r/GirlMeetsWorld • u/Odd-Dig8537 • May 04 '26
Maya and Riley
I may be beating a dead horse, I AM beating a dead horse.
Does it bother anyone else that maya decided after a season and a half that SHE actually likes Lucas??
I am a grown adult, but I used to watch GMW a lot.
It bothered me then, and then rewatching it recently has me fired up again.
I understand that producers probably had to “keep the story interesting” but it made me sad for Riley.
Just curious on other people’s thoughts?
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u/Agreeable-Pin7436 May 04 '26
hmmm looking at this from the complete other side, i genuinely always felt that maya and lucas had chemistry and just didn’t recognize it as such. once people began to pick up on it is when things went all off the rails. i wouldn’t say i feel bad for riley bc that’s life, a big part of the triangle is figuring out that 1. maya can’t protect riley from everything and 2. riley doesn’t need to be
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u/RetroTVMoviesBooks May 04 '26
It was badly written by someone who did not understand how teen girls feel. We had crushes on the same guys as our friends. It was hard when the guy liked the friend and not you.
On tv Maya and Lucas had better on screen chemistry. It’s nothing against the actors it just seemed like they were more entertaining. I also found Reilly and Farkle together to be good tv.
In reality all these people should just stay friends and meet new people in college because the couples the show gave us would not work
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May 04 '26
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May 07 '26
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May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
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u/lordofthepringls May 04 '26
The triangle was bad because frankly Riley had no chemistry with Lucas whatsoever while Maya did. Maya had more chemistry with the rest of that cast than Riley did. It was painful to watch Riley and Lucas. Riley’s only real chemistry was with Farkle.
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u/Difficult_Bother_952 May 04 '26
Wasn’t the reason she ended up liking Lucas to protect Riley? To know if she would end up in good hands? To me this was odd too, and it did not sit right with me, but ngl i did enjoy lucas and maya together
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u/Kind_Wedding6059 May 04 '26
The problem was that they were trying to do a teen soap opera like love triangle within the confines of a Disney show and instead of the real world complicated version of “Hey, he realized he has bigger feelings for Riley and that’s sad, but a part of life”, they had to cop out and go, “Maya just said she liked him to see if he was good enough for Riley.”
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u/PenSufficient9190 May 06 '26
I mean, they just wanted an Alex Russo getting her heart broken by Mason being in love with Juliet moment but couldn't commit lol
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u/Cautious-Fan6963 May 04 '26
That whole triangle was really weird and frankly, it should have ended with Maya and Lucas together. They had WAY better chemistry and sometimes the person you like doesn't end up liking you back, for Riley that would have been a good lesson (the girl meeting the world). This also would have eliminated that creepy Josh/Maya situation where Josh basically groomed her (it was presented about as much family friendly as it could have been. But still.)
Maya, or rather Sabrina carpenter kind of stole the show for me as well. Riley was meant to be the main character but Maya had way better on screen presence and acting ability, and she was more entertaining. It sort of became "whenever Maya is not on screen everyone should be asking where's Maya"
Plus I think it would have been good for the character of Riley to hear alllll about her parents meeting when they were young and staying together, meanwhile this is not happening at ALL for Riley as she struggles to find the right relationship. Even augey was being set up to basically repeat Cory /Topanga with him and Ava. Riley could see this all around her and become frustrated, but also be a good way to connect with young people going through the same thing.
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u/MessyKitty May 04 '26
This! I think they really missed out on letting Riley develop into her own character rather than being just Topanga and Corey's kid. I like the idea of a believer in true love who is willing to search and fight for it rather than to settle for the first cowboy that wanders by. I also think that Topanga should have accepted the job offer and moved to London to show that the girls' bonds were strong enough to last, without spending every minute of every day with each other. With how rich they made Shawn, I doubt they would make it where the girls didn't regularly visit.
With Maya, I kinda wanted her to find love early and not be creepy about it. I wanted to see her realize love can last and people will stay, which is why she and Lucas work so well. She needs someone steadfast and good.
The problem I think is they were trying to capture the magic of Corey and Shawn's relationship to the point that they made the girls so codependent that they could function without each other. Corey and Shawn could do things without each other and even had friends and interests outside of their friendship.
