#but she also really hate it bc she loves to self-insert and fantasize

[sylhea-raemi]

[slutabed]

jabed itf anon here!

i am watching community with my mom. it’s her first time watching it, and we just got to season four. (she thought jeff was gonna choose abed for his tango partner in the hunger deans—i feel like that is worth noting.)

CW for the next part of this message: jeff’s G.I.Jeff suicide attempt

but also i would like to discuss the implications of jeff and abed being the ones to help each other out of their internal crises. jeff’s “winger speeches” pull abed out of his happy places and help him accept oncoming change. whereas abed is jeff’s symbol of family in the finale that pulls him out of his head when he’s scared of the future. while im not a super huge fan of season four, i do think it’s interesting that they’re set up as each other’s guidance when they’re struggling. just how they both seem to be afraid of the future and seek out the other’s voice in their heads for comfort. (and then i think this point could also be made for G.I.Jeff when abed is the one to break through jeff’s fantasized world when he’s scared of growing older, but overall im not a fan of how that episode glosses over jeff’s almost suicide, so i’m not really interested in inspecting that episode’s relationship dynamics when i feel jeff’s character and mental health deserved more proper fleshing out in it.)

anyway all this to say i guess i would just like to know what your thoughts are about the way the show sets them up to be each other’s sort of.... anchor.... maybe would be the word?? tether? i’m not sure. i know dan harmon always said they were two sides of the same coin and that post-s6 it would be interesting to see how they now have to exist without the other immediately around. anyway enough of my ramblings. i hope you’re well! <3

jabed intro to film anon ily and I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you lol <3 also I’m putting this under a read more because this got long af lol.

(I'm gonna ignore the whole part of both abed and jeff being dan harmon’s self-insert characters thing bc I think that’s obviously why they’re so developed as characters and work so well as twin sides of the same coin but that’s not as interesting as just taking the characters as they are lol)

but yeah I love the jeff/abed dichotomy! I obviously like jabed as a fun lil side project to my main trobed fixation but even in the trobed universe the jeff & abed friendship is so compelling. they work well because abed is, on the surface, so diametrically opposed to everything jeff wants to appear to be on the surface, and yet the reality is that abed is EXACTLY what jeff actually wants to be: wholly confident in himself, cognizant of what he wants, and unafraid to just go after it. and abed’s view of Jeff as the leading man is a fun little trope that exists within his lens of life as TV, but it’s also representative of the things Abed doesn’t actually think he can have (namely understanding, close relationships to other people, all the things he mentions over time but particularly in Contemporary American Poultry and Virtual Systems Analysis). 

I'm probably one of the few people who actually enjoyed season four (it has its characterization issues but I don’t actually hate it the way most people seem to), and so I really, really love the way the intro and finale mirror each other with Jeff and Abed helping to pull each other out of their own minds. There are a ton of incredible fics by v talented writers on AO3 that address the way Jeff and Abed probably have a lot of equal and opposite issues that they would be really adept at helping each other navigate. 

ahh idk I think I’m rambling here. I’m not sure I have anything poignant to add to this concept except that I do love them as a dichotomy, and whether platonic or romantic, I think it works. I think they both kind of help to keep each other grounded. I think it’s funny that Jeff is sort of the one to pull Abed out of his fantasy and is always sort of the one trying to remind Abed life is not a sitcom, and then at the end of season 4 it’s like he’s almost internalized Abed’s view of things too much and then in turn needs Abed to pull him back out of his own mind. 

The only thing I really??? really?????? really?????????? hate is the moment in Basic RV Repair and Palmistry when Jeff slaps Abed when he’s struggling to differentiate between reality and fantasy. I like season 6 just fine but I feel like they kind of fucked with Jeff’s character for no reason with no true resolution? And treating Abed like that seemed super out of character especially compared to the season 4 way they were able to pull each other out of their fantasy worlds. AND the fact that when Jeff is freaking out about Abed’s movie, Abed is the one to bring him back down to earth, and then just a few episodes later we see Jeff back to not understanding Abed’s perspective and, by his own admission, abusing him for it which is just so ???? to me.

