#team ben

[that-was-a-bit-stupid-of-you]

devi vishwakumar just spent an entire year pining for ben gross, if you even fucking care

[raekensluver]

u seriously didn't pay attention when you watched never have i ever if you're still team paxton. i'm willing to eleborate.

[ronthedunedain]

are you team mia or team ben

My protagonist brain is making it hard but I'm Benning to believe Mia has lost the plot.

[throwbacktears]

The nhie poll you made was interesting because I have been most people over the age of 20 go towards Benvi while most people under 18 are more Daxton. I personally have been in a relationship (still am) so I would go towards the type of guy I can have common goals with and maybe because of my experience I always saw Paxton as the high school guy but never the long term gal. there’s a point in ur life where u care less about physical attributes and more about contributions long term.

thats so interesting because i have the exact opposite experience for both myself and from other people. my friends and i are over 20, have been in relationships, and we all rooted for daxton.

while i think having common goals is great to have in a partner, i dont think thats the only consideration for what will make a relationship work with someone better over another -- there also has to be respect, kindness, and trust there as bare minimums, which were qualities that devi got from her relationship with paxton (even if devi couldn't see that at the time), but not from ben, until MAYBE the finale, and even then im not sure if i would say really that, or say their getting together even felt earned from a writing perspective. i mean, ben and devi struggled to just properly communicate and become a real endgame until the very last episode of the show. to your point about long term contributions from a partner, i also think paxton and devi are different enough to contribute something to each other so they can each learn and grow as individuals (more on this later). for that reason, i actually saw ben as the high school guy but never the long term guy and paxton as vice versa, because having common goals isn't always enough long term if the foundation for a healthy romantic relationship isn't even there.

i also think its a big misconception i see, particularly on tumblr for some reason, where people assume that daxton shippers only ship them because of paxton/darren's looks, which isn't always the case - at least of me and my friends, it isn't, and i'd argue that's the case for a lot of daxton shippers on here too more often than benvi shippers might want to admit: devi and paxton push each other just enough in a way that enables them both to grow as people and thus better partners, whereas ben and devi bicker to the point where its more toxic than it is endearing, particularly ben's racially insensitive and body-shaming comments towards her that he's made throughout the whole show. paxton has always gone out of his way to show his support for her, even if that meant putting his reputation on the line, while ben always stayed on the sidelines -- too scared to stand up for devi -- until, again, the finale. and devi and paxton share more common ground just from the standpoint of both coming from Asian backgrounds, so they already have that understanding and acceptance of each other/each other's cultures in a way that's instantly recognized compared to someone not from the same ethnic background (see: paxton complimenting devi's sari in season 1, vs. ben pointing out devi's mustache in season 1). so i've always found ben and devi's romantic dynamic and the hints of it thereof very off-putting (but as friends, sure, they work).

in a similar line of thinking, i actually thought people in the 18-25+ ages would prefer daxton, since that age group might have more relationship experience just by virtue of growing up and meeting more people outside of high school, whereas those younger and who haven't experienced something like that might not yet see benvi's dynamic as something unhealthy/not worth rooting for yet. but because the leading age group demographics for both ships were split even in the poll, i guess we can all just agree to disagree.

[drstark56]

Devi and Steven are going to Princeton together this year 👀

[thoughtsfromataco]

Hey fellow Team-Ben-from-the-beginning: HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE WINNING

[skittlexxx]

Just saw season 4 of 'Never have I ever' and ya'll, ETHAN IS SOO HOT!

[rosstrytobe]

Do something, babe

Say something...

Lose something, babe

Risk something

Choose something, babe

I got nothing to believe

Unless you're choosin' me

[yours-stargirl]

guys can we all collectively go back to the never have i ever era i just rewatched and it’s SO good

[moonstarsinfinity]

if tomorrow ben and devi aren't endgame i- 😭😭because academic rivals it's just >>>

[femininomen0n]

[corduevasmila]

Ben and Devi // Mine

I’m afraid I’ll never be able to let them go so I’ll try and always honor them.

I’m posting this everywhere because I can….. I miss them

[tesstuffsblog]

hello, i’m back! i’m just gonna say that, cause there’s a criminal lack of ben gross fanfics i decided to write one of my own! so if you want to read it it’s on wattpad <3

[theroyalmisfitmess]

Someone please tell me where to get Benvi scenepacks. I need to finish my The Very First Night edit 🤭

[throwbacktears]

now that nhie has come to an end, and there's a definitive, canon endgame to the infamous love triangle, im curious:

[mercedesssssss]

One thing abt ben and felicity is that they were never perfect and they're never going to be perfect. They both make bad decisions, do things I wish they didn't, but at the end of the day, I think that was the whole point.

The show showed us time and time again that quite literally no matter what they do, it is ALWAYS gonna be them in the end. No matter how much they hurt each other, they are always going to come back to each other and they will love each other MORE THAN and THROUGH their mistakes (even tho i do think there are things that happened that were ooc, ESP the beginningof 4x18 (yall KNOW)).

And I get being team Noel to an extent, bc trust ben pissed me the hell off too, multiple times, but at some point it's just like, it was NEVER going to be Noel. EVER. In the dream eps (ik some ppl love them and some dont) we see Noel pull that same type of thing with Hannah that we saw him do in s1 and that we have seen ben do, and I definitely think that served a purpose. It was to show that Noel isn't this perfect guy compared to ben, it showed that her and noel wouldn't be perfect and she wanted to be with him because of literally that, thinking that going back and choosing him would make everything better and that that was the choice she should've made. It showed her how choosing Noel wasn't the right choice because he was capable of those kinds of actions as well, and it wasnt worth it.

(and sidenote: she was capable of these actions too as we know because she cheated on ben with Noel)

All this to say is that those dream eps showed us and her that being with Noel or picking Noel was never gonna be an option. He was the second choice, the security blanket, but when it comes to it, he was never gonna be the better choice, the right choice, or even the one that got felicity better than anyone else (which the dream eps showed when ben was the one to believe her).

Do I think some things could've been done way better?? Absolutely. But one thing they did right was show how two people can be tethered for life and how even when they mess up time and time again, love truly wins out. He INHABITS her, like no one else can.

Lastly, I hate having this conversation without prefacing that this show was all about the drama. Everyone was toxic, everything was messy, and bringing that into this conversation is about as useful as talking to the wall. Some of yall just have to accept that everyone was toxic otherwise idek how you made it through the show and want to ship anyone.