As I am trying to go to sleep, I think about all the pain Jess is going through in Season 6 and how painful it is for me to watch Jess go through pain. Then I remember how Cece was in so much pain in Season 4 because of the whole Schmidt and Fawn thing and now I'm in a spiral and can't stop thinking about the conversation Schmidt and Cece had in the toilet (a moment where I think really made Cece fall for Schmidt) and the conversation Jess had with Nick during Cece and Schmidt's wedding about him being enough. Boy do I love sitcom romances and the pain they give me.
Schmidt was paired up with Fawn (who we will get into later, I wrote a lot of this for her but it ended up being more about how Schmidt is a better person than her, so this is that) to emphasize how healthy Cece and Schmidt’s relationship was compared to this one and being similar and ambitious isn’t the only thing you want out of life.
The true difference between those two ambitious Slytherins is morals. Fawn has no morals, she frequently makes Schmidt change his appearance due to what reporters say (like he’s too pale) and makes him look like different ethnic groups than he is so she looks supportive of them which seems (a little) offensive to me (I am White but I feel like there’s like unspoken rules about this)
She basically publicly announced him as a pervert. Schmidt has morals that he won’t cross and if he does he feels genuine guilt over to the point Cece thought he was on drugs, Fawn has no morals. That the true difference between Fawn and Schmidt. Schmidt has morals, as much as he spend a previous episode fawning (no pun intended) over the First Class lounge and bonding with that rich snob, the man essentially to buy Cece from Schmidt in exchange for a card but Schmidt didn’t even consider it.
Fawn’s aware of how little morals she has and while she may feel bad for throwing Schmidt under the bus, it’s nowhere the kind of guilt that Schmidt felt when he cheated on Cece and Elizabeth. She felt guilt in the “I hate I have to do this but it’s the right thing to do for me” kind of way while Schmidt’s was in more of a “I am a terrible, terrible, terrible person kind of way”.
And she’s aware of this, she tries too hard to show that she’s supportive of ethnic groups by making Schmidt look like them, for example in the episode The Crawl, apparently she wants him to look for Mexican and (I am a white person so pardon me if I’m wrong or somehow offend anyone) isn’t it kind of offensive to be a white person acting as or doing something that belongs to a certain culture. (Like in Brooklyn 99, Charles kept trying to make things up to Terry for the oppression African Americans had suffered but he was doing it in the wrong way). And she isn’t the one who will be accused of this because it’s Schmidt who’s doing it. (To me, it feels like in the Office, when the only reason Angela’s gay husband invited Oscar to his and Angela’s son’s first birthday party was because he was Hispanic and it seemed to be more of a publicity stunt than a birthday party as opposed to because he wanted him there.)
Fawn and Schmidt have a lot of similarities that he doesn’t have with Cece: Ambition (different kind of ambition than the kind Cece has), Dramatics, Weird tactics for success that have absolutely nothing to do with succeeding (Panty Gate and… well, it’s Schmidt.), and manipulations.
This ultimately is what ends their relationship because of these similarities as she goes even more over-the-top for Schmidt. Saying after Schmidt has a freakout in the panty store, they enter Schmidt into rehab (is that legal? Like it’s not legal to have a fake doctor’s note or to put down someone else’s health insurance as yours but surely you can’t lie your way into rehab.), then we’ll announce that they’re getting married and she says by 2020 (five years) they’re living in a mayor’s mansion and after Schmidt’s protest, she tells him that he’d be rich and the entire fourth season he’s been declaring he’d be a billionaire soon.
And Schmidt said no, you know like someone with some sanity. Schmidt said, “I’m realizing… just now that it’s not what I want. I don’t want any of that. I want to be in love.” Then he starts to quote Beyonce and acts like he just came up with it.
And when he breaks up with her, (albeit she does admit that she doesn’t want it to come out the wrong way) the first thing she asks is if she lost his vote.
This is played in the same way that Reagan and Nick are. Reagan is like a confident version of Nick but more closed off and Nick realizes that he can’t be in a relationship with himself. He can’t be in a relationship with someone so similar to himself in the worst ways.
While Cece and Schmidt are a lot alike but Cece has a more compassionate kind of ambition, she is driven but is not willing to do whatever it takes and eventually, Schmidt calms down on his ambition to the point when he meets his assistant who reminds him of himself at that age, he’s kind of creeped out by him (with good reason). Cece becomes less selfish and closed off, possibly because she had to be the tough friend because Jess is basically a human bunny rabbit and because Schmidt’s the only guy she “dated” who didn’t show her off like she was some prize but because he genuinely thought she was the coolest person he had ever met and Cece liked Schmidt because of his weirdness and “quirks” while Fawn hated them.
Also, Fawn only encouraged Schmidt to be unhappy and to give up his dignity for her (which may be a play on how he expects others to do that to him) while Cece just wanted Schmidt to be happy. Cece never tries to break up Schmidt and Fawn, only telling him that she thinks that he is “fine as is” and shouldn’t have to change for anyone. In the season four episode, Oregan, Schmidt said, “I’m never gonna stop trying to make you happy, Cece.”
A few examples of Slytherins with morals that conflict with their ambition include (but not including The Cursed Child): Regulus Black, Draco Malfoy, and Narcissus Malfoy
If you are in a relationship like Fawn and Schmidd’s (Fawmidt), then get out you deserve to be happy. If you are dating someone who makes you feel miserable and less than. You need to get out. you deserve better.
Remember what Doctor Seuss/Horton the elephant from Horton Hears a Who said, “A person’s a person. No matter how small.”
