Not Your Average Gryffindor

I haven't decided what this will be yet...but it'll be something

[gryffinwall]

The Five Hills I'd Die on for Girl Meets World

Soooo, it’s been a minute since I’ve written anything. I fully intended to get this up on the blog at least a month ago, but you know how it goes. This has been sitting in my drafts for quite some time, so without further ado, I present to you the five hills I will die on when it comes to Girl Meets World. In (mostly) no particular order:

Lucas picked Maya originally

I’ve written about this in the past, so I won’t spend a ton of time rehashing everything. But to this day, I am fully, completely sure that Lucas originally picked Maya in Upstate. Go back and watch that scene with the perspective that he was going to pick Maya, and then watch it again with the perspective of him picking Riley. See which one tracks and which one doesn’t. It was Maya, 100%. If nothing else, that smirky, flirty expression Lucas has on his face when Maya grabs his shirt is a dead giveaway. That is not the face you make when you’re about to reject a girl for her best friend.

Of all the hills on the list, this is THE hill I will die on if I could only pick one, that’s how strongly I believe it.

Riley & Farkle were endgame

The above may be my number one hill, but this entry isn’t too far behind. I know I’m not alone in believing that had the show been renewed, even for one more season, we would have seen a development in the Riley-Farkle relationship. Throughout the show, and especially in the third season, we see Riley and Farkle have a deep connection, a much deeper one than she has with Lucas (and deeper than what Farkle has with Smackle. Yeah, I said it!). They truly, deeply, genuinely love each other, and based on what we saw in the third season, it looked like the writers were setting it up for them to develop romantic feelings as they got older. In Boy Meets World, Topanga’s dad admits he used to be scared that he’d find Topanga in the basement (i.e., making out) with Shawn but realizes it was Cory he should have been afraid of all along. My hunch is that we would have gotten a similar callback had the show gotten renewed.

There are also some fascinating parallels between Topanga and Farkle, and I’m totally sold on the argument that he is the Topanga of GMW, not Lucas. But that’s another topic for another day.

The girls’ friendship was actually kind of toxic

We can all agree that the Rilaya friendship was one of the best parts of the show. They loved each other, supported each other, and would do anything to help the other out or spare their feelings. However, they each did something to the other that was ended up being pretty hurtful.

Riley, of course, is largely at fault for getting Maya to believe that her (Maya) growing up, maturing, and wanting to be a bit more responsible was somehow a bad thing, something that needed to be “fixed.” Maya was finally embracing hope and taking herself more seriously…and Riley put a quick stop to that because it “wasn’t her.” Oof. It ended up reverting Maya to her season 1 self, which is not a place Maya really wanted to be.

Maya, meanwhile, was the co-founding member of the Riley Committee, which sheltered Riley from life’s harsh realities and disappointments to the point that her growth was stunted. Despite Riley being a smart girl living in New York City, she apparently had no idea about war, poverty, homelessness, famine, etc. Maya and the others made sure her feelings were protected – they didn’t tell her about Pluto losing its status as a planet because they knew she’d get upset - but it resulted in Riley being immature and naïve to the point of being ignorant. Not a good look.

Neither girl had malicious intent; in fact, they both thought they were in the right to say and do the things they said and did. They would never do anything to intentionally hurt the other, but it ended up happening anyway. I would have loved to have seen this get addressed on the show, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

Girl Meets Belief is a super interesting insight into all dynamics of the core four’s relationships

Full disclosure, the original draft for this post ended up being significantly longer than it is currently, and it’s all because of this hill. It made me realize that I want to write a separate post about it, simply because I find said insights so fascinating. So I won’t go into too much detail right here and now. All you need to know is that I think this is a crucial episode to the series since it explores the relationships between our main four so perfectly. We see every iteration of the characters paired up together, and we see why every dynamic works the way it works. Idk, I’m kind of obsessed with it, and I will have more on that soon.

