Girl Meets World - Tumblr Posts
what was the canon polyship on GMW??
(GMW = Girl Meets World). Obviously spoilers ahead. Also, TvTropes links.
*sigh* So, here is the thing. I basically haven't watched GMW except for the few episodes that deal with this ship, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I am talking about the Riley / Lucas / Maya ship here.
There are the two female leads, Riley and Maya. And listen, I like them both. They have a bit of a good-girl/bad-girl dynamic, but both of them have their own depth.
[ID: the characters Riley and Maya smile and hug each other. End ID]
They are the bestest of friends and this get reaffirmed time and time again throughout the series.
Then there is Lucas, who both girls develop feelings for. When Riley realizes Maya is into Lucas, she brother-zones him.
And you can tell by Maya's face she knows that Riley is sacrificing her own desires. The tension in this ship, at this point, comes not from "which of the love interests is the hinge going to pick", but rather "when will those three admit their feelings for each other".
And then there is a scene on New Year's Eve on a roof which leads to everybody becoming aware of the feelings involved. And then they, you know, actually talk about it. Lucas is.... very well prepared.
At the end of the episode, they admit they cannot be just friends. Crucially, this is the end of season 2.
And in the next episode there is this (quote from S3E01):
Lucas: I'm Lucas, and these are [to Riley]...what would you like to be called? Riley: Girlfriend. Lucas: [referring to Maya] And this is- Maya: Girlfriend. Equally as much. High School Cheerleader: Girlfriendses? Maya: It's complicated.
(I have no idea why this moment is not featured on the wiki page of the ship).
Also, the same episode features some high-school seniors who are apparently in the same kind of V relationship. Which for me is both canon enough.
At this point, I was looking forward to an interesting representation of polyamory among teenagers, with the end points of the V being established close friends. That would have been such an interesting dynamic which the female leads definitely could have carried with their expressive acting.
Then everything goes to heck.
There is a huge pressure on Lucas by his friends to "make a decision", which he cannot do. Maya and Riley are somewhat relegated to waiting for it.
Maya then realizes she was subconsciously imitating Riley because she wanted to be her, up to and including to copying her love interest, apparently?! Which at this point to my shipper heart feels like a cheap retcon?! And then, 9 episodes after the "girlfriendses" moment, Lucas picks Riley, while Maya conveniently gets together with someone else. (One has to assume the three have been somewhat dating for the last 9 episodes).
I want to say that as far as I can tell, they handled everything before and after the "Maya doesn't get to be with Lucas" decision fairly gracefully. It's just that this... broke a perfectly fine polyam ship, the most interesting V ship I have ever seen on TV. So yeah, I am salty about that.
But still canon, as far as I am concerned.
cover of the Girl Meets World theme song idk
Cuz it was one of my favorite shows when I was like 7
It might be the worst thing ever idk i haven't listened to it lol
when you find an amazing fanfiction of your otp
when you find out it hasn't been updated in years
Lucas : Hey Maya, do you have any hobbies? Maya: Swimming.. Lucas : Really? That’s cool. I never expected you to- Maya: In a pool of self hatred and regret
i had a dream about lucas & his "decision"
im so into gmw that last night, I dreamt that lucas revealed his "decision" to be Maya and when he goes to find her she tells him to pick Riley bc obviously Maya wants Riley to be happy and have her "Prince Charming" moment with him, and like Lucas tries to say something but leaves and Maya is crying her eyes out... and then i woke up :-/ 0.0002% chance of this actually happening but im really afraid something similar will happen 🙁
My contribution to the GMW fandom. Original picture doesn't belong to me. I just own the edit. (My favorite side characters/father-son duo)
My reaction to Girl Meets First Date (summary)
Girl Meets First Date is so cute!!,(^.^)(^.^)(^.^)(^.^) Riley, Lucas, Maya and Farkle!!!! My babies~~!! (ﾉ´ｰ`)ﾉ(ﾉ´ｰ`)ﾉ ( ＾∇＾)( ＾∇＾)( ＾∇＾)( ＾∇＾)( ＾∇＾)( ＾∇＾)
Me a year ago: Who is Farkle Minkus's mother? Me now: Who is Metal Lee's mother? Nerds and their mystery wives.......ugh, how troublesome...😑😑
I just had to put it out there for my fellow bloggers who like the same stuff I do. If you have a Kik, please add me. I'd love to fangirl over fandoms with you!!!!! 💜💜💜💜💜💜
Why Trina McGee deserves better
People need to know what Trina McGee, the actress who played Angela Moore on Boy Meets World, went through. Some people know bits and pieces: how her character was done dirty on the spin-off Girl Meets World, or the racism she endured on the set of BMW. I have been following her for a while and I want what she went though to be documented for posterity. (I don’t usually ask for reblogs, but share this post on whatever platform you can, because Michael Jacobs needs to run her a fat cheque).
During Boy Meets World
Angela Moore was a series regular who joined in season 5 episode 7 of Boy Meets World; the show had been entirely white before that point. Angela was the love interest of Shawn Hunter, which was (and still remains) extremely rare to have an interracial relationship involving a Black woman on TV, let alone with a main character. Beyond that, Angela was a fully realised character: she enjoyed poetry, classical music, had some abandonment issues that she worked through with her father, and spoke about her blackness.
