What's going on with that face of yours? Like something worries you?"

"My parents are organizing a party for me and they've invited all my friends, including you."

"What Betty? Do you pretend I go there with all those women, the most gossipy women of all of Eco Moda, to your house?" here Armando is no longer willing to sacrifice. "To celebrate a birthday? that bore me, they bore me profoundly. I don't even celebrate mine, not in my house or anywhere. I find it very fed up." Betty's entire demeanor is sad. "but if you have that engagement then go ahead on do it. We leave our thing for another time."

"No, no, no." Betty kicks into gear. "Sir forget it. You come first. I prefer to go out with you." She reassure him. To her after his two outburst earlier this translate to him doing it as a reverse therapy kind of way, saying it isn't a problem, that he doesn't like those kinds of party's anyway, and added with his somber tone, Betty does think he is trying to not make her feel bad for it but that he does want to go out with her.

"You already have an engagement go ahead and comply with it."

"Sir let me fix this."

"No-no wait." He says as she leaves his office.

Armando isn't upset or arguing with Betty or trying to convince her to go out with him because he knows Nicolas isn't the one she's going to go out with. Now Armando, though being callous and honest, tells Betty that he doesn't like birthdays that they bore him and are nuisance and that he doesn't even celebrate his,

Betty then comes up with the plan for that night everything is fixed. Armando however fails to read the bold letters, I'd say lines but by this point everything is spelt out in front of him. He is being callous.

"[...] You decide at what time you want us to go out?" She smiles.

"But um-but-nonono- Be-Betty I-It's not necessary for you to go through all of that. Really I feel embarrassed with you, the party, the cake at your house-"

"No-"

"No really I-I don't know-"

"No Sir I talked with everyone; With my family, my friends. Everything is fixed." She smiles. Armando however doesn't seem too happy about it.

"Yeah?" He asks worried. "It's not a shame?" Betty picks up on this and looks away from him.

"Well Sir, I won't insist more." She takes in a deep breath and gives a small smile. "Pardon me." She starts to move towards her office.

"No-no, Betty come over here." He scratches his ear lobe in an effort to sooth his anxiety. "What time do you want me to pick you up?"

"No Sir, don't bother."

"What time do you want me to pick you up?" He speaks loudly and frustrated, however he is trying not yell at her.

"At ten?" She says softly and smiles at him. He nods and forces a smile. "Thank you, Sir."

He does the same expression once Betty enters her office, the "Ow" but at peace with it expression.

Armando is now making more of an effort to place Betty's needs before his own. He is now understanding, even if its a little bit, his feelings towards Betty, at least to the point that he is okay with some of them.

Betty is still timid but she's picking up his cues and when she questions them and she pulls away Armando tells her that it isn't like that at all. It's so important to understand this because many people have this misconception that Betty took advantage of Armando later on that night. I already talked more about this, however not that in depth related to that specific scene in the post I Don't Believe He Desires Me Part 2.

'Til next time!

#armando ysblf #don armando #armando mendoza #analysis of ysblf #beatriz pinzon solano #betty ysblf #betty pinzón solano #beatriz pinzón solano #yo soy betty la fea #betty la fea #betty #mario calderon #mario Calderón #Calderón ysblf

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youwontlikethisblog · 3 years ago

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Thank You For Dropping Me Off, Sir

Now I've talked a lot about Armando's denial and given the facts to prove it. What I don't want getting lost in translation though is that though Armando does care about Betty, you cannot deny that he is also concerned over the company, however it(his feelings towards Betty) is the the real reason he continues with the plan.

@el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle (They're the poster about Aura Maria and Mario their post is Episode 64, go read it if you haven't had the chance!) mentioned something that I hadn't thought about all that well, that due to Armando's tendency of people pleasing he often does things out of a deep responsibility for their happiness and his guilt.

When Mario manipulates him this day(the day after he first kissed Betty) he really switches language as he tells him "I don't like this." "I'm worried." He's after our(my) money." which moves Armando to continue with the plan, for the sake of Mario and the company and everyone else in the company but now he has another reason, he somewhat wants to understand what he feels.

