Ellipsus is telling me the reading time on Chapter Twelve so far is 38 minutes, and it's not even done yet 🤣
In case you're wondering, I'm aiming to publish possibly next month, but that will obviously depend on if I finish by the end of June. Either way, you’ll likely have the next chapter before mid-July at the latest.
I thought of something weeks ago and I thought I should throw it out there to see if it makes sense:
In S4 E5, Topanga talks about the break down of the American family and how it's like the number one thing plaguing society or whatever, the kind of thing pre-retcon Topanga would never say.
That whole thing has always annoyed me because my God they defanged her so much as the show went on...
But y'know what? This could have been a really important moment for her. Walk with me here:
S4 E16&17 have the whole Pittsburgh saga, we all remember that, and then at the end of S6 and start of S7 the explanation is that Jed and Rhiannon moved there in an attempt to save their marriage since Jed was in cahoots with some woman called Marie (I'm going off of memory here, but I think that's the basic story the writers went with), something that Topanga had no knowledge of.
So going back to the whole "break down of the American family" thing, wouldn't it have been so interesting if that was a product of her at least subconsciously knowing something was wrong with her parents' marriage? It would make a lot of sense for her to say it in that context, and also explain why she was so upset with Cory for not being dad material at sixteen.
People have a habit of getting upset about one thing when there's something else bothering them. I highly doubt the writers thought that far ahead, in fact I'd be willing to put money on it, but reading that moment through that context changes things.
Sometimes, when I get writers block for the chapter I'm working on, I write something for the chapter after it, since I can remind myself what the current chapter needs to set up for the next one.
I wrote the opening scene for Chapter Thirteen... I'm obsessed with it, you are not fucking ready 🤭
The difference between Shory and Jeric is one is a pair of star crossed lovers and the other are friends-with-benefits who need to talk about their feelings.
The long version is:
You kind of... can't compare Shory and Jeric. But also, you have no choice but to compare them.
Jeric would not exist without Shory, that is just a fact, they exist to be a second Shory in a sense, so you would expect a lot of similarities between the two ships and, like, yeah there are. But these two ships are also so different.
@mangora explained it really well in this post, and I just want to delve deeper into that.
Shawn & Cory as both a friendship and a romantic pairing have something Jack & Eric don't: in-text depth.
By the time Jack shows up, we've watched four whole seasons of Shawn and Cory’s dynamic, and since Cory is the main character, many episodes revolve around him and Shawn. Not to mention (and this is a fun fact for you) Shawn and Cory are the only two characters who show up in every single episode. It's true! All 158 episodes have them. Not every episode has Mr. Feeny! Or Eric! Or Topanga! But every single episode has Shawn and Cory. (Here is my source, which I have checked myself on the BMW fanwiki.)
Four seasons of Shawn and Cory, that's 89 episodes. Jack shows up in the 90th episode, and even then there are still episodes he isn't in.
All of which is to say, the writers had more time to flesh out Shory's relationship.
But like... the writers still had a little under 70 episodes to flesh out Jack and Eric's relationship... and they kind of don't.
A lot of what makes Jack and Eric special is purely fanon.
I know I've just swung a bat at a beehive by saying that, and look! I love Jeric! I do genuinely believe they were built in a way that made them prime for canon ship status (were it not for the fact this show was made for American families in the 90's) BUT you have to admit that outside of the stuff that's clearly meant to be haha that's gay (sleep together, bathe together, and even get to see each other naked, etc) fans really had to fill in a lot of the blanks.
And I think the reason for this was because the writers could afford to give Shory a deeper relationship without it immediately coming across as gay, because Topanga was there.
They kind of did this with Rachel in S6, but it's obviously shallower, and she & Jack don't last.
Which is also why there are far more smutty Jeric fanfics than Shory fanfics, and why you see a lot of this formula in Jeric fics:
Eric offers Jack sex, after a lot of hesitation Jack accepts, they have sex, feelings are then discussed. They get together.
Whereas the formula in Shory fics usually goes one of two ways:
Topanga breaks up with Cory, sometimes because she realises he's in love with Shawn before Cory does or for some other reason. After some reflection, Cory accepts he's in love with Shawn, they get together.
OR
Shawn loves Cory. Shawn tells Cory. It's mutual. They get together. These fics either take place after Cory and Topanga break up or take place in an alternate timeline where C0rpanga never happens.
There's a reason why writers gravitate towards those narratives for those ships.
You could, in fact, write a fic where Shawn offers Cory sex, and those fics do exist! Just as fics where Rachel breaks up with Jack because she realises he loves Eric exist. But you're more likely to see it the other way around.