Unfortunately, behind the scenes Trina McGee had to deal with racism and microagressions. She had to do her own hair and makeup on set and was called ‘Aunt Jemima’ by Will Friedle when her hair was wrapped. She was also treated coldly by Danielle Fishel and other cast members; one requested that there be no women with them in the scene. The only castmate who was unreservedly nice to Trina was Rider Strong. Rider and Trina maintain a good relationship, and described her coming into his life as “huge” because, at the time, he no longer wanted to be part of the show. He also cut off racist family members after they were not alright with the relationship.
Despite Angela’s popularity on the show, she was the only main cast member to be written of the show *one* episode before the finale. Again, this was a product of the racism she experienced from cast mates but also the writers.
Girl Meets World
When production began for Girl Meets World, they secured Danielle Fishel and Dan Savage to once again play Cory and Topanga. Will Friedle also joined for five episodes over two seasons without issue. Rider Strong, who already had a fraught history with his child actor upbringing, eventually agreed to star in some episodes on the condition that he would also be allowed to direct; he went on to play in 7 episodes. The actors who play Cory’s parents also cameod in two episodes, and William Daniels, who played Mr Feeny, appeared in four.
So, what about Trina? Despite show creator of BMW and GMW, Michael Jacobs, extending an open invitation that “Whoever wants to be part of this show will be and whoever wants to move on will” and Trina being openly enthusiastic to join, even visiting the set before the filming of season 2, she was in one episode. It aired on 19th June 2015.
Anyone who has seen Boy Meets World, does not need me to explain what misogynoiristic trash the season 2 episode 8 ‘Girl Meets Hurricane’ was. Firstly, it compared Angela’s reappearance to that of a hurricane which would ‘ruin’ Shawn’s new chance at romance with the white character of Katy (one of the main characters - Maya’s - mother). She was treated with open hostility by the protagonist of the series Riley, aka the daughter of Angela’s supposed best friends.
The writers straight up lied to the younger audience of this show, stating that Shawn Hunter “fell in love with a concept” and that Angela “broke Shawn’s heart.” To the first point, Shawn breaks up with Angela in season 5 because he want to learn how to like her outside of his frame of reference to Cory and Topanga (which he does). Also, no, Angela did not break his heart, she asks for his permission to go to Europe where her dad is stationed in order for them to repair their relationship in the penultimate episode. Shawn says yes because he understood what it was like to have a bad relationship with his father. Angela literally says “let’s not say goodbye, let’s just say ‘I love you’”!
Angela was made out to be an antagonist in this episode; she was villainised, whilst every other BMW alumnus had warm greetings and was treated as family that kept in touch.
Neither Trina nor the fans were happy about this. Micahel Jacobs knew this would be the case.
Before the episode he said “You guys are going to kill me for what we decided to do with Shawn and Angela, but I will tell you that it is right, it is real, and you’re going to have to watch the episode six times before you put the guns down.” Afterwards, he justified breaking up a vital piece of interracial and Black representation by stating (I kid you not) “Forget the color. They never meshed. Every episode was about why Shawn and Angela would not sustain.” “There can only be one Cory and Topanga and if Cory and Topanga and Shawn and Angela succeed, it lessens what I always thought was the mantra of the core show.”
Quick aside: if “real” is the aim, why was Eric the mayor of a town called St Upidtown? Why was Shawn marrying the neglectful mother of his best friend’s daughter’s best friend realistic? Why was Jonathan Turner, a chracter last seen in a coma in Philadelphia in BMW, the superintendent of the school district Cory works at in New York? How is any of that “real”?
Don’t gaslight us - the reason was misogynoir and racism.
Even after her treatment, Trina still had hope to go in and correct the representation. Many fans were outraged on her behalf and voiced this on social media to the point where the writers said that her character would be back. They never followed through.
Post-GMW Conventions
Girl Meets World was cancelled after its third season (I was very happy that day), but unfortunaltely the racism that pervaded the show failed to cease.
Firstly, ‘Angela Moore’ trended on twitter in 2019, because Candice Patton had expressed how grateful she was to have a character like Angela. Both Will Friedle and a writer on the show attempted to reaffirm the ‘importance’ of the show. This was before Will apologised (and the writers never even attempted to address their racism).
There were numerous conventions that took place after Girl Meets World was cancelled. Trina was not invited to any even though, when GMW needed buzz before it’s pilot episode aired, she was invited for a full cast reunion convention in 2013. The excuse was that she did not have the ‘correct’ agent, yet when she got the same agent as her castmates, she was still not invited.
It’s no surprise that after Trina went public with some of the racism she recieved from the cast (in April 2020, but they didn’t get picked up by major news organisations until the BLM protests in the summer) she was finally given the chance to attend one convention.
To summarise: Trina McGee faced some of the most blatant racism at every stage of her job as an actress. She was very open about this, but many fans were reluctant to call the treatment of her character racism. Michael Jacobs owes Trina an apology and some money!
He’s so hot Rider oh my gosh
Started Season 3 of Party of Five…look who showed up.
My daddy ♥️😉
Mine ♥️🧸♥️🧸
My everything ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
Rider Strong ❤
Fuck 💦♥️
Rider Strong ❤
The things I want to do to him ♥️
Rider Strong
What a beautiful boy
Was feeling down so I giffed some of my favorite Shawn moments ♥️ part 1
Bubbly baby boy ❤️
OMG!
I just went to my new school today (I know it's Sunday but that doesn't matter) and one of the young teachers looks like Josh from GMW! His name also starts with a J.
And there's a guy in my class who kind of looks like Gilbert Blythe😱 tbh he kind of looks like a mix between Gilbert and Percy Jackson.