Now let's jump into the scene I'll be breaking down.

Betty is being dropped off by Armando. She is still keeping this very PG, trying to justify his actions to them being work related. Again this is very true of a person who has experienced real heartbreak of the romantic kind. Like I mentioned in the previous post I was in toxic friendship, when that friendship was over I spent years guarding myself around anyone and making no efforts to from friendships of any real substance and when I did I worked really hard to keep them at arm's length. This was my defense mechanism and I appreciate the fact that they show this with Betty.

In most instances they don't portray characters with emotional damage all too well or one could assume that Betty does this because she's insecure and though to some degree that's true, Betty also does this to protect herself from having to once again experience heartbreak and this time from someone who she actually cares about, not someone who in some way forced himself to be her interest.

Miguel wasn't just a guy who used her and got money out of it. That wasn't the only thing that broke Betty.

Miguel presented himself as a love interested to Betty, who didn't like him at first but was flattered by his attention, as she later tells Armando that she up to that point thought no man would ever pay attention to her as a woman. Betty was somewhat guarded but once she let her guard down she fell in love.

She says she gave all of herself and all her love to him. He was her first love but Miguel didn't care. To Betty what Miguel did translated to him finding her so repulsive, so heinous, and disgusting that even her love wasn't enough to change his heart and he shared her naked spirit to his friends all for money and to make fun of her. It wasn't a question of ego but rather of worth.

This with every right left Betty traumatized. So when she speaks over him, interrupts Armando and justify it as him being drunk, not knowing what he was doing, depressed, stressed, anguished for the company and exceeding himself with beautifiers, she is trying not to feed her hope. She is trying to remain grounded and safe because unlike with Miguel Betty on her own has discovered who Armando is and decided to fall in love with him. What she feels for his is true and genuine feelings that weren't "forced" or pushed onto her like with Miguel. If she allows herself to believe what he is saying she is allowing herself to fall victim to loves cruelty again.

Armando soberly repeats the same things he had drunkenly told Betty the previous night. That he can't live without her.

"But you haven't lived without me, Sir. I work by your side more than eighteen hours (Girl I would've done killted myself if I had to work beside a man as neurotic as Armando for 18+ hours a day!No matter how good the view is!) a day."

"Yes but now it's different, Beatriz, because I feel these desires[I can't really hear what he said] to caress you, to kiss you." He says leaning forward after touching the side of her face with the back of his fingers, but Betty pulls back and says "No".

As he pulls away Armando studies Betty's face and looks embarrassed as well as confused at Betty's rejection all the while trying to remain composed.

This is when Betty names the list of reasons not to believe Armando is interested in her and Armando gets mad at her.

He openly yells "No,no,no, I'm not confused Beatriz!" he says between clenched teeth and turns to look at her. "I am not. I feel perfectly sure that what I'm saying is the truth."

"Sir, the thing is that it's not possible for you to have taken notice of me."

Angirly now Armando screams at her "But why!"

Why does he react so angrily at Betty for this? For one because he doesn't like for Betty to invalidate his feelings(again this shows he feels comfortable being himself around her) and that she wouldn't believe that he likes her.

I mentioned already that Armando's tone gives us a true understanding of what he's saying and with what intention even when his body language is different. Here he is upset that Betty doesn't believe him and mostly that she doesn't see why he'd be interested in her.

"But why?" he asks more calmly at seeing Betty's reaction.

She nervously begins to explain "Because I know your type really well. You are of fine palate. You like women who are ninety, sixty, ninety, tall, pretty, with class, and-and I don't correlate with any of those characteristics, sir."

"Yes that's true." They both laugh nervously, "Betty, Betty, Betty." He is now trying to find the words to speak. "I love,love, your-your, strength hmm" He nods and here we see him slowly become more honest as he finds the qualities of Betty's that he loves/likes. "I love that energy that I feel when we're together, I love it. I love the way you do things like so sure of it." He smiles and turns to look at her and then tells her. "I also love your softness(tenderness/gentle nature)." he says looking away from her now being shy and then looks back at her and tells her "I love that gift you've got, of managing people. I really love that."(y'all this is why she works 18+ hours with him, I get it).

