#gmw rant

[zukoisneverhappy]

You know?? The thing that irked me the most in the whole “Maya’s identity crisis” was Riley’s parents going along with it!!! Liiiike!!

They preach over and over again (also in that episode) that people change people. And yet Maya being a good person, and getting good grades is sooooo unlike Maya???

She’s supposed to be growing! You didn’t “break” her gosh. What a backwards view!

They are a d u l t s and they handled that soo horribly!!

corpanga really should shift focus onto riley and her growth........... or lack thereof

[rowbrucas]

i like to think that the reason we dont have much social media reyton evidence is bc theyre too aware of what they have experienced during gmw and that has reflected in their real life like rows first kiss being with him and idk maybe im the only one but i think thats a big deal considering it was with someone older than her and its something a girl doesnt usually forgets and probably shes as goofy as we all think she is which means she cant really have a bond like she was with corey or brina bc she has not experienced something like that with them idk if i get my point straight ugh 

[saintupidtown]

You know what confuses me a lot? Farkle’s comment about stepping back in Sweet Sixteen and how he “learned that from Riley.”

It seems very out of character to me that he would seriously consider doing such a thing. He told Riley that stepping back was wrong because she still had feelings for Lucas, so why would he say he’d do the same with Smackle and Lucas when he knows how badly it would play out?

I don’t have many concrete thoughts on this at the moment, but come back to me later. I just know that this exchange confuses me. Farkle’s never really been someone who repeats history, especially mistakes, so why would he now?

@theowldetective @bmgmw @bmwwritinggmw You guys have anything to add to this or can you shed some light on it for me?

[wickeryburning]

Unpopular opinion: I think I already know your answer but I'm interested to hear the oncoming rant so..... the identity crisis/change of maya hart was well deserved and justified (even I disagree with this so feel free to completely take down Riley)

Actually… if we’re talking about the existence of Maya’s identity crisis in general…

Strongly Agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly Disagree

The reason for this only being a disagree is because I understand what the writers were doing with Maya’s character arc as far as the identity crisis is concerned. I didn’t love the implementation of it, and it’s no secret that I hate the idea that Maya has been someone other than herself for the latter half of Season 2 all the way up to the identity crisis itself in Season 3. A big part of why I dislike it is because we didn’t get a Season 4 to explain the reasons behind why it happened. Therefore it left a whole generation of kids thinking that it’s possible you can entirely become someone else, including absorbing their feelings like a sponge, which is absolutely impossible to do, as any mature adult would understand. Maya had her own sets of feelings for Lucas, she just wasn’t given a chance to figure out those feelings because of what happened at New Years on the rooftop and the fallout of that.

The reason the identity crisis was an important part of Maya’s character arc is because Maya did end up taking a hard turn into Rileytown. Before it sounds like I’m jumping ship, let me explain that thought. First of all, let’s be clear that Maya was absolutely herself through all of Season 2. There’s no doubt there. Maya’s feelings for Lucas are entirely organic and have been growing since the first episode of Season 1 in that subway car. She wasn’t always aware of those feelings, but they were definitely there. Mid-way through Season 2 Maya comes to realize those feelings for Lucas (I’d say right around the Yearbook/Semi-Formal/Creativity trifecta) but buries them, for both the sake of Riley and because she’s afraid to feel anything for anyone that she thinks might leave her one day (daddy issues). Then Texas happens and Maya is forced to actualize her feelings for Lucas (take note it’s Riley that forces this) and they try dating, and although it seems to go poorly may I play a little “spot the difference” here and say that although their first date may start as uncomfortable, they both end up smiling at each other after the smoothie incident and Lucas comes back changed to continue the date, indicating that he doesn’t think it’s gone poorly versus the Liley first date where they both are very uncomfortable the whole time until they decide to just be friends, but I digress. Then New Years happens and Maya is clearly thinking “damn this is what I get for hoping for things” and looks seriously upset after the Farkle blab (if you want to see my analysis of GM New Year and the importance of the blab itself I can post it again). Anyway, enter Season 3 where the triangle continues to put more and more emotional pressure on the three in question, which soon reaches a boiling point in GM Triangle where Maya becomes seriously concerned over her friendship with Riley being able to withstand the pressures of Lucas choosing one over the other. Couple this emotional pressure along with all of the other changes that have been going on in her life (Hurricane/Forgiveness Project/Bay Window/Legacy), Maya THEN takes a hard turn into Rileytown to compensate emotionally. She does this because Maya, more than anyone in the group, hates change. She pretends it’s a good thing when it doesn’t concern her, but when it does oh boy watch out. Change to her is equated with leaving (her father being the primary reason for this). This compensation is where Riley falsely identifies Maya as having an “identity crisis” and forces the idea on her that she’s not herself anymore and has in fact turned into her. Maya is too young to know that’s an impossible thing and just sort of rolls with it (also because she trusts Riley to be able to identify her feelings for her), and then attempts to re-identify with herself, causing her to regress HARD. This identity crisis is actually a natural segue into Maya identifying herself as a tough person that still has hope and goodness inside of her, albeit a regressed one that is once again pushing the pure emotional connection she’s unfamiliar with (Lucas) away from herself and is allowing the safe commitment issues relationship with less chance of hurting her emotionally (Josh) in. You need only see her reaction towards Shawn in I Do to know she’s still keeping parts of herself reserved just in case things don’t go the way she hopes.

