Gossip Girl: Difference between revisions

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{{tropelist}}

** It's likely that the producers weren't comfortable putting out a casting call for a 14 year old girl with double-D breasts and decided too not even bother matching the character's description from the books..

** More extreme is the case of Vanessa Abrams, who was described as sullen, little overweight, with a shaved head and black clothing. In the TV Series, she is she is curly-haired and slender, and is mostly styled in boho chic. While some fans did not welcome the change, others loved it.

** A similar case happened with Dan Humphrey, who was described as shaggy, unshaven most of the time, and kind of "nerdy". In the TV series, he has very short hair and is clean shaven and is portrayed as the "good guy", especially when compared to Chuck Bass

* [[Adaptation Dye Job]]: Jenny, who went from brunette to blonde.

** Vanessa with her attempts to beat Blair at her own game, never realizing for more than a few episodes at a time that sinking to Blair's level means she can't claim moral high ground.

** Lily, especially in her youth days.

** Also, Carter Baizen in Seasons Two (Blair) and three (Serena), though the latter season seems to be pushing for Carter as [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]] rather than a true bad boy.

* [[All Love Is Unrequited]]: Very prominent in Season 1 - Nate loves Serena who loves Dan, Vanessa loves Dan who loves Serena, Chuck loves Blair who loves Nate. Slightly less so in Season 2 - Jenny wants Nate who is dating Vanessa, and then Nate loves Blair who loves Chuck. By Season 3, however, everyone seems to pair off pretty happily.

** Season 4 sends everyone back to the land of the lonely, with Dan and Nate both pining for Serena, Vanessa feeling unloved by Dan, and Blair and Chuck both believing the other no longer loves them even though the opposite is true.

** Also applies to Serena and Chuck where he again is the giver.

* [[Alpha Bitch]]: Blair at first. Penelope is quick to fill the void.

** Ironically, Blair completely stops caring about this in Season 5, only for the situation to reverse, with Serena looking on jealously (and eventually furiously) as Blair gets everything Serena wants.

* [[Anchored Ship]]: Chuck did this with Blair twice.

** Blair and Chuck mutually do this in Season 4, after deciding they need to find themselves before finding each other again. There's even references to time traveling to whenever there will be Chair again!

** Pretty much what happened with Serena and Dan once they found out that they shared a brother.

** Chuck also does this a lot in Season Three (even apologizing to Blair for needing time to get past his anger over her tricking him into kissing a guy [[It Makes Sense in Context|so that she could get to give a speech]]).

{{quote|'''Nate''': Aren't you curious to know what it says?

'''Chuck''': I think I can guess. "You're a disappointment of a son. I'd die of embarrassment if I wasn't already. Why do you wear so much purple?"}}

** Dorota went from being a background character with one line every few episodes to having an entire episode revolve around her nuptials.

** Jack in Season 2, who doesn't get off so lightly.

** Now Dan and Blair, very much.

{{quote|'''Sabrina''' When you won that essay competition, who showed up? Even when you treated him so terribly.}}

** Now back to Chuck and Blair, after 10 episodes of Blair listing all the reasons she could never love him again.

* [[The Baby Trap]]: Georgina with Dan.

* [[Bad Guys Play Pool]]: Comically averted - Chuck owns a pool table but the only one who ever seems to play is Nate. Dan has also been shown playing pool in Season One. Also, since when Chuck turned into St.Bass in Season 4 he had taken to playing pool, so maybe for this particular show it's [[Good Guys Play Pool]]

** Georgina in Season 3's "The Lost Boy", where she sends Blair a fake invitation to an elite society and uses a contact who works for someone Chuck is trying to impress in order to send the pair after the same photograph, thus bringing out both Blair and Chuck's competitive, self-serving sides and attempting to drive a wedge between the pair. The same episode also features another Blair/Chuck classic, where it turns out they were setting Carter up in situations that would make him look bad in front of Serena, knowing Serena would be reluctant to trust Carter's version of events.

** Jack Bass pulls off a pretty impressive one in Season Three. Feeling Chuck took what he cared about the most (Bass Industries) he decides to do the same to Chuck. So he goes out and finds Chuck's not-so-dead mother/not-so-dead-mother impostor and behind the scenes helps her do all the right things to make Chuck believe her. Then he pays off a bunch of women to accuse Chuck of sexual harassment before making his own appearance, driving Chuck to signing over the hotel to his maybe-mom to keep it safe and away from Jack. He then reveals to Chuck that the two of them have been in cahoots from the start, making Chuck believe that Jack wanted the hotel as payback for Chuck keeping Bass Industries, which pushes Chuck to do just about anything to get the hotel back. Jack then goes after what he really wanted. He goes to Blair and tells her he offered Chuck the hotel back in exchange for a night with her, and that while Chuck refused he is still willing to make the deal with her, behind Chuck's back. Blair tells him no, but Chuck is so broken up about the loss of the hotel that eventually she gives in and goes to Jack. Who tells her that Chuck was in on it with Jack and skillfully manipulated her into whoring herself out ("I gave him a choice. The hotel or you. He chose to give me you.") which is a deal breaker for Blair who ends their relationship. Jack then tells Chuck that he never wanted the hotel, he wanted to take away what Chuck cared about the most - Blair.

** Nate and Serena in Season 2 to Catherine.

* [[Beard of Evil]]: Jack Bass sports one when he returns in Season Three.

* [[Becoming the Mask]]: Jenny in Season 3.