Again he starts to struggle to find the words but he finds them and unlike the first reason he listed (her strength) he is actually being honest even though he is doing the same gesture(from what I've read often times when you are reading body language you don't just focus on the gesture but overall the entire context; like tone of voice, subject of conversation, speech patterns, ect. We can conclude that Armando is being honest here as it shows a very natural pattern of behavior of his here instead of seeming tense, now he is actively wanting to find the words to speak) "I love your sensibility, man, you've got a very special sensibility." Betty now looks away from him with a slight smile and he seems Contentment with her reaction(Even in the past, before all of this, Armando has always had a face of contentment/joy when he sees Betty smile, especially when he is the one that makes her smile and because of that he kept trying to actively treat her better so that he could be the cause of it; it's a sense of reward really. He did something nice for her and she'd be happy and that would make him happy. A clear demonstration of this is when Armando talks to Betty about her new raise) and he tells her "Betty it's because you're like a little angle to me. Plus I love your personality, what a (the word he uses literally translates to hot or scorching but we'll use another one) welcoming personality and and I love you intelligence. The way you so efficiently do things. It's because I think that any man would find all of that attractive now, don't you think?"

Armando started struggling to consciously find what he likes about her but all of a sudden he can't stop naming them or talking about the things he finds attractive of Betty's. Like a vail has been dropped in his brain all of a sudden>

"Mmm, no." Betty shakes her head in response to his question. "Definitely not, Sir."

"No?" He chuckles nervously "then I don't know what's going on with me then so then I'm going crazy...crazy for you. See I want you to know that since I found out about Nicolas I felt a lot a lot of fear. I felt a lot of anguish and believe me, I felt a lot of anguish but also this desire to caress you and kiss you. " In this sentence we get a shift of tone of voice showing that he shifts from being honest to being manipulative.

"No, no, Sir. What I was only going to tell you is that I don't understand why you feel that about me. I can't find any motive why[you would]."

Armando's tone has now shifted to manipulation, no longer being light hearted and natural.

"This goes to prove that what one feels goes beyond physical appearance, the stereotypical, you understand me?" then again shifts to his natural voice "Betty I know that you've probably thought that the woman of my life has to be a ninety, sixty, ninety, with these marvelous curves, with generous breast, blue eyes, very tall," he says very clearly showing that he likes that and Betty seems down about it until he turns to look at her "like the models, right? But look none of those models have made me happy. I haven't felt for anyone, what I feel for you Beatriz Pinzon Solano." The final sentence he says with conviction. You can't overlook or ignore that as confusion, this shows us that Armando to some degree knows that what he feels for Betty goes beyond anything he's ever felt for anyone.

Now next he closes his eyes to go onto this monologue that beauty isn't what media feeds us but rather something that is deeper than skin. That is it based on the substance of a person, speaking Betty's love ideal here. Why does he have his eyes closed?

He can openly talk about Betty and the wonderful qualities that he finds attractive but he can't openly talk about Betty's physical appearance because up to this point he hasn't accepted or had to face that reality yet.

Betty the whole time is paying attention to what he's saying, his body language. This is why Betty lives sure and convinced of what he is telling her because she's learned to read him like her favorite book and that's the thing.

Betty is very aware of Armando's feelings, boundaries, and flaws. Just like Mario is and we see that in the office when they see each other for the first time after the kiss. Betty inspects his behavior and then decides to act like nothing happened, not only to protect herself but to not make him uncomfortable. The difference however is that while Mario uses his knowledge on Armando to manipulate and force him to do things, Betty doesn't. Betty uses this knowledge to help him and to encourage him in his growth by celebrating his victories and standing beside him when he fails. She doesn't demand for him to change or stop doing what he is, instead she allows him to behave how he does but she isn't shy to show how she feels about it. While Armando isn't so much intune or aware of Betty's feelings because he's so focused on what Betty does for him, however this doesn't dismiss that because of the way Betty loves him, it also inspires him to change and that's really the biggest lesson we get with these two and we're only getting started.

