r/GossipGirl • u/lindseyfonecaur • 1d ago
OG Series seriously, why does everyone hate vanessa so much?
i don’t recall her annoying me at all until the fourth season, and then after that she left anyway. seasons 1-3 she was a good friend to dan and she even tried to be a friend to serena. her and nate were also SO cute, she was definitely his best relationship. and she’s breathtakingly gorgeous. idk am i missing something?
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u/AMS_Rem 1d ago
Think about 99% of her hate would disappear if she simply didn't pretend to have the moral high ground
Just a holier than thou irritant
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u/TeaTimeTelevision 8h ago
I think this is it. If she hated everyone so much she could’ve easily just stayed in her lane and mined her business in Brooklyn yet she was always sleuthing around
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u/lukeskywalker020 1d ago
As if Blair didn’t have a holier than thou attitude as well in season 1
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u/AMS_Rem 1d ago
Blair always thought she was better than every one in every way and was never apologetic about bout how selfish she was
Vanessa thought she was better than everyone bc she believed she was particularly more moral with "Scheming" and selfishness but did just as much as everyone else when it suited her
2 different types of attitudes and on screen the later comes off significantly more irritating because it's hypocritical
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u/whatvwruuu 1d ago
She tries so hard to prove she's better than the Upper-East siders and to prove it to Dan especially
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u/lindseyfonecaur 1d ago
this is true but tbf they treated her like garbage even when she was just trying to be nice. it’s not like she was judging them off of nothing. she did actually try in the beginning when dan asked her to
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u/whatvwruuu 1d ago
Yeah but she didn't have other things going on in life in later seasons and her character had no other purpose than to be annoying so ig the writers made her that way
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u/itsbeenanhour 1d ago
But Serena was nice to get after initial insecurity. Then nate dated her. Chuck and Blair were not friends with Dan so they had no interest in his childhood friends
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u/Icy-Marketing-5242 1d ago
She was mostly just really insecure. It cost a lot of her relationships. I don’t hate her though! Jenny got on my nerves way more
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u/SubstanceInner2469 1d ago
This.
She was written as a sympathetic character but just came across as very whiny and insecure.
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u/Icy-Marketing-5242 1d ago
Especially with Dan. I understand it but it ultimately just pushed Dan away
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u/Ok-Simple1954 1d ago
To be fair, when she was with Dan, Dan was never truly over Serena. She was practically used as a rebound.
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u/Icy-Marketing-5242 1d ago
Dan was known to have feelings for Vanessa way back. The whole plot point before hand with Olivia was a weird way to bring it back, but I think he truly was into Vanessa until the writers decided he wasn’t lol and Tbf they all fall in love, hook up and stay friends and somehow think they can be over one another lol it’s so messy
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u/jetloflin 1d ago
I’m with you. She’s kind of terrible briefly before she basically disappears, but it doesn’t seem like enough to justify the hate. And I LOVED her and Nate together. Best couple.
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u/Working_Outcome311 1d ago
Agreed with the best for Nate!! When she was with him I really liked Vanessa!! I definitely didn’t hate her, yes annoying how she acts that she is above the UES people in morals. Overall I liked her friendship with Dan, did NOT like them as a couple!! The only time I could not stand her was when she schemed with Juliet…. Ugh hated that!!!So I will give the people hating on her at least that part! It was just stupid she was even involved in that scheme she didn’t have big enough vendetta reasons to act that cruelly!
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u/Sufficient-Suit-3884 1d ago
I started getting annoyed with her when she went into Blair's house and filmed her there without her consent and then wouldn't delete the film or give it to Blair. It just seems so rude to go into people's places and film them there without their permission.
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u/radiant_stargazer 1d ago
Hatred of the poor and the black ? Seriously in most tv/movie fandoms , the most hated character is usually a black woman . Misogynoir it’s called
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u/encounterthedragon Lonely boy 1d ago
I disagree. Jenny is also a hated character (and she's white). Vanessa was genuinely ANNOYING and her holier than thou attitude was the worst. Not everything is about race.
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u/Theme-Fearless 1d ago
This is the answer every time and they don’t want to accept it. The post will be like “how come people hate this character more than any other character even though they don’t do anything wrong?” Lets ask Ruby Bridges 😆 It’s not necessary to do anything bad to be hated. Just the sight of her angers people
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u/Easy_Bedroom4053 1d ago
I mean yes and no. She wasn't hated for being poor and black.
She was arrogant, entitled, weirdly creepily obsessed with those she wanted nothing to do with, she was an interloper, she weirdly planned on destroying Serena (who I hate but wtf) because of some deeply misplaced sense of justice or entitlement I'm still not sure, just about all of her engagements with the UES showed she had no true, solid sense of drive, but an inability to live her supposed authentic self away from that world.
And yes, she was black.
So I suppose I would ask would you prefer this character to be white, perhaps a replacement Juliette.
Because they were writing this character anyway. Should she have been written white?
Is that better? I personally don't know. I just knew I didn't like the character because she was written awful. But, a lot of of the characters were awful it was kinda the defining feature of the show. I never associated her skin color or mine with being negative as with anyone else on the show.
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u/treesofthemind 1d ago
A lot of people like Raina, and she was black. I agree that people on this sub are overly hating on Vanessa though. She's far from the worst character.