The story wasn’t finished

My last hill, and it’s a big one: I don’t think the story was finished. And not in the sense that it got cancelled somewhat unexpectedly; I mean that I personally think had the show gotten renewed, we would have seen some of the stories from season 3 come back in a future season. I wholly believe we were going to come back to the “Maya became Riley” story and find out that she, in fact, did not become Riley, that Riley was wrong about all of this, and that it was a simple case of Maya growing up. And that while Riley has undoubtedly been a significant influence on her, Maya did all the work herself to become a better person.

I also believe it was going to get revealed that Riley and Lucas didn’t act like a couple for a reason. They were going to learn the important lesson that perception of a thing doesn’t make it so, particularly when feelings are involved. In other words, they were going to find out that their sweet seventh grade crushes didn’t translate to genuine love between two teenagers – and that’s okay! Their lack of chemistry and lack of seeming like an actual couple, to me, was a pretty big hint that there was something more going on beyond “bad writing” and Disney channel restrictions. A shame we’ll never know for sure, but this is my gut feeling on the matter.

And there you have it! If you have any hills you’d die on, send them my way, I want to hear them. Hope you all had or are having a wonderful holiday season, and cheers to 2023!

[gryffinwall]

do you think Jack hunter should marry Judy Morgenstern so Maya and ava could be cousins ?

Definitely not.

[gryffinwall]

Do you think maya and lucas is the child version of barney and robin?

Wow, what a great question! I’ve never thought about that before, but…maybe! There are definitely some similarities, so there’s an argument to be made. In a way they kind of are, which is kind of a bummer. Funny enough, I LOVED Barney and Robin together and was disappointed they didn’t end up making it in the long run. Sounds familiar…

[gryffinwall]

Do you think farkle will leave smackle for riley because justin bieber breakup with selena gomez for hallie Baldwin

Nah, I think they’d have him and Smackle break up on their own first. Not a good look for Riley to “steal” her friend’s boyfriend (even though I don’t really believe in being able to steal a person, I think a lot of people wouldn’t have reacted too well to that).

[gryffinwall]

Lucas Friar Appreciation Post

Lucas often gets a bad rap for not being able to choose between the girls during the Not-a-Triangle situation – the phrase “fuckboy” gets used a lot – so it's only fitting he's the next one to receive an appreciation post.

1. Lucas put in a lot of work to be a better person, and it shows.

We know him as New York Lucas, who keeps his cool, makes good grades, and stays out of trouble. But it’s pretty clear he had to work through a LOT before transforming into the easy-going Lucas we've come to know. Not a lot of grown-ass adults can successfully manage their anger issues, so it’s pretty dang impressive Lucas was able to do it on his own.

2. He’s a great friend who will always be there for anyone who needs him.

Lucas was quick to defend Farkle when cool jock bro Billy called him a nothing. He stood up for Zay against that 30-something middle school kid even though it meant Lucas himself possibly getting in trouble for it. He felt crushed at not being able to protect the gang from the high school seniors. And of course, in spite of everything I just said about his anger management prowess, he was ready to stand up for Riley when he realized she was being bullied. He was the protector of the group, and he took his job seriously.

3. Lucas truly supported Maya’s art.

Oh look, my Lucaya bias is showing again! But it’s true – Lucas was consistently a huge source of support for Maya when it came to her art. He encouraged her to keep trying when she was ready to give up, and who could forget when he didn’t want the arts program to get cut because he knew those classes made her happy? Sure, Riley and the others supported her too, but Lucas seemed to have a better understanding of how deeply Maya's art meant to her.

4. The Not-a-Triangle was hard on him because he genuinely didn’t want to hurt either of the girls.

Okay, this one might be controversial. After all, it’s where he gets his fuckboy reputation. But hear me out: Lucas cared more about not hurting the girls and not damaging their friendship than he did about what he would get out of picking one of them. I won’t deny that some of that has to do with guilt, but let’s get real, how many guys would feel that upset over hurting someone he cared about that he was practically unwilling to make a decision at his own expense? And let's call it like it is: Lucas clearly felt unheard for a long time during that whole situationship. The girls were very much a part of why it took him so long to decide, but somehow the blame falls mainly on him.

