Goodbye from Save[d]ChuckandBlair
With the release of Gossip Girl’s final season, and after two intensive years of campaigning, the saveChuckandBlair campaign is now officially complete. Effective immediately, we will cease updating the saveChuckandBlair accounts on Tumblr and Twitter. We still love and support Chuck and Blair, but our work here is done- now married, with their own family, they truly have been ‘saved’. But Chuck and Blair will always live on in the fandom, through fanart, fanvids and fanfiction. And although we have decided to put the saveChuckandBlair campaign accounts into permanent hiatus, the campaign material will remain available indefinitely, to honor Chuck and Blair as a couple, and to help keep alive the memory of what we have achieved.

Of course, our campaign would not have been possible without the hard work of the many people, from all over the world, who have been part of the saveChuckandBlair team over the years. While a lot of them worked entirely behind the scenes, we hope that our fandom knows how blessed it was to have such talented, hard-working people at its disposal. The amount of effort they dedicated to the campaign, which often required a substantial commitment of their own time and resources, was absolutely invaluable to the success of saveChuckandBlair. For our team, the campaign has been a very long journey- from starting as an idea talked about in private by a few people to discussions (XOXO and finally Butterflies) involving dozens of people; and from none of us having any social media knowledge to multiple people coordinating to run massive accounts at the forefront of the fandom. Given the divisiveness of the Gossip Girl fandom, it was inevitable that the campaign had its share of intrigue, subterfuge, double agents, setbacks, arguments, tears, and laughter- but at its heart, it was always guided by a sincere appreciation of Chuck and Blair, and a commitment to stand by them through anything.

We know for a fact that when Gossip Girl began, Chuck and Blair were not originally conceived as an endgame couple; it was largely due to overwhelming fan support that they became the super-couple they are recognized as today. By the middle seasons of Gossip Girl, however, unfortunate storyline decisions had led to growing despondency and attrition among the Chuck and Blair fandom. Thus, the saveChuckandBlair campaign was born.

When we started the saveChuckandBlair campaign we had several key mandates:

• To promote appreciation of Chuck and Blair as a couple,
• To improve the morale of the Chuck and Blair fandom, and
• To inform TPTB of what the Chuck and Blair fandom hoped to see in the remaining Gossip Girl episodes, by mobilizing fans to participate in polls, trends, and petitions

Admittedly, due to some of the plotlines that were used during the later seasons of Gossip Girl, the majority of our campaign team does not feel as though we fully succeeded in ‘creating a positive change in the writing for Chuck and Blair as a couple’. However, we firmly believe that our campaign was validated through our successes within the Chuck and Blair fandom itself; this is evident in the many people who have told us, over the course of the campaign, that our positive influence inspired them to remain in the fandom. Seeing Chuck and Blair fans from different countries and walks of life, coming together as a community over a common love of this couple, has been truly special. We cannot express in words how proud we are of what the Chuck and Blair fandom accomplished together! Since we started our campaign, our fandom has taken over the Twitter trending topics (we created over SEVENTY World Wide Twitter Trends for Gossip Girl). Furthermore, the saveChuckandBlair campaign has been publicly acknowledged by two of the Gossip Girl executive producers, and just our Tumblr account has been visited by almost ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND people from ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE countries. We leave the fandom with our Tumblr having TWELVE THOUSAND followers; our Twitter having EIGHT THOUSAND followers; and our Facebook having SIX THOUSAND likes! We hope you have enjoyed the results of our campaign as much as we have, and we hope that we have left the Chuck and Blair fandom a richer place for having been here.

SaveChuckandBlair would also like to thank everyone in the fandom for supporting our campaign and making it such a huge success. There would have been no campaign without the fans, and we are so grateful for every single one of you. We would particularly like to thank the many Chuck and Blair fansites and forums that helped promote us. Our Twitter account would like to recognize the accounts that helped promote our trending topics, especially @GG_quotes. Our Tumblr account would like to recognize the following accounts who contributed to the campaign by creating trending posters (ordered by level of contribution):
♛ iheartchair ♛ signaturescarf ♛ iloveyoudearly- ♛ blaircorneliawaldorfbass ♛ cosmokaramel ♛ krism23 ♛
[Gold Chairleaders] ♦ | tiesunbreakable | twobratsinlove | iwillalwayslovechair | rubybass | michmemoirs | chair4ever | hermiola | epic-chair | imhenrybass | youhadmeuntiltroll |
[Silver Chairleaders] ♦ | thatblairwaldorfbass | keepcalmandshipchair | wegoupinflamestogether | smash2008 | chairys | ilovemyleightedchair | blairhappiness | pauvrefolle | basssets | meesters | that-chuckbass-tard | bloodyhellgranger | waldorfpwnsall | shameturnsmeon | livelybass | chairytale | blaircorneliawaldorfbass | uachuckblair | vladabass |
[Bronze Chairleaders] ♦ | tonguewick | ewestwicks | leightedlimosex | breakfastatharrywinston | blairandchuck | youweretroublefromthedaywemet | youdontjustgiveup | ledarkpeonies | montechairlo | blagina | akrinord | bellemme | sandraisabelmtl | ambiguosandcomplex | belleinbalenciaga | timeofchair | bass-archibald | shattered-fate | waldorfpenthouse | hotpianosex | kathrinebass | uxmakexmexsmile | gossipgirladdicts | youknewthatalready | manhattanseliteupperclas | heartsbeatasones | vvreflections | blaircharmings | astoriatakesnewyork | mirrored-seas | iforgotthatyousaidaction | possitivetension | iamnotangel | missamnesiaconhielo | packageofgirlyevil | ewestwicks | eswlove | westorgaswick | iricious | tappingthatbass | keepcalmandshipchair | edstolemyheart |

