#i feel like theres a point thats juuuust out of touch here but ive been writing this on-and-off for two hours now and i dont think im gonna

[readandwritesilver]

(this post was inspired by this post by @peachplumbpear , which you should definitely read because it's galaxy brained and a very good point)

I've been thinking a lot recently about troy and abed's role as a pairing in comparison to a traditional secondary sitcom romance. because it's just like. that's exactly the role they fill. (continued under cut)

at face value, it would seem that britta and troy are the secondary romance, right? except like. they're not. like id say that (arguably, of course) two staples of a secondary romance is that a) they're relatively drama-free (less that there's no conflict whatsoever, more that the conflict is minor, and "reasonable", and doesn't detract from whatever will-they-wont-they type thing the primary romance has going) and that b) they get together reasonably early on (if they're not already established when the show starts), and, to some degree, stay together (meaning there may be a period where things are up in the air but, again, it isn't nearly as dramatic as you'd see from a primary romance). and troy/britta are neither of these. troy and abed are.

and this maybe all sounds like im grasping at straws a little bit, but that's kind of the point. a secondary romance is built on those straws, if that makes any sense. they exist as a rock of the show, something consistent when the main pairing is on the rocks every other week. troy and abed exist in this role- their friendship is something consistent, when the romance plotlines of the show (including those of troy himself), are not.

they meet at the start of the show and have initially conflicting personalities, and after a conflict where they learn more about each other, and how to properly engage and have fun etc (talking abt 01.05) they start to develop a friendship that is (id say arguably but i really don't know what argument you'd provide) one of the most significant relationships in either of their lives.

and their relationship takes the EXACT spot that the secondary romance would. after their initial development in the first half of season one where they're still getting close, they're a constant in the background. often paired together for storylines, generally not just accepted but expected to be troy-and-abed rather than troy and abed. you see things like the two of them being together in the politics of human sexuality, their conflict about moving in together accompanying the love triangle of jeff-britta-slater coming to a head in 01.25, the significance that their separation in a fistful of paintballs is awarded, the seriousness (seriousness in a distinctly community way, but seriousness nonetheless) of their season three arc (the implications of which i could make a whole post about. oh, wait.)... and these are just off the top of my head- i KNOW there's more.

community is a little abnormal with in-canon romance in general- there's not even really a big main pairing. the closest thing is, i guess, jeff and annie, but i don't really feel right about counting that, regardless of my own personal opinions on jeff/annie. arguably, troy and abed filling this role that i'm talking about without being canonically romantically involved is an extension of both this, and the general nature of community to satirize anything that moves (as well as most things that don't). but i think it's more than that.

the writers of community weren't stupid. they knew what they were doing- we see this acknowledged countless times in-text, from "you don't see me saying anything about troy and abed's weird little relationship", to "me and abed have an announcement", to plenty of others. i think that some of this was your standard-issue "the punchline of this joke is the possibility that these characters are gay", but i think that part of it is also what the post i linked at the top is talking about. it's a nod to the potential that community would have in a different world, it's a nod to the heteronormativity of the classic sitcom, but it doesn't actually allow the concept to be fully realized. troy and abed are left, like all the pairings limited by network standards and writers rooms afraid to commit that came before them, and all the ones that have/will come after them, in the purgatory op is referencing. they take up the space where your april-and-andy, your monica-and-chandler, your lily-and-marshal, would go, but there's a distinct hollowness to it. not in that their relationship is less meaningful because it lacks the distinct romantic element the other listed examples contain- i'd actually argue that in some ways it makes it more meaningful that their bond is still so strong despite being platonic (especially since friendships like that, especially ones between two men, are something that we so rarely see in media, let alone sitcoms). no. the hollowness comes from how the implications are actively ignored outside of a joking context.

a joke provides a shield for the writers to poke fun at their own creation, to say "look at them! look at how troy reaches for abed's hand! he thinks of him as his other half! their suits match! hysterical.". but when the joking is done, and the cards are down, and the school is in shambles because troy and abed are starting to grow into different people than they were when they met, we're left with a shadow of what troy and abed could have been if the writers had committed to their own satire.

#like i said in the tags of my rb this is its own post bc i didnt want to derail ops post !! i know this couldve been a rb i just. had a lot #to say and wanted to be polite lol #also thats why the? not speech patterns. text-equivalent of speech patterns? are a bit awkward at the start this was originally a block of #tags that i just copy pasted when i knew i had too much to say for tags #community #meta #community meta #troy barnes #abed nadir #trobed #i feel like theres a point thats juuuust out of touch here but ive been writing this on-and-off for two hours now and i dont think im gonna #find it #long post #ben talks #hall of fame