5. He was surprisingly well-rounded for being the “face.”

Farkle called him “just a face” a lot and that couldn't be farther from the truth. Lucas was a great athlete, but he worked hard in school to the point of winning an athlete scholar award. He had a clear vision of what he wanted to do in life (become a veterinarian, in case you’ve forgotten). He also was elected class president, was vocal about his religious beliefs, got cast as Romeo in the school play, showed he cared more about ethics than money and won a bull riding competition. He also had a good sense of humour and was able to "tangle" with Maya, her words, pretty easily. We got a hint of an interesting family dynamic, what with his mother being the doting, loving parent and his dad being a bit of a hardass (remember Lucas calling his dad “sir”? Yikes.). And of course, there's also his aforementioned anger issues and his mysterious past involving getting held back a grade. Lucas easily could’ve just been the cute boy with not a lot going on, but he ended up being a far more interesting character than expected.

[gryffinwall]

Lucas Friar & Charlie Gardner are in a movie together 😂😂😂

They’re in He’s All That on Netflix if you want to check it out (and yes, they have scenes together!).

[gryffinwall]

So, how do Riley & Farkle get together?

I was asked quite some time ago to talk about how I thought Riley and Farkle would come together. I’ve thought about this a lot since then, and while I’m not 100% happy with my answer, I felt it was high time to give it to you.

First things first, Lucas and Riley need to realize they are not a good romantic match. The show caught a lot of flack for its alleged “bad writing,” and some of that criticism came from the lack of interaction between Riley and Lucas as a couple. If you’ve read anything else on this blog before, you would know I don’t buy into that theory for a second. Them not acting like they’re together and their anti-chemistry was completely, totally done on purpose. Yes, they liked each other, but as I’ve talked about before, neither saw their relationship for what it really was, and it checks out that they’d eventually realize they’re better off as friends.

After that, Smackle and Farkle need to break up as well. And if I’m being honest with you, this is the part that’s tripped me up for a long time. I wanted to break them up in a way that felt in line with the show while also hitting a natural ending for their relationship arc. And while this post is mainly about the Riarkle ship, it makes sense that Smarkle could end with both realizing they feel something for somebody else*.

For Smackle and Farkle, a big component of their relationship was helping each other grow. He helped her understand emotions and social cues, and in return, she helped him elevate his academic game. But after a while, there was bound to be a natural conclusion for these two. Considering Farkle himself doesn’t have the best understanding of feelings, there’s only so much he could do to help her grow. And as much as he’s always appreciated Smackle for inspiring him to be his best, that dynamic could still exist without a romantic aspect attached to it.

In other words, it checks out that they would both outgrow their relationship at some point. In fact, it would be surprising if they didn’t outgrow their eighth-grade relationship at some point (we can’t all be Cory & Topanga!).

So, Riley and Lucas break up because they realize they work better as friends. Smackle and Farkle break up because they realize they’ve outgrown their relationship — and have both felt sparks with other people. How do Riley and Farkle come together?

If it were me in charge, I would have them start spending more and more time together. There’s a bit of a parallel between Rucas and Smarkle — to an extent, they both realized their relationships sounded better on paper than it ended up being in reality. (It’s a bit more nuanced than that, but there are definitely some similarities. In my head, Farkle has a bit of a brain meltdown when he hears about Lucas and Riley ending their relationship. He’d have a bit of trouble comprehending something that makes logical sense not working out because of feelings, but he’d also have a bit of a lightbulb moment when thinking about his own relationship).

After some Lucaya-circa-S2-esque moments (i.e., flirting), Riley would be the first one to voice her feelings, even if it’s only to Maya. And because it’s her show, I really want Riley to have her moment. As much as she deserves the Big Romantic Gesture, I want Riley to be the one who tells Farkle how she feels first, and I want her to instigate the first kiss.

Annnnnd because I’m a cheesy sap, I've always imagined their first date being basically a direct parallel of GM First Date. Lucas and Maya would be each other’s “dates,” and our Riarkle dorks would do the goofy slo-mo run — to each other for real. I also have this very clear vision of Riley stumbling on the subway (because of course!), but Farkle catches her before she actually falls. He’s got her. :)

*I should probably mention here that the person Smackle starts feeling this for is Zay. But you probably knew that.