* [[Bed Trick]]: Chuck attempts this with Blair during a blackout, but never gets further than making out. Subverted in that she knows its him all along but pretends to believe it's her boyfriend.

** In the second half of Season 4, Blair and Dan.

* [[Best Served Cold]]: Blair, Chuck, and Georgina are constantly setting new standards for this trope, and it's '''always''' [[It's Personal|personal]].

** In Season 4, Juliet serves up a full-course meal to Serena. Too bad it wasn't actually Serena who had destroyed her brother's life, but Lily.

** Lily and Rufus may also count as this.

** So do Blair and Nate in Season Two.

* [[Better Than Sex]]: Blair describes a take-down as "better than sex." And then immediately has sex with Chuck for comparison purposes...

** Dan, in Season 1, was torn between Serena (Veronica) and Vanessa (Betty). And then again at the end of Season 3 and first half of Season 4.

** Blair had to choose between Nate (Betty) and Chuck (Veronica).

** Lily was torn between Bart and Rufus, though which is the Betty and which is the Veronica depends on whether you see Rufus distracting Lily from the "more appropriate" Bart or Bart coming between a couple that has been looking for the right moment for twenty years.

** Serena has had several. Nate (Betty) and Dan (Veronica). Nate (Betty) and Tripp (Veronica). Dan (Betty) and her professor (Veronica).

** It's not certain if it was the Jenny banishment or the Peace Treaty that broke the camel's back.

** Gossip Girl (the character) can arguably fit into some kind of Big Brother too.

* [[Big "Shut Up!"]]: Blair and Serena scream this at one another during their Cat Fight in "New Haven Can Wait".

** Nate and Serena certainly fit this trope.

** And also to some extent, Dan and Vanessa.

** Possibly Chuck in the TV show as well - at least he told Blair it was not the first time he kissed a guy when she set him up to do so.

* [[Blackmail]]: Georgina blackmails Serena in Season One, Chuck and Blair blackmail people whenever it suits them and Jenny claims that blackmail is what she does all day long. Georgina

* [[Bondage Is Bad]]: Blair and Chuck, the two most morally ambiguous main characters on the show, apparently used handcuffs a lot when they were dating. And apparently a bidding paddle can be put to other uses...

** Lily and Rufus were secondary characters in the books, but in the series, they get a lot of attention.

** Chuck pretending to be Blair's British boyfriend.

*** Which is funny, because his actor Ed Westwick is British.

** Strange subversion in the Season 3 finale, in which Nate apologizes to Dan after Dan made out with Nate's girlfriend...

* [[The Bus Came Back]]: Georgina seems to have several round-trip tickets.

** Jenny also returned briefly for a couple of episodes in Season 4.

** Chuck Bass. His father hates him, his uncle is evil and out to destroy him, his mother either died giving birth to him or gave him up at birth and returned eighteen years later to take his hotel and ruin his life, his adoptive mother rarely pays attention to him, his adoptive sister likes to verbally abuse him and often takes pleasure in sabotaging him (only to come running whenever she needs his help), his best friend Nate treats him like crap half the time and ignores him the other half, Vanessa hates him for no apparent reason, Dan tried to exploit his childhood pain to get published... The only one who treats Chuck well is Blair, but he seems to have burned that bridge with the Jack/Empire fiasco.

** Over the course of Season 4, Dan is either a target or collateral damage in just about every scheme. He gets manipulated, deceived, betrayed, and humiliated (privately and publicly), by everyone from Juliette to Blair to, of all people, Vanessa. He suffers from not one, but two cases of unrequited love. His psychopathic ex-girlfriend tricked him into thinking he'd fathered her child so she could use his apartment as a hideout, and he spent the summer taking care of the baby only to have the rug pulled out from under him at the last minute. And now it looks like he's picked up a [[Stalker with a Crush]].

** Also Blair with her mother in "Bad News Blair".

** And Serena calls out her mother on always putting her boyfriends before her kids, in front of the press, no less, when they wanted to give the 'Happy Family' image.

** When Jenny leaves the house in order to pursue a designer career and even tries to get an emancipation order from her father.

** Eric gives an epic one to his father when Will comes back in Season Three, outlining his homosexuality, his suicide event, and how he doesn't need him.

** Scott, with telling Rufus and Lily that he's their son.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Vz_VhjXyE "I'm Chuck Bass."]

*** Lampshaded by Blair in 02x01, when Chuck asks Blair not to leave with her new boyfriend

** And Cyrus has "Not enough."

** Serena says "I should go" so often that it's starting to count as a catchphrase.

** Now that he's been de-Blaired he's pretty much reverted back to his early Season One self.

* [[Charity Ball]]: The characters frequently attend these.

** As of midway through Season 5, Georgina appears to have outdone them all.

* [[Daddy's Girl]]: Blair Waldorf, even though her father left her and moved to France with his boyfriend.

{{quote|'''Chuck''': If you have a problem with my proximity to Blair, then maybe you should ask Serena not to get herself into so much trouble.}}

* [[Date Rape Averted]]: Three times, all with Bass men. Chuck assaults Serena in the pilot and gets kneed in the balls. Then he tries to assault Jenny, but gets punched in the face by Dan. Finally, Jack Bass tries to rape Lily in the bathroom in Season 2 episode 16, but gets punched in the face by [[Heel Face Turn|Chuck]].

* [[Death by Childbirth]]: Chuck's mother.

** Eric says this word for word when Dan tells him he {{spoiler|kissed Blair}}. After laughing hysterically, of course.

* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Blair's father, who came out as gay.