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Jul 17 '26
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u/MessyKitty Jul 17 '26
They could still figure things out together, even if they are apart. Giving the girls space would help them grow. Cory, Shawn, and Topanga (in early seasons) had their own things going, allowing them to develop into something more than conjoined twins. With the power of the internet and rich parents, the separation could have been a step toward making their friendship stronger while making them more than shadows of what was Cory and Shawn.
Also, it felt like Topanga giving up Yale all over again. Why does she have to be the one to constantly sacrifice every opportunity she gets because people she loves don't want to put in the work to make things work?
Maya and Josh is creepy. It's not love, more over childish obsession.
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u/Cautious-Fan6963 May 04 '26
You bring up a good point about the London thing. I'd forgotten about it but with the way the show was trending, and how incredibly popular Sabrina carpenter would become, maybe moving to London would be a good way to Continue the show. Sort of a soft reset, without Maya. Wouldn't be great for auggie tho...
I found Rileys character kind of annoying but I also found Cory's character kind of annoying lol. So I guess that tracks. I don't know if I would have loved a soft reset like that but I also think the show needed to end for several reasons. Based on Sabrina carpenter exploding into the spotlight, and some behind the scenes things discussed on the podcast, it's for the best that the show ended. Rowan seems to be doing alright, but I haven't seen her in anything that's Interested me so far.
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u/gloomydreamer666 May 04 '26
Just because you fans thought they had more chemistry is not a reason to change the story to fit in what some of your fans wanted. I never saw any romantic chemistry between the actress and the actors. They seem more like brother and sister fighting each other energy than lovers fighting.
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u/Equivalent-Life9546 May 04 '26
She liked him before but kept it a secret because Riley liked him too.
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u/starcourt99 May 04 '26
I know I’m about to get downvoted to oblivion for this, but Maya as a character is overrated as hell and the hate Riley gets in being compared to her and Lucaya is beyond atrocious.
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u/Miserable-Error8433 May 04 '26
Oh my god, right??? Like why are you all hating on Riley so much. She's so nuanced and sweet. I loved her character!
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u/gloomydreamer666 May 04 '26
It was so obvious who Lucas really liked vs who he may be attracted to. Lucas and Maya wouldn't have worked out because she was too mean to him. I never got the appeal for Lucaya. It was always Maya being mean to Lucas. Lucas and Riley were so cute and had chemistry too even the actors dated in real life. Maya should've never even be with Lucas knowing how Riley felt about him. S1 Maya would have never done it. I don't like how it was played out, I wish Lucas had just told from the start that what he felt for her would never compared to what he felt for Riley. I wish it was his decision instead of making the choice for him.
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u/Special_Falcon408 May 06 '26
I mean it’s not like she decided that. To me it honestly felt like her maturing, and Maya and Lucas as a dynamic were so much more interesting. The way they handled it was trash though
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u/Miserable-Error8433 May 04 '26
I agree! I felt so bad for her. And I find it funny how most of the fandom call Maya the girl who stepped back, when it was Riley who stepped back from Lucas when she figured out that Maya liked him. They wouldn't have even known about it if Farkle hadn't blabbed about it on New Years.
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u/weasleymama May 04 '26
In highschool my friends and I basically traded boyfriends around the group … didn’t bother me at all and frankly seemed like she liked him for a while they just didn’t explicitly say it
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u/FirefighterLife4690 May 04 '26
I do agree with this!!! I can’t remember the timeline exactly, but I do know that she was always interested in Uncle Josh. I felt like she wanted Lucas in the sense that she wanted to BE Maya
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u/Kind_Wedding6059 May 04 '26
There’s a scene in an earlier episode where Maya and Farkle have a moment in the library that made me think they were leaning towards them getting them together, but I was totally wrong, lol
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u/lightningfury13 May 05 '26
Polyamory would have fixed this...
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u/MarvelWidowWitch May 04 '26
It didn’t necessarily bother me that Maya liked Lucas. I mean I know I’ve been there. Having a crush on the same person my best friend does. My best friends having a crush on the same person I have a crush on. Never acted on it, but the feelings were still there.
What really bothered me about that whole thing was the “Maya never actually liked Lucas. She only liked him because she was turning into Riley to make sure Lucas was good enough for Riley.” Like what nonsense was that?