[gryffinwall]

In case you somehow missed it...

Happy Valentine’s Day! 💋

[gryffinwall]

A Roadmap of Lucaya: The Postmortem

Happy new year, chickadees! Hope your holiday season was wonderful!

I thought I’d wrap up my roadmap series with a (hopefully quick) postmortem of the ship. Kinda depressing, tbh, but it’d feel a little incomplete if we didn’t take a look at how Maya and Lucas’s interactions COMPLETELY changed post-Ski Lodge. Seriously, compare and contrast this list to the others and it’s a little insane. If nothing else, we can put the “Maya became Riley and didn’t actually like Lucas” thing to bed at last.

So, here are the Lucaya moments in season 3 after Ski Lodge:

Bear: Maya jumps on Lucas’s back, he throws her off and tells her she “lost.” Yikes. (And also, wtf Lucas? That’s a) rude AF and b) not exactly how it went down...)

Great Lady of New York: Maya throws stuff on Lucas’s desk to be funny and he’s not here for it.

World of Terror 3: Lucas calls Maya Peaches and she’s not here for it. Also, Lucas and Maya have the most personal conversation they’ve had since Ski Lodge, and probably the most one-on-one interaction since then as well. Too bad it happens in an AU.

Goodbye: They have a very brief, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it smile as they pass by each other in Topanga’s.

And that’s it. 5 moments, the biggest, most meaningful one isn’t even real, and the last one is almost non-existent.

Maya seemingly tries to go back to pre-Texas interactions, but he shuts her down pretty fast - and when he finally kinda sorta does the same, she shuts him down pretty fast. If she never really liked him, and he never really liked her, why can’t they go back to normal? Why did she stop hahurring him? Why do they barely speak to each other - hell, why can’t they even really LOOK at each other - for the rest of the season?

If you can’t see how much things changed between them after Ski Lodge, then I don’t know else to tell you. And don’t say it’s “bad writing.” That shit is intentional AF.

Before we put a bow on this miniseries, let’s put it all together! It’s pretty obvious that a Lucas-Maya thing was hinted at as early as the second episode of the series. The friendship is developed over the course of the first season but there are little nuggets of something else happening. It really ramps up in season two, with the Lucaya moments being higher and higher key as the season goes along. High key flirting on both ends and lots of physical contact between them. And then Texas hits and...

I didn’t cover anything from post-Texas to pre-Ski Lodge, partially because the episodes were aired in a screwy way that doesn’t make a lot of sense, and the point of the roadmaps was to see how the relationship evolved. But there’s a lot of good stuff in there, with a lottt of Lucas favouring Maya over Riley. Not always, but a lot, especially in season 3.

But post-Ski Lodge, after he picks Riley, everything changes between him and Maya. They’re barely friends anymore, and I think we all know the reason for that.

Coming up next: What would need to happen for Riarkle to come together! It’s a fun one!

[gryffinwall]

2021 & I’m still writing about this damn show 😂

[gryffinwall]

This moment 😍

Happy new year everyone!

[gryffinwall]

A Roadmap of Lucaya: Season 2

I’m back! Sorry this took so long, but I’m back at work (boo!) and that’s eating up a lot of my time. But since it’s a holiday today, I decided to finally get this up.

One quick note: There were SO MANY MOMENTS leading up to Texas that I decided to focus more on the important ones. For real, the original version of this post was uncomfortably long. I’ll summarize the smaller moments at the end of the post.

Without further ado, season 2!

Mr. Squirrels: This is where things start getting interesting! Lucas finally teases Maya back, and she’s upset about it (though more so at Riley than him; however, she’s not pleased with him). Lucas tells Eric that Maya teases him every day, Eric asks why, and he doesn’t answer. Zay straight up says he’d like to know why, but there’s no response from Lucas. Guys, these episodes are only 21, 22 minutes long; literally every minute is important. The fact they spent time on this exchange is very, very telling! Alarm bells should be going off for the audience right now.