** Nate's father after he gets arrested.

*** Averted because he comes back during the fourth season to play a part in the Russell Thorpe storyline, then played straight again during Season Five.

** Dan also had a couple in the Season One episode where he worries about losing his virginity.

** Chuck in Season 3, in which he dreamed of Blair being kidnapped/manhandled by men in very nice suits. Which is what happens when you try to have your girlfriend sleep with your uncle in order to save your hotel.

** Also Chuck almost in "In the Realm of the Basses" following his grief-induced bender.

* [[Drugs Are Bad]]: Subverted. Nate and Chuck use drugs on a regular basis, with no ill effects other than one brief suspension for Chuck.

** Played straight with Jenny in Season Three.

** Played straight also in the flashback where Serena "kills" a guy.

** Chuck and Serena keep doing mean and spiteful things to each other which they rarely apologize for, but they always seem to forgive and forget within a day or two.

** The whole Indecent Proposal arc of Season 3, and how Blair forgave that more easily than the Chenny hookup.

* [[Enter Stage Window]]: Vanessa in Season One, much to Dan's annoyance.

** Dan with Serena (kind of) in Season One.

* [[Everybody Has Lots of Sex]]

* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: The Captain.

** Also happens with Dan/Vanessa in Season Three. Everyone from Dan's girlfriend to Vanessa's mother is informing Dan that he carries a torch for his BFF.

** Dan and Blair.

** Carter Baizen was an even-more-evil counterpart to Chuck in Seasons One and Two.

* [[Evil Matriarch]]: Serena's grandmother, who tricks her into appearing at her Debutante Ball and having paid off Dan's father to stay away from Serena's mother.

** As of "The Townie", we now know that Lily is even worse than her mother, and always has been.

** Also appears in the Season Three finale, where Blair lampshades it.

** For those who don't like guys, Serena's breasts are by now considered characters in their own right. Plus Blair's many lingerie scenes.

** Eric and Jenny in Season Three.

* [[Fashion Show]]: Several. Though hardly surprising, since Eleanor Waldorf is a professional designer and Jenny used to be into designing too.

* [[Fatal Flaw]]: Mention the magic words "Bart would(n't) be proud" and Chuck will do ''anything'' to get back to where he thinks his father would want him to be, even sell Blair out for a hotel.

** Dan and Serena - Season 1.

** Nate and Blair - Season 1.

** Dan and Vanessa - Season 3.

** Dan and Blair - Season 4.

** Blair Waldorf at NYU in Season 3.

** In late Season Three, the writers decided to revisit all of Chuck's bad traits and crank them up to eleven.

* [[Flash Back]]: Episode 3.12 features a very well-done flashback to Bart's death.

** In Season 1's Thanksgiving episode, it showed what Thanksgiving had been like the year before, when Serena hadn't slept with Nate/"killed" someone/and then proceeded to leave for boarding school.

** Serena and Dan have occasionally kept flirting and considered getting back together though throughout the show's run.

** Chuck and Jenny.

* [[Friends Rent Control]]: The Humphreys with that Brooklyn loft.

** Chuck and Blair try this again in Season 4, but don't get very far before admitting that they still love each other and need to wait until they're ready to fully be together again.

{{quote|'''Vanessa''': So you're telling me that Chuck had his dad's company make an offer on the bar in order to get back at Dan? Isn't that a little convoluted, even for you?

'''Blair''': Real estate was just foreplay. Seducing and humiliating you was the ultimate goal.}}

** A Season Two episode opens with Blair having a fantasy featuring herself and Chuck in his limo where he kisses his way down her body and eventually disappears below waistline. Cue closeup of Blair's ecstatic face. While a song called "Going Down" plays. When Blair is interrupted in her fantasy she tells Dorota she will be down in a minute, she just has to "finish something".

** The Season Three episode where Chuck and Blair have not had sex in five days, and they are bidding for the same object at an auction. Chuck asks Blair how she plans to win. She answers: "Your lack of focus" while running her hand over his crotch. When the bidding starts Blair gives Chuck an excited smile while moving her hand back and forth, while Chuck looks, erm, strained.

*** Chuck and Blair again. In Season Four, we open on Blair lying in bed, smiling. Serena comes in and Blair proceeds to hit her moving duvet. Obviously anxious, she warns Serena not to "lose her HEAD", voice rising on the last word--and as soon as Serena leaves, Chuck pops out from under the covers. Well.

{{quote|'''Chuck''': If you two want to kiss... it won't count as cheating.

'''Serena''': Creepy, Chuck.}}

* [[Good Angel, Bad Angel]]: Two of Blair's minions serve as angel and devil when she tries to decide whether or not to destroy the English teacher who put her chances of getting into Yale at risk.

** Blair and Bart play these roles to Chuck, regarding whether or not he should buy the homeless shelter, in "The Debarted".

* [[Good Bad Girl]]: Serena is the epitome of this.

* [[Gosh Dang It to Heck]]: Don't eff with an effer.

* [[Granola Girl]]: Vanessa to a degree. Also her mother.

* [[Gratuitous French]]: A lot. Blair particularly loves this trope.

** But generally the writers [[Did Not Do the Research]]. The worst being "La table Elitaire".

* [[Handsome Devil]]: Chuck Bass.

* [[Happily Adopted]]: Chuck.

* [[Happily Married]]: Eleanor and Cyrus.

{{quote|'''Jenny''': You look like hell.

'''Chuck''': Small price to pay to feel like heaven.}}

** Blair and Serena, to the point they dumped their respective dates at prom, and spent the rest of the night together remembering old days. And now in Season 4, they live together.

