User blog comment:Juan Jose Rodriguez/Gwen and Duncan - Why Do You All Hate It?/@comment-1204060-20090817201759

Oh, it is so difficult to sum up my opinion on this pairing into words. For one, I don't hate this pairing. I dislike it, and it does irritate me to think about. Why? Deep down, I know it is mainly because it has the slight potential to break up my favorite canon couple. But, as any good fan should, I will struggle to answer your question as best I can: Duncan and Gwen are bad as a couple because I think that their interactions have show their personal disinterest in becoming romantically involved with one another. Yeah, I know, you're probably like "I could list tons of instances off the top of my head of why Duncan and Gwen have shown romantic interest in one another," but hear me out. I think I'll just use the Gwen-Duncan page on the wiki as a guide and go through all of their notable interactions.

The Big Sleep- Duncan uses terms of endearment on nearly every girl he comes in contact with, and Gwen was teasing him in a friendly way. If anything, it was one of their most conflict-like interactions, as it involved Duncan getting slightly irritated with her, but it does foreshadow their future friendship with friendly teasing.

Who Can You Trust?- Duncan is a womanizer and he has said during the course of the series that he thinks Gwen is physically attractive. No, that does not mean that they are getting married or that they are going to date. It means that Duncan finds Gwen physically attractive. In relation to that, he also finds Heather, Courtney, and possibly Lindsay physically attractive. Needless to say, it doesn't mean much. Plus, his interactions with Gwen are limited, and, thus, a personal relationship with her at the time is questionable.

That's Off The Chain!- Gwen and Duncan's interactions were limited at this time, and she knew little about him. Her comment semi-proves that.

Hook, Line, and Screamer- This is most likely the first time in TDI that they really conversed with one another. They were both fans of a gory movie, and they have a large amount of friendly, buddy-like interactions during the beginning of the challenge. In no way do they show attraction to one another, nor do they show large amounts of caring for one another, Duncan tricked Gwen into leaving for a minute, and Gwen was just angry that he did so. Well, not so much angry as she was frustrated; their interaction seemed to be more like friendly competition with a little joking around rather then Duncan attempting to sabotoge her. Yeah, Duncan freaked out when the pshyco killer showed up, but who wouldn't? They were slightly shown to be friends at that point, and if there was a killer behind one of your friends, wouldn't you get slightly scared? I would. And, whoa, she had her arm over his back when they were in a group hug. That really proves nothing other than that they ended up in the same vicinity during the group hug.

Camp Castaways- Another conflict-like friendly-competition interaction. Duncan does say that he can't trust Gwen (clearly, that changes), so they can't be on very good terms at that point in the competiton. Yeah, he says she's hot, so? It's not like you can't have friends that you have no romantic interest in, and consider them physically attractive. In this episode, they don't seem to get along well, but they do seem to work together when it matters. But, they still don't know one another too well..at least, not from the viewer's perspective.

Are We There Yeti?-Yep, they prove themselves to be friends, depite the events of the previous episode. Gwen compliments him on how he played the game, and they show that they've made amends in terms of their conflict. Yes, they were competitive, but in a friendly way. When Duncan left, it seemed as if they left with a basic friendship, nothing more, nothing less.

Alien Resurr-eggtion- First off, Trent is they jealous type. So is Courtney, but I'll her there later. Anyway, so Duncan and Gwen teas one another in a friendly way. Trent isn't really friends with Duncan, nor are the enemies (at this point), so he doesn't feel comfortable around him. Therefore, he feels left out. Duncan and Gwen are also both excited for the challenge and they work well together because they are friends. This is clearly the point where they start becoming closer. Trent, of course, immediatly looks at the situation as if they have romantic intentions. This automatically makes the viewer assume that they do, but, if you watch their interactions, they seem more friendly than anything else. It was mostly friendly teasing on Gwen's half and Duncan laughing it off. Also, this episode only proves that Duncan doesn't share Gwen and Trent's opinion of what is important (i.e. the necklace thing). In all honesty, I think Courtney would've prefered the win too...but that's beside the point.

Riot On Set-Yeah, Gwen picks Duncan first, but who wouldn't. Seriously, think about her choices. She had Duncan (who made it furthest of all the choices in the past season, save Owen), DJ (who is strong but easily frightened), Harold (she didn't hold him in high regard), Owen (in all honesty, he isn't very helpful in challenges), and Justin (yeah he's "hot" but he really has nothing else going for him). Honestly, who would you pick. Trent just looked into it too much. And her over-the-top compliments for Duncan were directed to make Trent jealous, and Duncan accepted them with lots of pride, and it didn't seem as if he cared who said it, as much as the fact that it was said and it boosted his ego. Yeah, he catches her when she trips on the hill. If you had a friend of the opposite gender walking in front of you as you walked up a steep cliff, would you catch them if they tripped and fell backward? It is also shown that they are closer friends, as Gwen showed knowledge of his personal information. It is unknown how she knew that, but I assume that they have conversations about Duncan's feelings for Courtney based on their conversation in The Aftermath: II.

Beach Blanket Bogus- Whoa, they hugged! It means little to nothing. Well, other then proving that they are closer friends, it means almost nothing. Gwen has already implied that Duncan trusts her and that they are good friends. Other than that, they seem to have friendly interations and conversations during the challenge.

The Chefshank Redemption- Duncan supported Gwen. Why? Because he trusts her. That's pretty normal when it comes to friendships. And Duncan was mainly joking at the end of the episode, but I believe that he almost wasn't. Why? Because Gwen was, at that time, implied to be his closest friend in the competition. It was proven that he was confiding in her, and, other than her and DJ, he didn't have many people there that he trusted and liked. He was seen protesting when both of them were eliminated. But, it was also slightly a joke, because he did hate the competition, and wanting to leave is very likely.

The Aftermath: II- Okay, this is the conversation that proves that he was confiding in her, and, based on his personality, it is implied that he trusts few people enough to do that. Also, it shows that neither of them seem to have romantic intetions because they were talking about Courtney, Duncan's current girlfriend. He seemed comfortable enough to talk about her with Gwen, showing their friendship is undeniably close. Then they wrestle. I'll admit that this scene has always bothered me, but it still really wasn't proof of attraction, as much as it was a (slightly firtatious) version of their friendly teasing. And, according to Gwen, that only lasted "like, two seconds" before they got up and pulled a prank of the other competitors. She said that under a lie detector.

I'd also like to add that Gwen said under a lie detector that her and Duncan were just friends.

So, that's why I don't like this pairing, because they clearly (at least to me) aren't interested in one another in a romantic way. Seriously, their friendship is something great and their trust in each other is clear to anyone.

So, there you are, one good reason why I don't support Duncan and Gwen as a pairing: because I think that they seem to be interested in only being friends.