WARNING: If you have not watched all of Gossip Girl, there could be spoilers. I’ve warned you.
Lonely Boy, Humphrey, Dan: writer, author, douche, there are many phrases that describe his shit show of a character. Not only did I like him and Serena at the beginning of the series, but I shipped them hard. I still ship them, but only because they are both so bad that they deserve one another. Over time, I figured out one thing: they both are trash. But this isn’t about Serena; this article is about the annoying complex of Dan Humphrey.
1. He switches back and forth too much:
Remember that time when he cheated on Blair and pretended that Chuck was worse than him? He was not only rude insofar by cheating on her, but he pined for her love and resented her for staying with Chuck. In my opinion, I think he loved the idea of Blair instead of her actual personality, and her status since high school of being “Queen B” of the series and in Manhattan while he was the boy from Brooklyn who was inherently lame.
2. Pretends to be “the good guy”:
Not only does Dan betray everyone in the series at least once, he pretends that he never has. The other characters also have betrayed one another in the past, but they always admit what they’ve done wrong, or people find out and understand. For some reason, characters always are surprised that Dan wrote the rude book about their lives, and each blog post betraying them all. Honestly, he makes writers look bad, we’re supposed to “minimize the damage,” not make it worse.
3. He has a “lonely boy” complex:
Yet, as he completely disses and betrays everyone, he continues to question why he ends up alone. He purposely separates himself by posting this content, but doesn’t understand why he is alienated.
4. He pretends to not want to become an Upper East Sider, even though that’s what he wants most of all:
Dan is a character that purposely sets himself apart by being the quiet writer-type throughout high school, obsessed with going to an Ivy League school but in actuality, he wants to be “on top” most of all. By dating characters like Serena and Blair throughout the course of the story, Dan doesn’t settle for Vanessa or Georgina, who are also from Brooklyn and not “on their level.” He pretends to hold this moral high ground as opposed to the Upper East siders, but he is the same as them, and actually, much much worse.
Overall, Humphrey sets himself up for failure in his actions by pretending to be something other than he’s not. It turned him into just what he doesn’t (or maybe, actually does) want to be in the end: the fakest of them all.