*** Chuck and Nate live together as of Season 3 episode 9, so those sleepovers live on!

*** Apparently their actors are a real life example.

** Dan and Nate, since they doodle each others' names in their notebooks and call out each others' names in their sleep. And even Serena can't get in the way of their friendship.

* [[High-Class Call Girl]]: Brandeis.

* [[High School]]: Seasons One and Two.

** By the time Chuck and Blair actually begin dating, Chuck seems to have gotten over his aversion. They are often holding hands in Season Three.

** {{spoiler|Dan and Blair in Season Five before they start dating and now, when they are dating. After her failed marriage to a prince and divorce, Blair was excited to finally hold Dan's hand in public}}.

{{quote|'''Blair to Dorota''': Now we can date outside the confines of the 7-1-8. We can walk down Madison Avenue hand in hand.}}

* [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]]: Subverted with Elle. Chuck thinks he's found one of these when he meets her, but she turns out to just be playing him for an escape plan and some cash.

** Invoked with Eva. She was a prostitute but fell in love with Chuck as a person not knowing who he was. She in turn, worked wonders on him and made him a better person. Too bad that doesn't last....

* [[Hot-Blooded]]: Chuck.

* [[House Husband]]: Rufus Humphrey.

* [[How's Your British Accent?]]: "''Blow out your candle''."

** Most of the books are named after or very close to song titles and/or lyrics.

* [[Idiot Ball]]: Serena seems to have picked this up at the start of Season 3 and run with it. A lot of what she does this season would have made sense two years ago, but not after the character development she's supposed to have undergone in the first two seasons.

{{quote|'''Lily''': (''To Serena'') Oh, don't put your dirty package on the table.

'''Chuck''': If I had a dime for every time I heard that...}}

** Chuck runs a hotel, hosts an election party and has a grand pub opening, all at the age of eighteen (the underage thing somehow not an issue in getting that liquor license) and with no previous experience other than owning part of a burlesque club. And the guy didn't even do well in high school.

** Blair apparently going from Intern to some kind of manager at her fashion magazine within the space of about 2 weeks.

*** And as of the Season 5 finale, {{spoiler|she will be running her mother's fashion company, despite not being a designer herself}}.

** Lonely Boy (Dan).

** Little J (Jenny).

** Queen B, or B (Blair), and S (Serena).

** The Captain (Howie Archibald).

** The characters never seem to run out of lame puns on the name Bass.

** Jenny is supposed to have a real talent for designing but most of her pieces have been pretty blah.

** Vanessa got into Tisch because she's such a great writer but we've never seen any proof of that. She's also supposed to be a talented documentary film maker but she seems to mostly just walk around randomly with a camera.

** Serena in Season Three.

* [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: Blair and Dorota.

* [[In the Blood]]: See Rufus and Dan's interest in women and, on the other side, Lily and Serena's taste in men.

** Also, both Chuck and his uncle Jack can't seem to let go of Blair - unlike all the other men, who seem to be much more interested in Serena. Though with Jack, it's just creepy.

* [[In with the In Crowd]]

** Chuck at the end of Season 4 for Blair.

** Dan in 510 for Blair.

** {{spoiler|Chuck and Dan in 513 for Blair.}}

** Chuck throughout Season 5 for Blair {{spoiler|convincing Louis to stay in 504, pretending to backslide so Blair would be satisfied in 5.07, poisoning the priest and not interrupting her wedding with Prince Louis in 513, paying her dowry so she could be with Dan in 519...}}

** Most extremely with Serena, who despite poor grades and zero extracurriculars manages to get into Yale (above Blair, who has perfect grades and loads of extracurriculars) and Brown.

** Mostly [[Justified]], though, as kids with legacies, connections, and money do tend to have an upper hand at getting into prestigious schools.

*** This isn't the 1970s anymore though, and without great grades Serena's application would have been rejected automatically to even the "lesser" Ivies, much less Yale. And even with valedictorian-level grades, without good EC's it would be rejected in the first round. Unless you or your parent is either a household name (like Bush) or literally donating a building, they will not be willing to damage their stats in the highly competitive rankings by admitting someone who will lower them, as detailed in books like "A is For Admission". For example, 99-100% of Yale's class has been in the top 10% of their high-school class for years. And in fact, now that they are seeking economic and geographical diversity, poor people and people from poor areas are favored by admissions committees over rich people.

*** Well, uh, you definitely did the research.

** Jack Bass.

** Chuck has actually proven these tendencies towards a lot of characters. Nate, Serena, and Eric being a few.

** Serena throughout the entire series, but especially during the the end of the third season and first half of the fourth. She helps her dad escape the cops and has an affair with her professor, and in the latter, people ''help'' her get out of trouble.

* [[Killed Off for Real]]: Bart Bass. {{spoiler|Or not}}.

** Also {{spoiler|Cece}}.

* [[Lady Drunk]]: Cece Rhodes.

** People calling Dan or Vanessa out on being judgmental.

** Blair being afraid she and Chuck will become boring as a couple, and Chuck saying they can never be boring.

** Dan commenting on Jenny's makeup. - "''You look like one of the Incredibles''."

** People commenting on Blair's overuse of headbands.

** The Humphreys and those waffles. - "''My family is '''really''' into waffles''."

** Chuck lampshades the audience's belief in Serena and Nate's eternal stupidity.

*** And even Jack at one point lampshades Serena's and Nate's inability to plot.

{{quote|'''Jack''': Were you hoping to catch me in a compromising position? A litte... high school, don't you think? Leave the plotting to the experts.}}

** Nate's [[One-Hour Work Week]] is lampshaded by Blair in season three.

* [[Late for School]]: Serena all the time in the books. Shows up a few times on the show as well.