"Are you sure you haven't had anything to drink, sir?"

"I'm sober, Betty, but I'm hallucinating, and that's real." he looks away from her and then back "I'm hallucinating but for you. Of you, Betty." he leans forward. Now the music here gives us the understanding that it is meant to be intriguing(I love the soundtrack so I looked it up and that's legit the title track for this theme) .

Music is a huge part of cinema as it is proven to affect the audience and convey feelings otherwise dismissed. The music creates an air of mystery now because we don't know if what Armando is saying and doing is honest now while in the past we could pick up on it now it's a lot harder to do so.

However one can imagine that while he had his eyes closed he was pictureing Adriana Arboleda sitting in front of him(why else would they show us Mario giving him the picture and telling him to just picture her instead) instead of Betty.

Betty turns to look at the moon after he points it and she smiles.

"Yes the moon is very beautiful. How curious." she speaks as Armando now looks at a picture of AA. "It's the same moon that's inspired so many poets throughout a lot of human history." Here Armando takes in a deep breath is seems to be pumping himself up, he takes off his glasses. Betty is still looking up at the moon and says "There's nothing that inspires more than the moon." Armando sleeks his brows(he wanted to look presentable IG) and agrees with her, now his hand under her chin her turns her around towards him.

"And that's our moon, Beatriz and this is our night." He now leans closer.

Now I see many people point out that Armando's eyes are open when he kisses Betty but this is something he does with Marcela as well which indicates that it isn't based on disgust but mostly guilt.

As they kiss at first his eyes are wide open and then tightly shut(if I'm being honest, as a person who hates romance(ironic huh) I hate with a passion, kissing scenes so this is hard for me to watch lol like I've seen from the nose up, nothing below that so I know how Armando reacts as wella s Betty but the mouth part is the one that grosses me out the most) . Betty takes ina sharp breath and pulls away and now Armando opens his eyes surprised and does the same.

"No, Sir.." Betty is now the one struggling to find words.

"You didn't like it?" He asks but states at the same time.

Betty nods gently, however her eyes are wide. Betty is terrified here and it isn't because Armando is taking advantage here(he's not) it's because she is terrified of all the implications it means. For one she is allowing herself to have hope for a relationship with Armando, for her to show her love to him and for him to love her for it, despite the fact she's "ugly". It means that she is setting herself up for a potential heartbreak that could be the end of her.

"Lets move from here, it's cause my dad peeps out through the windows and he can come and see what's going on and I don't want that."

"Yeah me either."

They move from location and Betty proceeds to speak.

"Sir this isn't correct. I don't know what's going on with you. I'm starting to get worried, Sir. "

"What is it Betty? Is that you suddenly don't feel anything for me?" He tries to stay composed but his micro expression shows worry.

"Of course I do." He looks somewhat relieved while maintaining a poker face. "I admire you a lot. You're a man that's so-so interesting." he smirks and raises an eyebrow showing approval of what she said as well as confident in himself 'Of course you do'.

"I started to feel that you were special for me when you started to defend my work. To value me as a professional." He still seems pleased but not as much. As Betty relays all of this in the professional element(While Armando focused on the person). We know why it was so important to her that Armando did this and why he became special to her for it, however Armando doesn't. "and I realized how important I am for your life.(osea, how important of a role she plays in his life)" Armando now has eyebrows raised and is blinking rapidly. He is really paying attention to what she is saying. and trying to comprehend as well "All of these things attract me from you." she says timidly.

He now has to face this new reality, that though he confessed true attraction based on her person, Betty has only relaid professional or work related qualities that attract her, not him as an individual and why it bothers him.

"That-that's wonderful, Betty."

"But this is crazy, Sir. You have a girlfriend, you're going to get married." He turns from he and opens his mouth slightly in shock and then turns back to look at her. "You can't leave Marcela to start a relationship with me."

He now looks at her with a frustrated expression.

"It would be terrible, your family would not allow it... and what would happen with me? You have to really think this through."