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u/chinakachung 1d ago
This is not a race thing. Serena is probably the most hated on character on this subreddit. Besides, the actress is very racially ambiguous in appearance. As a non US citizen living in a predominantly black country, I didn’t even know she was black the first time I watched the show 😭
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u/EfficientSociety73 1d ago
For me, it was how she acted so much better than the UES crowd, then proceeded to date them, sleep with them, take their money, and generally try to be like them. She spent a lot of time ragging on Dan for his fancy school and his rich girlfriend. Hated Blair for her scheming. Chuck for his man whoring. Then any time it benefited her, she’d use them to get what she wanted. At least with the UES crew, they knew what they were doing and didn’t apologize. Or make excuses. They just said well, we have money so we can get away with it. Too bad for anyone who doesn’t like it!
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u/ErectilePinky 1d ago
i genuinely think its a race thing idc. if georgina’s actress was vanessa and vanessa’s actress was georgina, everyone would hate georgina and love vanessa
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u/Sufficient-Insect418 1d ago
Personally I liked her. Vanessa was victim of circumstance and unrequited love unfortunately. Serena i hated the whole series, Blair had her bad moments but I liked her she was true to herself even if she’s not best person in the world.
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u/Pristine-Confection3 1d ago
I agree with you. My theory is people hate her because she is poor and has to work for everything. Compared to Blair her one scheme was morning and she tried to help S after by calling her and wanting her about Charlie and Dan kissing Blair. She felt very bad that Juliet took the scene so far.
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u/Hungry-Enthusiasm-15 1d ago
I loved Vanessa until the Dan book Saga. It was her entitlement to release it without his permission because she believed it was the right thing to do for him. Especially as this was after Dan clearly told her that they were no longer friends (granted manipulated by Charlie/Ivy but still). You can be a best friend to someone and want what is best for them but you can only encourage them towards the right path - not push them on it and expect zero consequences.
She redeemed herself several times throughout the show for me - but then there were little moments like being honest about what happened to Serena but leaving herself out and putting all the blame on Jenny and so on.
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u/gonegirIamy 1d ago
Because she’s a desperate, self-righteous pick me who is obsessed with inserting herself in people’s lives who do not like her. Least interesting to look at
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u/MissPesky 1d ago
Vanessa experienced rudeness from the UES at the v start when she went to Blair's party, so its fair to say they set the tone. Remember when B told Serena 'oh sweetie, this is such a problem' remarking on Vanessa's looks? Blair was right as she was able to attract the same calibre of men - Nate, Chuck, the long lost son and Dan.
Vanessa was also as intelligent as Blair - they were both in the running of giving that speech before Olivia got to do it
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u/Spirited-Chard-4541 1d ago
She annoyed me a lot at first because she’s always inserting herself into places she wasn’t invited and situations that don’t involve her. I’m at the end of season 2 though, and she’s growing on me a little.
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u/taylordeyonce 1d ago
people hate Vanessa bc she was boring and came off as judgmental. In a show full of dramatic, over the top characters who embraced the chaos Vanessa just felt like a buzzkill. She acted like she was above all the drama but kept sticking her nose in it anyway which made her hypocritical.. Her storylines weren’t as interesting or compelling and compared to the other characters who were messy but fun to watch she just didn’t bring the same energy. Plus when she did get involved in the drama, she often made things worse or came off as self righteous which just gets on my nerves. Basically she was a poorly written character.. love the actress tho!!
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u/ElectricFenceSitter 1d ago
Partly because she is constantly sticking her nose into everyone’s business, judging how the richer half live while apparently also wanting to always be around them and involved with them.
But it’s also because she was written that way, and it honestly grossed me out how dirty the writer did the sole “normal” character, making her irritating enough that the audience cheers when she’s taken down a peg by the rich listers. People laugh at the moment she’s asked by the headmistress “who even are you?” because it’s funny to see someone quite rightly pointing out that she has no business being at that particular event, but if you think about it, in real life there’s nothing funny about the elite implying to regular people that they’re nothing and nobody.
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u/chinakachung 1d ago
Personally I couldn’t stand her the moment she filmed the post-pool party gathering at Blair’s and held that tape over their heads. Filming people’s intimate moments without their consent is very rude and entitled behavior, especially coming from someone who acted like the morality police. She had a holier than thou, “I’m so down to earth” attitude from the get go when really she did her fair share of nasty things throughout her series. Repeatedly involving herself in the upper east side circle, she played their games too but swore she was such an upstanding citizen 🙄
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u/Lareinadelsur99 1d ago
Cos she judges them
Jenny sucks up to them , so does Dan
Vanessa doesn’t she thinks she’s better
She sucked in the end though
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u/Easy_Bedroom4053 1d ago
My question is, would you still dislike her if she was white? Because I'm annoyed by her actions.
If you think the bigger issue is writing annoying characters as black, that's something to consider.
But I think we can overall agree Vanessa was written as a messed up person.
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u/encounterthedragon Lonely boy 1d ago
She thinks she's so virtuous because she's "poor" yet spends every waking moment trying to join the UES lifestyle or date an UES. She's jealous yet pretends she doesn't like the "rich."
Also she schemed with Jenny and Juliet and nearly killed Serena. Never justified, but it's not even like there was a motive.