#hod meta

[strideofpride]

“What do you think that Daddy’s gonna say when he hears about your latest escapade?!”

“He’ll say ‘Lemon, take care of it.’”

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I’m gonna fight someone. Mainly Alice. But also Brick. Cause they forced their 17 year old daughter into a situation where she had to step up and parent a 2 year old cause no one else was gonna do it and I - it’s just not fair. What Lemon went through was just not fair. 😔

[strideofpride]

tell me about your favourite hart of dixie episode <333333

That would be season 4, episode 7 “The Butterstick Tab”!

Most importantly (to me) it’s the conclusion to Lemon’s series long arc dealing with her mother’s abandonment. We get Lemon telling off her mother and the show makes it very clear that what Alice did is unforgivable and Lemon in no uncertain terms does not have to forgive her. And she doesn’t! And it’s awesome to see as someone with a shitty parent cause a lot of the time the prevailing attitude in media is you must forgive your shitty parent no matter how shitty they were because you can’t make peace otherwise. And Hart of Dixie completely rejects that! And instead, Lemon makes peace by welcoming her half sister Scarlett into her life ❤️

We also get so much other great Breeland stuff. Shelby being welcomed into the family, Magnolia admitting that Lemon was the closest thing she ever had as a mother (which is very sad but we don’t need to get into that rn) - also the way Zoe is practically an honorary Breeland in this episode, Brick’s confidant, Scarlett’s protector, and of course Lemon’s unlikely sounding board…*chef’s kiss*

Oh also the way Lavon promises to wait for Lemon. Swoon.

Second most importantly is George & AB’s first date. I don’t have an essay to write about that, I just think it’s all very sweet and cute and I love them so so much

Also Wade’s plot of learning how to stop flirting is silly and fun but that’s when I like Wade the best! (See also: that very silly plot in s1 when he had to figure out Hangover style what happened to him the night before)

Anyway I love every single part of this episode very very much, it’s a perfect episode and satisfies all of my hart of Dixie tastes so yeah 🫶🏻

fill my inbox ❣️

[strideofpride]

our girl Lemon Breeland <3

First impression

Honestly, don't really remember sorry (this is gonna be a theme). I think I was kind of just like...okay. Antagonist alert. I don't remember when I first fell in love with her, maybe late season 1?

Impression now

Love of my life!!!!!! Truly though, Lemon is one of my favorite characters of all time. The amount of time I've spent thinking about her, analyzing her...unquantifiable.

Favorite moment

Her telling off her mother and then inviting Scarlett out to brunch with her and Magnolia <3 <3 <3 v v important to me.

Idea for a story

I'm gonna preface this with that I'm probably never going to write it, because to be very frank, posting non Zade hod fic feels like talking to a brick wall, but I got a mini fic idea last week in my head of when it comes time to start trying for a family with Lavon, Lemon goes to Zoe for advice because obviously she wouldn't go to Brick on best practices for conception and what not and Zoe's just like. No thank you. And then Lemon threatens to get her medical license revoked if she doesn't help lololol

Unpopular opinion

I don't feel like there's a ton of disagreement in the hod fandom lol but I will say I do not at all like any sort of headcanon that involves Lemon having an unplanned pregnancy. She already had one child kinda dumped on her to take care of, let the next one be on her own terms!!!!!!

Favorite relationship

Ugh, this is hard but I think I ultimately have to go with Lavon. They just...they're just so perfect for each other in every way and I don't think people realize that cause of the bad timing when they first met and the George of it all but like. Idk the fact that Lemon considers Lavon to be the love of her life before they even officially get together, and not George, really says it all to me. Like I'm actually mad we only got the one flashback, cause clearly whatever they had during that six week affair was so insanely deep and beautiful and ugh. And also the fact she dresses younger when she's with him is not a coincidence that costume design is intentional!!!!! Lemon was forced to grow up so fast and preparing to be George's housewife was a big part of that and it's important to me that it was Lavon who brings out Lemon's girlboss side, that first starts as his campaign manager. It's important to me that she dresses younger in that one photo of her he kept and that she is dressed the youngest she ever has been in season 4 when they're getting together. Like it's all so!!!! Lavon brings Lemon back to the person she was before her mother left and the world was still full of possibilities for her!!! Again, it's also not a coincidence that her mother comes back right as she's about to get together with Lavon!!!!

