Serena’s Little Brother Was Actually Her Older Brother in the Gossip Girl Books. And Blair Dated Him.
If you only watched Gossip Girl, you know Eric van der Woodsen as Serena’s sweet, observant younger brother.
Now erase that version from your brain for a minute.
Because in the books, his name is actually Erik, he is Serena’s older brother, he is already a student at Brown University, he dates women, and at one point, Blair Waldorf dates him.
Yes. Blair.
Her best friend’s older brother.
And that is only part of how much television changed him.
Erik was basically the male Serena
The easiest way to understand Erik is this: imagine Serena had an older brother who carried the same effortless van der Woodsen energy.
He is blond, attractive, wealthy, popular and the kind of person who seems to move through his social life without much trouble. He has already graduated from boarding school and is attending Brown while Serena and Blair are dealing with their high school drama in Manhattan.
He is also far less central to the books than television viewers might expect.
There is no long storyline about Eric trying to find his place among Serena’s friends. No version of him growing up alongside Jenny. No teenage Eric sitting quietly in the middle of Lily and Serena’s disasters and occasionally being the only person in the room with common sense.
In the books, Erik appears when the story needs him, causes a little chaos, and disappears again.
Which makes what happens with Blair even more ridiculous.
Blair Waldorf actually dated Serena’s brother
At one point, Blair and Erik become romantically involved during a trip to Sun Valley.
And this is not a background detail where they flirt for five minutes and everyone forgets about it.
Blair seriously considers sleeping with him.
For Blair, who attaches enormous emotional importance to romance, Nate and the idea of her first time, this becomes a real decision. She ultimately realizes that Erik is not the person she wants that experience with.
So no, Erik did not become Blair Waldorf’s great love story.
But the fact that Blair Waldorf nearly lost her virginity to Serena van der Woodsen’s older brother feels like exactly the kind of plot television would have stretched across six episodes, three schemes and at least one disastrous Upper East Side party.
For television, he was practically rebuilt.
His age changed. His sexuality changed. His romantic history changed. His place inside the family changed. His connection to the main characters changed. Even the reason audiences care about him changed.
And the consequence is that an entire piece of Blair Waldorf romantic history vanished with him.
TV Blair could scheme against Serena, date Nate, fall for Chuck, marry a prince, date Dan and survive enough romantic chaos for several lifetimes.
But one thing she would never do?
Look across the van der Woodsen breakfast table and realize she had once dated Serena’s older brother.
Blair, however, absolutely can.
And once you know that, looking at sweet little TV Eric without thinking, Blair dated your alternate-universe version, becomes nearly impossible.