** Blair is now an in-universe one with a total of three current love interests desperate to have her, including Dan, who had previously only loved Serena.

** Dan makes Serena wait from episode seven when it is first mentioned, until episode ten. He was a virgin and she was not.

** An ongoing plot in the first seven episodes was Nate putting off sex with Blair, despite her best efforts.

** Also apparently Dan and Blair {{spoiler|waited weeks to have sex after they got together, but it's probably because of his parents who had settled in his loft, and well, Serena who probably forgot who owns the penthouse, oops}}.

*** This was probably also because {{spoiler|Blair was still married and sex with Dan would be adultery, but she never mentioned that so who knows}}?

* [[Living Emotional Crutch]]: Blair to Chuck.

* [[Lonely Rich Kid]]: Let's see... Blair's parents are both absent most of the time (both actually live in France but her mother comes to New York a few times each season), Chuck's father never paid attention to him and then died, Nate's parents aren't around much either. All three characters are only children. Serena and Eric at least had each other... until Serena left for boarding school.

** In Season 3, it turns out Chuck's mother may be alive.

* [[Lovable Alpha Bitch]]: Blair.

*** Let's not forget Vanessa and Chuck's one night stand in order to make, respectively, Nate and Blair jealous.

*** It's just getting ridiculous now. From the main characters, the only straight pairings that haven't happened are Dan and Jenny because they are brother and sister, then Dan and Blair. But this last one is being worked on as we speak. Oh, and Chuck/Serena I think. The entire set of pairings that have happened on the show is now something like Chuck/Vanessa/Dan/Blair/Chuck/Blair/Nate/Serena/Dan/Vanessa/Nate/Jenny/Chuck.'

*** Dan and Blair are now together. Wouldn't be surprised if that elusive Serena/Chuck relationship happened now.

*** Now it's back to Chuck and Blair as of the Season 5 finale, with the possibility of {{spoiler|Dan and Serena returning}}.

** Played straight in the next episode, where she tells Dan that she "realized my heart belonged to someone else."

** {{spoiler|Then a few episodes later in the finale, she "actually" is in love with Chuck. Makes sense}}.

** Also Jenny in Season 3, doing anything and everything to try to get Nate away from Serena.

** He spends much of Season 5 becoming a better man all over again, telling Blair it's because she was the "lightest thing in my life."

** Chuck after he loses Blair.

** Juliet tries to make Serena's drug overdose seem accidental in Season 4.

** Tripp creates an "accidental" car crash in 510.

** Lily won't hesitate to destroy people's lives for the sake of her family's convenience.

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Chuck Bass.

** Jack Bass. It runs in the family.

** Lily has beaten both Basses at their own game.

** Chuck, again, in "The Debarted". This time combining the reasons behind the first two times he's cried on the show.

** Chuck, again, in "The Empire Strikes Jack", when his mom tells him she ain't his mom.

** Still Chuck in the episode, "Double Identity", when Blair tells him she doesn't love him anymore.

** And again in "The Witches of Bushwick", after he and Blair finally look like they're back together for good until she realizes she can't live with being "Chuck Bass's girlfriend" until she is able to make it on her own first.

** Nate and Diana.

** Played straight with Dan and Olivia.

** Jenny and Asher in Season One.

** Eric and Elliot.

{{quote|'''Rufus''': I dated a girl like Serena, once. Actually, a lot like Serena. And girls like that might be challenging. That's true. And they're complicated, and enigmatic. And usually worth it. And the only way you know for sure is to jump it with both feet.

'''Dan''': What happened with you?

{{quote|'''Blair''': Chuck. You know that I adore all of God's creatures and the metaphors that they inspire. But these butterflies... have ''got'' to be murdered.}}

* [[Military School]]: Chuck ends up being sent there in the books.

** Chuck's mom, possibly. In Season Three, a woman claims to be his mother, saying she abandoned the family when Chuck was only a baby.

** Eleanor in Season Three.

{{quote|'''Serena''': The second he starts to call the shots these gloves come off and the nails come out. I just mixed metaphors, didn't I?}}

** Vanessa, when Dan and Serena try to have sex.

* [[Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You|Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You]]: When Chuck's supposedly dead mother Elizabeth returns it brings back Serena's issues over her father leaving her, so she goes to Elizabeth to hear why she left, hoping it will be because of this trope. Serena's hopes are cruelly crushed as she keeps offering Elizabeth good reasons for why she might have left, only for Elizabeth to tell her that she left because she didn't want to be a mother, didn't love her baby and had no desire to be a part of her child's life.

** This troper freely gives Blake Lively the sole credit for keeping him watching the show.

*** This troper freely gives ''Leighton Messter'' credit for keeping [[Even the Girls Want Her|her watching the show]].

** And what about Blair? Not exactly lacking in that department.

{{quote|'''Chuck:''' So long, friends... Dan.}}

* [[No Periods, Period]]: Averted in the books.

{{quote|'''Dan''': I even miss Chuck Bass, who would get so close to talk.}}

** All of Dan and Blair's movie dates. And coffee and breakfasts meets. That not even Gossip Girl knows. How did that happen?

** Averted with Serena and Chuck when Lily and Bart Bass got married, though given the timing anything other would have appeared forced.