Also, there’s this exchange, from Lucas to Maya: “You want to tangle with me?” “Not yet.” HMMM.

Rules: Here we’ve got what is inarguably the flirtiest moment between any two characters of the entire series. If you watched the shirt grab/street cred scene out of context, you’d assume these two characters were together, or at least each other’s love interests. It’s that obvious.

Also, Lucas runs off to Mayaville, leaving RileyTown in the dust.

New Teacher: Maya makes fun of Lucas for riding a sheep, which is some clever as hell foreshadowing. This is also the episode where Auggie’s reading Archie comments and asks if two girls who like the same boy can stay friends. More foreshadowing, even though it’s not strictly a Lucaya moment.

Yearbook: Lucas and Maya win Best Couple in the yearbook. The whole class ships them (they’re like fire!) and while Maya’s a little surprised by all of this, neither she nor Lucas react all that strongly to it. Suuuuuper interesting Lucas doesn’t reassure Riley about it.

Creativity: This is a huge one, guys. Maybe one of the biggest pre-Texas episodes for them.

Lucas is very passionate about not wanting to lose the arts program for Maya’s sake. He calls her a great artist, and says (and I quote): “Well, I don’t want [the arts program getting cut] for Maya. I want Maya to be happy.”

They hold each other’s gaze for so long that Zay, our #1 Lucaya stan, actually comments on it. Riley finally notices. Zay also reveals in this episode that Lucas referred to Maya as the Blonde Beauty. Maya is surprised and Lucas is suuuuper uncomfortable.

Cory & Topanga: This is a major signal of how Maya feels. We see a cute Corpanga flashback, where they high five and it’s obvious they both feel sparks.

After this flashback, Maya tries to chase Farkle, but Lucas intercepts and guides her back to her chair. Maya turns to look at him with a bewildered look on her face, but doesn’t say anything. To directly contrast this, Maya and Farkle later high five and she straight up says she doesn’t feel anything.

Rah Rah: A final pre-Texas flirt moment. While watching Riley try out for cheerleading, Lucas covers Maya’s eyes while leaning in and ducking behind her. Just in case we needed another clue that these two are more than okay with being physically close with each other.

Also, this scene takes place in the gym. It’s funny to contrast this to that scene in Flaws, where Maya jumps on his back and he tells her to get off. It also takes place in the gym. Not that important, but I wanted to point out how far along these two have come!

Anyway, and that’s it. We arrive at Texas after this episode, when the beans get spilled and everything’s out in the open. So, let’s put it all together and see what can gleam from it.

Early on in the season, we see massive, anvil-sized hints that Lucas lets Maya tease him because he likes her. Right after that, we’re given the biggest flirt moment of the series, and following that is foreshadowing of the triangle. None of this is a coincidence.

If that’s not enough, things continue to ramp up even more. Lucas is passionate about supporting Maya and announcing to the whole class he wants her to be happy, which is way more than he’s ever done for Riley, his supposed OTP. We see later on Maya realizing she feels something for Lucas when he touches her, and in case you missed the hint the first time, they circle back to it by contrasting her reaction to Farkle. Remember what I said about how literally every minute counts during a 21/22ish minute show? Yeah, this Lucaya moment was a big deal. Same thing with the prolonged eye contact in Creativity - they spent time on Zay commenting on it, Riley noticing it, and of course, on the moment itself. If you can spin that some other way, I’d love to hear it.

(It’s interesting to me that they signalled Lucas’s feelings first, earlier in the season, and Maya’s feelings much closer to the big reveal. I personally think the GM Cory & Topanga moment was sort of a final “hey everyone, in case you haven’t pieced it together yet, here you go” situation, but that’s just my take.)

Before I wrap this up, I wanted to say that it’s a shame Belief was post-Texas. It has some amazing stuff in it in terms of both Lucaya and Riarkle, so I think I’ll do a separate post on it. The core four’s dynamics this season were very interesting, with Belief being among the most telling. So that post, as well as some Riarkle stuff, is in the works!