"No, Betty, but of course. It can be crazy, of course. What's happening is that I already... I already experienced something. Yes and I already confirmed that I want to keep living it. Now you're right I can't breakup with Marcela, just like that. The situation with Eco Moda is too difficult to end things with her right this moment, plus my relationship with my family is in crises, I think they wouldn't take the sandal and neither would I but you better than anyone know I don't love Marcela. See if that's the case, what's the fear? Let's continue ahead, Betty. Besides it's about feelings. I have to feel for you, you have to feel for me. We'll see til where we go. Don't you think?" The music theme is titled "secrecy".

"I'm just so afraid, Sir."

"Or is it because you feel more for that sir, Nicolas?" he says with a tinge of jealousy.

"Ay, sir, lets take Nicolas out of this conversation, you want to?"

"Yes clearly, that's what I want. So what then? What's the fear? Huh? You've risked everything for me, see, together we've done a lot crazy things. We've been accomplices in a lot things and now you're going to tell me that you don't have the bravery to live this next to me? Or you don't want to live it, Betty?

"Of course I do, Sir."

"Yes?" He now shifts to kiss her.

After their kiss, after Armando does that disgusted face again, Betty agrees to be his other woman.

His phone starts to ring and Marcela is a very possessive manner tells Armando that she's waiting for him and just wanted to make sure he was going to go over, that she a very delicious dinner for him.

After he hangs up and he agrees to drop her off he tells Betty "You look very precious." And she scoffs in a lighthearted way, finding it funny that he'd say that.

Marcela legit made fun of her and said that she looked worse than she had the day before so it amuses her that Armando would say that.

"One last question, will Mr. Mario Calderon know of this?" she asks as they arrive at the front of her house. "It's just that you both are so trusting of each other, you tell each other everything. I wouldn't want for him nor anyone to know of this, Sir. In some way you have a relationship with Ms. Marcela and by accepting this affair I take on the role of you lover."

"No don't say that." Again this entire things highlights Armando's true nature of his obsessiveness with physical perfection and how it's the only way he can ever be attracted to a woman so he feels grossed out by the idea of having to do anything more than kissing, and lover implies that they do more than kissing. He'd know, he's an expert in the subject.

This is when Armando promises to Betty not to tell Mario about this.

This is his second mistake with Betty.

The first being that he starts his relationship in the bases of lies.

The drop off:

Now as the nights go on there's a change of pace to the drop offs in front of Betty's house.

This first time Betty waves good-bye to him and he repeats to himself he's a piece of ish over and over again, angirly. Duh, he feels guilty.

Betty's dad then opens the door and Armando urgently drives off. Later we see that he does this frequently but slowly he begins to take a while longer before driving off, which demonstrates his longing for Betty.

#analysis of ysblf #armando ysblf #don armando #armando mendoza #betty #beatriz pinzon solano #betty pinzón solano #betty ysblf #betty la fea #yo soy betty la fea

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el-moscorrofio-y-el-mercachifle · 3 years ago

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@casfa88 yesss!! That’s why I love this idea; the DRAMA and ANGSTTT AHHH!!

@thelittlebambigirl it’s such a cliché, but I gotta admit that I’m a sucker for this trope!! Only in fanfics, tho lol I totally agree with you about being relieved over the novela not going down this route— but I love the possibility in a fanfic format! It’s one of the good oldies, like the coffee shop AU (who down for a Bakery AU, since Nicolás’ mom canonically has a Bakery? Aight imma shut up already) or bed sharing AU!! I’ve seen so many cliché telenovelas that I was totally expecting Betty to end up pregnant during the lover phase lol, shame on me for being that far into the novela and still think of it as a regular overused cliché!