So that was a lot, but the point is that the identity crisis had a purpose, it just wasn’t explained well enough because Disney screwed us out of a final season. Season 4 was meant to be the season where the kids realized the destruction their feelings wrought in Season 3 and attempted to pick up the pieces and rebuild. I wouldn’t have been surprised in the least if one of the big plot-driven episodes had Maya saying the words “I’ve been me the whole time” in an awed voice in spite of herself. She also would’ve realized that “saving herself” for a “maybe one day” with Josh is extremely unhealthy at her age. Do I think that would’ve immediately caused her to jump into Lucas’s arms? Nope not one bit. In fact, I don’t think we would’ve gotten a solid Lucaya confirmation until the final episodes of the season (and series) because she would still need to come to terms with her faith in herself and her emotions being a positive influence on her life.

So in summary the kids were still growing. The identity crisis was a part of that growth for Maya. Do I think there could have been a better way of going about that? Yup. But it is what it is. My main problem with it is that it wasn’t explained well enough because the Disney execs are a bunch of asshats.

Now if your real statement was “Riley was absolutely right about Maya becoming her” I would definitely give you a STRONGLY DISAGREE.

Send me your unpopular/popular opinions!

[wickeryburning]

Honestly, I think Michael Jacobs was developing Riley Matthews to the point where she could feel secure enough to walk away from a failing relationship that's built on nothing but a misplaced notion of what love is. But we didn't get to see that and probably never will and it makes me really sad, because I really want to like Riley, but I have a really hard time feeling anything for her when she has the same insecurity issues every episode and never changes. Maya on the other hand changes so much and so often that it seemed like by the time season three was airing they forgot what they were doing with the character, which in turn brought on the horrible retcon that is the identity crisis. I dunno man I just have so many feels about this show and wish there had been some better closure but instead we have way more what ifs than answers.

[emjaywatscn]

You know what bothers me? I understand that RL shippers are upset they didn’t get the hug, but why don’t they just say that, instead of saying “I’m upset because they are cutting all of Riley’s scenes” (to make room for Maya’s scenes) when they really mean, “I’m upset because they are cutting Rilucas’s scenes.” You’d think they’d get it by now, that it is not bad writing, the writers are trYING TO TELL US ALL WHAT IS HAPPENING, but they won’t listen. I am upset Rilucas didn’t get the hug too because if they are gonna be a couple for however many episodes, I want to see growth in their relationship, not back to square one where nothing is happening, and they are just awkward. I empathize with their shippers…but this bugs me to death.

[midge-maisel]

lmfrero i feel like i’m constantly negative about this show now but idk. tbh this episode kind of just annoyed me and reminded me why i’m constantly so frustrated with this show lmao. you mean to tell me, riley, who lives in nEW YORK CITY. WHERE THE TWIN TOWERS WERE STRUCK ON 9/11. RILEY. WHO KNOWS ABOUT MALALA YOUSAFZAI. RILEY. WHO WAS CRYING AS SHE HEARD CORY TALK ABOUT HOW MANY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD LIVE IN POVERTY knows noTHING about poverty, hunger, and war that’s going on in the world??? honestly i just don’t think the writers know how they want to write her (or any of these characters) anymore. i’m getting rlly annoyed w/how they constantly retcon things.

everyone is always so one note and never really “learns” anything after the credits roll. this isn’t episode specific, its a huge problem this show seems to have. riley is just a ~naive girl who knows nothing about anything, girl who can do nOo wrong~. maya is always just like ~ugh my life is sOooOoo HARD as a white blonde girl in america even tho 2 episodes ago we talked about how my life was actually kinda great but who needs to remember tHAT????~. lucas... i obv like him a lot but we know next to noTHIng rlly about him even though we’ve had so. many. opportunities for development. but i guess it’s not as bad as zay who seems to only be there for comedic relief and occasional words of wisdom. i guess i’d say farkle and isadora have the most development in terms of character gROWTH (we dont know enough about them outside of the group tho imo). and literally don’t even get me started about how cardboard the old bmw crew is on this show. it’s like every last bit of life and character was drained out of them.

[grvywaren]

when will maya hart's feelings be validated