Girl Meets World
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Girl Meets World |
| Abbreviation(s): | GMW |
| Creator: | Michael Jacobs, April Kelly |
| Date(s): | June 27, 2014 – January 20, 2017 |
| Medium: | Live-Action Television show |
| Country of Origin: | United States |
| External Links: | Official Site |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Girl Meets World is a Disney Channel television series which is a sequel to the popular Boy Meets World series. Girl Meets World follows the story of Riley Matthews, the daughter of Cory and Topanga Matthews and the older sister to Auggie Matthews, along with her best friend Maya Hart and new friend/love interest Lucas Friar. It lasted for three seasons before being cancelled by Disney.
Fandom
Many fans of the original series, Boy Meets World, patiently waited for the sequel since the series was announced in 2012[1], especially in 2013 after it was confirmed by Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel that they would be reprising their roles as Cory Matthews and Topanga Lawrence-Matthews in the new series[2][3].
So far the fandom is mainly located on Tumblr, where gifs and picspams appear of Riley, Maya, and Cory/Topanga. As of July 20, 2014, there are only a few works on Archive of Our Own and FanFiction.Net which mainly focus on the main characters and adding the original BMW characters such as Shawn Hunter. The fandom grew larger as it went on, while still prominently on Tumblr and Twitter, the Fanfiction.net part of the fandom grew larger, even higher than Archive of Our Own - by April 24, 2017 there are over 1.8K works at AO3 and over 4.1K fics at FFN.
In 2016, GMW was ranked number twentyth in the Top 20 "most reblogged" live-action television show on Tumblr[4].
Fandom and the Cast & TPTB
In season 2, Riley's character attracted a hatedom of fans who found her cheerful, loopy personality annoying and felt she was "in the way" of the Lucas/Maya pairing. The Riley-bashing became so intense that the episode "Girl Meets Rileytown" was made in response. The story sees Riley being bullied via text, but with a twist: the bully is never shown, and neither are any of the texts. The focus is instead on Riley's sudden dark mood after being harassed for weeks, with her lashing out at Maya before finally breaking down in tears.
While the episode was well-received overall, some of the fans it was calling out naturally took offense and hated it. Some Maya fans in particular hyper-focused on how Riley had lashed out at their favorite character, rather than on the episode itself and the reason why she did.
Farkle was disliked heavily for his constant chasing of Riley and Maya in season 1, but once he started to move on from them and mature as a person, fans warmed up to him.
Some fans didn't care for the Disney Channel sitcom feeling and only watched the show for the returning Boy Meets World characters.
Shipping
The main pairings in GMW are Cory/Topanga and Riley/Lucas, which the latter is often compared with the other due to Cory & Topanga's beginnings. Another popular pairing is Riley/Maya, probably inspired by the Cory/Shawn from the original fandom and how close they are as friends. The pairing Maya/Lucas became quite popular in the first season. Maya/Josh quickly became popular after it was revealed that Maya has a crush on him.
By the end of the series, the popular pairings in the fandom are Lucas/Maya, Maya/Riley, Riley/Farkle, Lucas/Riley, Maya/Josh, Topanga/Cory, and Farkle/Smackle.
Other pairings in the fandom include: Maya/Farkle, Riley/Maya/Farkle, Riley/Charlie, Riley/Maya/Lucas, Farkle/Lucas, Smackle/Farkle, Zay/Maya, Zay/Smackle and Zay/Riley.
Terminology
- Rucas is the pairing name of Riley/Lucas.
- Riakle is the pairing name of Riley/Farkle.
- Lucaya is the pairing name of Lucas/Maya.
- Rilaya is the pairing name of Riley/Maya.
- Markle is the pairing name of Maya/Farkle.
- Joshaya is the pairing name of Maya/Josh.
- Smarkle is the pairing name of Smackle/Farkle.
- Zaley is the pairing name of Zay/Riley.
- Rilucaya is the pairing name of Riley/Lucas/Maya.
- Zaya is the pairing name of Zay/Maya.
Common Tropes & Fanon in Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
- FutureFics appeared frequently as a way to age up the characters to reach High School age or beyond.
- Alternate Universes
- Nonbinary or trans characters
- Running with the canon callbacks and comparisons to Boy Meets World and expanding on them
Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fics
- Who's That Girl? by msnoahshaw, a drabble where Riley realizes that Lucas has a crush on Maya and talks to Topanga about it. (Riley & Topanga, Lucas/Maya, implied Riley/Farkle)
- The Season of Change by Chereche, Ski Lodge A/U: Maya takes Lucas' words badly, and everything changes for them all from that moment on. (Lucas/Maya, Lucas/Riley, Farkle & Isadora, Riley/Farkle, Zay/Isadora)
Archives
- Girl Meets World works at AO3
- Girl Meets World works at FFN
Fannish Links
Tumblr Fandom
- Girl Meets World tag at Tumblr
- Riley and Auggie, a Girl Meets World focused Tumblr
- Girl Meets Blog, another GMC focused Tumblr
- Boy Meets World Gifs, a Boy Meets World/Girl Meets World focused Tumblr
- Boy Meets World//Girl Meets World, another BMW/GMW focused Tumblr
Resources
References
- ^ Wikipedia: Girl Meets World Development, series was announced in November 2012
- ^ Twitter / BenSavage: I'm going to be a father! Well". Twitter. Published November 26, 2013. (Accessed 19 July 2014)
- ^ Twitter / daniellefishel: Trying this again! Girl Meets". Twitter. Published November 26, 2013. (Accessed 19 July 2014)
- ^ 2016′s Top TV Shows - Live Action