#i understand that the appeal of dan is that he is relatively drama free

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

That’s a good point!!! It really is the symbiosis of the writing and the acting, and for Blair it really all came together. I think in light of that, it’s also interesting to think about Dan’s reception as a character, mostly because (in my opinion) Penn Badgley was by far the most talented and versatile actor in the male cast and basically the only actor (outside of Leighton, in the right project, and maaybbee Blake) who I could see actually winning an Emmy, yet Dan - for most of the show’s run, at least - was hated. It’s not like Penn Badgley became a significantly better actor since the show ended, either - he was always damn good, but the way Dan was written obviously incensed a lot of people. It’s just been really interesting (and weirdly satisfying, if I’m being honest) to see the way that viewers - and even journalists! - that dismissed Badgley as an actor because of their dislike of Dan flock to him now as Joe Goldberg. It makes me wonder how things could have been with Gossip Girl if they had kept Dan as the central male character, kept giving him weighty emotional arcs regularly, the way they did with Blair… if the writing had been there for him, would the fans have followed?

Yeah, you're right about it all coming together for Blair!! and i do feel the same way about Penn, the way he played Dan was just... idk. there was a lot of heart in there, if that makes sense to say, and he did a really good job at working with the bits of Dan that are contradictory/morally grey....

I agree that it's amazing seeing Penn being successful and praised now!! and honestly, yes, we're back in the territory of that Constance Grady Vox article we pass around here like 20 times every week - the narrative choice to cherish & elevate Chucky traits/values automatically turned Dan, and everything he represented, into something totally different, by virtue of how 180 Dan is to Chuck, and all that. best case scenario, you'd think dan humphrey was naive, average scenario, you'd think dan humphrey was a joke, worst case scenario, you'd think dan deserved every bad thing he got and more, because hey, the universe GG runs in has different morals than the real world, right?

idk, something I hate to see is how fans treated Vanessa, and by extension, Jessica Szohr. i don't think i'm really Jessica's biggest fan for various reasons, but on a recent-ish interview for the Orville in which she'd talked abt being friends with Leight (2018, if i remember right) people flooded the comments of that video with all kinds of rude, disrespectful stuff, going as far as to say that Jessica was "faking" her friendship with Leighton because she was "pathetic" and stuff like that.

I think it's just a big problem of the fandom, and I think it's one of those chicken & egg situations, probably. the show is pretty racist, classist, misogynistic, etc etc in a variety of ways, so it only follows that a large portion of fans - and indeed, the ones who love the show in its entirety, unlike some of us here who love parts of the show and condemn other parts ... it follows that those fans WOULD likely have similar problematic attitudes.

so like..... yeah, maybe! if the show had centred dan, and kept the heart it used to have (sibling relationships, found family, kids who feel like they don't belong, etc etc) it would've probably attracted a different viewer-base, who would've engaged differently.

also.......... they could've done a lot more with Dan than they did. like. Penn is a good enough actor to pull off the kind of absurd plots this show loved to throw around. they could've given him more fun scandals, like, idk.... take some of Serena's scandals and let Dan have those, I guess. i bet Badgley would've done justice to them. yes, i am thinking of that s3 dan/tripp AU that margottenbaum took down a while ago... if you've read it, you know what I mean. if not, don't worry; just imagine the serena/tripp arc with dan/tripp instead. and imagine Badgley acting that out. he would totally ace it, right?