Ohh, nono, i get you. That feeling is the whole reason I make these “AU Ideas”, because I’ve got some prompts and ideas, but I can’t for the love of me commit to actually executing them and I’m hoping for other people to get inspired! Don’t feel pressured, tho! Fandoms are supposed to be fun! No expectations here; just random people at the other side of screens having fun together!!😊😊

@youwontlikethisblog OMG AHHH!! I LOVE YOU THANKS!! Most I can do is a badly-planned bulleted fanfic and random drabbles of random scenes, like the Calderon AU one👉🏻👈🏻 I’ve already got two fanfics in the making and one of them is about to starve to death lol you can’t write fanfics?? That’s literally the only thing I know how to write!! (and boring college essays lol) I wish I could write something original, but every time I try, I feel like I’m just unconsciously plagiarizing 😭😭

@lisholmes221 idk amix, I’m starving over here too😭😭

@namelessn holisss! Awww muchas gracias!! Me alegra ver que les gusta mi contenido!🥰🥰 omg siii! Si lo llegas a hacer (sin presiones!) por fa etiquétame; me encantaría leerlo!!😍😍 me alegra muchísimo ver que mis AUs te están inspirando! 🥰🥰🥰🥰

@blog-betina omg yes! That’s one of the things that really haunted me! To imagine poor Camila going through that alone… and now her seeing another woman go through the same! ARMANDO seeing the same thing that happened to his sister (that ultimately made him “lose her” by being separated) to the woman he loves! And it being HIS FAULT! Ooh, the guilt, the guilt!

Lol, totally. Also if it had been a mexican telenovela!

MORE AU AND CANON DIVERGENCE IDEAS

Alright, no, that’s a lie— it’s just ONE AU that I couldn’t stop thinking about after I rediscovered a draft about it I wrote a while back lol. May I present you with:

Pregnancy CD/AU— yes, it’s an old telenovela cliché but all clichés can work if you make them right. ((After all, isn’t the “good nerdy and ugly girl ends up with the rich handsome womanizer man who changes his whole worldview due to her” story also a cliché???)) Also think about ✨the angst✨ for everyone. So hear me out

Can start either after the First or Second Night, or, even better, after a non-canon Third Night (benefits of this alternative include giving more time to develop Armando’s feelings and their relationship AND crush the reader’s feelings when Betty finds out the truth— but this would also mean eliminating the whole “Betty finds the letter after Calderon goes to Palm Beach” thing and replace it with something else for her to find the truth later on in the story. More complicated, but possibilities are endless!)

Armando finding himself in the exact same situation that made his parents ruin his sister’s life— in love and in the waits of an out-of-marriage offspring with a poor, classless person not approved by Roberto and Margarita.

Add to that the guilt he’d feel over having “ruined her life” ((this is 1990s Latin America, people!)) over a fucking business?? Ruining the most honest, sweet and innocent woman’s life for a disfusting, sick plan to keep a business??? This is totally gonna wreak Armando!

On top of that, the simple fact that he’s going to be a father!! Just that!!! He had always envisioned a clear path in his future— grow up, go to college, inherit Ecomoda’s presidency, marry Marcela, ans have children with her. That’s it. His whole life had always been written in stone, and now THIS on top of EVERYTHING ELSE!!

You can totally use Camila as Armando’s Catalina!!! If there’s ONE PERSON in that qhole show who would have totally slapped Armando back to reality and supported him above everything, that would have been Camila, I can bet my left kidney on it!!!

Oof, think about Marcela, every single day laughing at Betty for being “used and left” by an irresponsible man—- only to end up realizing she had been laughing for months of her own fiancé, the child of her fiancé, and the mistress of her fiancé.

Think of Betty’s desperation and anguish!! Knowing she would totally disappoint her father by not only ending up pregnant out of wedlock, but pregnant by her boss.

Think about don Hermes’s rage. Doña Julia’s anguish. The uncertainty that haunts them because Betty would probably not want to disclose the father’s identity. Doña Julia’s fear of why she doesn’t want to talk.

Think about Nicolás’ support. We know canonically he’s willing to take under his name children that don’t belong to him. Possibilities, possibilities!

Think about Mario’s jokes. Everyone’s jokes. The cruelty and hilarity of the dialogues!!! Oh, Hugo will totally have a hell of a time coming up with names and insults to both Betty and her child.

THINK ABOUT ARMANDO HEARING THE WAY AVERYONE BULLIES NOT ONLY THE WOMAN OF HIS LIFE, BUT ALSO THEIR BABY!!!