Favorite headcanon

It's not even really a headcanon it's pretty much canon (to me) but Lemon's initial dislike of Zoe is entirely because she thinks Lavon is dating her, and has nothing to do with George until several episodes into s1 when she realizes Zoe likes him (also there's hella projection on Lemon's part as well because she thinks Zoe is attractive and has no idea what to do with that information)

send me a character and i'll tell you

[strideofpride]

If Gossip Girl is a show where everybody becomes their parents, then Hart of Dixie is a show where nobody becomes their parents.

Zoe chooses to stay in Bluebell and raise her baby with its father rather than running back to New York.

George chooses to fight for the little guy and follow his true passions, rather than sell out and devote his life to corporations that will never love him back.

When Lemon grows unhappy with her life, she doesn’t run away, she stays and works to give herself the life she wants with the help of her loved ones.

When Wade’s heart gets broken, he doesn’t retreat and become a shell of himself, he works hard to better himself instead.

Lavon learns that you have to be open and honest about how you’re feeling, that bottling things up only leads to more heartache down the road.

And AB learns that you can’t force things to happen, you have to let life surprise you with the unexpected.

[strideofpride]

Still having Lemon Breeland feelings and god, I wanna fight Alice Kinkaid.

Both George and Wade assert that the Lemon of s1 is a completely different Lemon than the one that existed in high school and I think there’s a very obvious explanation that Alice’s leaving caused a break in Lemon and in many ways split her into two. It’s a very Blair-coded trait, and Chrisinda/ @sudsnewsletter wrote about it very well in her Blair profile, but also I really think the title of “The Duality of Lemon Breeland” would work so well.

High school Lemon seems to have been a bit of a wild child, a high school mean girl who still hung out with Wade, and played pranks, and broke into George’s parents’ cabin with little hang-ups about things like “propriety”. We saw in the Christmas episode that she looked up to and idolized her mother, wanted to be like her, but all of that was so far off into the future, for now Lemon was still young and free and could afford to be reckless.

And then her mother left, left because she was tried of being the housewife Lemon idolized, left because she wanted more out of life. Left and broke her father’s heart, left when Magnolia was so so young she canonically doesn’t even remember Alice.

And look, yeah, I get it, Alice, I really do. Lemon was canonically an accident, Brick proposed and they got married solely because of the pregnancy, Alice must’ve still been very young if she had two more children roughly fifteen and twenty-two years after Lemon was born, respectively. Alice had big dreams that she had to give up when she got pregnant. That would make anybody unhappy.

But to Brick’s point, even if he was worth leaving, you don’t leave your children. Lemon was forced to grow up in an instant, become the caretaker of the house, raise Magnolia despite still being a child herself. That would be a seismic change in anybody.

But I think it goes deeper than that. Lemon has a whole speech in 108, two of them actually, to George and Lavon, about how she can’t be that free spirit anymore, claiming she doesn’t want to be, telling George she can’t be two different people, can’t be both reckless and the mature model housewife she’s trying to be, telling Lavon that they have to control their urges, repress their feelings, that they have to be “grown ups”.

And it’s so clear to me that the quiet part here is that Lemon associates following your feelings and being fancy-free as childish behavior because of her mother. Because her mother went and followed her feelings and broke a family in the process.

Lemon learned all the wrong lessons when Alice left, not that it’s her fault, took away from it not that boxing yourself into a life you don’t want will only lead to destruction down the road, but instead took away from it that she should become the perfect housewife, the perfect Belle, that her mom never could, that she should stick with her commitments no matter what, even when they stopped making her happy.

When Lemon tells George that her time with Lavon felt like “it happened to a completely different person” I think she really means it. Her affair with Lavon didn’t happen with the “mature, reformed” Lemon. It happened with the wild, free spirit, reckless Lemon she tried to leave behind in high school, making one last appearance.

And that side of Lemon made an appearance because of her mother. It’s no coincidence that her mother is the catalyst for her initial relationship with Lavon. Her mother, who she had spent years thinking she ran off to California, hell, maybe New York (the place that took George from her) to become an actress only to learn she was really one town over. All these years, just one town over.

And it crushed Lemon. Broke the scab that had never fully healed. She tried to call George but it was clear that he had been neglecting her while he was in New York, and then here comes Lavon, a near stranger, but he dove into that lake and got that necklace anyway. And he’s making her feel things Lemon hasn’t felt since high school, new glittery feelings she never thought she’d feel again after high school, and George doesn’t want her and her mom doesn’t want her, but Lavon wants her. Lavon brings out a side of her she long thought dead and if her mother is just one big liar what is Lemon even trying to prove anymore anyway.