So yeah sorry to take so long to respond to this and basically give you no clear coherent response! The answer is just: yes, I love Jeff and Abed as mirror images/polar opposites/twin sides of the same coin. I think they absolutely work as anchors and tethers to each other and I’m devastated about the way season 6 handles it. But I think the tethers absolutely work and make me insanely emotional about the series pilot and finale because the fact that Abed is the reason Jeff was able to assemble the group at all, and then also the last of the leaving group members Jeff says goodbye to.......I don’t have anything coherent to say about it I just love it a lot. 

[desertfragments]

jay - f, n, p, t, x, and y

F: Fun 1. what do they do for fun? Jay likes to play video games and stream ocassionally. Shes mostly into FPS games, but shs also enjoys Nintendo games, esp legend of zelda (shes reeeaaaally into botw. also when shes not playing games she likes to explore and hang out with her friends and do things with them

2. what is their ideal party? 3. who would they have the most fun with? These two are kinda tied together bc her ideal party is being with her friends. atm her friends are jeremy, xander, and cyrus, and the four of them do hang out a lot. tbh just hanging out with them is her ideal party

5. do they go out a lot? yes! jay is very much a person to go out and doing things so she likes to explore the city, which isnt hard since half the time shes tagging along with the band to whatever venue theyre playing at

N: Never Have I Ever 1. what would they never do? Have kids probably. Theres a lot of weird body feelings that she has that're associated with pregnancy. Aside from that, there isn't much that she wouldn’t do

2. what have they never done that they want to do? I think Jay would like to travel. Shes gone cross country before, mostly by car, but shed really enjoy going to other countries and seeing what its like. Shes kinda broke though so its not something that she'd do easily

3. is there anything they absolutely can’t believe people do? Seeeeeeexxxx

5. have they done anything they thought they’d never do? Be healthy tbh. Jay's grown a lot as a person and her history is very full of not great coping mechanisms. I don’t think that she thought it would get better but it did and she put in the work to get there.

P: Personality 1. what is their best personality trait? I personally really like how dynamic Jay is. She does things, shes active, shes friendly- it makes writing her really easy and fun. Shes high energy and I like that.

2. what is their worst personality trait? Jay generally is very bad at being conscious of other people. Like with cy, she generally assumes that other people are at the same level she is in terms of ability- esp when it comes to strength and physical ability. Jay's also p bad at respecting other peoples boundaries, esp when it comes to touch, and generally she can be kinda mean without intending to

5. do they hate anything about their personality/about other’s personalities? She thinks she's too sensitive (its actually RSD) and selfish bc she wants people to stick around and love her.

T: Truth 1. are they honest? Yeah, but its more out of necessity. She can't remember the lies she tells, so if she does lie, it's generally half-lies so the other person doesn’t ask about it.

2. can they tell if someone is lying? Probably not. Jay super isn't the best at reading body language or tone, and she trusts that people will be honest with her since she's honest with them.

4. have they lied about anything they regret lying about? Yeah. But its mostly things like not being honest about how she feels about people, or lying to herself and saying that something doesn't bother her when it does.

X: Xylophone 1. what is their favorite genre of music? Jay likes rock music mostly. Indie, punk, classic, etc.

3. do they have a favorite band/artist/singer? Oh, that's easy. Jay's favorite, bc theyre friends, is the Lost Capulets and by extension, Xander is her fav singer

4. can they sing well? / 5. can they rap? No to both of these. Jay can sing, but she's not good at it, and she deffo can't rap.

Y: You 1. how old were you when you created them? / 2. what inspired you to create them? Like. 10. She was my first oc bc I would fantasize about being her and doing whatever I wanted. She was super self-insert, but at the same time, I could kinda tell that she wasn't me exactly. Just really similar. It’s kinda funny bc she was my projection oc, and she's basically stayed that way

3. were they different when they were first created? Yeah! She has a personality and she's her own person now. There's more nuance and complexity to her, compared to when I was a kid, just making stuff up, you know? I didn't think things through for certain traits and events and I'm generally much better at that now, which in turns, effects how she's characterized

4. do you enjoy writing them more than other characters? / 5. what’s your favorite thing about them? See P1. Jay's easily my favorite oc bc she comes so easily to me in terms of writing. Shes basically me, just slightly to the left with more masculinity. And I like that. Writing her helps me to figure things out about myself and work through issues and self-examine. Maybe not all the time, but sometimes.