Aura María would totally support Betty, because she knows how it feels to be alone and judged by everyone; left by a man whi promised you heaven and earth and that you loved deeply; with the responsibility of a child that you didn’t envision in your life. 10/10 living for that wholesome support. Her and Nicolas would probably be the only thing keeping Betty afloat…

UNTIL CATALINA MY QUEEN APPEARS, OF COURSEEEEE

AND CAMILA MY QUEEN TOO. I want her so bad to appear in a fanfic and to be the stone Armando needs… she would totally not only support Armando, but probably Betty too— but how does Betty react to this supportive, nice ad beautiful woman who seems so sincere and who shares a similar story… but is also the sister of the man who used her and plans to throw her away like trash?

Also! If Betty totally got her claws out when she found out the truth in the original novela, and absolutely wreaked Armando’s poor mental health with her manipulation and gaslighting in vengeance— how would she react HERE in this AU, where it’s not only her the one being used, but also HER CHILD? Imagine her train of thought— “this awful, disgusting man was capable of having A CHILD with me, just so I couldn’t betray him?” She could totally end up thinking the pregnancy wasn’t “an accident from the heat of passion”, but rather a full on part of the Sinister Plan. (Which obviously isn’t, but she could think it!)

If you go for the “got pregnant, found out, some time passed, AND THEN she found the truth about the plan”— that gives time for Camila and Betty to form a friendship and ALSO for Camila to observe the contrasts between Armando/Betty and Armando/Marcela and be like “i love you Armando but you’re such AN IDIOT for being about to marry Marcela when you’re so obviously in love and in a healthier relationship with the mother of your child smh”

How would Betty’s feelings towards the child be?? Especially before knowing the father was just using her vs after knowing the plan? She would obviously have it; the idea of terminating the pregnancy wouldn’t even seriously cross her mind (she’s religious and traditional; she wouldn’t do it… although Calderon would likely try to convince Armando to convince Betty to do it— would Armando accept this advice?)

Imagine THE LETTER!! Assuming the Letter is written and found AFTER knowledge of the pregnancy, imagine the THINGS CALDERON WOULD SAY. In his horrible and machiavellian mind, he could totally find a way to twist this enough to their benefit. Something like “if no one wanted her childless, now with a baby on the way and about to get the size of a balloon, not even 50 million dolars are worth it!” or some other ugly shit like that…

Imagine Betty’s feelings after reading that. Just… imagine.

Bringing Camila to the story is also a great way to further expose the terrible parenting skills of the Mendozas… and further Armando’s fear of them finding out about his paternity.

Imagine all the wholesome friendship with Nico and Aura María 🥺🥺

Imagine all the toxic friendship and awful jokes with Mario 😡😡

Imagine Armando keeping a ecography pic in his wallet and showing it off when he gets drunk, just like he keeps and shows off Betty’s in the show when she leaves to Caratagena🥺🥺 drunkly rambling about his queen and his little princess 🥺🥺🥺 ((they canonically have a girl in the novela, but you can change this of course))

IMAGINE MARCELA FINDING THE ECOGRAPHYYY

Also opportunity to explore why Armando and Betty chose the name Camila for their daughter

Nicolás would totally want to go beat the s out of Armando and would totally fail.

Don Hermes would get the gun out and want to make whatever man got his only daughter pregnant come back and take responsibility.

Would Betty go to Cartagena?? If so, how many montjs into the pregnancy?? How lo g would she stay??

T H E F R E N C H M A N

Everyone would totally try to convince Armando that Betty got pregnant on purpose. “It’s the only way an uggo like her can get a husband!” “And with witchcraft!”

WHEN would Betty reveal to her parents who the father of the baby is???

Imagine Roberto’s and Don Hermes’ convo…

SO MANY THINGS THAT COULD HAPPENNNN

Angst.

so yeah. I think that’s it lol. So, to summarize real quick:

Edit: sorry for the disorganization; hopefully y’all are used to my disorganization by now lol

#ysblf #yo soy betty la fea #armando mendoza #betty la fea #beatriz pinzón solano #beatriz pinzon solano #marcela valencia #armando ysblf #betty ysblf #nicolas mora #ysblf fanfiction

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