So she kisses him. And carries on an affair with him for six weeks, only six weeks, but they must’ve been the best six weeks of her life, if she still calls him the love of her life after four years of nothing but angst.

And then George comes back. Probably just in time for Valentine’s Day. And he gets down on one knee and proposes and now for maybe the first real time in her life Lemon has to make a choice about her future.

And she chooses to be that “mature, reformed” woman once again. Because George still wants her after all. And if he found out what happened with Lavon, after he gave up his life in New York for her, well, he’d just be crushed, he’d be broken. She’d break him just like her mother broke her father, and Lemon can’t be her mother. She’s spent too many years trying not to repeat her mother’s mistakes, she can’t fail now.

So she tells George yes, and she breaks Lavon’s heart instead, but it’s okay, or at least that’s what Lemon tells herself. Because he loves the version of Lemon that just can’t exist anymore, loves the version of her that she will never let escape again.

But of course, that version still peaks out every now and then. Lemon points that microphone at the awful memory maiden and humiliates her in front of everyone and Lavon smiles, knows she did it for him, and feels good, but it feels so, so wrong too, because Lemon’s supposed to be mature. She’s not supposed to be that girl anymore.

And then she finds out at Christmas once again that her mother isn’t just in the next town over, she has a family. A new one. Lemon spent all these years trying to be the woman her mother never could, only to find out her mother did become that woman, just with a daughter that wasn’t her.

And so she goes to find comfort with the same person who gave her the best comfort she had ever had. But Lavon sees the pattern now. He can’t let himself get crushed again, not when he knows Lemon is still gonna wake up the next morning and go back to George. He tells her to go to George, and well, Lemon actually listens.

She spends months and months convincing herself that she belongs with George, and Lavon doesn’t want her anymore, except he does, of course he does. But Lemon doesn’t see it, doesn’t see it until it’s far too late. Lemon’s too far down this path of doing whatever she can to make this wedding work, hell she even tried to befriend Zoe Hart to do it! This wedding will happen, even if she has to make it happen through sheer force of will.

It might not have felt like it in the moment, but I do think George leaving Lemon at that alter was one of the best things he could’ve done for her. Because Lemon, for all her strength, never would’ve been strong enough to do that. And she would’ve married George, despite her repressed feelings for someone else. What Lemon didn’t understand then, probably didn’t understand for years and years, was that the only way she truly could’ve become her mother is if she had allowed herself to be boxed into that marriage with George.

George set her free that day. Set her free to be reckless and a free spirit again. To have ambition again. Speaking of Chrisinda’s fashion analysis again, it’s no coincidence that Lemon’s wardrobe becomes younger and more age appropriate the longer the show goes on. She’s not trying to force herself to be a “grown up” anymore, she’s just trying to live her life.

But the maturity she’s grown into doesn’t disappear either. When all the stuff with Alice goes down in season 4 (not so coincidentally at the same time Lemon’s about to get back with Lavon) Lemon does turn to him once again. But she knows better this time, knows that rushing into something just because you need comfort isn’t the healthiest way to start a relationship, tells Lavon that she needs time, they need to wait (a request he’s happy to grant - if anyone understands Lemon’s mom stuff, it’s Lavon).

Lemon Breeland did what Blair Waldorf never could - she was able to merge the two sides of herself back into one.

[strideofpride]

okay so me and my friend @summrsbuffy have talked a lot about zemon (Zoe and Lemon) and we used to low-key think there were fruity vibes and now it's more like High Key (idk if you saw my set about it but I'm telling you) and I definitely agree that Lemon def had feelings for Zoe at some point and didn't know how to deal WOULD YOU CARE TO DISCUSS

Is that the “a rival is a crush you’re mad about having” post? Yes I’ve seen it and I am obsessed with it!!!!

I don’t know if Lemon ever had like capital F feelings you know? But I definitely think there was an instant attraction? But in a way that Lemon couldn’t recognize?

Like, okay…maybe this is a hot take but I don’t think George had deep feelings for Zoe straight from the jump. I think that came somewhere between their [redacted cause he’s a child predator] movie date in 107 and all the stuff that happened with his dad in 116/117. I think initially it was maybe just a little bit of attraction for George, maybe not even a full crush.