*** Although it was mentioned:

'''Chuck''': Well I'm game if you are.}}

** In the books, Blair and Aaron.

* [[Odd Friendship]]: Chuck and Nate in the TV show. As Gossip Girl puts it, a dark prince and a white knight.

** As of Season 4, Dan and Blair.

** Every time Chuck and Blair are about to have a steamy moment in Season Three they cut away. Fans displeased.

** Dan and Blair {{spoiler|first kiss}} was freeze-framed in Season Four.

* [[One-Hour Work Week]]: Nate, Dan and Blair sure have a lot of free time on their hands for a bunch of college kids. The only time they mention going to class is when they're talking about ''skipping'' that class. Chuck doesn't seem to be doing much work either.

* [[One-Note Cook]]: Well, three notes, actually. The Humphreys can make waffles and chili and... bolognese. Waiting for the fourth.

** And Gossip Girl.

** In "Gaslit", Dan was the only one Juliet wasn't able to fool into thinking that Serena overdosed.

*** But lets be fair, he didn't know her back when her overdosing was a daily possibility.

** Also the whole reason Blair dated Marcus.

** In "The Hurt Locket", Serena goes to the French Ambassador's dinner with Damien to make Nate jealous. Burn!

** Chuck has it pretty bad too, with his father having trouble accepting him after his mother died during childbirth. According to Season 3, Bart had trouble accepting him after his mother ditched them and forced Bart to tell Chuck that she died in childbirth. And then his mom comes back just to steal his hotel from him and ruin his life.

** Nate's dad flees the country, then returns only to end up in federal prison.

** Serena and Eric's father left when they were little, and Lily wasn't around much either.

* [[Parenting the Husband]]: It really feels like Lily has to do this with Rufus, day in and day out. Especially since he has no job and just mopes around her house, strumming his guitar and wondering where everyone went.

** Lampshaded by Rufus. "I knew I let you kids watch Parent Trap too many times..."

** Serena seems to be trying this again with her mom and dad in late Season 3.

** Blair was initially excited to meet her mother's new boyfriend Cyrus but was incredibly disappointed when he resembled Danny Devito more than he did Cary Grant. Although by the time Cyrus becomes her stepfather they have a pretty close bond.

** While Chuck's father was this for Eric and Serena, Lily was this for Chuck. Initially they got along great, then he hated her for a while when he held her responsible for Bart's death, but after agreeing to let her adopt him he's grown quite close to her. Lily actually seems to be a better parent to him than she is to her biological children.

* [[The Patriarch]]: William Vanderbilt.

* [[Peer Pressure Makes You Evil]]: Jenny.

* [[Playing the Victim Card]]: Jenny Humphrey's favorite activity.

* [[The Power of Friendship]]: The Non-Judging Breakfast Club. "''With friends like these, who needs armies?''"

** Bluefly.com and [https://web.archive.org/web/20200714025853/https://www.henribendel.com/ Henri Bendel] bags are prominently featured throughout the show, and we can't forget about the characters' preferred wireless carrier, Verizon.

** Bing.

** Chanel, Tiffany and I spotted a Tally Weijl shopping bag in one of the episodes where Blair and Serena are in Paris

** Kati Farkas was said to have moved to Israel halfway through the first season.

** Georgina Sparks, for almost a full season after she is sent to reform school in the Season One finale.

** Marcus and Lady Catherine in Season Two, returned to England once they had served their purpose.

** Jenny was sent to Hudson in the Season 3 finale.

** Vanessa was sent to Spain in the Season 4 finale.

* [[Quick Nip]]: Chuck is fond of this.

* [[Really Gets Around]]: Nate, Chuck and Serena. The show calls attention to the gender issue involved, in that Serena is called a slut while nobody has anything to say about Nate or Chuck bedding people left and right.

** Though that seems to be more about the fact that Serena was involved with (at different stages) her best friend's long-term boyfriend, one of her professors and a married man, rather than the number of people she sleeps with.

*** And THAT is the true double standard, lol.

** No love for Blair? Come on, until third season, she has a pretty high sex count on her hands, and certainly seems to be more focused on sex then the other characters.

* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Blair gives this to Vanessa in "Enough About Eve", and it actually ends up being a [[Engineered Public Confession|trap]] set by Vanessa.

** Jack gives one to Chuck in "Inglorious Bassterds".

*** Okay, how about ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'' <small>IN MANHATTAN'S UPPER EAST SIDE!</small>

* [[Reformed but Rejected]]: Georgina in late Season Two.

** Dan and Blair in Season 5, very much so.

** The pilot episode has Chuck mentioning his mother twice, and it's clear that she is alive and in his life. Later on in the season, we find out he lives with just his father, and we don't get to see his mother. In Season Two, it's revealed that she died when Chuck was born.

** Season Three appears to be retconning the entire relationship between Chuck and Bart. Up until then, the entire reason for their extremely rocky father/son relationship had been because of Bart's inability to properly deal with the death of Chuck's mother. Chuck always believed Bart hated him for having killed Evelyn, but Bart eventually told him that the reason he couldn't connect with Chuck was that he looked too much like his mother and it was too painful to have the constant living reminder. All of that makes no sense whatsoever right now, as Season Three heavily implies that Chuck's mother is alive and well, and simply didn't want to be a mother so she left when Chuck was born. And she wasn't Bart's beloved wife, just some random teenager he knocked up.

* [[Rich Bitch]]: Blair Waldorf and her friends. Subverted in that Serena is rich but not a bitch, at least if you exclude the start of Season Two after she and Dan get back together and break up again.

