Riley X Lucas - 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.