I think LEMON was kinda projecting onto George in the beginning. Like, oh well I think this new lady doctor is super pretty so I bet George does too! I can’t have George hanging around her, he might get ideas in his head! (Says the person who definitely has ideas in HER head)

(Also because I’m me and I love Hayland very much, I would be remiss not to add that a lot of Lemon’s initial jealousy of Zoe comes not from her connection with George but because Lemon thinks there’s something going on between Zoe and Lavon in the first two episodes!)

And like as the series goes on, I think Lemon and Zoe become reluctantly aware of just how much they understand each other. Like they both have very similar parental abandonment issues that only the other one can relate to that I find really really fascinating. Like the speeches they give each other about how the other will be a great mother…those are speeches that could’ve only come from them. Because Lemon and Zoe both Get It in a way I don’t think any other hod character really does. They get what it’s like to feel completely unloved by a parent, to fear that you’ll turn into them, but also while still desperately craving their love and approval and yeah…

I’m getting off track here but yes, Lemon and Zoe are very fruity and I think they liked each other as people as early as like…118 maybe. But they would never ever admit to it because pretending to hate each other is like an intricate ritual in a way??

Idk and there’s just so many times where one calls the other pretty or something, and like also!!! The way they often parallel Rose/Magnolia who are like…possibly the queerest hod ship lololol yeah it all just makes me go 👀👀👀

(Oh also when Didi finds that picture of Lemon in Lavon’s desk and Zoe lies and says it’s hers and the lie is that Zoe was trying to look like Lemon?? Instead of just saying she has a crush on Lemon?? That’s capital S stupid!!! If Zoe was a real friend she would’ve said she had a crush on Lemon with her full chest, the only reason Didi bought that nonsense is cause she’s canonically a little air-headed lolol)

[strideofpride]

Dear S,

Please consider this message as me pressing you to expand upon Lemon x Lavon

Love,

Liz

ah dammit I missed a GOLDEN opportunity to just:

Under a read more because I wrote another essay lol!

Okay so, I talked A LOT yesterday about what was going on in Lemon's head primarily in season 1, but one further piece of evidence I want to submit is in 114, when Lemon goes "I'd give up anything for you George" and then she shoots a yearning look towards Lavon, which I think is just further proof that Lemon didn't choose George because she loved him more, but cause she felt like she had to.

And then as for the Lavon of it all...I think after Lemon rejected him for the umpteenth time in 118, he was done. "Difficult might not stop him" but Lavon can take a hint. He's put his heart on the line over and over and over again, and Lemon keeps stomping it into pieces and it's just too much.

So if Lemon really is over him (she's not of course but bad timing and miscommunication is kinda their thing for four straight seasons), really is gonna marry George after everything, has really moved on, well then it's time for Lavon to move on too. He helps George try to give Lemon the wedding of her dreams, when the wedding is called off, he doesn't chase after her cause he thinks she doesn't want him, doesn't have feelings for him anymore (again, he's wrong, but you know).

And he starts getting involved with Ruby, the high school sweetheart, the only girl he's seemingly ever had a serious relationship with. If he can make it work with Ruby, it's proof, proof that Lemon was really just an affair, wasn't anything deeper, it was all in his head anyway or so he thinks. But Ruby, now there's a love story that could lead to a happily ever after.

And when things fall apart with Ruby, Lavon is so convinced that Lemon is soo over him that the only reasonable explanation for why she told Ruby is out of malice (she's in love with you dummy wake up!!!) but again Lavon can't see that, because he's convinced himself that Lemon never loved him in the first place.

And when Lavon finally finds out that Lemon was in fact in love with him at some point (still is but he doesn't know that), he's already grown attracted to Annabeth, the best friend, and tbh, I do think a big part of Annabeth's appeal to him was how transparent and open she was. Lemon kept him on a string for a year as she dealt with her own mixed feelings, he was convinced Ruby and him were going to live happily ever after in Bluebell, and was almost blindsided when all of a sudden it went from "I'm going to be mayor" to "I could never be happy in this town". But unlike them, AB is inherently very honest, and that's refreshing.

And I think Lavon has convinced himself by this point that he is not in love with Lemon anymore. He wanted to marry Ruby (nevermind the fact that he was only proposing to keep her in town) so he must not love Lemon anymore! And look...I know Lavon and AB are popular, but like...I don't think Lavon was ever fully in love with Annabeth. I think he loved her and cared about her, but in a way she was almost a rebound from the very intense emotional rollercoasters he went on with Lemon and Ruby, she was safe, and stable, and it was nice to feel secure in a relationship for once.