Finally, we would like to thank those behind the super-couple of Chuck and Blair: Cecily von Ziegesar, for creating these characters; Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, for taking them from the page to the TV screen and conceiving their love story; and lastly, the incredible Ed Westwick and Leighton Meester, whose unparalleled talent and insane chemistry made Chuck and Blair into the worldwide phenomenon that they became. Thank you all, for creating a couple so beloved that from their first moment, through six seasons of highs and lows, they were always worth saving.

Farewell,
The save[d]ChuckandBlair team (especially the people currently running our accounts: P, S, C, T and I)

@introvertedN:

It was beautiful. I can’t think of a more solid endgame. If you think about it the flashforward scene cemented so much stuff:

• Chuck is a ‘father in a way Bart never was’ (3.12):
  He is affectionate- picks Henry up and swings him around
  He compliments his son- “look how smart you are”
  He makes his son feel secure and loved- can you picture baby Chuck shouting “Daddy!” and happily running into Bart’s arms? Pfft. Never.
• Blair has finally found some success and power independent from any sort of romantic relationship with Waldorf Designs.
• Blair has clearly grown in a major way since she has hired Jenny to work for her. Can you imagine her doing that in the past? Never.
• Both Chuck and Blair have grown as people since they’re holding Dan and Serena’s wedding in their townhouse (it shows they’ve let bygones be bygones with Dan and approve of the Derena union).
• Blair has a husband that clearly adores and appreciates her- “It’s all Blair”.
• Blair and Chuck have strong relationships with their in-laws and they are obviously very involved in their lives with Henry. We see Cyrus and Chuck as well as Blair and Lily having warm interactions. We see Eleanor and Cyrus with Henry and it’s obvious they know and love him.
• Henry has things that Chuck never had as a child:
  A real home instead of a hotel
  A mother that is ALIVE (lol)
  A father that loves him, compliments him and is affectionate with him
  An extended family that loves and adores him
  Toys! Lots of toys!

It’s really beautiful how much Savage packed into that flash forward for Chuck and Blair. It’s so solid and perfect.

2012-2013 Top 10 Young TV Ships as voted by YOU!
The annual Portrait Top 10 Young TV Ships Poll is always an interesting time of the year as the staff are glued to their computer screens over several weeks monitoring ships moving up and down, fandoms fervently competing against each other to ensure that their OTP rises closer to the top spot. Now in our 7th year, the 2012-2013 Portrait Top 10 Young TV Ships Poll was certainly no different. Over 1 600 000 votes later and the final results are here. Did Gossip Girl’s Chuck and Blair get their final hurrah and maintain their top spot for one last time or did ships from popular fanbases like Glee and The Vampire Diaries nudge them out of the way? Read on and find out!

The Final Results:
1. Chuck & Blair (Gossip Girl) (416 033) 26%
2. Sam & Mercedes (Glee) (356 086) 22%
3. Damon & Elena (The Vampire Diaries) (297 505) 19%

#1. Chuck Bass & Blair Waldorf [Gossip Girl]
“What we have is a great love. It’s complicated. Intense. All-consuming. No matter what we do and how much we fight, it’ll always pull us in.”

It seems fitting that in their last year, Chuck and Blair have dominated our poll and taken out the top spot for the fourth time. Fans have been patient for six years waiting for these two to finally get their act together for the long haul and in the show’s finale that patience had been rewarded with what they had always known: Chuck + Blair = Endgame. The road has never been easy for these two but it’s always been interesting, which has been the very essence of the pairing – they’re never boring. Whether they were together or apart, they kept fans enthralled with their antics and captivating chemistry. There’s been snark, heartbreak, angst, scheming, joy, playfulness and tears, but without all that they wouldn’t be where they are today – happily married with an adorable son and a legion of dedicated fans. There is no one like them nor will there ever be. Long live Chuck and Blair!

Memorable Shipper Moment: The flashforward in the Gossip Girl finale – we saw that they were happily married with a beautiful son and that they had broken the mould of their past and successfully became something that their own parents never were – devoted parents and a successful family unit.

Ed and Leighton on stage at the Siam Centre

Ed and Leighton’s Thailand press conference (English version)

Ed and Leighton at dinner, Thailand | 11th January, 2013 (x)

Ed and Leighton on the red carpet, Thailand | 11th January, 2013 (x)

Ed and Leighton on the red carpet, Thailand | 11th January, 2013

Ed and Leighton are scheduled to arrive in less than an hour.

Ed and Leighton, Thailand | 11th January, 2013
Courtesy of @siam_center

Ed and Leighton, Thailand | 11th January, 2013 (x)