As promised, the non-essential Lucaya moments of this season:

-Lucas being thrilled about Maya’s middle name being revealed (New World)

-Maya somehow knowing Lucas’s grandpa is called Pappy Joe (Pluto)

-Mr. Squirrels Goes to Washington: Maya calls Lucas by his name for once and says, somewhat sweetly, she’s always known his name. Lucas is pleased. She calls him Lucas a lot in this season.

-Semi-Formal: Lucas gets all flustered when he realizes he’s dancing with Maya

-RileyTown: Lucas is chosen to be on Maya’s side of the duel in case he needs to “contain” her. It’s another cute flirty moment. Maya is impressed by/attracted to Lucas’s strength.

[gryffinwall]

heey! can you please make a deep analysis on Riarkle? i’ve always believed that Riarkle was meant to be endgame from the very first start, from the very first episode. but i’ve always had some trouble on imagining how the writers would’ve ended things between Smarkle. it would be amazing to hear what you think the writers would’ve done with this and how Riarkle would have been built!!

Yes! I’m going to finish up my Lucaya season 2 roadmap, but tackling Riarkle is next on the list! 😁

[gryffinwall]

A Roadmap of Lucaya: Season 1

We all know Maya liked Lucas for a long time (and that the “she only liked him to see if he’s good enough for Riley” thing is bullshit). But when did he start liking her? When did it start becoming obvious?

In other words, I thought it’d be fun to map out the Lucaya story from the pilot until Texas, and see what we can see. Since this will take a while, I’m going to focus on season 1 only in this post; season 2 will come soon.

So, let’s take a look at the Lucaya moments, big and small, and then we’ll talk about them in a broader sense.

Pilot: The sloppy joe thing. Farkle uses sloppy joes and chicken pot pie as obvious metaphors for the girls (sloppy joe = Maya, chicken pot pie = Riley). Lucas is eating a sloppy joe, as is Maya. I personally don’t think this necessarily means Lucaya, but it’s an interesting minor observation. (It’s also a callback to a Boy Meets World episode and Cory and Shawn have a verrry similar lunch food=girls conversation)

Boy: The start playing their “game” of teasing each other.

Father: The game continues. Maya seem almost jealous when she can’t get Lucas’s attention back onto her as she’s teasing him while he walks away with Riley. At the school dance, he brings her a rose. She comments that he puts thought into their game; he agrees.

Maya’s Mother: Lucas shuts Farkle up when he starts putting his foot in his mouth in regards to Katy not showing up to Maya’s art show.

1961: The first time Lucas is outright supportive of Maya: he encourages to keep trying with her art.

We see more of their game when discussing his great grandfather - Maya sings a song about it, and Lucas doesn’t seem to mind. Likewise, Lucas is thrilled when he finds out Maya’s family comes from the Clutterbucket name.

And things start to get interesting here: Maya’s grandmother May seemed to have a “missed opportunity” - the theme of the episode - with Lucas’s grandfather. (Likewise, there’s a hint of this with Riley and Farkle’s grandparents.) While this connection is between the grandparents and not the kids, this is all VERY eye opening.

Crazy Hat: The birth of the first hahurr. It comes after Maya spent a day (offscreen) alone with Lucas.

Flaws: Lucas picks up Maya to stop her from doing something she might regret. Maya later jumps on his back to stop him from doing the same thing.

Friendship: Lucas appoints Maya as his Secretary of State, and it’s very clearly spelled out that it means he thinks highly of her. She helps put together a video for him that means a lot to him.

Their games continues, when Maya sings a song about him and he plays along on his harmonica.

First Date: There’s an interesting exchange between Farkle and Lucas about dating the girls, and Lucas says if Farkle started dating one, he’d start dating the “other one.” Moments later, Maya approaches him and he greets her as Other One.

He ends his date with Riley (that they’ve been on for all of 2 minutes, poor Riley) because Maya’s upset and encourages Riles to go to her.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t address this, even though I honestly, truly don’t know what to make of it:

Maya is wearing a yellow top, and Lucas is in a bright turquoise. In the background of the scene, there’s a boy and a girl at the water fountain (I think?), and she’s in a bright turquoise dress; the boy is in yellow.