But, like...Lavon is not a slow paced guy when it comes to romance. He was convinced he was going to spend the rest of his life with Lemon after only six weeks!! He was going to propose to Ruby after what? Only eight real weeks of dating? (Not counting the years they presumably spent dating in high school). He and Lemon get engaged in season 4 after like a month. But even after a full year of dating AB, he still wasn't sure he wanted to marry her?? Like, I'm sorry but he just wasn't in love.

And he even admits in the season 3 finale that he was comparing their relationship to his past ones (again, presumably Lemon and probably Ruby too). Because I think deep down Lavon still loved Lemon despite of himself. Lemon had been a cloud over their relationship the entire time. AB only finally started dating Lavon when Lemon decided to "stop being selfish" and finally gave her blessing. And then Lemon took a step back, gave them space, because she knows they both deserve to be happy and doesn't even think she's capable of being the person who could make Lavon happy anymore (also - I've said this before, but it's no coincidence that Wade becomes her best friend at the same time AB gets serious with Lavon).

But you still see that spark during the few times Lemon and Lavon interact while he's dating AB. Lemon tells Lavon in the s2 finale that she's happy for him and AB (this comes right after a shot of Lemon looking at them longingly btw lol) and it's inspired her to find her person too and Lavon...does not look thrilled about it.

It's a very subtle moment, but I do think it was a very intentional one, meant to show that Lemon and Lavon might not be over after all.

In 305, that spark is still there again, Lavon literally looking away when Lemon and Meatball kiss (although I would do the same thing lol - if I have a hod notp it's for sure them), still understanding Lemon, their whole "worried about recreating something magical because it might not be the same" convo they have re: Peter might as well be about them and their fears toward each other.

When Lemon comes back to town in 314, Lavon immediately upon seeing her senses something is wrong, literally committing a crime for her with no hesitation. And then in 315, they literally get crowned king and queen of Bluebell (cause they are!!) and you can tell they become hyper aware of that spark still being there as they share a dance, but then they see AB looking sad and dejected in the corner, and they both realize why they can't go there and separate.

But Lavon doesn't let that thought go completely. In 317, after Zoe's failed attempt to get Lemon and George back together to fix the "curse", she finally breaks down over her break up with Joel, confessing she's worried she's let "the right person just walk away forever". And Lavon's response? "Yeah, I think about that every day."

And I think a lot of the audience at the time thought he was referring to AB. But they hadn't interacted once that episode, but you know who Lavon DID spend a significant amount of screentime with that episode? Lemon. You know who was super against Zoe's plan to get Lemon and George back together? Lavon. Reader, Lavon was talking about Lemon.

And then comes the season 3 finale. And yes, I do think they intentionally misdirect you into thinking Lavon is chasing after AB before revealing he was chasing after Lemon. But I don't think him chasing after Lemon is "out of nowhere". It took me several rewatches before I finally paid attention to what Don Todd had said that inspired Lavon in the first place.

See, I laid it all out on the table. Now I know I've done everything I could. Everything you could. In hindsight, I should've done it four years ago. Now I don't have to spend every day thinking maybe she feels it, too.

FOUR YEARS AGO!!! What else happened four years ago??? Lemon choose to accept George's proposal and end her affair with Lavon!! Also, Lavon had literally just confessed to Lemon earlier in the episode that he felt as if their relationship was "just in his head". Lavon had literally spent all these years thinking the affair didn't mean as much to Lemon as it did to him, wondering if she had ever felt as strongly as he did for her, all because he never laid all his cards on the table and fought for her when George came back to town.

But now he's not going to make that same mistake again twice.

[strideofpride]

Thinking about it lots and like…Hart of Dixie is such an Obama era show lol. Like it truly wouldn’t have worked in any other era of American history.

Hart of Dixie has tons of classism (especially in season 1, it gets toned down a lot later on), bits of sexism, and what I personally think is some anti-Semitic subtext, but racism? Nah, Bluebell is past that somehow???

Cause they’re a part of “post-racial” America in the show’s eyes. Hell, the show even parodies this when AB tells Lavon she was scared to introduce him to her parents because he played for Alabama and they’re die hard Auburn people and they don’t live in “post-rival” America.

And I kinda have to assume this came down from the CW, some order not to address the history of the South, despite Leila Gerstein originally providing a really fantastic explanation of why a black man would willingly chose to live on a plantation.

And it works for Hart of Dixie, it does, but part of why it works is because of the era it originally aired in. They never could’ve gotten away with that in Trump’s America.

Hart of Dixie is the CW’s Hamilton actually.