** To be fair, Serena tried very hard to be considerate of Dan and maintain a friendship with him, despite still being heartbroken over the breakup, while Dan ''immediately'' started dating again. He didn't behave in any manner that suggested he'd even ''considered'' the effect it might have on Serena until she broke down and called him out on it. She deserves some credit for at least ''trying'' to take the high road at first.

** Also Chuck, whenever he's got a sex scene. This thanks to the actor's odd love of huge, ugly tattoos. It's a little weird seeing Chuck Bass in ''pajamas'' right after he's had hot sex with his girlfriend.

* [[Right Through the Wall]]: Serena and Nate have loud sex in the kitchen right outside Chuck's bedroom door. They are then treated to the sounds of Blair having a very loud orgasm. Nate is [[Brainless Beauty|dumbfounded]] when Chuck calls in the middle of Blair's "performance". Turns out Blair is just reading a fashion magazine, faking a loud orgasm to drive the point home of how you might want to keep your voices down when you have roommates in the next room.

* [[The Rival]]: Carter Baizen to Chuck Bass.

* [[Romantic Two-Girl Friendship]]: Serena and Blair.

* [[Rousing Speech]]: Jenny gives a rousing speech about the end of the Constance Billard monarchy in early Season Three. The other students fail to be roused.

** Blair loves her headbands. Nobody else does.

** The strange details of Chuck's many hook-ups. "''Not many women can put their leg up behind...''", "''She got held up in customs''", "''She can hold her breath for five minutes''"...

** Dan the cater waiter.

** In the first season, Cedric.

{{quote|'''Nate''': Man, I ''have'' to find out if she's seeing someone. It's killing me. You guys are still pretty close, aren't you?

'''Chuck''': Uh... Yeah...

'''Chuck''': Me.

'''Nate''': Yes. Come on man, who better?}}

* [[School Newspaper Newshound]]: [[The Voice|Gossip Girl]] herself is basically a modern-technology version of this.

** There have been times when this has been played straight, however it hasn't always worked as well as the rich character hoped.

* [[Secret Relationship]]: Blair and Chuck for a few episodes in Season One.

*** Chuck and Blair also try this for a little while in Season 4. It fails.

** Nope. Keep going with a secret friendship/relationship until 5x17.

* [[Seemingly-Wholesome Fifties Girl]]: Blair, especially in Season 1.

** Serena from Season Two and onward.

** Nate falls in love with Serena after she took his virginity.

* [[Sexy Shirt Switch]]: Nate and Serena in Season 3. She enters the kitchen wearing just his shirt, showing that she clearly spent the night. They then have an unambiguous sex scene, after which, she's still wearing the shirt and he's fully clothed.

** In Season five, Lola also wears Nate's shirt.

* [[Shaming the Mob]]: After several of the characters try to discover Gossip Girl's identity to stop her increasingly hurtful posts about them, she gets the whole class into one place and sends them all a message that they're looking at Gossip Girl right now: the only reason she's so hurtful to all of them is that they all keep sending her information.

** When Chuck is told he is not Skulls and Bones material, he blackmails the organization by threatening to reveal their secrets.

* [[She Is Not My Girlfriend]]: Season 4 - Dan and Blair's mutual denials of... whatever it is they have has led to allegations of an affair or more.

* [[She's All Grown Up]]: Subverted with Nate and Jenny in Season 3. She tries hard to show him this, but he wants none of it.

* [[Shipper on Deck]]: Dorota for Blair and Chuck. Blair's parents and step-fathers also seem to be on board.

** Serena goes back and forth between being a Chuck and Blair shipper and disapproving of the relationship, as does Nate.

** Jenny used to be a shipper for Dan and Serena.

** Blair for Serena and Carter, at least once she stops trying to convince Serena it's a bad idea.

** Also, in "Carnal Knowledge":

{{quote|'''Penelope''': This is madness!

** And also in Season Five:

{{quote|'''Blair to Dan''': Don't go all [[The Notebook]] on me, not now. I need you.}}

* [[Sidekick]]: Dorota to Blair.

** The Head: Blair.

** The Muscle: Serena.

** The Smart One: Dan.

** The Wild One: Chuck.

** Also Chuck and Blair waking up on her bed in the Season One finale.

** Also Dan and Blair at Dan's loft, Season 4.

* [[So Proud of You]]: Blair frequently says this to Chuck in Season Three. Until they break up.

** Lady Gaga appears as herself in Season 3 episode "The Last Days of Disco Stick".

** Cyndi Lauper also appears as herself, in the Season 2 episode "Bonfire of the Vanity".

* [[Split-Screen Phone Call]]: Dan and Blair.

* [[Stalker with a Crush]]: Chuck to Blair.

** And in another episode, when their original plan goes to hell:

{{quote|'''Blair''': I have an idea.

'''Chuck''': I've already had it.}}

*** And they proceed to act out said idea without taking one second to talk it through or even compare notes first.

* [[Swimming Pool]]: The episode "School Lies" opens with a secret pool party going terribly wrong.

** Then there's the whole debacle with Charlotte Rhodes. It turns out that Lily's sister Carol hid her daughter from the family (going so far as to hire an imposter, Ivy, to pose as her) because she is actually William van der Woodsen's daughter. This makes Charlie both Serena's cousin and her half-sister.

** Serena and Colin Forrester in Season Four.

** In the next episode, Chuck gives Blair the key to his suite for her to sleep with Nate, but when they arrive in the suite Serena is already there because Nate asked her to meet him.