So why is that? Why is Jeric the (for lack of a better way of putting it) the friends-with-benefits to lovers ship? Well... because that's kind of how they're written in the show.
When you think about all the gay Shory jokes in the show VS the gay Jeric jokes in the show, you see a trend, and the trend is this:
Shawn & Cory toe the line of having an affair.
Jack & Eric are fucking.
Think 'An Affair To Forget'/'It's Not You... It's Me'/etc VS "[...] Girlfriends sleep together bathe together, and even get to see each other naked." "We already do that."
Jack & Eric in canon never really talk about their feelings. We see Shawn talk to Cory all the time and vice versa, but name a BMW episode where Jack and/or Eric really talk about their feelings. I think the closest we get is in S5 E2 when Eric encourages Jack to bond with Shawn.
So, says the fanfic writer, let's explore that. Let's explore Jeric growing closer through sexual intimacy, because the show sure as hell makes out they're sexually intimate.
And that makes sense because Shory grew up together whereas Jeric met at university. Shory's feelings have blossomed over years and Jeric are horny young adults.
Anyway if you've read this far: Hi!!! Remember what I said about Shawn & Cory always toeing the line of having an affair? Yeah, guess what Chapter Twelve of my fanfic is going to explore?
Just finished reading Boy Meets Rewind. I left some comments, but I figured I'd send you a message anyway to make sure you got it. I LOVE THIS FIC SO MUCH. You've genuinely inspired me so much from your writing. Best fic I've read in SO long. I'm excited to see what you do with it next.
rewatching boy meets world from the beginning for the first time in a few years and genuinely completely forgot that the entire pilot episodes premise is all of the adults in corys life drilling into his head that romance specifically between a man and a woman is the single most important thing in the world and that he will not understand anything until he himself experiences it, which is such an underrated talking point for my fellow gay!cory truthers. i always considered season 2 as the official start of the cory queercoding but the very first episode of the show sets up corys mindset when it comes to his heteronormative outlook on romance later on near perfectly
Watching the pilot through a Gay Cory lens is actually insane. I've already talked about this in a previous post but adding on to everything that's already been said:
It also makes what happened with Eric and Cory later on in the show fucking tragic, because Cory was the one upset about his brother prioritising girls over time with him and he's literally told, "Hey, heterosexual love is the best thing ever stfu and get on the bandwagon" and by season seven it's Eric who's upset that Cory is prioritising Topanga (and Shawn) over him like wow turns out if you drill into the brain of an 11 year old boy that romantic love will someday be the most important thing to him he internalises it!!!
There are multiple times in the show where they try to convince you that Topanga is the axis in the main trio's love triangle, when anyone who is actually paying attention understands that it's Cory
People joke about how easy it was for Shawn to leave the Centre, and I get it, but I think Phillip Mack letting Shawn leave was a smart move on his part.
I think Mack was under the impression that Shawn really had no one, because that's what Shawn would have told him. He would have told Mack about Chet not being around and about Virna leaving again, so he's all alone living in a trailer park. Then Shawn would have probably mentioned adults not understanding him and "being against him", etc. And so Mack would see a vulnerable boy with no caring adults in his life, prime for grooming.
But then Amy and Alan show up, with Mr. Feeny, Shawn’s principle and the man who's been trying to shut down the Centre. This, on top of Shawn being a minor, means that if Mack tried to keep Shawn in his "care", Mack knows the Matthews' and Feeny wouldn't stand for it, and he knows that the law is not on his side.
The other members of the Centre are, in my understanding, largely made up of older high schoolers and college students. Most of them are probably between the ages of 18 and 22. Even if their parents kicked up a fuss, Mr. Mack can fall back on "Well so-and-so is an adult, they can make their own choices". He has the comfort of knowing the police are less likely to do anything if those people's parents make a complaint.
He does not have that with Shawn.
So he lets Shawn go. It's the strategic thing to do. Besides, Shawn was a new member, he was there for a couple of days at most, it's not really a huge loss for Mack.
I ended up learning quite a bit about cults in preparation for writing the S4 arc, and it's truly made me realise that it's now easier than ever to accidentally join a cult. I say 'accidentally' but fact is most people if not everyone joins a cult by accident, as in they join not knowing it's a cult.
It's also made writing about the Centre really interesting, because one of the key components of a cult is what the goal is. Everyone who starts a cult has a goal, and it's usually at least one of these three: money, power, or sex. And yes, a lot of cult leaders want all three, especially male cult leaders.
Which begs the question: What is Phillip Mack's goal with the Centre? And I have come up with my own answer for this, but will probably never explicitly state it in the story, rather leave it up to the reader to figure it out or come up with their own ideas.
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