This Epic 'Friends' Twitter Thread Makes a Strong Case for a Rachel and Joey #Endgame

August 9, 2017

Image may contain Human Person Shelf Worker Clothing and Apparel

Real Friends fans know that Ross Geller sucks. This isn't shade toward David Schwimmer, who's a brilliant actor; this is a direct knock at Ross effing Geller, the misogynistic, homophobic dinosaur pusher who Friends turned into the ultimate love interest. The show, after all, was about Ross and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston). Audiences were basically trained to root for them. When they broke up, we cried. When they got back together, we cheered and said the '90s equivalent of "#CouplesGoals." This vicious cycle lasted for 10. Damn. Years.

Friends show-runners clouded Ross and Rachel's storyline with so much faux-romance fluff that it was hard to notice Ross' flaws—and there were plenty of them. In fact, Ross is so problematic that I think he and Rachel shouldn't have been #Endgame. Sacrilegious, I know, but it's true.

And a lot of people agree with me—as this now-viral Twitter thread points out. A pop-culture goddess named @kaneandgriffin on Twitter decided to go on a 100-tweet rant about why Joey (Matt LeBlanc) should've ended up with Rachel. Yup.

If you forgot, Joey and Rachel had a bit of a fling toward the end of Friends. He professed his love to Rachel in season eight, but they didn't get together until the ninth season finale. Their relationship lasted a few episodes in season 10 before fizzling out—making room for dumb Ross to come in and brainwash Rachel into thinking he's amazing. The Joey-Rachel saga was obviously a plot device to further Ross and Rachel's romance, but it should've been much more than that.

Way more, according to @kaneandgriffin—and I agree. In her thread, the self-described "fandom mom" explains—point by point—why Joey was the perfect match for Rachel. Her argument essentially boils down to this: Ross always viewed Rachel as a dream girlfriend, never his friend. He never supported her career or ambitions and actually liked it better when she was economically subordinate to him. Think back to the time he fell asleep at Rachel's work event or convinced her to get off the plane in the series finale. That was all a product of his ego—an ego that wanted Rachel to stay beneath him.

Joey, on the other hand, was always supportive of Rachel. (He scored Rachel her first real job at Fortunata Fashions.) Plus, Joey and Rachel truly started out as friends, which means he learned about her, inside and out, before taking the plunge. Ross was in love with the idea of Rachel. Joey was in love with Rachel.

@kaneandgriffin's tweets can explain this better than I can. Click here to read her full thread—but if you don't have time for that, here are some of the highlights: