"Gossip Girl" certainly had its fair share of villainous characters, from cold and calculating Bart Bass to out of control Jenny Humphrey, the show never left a want for crazy plot lines.
However, perhaps the only saving grace for these "villains" was that they were aware of their awful actions. Some repented and apologized while others fully embraced their dark side. Given the wide range of crazy characters, there has been much debate over who is truly the worst character. Upon recently finishing the series I have decided the worst character is not one of the more obnoxious characters such as Jenny Humphrey or Vanessa Abrams but New York's It-Girl and one of the main characters on the show, Serena Van Der Woodsen.
Serena Van der Woodsen begins "Gossip Girl" as a troubled New York socialite who has just returned from a brief stint in boarding school after making a few major mistakes that caused her to flee from her friends and family. From then on she continues to make the same mistakes that cause her to hurt herself and the people she loves. Serena rarely apologizes for her actions and when she does she has a hard time accepting responsibility for her behavior and instead blames her poor choices on her Daddy issues or her very tough, very rich, Upper East Side life.
Another problem I have with Serena is her lack of character development. At the end of Season Five she makes the exact same mistake she made at the beginning of Season One in causing Blair's boyfriends to cheat on her. This proves that Serena has grown very little as a character and her lack of real remorse makes one question whether she really cares about Blair who is supposed to be her best friend. Blair then drops everything when she thinks Serena is missing only to have Serena rudely tell her that she has outgrown Blair's friendship. In the end, Blair and Serena make up but throughout their last fight, it is easy to see how much more Blair has grown up since high school than Serena.
Throughout the series, Serena dates a slew of sleazy guys including a married congressman, her professor, and a man with a daughter which is almost the same age a Serena. She knows dating these men is a bad idea yet she proceeds with a devil may care attitude even as each hurts her more than the last. She eventually ends up with Dan Humphrey, her first love and the person who has ripped on her for years as Gossip Girl. It seems fitting that these two would end up together as they both have little regard for others feelings when it comes to their own personal gain. Serena may not have pulled off the dastardly schemes some of the other characters did but her complete lack of self-awareness and inability to cope with any issues place this golden girl at the bottom of my list.
