Day 21 – Favourite ship

Day 21 – Favourite ship

I've been shipping since before I knew shipping was a thing. When I started watching Buffy I wanted for ages for Xander to wake up and see what was right in front of him - Willow. Well, that was until Oz turned up and swept her off her feet, and then it was Tara... Oh damn it, I must have just been a Willow shipper .

Anyway, my favourite ship (with steep competition from Emily and Maya in Pretty Little Liars, HG and Myka in Warehouse 13 and Rizzoli and Isles), if you hadn't guessed already, are these two lovely ladies:

Brittana pinkie love








Santana started off as Quinn's bitchy sidekick and Puck's one time girlfriend. Brittany was the ditzy blonde in the cheerios who was there for comic relief. However, from these humble beginnings Naya and Heather crafted much bigger roles for themselves. This was thanks to their antics in the background early in season 1. They spent most of their time sitting together, so to make a joke of this, the producers decided to throw in a line about the characters sleeping together in the middle of a conversation about Rachel knowing that Puck was the father of Quinn's yet to be born baby.

This was supposed to be a one off, a throwaway joke that was never to be touched upon again. However, from here the good ship Brittana set sail. Before this there had been suspicions that they were together with moments like this in their very first song together:
brittany santana glee I Say a Little Prayer







However, this was the first time the subtext between the two had become maintext. Thanks to the fans' reactions, the producers woke up to what had been in front of them for the whole time and Santana, after initially telling Britt that she was just with her because Puck was in prison at the time, finally admitted she loved her in one of the most touching moments of the second season [script and commentary taken from Christie Keith's recap of Sexy on AfterEllen]:
Santana approaches Brittany at her locker, and says, "Can we talk?"

"But we never do that," Brittany says.

"I know," Santana says, looking so soft and sad I barely know it's her. "But I wanted to thank you for singing that song with me in Glee Club."

"Yeah…"

"'Cause it made me do a lot of thinking. What I realized…" she takes a deep breath… "What I realized is why I'm such a bitch all the time. I'm a bitch because I'm angry. Because I have all of these feelings. Feelings for you, that I'm afraid of dealing with, because I'm afraid of dealing with the consequences." A football player walks by, and Santana waits until he's past to go on. "And Brittany… I can't go to an Indigo Girls concert. I just can't."

"I understand that."

Santana looks at her. "Do you understand what I'm trying to say here?"

She reluctantly shakes her head. "Not really."

"I want to be with you. But I'm afraid of the talks and the looks. I mean, you know what happened to Kurt at this school."

Brittany looks surprised. "But honey, if anybody were to ever make fun of you, you would either kick their ass or slash them with your vicious, vicious words."

Santana starts to cry. "Yeah, I know, but I'm so afraid of what everyone will say behind my back. Still, I have to accept that I love you. I love you. And I don't want to be with Sam or Finn or any of those other guys. I just want you. Please say you love me back. Please."

Brittany is gazing at her, so moved. "Of course I love you, I do. And I would totally be with you if it weren't for Artie."

Santana is shocked. "Artie?"

"I love him, too. I don't want to hurt him. It's not right. I can't break up with him."

And now Santana is shocked and furious. "Of course you can. He's just a stupid boy." And so much is crystal clear now.

Brittany looks upset. "But it wouldn't be right. Santana, you have to know if Artie and I were to ever break up and I'm lucky enough that you're still single…"

Brittany tries to take Santana's hand, and Santana pulls it way, saying, "Don't."

Brittany goes on. "I am so yours. Proudly so."

"Yeah, wow," Santana hisses. "Whoever thought that being 'fluid' meant that you could be so stuck."

Brittany says, "I'm sorry," and reaches for Santana, who says, "Don't. Get off me," and walks off, leaving Brittany standing despondent in the hall.
Wow, just wow. I know how much I moaned about season 2 of Glee, but when it got it right it was amazing.  It was heartbreaking stuff and it's also helped young girls coming to terms with their sexuality, so it's incredibly important.

On a personal note, I love this scene for its positive portrayal of bisexuality. Which, considering the source, is amazing. When Glee overtly tried to tackle the "bi" issue before, it did it so clumsily and was bordering on offensive. Here we have a girl [Britt] who openly admits she loves another but doesn't want to leave her existing relationship with a man to be with her because as far as she's concerned, Artie has done nothing to deserve [actually, he'd done plenty, but I'll be quiet]. Brittany is not a confused, greedy or predatory individual, she's simply a person who loves people regardless of their gender. If I had had this Glee episode when I was 16, maybe I wouldn't have spent 3 years denying I had any interest in men [more on this in another post]. So, yes, thank you so so much.

To conclude the post, I shall point you to a twitter friend of mine's Glee recaps as she does Brittana much more justice than I do and leave you with some wonderful, wonderful screencaps [credits in the titles]:

brittany and santana during sexy

brittany and santana making out during duets

brittany santana me against the music

Santana singing Songbird