** It's hinted during the Masquerade Ball episode that the scavenger hunt Blair sets for Nate will lead to them sleeping together if he finds her before midnight. This breaks the pattern slightly since Serena was the final clue-giver and Nate's distraction actually stemmed from his father (though he still goes to Serena over Blair about it), but still ends up in him confessing his feelings to who he thinks is Serena.

** Season three has an entire episode where everyone runs around trying to prevent Jenny from losing her virginity. It comes off as rather strange that these characters who all lost their virginity before senior year would think it's so horrible that a sixteen year-old might have her flower plucked.

*** That plot line has officially been resolved in a particularly twisted way, with Jenny finally losing her virginity to Chuck of all people, because she thinks everyone hates her and he thinks Blair no longer loves him. Of course, Blair shows up two seconds later to reunite, Chuck leaves Jenny in a hot second, and she realizes that sleeping with him was a terrible idea.

* [[Three-Way Sex]]: The Dan/Olivia/Vanessa threesome in Season Three.

** Also appears to be Chuck's sexual modus operandi when he's not with Blair.

** To be more accurate: they both know the unwritten rule that the third person has to be a stranger. Neither of them actually has a problem with the threesome, interestingly.

* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: Serena and Blair.

** Eric van der Woodsen in Season Four. Up until this point, he was the only character who always acted decently. In Season Four, he hates on Chuck for having had consensual sex with Jenny and plots with Dan to bring Chuck and Blair down.

** Louis is taking this way during Season Five, the white prince turning into a [[Just for Pun|Basstard]] more and more as the season goes, while Chuck is becoming a decent person.

* [[Totally Radical]]: Mostly averted, but this line was pretty cringe-worthy:

{{quote|'''Vanessa''': Do you want to get together and download about the epicness last night?}}

* [[Trademark Favorite Food]]: The Humphreys and their waffles. Blair with her macaroons.

** Nate has his moments, once you know his family background.

* [[True Love Is Exceptional]]: At the start of the show, Blair was convinced she belonged with Prince Charming Nate. As it turns out her soulmate is Chuck, Nate's polar opposite.

* [[The Unfair Sex]]: The audience sometimes plays into this. Chuck sleeping with Vanessa after Blair and Nate start dating is outrageous, but Blair sleeping with Chuck's uncle after Chuck disappears to mourn his father's death is completely understandable.

* [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]: Vanessa Abrams.

** And then there's Serena telling Chuck he's not going to "use Blair as sexual Drano."

** "Like a Bass out of hell."

** Never forget that Blair wanted to get a "Bass-ectomy" in Season 4 episode 8.

** Subverted in the Season Two finale, the scene where Blair comes home to find Chuck waiting by his limo with flowers and gifts. Throughout the scene people can be seen in the background, stopping to stare.

{{quote|'''Serena''': Look B, I understand why you're reluctant to burst your happy bubble but I'm not giving up.

'''Blair''': I'm sorry if unlike some people I haven't been on the pill since I was fifteen.

* [[Visit by Divorced Dad]]: Dan and Jenny's mother, and Blair's father.

** Serena's father in late Season 3.

** Eleanor Waldorf's impromptu interdenominational wedding in "Oh Brother, Where Bart Thou?".

** Dorota and Vanya receive a wedding courtesy of Chuck Bass, in an attempt to win Blair back, in "The Unblairable Lightness Of Being".

** {{spoiler|Louis and Blair get married in 513}}.

* [[We Want Our Jerk Back]]: The way some fans reacted when Chuck tried to be a goody-two-shoes in early Season Four.

** "Victor/Victrola". Ends with the surprise hook-up that marked the beginning of the beyond a doubt most popular ship on the show.

** "Inglorious Bassterds".

** "Last Tango, Then Paris". Dan suddenly loves Serena again! But can't pursue her because Georgie is pregnant with his baby! Chuck takes Jenny's virginity! Then tries to propose to Blair! Then gets shot and might die!

** Season 5 episode 13: {{spoiler|Blair is married to a life of sorrow with Louis and run away with Dan, emotionally crushed and panicked, Dan didn't reciprocate Serena's feelings (and implicitly choosing Blair over her), Louis is going to make Blair's life a living hell... Oh, and Georgina Sparks may or may not be Gossip Girl}}.

** Season 5 episode 16: {{spoiler|The death of Cece, surrounded by her family, except for her fake (but loving) niece, who has been there for her for months while she was sick, and who was, by her own words, the only person she was feeling safe with. Ivy wanted to stay, but a furious Serena made it pretty clear that it was better for her to disappear, persuaded that Ivy did everything for money, while it's obvious that Ivy came to love Cece a lot. It's really hard to not sympathize with Ivy: her own grandmother died of cancer, just like Cece, and she was denied the right to stay by the side of someone she ended up deeply caring about}}.

** Dan gets the treatment in the 4th episode of Season 5.

* [[Why Couldn't You Be Different?]]: Bart usually takes this stance towards Chuck.

* [[Will They or Won't They?]]: Chuck and Blair. Now also applies to Dan and Blair.

{{quote|'''Blair''': This is the worst out-of-body experience ever.}}

* [[Wrote the Book]]: In "There Might Be Blood", Blair claims to have written the book on distracted, self-centered mothers.

** Jenny for Nate.

{{quote|'''Chuck''': I don't have a real mother Blair. I never will.

'''Blair''': That doesn't mean you're alone. I love you Chuck. And I will always be your family.}}

'''Dan''': You'll still have me.}}

* [[You Have Got to Be Kidding Me!]]: Blair's reaction to finding out Chuck has feelings for her, almost verbatim.

 

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