So what does it mean? Possibly nothing, but it’s sooo strange. They’re not explicitly focused on, but they are very much in several shots, and it’s a little distracting and hard not to notice. I’m not saying this automatically means Lucaya, but...god it’s bizarre. If they were both in blue, or more neutral colours, I’d chalk it up to coincidence. But yellow and turquoise? That shit’s intentional.I just don’t know why.

Okay! Now that we’ve laid out the Lucaya moments, what can we gleam from this?

Well, it seems to me there’s been small nuggets of Lucaya from the early days. They start playing their “game” as early as the second episode, and it ramps up throughout the season. Lucas never seems to be genuinely upset with her about any of this; in fact, her encourages her and often joins in in some way.

Crazy Hat seems to be the turning point: they spend time alone together, and Maya hahurrs him, which quickly becomes a staple in their relationship. And to make it more interesting, we see them get more physical with each other directly after that episode. Interesting development, huh?

We’ve seen that despite their teasing, Lucas is protective of Maya and her feelings pretty early on. We also have it spelled out for us that he thinks highly of her - in the same episode where he takes Riley on a seemingly romantic princess horsey ride, no less.

Lucaya is low key in season one, but it’s there. We see their relationship develop and grow as the season progresses. Season 2 is where everything ramps up like crazy, but there are some eyebrow raising moments in season 1 for sure.

[milkylilt]

Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old ER technician and former EMT, was lying in her own bed when police broke in and shot her eight times without so much as announcing their presence. Say her name. Do the work. Text. Call. Sign. Donate.

All graphic credit to @xonecole on Instagram.

[gryffinwall]

Zay Babineaux Appreciation Post

1. The time he offered to go to the movies with Maya so she wouldn’t feel lonely.

He and Maya have a special bond, and I love it. He watches out for her in ways that other people don’t.

2. “Your voice is my favourite thing about you.”

Come ON! Zay! I’m feeling things too, Smackle.

3. The time he didn’t want to come through Riley’s window because it was impolite.

While there are some interesting racial implications here (and makes me wonder if we would’ve gotten an episode about racism if we’d gotten a season 4), it’s still pretty funny. Made even better by him eating the Matthews’ cereal and drinking the rest of their milk.

4. The time he bonded with Farkle over their ancestors.

We didn’t get to see a lot of Farkle and Zay interacting without Lucas involved in some way, but whenever we did, it was gold. This is one of their best moments together. It was brief, but the way Zay offered to be there for Farkle will always stand out, and it shows he’s more than just the funny best friend.

5. All the little things that make him Zay.

His combo love/fear of cheerleaders. The fact that he calls himself sinewy. How he cherishes cookies from his grandmother. Him low key shipping Lucaya and being the only one to call Lucas out on it. His secret handshake with Maya. His hilarious “dance” with Smackle when she had a mini-breakdown. The more I watch, the more I look forward to seeing Zay on the screen!

A more in-depth post is coming soon!

[gryffinwall]

Unpopular Opinion: Josh was a CREEP

He was four years older than Maya and that is a huuuuuge difference when one of the two people involved is barely 14 years old. He was a freshman in COLLEGE and she was a freshman in HIGH SCHOOL.

I can see why younger fans think it’s romantic or cute, but us older fans know it’s MAJORLY problematic. To the point where I’m surprised the network allowed this at all. I didn’t have a problem when it was just Maya having a crush on him - that’s normal! - but then they had Josh reciprocate it and 🤢🤢🤢

And to people who think they belong together or are soulmates: Josh and Maya know next to nothing about each other. They have nothing in common. And to make matters worse, during the only semi-meaningful conversation they’ve had, Josh said some things to Maya that were wrong and damaging (how she “became Riley” so she could see if Lucas was good enough for Riley - that’s not a thing! Stop invalidating Maya’s growth and feelings!).

This isn’t me coming from a Lucaya shipping perspective - I felt this way even before shipping those two. And yes, even though Josh and Maya talked about a romantic relationship “some day” as opposed to now, it’s still gross, inappropriate and uncomfortable. Or, to quote Eric Matthews: “that’s just sick and weird!”